Using Your Life as a Self Healing Practice

I was recently attending a yoga class in Ubud, Bali and the teacher said, “Yoga is Your Medicine”. And this resonated deeply with me. Of course I already knew this as its why I do yoga, as well as for other reasons, like to calm the seething cesspit that is my mind! But even though I do yoga regularly, mostly because I like the way it feels, when I add this dimension of “self healing”to the practice it had a really profound shift on the quality of my practice. I wasn’t bendier or anything, but I sort of felt silkier, more fluid, graceful, expansive and healthy.

I also started to think about what other practices I did regularly that were self healing. The first thing that came to mind was showering, because, well I’m a Pisces, and I love water, (don’t worry I’m not OCD, having 8 showers a day or anything and I don’t have long showers, yes I love the planet too people). But someone gave me some grapefruit body wash for Christmas last year and when I thought of this I promptly went and took it from my wardrobe and put in the bathroom. This zesty energiser is such a gorgeous way to start the day. Showering has a practical component, of course, but its very relaxing and sensual and it engages lots of your senses, it is the perfect way to use an everyday practice as self-healing. Have you ever been camping or to hospital or a music festival and you just can’t wait to get home to have a proper shower, aaahhhh …… water washes it all way, the physical and emotional/psychological dirt, (it will not wash away however any STI’s you may have picked up from said music festival please see your GP).

This also reminded me of a retreat I facilitated in May in Fiji in which I must have said in one of the classes something about using the practice as self healing. My Mother, Cheryl, who was also on this retreat, we were sharing a room, kept saying to me when doing activities, “I’m self healing” i.e. when going for walk, or a swim, or pouring herself a glass of wine, (note to self, self healing is different to self medicating, but one or two glasses may be self healing :)) This became her mantra and I remember thinking at the time, there’s actually something to this, (even though she was actually taking the piss out of me) but I didn’t give it any further thought at the time.

So here I am giving it some further thought and I’ve realised that there are opportunities for this self healing malarkey everywhere in our everyday lives.

If you have attended a Mindfulness Retreat with me you know that we explore everyday activities that you can use to be more mindful so already I feel ahead of the game in this area because many of these activities you could use as a focus for self care and self healing.

Just think about what you do in your day to day life, preparing food, going for a walk, reading, listening to music, breathing, resting, reading, having cups of tea, watching the bees in the garden, laughing, crying, sitting in the early morning sun. I find all of these activities to be soothing for my soul and practices that are self healing.

After a very stressful day there is nothing that melts the tension away like spending time with my cats, brushing them, watching them play. Some people in our lives are also like medicine, have you noticed?

Anyway my point is that you can notice the activities in your everyday life that can be used as a self healing practice, when you think this thought see if the quality of the activity changes in some way. Let go of expectations, just be gentle in your approach, be open and receptive to using your life as medicine and as a way to heal yourself. I’m not talking about major trauma, which you may need specialised help for, nor am I talking about serious physical illness which may require actual medication, I’m just talking about reducing the everyday stress and strains of life through viewing some of your activities as self healing medicine, go on try it 🙂 I’d love to hear your stories.