Bathing your body in love and positive energy

What we think and feel has a powerful effect on every cell in our body as well as how we respond to what we think and feel as well as experience.  If we are especially sensitive or intuitive and empathic we also are very subject to the energies of others around us.   That negative comment from someone who wants to put us down or undermine us has a real affect on us, especially if we don’t have strong boundaries to keep the toxic thought form out of our body and being.  I remember discussing some family issues with a friend in sobriety a few years ago and he said to me, “I wish you could find a way not to let what they say or do to you affect you.”  On one level this is not really possible, negative hurtful things hurt but once we understand they come from someone else and may have nothing to do with us we are in a better place to refuse the poison barb and perhaps limit our contact.  Working with our body and inner child to find the effect of what is said and nurture that one to know its okay to hurt but not good to take things too much on board is also important work.

I also feel that on the path of emotional recovery it is so important that we spend time each day tuning into our bodies and treating them in loving ways.  So often we can leave the body behind or the body bears the burden of shame or self hatred or self criticism.  How many times do we look in the mirror and find fault?   I have never brought the book but Louise Hay has written a book on Mirror Work which involves work with loving and accepting our bodies as they are, showing gratitude and letting go of put downs.

I was raised in a home where appearance was everything.   I think Mum used looking good to compensate for other feelings of low self worth.  And often if we were hurt my father would try to deny it.  My sister actually fell and broke both wrists and my father tried to tell her she was okay until she tried to pick up her drink and it fell from her hands.  Is it any wonder she ended up with a so called ‘bi polar’ condition where she over ran herself so much?

Thinking positively about ourselves and our lives even when we are in deep pain is not easy but we can learn to do it.  When our heart is aching we can learn to place our attention there, bring our hand to it and say “heart I am here, I feel you and love you, it is okay to be sad, it is okay to be hurt.  It doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you.”  This is not the so called ‘positive thinking’ that teaches us to dismiss, deny or invalidate what we really feel inside, it is the positive thinking and action that brings us to a place of acceptance, openness and love.

With this in mind I would like to share a few thoughts from Tian Dayton, one of my favourite writers in recovery.   Using a positive energy practice to make sure we are caring and loving ourselves brings great rewards.  When we have been abandoned or neglected as children one of the most difficult results is that we don’t learn self care.   But it is never too late to learn new patterns and embrace self care.

Each time I feel that I am getting low on reserves, I will open my body to receiving uplifting light and energy from the universe.  I am not a talking head. I am a body, mind and spirit.  I tune into my body, I scan it for areas that my intuition tells me might be weak or in need of a little TLC, then consciously bless whatever part of my body needs blessing. As I breathe deeply, I picture a light pouring into each and every part I have blessed, extending itself to envelope all of me and incubating each cell with healing energy.  In this way I give to myself, I care for myself, I show myself love through actively demonstrating that feeling toward myself.  I rest when I am tired, sleep at night, and exercise to stay loose and flexible.  I take care of the only body I have.

But taking care of my body means more than just exercise.  It means I exercise the need to feed it with love and compassion when it is hurting or in pain, when I feel sad or depressed.  I do not make things worse when I am feeling these things by showering my body with more negative energy.  In this way I become a more loving mother to my self and a refuge for those around me who also hurt.