Self Healing Classes by Vanessa Graham in Henfield, West Sussex

Self healing is about empowering yourself to work with your body to bring it back to its optimium state of working healthily. At every moment of the day our body is working towards this and it is in our hands if we aide, impede or simply ignore this process . Throughout our lives we will be given health challenges, some more challenging than others causing us to feel helpless and at a loss what to do. Joining the class makes you more proactive in your healing, it is about learning to work with you body as it is and discovering what you can you to maximise its well being. It is experiential first you experience the benefits by trying out the practises offered then you know. Every person has differemt needs and concerns, we each have our own particular journey to make and this is catered for within the class settings.

A class session is flexible enough to meet the individual needs of the group using:

Breath awarenesss, cleansing the whole energyfield of the body using the breath.

Connecting to the universal energy.
In a chair - joint rotations and stretches, which encourage the energies to flow.
In a chair - qi gong (Shibashi) exercises, using the energies proactively.
In a chair or on the floor - gentle yoga stretches within your comfortable capacity.
Lastly a deep ancient relaxation called Sarvayatra, that works on healing all the energy
fields of the body - physical, mental and emotional.

WHY SELF HEAL?

Self healing is actively doing something about maintaining a healthy mind, body and spirit. Empowering yourself to work towards a healthy equilibrium. I encourage each person to find their own individual path towards regaining a healthy body. It is a personal journey where you set your own pace.

Your body naturally strives towards optimizing its health and it is our personal responsibility to help that process. We struggle at the best of times to remain healthy and its a lottery if we avoid illness or not. For those who become chronically ill it can be a depressing time when the body suffers.  Often compounded by a cocktail of drugs which aim to eliminate the symptoms but just produce endless side effects.

The first step is to move outside being a victim of circumstance.  You have an illness but you are not just that illness.  You are so much more, you are a spiritual being as well, which enables you to step outside your physical body and be the observer of it. This naturally happens during meditative awareness.

First things first we start with the physical body and gentle stretching and simple postures of yoga.  This encourages the  muscles and tendons to become more elastic. The joints ease out and become more flexible as synovial fluid flows into them.

Yoga is taken at a slow pace with relaxation after each posture.  During relaxation the increased blood flow cleanses the parts worked on.  Particular organs can be worked with, like squeezing the abdomen with the knees, helps with constipation. Yoga focuses on the spine, as a healthy spine equates to a healthy body.  Working with the spine, skeleton and muscles builds stamina in the body whilst encouraging suppleness and flexibility.  There is a tension in the posture as well as a relaxation which builds strength in the body.

Focus is always kept inward and observing what is happening in the body.  This helps to slow the mind down and avoid mind chatter. Listening to what is happening in the body, as you relax into a pose  allows a softening to happen which eases tension. It is important to allow the body to relax and enjoy yoga, so that you will want to practice it daily and reap its benefits. With relaxation the heart beat and blood pressure slows as tension is released. The metabolic rate decreases. In a relaxed state minerals and nutrients are better absorbed. Food is more easily digested.

Using the technique of abdominal breathing aides the above process.  Breath control is used to bring the body and mind into balance.  The breathing can be used more proactively as the life force is carried on the breath.  Stiffness, pain, tiredness with the focus of the mind on the breath can start to lessen these.

Breath is connected with the postures to maximize their effect. Bearing in mind the life force is carried on the breath it can be used to re-energise the body on the in breath and detoxifying/purifying on the out breath.  Specific energy enhancement exercises can be worked with.

The above prepares you for a meditative state, as it brings the body to a quieter more restful state for sitting in meditation.  This simply can be sitting and focusing on the breath, which helps to eliminate mind chatter.  The life force energies naturally flow more proactively during this state, aiding healing at a deeper level where tension is released. What is taught in the class I encourage to be practiced on a daily basis, which allows the benefits to be soon reaped.

Qi Gong Shibashi

Qi gong is designed to improve health and wellbeing by increasing the subtle energy (chi/qi) in the body. Its gentle rocking and stretching movements massage the internal organs, improve circulation and digestion. The chest exercises and controlled breathing are good for lung conditions and asthma. It activates and improves mental capacity by learning and remembering a new skill. Helps co-ordinate movement, mind and breath to create a calm, tension free body. It increases agility, flexibility, balance; strenghtening joints and muscles. It is relaxing and enjoyable to do. Shibashi is easy to learn and can be done from a chair.

My focus is on qigong as it has a meditative quality to it and works specifically with the energy systems of the body. I have attended classes and workshops over the years and also spent four years learning the Tai Chi short form, which I found difficult to learn. When I heard of Shibashi as a simpler and easy form to learn and remember, I went on a teachers training course

Yoga means unity and wholeness, looking at your whole being (mind/body/spirit) not just the ailing part, acknowledging the healthy parts you have and dealing with the health problem that faces you. Working within your personal limitiations and working to your comfortable capacity, never forcing, as each one of us has our own unique body. Those that attend the class have their speical needs addressed.

I work with the universal energy (life force). In the Indian system it is called prana and in the Chinese Chi or qi. I use both systems - yoga for the Indian and qi gong for the Chinese. It is the same energy but with different names. Both have been studied for thousands of years and bear witness to their success in maintaining harmony and balance in the body. My work is experiential, you experience it for yourself - the life force is very much available to one's perception and its benefits will soon be discovered.

Aama

In the ancient teachings of Ayurveda it states aama is the cause of disease in the body. Again I like to separate out the word disease for understanding dis-ease, unease in the body. We all understand food goes in one end of our body, out the other and in between there occurs the digestion of the food eaten. Without being too detailed about the digestion process, the food is chewed in the mouth and together with saliva is broken down to a chime, that can be moved through the body down into the stomach and intestines. Pancreatic and stomach acid aid the process in order that necessary nutrients, salts and chemicals can be extracted and sent round the body.

What often gets ignored is that we have a digestive fire called agni, which in turn fuels and heats our body. I tell my students to put their fingers in their ears, listen carefully and you can hear its roar.

On the gross level we have physical digestion, whilst on the subtle we have agni. Visualise this fire inside; if good healthy food is given as fuel it burns bright and produces ojas, the aliveness of being. But food is not perfect and we can get the side product of aama. If the fire is burning bright it can burn up this excess aama but if it is not burning so well and digestion is impaired it creates more aama. There are two factors to consider, wrong kind of diet and why this fire is not burning as it should?

This aama can settle in any organ or tissue but it particularly likes stored fat in the body. Just as its opposite ojas, aama, is a subtle form of energy. We have to take on board everything emanates from the causal through the subtle and into the physical – the same with disease it has a cause. We know in our complex lifestyles there can be many additional causes, environmental, social, psychology and emotional. I am interested in the brain gut association, for in the pre foetal stage both were one. We all know how an emotional feeling can go straight to the stomach and cause a reaction, normally not pleasant.

So what can we do to stop aama getting a hold, clearly a healthy lifestyle, if we follow yogic practises as detailed in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, this will help to lessen the impact of aama. But most of all is breathing properly - diaphragmatic breathing. Deep breathing by activating the diaphragm rids the lungs of the stale pool of air that settles in the bottom chambers, which is said to be a major part of the problem physically. The inhalation following is then able to fill that space with the prana together with all its propensities. There is the santa patha, a recitation which brings about peace and harmony – sarva santu niraamaya; asking for Divine healing to eliminate aama (notice the word aama in it). Breathing should be effortless with the breath breathing the body. Our body knows how to breath the body, so step aside and let the breath breathe the body. Much of disease today can be stemmed from our interference with this process.

We must not forget the mind body link, the one affects the other, so if we want to help the body repair we need to take account of mind activity and how it affects the body, meditation brings about the awareness that our mind can become our friend not our enemy. In today’s world mind has ruled the roost and caused havoc, now (atha) is the time to take charge and say ‘I am in control of my thoughts’, not vice versa. Meditation is your birthright and it can start simply with breath awareness. There have been some interesting studies recently with terminal HIV sufferers who have been using meditation and are still alive many years later.

I am fascinated by the word aama and want to view it from a meditative perspective. Aamavisha is said to be an endotoxin, a disturbance in the homeostatis. Garvisha said to be bio accumulation of external and environmental toxins, which would fit in very well with today's lifestyles but these are not easily understood, too many technical words. From a practical perspective simple things like cooking with love, saying grace can enhance digestion compared with fast/processed food eaten on the go. Our poor digestion does not even get a chance to get started. Pausing with the word ‘iti’ is a good start, before eating – connecting to the silence within.

Somehow meditators have to meet neuro scientists and psychologists, reiterating what the ancient seers saw and knew. My knowledge is basic but I am willing to try. When one meditates one gets rasa in the mouth, this physically appears in the saliva (in some animals this can be very healing). Rakta in blood flows to every cell in the body, at this point it is flowing not static a fluid. These are the first two dhatus of the body and as with the other dhatus aama can settle at any point in them. I confess I have a limited knowledge of the Ayurveda, I come from a meditative approach, I want to seek answers to what I experience within my own body.

Aama starts at the subtle level in the body (adhidaivika), then comes into the physical (adhibhautika). If we could catch it at this point we could avoid a full blown disease. What one has to consider is that hormones in the body also use blood as a channel for movement. I am amazed at how the pituitary gland secretes a particular hormone which travels to the site of need, to activate another hormone to do the work. It is said if the pineal gland stops working the pituitary gland can take over. It seems the Egyptians knew a lot about the spiritual potential of the pineal gland.

There are 4 states of matter - solid, liquid and gas, which we know about and now cold plasma. Plasma being an electrically charged gas, a bit like lightning. They have been studying this in zero gravity on ISS in their space research programme, it is now being used to neutralise MRSA within seconds and disinfect wounds.

Yet I am more interested in the universe within. There must have been a reason why in deep meditation I can see cell like structures. I know mitochondria is a power source in the cell from students with ME. I gather there is metabolic power in each cell and tissue. So agni is there in all the organs, muscles etc. But from the one cell initially all the other parts all came, so there has to be a general rule that fits all.

Another source said aama clogs the micro channels between cells. It is amazing how the cell membrane can flow each way, in or out. If ojas is the plus side and aama the down, there could be sticking point in the flow through the dhatus. If the metabolic power in the process of refinement is good we get ojas from the food eaten, as opposed to poor processing of nutrients we get aama.

There is such an assessment of biological terrain whereby blood/saliva/urine are tested for the amount of electrons present plus ph levels and minerals to see how healthy cells are. Fewer electrons means there are less to combat the free radicals and or the production of energy. This is testing to see if this provides an environment for cancer to get hold.

We are in a exciting times as technology makes great leaps forward, where high powered microscopes can look at genetic and cellular levels but we must not forget the ancient seers knew all about the atom, thousands of years ago through meditation.

So what can we do:

Let the breathe breath the body

Check the diaphragm is being activated naturally

Understand the vaisvarana (physical) fire is aiding digestion and avoiding aama build up.

Make sure the exhalation is complete to remove any residue.

Eat food in a calm, quiet manner, chew properly – contemplate whilst eating.

Deep sleep is the best healer, 61 points Sarvayatra.

Reflection:

We do not breathe our body, the Divine does, let it do its job. We do not choose our last nor first breath.

Incomplete exhalation could be due to fear and lack of trust in the Divine. Learn to let go on every level – physical, mental and emotion, for there is nothing we need to hold on to. Undigested experience acts like undigested food.