What if symptoms were actually part of the solution?

by Megan Otto

‘From the moment we are born the body has an intelligence system designed to look after us’

‘Hey you up there!  See that rash, growth, sneeze? It’s a message from your body. Are you listening?!’ Kim Knight, health and personal development coach explains symptoms are intelligent communication from the body to the head. “We are brought up in our society to think the head is king but actually the gut activates before the brain.”

Kim has tried over 150 different therapies and trained in Mickel Therapy, Energy Psychology, Qi Gong, Taoist Meditation and Emotional Intelligence to a professional level. She believes from the moment we are born the body has an intelligence system designed to look after us. It will scan 24 hours a day for information about happiness, healthiness and safety.  Being happy and healthy is the norm although that is oft forgotten. “Look at what happens when people come back from wars with post traumatic stress disorder. They can’t function,” says Kim.

“This body intelligence system knows what is going on in a person’s life and forms opinions about it. Then it sends communication asking us to do something. It will begin with Plan A – body sensations,” explains Kim. “These are simple and subtle. There are two body sensations which we are well trained in and we do notice. One is hunger. It is not a pain but is definitely a sensation telling us to eat something. The other is needing the toilet. We know what that feels like. We take appropriate action and the sensation stops.”

“I am putting power back in people’s hands. Given the right advice the body can be a self healing mechanism.”

However if Plan A is unsuccessful the directive is stepped up to Plan B – emotions. Negative emotions like, “I’m feeling frustrated/worried/afraid/anxious/sad/angry” are actually a healthy form of communication from the body to the head. Unfortunately this is the level we unconsciously train ourselves to ignore.  Then because the body is programmed to do its job come hell or high water it says, “Well okay you didn’t hear me so I am going to send you something louder which will get your attention. Plan C – symptoms.”

Symptoms like insomnia, food intolerances, eczema, asthma or skin irritations are often seen as minor but Kim believes they are a body’s cry for attention. Nonetheless initially the symptoms are often at a level where they are not inhibiting a person’s life so they can be masked with medication. “We haven’t yet asked ourselves, “Ok my body isn’t very happy about something.  What is going on here?” But over time the body can only function with so many symptoms before the state of dis-ease turns into disease.” And what most people do not realize is that the flight or fight response induces the physiology of the body to change.  Heart rate, breathing and nervous system ramp up, steroid hormone cortisol and adrenalin are released, digestion stops – the whole body is affected. This is when people start to get chronic conditions. “There have been many things happening before people get really sick,” observes Kim. “However our healthcare system is generally only really designed to deal with people once they get to that point.”

“Over time the body can only function with so many symptoms before the state of dis-ease turns into disease”.

An absence of awareness about our bodies is evidenced by hospitals with waiting lists.  This lack of responsibility for ourselves is what led to Kim’s health coaching practice. “I am putting power back in people’s hands. Given the right advice the body can be a self healing mechanism.”

One of the most common complaints is stress. Kim point outs that most people think this is caused by something external but she says it is always an internal reaction to a real or internalised event. Either way she trains clients to analyse underlying issues.

“What I have found is that people with chronic health conditions have not been looking after themselves or attending to their emotional needs”

Childhood emotions not being validated are a reoccurring pattern. Clients might have been told “Don’t be silly, don’t cry!” Consequently they stopped allowing themselves to feel.  Their modes operandi became fear because being authentic risks judgment or criticism. “To the emotional body that is the equivalent of dying,” says Kim.  Honesty is one of the prerequisites for health.

Another principle is no division between the physical, mental and spiritual layers of a person. She recalls the frustration of listening to a rheumatologist at a fibromyalgia seminar. He said, “We still don’t know what creates fibromyalia and we’re looking for a gene to isolate it.” And I’m like no, no, no we do know. Look at what happens in a person’s life and how it affects them!”

The U.K. Public Health Association published a major review by Sir Michael Marmot called “Fair Society, Healthy Lives” in 2010 and revisited it in 2011. Their research revealed “…health inequalities do not arise by chance and they cannot be attributed simply to genetic make up, ‘bad’ or unhealthy behaviour or difficulties in access to medical care as important as those factors may be…difference in health status is reflected and are caused by social and economic inequalities in society.”

The report goes on to say doing nothing to improve the wellbeing of the nation was not an option because the human cost would be enormous.

“…health inequalities do not arise by chance and they cannot be attributed simply to genetic make up” 

Kim bases her argument for better health on quantum physics, the science of energy. Go down to a million times magnification of a cell (by that stage it would be at a sub ‘quantum’ atomic level) and bizarrely enough all you would see is mainly space. “So when an emotion arises in the body and it is not resolved or discharged then it stays in the body. It is a vibration that gets trapped in the cell and over time it is repeated and augmented.  You can imagine how that has an effect at a cellular level. The energy starts to distort the vibration of the cell which manifest as a dysfunction. It is the law of physics – cause and effect.”

Even language illustrates the interconnectedness of energy with the body. According to the Chinese healing art of Qi Gong anger is stored in the liver – hence the saying, “I was livid with anger.” Just as common, “My heart sunk”, “My heart was filled with joy” or “I was sick with worry” (stored in the stomach and spleen).

‘It is never too late. Kim says people can turn themselves around’.

“What I have found is that people with chronic health conditions have not been looking after themselves or attending to their emotional needs,” maintains Kim. “They might have been unable to articulate their feelings or had others walk all over them. So they have a whole stack of trapped emotions inside their body. Which are now manifesting as symptoms.”

It is never too late. Kim says people can turn themselves around. “I had a girl on the phone absolutely exhausted with chronic fatigue syndrome. Her doctor had told her there is nothing we can do for you.  Unfortunately while modern medicine is fantastic in some areas some doctors only understand how to eradicate symptoms through medication or surgery. They know how to cut out a piece of cancer but not what the caused it. Obviously surgery is really good if someone has had a stroke, heart attack, something acute. But in this case it was chronic fatigue. I put together a jig-saw puzzle of the girl’s history and discovered she’d suffered traumas that she’d never told anyone about.”

Kim’s empathy comes from a break down she herself suffered 25 years ago. During the course of recovery she read a book which put forward the idea that all of reality is available to us at any given time. But we can only deal with so much at a certain time. And each person’s ‘reality cup’ will be different sized. Sometimes it gets over-full.

Kim knows there are some doctors who will take into account a whole person. For example The Australian Integrated Medical Association’s philosophy is medical care through integrating proven complementary medicine into mainstream practice. Kim is resolute, “I think we are in the middle or at least at the start of change.”

Kim Knight is a health and personal development coach based in Auckland, New Zealand, and working worldwide by phone with clients.

www.artofhealth.co.nz

Megan Otto is a freelance writer also based in New Zealand. www.megan-otto.suite101.com

END

Why ‘managing illness’ isn’t necessarily the answer to illness

Today I attended a health meeting on chronic illness with a number of medical professionals. The one overriding phrase I noticed being repeated again and again was the approach of “managing illness” or “managing health conditions”. And what I realized as I was listening to the presenters is that there seems to be a general expectation that people are either going to have a long-term condition for the rest of their life or for a long time to come.

In other words, there is an UNSPOKEN ASSUMPTION that this is it – one is sentenced for life and we just have to make the best of it.

NO, NO, NO. It doesn’t have to be like this.

As I have see from clients I work with and my colleagues work with, it doesn’t have to be like this. This is an outmoded and limited view.

If we look at the situation from a different perspective and understand that:

1.  Symptoms are highly intelligent communication from a very intelligent body
2. Symptoms contain clues to the solution
3. The body is a self-healing mechanism
4. Symptoms can be de-coded and the underlying cause revealed

Then, rather than seeing symptoms as a problem, we can see them as part of the solution.

Symptoms need to be understood and interpreted for what they are:  messages of some underlying mental or emotional dis-ease which is manifesting as pain.

I know I keep on harping on about this, but really, if you take a different approach you’re going to get a different result.

So what is the solution?

We have to stop focusing on the condition, on the symptoms. These are just the end-result. It’s not just about “managing symptoms”. We need to look in the other direction, literally turn around 180°  and look at the causal factors. Once we deal with them, the symptoms will disappear.

For more info see www.artofhealth.co.nz

Are doctors in the dark ages?

On whether we need a fresh perspective to understand… and resolve….chronic pain and illness

So the question is: Are doctors in the dark ages? Well, no…. and yes.

I have a huge admiration for what modern medical science can do when it comes to, for example, extra-ordinary surgical techniques. Just this week a man left hospital with the world’s first artificial heart. And the stories of what can be done with brain surgery and prosthetic limbs are astounding. And too many other things to mention here, most of which I don’t even know about. However, this is not what this article is about.

My focus for the last twenty years has been on how to recover from illness without medication or supplements, and in particular long-term chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, arthritis, lupus etc. The common factor in these illnesses according to the medical community is that they have yet to discover the cause. According to a medical presentation I recently attended, scientists are still looking to isolate a gene for fibromyalgia. In other words, they are still trying to pin the cause of the condition on some initial physical fault in the body. I felt like screaming with frustration as I sat in the audience and watched the doctor delivering his presentation, telling people that they are still working on looking for solutions but it may take another 25 years before they find any. Aaagh. The answers are already here! So why is it they are not obvious for everyone to see?

Because it comes down to awareness and our level of consciousness. (And by the way, this is where I have a lot to learn about being patient. It’s very easy for me to see things in a very different light now, but I have to remind myself it did take me 20 years of searching to get here. And I also know that I do not know everything by a long shot). However, I do know this:

UNRESOLVED EMOTIONS STORED AS TOXIC ENERGY IN THE BODY CREATE PHYSICAL PAIN. This I know for sure.

Every week I have people call me with chronic conditions they have been diagnosed with, labelled with fancy medical names like idiopathic hypersomnia, Bahma Forest virus and Raynauds disease. By the time people make their way to me they have already investigated a number of therapies, been to medical specialists and had all sorts of tests or surgeries such as MRI scans, blood tests, colonoscopies and biopsies. And even after all the tests, the doctors still cannot give them an answer for their condition.

So, why is it they cannot find a cause when searching in the physical body?

BECAUSE THE PHYSICAL BODY IS NOT ALWAYS WHERE THE PAIN IS ORIGINATING FROM!

Here’s an example of what I mean:

I remember one of my first clients, a 74 year old lady, who came to me for excruciating abdominal pain. She had been in hospital for three months, had every conceivable test under the sun, was on extreme pain medication which had no effect whatsoever. At the time I was practising Chi Nei Tsang (CNT) abdominal massage, which is why she had come to me, thinking that abdominal massage would help. However, CNT is much more that working at the physical level: it works to process undigested emotions which lie trapped in the digestive tract, in her case the colon. To cut a long story short, during the session she made contact with the emotional pain she had felt when her mother died, emotion which had never been felt or expressed. And as she gave herself permission to process this undigested energy and information, which was being held in the body at a cellular level, the pain disappeared. Instantly. Just like that.

So why is this? Because as a human being we are an amalgamation of mind, body, emotions and spirit. And whatever happens on one level WILL simultaneously affect all other levels. To take this a step deeper, we’re talking about quantum physics, or the newly emerging science (as mentioned by Deepak Chopra last week at his presentation in Auckland) quantum biology.

Quantum physics states that at a quantum (sub-atomic – smaller than an atom) level the body is actually just energy. To get an idea of how small a quantum is, put a cell under a microscope and magnify it a million times. We’re talking real small.

In Qi Gong we call this ‘Qi’ – the most fundamental level of life. And since physics states that matter cannot be destroyed, any energy, including emotional energy, not transformed at the time it arises in the body WILL get stored in the cells until we can deal with it. It’s as simple as that. Emotions (e-emotion – energy in motion – or not as the case may be) will be stored in the body if they are not resolved, dissolved, managed, transformed etc. And over time, this will build up to manifest as physical symptoms.

So here’s another new perspective, which most of the medical community still have not grasped:

SYMPTOMS ARE INTELLIGENT AND NECESSARY COMMUNICATION FROM THE BODY

That is actually a quote from a medical doctor, one of the few doctors who currently understands this philosophy, Dr David Mickel. Dr Mickel is the founder of the revolutionary ‘Mickel Therapy’ techniques for identifying and resolving the causes of chronic illness such as chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, which happens to be one of the core techniques I use.

Symptoms are your friend, your ally. They are here to help. They are a guidepost to tell you something is amiss and needs addressing in your life…. at a psycho-emotional level. The question is, are you going to take note, or are you going to continue to ignore and suppress the early warning (or emergency) distress signals (pain and symptoms) with medication? The choice is yours!

So, it’s time to wake up and see things from a new perspective. Symptoms have a purpose – they are here to tell you that your whole being is in a state of ‘dis-ease’ and that something needs to be done. Action is required. And more often than not it may be one of two things:

1. Dealing with unresolved, unexpressed, unfelt emotional hurts from the past which are stored in the body as pain, sadness, anger, frustration, resentment etc
2. Creating new habits of looking after yourself better by leading a more balanced lifestyle – ie, not driving yourself like a machine, and instead treating yourself like your own best friend.

And here’s the final thought for today:

YOUR BODY IS A SELF-HEALING MECHANISM AND HEALTH IS YOUR NATURAL STATE.
ILLNESS IS THEREFORE THE ABSENCE OF YOUR NATURAL STATE OF GOOD HEALTH.

So what does that mean? It means that we are designed to be healthy, this is our natural state, and anything else means we have gone off track. Unfortunately in our society sickness is no longer seen as strange or uncommon, it’s become the norm.

My hope is that one day (soon) we will have a much better understanding of ourselves and how we operate, and what we need to do to avoid illness and pain. Because I truly believe it is possible.

Obviously the medical model will have to change because in order to do this we are going to HAVE to pay attention to the whole person that is ill, rather than focusing on the condition and symptoms. The symptoms are just the end result. Which is why one of my teachers always says “We have to treat the person, not the symptoms”. And a 15 minute appointment with your doctor just doesn’t cut the mustard if you want to solve the riddle of a long-term illness!

So, next time your body sends you a symptom, whether it’s a headache, rash, belly ache or whatever, stop and ask yourself “What could my symptoms be trying to tell me? What message do they have for me. What am I really feeling? What emotion is my body sending me that I have missed”? This is the place to start. You may well need help from someone else to find the answers, but at least starting with the right question is more likely to lead to a real solution.

Be well!

Kim Knight

www.artofhealth.co.nz

Letting go of wanting to be well to get well

What if getting well required you to give up wanting to get well?

By Kim Knight www.artofhealth.co.nz

In my experience, one of the biggest blocks to getting well is trying to get better without learning the lesson the illness or health condition is trying to teach us. Symptoms are not random events, the body has not made a mistake in ANY of the symptoms it is sending. They all have a meaning, the question is, do you know how to interpret them?

So, If it’s true that:

• Symptoms are intelligent and useful communication from the body intelligence
• Symptoms contain a message from the body intelligence, and that message is requesting action
• A symptom is always preceded by an emotion

If you really want your body to stop sending you symptoms, instead of asking “When will I get well? ” or “Why aren’t I well yet?” you might like to ask yourself:

• What am I really feeling right now? What is the emotion masquerading behind the symptom?
• What unresolved ‘stuff’ do I have going on in my life? Who do I need to complete an issue with?
• What do I still need to learn about myself? What is this health condition trying to teach me?
• What lessons do I have to learn in life?
• What are these symptoms trying to teach me?
• What life-depleting habits do I need to change into more positive behaviours which serve me better in my life?
• How can I look after myself better?
• How can I demonstrate more self-love?
• How can I release attachment to wanting to be better and focus on the lesson instead?

Give it a go, what have you got to lose?

Kim Knight

Health Coach and Healing Facilitator

Sessions by phone from anywhere in the world – distance is no object to healing

www.artofhealth.co.nz

Ph + 64 9 833 6553

On how unmet emotional needs drive physical pain

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF FEAR IN THE PHYSICAL BODY

by Kim Knight, The Art of Health

For years I have been trying to understand why it is that certain Qi Gong exercises (specifically ones that require the pelvis to be tilted forward) have been so difficult to do and why I have had so much resistance to doing them. Whilst I was aware that my habit of ‘doing’ a sway back (ie, butt tucked out like a duck) was connected to disconnecting from feelings, I had (have) been finding it difficult to make progress on changing this postural pattern.

In Moativational Medicine™, cutting-edge health techniques I am currently studying and using, we talk about the core fears that lie deep within us, which exist as a result of unmet childhood emotional and developmental needs. These fears are centred around fear of loss, fear of rejection, fear of vulnerability and fear of feeling our feelings fully. Lying beneath those fears are actually the core fear of not feeling loved. At the end of the day, we survive on love, love is what nourishes us, and when our supply of love is threatened as a child, we literally equate that with dying. Therefore it is critical that our developmental needs of feeling loved, nurtured, accepted, important, connected with etc are met during the first 18 months of our life. Of course, for many of us, often through no fault of our caregivers who were doing their best with what they knew, these needs are not met. And so we start to build up a backlog of unmet emotional needs, which later translate into certain beliefs, behaviours and corresponding results in our life – including symptoms of pain and chronic illness.

Recently, during a Chi Nei Tsang (abdominal Qi Gong) massage – (CNT by the way being the best bodywork therapy I have ever experienced, cannot recommend it enough for clearing emotional and physical pain without having to go via the head), I realized that my psoas muscles were completely contracted, resulting in my pelvis being pulled backwards. The interesting thing about the Psoas group is that the core emotion it holds is FEAR (see Liz Koch’s work for more details on this).

And suddenly I put two and two together. These core fears have been locked into my psoas for years, causing the pelvic tilt and therefore difficulty in doing these Qi Gong exercises. I had been trying to work out why I have so much resistance to doing these exercises when I know they are so good for me, and yet I don’t seem to be able to ‘force’ myself using will-power to do them. So actually, the resistance is not really about resistance to doing the exercises per se – it is actually the resistance to getting in touch with the EMOTIONS or FEAR held in that area of the body.

I now see how essential it is that we (including myself) address and resolve these unmet developmental and emotional needs, with their knock-on effect of building up so much fear in the mind-body. For me personally, as I do this, it will help improve my posture and ability to do certain Qi Gong exercises.  Already I feel a greater ease and less resistance to tilting my pelvis forward, which is a good start.

There is no doubt that the body truly does speak the mind, they are one unit, and in order to make true lasting change we MUST address our unmet emotional (and developmental) needs. And of the course the great thing about Moativational Medicine™ or Chi Nei Tsang is that we can do that without having to get emotional or even know what the issue was in the first place! And as any unresolved emotions are dissolved, our beliefs about ourselves and life magically change, which then results in us being more of our authentic self, which can only mean we experience greater joy, happiness and health in our lives.

So, my advice to you? If you truly want to get to the core of your health issues, or understand the role emotions play in disease (dis-ease), try some of these techniques for yourself.  You can either start using the Health Detective kit for yourself, or contact me if you would like some support in taking yourself through the exercises.

Kim Knight

Health Coach and Healing Facilitator

www.artofhealth.co.nz

Ph + 64 9 833 6553

Illness – has the body really made a mistake?

… on questioning if disease is a random mistake and the body hasn’t got a clue what it’s doing….

“Is disease meaningful or meaningless? If you get ill, has the body made a mistake?” – Richard Flook, founder of Meta Medicine

Questioning our conventional medical paradigm

Inspired by my recent introduction to the study of Meta Medicine™ , which very much fits with my current working paradigm that symptoms are intelligent communication from the body intelligence, here’s an interesting question to ponder:

“If illness is a random mistake, how do you know what therapeutic intervention to engage in?”

How do you know what treatment to follow or recommend if you have no idea what has caused the problem and if symptoms are just a random occurrence?

If we come from the standpoint that disease is a mistake, then by default we also have to assume that the body does not know what it’s doing! And that means it cannot be very intelligent?

Really?

Do you truly think that your body is just a dumb machine? In which case, how does it know how to keep the heart going, or heal a cut, or breathe, or digest food, or create a baby, or any of the other 100,000 and more tasks it does on a daily basis – without you even having to think about it?!

So, back to the question: “If illness is a random mistake, how do you know what therapeutic intervention to engage in?”

At present, often the conventional approach is to:

• Cut out the piece that has made the mistake
• Supress the symptoms with medication in the belief that this will somehow solve the problem
• Attack the problem with drugs or ‘fight’ the disease in some way

As one of my teachers, a martial arts expert, used to say, ‘no-one ever wins a war – you have to get on the same side’. Which is why in Chinese martial arts, the art of war is really about the art of peace.

Returning to the subject of how you treat a disease if it’s a mistake, notice how this approach in our society also assumes that someone or something else becomes responsible for healing the problem. In other words, something else (medication, surgery etc) will fix the mistake.

Obviously there are times when modern medicine is absolutely necessary and fantastic, especially in acute or emergency situations, but how well do many of the medical profession really understand illness? Why is it we abdicate all responsibility for what is going on inside our body and when asked by a friend what is wrong with us preface our answer with “well, my doctor says…”. Why on earth should someone else know more about what’s going inside your body than you?

A new model of healing – integrative medicine

Fortunately a new approach to healing is slowly emerging, or perhaps re-emerging. Let’s face it, so-called ‘conventional medicine’ is only a hundred or so years old. What do you think man was doing for the thousands of years before pencillin and superdrugs were invented?

And when I say “integrative medicine”, I mean two things:

1. We are now starting to realize that whatever goes on inside the body is linked and related to everything else. ie, our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual selves are completely interlinked, and whatever happens on one level affects all others. So, in order to heal, we need to address all those levels simultaneously. Isn’t it interesting how hospitals are sectioned up into the ‘brain unit’ or ‘spinal unit’ or mental ward… the fragmentation of the departments mirrors our misguided understanding of the wholistic human being.
2. Doctors are starting to work more closely with natural therapy practitioners in an attempt to embrace this holistic view of people and illness. This is great news and bodes well for the future.

From this place, if we then ask ourselves:

“If the body hasn’t made a mistake, how do I approach illness and the choice of treatment?”

…we start to get very different answers and solutions to the problem, because are beginning with a different question. We can start looking for the real cause that lies beneath the symptoms, and when we know the cause, we have a lot more clues as to how to go about treating the situation. The answer lies within the problem – they are two sides to the same coin.

So, I will close with a quote from Richard Flook, in reference to whether illness is a random event:

“If you believe the body has made a mistake, you’re right. And if you believe your body has not made a mistake, you’re right” – the choice is yours.

Be well!

Kim Knight

www.artofhealth.co.nz

What does ‘being in service to others’ really mean?

The following is an extract from a colleague of mine’s newsletter: Laura Clark conducts talks and courses on esoteric subjects and has facilitated group meditations, group work and individual transformative processes for over 30 years. I highly recommend her work.

Aquarius and service to the soul

“The constellation of Aquarius is one of supreme importance to our solar system at this time, for it is the sign into which our Sun is rapidly moving and its influence is gaining in momentum and added potency with each vanishing decade. It is, therefore, largely responsible for the changes now being effected in our planetary life in all the kingdoms of nature, and, because it is an air sign, its influence is all pervasive and inter-penetrating.

The keynotes of this sign are three in number and very easy to understand, though when they make their note felt on the reversing wheel, most difficult to demonstrate. They are:

1. The service of the personality, the lower self, which eventually transmutes itself into the service of humanity.

2. Superficial and selfish activity which changes into a deep and active intention to be active on behalf of the Hierarchy.

3. Self-conscious living which changes finally into a sensitive humanitarian awareness.” EA135

Service is described thus:

When the personal lower self is subordinated to the higher rhythms and obedient to the new Law of Service, then the life of the soul will begin to flow through the man to others, and the effect in a man’s immediate family and group will be to demonstrate a real understanding and a true helpfulness.  As the flow of life becomes stronger through use, the effect will spread out from the small surrounding family group to the neighbourhood. A wider range of contacts becomes possible, until eventually (if several lives have been thus spent under the influence of the Law of Service) the effect of the outpouring life may become nationwide and worldwide.

But it will not be planned, nor will it be fought for, as an end in itself.  It will be a natural expression of the soul’s life, taking form and direction according to a man’s ray and past life expression; it will be coloured and ordered by environing conditions,—by time, by period, by race and age.  It will be a living flow, and a spontaneous giving forth, and the life, power and love demonstrated, being sent forth from soul levels, will have a potent, attractive force upon the group units with which the disciple may come in contact in the three worlds of soul expression.  There are no other worlds wherein the soul may at this time thus express itself.

Nothing can stop or arrest the potency of this life of natural, loving service, except in those cases wherein the personality gets in the way.  Then service, as the Teachers on the inner side of life understand it, gets distorted and altered into busy-ness.  It becomes changed into ambition, into an effort to make others serve as we think service should be rendered, and into a love of power which hinders true service instead of into love of our fellow men.  There is a point of danger in every life when the theory of service is grasped, and the higher law is recognised; then the imitative quality of the personality, its monkey nature, and the eagerness of a high grade aspiration can easily mistake theory for reality, and the outer gestures of a life of service for the natural, spontaneous flow of soul life through its mechanism of expression. EP Vol2 p123

And

“Service is, par excellence, the technique of correct group relations, whether it be the right guidance of an anti-social child in a family, the wise assimilation of a trouble-maker in a group, the handling of anti-social groups in our big cities, the correct technique to be employed in child guidance in our educational centres or the relation between the religious and political parties, or between nation and nation.  All of this is part of the new and growing Science of Service.  The imposition of this soul law will eventually bring light into a distracted world, and release human energies in right directions.  It is not here possible to do more than indicate this briefly.  The theme is too large, for it includes the awakening of the spiritual consciousness with its responsibilities, and the welding of the individual into an awakened group; it involves the imposition also of a newer and a higher rhythm upon world affairs.  This constitutes, therefore, a definitely scientific endeavour and warrants the attention of the best minds.  It should also eventually call forth the consecrated effort of the world disciples.” EP Vol 2 p130

Those so illumined are collectively named the New Group of World Servers.

Their role is described thus:

1. To receive and transmit illumination from the kingdom of souls.

2. To receive inspiration from the Hierarchy and go forth, consequently, to inspire.

3. To hold the vision of the Plan before the eyes of men, for “where there is no vision, the people perish.”

4. To act as an intermediate group between the Hierarchy and humanity, receiving light and power and then using both of these, under the inspiration of love, to build the new world of tomorrow.

5. To toil in Pisces, illumined by Taurus and responsive in degree to the Aquarian impulse coming from the Hierarchy.

These objectives are not only individual objectives, but the goal for the entire group.  All who respond to the life-giving force of Aquarius and to the light-giving force of Taurus can and will work in the New Group of World Servers, even though they have no occult knowledge and have never heard of their co-workers under that name.  Forget this not. RI233

You can contact Laura on

M: 021 0566 583

You can contact Kim Knight, Health and Wellbeing Coach on

M: 021 410 633

www.artofhealth.co.nz

The symptoms behind the emotions behind the symptoms

Understanding the deeper layers of dis-ease and consciousness.

As most of you who have experienced Mickel Therapy will know, most often we find that the underlying cause of dis-ease are unrecognized and unresolved emotions. This is because everything in the universe is energy, which includes our physical, mental and emotional being. Blocked energy (or Qi in Taoism) will compromise the physiological functioning of the body and manifest as symptoms of pain.

However, as with many things in life, there are multiple layers to be understood.

Understanding the deeper levels of triggered emotions

On the surface, we can have a situation which triggers an emotion. For example, someone says something to you which makes you feel a certain way, eg, your boyfriend says you look fat in your jeans and you feel upset. And using the Mickel Therapy protocol, you would use the 5 step process to dispel the emotions in a constructive way, which will also dispel any symptoms if they had also built up.

Now, the interesting thing is, we tend to think the current situation is the issue. And upon introspecting a little further, we usually find it is not. The current situation is just the trigger for an emotional pattern which is already sitting in the body, waiting to be resolved and understood. And the emotion will often be a recurring emotion that we feel during a recurring situation that is similar to something we experienced ongoingly as a child, which we were not able to deal with at the time. Often we describe this as ‘having our buttons pushed’.

So, to take the healing process to a deeper level, it’s first important to recognize that there are deeper issues at play. This is what I like to call looking at the ‘surface’ level situation (boyfriend tells you you look fat) versus the ‘deeper’, underlying issue (old scenario).

So, when you notice a recurring theme in your emotional triggers, you might like to ask yourself “where have I felt this before?…with whom?…when?…how old was I?”…and see if you can discover or uncover the deeper, hidden story that is repetitively playing out in the present. Understanding this will allow you to experience the gift of the current situation that is pointing you towards the resolution which lies at a deeper level.

Understanding the symptoms behind the emotions

As you know, in Mickel Therapy we say that missed emotions lie hidden beneath symptoms. And by identifying those hidden emotions, and taking corrective and appropriate action, we can dispel the symptoms.

But what if the emotions themselves are also a symptom of a deeper issue? What if emotions were actually a symptom too?

For example, you come home and you’re really hungry, and you notice that your flatmate has some delicious dessert in the fridge. So you have some, but feel a bit uncomfortable because he wasn’t around to ask first. You eat the dessert, but then you start to worry about what he’ll say when he comes back. So the body has started to send emotions. Depending on how aware you are of this, the emotion may or may not build up to become symptoms (eg, a headache or muscle ache).

Let’s say it stays at the emotional level, but the worry continues. We know in Mickel Therapy that we need to communicate our feelings honestly to that person when they come home, and most likely the emotion (worry) will dissipate.

However, if we look a little deeper at WHY we are worried, we have the opportunity to start uncovering and identifying the symptom beneath the emotion. Ie, we have the opportunity to start seeing the pattern which we are repeating in our consciousness which is leading to the emotion.

So, you might like to ask yourself, “Why am I so worried?”. And the answer might be something like “because I’m afraid he will judge me or be angry with me for eating his cake”.

And then you ask yourself “WHY am I so afraid of what he will say or think of me? Where does that habit of thinking come from?” And usually you will discover this is an old pattern from the past, which was set up in childhood, usually because back then we were judged or criticised for doing something or other, usually for something quite innocuous which did not really merit the criticism.

And then if we ask ourselves, ‘how did it make me feel back then when I was judged or criticized?”, that’s when we discover the real feeling behind the original emotion, which we are still trying to avoid today, because back then we felt so BAD when we experienced the criticism or judgement. And notice how I say ‘the emotion we are trying to avoid’ – unconsciously we are walking around manufacturing emotions and thoughts in an effort to avoid feeling the original feeling that made us feel unloved, abandoned, unworthy, ashamed etc. So these emotions are actually defence mechanisms to help us avoid feeling bad, because, as one of my teachers once said “when we feel bad it is directly translated by our emotional body as being bad. For our emotional selves, being bad translates into not being able to enjoy life. Not being able to enjoy life translates into not deserving to live”.*

Getting back to our natural state of joy

Remember, emotions are irrational and thoughts are rational, and together unhealthy thoughts and emotions keep us from feeling good and enjoying life. This is why it is critical that we really come to understand ourselves from the inside out, to understand our consciousness, thought processes and beliefs. We need to understand the patterns that are driving our habitual negative thinking and keeping negative emotions in our consciousness. We need to set ourselves free, because our natural state is a pure state of joy, we have just forgotten it.

And that is how we can see that “What is natural has become unnatural, and what is natural has become natural”. Our natural state is joy, but if we are continually perpetuating negative thinking patterns via a state of unconsciousness, we train ourselves to feel unhappy, and we come to think that is the norm.

So, if you’re really serious about healing deeply, next time you notice yourself feeling bad, dig a little deeper into your consciousness and discover what’s going on. This is how we can free ourselves from the past and move into a brighter, happier future.

Blessings on your journey!

Kim Knight, The Art of Health

* Teacher quoted above: Gilles Marin from ‘Healing from within with Chi Nei Tsang’

The detrimental effects of geopathic stress

Unseen energies that may be causing or contributing to your sense of dis-ease

According to the WHO (World Health Organization) “30% of the world’s buildings are “sick” with toxins to humans. Geopathic stress is a major cause of this problem”. I think I just had a major experience of this, and not for the first time.

Several months ago I experienced first-hand the amazing difference in my ability to think clearly when I turned off my wifi (wireless internet) in my home office. (See my blog: https://kimknight101.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/the-startling-effects-of-wifi-wireless-appliances/).

Well, the interesting thing was I thought I had sorted that old chestnut out. Seems not. Whilst I did notice a significant improvement, over the last 9 months I had been feeling what I could describe as a lack of enthusiasm and motivation at work, procrastination and lethargy. I could not put it down to anything in particular. I did notice that I felt worse at home compared to when I was out and about, and in particular I felt worse in the office.

Then 2 weeks ago I attended the NES Health practitioner training. NES is a cutting-edge software program which measures disturbances in the human body field, whether they be emotional, energetic, nutritional or geopathic and more. Interestingly enough the geopathic stress came up with a red alert. I couldn’t understand it, as I consider my home environment very peaceful, set on 10 acres of beautiful countryside. However, it got me thinking.

When I came home, I decided to have the house dowsed for geopathic stress by the best dowser I know, Albino Gola. And wouldn’t you know it, he found a curry net (major form of geopathic disturbance) right underneath my office and bedroom, where collectively I spend most of my time! He also found microwaves coming through another part of the house.

He neutralized the incoherent energies with a copper coil and I waited to see if I would feel better. This time it was not an immediate shift like when I turned off the wifi. But over a few days I certainly noticed that I started to feel more optimistic and active. I began to take action on things I had been putting off for months. And I just felt clearer in the head. He also gave me some stickers to put on digital phones and computers to neutralize the EM radiation.

Deja Vu

Interestingly enough, this is not the first time I have been a culprit of geopathic stress. Several years ago I moved into a house, and could not unpack or decide where to put my bed. For six weeks I tried to sort the house out, slowly getting more and more frustrated. One day, I just simply plopped myself down in the middle of the lounge in a puddle of tears, totally frustrated. Then I thought of Albino and rang him. He came over and found what is called in the geopathic trade a ‘black vortex’ of underground energy – right where I had collapsed on the floor. He put up a coil and 2 hours later I had unpacked!

So, I hear you say, why did I fall for this again?

According to Albino, it usually takes about 2 years of living in a house before geopathic stress starts to take its toll or be noticed, and by that time the detrimental effects have already started, meaning we are already not so clear-headed. The change is so gradual that we do not notice it, and because it affects our ability to think clearly, we are unable to notice the detrimental effects. Catch 22.

If it hadn’t been for the NES scan, I don’t know if I would have thought to consider geopathic stress as an issue. Thank you NES!

So if you are finding it difficult to think, or are just not feeling great, you might like to consider geopathic stress as a possible cause.

The quick guide to geopathic stress

‘Geo’ means ‘of the Earth’ and ‘Pathic’ means leading to pathological change, illness or disease.

In certain areas of the earth, there are irregularities in the Earth’s magnetic fields which cause negative health effects in individuals living in those areas. These irregularities can be caused by underground water or fault lines. This geopathic stress affects the pressures upon our bodies and consequently our moods and health.

According to Albino, who is an expert, there are actually two types of geopathic stress: MAN-MADE  and NATURAL.

Manmade geopathic stress includes:

• Digital wireless phones
• Computers
• Microwave ovens
• Cell phones
• Blue tooth devices
• Cell phone towers
• TVs
• Electric Blankets
• Magnetic Blankets (which lower the strength of the body field)
• Power sockets (interfere with the body field)
• Power meters
• Power lines
• Electric sub stations and pylons
• Microwaves from satellites
• Body piercings (which distort energy and information flow in the body)
• Nylon clothing and carpets (which generate electro-static fields)
• Fluorescent lighting
• Energy-saver bulbs (which contain mercury and cause electro-static distortion)

Natural geopathic stress includes:

• Lei Lines
• Curry nets
• Fault lines
• Underground rivers and caverns

According to NES Health, our human body field is made up of several electro-static fields which surround and entwine us, which are constantly reacting to changes in our environment. This body field is affected by certain axis in the earth, specifically the equatorial, vertical and magnetic pole axis. It is also affected by geopathic stressors (as mentioned above), as well as air travel. Since the human body field is the master controller of the body at a quantum level, our health and wellbeing depends on it being in good shape.

Symptoms of geopathic stress or electro-magnetic disturbances can include:

• Disturbed sleep, waking tired, insomnia
• Feeling better away from home
• Feeling depressed and like everything is an effort
• Back, joint and muscle pain
• Susceptibility to asthma, allergies and ME
• Susceptibility to headaches or dizziness
• Weakened immune system
• Serious illness

Improvements upon rectification include:

• Feeling relaxed and recharged after a night’s sleep
• Better concentration and focus
• Boosted immunity
• Recuperation from long-term illness
• Increased mental clarity
• Feeling rejuvenated and alive

For more information on geopathic stress and electro-magnetic radiation, just search on the net.

To read an article in the NZ Herald on Albino Gola and how to avoid geopathic stress, see http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10678104

To contact Albino Gola Environmental consultant, email ar_gola “at” clear.net.nz.

To experience a NES Scan, contact Kim info “at” artofhealth.co.nz   www.artofhealth.co.nz

Gossip and Toxic Friends Detox!

Stop feeding your inner critic and nourish your inner wisdom!

Inner Mean Girl Cleanse

Is it time to get rid of your gossip girl?! We think so!

Blog 2 of the ’40 day Inner Mean Girl Cleanse’! by Kim Knight, The Art of Health www.artofhealth.co.nz

So, the second call this week was with gender expert Susan Shapiro, author of ten books including ‘Toxic Friends’ and ‘Tripping the prom queen’.

“A gossiping relationship is a dysfunctional relationship” Susan Shapiro

Apparently, (and it makes sense if you think about it), the origins of gossip were not negative – it was about getting information out, passing the message on, getting the word around.

These days gossip tends to be a negative habit, which if we look deeper we find has a lot to do with not feeling good about ourselves, and trying to bring others down in our attempt to make ourselves feel better. This often has the effect of tearing friendships apart.

So, if you think you might have a habit of gossip, whether it be just a little or lots, here are some useful tips for starting ‘good talk’.

Why do we gossip?

The first question to address is ‘why do we gossip or stay in relationships where so-called ‘friends’ gossip about us’? Well, many reasons, and it often boils down to:

• issues of low self-esteem
• the need to seek approval from others
• fear of not being part of the crowd

In other words, we’ll do anything to be liked or not disliked out of our fear of rejection.

Often the habit of gossip is taught to us as we grow up by our mothers, aunts and elders and as we grow we just take it on as another habit.

Different levels of rivalry

What is the relationship between gossip, competition, envy and jealousy?

• Competition: “I’ll fight you for what you have”
• Envy: “I want what you have”
• Jealousy: “I want what you have and I’ll kill you for it!”

Sound like nice behaviour? Not really! Want to change? Read on…

Susan Shapiro’s tips on how to prevent gossip:

“You have to share values to share friendship” – Susan Shapiro

• Building mutual respect brings trust. We feel safe if we are not afraid people will gossip about us. So make a decision to build mutually respectful relationships.
• Build friendships with people with mutual values.
• Before you open your mouth to gossip, ask yourself “do I really want to hurt someone else?” or “how can this gossip be positive?”. Gossiping hurts ourselves and others, so do yourself and everyone else a favour by not gossiping.
• Don’t be swayed by others in group – stick to what feels right for you.
• Make a conscious decision not to gossip – it’s easy as that, although sometimes not so easy to change the habit.
• Turn it around and say something supportive instead of derisive about that person

“If we stay in unhealthy relationships we keep ourselves from healthy relationships” Susan Shapiro

How do you know it’s time to let go of a toxic ‘friendships’?

• When someone does something really hurtful – then you really know that person is not a friend at all
• When you no longer share common values
• When you notice you are avoiding friends and don’t feel courageous enough to be honest and say so
• When friendships make your life worse rather than better
• When toxic behaviour starts making you sick!

Helpful exercises for assessing and ending toxic friendships:

Exercise 1

Listen to your inner self and ask:

• ‘Is this friendship healthy for me’?
• ‘What do I get from it’?
• ‘What does she get from it’?
• ‘Why are we friends’?

See what answers you come up with. And then make your decision from your wise, inner being. Trust your heart!  Listen to your Inner Wisdom vs your Inner Mean Girl.

Exercise 2

Take a friendship inventory – ask yourself:

• Which friends are helping me become the person I want to be?
• Which friends inspire me?
• Which friends are toxic?
• What do I need and want from a friendship?
• What are my expectations from a friendship?

“If we want to be happy and healthy, we need non-toxic friends”.

Exercise 3

Gossip inventory

• Where do you gossip in your life?
• How was it modelled to you?

The connection between the heart and tongue.

Tip from Kim:

In the Universal Healing Tao practices, we have a meditation exercise called the ‘Inner Smile’. In Taoist theory the heart is intimately connected with the tongue. In fact, the tongue is known as the ‘child’ of the parent ‘heart’ organ. And whenever we go to speak anything negative about someone else, we get a sensation in our heart just before we speak the words. This is the heart telling us “NO! I don’t enjoy speaking ill of others”.

The heart is about love and compassion. When  we feel love and compassion for others, WE also feel good.

So, next time you are about to say something detrimental about someone else, NOTICE how it feels in your heart, and if it doesn’t feel good, STOP!  And say something else.

For more information on these Taoist practices see www.taohealth.co.nz

And finally…

Susan Shapiro’s Inner Mean Girl Dare for the week:

“If you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say anything at all”

Be true to yourself in friendships!

For more info on Susan Shapiro see: www.susanshapirobaras.com

For more info on the Inner Mean Girl Cleanse see: www.daretoliveyou.com

For more info on Kim Knight see www.artofhealth.co.nz