ABUNDANT PHYSICAL, MENTAL, EMOTIONAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH:
Tips to overcome addictions; quitting: smoking, drinking, gambling, and/or any other problems or conflicts which might be playing against your optimal health.
I am not an expert on any precise field of health more than holding a certification as a Reiki practitioner. Yet I have learned from personal experience, observation and years of studying Social Psychology, Natural Hygiene and many other related topics certain useful tips about obtaining and maintaining an optimal state of health at all levels of my life.
Now, you might think that what I will mention below is easy for me to say due to the fact that I am presently 100% healthy. Well, let me tell you that I had to work very hard to reach this state. I was very sick at one point in my life and almost died; so I know from personal experience, what it is like to have to go to the very darkest bottom of one's physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health and somehow push myelf out of that condition to find a way to return to a well-deserved state of health. I have come to the conclusion that many sicknesses, illnesses and problems do have certain common denominators. Seeing this has allowed me to come up with a basic guideline as to how to go about returning to a path of overall health.
Besides caring for my own health I have been caring for the health of many of my friends and relatives. In particular my dad's. I tried for years to help him with his quitting smoking yet he payed not heed to my advice and one day ended up with throat cancer and the next with a larygenctomy which has left him without a voice for the rest of his life. Having made it clear that I am no expert and that I do not make any claims about being in a position to guarantee health, I will take the liberty of sharing some of the things I have discovered after much research and study on these matters and on personal and other experience-acquired forms of dealing with illnesses, bad habits, addictions, etc. which seem to have worked for me and others.
One of the main things I've learned in life is that 'nothing takes place in isolation'. Health and Healing are no exceptions to the rule. So if we wish to heal we have to work towards facilitating this process. Nobody else can do this job for you. Bringing yourself back to full health is something you'll have to decide and do all on your own. We need to target all the various aspects of healing in an integrating way. We need to focus on finding the steps and paths of action which will address our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual problems. This is very important since rarely just one of these factors is the one to blame for our problem, addiction, conflict or illness. Usually it is more than one, a combination of or all of the above which play a powerful war against our well-deserved well-being and optimal health.
The body is indeed the temple of the soul and is intended for total health and peace. The body is a perfect self-governing system, giving us full accurate feedback at all times of what it needs or doesn't need, of what it wants or doesn't want, of what it craves or doesn't crave. If we wish to return the body to its total health we need to pay close attention to the messages the body is sending to us. If we keep playing deaf and ignoring those messages we will make things worse and our problems will become chronic and eventually lethal. This does not only apply to our physical bodies but to our spiritual and emotional bodies as well. They all really communicate to us what they each need and if we keep being stubborn and not responding to their precise needs; eventually, mental emotional, and/ or physical sickness, will set in and start showing very obvious symptoms to get our attention. The more we ignore those symptoms the further we will be from reaching an optimal state of health and the more likely we will make ourselves miserable at one level or other of our lives. Viewed under this light, health and problems externalized in the form of addictions or sicknesses are the direct result of a perfectly logical and almost mathematical equation, usually controllable at our own will.
To start with the physical aspect of health and sickness, one of the things I found and you probably all know, is that in all physical conflicts there is an overdose of toxicity in the body which prevents it from working at its very best. For example, in the case of nicotine consumption, this addictive intake causes a huge physical dependency. As a result, when a person quits smoking the body automatically begins a massive process of detoxification. This in turn, causes great discomfort at all levels... Now, if you are not aware of this process and you just only blame it on nicotine withdrawal, you might opt to run and light a cigarette to put an end to your misery. However, if you are fully aware of the process your body is working on and give it all the necessary time to do its job, soon enough those symptoms of discomfort will gradually disappear and health will start settling in. There are also things you can do to help your body in this process. You can rush the detoxification by drinking tons of water, and by not drinking pop and /or any of the other 'dirty-water drinks' containing such huge concentration of toxins. Instead drink 100% fresh (organic if possible) fruit juices of all sorts. These juices can really replenish your body and give it all the life-force it needs to boost your immune system and flush quickly all the toxins the hell out of your body. Do you know that there are over 95 chemicals in coffee? Do you know that all diet pops contain certain ingredients which have been known to cause cancer? Do you know that the body is meant to get its fluids from pure water or directly from the natural juices existing in all vegetables and fruits? My dad never followed this advice and only drank coffee while trying to give up smoking as his main source of fluids! No wonder he would go mental and experience such overdose of inner toxicity that within two days he was back to his old habit! What you want to do in any state of illness is help your body heal and regenerate. The best way to do this is by drinking fresh juices of all kinds, lots of water and eating plenty of raw fresh fruits and vegetables. In extreme cases of toxicity fasting can be necessary and most effective (supervised fasting is highly recommended).
Another thing which helps immensely with the physical detoxification process is incorporating in your daily routine some form of regular exercise. Exercising is good for the body, the brain and your soul. It clears the mind and also is good for releasing anxieties and/or any other accumulated tensions as well as toxins. This can be as simple as walking every day. A great habit to develop and to maintain for a life-time of health and inner peace... unless of course, you come across some crazy wild people along your walking path...such as myself! :-)
Another important aspects are the spiritual and emotional ones which bring one to properly face and deal with the deep roots of what we are not dealing with and might be causing us to resort to an addiction or the presentation of an illness. Good questions to ask ourselves are: What are escaping from? What are we so afraid of? What are we sick and tired of? , etc. Such questions will bring forward deeper issues which we do not feel like dealing with and which therefore, have been causing us to resort to the temporary and illusionary relief obtained from habits such as: smoking, drinking or any other activities which are not empowering and life-supporting but become crutches to help us cope with something we are not happy with in our lives. In my case, I have come to the conclusion that any addictions of any sort or any activity that I could resort to in order to escape my present conditions tend to always be directly proportionate to the inner conflict caused by some aspect of my practical life which is not 100% in tune with my inner true essence, feelings , beliefs or soul and heart's purpose. So I came up with a formula which seems to work for me. Whenever I wish to reduce my inner conflict, I have learned that I do not get very far by escaping from it by means of some momentarily rewarding activity, but by facing what it is really and truly producing this inner conflict. Once I can see the roots and source of my conflict I can face all the causes be ready to come up with a plan of action to go about tuning my daily reality with my heart's needs and desires. I accomplish this task by facing myself in solitude without resorting to anything to escape from myself or by meditating and communing with my soul in silence. This to me is the most effective, realistic and long-lasting way to uproot any bad habit, addiction, and ill or non-life-supporting behavior from my life.
Another important aspect of healing in any area of our lives is providing ourselves with all the loving care and nurturing we need. Doing things we need and crave to do from the soul or the heart and concentrating on leaving plenty of room for those needs is extremely important. One way to do this is by spoiling ourselves by treating ourselves to things we like and give us inner pleasure; such as surrounding ourselves with the incredible healing power of flowers, plants and/or the loving spirits of animals. Both these things awaken within us an innate sense of love, comfort, peace and inner integrity. It is very unlikely that a person will look at a flower, smell its fragrant scent and not smile or feel some inner peace and comfort within as result of indulging in its free beauty.
Along these lines, it is important to be aware of the great influence of all our surroundings. This implies not just observing the kind of objects and things that are around us but also the kind of people we choose to interact and be with. The more we surround ourselves with empowering, life-giving and supporting people who can charge us with their positive energy the better we will feel about ourselves. My experience is that positive things attract each other and they act very much as a magnet. This means that both positive and negative energy are contagious and travel from one person to another and from one life-form to the next throughout the dynamic intertwining web of life. The places we choose so be also contain an energy charge. So when I am healing and otherwise, I make sure to place myself in high-energy places, which can empower me and help me connect with the divine within. I easily obtain this energy charge freely without spending any money more than some quality time in nature or sitting under a tree and listening to all the wisdom that the leaves and the branches have to whisper to my ears.
This is just the start of the very many things one can do to help onself in facilitating one's own healing. They are all very simple things and sometimes we might think that they are not worth doing.. Yet if you follow at least one of the above guidelines, I can assure you that it will be well worth it! If you try these basic tips to reestablish your state of health; surely enough, they will pay off in the long run with a higher doses of love and of mental, physical, emotional an spiritual health!
My advice is that you sit by yourself in silence for a while -preferably in a natural spot- and dive within yourself, all the way deep into your heart and soul and take a look at what is in there. Then compare the contents of your heart with your present life-choices and daily or personal circumstances and situations. Now assess if there are any alternative choices which would be more in tune with the contents of your heart. If you see any clear choices, then opt for those and see what happens. Different choices will necessarily provide you with different results. You might find to your surprise that all along your illnesses, addictions or other personal problems could have been easily solved by changing a long-established and stereotyped, dysfunctional equation which was not serving you with the results you needed to meet your outmost health potential. Change the equation and the results will change and your health will improve!
I firmly believe that we do not need anybody else to tell us what to do or how to heal. I personally never go to any kind of doctor. I feel that we each have our own inner teacher and inner doctor which can help us connect with our own inner healing powers. The body and our entire mental and spiritual system is a self-governing device which contains everything it needs for its perfect functioning. All we have to do is provide it with nurturing and loving thoughts, peaceful surroundings and foods and fluids full of life force; such as: fresh and organic fruits, vegetables and water for it to immediately recover perfect health. Now if we feed our car a 'pork soup' instead of the best quality gas in the market, then we should not be surprised when it starts showing sings of trouble or suddenly its precious engine dies on us!
Let all your choices be fully life-supporting and your entire lives be full of love, positive energy and abundant health!
Love, health and peace always,
Verónica