QUICK & EASY SELF-HEALING TECHNIQUES

Each and every one of us on a path of personal growth needs a toolbox of quick, easy and powerful techniques to help us release and move beyond our personal issues and blockages. The ones below are some of my personal favourites:

YOGA POSITION FOR CALMNESS AND SLEEP
•Lie on your back or sit with your left ankle over the right ankle.
•Cross your arms with your right arm on top, fingers under your armpits and thumbs on top.
•Focus gently just on the physical sensations in the body, such as tingles and twitches.
•Focus on using your preferred relaxation breathing technique.
•Hold the position for 10 minutes, then uncross the ankles and put your fingertips together in the prayer position. Hold that position for one minute.
•Notice how calm and clear headed you feel.

THE POWER OF NOW
Concentrate your awareness on your 5 senses.
•What can you see around you? Look at the details of colour, shape, size, light, shadow, etc
•Close your eyes and be aware of all the sounds around you.
•Notice physical sensations in the body- comfort or otherwise of the clothing and shoes, temperature, feelings of chair / pillow against the body, etc
•What can you smell?
•What can you taste?

When your attention is 100% in the present moment you are not thinking about the past or the future, so it is impossible to feel anxious. Anxiety is a forward-projected fear.

BODY DISCOMFORT FOCUS
The body contains a cellular memory of all the traumas, both physical and emotional, that it has experienced. Where the original source of the trauma has been resolved there is no discomfort left in the body. However where there is unresolved trauma or stress in the body it is possible to pick up on physical discomfort associated with that problem. Our bodies talk to us clearly, if only we learn to listen to their language. As well as the language of the mind-body connections, anywhere in the body can be telling us it is still holding onto a particular trauma or is calling out for our attention.

Simply by quieting the mind, focusing on an area of body discomfort and having the intention to breathe energy into that area, you can release and therefore resolve trapped emotions. You may also like to place your hands over the affected area for added comfort and heat.

Exercise: Think about an issue that has been bothering you. Imagine it vividly and get a sense of which area of your body has been holding onto the discomfort related to this issue. Get a clear picture in your mind of how this discomfort feels. Note the discomfort level on a scale from 1-10. Focus your out-breath to that region for at least 10 minutes or until a release is obtained. Re-note the remaining discomfort level – ideally the discomfort will have gone completely.

PENDULATION
This works by utilizing the body’s experience of trauma and the body’s experience of resiliency to create a balanced state. To pendulate, bridge with your awareness back and forth between constriction, tightness and the discomfort and relative places of expansion in the body.
•First, explore an area of relative discomfort, then find a place that is far away from or feels most different from the discomfort and tightness and explore it.
•Then, go back and forth, focusing on each of the two places in the body.
•Then add your breath. As you inhale, focus on the area of relative comfort; as you breathe out, focus on the area of relative tension (reverse the order if it brings better results)
•Repeat this cycle for a minimum of 4 times, breathing in the comfort or expansion, breathing out the tension.
•You are likely to notice that the initial discomfort has substantially reduced or has gone completely.

ASKING THE HEART WHAT IT WANTS
When I ask people where they feel their soul is located, the majority of people will automatically put their hand over their heart. It appears the heart represents the gateway to the soul. When you have a decision to make, ask your heart what it wants and this is likely to be a reflection of your soul’s response. I have used the following technique repeatedly and have learnt to trust the answers I receive this way implicitly, even if the logical, analytical mind or the ego is trying to tell me something else.

Relax in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for at least 10 minutes and breathe deeply to relax and still the mind. Focus on the heart as an observer and begin by asking a question that is an obvious Yes or No answer, such as, “Is my name Daffy Duck?” The individual feeling response of the heart will vary from individual to individual, but generally a “Yes” answer will elicit a feeling of calm and expansiveness in the heart, whereas a “No” answer will get a feeling of heaviness and/or contraction. Try several questions with obvious Yes or No responses to understand how your heart/soul communicates with you. Then you are ready to ask whatever you like that requires a Yes or No answer and you should be able to clearly differentiate between the two.

PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION TECHNIQUE
This is particularly useful for people who find it difficult to relax or who are just starting out with meditation. Lying comfortably on your back bring your focus to the major parts of your body in turn from your feet up to your face and forehead muscles. In sequence clench each area as hard as you can, then give it permission to let go and relax.

A suggested sequence of tensing and relaxation is:
Arches of feet- calf muscles- thighs - buttocks - lower back- abdominals – shoulders- hands- neck muscles- face and forehead muscles.

MEDITATION
Meditation involves a withdrawing of the external senses and a going within, a surrendering to an inner force. The meditative state is a highly relaxed state of altered consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, called an alpha-state.

There are many different forms of meditation and experimenting with all of them on different occasions is a good idea to maintain discipline:
- Mantra repetition, such as “ohm” the sound of creation or the key word of an affirmation, such as “confidence”. Mantras help to switch off mind interference and are especially recommended for meditation beginners.
- Breathing techniques, given above, to focus mind on breath
- Concentration on a fixed object, such as a candle flame
- Quiet contemplation in a place of Nature
- Insight meditation contacting higher self for problem solving and to provide answers. Insight meditation is very useful for gaining clarity on issues that the ego and conscious mind have been hindering.

A good introductory meditation is to focus on a point in a stream as viewed from a bridge. As bits of debris (thoughts) float along the stream acknowledge them and see them pass under the bridge. Do not try to consciously stop your thoughts during meditation. Benefits of meditation build up over time with consistent daily practice.

HANDING PROBLEMS TO THE ANGELS
For those people with a belief in angels, it is very powerful to collect together into a ball all the energy of a problem you are dealing with and then deliberately hand it all over to the angels to fix for you for your highest good and hand it back to you at a higher vibration when they have done so. This allows problems to be sorted out at a higher level and in much more creative ways that most of us think possible. Great for dealing with those nagging relationship issues!