PERSPECTIVES: "Opening to Healing" Released; Excerpt: "Balance and Healing"
Published: Wed, 04/30/14
http://tinyurl.com/OTHAmazon
For now, Kindle is the only format. If there's enough interest, I'll also do a print-on-demand version later. There are free Kindle apps that allow you to read Kindle books on any computer, phone, or tablet - you don't have to have a Kindle device.
I'd greatly appreciate reviews on Amazon. If you would like to suggest any edits, feel free to email me - the text can be updated. Two more books in this series, "Growing Through Joy" and "Being in the World," are in the works, and I'll have drafts available soon for those who wish to help with proofreading. You can write me at ShepherdHoodwin (at) gmail (dot) com. The first book in the series, "Loving from Your Soul," is also available on Kindle (the print edition is sold out, but there are used copies available).
You can read excerpts from an older version of OTH here:
http://summerjoy.com/UpcomingBooksIndex.html#Opening
AMAZON BLURB:
"Opening to Healing" is an exploration of energy and its impact on our lives. We are all on a path of healing, and the awareness it promotes can help each of us experience greater well-being in everyday life. However, it is especially relevant to those who are dealing with illness in themselves or others.
This book is not focused on physical techniques, nor is it an in-depth study of mental or emotional factors in illness - many good books are already available on those topics. Rather, it focuses on the spiritual factors of healing.
Everything is energy. What we experience as solid is simply a particular frequency of it. Our bodies are the surface manifestation of far more extensive energies. To ignore form is unwise, but to ignore the energies behind it is to disregard most of what is.
Your experience of this book can itself be an opening to healing. Reading slowly and meditatively, relaxing into the spirit of the words, can lift you into a higher state of being.
TESTIMONIALS
"I read 'Opening to Healing' from cover to cover today - it was a beautiful experience. It is inspiring, uplifting, and educational. The love and compassion, and opportunity within it for movement, growth, and grace are palpable. Congratulations on this wonderful book!"
- Fiona Camberun, psychological coach, Wellington, New Zealand
"This wise little book has many practical tips on how to harmonize with the heart of health."
- Stan Grindstaff, healer and educator, Aptos, California
"A book like this could not have come at a better time. The whole world should read it!"
- Carlos Rego, Davie, Florida
***
Here is Chapter 5 from "Opening to Healing":
BALANCE AND HEALING
Channeled from Michael
By Shepherd Hoodiwn
Healing is a restoration to balance and wholeness. Everything you do to heal part of the whole affects the whole. Everything destructive to part of the whole is destructive to the whole. The whole does not stop at you personally. You have an influence on what is around you, both visible and invisible.
All healing has a spiritual or energetic aspect. Suppose, for instance, that you undertake to improve your nutrition. As you provide missing pieces to your body, it experiences more wholeness and, of course, you feel better. This positively affects your energetic atmosphere, as well as your intellect and emotions, because all levels of self work together. Likewise, if you clarify and strengthen your energy directly, your body will use the food it has more effectively.
Food itself, including vitamins and other supplements, has a spiritual component. Like people, some foods are "happier" than others. What makes people happy has many factors; the same is true of food. The soil on which it is raised will determine how whole it can become. If there are elements missing from the soil that, say, a carrot needs to be whole, it is less happy. If it is tended by gardeners who love the earth and respect its bounty, it is happier. It is the same as with human beings. People raised by parents who respect them and their place in the universe are usually happier - to begin with, at least - than those who are not.
Food is happier if it is fresh, transported carefully, stored properly, and prepared with a caring attitude. The last is the most important factor for those eating, because it is the food's most recent experience. Food also responds to your attitude as you consume it. If you create lovely surroundings in which to dine, perhaps with candles, a tablecloth, music, and so on, and pause to give thanks for your meal, your food tastes better. Not only is the food itself happier and more whole because of the energy given it, but you are in a more receptive state to receive what it has to give you.
Being eaten is food's fulfillment. It is the climax of a miraculous process of growth and transformation involving elements such as sunlight, water, soil, tiny seeds, and minerals that are invisible to you. It is all undertaken to present you with the gift of nourishment. Most people are thoughtless of this gift, and are often preoccupied when they eat. Perhaps they shovel their food down, in a hurry to get somewhere. Sometimes they read to give their minds something to do (perhaps so as not to taste the substandard food they are eating). Occasionally they fight with others. This is not a criticism - everyone has the right to choose his own relationship with food, just as with anything else in the universe. Nonetheless, people miss many of the simple joys of life because of lack of sensitivity and understanding. Eating is one instance of this loss.
The wholeness of food determines how much it has to give you physically, as well as mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. There is also the question of what foods to eat. Perhaps you have been consuming large amounts of canned spinach on Popeye's advice. Maybe you are cleaning your plate on a regular basis to help the children starving on other continents - you do not care too much what is on the plate, as long as it is clean when you are done. You may eat to fulfill certain cravings, not necessarily physical. Of course, there are more effective ways of choosing foods.
Your body needs certain elements. These needs change from day to day and even hour to hour. They relate to what you have eaten previously, your body's health, the type and amount of work you do, the climate and temperature, the time of year, and what is happening spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, both in you and in those around you, as well as many other factors. If your body's needs go unmet, it does its best to compensate. It calls substitutes to action, but this creates imbalance.
For example, if you do not eat enough protein, your body will begin to make use of the protein of your flesh itself. To rectify this imbalance, you would obviously eat more protein - not just any, but the type you need or can best assimilate. If a necessary vitamin is missing, your body tries to make do with another, perhaps using up the store of that one. This can create a domino effect. Your body starts being forced to act in a way it was not designed. If your body did not go into imbalance, it would simply die, so in a sense, this is beneficial. Still, your body is obviously not at its most efficient then.
Bookstores are overflowing with books expounding apparently contradictory theories about what you should eat. One theory states that you should eat a large variety of foods at one time. Another suggests that you should eat one food per meal. Some say that you should eat a vegetarian diet. Others claim that you will become malnourished if you do not eat meat. Finding the proper diet for yourself requires knowledge and intelligence, but you also will not find the diet that works for you if you do not learn to communicate with your body.
Actually, most people do communicate with their bodies, but it is often a one-way barrage of criticism. It is like a rider yelling at his horse and kicking it to go faster. Perhaps the horse has been trying to communicate for the last two miles that it has something stuck in its hoof, but the rider does not listen. Your body will tell you what it needs. To not only hear but understand, you must begin to listen and sense, putting aside your preconceptions and prejudices.
Sometimes people have cravings. These are not necessarily communications from the body as to what it truly needs. A craving for a candy bar may indicate that your body needs energy, but probably not that a Snickers bar is the optimal way to generate it. That is your interpretation. Messages from your body are usually subtler than cravings, but when you have a craving, if you listen, you may hear what the real message is.
When you are interested in eating, get quiet for a moment and ask your body if you actually want food now. If not, ask yourself why you are thinking about food. Perhaps an alarm clock went off in your mind: "It is 6:00 - time to eat. I've eaten at 6:00 every night for the last forty years." Nevertheless, if your body does not want food and you do not need to eat at 6:00 for scheduling reasons, you might choose to wait. If your next opportunity to eat a meal is not until midnight, you might eat something light, or take a snack with you.
If the answer is yes, ask your body what it would like to eat. Do not jump to conclusions; take your time. If it is something you do not have and is not convenient for you to get at that moment, you might write it down on your shopping list. Also, you can ask your body what substitutes might be adequate for the time being. Maybe you do not have fresh shrimp, but canned salmon would be acceptable. While eating, continue to check in with your body periodically to see if you have had enough or if you would like something different.
Knowledge and intuition work together. Perhaps you have studied food combining. You had fruit salad and now your body is telling you that you would like eggs. Knowing that fruit is best eaten apart from heavy foods, you might wait until you digest it before eating eggs. You are acting on your intuition to eat eggs, and using your knowledge to guide how and when to eat them.
It is said that a little knowledge is dangerous. Applied insensitively, it can lead to more imbalance. For example, knowing that fruit is a cleanser, someone might eat only fruit. Cleansing can be valuable for the body, but it can be overdone. If an all-fruit diet is wrong for his body's metabolism, the time of year, the quality of the fruit available, or whatever, he will increase his body's imbalance. If he is simply carrying out a predetermined program based on a little knowledge, he is not listening to his body. If he were listening, he would know that diet is not working for him.
It may be wise to experiment with different diets. Try one approach for a while and see how it feels; then try another. You can learn much from this. If something is supposed to be "good" but does not make you feel more balanced, it is not right for you. Suppose that you feel that your body is telling you to eat watermelon, and you do. If you feel refreshed and balanced afterwards, acknowledge that you accurately understood your body. Noticing what that felt like will help you develop discernment.
You cannot heal yourself fully just through eating balancing food. Nonetheless, this is an area where you can practice skills that will lead to finding balance in other aspects of your life. We used food as an example because it is something you deal with virtually every day. Our purpose here is not to discuss food per se, but healing - making whole. You can apply these points to other areas of your life, staying alert to the spiritual aspect in all things. By working with it intelligently and creatively, you can promote wholeness.
Perhaps you are hearing from within that you need to spend some time in the country. It could be your body telling you that the city's pollution is beginning to take its toll. It may be your mind saying that it needs some rest or a change. It may be your emotions longing for communion with plants and the earth itself. Perhaps your essence is nudging you to go to a particular place so you can meet someone who will bring something valuable into your life.
If you are simply being drawn to any beautiful, quiet, natural spot for a few days, you have a wide range of choices. If there is someone to meet, obviously you need to choose the right one. Perhaps you keep thinking of a particular place. That is probably the place that would be best. Beware of talking yourself out of it, thinking it is too expensive, crowded, or "I didn't like it the last time I went."
We are not suggesting that you blindly follow such impulses, but you owe it to yourself to check them out further. You could make some phone calls to see if it really is too expensive. You might remember someone you know there with whom you could stay. If you move even a little with your inner direction, doors tend to open before you.
Your whole being seeks balance and wholeness, seeks to fill in what is missing and correct what is out of proportion. Conscious cooperation with the process is like skillfully piloting a ship that is already moving toward its destination.
What is missing most for the majority of people is a full and healthy spirituality. This is true even for many who are deeply religious. This lack causes the greatest amount of compensation of any lack in human life. Spiritual malnutrition is eventually more debilitating than physical hunger. Spiritual lack is not fulfilled in the same way as physical lack. Physical hunger can be completely satisfied from external food. Spiritual hunger ultimately must be satisfied from within. A person can eat the most delicious and nutritious spiritual food and not assimilate it because of a lack of openness; therefore, she is not nourished. Still, opening to spiritual food from outside yourself can help you open to it from within.
Everyone came into the physical plane willing to be imbalanced for a while. You knew that this was part of the package. The act of finding balance teaches many lessons and leads to much growth. It is not wrong to be imbalanced. We do encourage our students, though, not to maintain imbalance longer than necessary.
In a way, the creation of imbalance signals the start of the game. Rather than sitting there decrying the imbalance, perhaps feeling sorry for yourself, waiting around for someone to come fix it, be aware that the bell has rung - the game has begun. The rebalancing results in much satisfaction - that is winning the game. Then, you probably will decide to start a new one.
The game is not that difficult or painful if you really play it. If you do not know how to play it, you can learn. In any case, everyone will win the game. There is no question about that. Everyone will find balance. All you experience conspires to push you toward balance. To change analogies, each time you slam into a wall, you have the opportunity to learn to move instead toward the open door. Some people move right to the door without slamming into walls, or even stubbing their toes much. Others make quite a number of indentations in their walls.
Our purpose as teachers is to help people move toward the open doors and avoid slamming into walls when possible. There will be at least a few walls for everyone. Those who have slammed into many walls are going to become quite expert in helping others avoid walls in the future. No experience is ultimately lost or wasted. Still, the game is more fun when you play it more consciously and go directly to the open doors.