Healing Words

The image is of "Healing Hands" by Silvia Hartmann, to whom thanks.

I received the message below today from Mick Lewin, who penned these thoughts himself; and it contains a very timely message for me, as I feel a little rushed and a little run-down (following a nasty throat and sinus infection that persisted and persists still). Thanks, Mick.

TEN SHORT STEPS TOWARDS HEALING

Healing is just a breath away

Remember that healing doesn’t always embrace curing

The time to start on a healing practice is when you feel you are too busy for it

Open up a 'Healing Diary' to record your thoughts and progress

Change your thoughts; change yourself, that’s what healing really means

Cultivate gentleness ( towards yourself and others) even in times of difficulties

Remind yourself of the truth in Walt Whitman’s words: “ To render the body strong, clear and lovely is a religious duty”

Undertake regular body scans listening to the 'pain' of those parts that have been ignored for so long

Healing at its very core is about love and the gateway to love is forgiveness - towards our selves and others

We all have the power to transform our lives; affirm this and believe this - HEALING CAN TAKE US INTO A NEW LIFE

Implicit in these tender injunctions, for me, is the encouragement to meditation, to setting-aside a regular period of time 'to sit with our selves', as Ray put it, and familarise ourselves with the mind we take so much for granted, and which exercises such an unchallenged tyranny over our experience.

I sometimes find it hard not to assign some kind of purifying or "improving" purpose to meditation, and this is just one example of the mind-tyranny I mentioned. There are lots of examples of other tactics mind conjures up, as we know. But Mick's advice goes straight to the heart of the matter, with love and gentleness, in ten short and achievable steps, one step at a time, beginning now with the next breath............