dana | 
10 11th, 2009| 
“Today, find ways to create balance in your life. Cast all negativity in a positive light, and let go of any fears that block the flow of vital energy within your mind, body and spirit.” – Caroline Myss and Peter Occhiogrosso
I recently downloaded the “Healing Cards” application for my iPod, which was created by spiritual teacher Caroline Myss and Peter Occhiogrosso. There are fifty gorgeously designed cards created with the intention of providing users with a daily practice for maintaining spiritual balance. Because we are all so wrapped up with the stresses and minutia of everyday life, it’s very handy to open up the application and reflect on the healing thought/meditation and accompanying guidance as they rotate through. Each time I open up the application, it presents me with a different card and it never fails to amaze me how that particular card always seems to be speaking to something specific to what is going on at that moment.
Today’s card began with the healing thought: “To heal illness, begin by restoring balance.” This seems obvious, but how well do most of us accomplish this? I personally am going through some soul-searching in order to make changes in my life that will allow me to have more physical, emotional, mental and spiritual balance. Some of these changes are not easy; they are forcing me to be honest about what I need and to state or ask for it in a straight-forward, unapologetic way. Some of these changes are a natural result of aging, and require me to take a close look at what support my body needs in order to accept and experience those changes without suffering unnecessarily.
Self-care is an important part of restoring balance. The healing card talks about reconnecting and living in harmony with nature, citing that many “spiritual traditions also find a strong link between physical health and spiritual well-being.” In addition to practices that connect and ground us to nature around us (spending time outdoors, eating healthy, nourishing foods, embracing the change of seasons) we can observe other practices to help us create and restore balance. Some of these include: reframing our life in a positive way, finding opportunities for gratitude on a daily basis, spending time with loved ones, sending love and compassion to our fears and traumas (as well as doing the necessary work to properly integrate and release them) and taking time to rest. Practices and healing therapies that directly help or teach you how to reconnect to your body, mind and spirit are also necessary for good self-care. They include: energy healing (Reiki, Qi Gong, etc.), meditation and breathwork, yoga, Tai Chi, massage, acupuncture and chiropractic.
One of the things that attracted me to energy medicine was that its basic function is to restore energetic balance. By nature, I am a person who has a hard time relaxing. I always feel like I need to be doing something and I have often pushed myself to physical and emotional exhaustion (and illness) in the past. I’m empathic and easily pick up on other people’s energy, not to mention that I also inherited my maternal family’s gift of intuition and clairvoyance. All of these characteristics can easily lead to energy drain. Reiki has been such a blessing because it has helped me balance my energy, establish more appropriate boundaries, as well as heal and release some unbeneficial habits and behaviors. Reiki has taught me to pay closer attention to the disconnections and discomfort I’m experiencing within my body and allow it to tell me what I need.
Our body instinctively knows it needs. Watch children and you can see how attuned they are to their bodies. Parents witness this regularly because their children are continually asking for assistance in fulfilling those basic bodily needs. However, the older we get, the less we stop listening because of internal or outside stressors that pull us in numerous and competing directions. Some of these stressors are an unavoidable part of life, but we can find ways to minimize their influence. Self-care is the first step towards integrating the healing we need and increasing the flow of beneficial energy for restoring mind, body and spiritual balance in our lives.