The Power of Kindness on You and the World

The Power of Kindness on You and the World

by | Jul 15, 2023 | Care of the Body, Care of the Mind, Expression, Healthy Living, Self Care, Self Love

Our societal norm has become “me first”

The type of society we live in has become known as “me first”. We’re taught early on to look out for ourselves first, and many do that. We’re self-focused, self-possessed and find it difficult to see beyond ourselves at those around us. We often don’t see how our actions affect others.

But our actions do affect others, sometimes in large ways and sometimes in small ways that create a wave of actions. The Butterfly Effect in Chaos Theory states that on tiny event in one area of the globe can have a substantial effect somewhere else. The same is true with small acts of kindness.

Every time kindness is performed it creates a ripple effect.

It spreads from person to person, continuing endlessly. You could say kindness is contagious, like a disease in which the outcome is beautiful.

Kindness keeps us from being short tempered with others when we’re stressed and frustrated. It helps people realize we’re all on the same team.

Jamil Zaki, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab conducted a series of studies observing how witnessing kindness inspires kindness, saying it causes it to spread like a virus.

Zaki says, “We find that people imitate not only the particulars of positive actions, but also the spirit underlying them. This implies is that kindness itself is contagious, and that that it can cascade across people, taking on new forms along the way.” 

When we were to look at how important an act of kindness can help someone in need, we realize how it can empower both ourselves and others.

Today, we are bombarded with social media and news media that focuses on the negative interactions that affect us.  It’s seen in the victims of bullying, of abuse, and of those who abuse their power.  Even our entertainment is often riddled with abusive comments and negative actions.

Helping the disabled person who is struggling to gather items out their reach can change the course of their day. By giving a hungry person something to eat or helping a homeless person find shelter can change their outlook on life. Helping an elderly neighbor carry in groceries, mow their yard or just check on them occasionally, can help them feel less lonely. If you say thank you, please, and hello to others who are serving you, you brighten their day.

 

If you perform even the smallest act of kindness, you have the potential to change the course of persons life, even if only for a short period of time.

But kindness not only effects the one you are performing it for. It has a positive effect on you as well.

  • When you are kind to someone, your body gets a surge in serotonin, feel-good endorphins and oxytocin, all hormones that promote a natural high.
  • These hormones reduce pain and lower bread pressure, helping you feel relaxed and loved.
  • The person you are kind to will experience this surge in hormones too. And anyone who witnesses the act of kindness will feel the same feel-good effects.

Kindness fuels curiosity to know each other better. It helps us hear each other without putting up any pretenses. It’s considering other people and what they experience and their concerns and how you can make their lives easier.

 

Kindness is contagious.

It ripples and grows, effecting the unsuspecting and the observing. One act of kindness can change thousands of lives.

In the words of Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you did, they will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

Simple acts of kindness can contribute to rebuilding our health.

Simple acts of kindness remind us that we have something to offer others and the world.  When we offer kindness to another, we feel that kindness within our own heart, which helps to heal any hurt that we carry within.  The ripple effect not only impacts others, but our own heart. 

 

Contemplation for this week:

Become more aware of the balance of selfishness and kindness in your world.  What brings selfishness into your world?  What brings kindness into your world?  What can you do to tip the balance toward the kindness side?  Remember to include yourself in your acts of kindness!

 

May kindness fill your heart, mind and soul, 💕Bindu

Health, Wellness and Wholeness

Health, Wellness and Wholeness

by | Jul 1, 2023 | Care of the Body, Care of the Mind, Emotional Health, Expression, Health, Self Care, Self Love, Spirituality

Health, Wellness and Wholeness

Today, I would like to begin a new conversation around health by looking at the difference between health, wellness and wholeness.

 

Health is a state of the body. 

When we talk about health, we usually mean the state of functionality of the body.  Does it operate at a ‘normal’ level without pain, or at least minimal pain?  When we seek to help our body function better, we look to physical treatments.  Medications, herbs, massage, diet, exercise.  Medical doctors, naturopaths, functional medicine practitioners.  

The focus here is usually attempting to diagnose and change the biochemistry of the body.  Often this approach to health is an outside in approach meaning we need to control the biochemistry of the body in order to feel healthy.  We are doing something to our body to make it function properly. 

 

Wellness expands our concept of health. 

Along comes the wellness industry which redefines the concept of health.  Wellness expands our definition of health to include the mind, emotions, lifestyle factors and searching for happiness in our lives.  We engage in positive thinking, lifestyle modification, honoring our emotions.  Perhaps finding work that inspires, re-evaluating our relationships.  In addition to the physical modalities, we seek out counseling, therapy, life coaching.  

 

Then emerges the idea of Wholeness. 

The overriding name of my business is Integrative Wholeness.  This idea expands the concept of health to include all dimensions and parts of who we are.   It focuses on understanding our multi-dimensionality and bringing all parts of our multi-dimensionality into balance and harmony.  

Integrative Wholeness embraces our physical body, our emotional body, our mental body, our energy body, and our spiritual body.  The intent is to create balance in each dimension.  When balance in each dimension is established the dimensions begin to resonate in harmony with each other.  The soul, mind, heart and body are in alignment with each other.     

Integrative Wholeness is also a process of meeting, greeting, embracing and integrating all parts of who we are.   We each have a personality that includes parts of us that we deem acceptable.  Yet there are parts of us that are wounded and/or considered unacceptable. These parts need to be accessed, healed and integrated.  Some of these exiled parts are the innocent inner children who hold our joy, gifts and talents but were deemed unacceptable by those who raised us and/or our society at large.  When we integrate these parts, we begin to feel more whole.  We reclaim our joy and our passion for life.  

It is this experience of integration that will create health from the inside out.  When all dimensions and parts are in balance and harmony, health on all levels is the natural result.  Your body will be healthy.  Your mind will be clear and focused.  Your emotions will be balanced.  You will feel a connection with your spirit and God.  You will be expressing your gifts and live abundantly.

 

In Summary 

I began on a search for health many years ago.  I discovered that health was more that just the body.  I also needed inner peace.  I discovered that the path to health involved the process of healing and integrating all parts of myself.  

This is my vision and what I am here to teach others.  I invite you to listen, learn, evaluate and apply what feels right to you.  

 

Wishing you peace, love and vibrant health, 

Bindu

 

Healing from the Inside Out

Healing from the Inside Out

by | Jun 23, 2023 | Care of the Body, Care of the Mind, Emotional Health, Health, Self Care, Self Love

I often use the phrase ‘healing from the inside out’. The first time I heard it, I wondered what it really meant. I suspect that you also wonder that same thing.

 

Let’s start by looking at different health care models:

Allopathic Medicine.

Per the National Cancer Institute, allopathic medicine is a system in which medical doctors and other health care professionals (such as nurses, pharmacists, and therapists) treat symptoms and diseases using drugs, radiation, or surgery. Also called bio-medicine, conventional medicine, mainstream medicine, orthodox medicine, and Western medicine.

Green Health Care

A system of health care in which natural, alternative, and holistic practitioners address symptoms using natural herbs, supplements and other holistic modalities, which could include acupuncture, massage, aromatherapy, and many others.

Many of these practitioners work to alleviate symptoms while also exploring and addressing the deeper causes the the illness. It depends on the practitioner, their approach, perspective, training and expertise.

Healing from the inside out. 

A system of wellness care that uses detective work to identify underlying cause of symptoms and then supports the body in healing itself. This is based on the understanding that the body heals itself. Your entire body was built from 2 cells joining together. Every function in your body was created from those two cells. If the human body is capable of that, then it is also capable of healing almost anything that goes wrong in the body.

It is also important to alleviate symptoms along the way. This is called smart or holistic symptom relief.

All three approaches have their place.

The patient or client needs to work with their practitioners to find the right balance of the three models. They each have their own pros and cons.

 

Let’s explore the Healing from the Inside Out model.

From my perspective, the body is designed to heal itself. When the body is exposed to stresses, it is designed to meet and resolve the stress and return to homeostasis. When the body is not healthy, it means that the body is not able to meet and resolve the stresses. This can be caused by many factors and in the case of chronic illness, it is that there are more stresses that the body can handle, and the dis-ease process has been initiated.

A common mis-understanding is the symptoms themselves.

Our society commonly see symptoms as something bad that needs to be gotten rid of. From the inside out perspective, symptoms are either a sign that the body is healing or a message from the body that something has gone wrong and we need to grab our detective hats and get to the investigation.

A symptom can be a sign that the body is healing itself.

When the body is healing itself, there will almost always be a symptom. You cut your finger and it become red, inflamed and sore. That is the body sending energy and healing chemicals to the cut. If you wash the cut, and keep it from getting infected, the finger will heal. Nothing else needs to be done.  This is a very simple example, and yet often our symptoms are just that, the body in the process of healing itself.

Our symptoms may be the body telling us that something is wrong.

Imagine that the oil light came on in your car. Rather than putting more oil in the car, you snipped the connection to the light so that the oil light didn’t come on. Without the simple act of adding oil, you might very well burn out or freeze the engine.

Maybe your fatigue is because you aren’t getting enough sleep. Your heartburn is caused by eating too much of the wrong foods. Sure, you can take a medication or supplement to make the symptom go away, but without addressing and resolving the underlying cause, the health of the body may decline, the symptoms may reappear or show up in a different and perhaps a more serious problem.

From my understanding, this is what happens in our body when we use drugs, supplements and other tools to ‘stop’ the symptoms. Sometimes intelligent symptom alleviation is appropriate, but it is best used along with a deeper look and resolution of the underlying cause.

Finding a practitioner who is seasoned in supporting the body in healing itself

A practitioner who is skilled in assisting an individual to heal from the inside out will have many ways to inquire, identify and resolve the underlying causes of symptoms. As the underlying causes are identified and resolved, then the problematic symptoms simply go away.

 

Supporting the body to heal from the inside out.

I spent a lot of years chasing symptoms with both allopathic medicine and green medicine. In order to fulfill my desire to completely heal myself, I needed to go deeper. I could manage my symptoms with supplements, but I couldn’t make them completely go away. My intention was to be symptom free. So I continued searching.

I studied wholistic health from many angles, including physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual aspects. I am also very intuitive. By blending my studies with my intuition, I was able to identify and resolve the underlying causes of my symptoms and they began falling away.

Now talking with an individual, listening, and asking for questionnaires to be completed I can have a pretty good idea of the areas of stress.  Then comes the work of identifying specifics and using the right tools to neutralize the stresses.

Healing from the inside out can seem to take longer and be more expensive than the allopathic approach, but in my experience the opposite is true. It embraces the whole being and becomes an experience of tapping into and neutralizing stresses that you never knew were lurking under the surface. These stresses impact you on all levels, robbing you of your vitality, inner peace and satisfaction in life.

The result of healing from the inside out is that you discover a new you that may be well beyond what you ever imagined possible.  That is true healing. 

Stayed tuned.  Next week, we will look at the kinds of stresses that underlie the experience of fibromyalgia. 

May you heal, 💕Bindu

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Coming In September

Beyond Fibromyalgia . . . A Path to Wholeness

Beyond Fibromyalgia . . . A Path to Wholeness

by | Jun 17, 2023 | Care of the Body, Care of the Mind, Personal Growth, Self Care, Self Love, Trauma

The idea the we can recover from from fibromyalgia isn’t very popular.

Our medical system has no cure for fibromyalgia. Even holistic treatments often fall short of providing relief from fibromyalgia.

Back in the 90’s, after struggling with my health for 20 years, I first heard the word fibromyalgia. I was dumbfounded. Also excited. I thought that now that I knew what was wrong with me, I could get help. But the medical system didn’t have anything that helped. I had already began studying holistic health, so put my focus in that direction. Even though it took a long time, I have improved significantly and many of my symptoms are gone or mild.

Today I am inspired to share my approach to moving Beyond Fibromyalgia. 

Which is quite unique.

This is the result of result of my search for health over the past 40 years.  I scoured the medical approach and holistic modalities. This was quite a journey and carried me from one end of the US to another more than once.  Personally working with multiple holistic treatments and protocols and practitioners for 20 years.  Into a monastery for 3 years, and an ashram for 6 years.  10 years of training in wholistic modalities.  Experimenting with diet, exercise and lifestyle choices.  Many years of teaching and coaching others.  I felt like I was guided by a divine hand showing me the next step and the next for 40 years.

Out of all of this I have developed a very thorough systematic way of restoring health.  Based on what really worked and what didn’t. Blending modalities into a synergetic system of rebuilding health addressing all dimensions of our being, body, emotions, mind, spirit, energy and expression. Calling on the power of the body to heal itself.  

This is the system that I used to rebuild my health. And now it is time for me to bring it out into the world.

Below you will see an outline and short description of my system.  I hope it doesn’t feel too overwhelming.  Beginning in September, I will begin teaching group programs taking participants through the process step by step.  My hope/intention is to make the process affordable for everyone.   By doing this in groups you will have the group support throughout the process.

Beyond Fibromyalgia – A Path to Wholeness

Connect to Calm

The Integrative Wholeness Experience

The Integrative Wholeness Experience is designed to teach you how to remain grounded, calm, and centered in the midst of external or internal stress. Accessing your inner wisdom and guidance.  

Internal stress prevents our body from healing itself.  When we have stress from negative life experiences, trauma, unhappy work, and relationship challenges, our sympathetic nervous system is running the show and we do not have the ability to slow down, rest, recharge, and repair.  Or parasympathetic nervous system is keeping us buried in a state of fog and immobility.   This can diminish the effectiveness of any health-oriented protocol.

By grounding ourself in our calm inner Presence we can more easily navigate the ups and downs of the healing journey.  And you will learn how to neutralize triggers and trauma responses as they arise in your daily experience.  

Essential Care of the Body

      • The importance of self-care
      • The importance of bio-Individuality
      • Discover the right diet for your bio-individuality
      • Learn how to keep your body hydrated
      • Enjoy healthy movement for your bio-individuality
      • Use breathing practices to enhance wellness
      • Recharge through sleep, rest, relaxation, and play

The second essential component to rebuilding our health is taking good care of your body.  Without feeding your body the right food for your unique bio-individuality your food can actually contribute to ill health rather than improving health.

Likewise with exercise.  Moving your body is essential for your health and knowing what exercises and how much is right for you will support your healing process.  Doing the wrong exercise or even too much of the right exercise can work against improving your health.

Oxygen is the most important nutrient on the planet.  With our first breath we begin our life on earth.  With the last breath we leave our body. The quality of our breath between these two events contributes to the quality of your life and health.

Water is also an essential nutrient.  Your body is 70% water.  A well hydrated body has a greater ability to detoxify and support normal metabolism.

Rest, sleep, and play are essential to a quality of life.  When we are stressed, we become contracted.  That contraction reduces the quality of our health. Rest and play bring joy and delight into our system and relaxes the body. The right balance between relaxation and contraction is essential for good health.

Quality sleep is also essential to good health.  That is when the body rests, restores, and rebuilds.  Healing trauma, negative life experiences and stresses in your life help the nervous system to unwind allowing for deep restful sleep.   Also the Integrative Wholeness Experience supports you in remaining calm in the midst of stress.

Care of the Mind and Emotions

      • All healing begins with Self-Love
      • Identify, manage and deconstruct stress
      • Embrace the power of your emotions
      • Open and heal the heart
      • Harness the power of your mind
      • Discover the core values that guide you

Much of this is covered in the Integrative Wholeness Experience.

When we have suppressed emotions and unhealed trauma, your cellular memories continuously send a danger signal to your nervous system which keeps you in fight or flight.

The mind jumps in and creates thoughts, stories, and belief systems to attempt to understand and explain the anxiety or depression that you feel.  This tends to slow down the true healing process and keeps you stuck in the uncomfortable known.

Trauma and negative life experiences are revealed and neutralized.  Reprograming the mind to a health life affirmative perspective.  Learning to embrace your emotions in a way that empowers rather than disempowers you.  

All done from a place of self love and compassion.  You will learn a process that will automatically heal trauma triggers and trauma responses as they arise in your experience.  

Identifying and Addressing Underlying Imbalances

      • Support the foundational body systems
      • Discover and deconstruct hidden stressors
      • Experience the art of healthy detoxification
      • Repair cellular damage caused by toxicity
      • Return body systems to balance and optimal function
      • Resolve inherited genetic susceptibilities
      • Restore the energy flow in the body.

When the body has been out of balance for an extended period of time, the biochemistry and energetic terrain of the body changes.  Even after correcting our lifestyle, stress reduction, trauma healing and spiritual connection, the body needs further assistance to return to an inner state of balance and functionality.

The foundational systems of the body include the neuroendocrine system, digestive system, and the detoxification system. By supporting these systems in the body, we can begin the process of rebalancing the biochemistry of the body.

In addition, it is important to identify toxins that are stored in the body tissues which undermine the healthy functioning of the body.    And finally, to repair damage the cells have sustained due to stress and toxicity. 

The body is fueled by energy that flows through the meridian system.  The meridian system feeds each system in the body and keeps the systems, organs and cells functioning normally.  There are many modalities that we can utilize to increase the flow of energy to improve your health. 

Reclaim your Life – Enhancing your Expression

      • Know yourself
      • Create your vision and personal mission statement
      • Effectively manage your life
      • Learn the art of conscious creation
      • Create healthy supportive relationships
      • Communicate effectively from the heart
      • Express your life purpose

Another aspect of rebuilding your health is knowing your true self and consciously interacting with the world around you, through work, family, and society.  Who are you?  What are the gifts that you are here to bring into the world.  How do you manage your time and finances?  Are your relationships healthy, fulfilling, and nurturing?  How do you consciously communicate in the world?

This benefits us in two ways.  First, knowing your core values and mission help you to channel your energy into fulfillment and satisfaction.  It also helps to pull you forward into health. 

The Journey

This may feel like a lot. And it is.  Yet your health and sense of inner peace will grow as you progress through the program.

I am excited and perhaps a bit scared.  It is a lot to take on.  Yet, I truly feel that this is my mission and destiny in this lifetime.  It has been a dream of mine for many many years.  Now is the time to bring it out into the world.

I am certainly open to any of your thoughts, questions and suggestions.  I am here to serve you.  

May you be whole, 💕Bindu

Anatomy of a Symptom

Anatomy of a Symptom

by | Jun 14, 2023 | Care of the Body, Care of the Mind

The Anatomy of a Symptom

For those of us with fibromyalgia, chronic illness or simply ongoing nagging physical or emotional symptoms, we want the symptoms to go away. We want good health. We want to feel good. As well meaning as this is, our search for health can become a war against the symptoms and our own body. 

Our physical or emotional symptoms are our friends, not the enemy

In my early years of studying holistic health, I was introduced to the idea that symptoms were our friend, not the enemy. At first this sounded outrageous, but as time went on, I began to understand the importance and power of this truth.

Over the years, I have learned the application of this in rebuilding health. The power of this is understanding the underlying cause of the symptoms. That is where your power lies . . . not in fighting a symptom. The symptom is the guide to the underlying cause. 

The Anatomy of a Symptom

To assist in understanding this, I am going to explore the anatomy of a symptom. I have people who come to me and ask me what they need to do to get rid of a symptom. Without knowing more information about them and their symptoms, my truthful answer is, “I don’t know.”  I teach people how to rebuild their health from the inside out rather than try to get rid of a symptom. I take people on a journey of discovering and resolving the underlying causes.

Let’s take pain for an example. If you have chronic pain, there can be many causes. A pain pill might alleviate they symptom but is not addressing the underlying cause. Here are some possible causes of pain:

  1. Poor diet
  2. Lack of exercise
  3. Suppressed emotions
  4. Cellular toxicity
  5. Trauma
  6. Unconscious beliefs
  7. Poor posture
  8. Imbalanced lifestyle
  9. Energetic imbalances
  10. Lack of self-love

More often than not, the underlying cause is a combination of the above. You tell me, is there a pill out there or one healing modality that is going to explore and or resolve all these underlying causes? If there is, I haven’t found it and that isn’t from the lack of trying.

 

There are many resources that have explored the potential causal factors underlying symptoms. Here are just a few.

 

In his book, Love Your Disease, It’s Keeping You Healthy, Dr John Harrison explores the impact of our upbringing on our health. It is about how family attitudes and behaviors can imprint an unconscious disease mindset into us from our early childhood.

German New Medicine is a body of medically documented case studies showing the connection between trauma and physical symptoms. Dr Ryke Geerd Hamer spent 40 plus years studying the relationship between trauma and illness and documented over 40,000 case studies confirming his discoveries. He scientifically documented the impact of a shock or trauma on a person and how and why the illness is born and how it is resolved.

The study of homo-toxicology (the impact of toxicity on the human body) by Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg, identifies 6 phases that the body goes though as toxins accumulate in the body. Each phase shows specific symptoms as health declines.

The Chinese 5 element theory describes the interrelationship between organs, emotions, and symptoms and demonstrates how symptoms in one part of the body, mind or emotions, can be caused by something seemingly unrelated.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) is a research study conducted by the U.S. health maintenance organization Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[1] The study has demonstrated an association of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (aka childhood trauma) with health and social problems across the lifespan.

For thousands of years, yogi’s have been aware of the mind, emotion, body, spirit connection. The mind is a subtle body and the body is a gross mind. The thoughts in our subconscious mind are mirrored by the body. This relationship is thoroughly explored the book, Bodymind by Ken Dychtwald.

Bruce Lipton, in his book “The Biology of Belief” also looks at the relationship between subconscious thoughts, the emotions and the body.

Candice Pert, in her book Molecules of Emotions, explores the relationship between the mind, emotions and our body.

The Detox Solution by Dr Patricia Fitzgerald is another wonderful book that explores the impact of toxicity on our health. And what we can do about that.

The Institute of Integrative Nutrition teaches us that our food, isn’t just what we put on our plate, but satisfaction in our relationships, careers, exercise and spirituality all play a part in our health.

 

A symptom is the tip of the iceberg 

In light of this massive body of information, it becomes apparent that a symptom is just the tip of the iceberg. If we understand this relationship, we can use our symptoms as a starting place to discover the underlying imbalances or underlying causes of the symptom. Here are some things that a symptom might be able to lead us to:

  • A symptom could be telling us that our lifestyle is out of balance. Too much work, not enough play and relaxation.   Our relationships are imbalanced with lack of communication and connection.  We need to move our bodies more or less. We are not eating the right foods for our unique bio-individuality.
  • A symptom can be part of a healing process that our body has initiated to bring it back into balance.
  • A symptom can help us to discover and release suppressed anger, sadness or fear.
  • A symptom can be telling us that our toxic work environment or the chemicals in our makeup or cleaning products is making us sick.
  • A symptom can help us to discover a subconscious belief that is undermining our life.

 

The Good News

The good news is that with awareness and compassion, we can understand the underlying causes of symptoms. With this awareness, we can resolve the underlying causes. We can make changes to our diet and lifestyle. We can recognize and unravel the traumas and suppressed emotions. We can discover our unconscious beliefs and allow them to shift. Awareness is the magic potion to initiate change. Awareness is the first step to change and health.

 

The Challenge

The challenge that we are faced with when we have physical or emotional symptoms is to discover and resolve the underlying causes of our dis-ease.  Discovering and unraveling the underlying causes / matrix of your symptoms is a journey, not an event.

Rebuilding our health is a process of self-empowerment. What can we do to impact our health? What are the underlying causes, what is hiding in our subconscious memory that is impacting our health.

This is where a qualified wellness coach can be helpful. They understand the landscape and can assist you in discovering the underlying causes, resolving them and then bringing the system back into balance.

The longer I work to rebuild my own health and coach others in doing the same, the deeper this understanding goes. I also see how discovering and resolving the subconscious matrix of thoughts, emotions and beliefs is fundamental to our health. I see how powerful the impact of awareness is in shifting our health both in positive and negative ways.

 

Awareness Practice 

This week:

  1. What symptoms seem to take the greatest toll on your energy and life?
  2. Take and inventory of your lifestyle and dietary choices.
  3. What choices do you make that improve your health?
  4. What choices do you make that hinder your health?
  5. Where do you feel stuck in finding the underlying cause of your symptom?
  6. Where are you unable to make changes you want to make? (a sign of a subconscious program running)

Be gentle and loving with yourself with this introspection. This isn’t about right or wrong, but its is about getting familiar with yourself and meeting yourself with compassion.

Another suggestion is to read one or more of the above mentioned books. The various perspectives on health and what impacts them is powerful. It will change the way you think about your body and your health.

 

May your search for health and happiness be fruitful and fulfilling.

💕Bindu