What Even Is Healing?

I’ve talked a lot about healing and the ways that we can heal, but I’ve never told you what healing is. The truth is, I’m still figuring out what healing is. Healing is a completely natural process. Google will tell you that healing, as a noun, is the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again. 

Healing is about a lot more than going from physically unhealthy to physically healthy, though. Healing is also more than symptom removal, but sometimes our path of healing still leaves us with symptoms. I’ve turned to blogs and “healers” via the web in an attempt to get some answers about what healing is.

A widespread consensus seems to be that healing is an ongoing process and transformation. One blogger, Lauren, even went as far as saying that “healing is not a destination.”

If healing isn’t a destination and it a continuous process and transformation, what is being healed?

The dance of true healing, states Lauren, means negotiating self-compassion and self-endurance. Healing means gathering up the conviction to face uncertainty. She continues on by saying that healing is a journey that unconditional love nurtures, and you face the accusatory chatter inside your mind with compassion.

These are goals that we can work towards, and now we have one person’s idea of what healing is. One person's idea, however, is not the only material available.

When it comes to healing blogs, I’m sure you’ve noticed that comments can be just as beneficial, if not more so, than the blog post. Knowing this, I took to the comment section of the blog.

One lady named Lauren G said that being grateful for all the healing she has achieved makes a huge difference. She said that she used to focus on what still needs improvement, but it ruined her happiness and peace. With that in mind, try to applaud yourself for the little victories. After all, healing is a journey, not a destination.

Another lady who commented on the blog named Lisa went as far as printing out Lauren’s blog and putting it in her daily binder so she can always read it to remind herself that she is allowed time and permission to rest, to heal, and to treat herself kindly. Not everyone needs a binder to help them heal, but Lisa, who underwent a routine shoulder surgery to be left bald in a long recovery with drastic weight loss, finds the binder helpful.

Lauren didn’t comment back on many of the comments, but she commented back to Lisa. In that comment, Lauren said something that I think is pivotal when you are on a journey of healing: your healing journey is leading you to your incredible inner strength.

That is profound in such a simple way. We all like to think that we have the strength to continue on with no problems, but the truth is, at least for me, inner strength seems to falter fairly often. The journey of healing can perhaps let us nurture our inner strength and provide us with the material we need to believe in our inner strength.

If you aren’t feeling like Lauren gets it, perhaps you will like the idea that there is a oneness of body, mind, and spirit. There is also an idea that you must take responsibility for all that you have been, all that you are, and all that you will be. Take responsibility for your life.

Taking responsibility for your life can perhaps tie into what Lauren was saying about how you face the voices inside your head.

Healing is a tricky thing. Remember to celebrate the small victories since the small victories may make all the difference. I’ve put the link to Lauren’s blog below in case you wanted to read it for yourself. It’s a short little blurb, but you might find it helpful. 

https://empoweredsustenance.com/what-is-healing/

Sigil Magic

“Working magic is about getting to know what makes you tick and turning your life into an adventure with limitless possibilities” – MookyChick Hivemind

You read that right. We are talking about using magic for health. I’m not talking about street magic, and I’m not talking about magic with playing cards. I’m talking about sigil magic.

Don’t dismiss magic right away. If you are struggling to believe in magic, try thinking about it as an unexplained science. Believing in magic is as simple as believing that there are forces in the world that can be manipulated and used, but not everyone is aware of them. We often don’t understand these forces, but when we work magic, we are trying to understand these forces and channel them into our lives.

Now we need to talk about sigils.  A sigil is a symbol with mystical significance. Using sigils tricks our minds into creating a specific effect in our lives by shaping a design that our intent is not recognizable in. “Sigils are,” according to mystical artist Austin Osman Spare “a means of symbolizing desire and giving it a form that prevents thought on that particular desire… and allows it free passage to the sub-conscious." This is why our sigils are not recognizable as our intent.

To understand this idea, think of the placebo effect. If you are in a medical trial for a new drug, there will be a group that receives the actual drug and a group that receives a placebo pill, a pill that has no medicine in it. Occasionally, members of the group that received the placebo pill will report that they experienced benefits from the drug. The thing is, though, that they didn’t receive a drug. They noticed benefits because they believed that they would, not always consciously but subconsciously. The mind is a magical thing, which is why sigils are used to tap into that magic.  Now that we know what magic is and what a magical sigil is, let’s learn how to make a sigil.

Create a Statement of Intent

This is the most important step. Without a statement of intent, a sigil won’t be able to be created. Once you create your statement of intent, you cross out all the repeating letters in the sentence. By doing this, your conscious desire is now unrecognizable.

Make sure you only express your intent in a positive voice. Our subconscious only understands things in the positive, so if you say “I will not fail this test,” our subconscious minds will hear “I will fail this test.” It’s a little annoying, but just make sure your intent is in a positive voice.

Turn Your Statement of Intent into a Magical Sigil

Now that we have our statement of intent, we can make a sigil. You need a writing utensil and a piece of paper. You want to make a rough outline linking all the letters used in your intent to make a sigil. Feel free to combine some letters. After all, letters tend to contain other letters within them.

Once you do this, you can fancy it up and embellish it. Remember that no one can tell you that your sigil is wrong. Your sigil is you, and the only person it needs to please is you. Although, it might be advisable to have a sigil that is easily recognizable because you will visualize it later.

Charging the Sigil

Charging your sigil simply means that we infuse our sigils with our energy. There are a couple ways to do this. 

Meditation

Masturbation

Wild Dancing

You might think that the only good way to charge your sigil is through meditation, but if your personality lends itself more to masturbation or wild dancing, that is what you should do. As long as you are visualizing your sigil, it doesn't matter what you do to charge it. Your sigil is you. Never forget that.

Ground Yourself

After you charge your sigil, you can destroy the sigil, but you don’t have to. No matter what, though, make sure you do something completely different. You don’t care about the sigil anymore, at least not consciously.

Forget About It

The last step is to completely separate yourself from the magical ritual you performed. Don’t talk about it. Don’t meditate on it. Don’t do any other magic. This is extremely important the first time you make a sigil because finding out what works for you can’t be discovered if you are talking about it to everyone. Get on with your life. It may seem counter-productive, but you have given the universe a task, and you have to allow the universe to do its job. 

https://www.mookychick.co.uk/health/spirituality/magical_sigils.php

Coming Into My Soul With Yoga

Last week, I talked about the power of gemstones, stones, and crystals. This week, I will be talking about my experience with yoga, particularly one class of yoga.

Finding a good place to practice yoga is extremely important as yoga is supposed to not only strengthen your body but also strengthen and bring peace to your soul. If you feel uncomfortable or judged in any way when you are practicing yoga, then yoga will most likely not have all the benefits that it should.

I started practicing yoga when I was an athlete because my coaches wanted me and my teammates to be flexible. I hated yoga then. The classes were exactly the same thing every time and meditation/relaxation at the end didn’t speak to my soul. We laid on the ground and existed for the last five minutes of class. This teacher and this place was not the kind of place that you should practice yoga in if you are looking for the healing properties of yoga.

Last December, however, I went to a “house of yoga.” Generally, houses of yoga are a little more focused on mind and body than places like YMCAs. Houses of yoga normally have paying customers that come only for yoga, and their instructors are true yogis (yoga lovers). I went because my friend was going, and she wanted us to experience the place where she realized she needed to start eating again.

When I started practicing yoga, the vocabulary I used to speak about myself was made up primarily of negative words. They were words that helped me destroy myself and keep myself destroyed. Yoga helped me change that, and it wasn’t yoga that you can get anywhere.

My instructor’s name was Jessie. She was extremely strong, and the class was extremely fast-paced. I had to take breaks, which at first, I felt guilty about. Then I realized no one was judging me. In fact, nobody really noticed I was just sitting on my mat. I sweated my butt off in that class. I put everything I have into that class, and because of that, I finally felt yoga was beneficial. Fast-paced yoga isn’t the only beneficial yoga, though, and that is important to remember when you are trying to find a place to practice.

Yoga always ends with relaxation. Almost a year has gone by from the first time I laid on the floor listening to Jessie’s voice, but I can remember it like it happened last week. All that I was in that moment was tuned into Jessie’s voice. Her message that day was that there is a voice inside of our heads that tells us that we can’t do something, that we are not strong enough or worthy enough for something. Everybody has this voice. At first, I was wary of where she was going with this. She then brought the negative things we were talking about and relating them to our soul. This negative voice inside of my head is the voice that stifles my soul. This negative voice is not the voice of my soul; my soul is not that negative towards itself. Jessie talked about standing up for ourselves and not getting walked all over because being docile when we are getting used means that we stifle out soul. We should listen to our souls’ creativity, and let it show. We should be unapologetic about our souls. I cried. I laid on that mat in a 95-degree room sweating my butt off and cried.

I cried because I realized that I was hurting my own soul. Her class was a revelation to me. I took her class to heart that December, and I still think about it from time to time when I start self-deprecating.

So, if you are like me and you self-deprecate, maybe try to find a house of yoga. This house of yoga changed my thinking about myself. I practice only when I am home from college and in my hometown, but every time I get on a mat in that room, I feel myself coming back into my soul a little bit more.

Yoga might not be for you, but in the fight against mental illness, anything is worth a shot. 

What Can Gemstones Do For You?

Gemstones. Crystals. Stones. These things all have something in common, and no, it is not that they are all from the earth. These things are used to cure ailments; to protect against illness, disease, and injury; to provide mental balance and stability; and for spiritual purposes.

I will admit that using gemstones, crystals, and other stones for medicinal purposes sounds a little hooky. But I got to admit, if Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest minds regarding electrical and mechanical engineering and physics, believes that all things in existence have energy with their own frequency and vibrations and that those things can affect another’s energy, I’m intrigued by it.

Now, when the ancient cultures of the earth were using stones in healing, protection, and spiritual practices, they obviously did not know the physics behind it. The second known culture to use crystals was the Roman culture, which used them enhancing health, attracting desirable people or things, and for providing protection in battle. There are crystals that can be used specifically for health, and even mental health. Perhaps crystals can still be used to provide protection in battle, just a different kind of battle. If you have a mental illness, every day can be a battle, especially if it is a mental illness like PTSD. Perhaps crystals that were traditionally used for protection during battles of war can also be used during the battle we have inside of ourselves.

If you don’t feel that the Ancient Romans had it right, though, look towards India. This where crystals have had a long history of fixing the invisible: the emotional and metaphysical. People from India, and particularly those of the Hindu faith, have put so much faith in crystals that there is a special tree made out of crystals and precious stones that is for wish granting, the Kalpa tree. The ancient Hindu text, the Hindu Vedas, documents healing crystals’ properties. For example, astuteness, clarity, and mental balance can be brought by using sapphires.

There’s a lot of other gemstones, crystals, and regular stones that can do a lot of work. Jade is a stone that has widespread usage across many cultures. In China, jade was known for its kidney healing properties and love essence. In New Zealand, jade represented the ancestral spirits and was lucky. Turquoise is another stone that has value worldwide, for when worn, turquoise gives strength and health.

Since my birthstone is the sapphire, I have a lot of sapphire jewelry. I’ll start wearing my sapphire earrings. Hopefully, I remember to put them on every morning. We will see how it goes. Maybe I will gain some clarity about where I want my life to go. I am a senior in college; it would be nice to have some sense of clarity about my path. I am hoping that wearing my sapphires will bring me mental balance, but this property of sapphires will not be accurately tested since I just went on an anti-anxiety. This also means that I won’t be starting my sapphire testing until next Monday. I want to give my anti-anxieties to settle into my system before I try anything out.

I honestly don’t think wearing my sapphires will change anything in my life, but I am going into this with an open mind since I already have a gemstone with healing properties. If I feel more balanced after a week, maybe I will try buying a different type of crystal and testing it out. Who knows? I may turn into one of those people who wears countless bracelets of different gemstones, crystals, and stones. I wonder if any of them counteract each other. Maybe I will have an answer for you next week.

To find more on healing stones, visit http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-healingstones.html

Why You Should Bother With A Blog About Healing Methods

Facing the day can be a struggle for any given person. For a person with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) or any other mental illness, facing the day can be an actual battle. Sometimes winning this battle will leave the fighter the entire day. Western medicine, by which I mean medical and healthcare professionals by way of doctor offices and hospitals, is great for a slew of illnesses. I’m not discounting them for mental health issues, either. In fact, in 5 months I will have been in seeing a psychologist and psychiatrist for 7 years.

I’ve been on anti-depressants for 7 years. They are great. But this past spring, I didn’t have enough money to refill my prescription. I don’t know if I had convinced myself that being off them for a few days or weeks would make me spiral or if I spiraled into depression and anxiety because my body was out of balance. To be honest, it was most likely a mixture of the two. Without my roommate lending me money, I would have been off my anti-depressants for a couple weeks, which is a terrifying thought. I still ended up being off my meds for a few days, but that is far better than what the alternative would have been. Those few days taught me that my anti-depressants do have value and a place in my life.

However, even though I am on anti-depressants and have therapy once a week, I still need more help. That’s what this blog is all about. I’m going to try to post as many methods of healing as I can. Eventually, I want to try them all out, but sometimes it takes months to see improvements in your mental health and overlapping healing methods won't allow me to be able to see which ones are truly working.

I'll let you guys know what method (ritual, ceremony, etc.) I am currently trying, and you can decide to join me or try a different method I have posted. If you try a method and it works well for you--or it is complete shit--drop a comment on that post. Hopefully, we can all find a path of healing that works well for us. Remember to not feel discouraged if one method doesn’t work for you. Everyone is different, especially when it comes to how we heal.

Come back next week to learn about the time that five minutes of a yoga class changed my life.