Work-life balance
Making the most of your Keys to Health
by Kim Knight, Director, Art of Health and Science of Wellbeing www.artofhealth.co.nz
This blog is for those people using the Mickel Therapy Keys technique, to help make the most of the method and clarify which keys to use and when…
The Golden Rules for using the Mickel Therapy Keys
- Key 2 (communicating your feelings honestly) cannot be chosen by itself – you will always need to choose Key 1 or Key 3 (or both) to go with it.
- Key 2 will always be required when the situation involves someone else because ‘communicating our feelings honestly’ allows that e-motional energy to dissipate from the body in a healthy way (without blame or judgement). This prevents the emotional energy which we previously kept inside from building up to become symptoms. Once you practice saying how you feel, you will be amazed at how easy and not-so-scary it is. As Dr Mickel says “you have to prove it to yourself that it works” so try speaking your feelings honestly and you may be amazed by the results.
- It’s usually beneficial to put Key 2 into place before key 3 when taking ‘action’: eg, “I feel (name a feeling) and I need or want (state your need or desire).
- Remember that it is the TAKING OF THE ACTION which brings relief of emotions, and therefore symptoms, not necessarily the response from the other person or whether we get the desired outcome or not. This is because what makes US feel better (and reduces symptoms) is acting our truth and acting in integrity with ourselves. THIS is what is required for healing: to act in integrity with ourselves. So do not be attached to the outcome of the action, just notice how you feel by taking honest action and speaking YOUR truth. You may or may not get what you want or are asking for, but either way, YOU will feel better, your emotions will dissipate and your symptoms will reduce.
- Sometimes when we take action (speak and act our truth) we may get a response from the other person which doesn’t feel good, in which case use the keys again, this time referring to whatever the person has just said. Eg. “I feel frustrated that you are not listening to me (Key 2) and I’d appreciate it if you would hear my point of view (Key 3). Sometimes we have to use the keys a bit like a ‘broken record’ technique in order for the other person to really hear us.
- Key 1 is only required when someone is overstepping our boundaries and treating us unfairly either physically, emotionally or mentally. This is often played out as physical, mental or emotional abuse. Emotional / mental / verbal abuse is often a lot harder to spot that physical abuse, but just as damaging.
- In general we can say that Key 3 is always going to be needed.
- One of my favourite truisms (courtesy of Dr Phil) is ‘we teach people how to treat us’. This is oh so true. When you start acting differently, others will treat you differently. So for example, I had a client who started using the keys with her husband, who was not treating her well at all emotionally or mentally, and within one week he was treating her like a princess. She had not told him what she was doing, she did not ask him to behave differently, but just by implementing the keys he unconsciously knew he could no longer overstep her boundaries, he heard her speak from her heart and he started respecting her needs. This stuff works!
Good luck!!
(If you are reading this blog and want to know more about the ‘Keys to Health’, these are normally fully explained during your first session in Mickel Therapy. Mickel Therapy is designed to teach people healthy behaviours so that they coach themselves back to a healthy experience of life where one understands that putting oneself first and communicating feelings is a necessary requirement for good health).
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )What constitutes a working ‘brain’ and why is our head brain not the only brain we need to pay attention to?
by Kim Knight, The Art of Health
Do you know you have multiple brains?
- Are you aware you have a complex and intelligent brain in your gut which contains over 500 million neurons and is the equivalent size and complexity of something like a cat’s brain?
- And would you like to understand why people exhibit personality changes after heart surgery or why negative emotions such as anger and hostility can damage the heart and lead to coronary disease?
- Do you know your 3 brains develop in a different order in the womb and why this is significant?
All these topics and more will be looked at during the extraordinary free mBraining webinar which launches this week on the Art of Health EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SUMMIT.
Marvin Oka and Grant Soosalu, creators and authors of the revolutionary new mBraining mBIT technology, which shows how to align and integrate our multiple brains, and will be broadcasting the latest findings in neuroscience to a global audience.
During their 2 free online webinars they will explain:
- What mBraining is, what our 3 brains are and why we need to use them to achieve our maximum potential out of life.
- What actually constitutes a working ‘brain’ and why our head brain is not the only brain we need to pay attention to
- How the knowledge of multiple brains has been around for thousands of years and why it is only just being proven by science
- How our 3 brains develop from the time we are in the womb including which brains develop first and why this is significant.
- Why we need to understand the prime functions of each brain and know which order to use them in!
- Why people can exhibit personality changes after heart surgery and why negative emotions such as anger and hostility can damage the heart and lead to coronary disease
- How despair, depression, hopelessness and apathy are linked to heart disease and how positive emotions are an antidote to heart disease
Fortunately mBraining has multiple solutions to help you use your multiple brains!
Marvin will also share:
- How our gut brain exhibits neuro plasticity and can learn, form memories, take on new behaviours and grow new neurons, and what this means for people with chronic gut conditions
- The 5 different classes of issues which arise for people when their brains are not aligned or fully integrated
- The number one thing you can do to align and bring your 3 brains into ‘coherence’ which is so simple you will probably have completely overlooked it!
- How we can use positive emotions to as an antidote to heart disease
- How it may be more reliable to trust your heart brain than your head brain when making decisions
- The mBIT roadmap, an explicit framework that outlines a clear path for working with and getting the most out of your 3 brains!
and a whole heap more!
Free mBraining Webinar
Click here to register for this exciting mBraining webinar, and the complete EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SUMMIT - it’s free!
Free mBraining webinar 1-3pm Monday 3 September (US PST) and on replay for 5 days http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
This webinar marks the launch of the ground-breaking EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SUMMIT, where 28 experts in the use of our 3 brains have come together to share how to transform every facet of our life: health, wealth, career, parenting, relationships, education and more. Plus, how emotional intelligence is a pre-requisite on the path of soul and evolutionary development, and how emotions affect the environment.
Your free mBraining webinar ticket includes:
Free Live 90 minute Webinar value USD $47 *
Free Online Webinar Replay for 5 days if you are unable to attend live or want to replay the event online
Free audio MP3 on ‘Multiple Brain Integration and Wellness’ – value USD $20
Free Entry for live participants into the Prize Draw to win a signed copy of the book ‘mBraining’ plus a personal ‘mBraining’ coaching session valued at $495*
REGISTER HERE – IT’S FREE
* Terms and Conditions of Live Event Launch:
Participants must be on the live seminar to enter prize draw
Limited phone lines available – first-come, first-served
Limited live webcast available - first-come, first-served
If all phone and webcast lines full, you can access the replay until 30 Oct 2012
Only one free bonus per person
Bonus Mp3 only available while EQ Summit on sale during September 2012
Numbers limited on the live call, first-come, first-served. If you miss the live call, you can still watch the online replay
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Knight on a Mission – the changing face of healthcare
One of 5 finalists nominated for New Zealand Woman of the Year in 2011 for innovations and contribution in health and science, Kim Knight is on a mission to change the face of healthcare in this country and worldwide.
Having recovered from a number of chronic illnesses, some of which are still classified by mainstream medicine as unsolvable, incurable or only treatable with drugs, she is on a mission to educate people on a new approach to healthcare.
Housebound and unable to work for several years as a result of chronic fatigue, major back pain and clinical depression, she sold her house to travel round the world, believing she may not have much longer to live.
Life it seemed had other plans, and rather than sinking into an abyss of no hope, she discovered what she now refers to as the ‘laws of health’ – natural laws which we must follow if we wish to avoid illness, recover from sickness and build thriving health.
Much of her knowledge and understanding comes from her study and practice of the ancient science of Qigong – Chinese exercises for keeping the body and mind healthy. In addition, she has trained in and implements a number of cutting-edge modalities such as Mickel Therapy (specialist treatment invented by a medical doctor for Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Insomnia, Irritable Bowel and other chronic diseases) and Moativational Medicine (specialist techniques for identify and resolving any illness or pain).
Ms Knight’s approach to healthcare includes a number of radical new perspectives, for example understanding:
- the intelligent nature of symptoms and how they play a positive role in a person’s health
- the link between emotions and health and the role negative emotions play in generating physical pain
- the new science of epigenetics and how our environment influences our health by expressing (turning on or off) genes
- the role of stress and how it is the foundation of disease (dis-ease)
- the critical role of self care in the management of health
Rather than expecting someone else to fix our problems, Ms Knight teaches clients how to interpret the message beneath the symptoms or problem. She gives people information, tools, strategies and solutions to manage their health or recover from illness. This is, as her business name suggests, ‘The Art of Health and Science of Wellbeing’. Her tagline says it all: ‘Self care – a revolution in healthcare’.
Currently still representing a minority of the general population, Ms Knight is one of a growing number of health practitioners who understand how we can and need to revolutionize our healthcare system. In her words “it’s all a matter of education and awareness. We cannot put into practice what we don’t know. The Art of Health teaches people simple information that has been missing. My vision is a world where people are able to take care of their own health”.
For any sceptics who still find it difficult to believe stress and emotions are the biggest culprits of illness, she offers one of her favourite quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer: ” All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
Kim Knight educates worldwide via teleseminars, private consultations and seminars.
She can be contacted at + 64 9 833 6553 / + 64 21 410 633
Her websites are www.artofhealth.co.nz www.taohealthqigong.com www.mickeltherapy.co.nz
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Dis-ease…. the root cause of disease – and how it’s now possible to turn off the stress response and reverse illness with remarkable ease
Since I reached the conclusion several years ago that stress, or ‘dis-ease’, is the root cause of most ‘disease’, I am always on the lookout for anything that can help clients (and myself!) reduce stress levels.
Whatever the condition clients present with, be it chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, insomnia, IBS, viruses, migraines, cancer, chronic back pain… I have found, more often than not, the body-mind is locked into a state of unconscious stress, also known as the ‘fight-flight’ response.
Cortisol, known as the “stress hormone,” is integral to our body’s “fight or flight” response. Originally designed to help us survive life in the wild, the “fight or flight” response was essential when our ancient ancestors were faced with sudden, brief danger, like a tiger.
However, releasing cortisol too frequently, as we seem to be doing in response to the ongoing or “chronic” stress of modern life, is proving to have serious impacts on our physical, mental and emotional health.
Over the past 6 years in clinical practice I have also discovered, with every single client bar none, that the stress pattern is set up in childhood, usually by the age of 7 years. Almost always this is due to not feeling SAFE, either emotionally and /or physically in their environment, and so the body unconsciously sets up an erroneous pattern of believing it’s safer to be stressed, just so we can stay ‘on alert’ for further danger.
Of course, being so young, we have no idea we have set this pattern up, and the consequences can take years to show up.
The good news is research is showing one technique extremely effective technique for helping reduce stress levels.
This technique, known as EFT or Tapping, is causing shockwaves in the medical world as more and more science is proving its effectiveness in improving health, both physically and emotionally.
EFT can help:
- Rewire your brain in minutes to eliminate stress, anxiety and overwhelm
- Overcome addictions and phobias which have plagued you for years
- Achieve ideal weight by releasing the issues that are holding it on
- Neutralize traumatic events which overrun your mind and create pain in your body
- Transform thoughts from negativity to positivity with ease
- Clear limiting beliefs which self-sabotage you living the life of your dreams
- Recover from chronic long-term health conditions
- Transform post-traumatic stress disorder to discover inner peace
A couple of videos below explain some of this new research and show you exactly how you can use this techniqe right now to improve your health.
In this first video Nick Ortner explains how the brain can be rewired in minutes and takes you through a hands-on exercise to experience it.
In this second video health expert Kris Carr explains the link between emotions, stress and weightloss, and a whole lot more.
To your health,
Kim
P.S. – If you’d like to read more about this you can also check out a whole heap of information I have put on my website about EFT and tapping.
CLICK BELOW FOR DETAILS ON HOW TO REGISTER FOR THE 10 DAY FREE WORLD TAPPING TELESUMMIT
The new health insurance
Selfcare – a revolution in healthcare
“Better to properly maintain your vehicle than to wait for it to breakdown. It’s a lot less complicated and a lot less expensive in the long run” Brett Elliott
The other day I was thinking about health insurance. I used to have it – the conventional type that is.
When I arrived in New Zealand over 20 years ago I stopped my annual health cover and never really thought much about it after that. And then the other day I was musing upon what exactly is health insurance?
In conventional terms, it seems to me it’s about paying for the assurance that if you need some expensive surgery, treatment or medication, you will be covered financially.
This is all well and good. But what about if you took active steps to avoid having to need those things in the first place. Wouldn’t that be a type of health insurance?
When I rebranded my business 2 years ago, I came up with the name ‘Art of Health and Science of Wellbeing’ – based on the premise that there is an art and science to avoiding illness and staying healthy. In Qigong, we call this understanding and following the laws of health. Indeed, in ancient China, you paid your doctor to keep you well, and if you became ill you didn’t pay!
As human beings, we are part of nature, and are subject to the laws of nature. This is to say that there are certain laws we need to follow in order to stay healthy, and if we break those laws, we will become ill. As my colleague and mentor Richard Moat says, when you break these laws “sooner or later nature will present its bill”.
I learnt this the hard way, through unknowingly breaking those laws for many years until I was so ill I could no longer function. And it’s taken me a long time to learn what these laws are, and still takes ongoing, daily commitment to follow them, because old habits die hard.
There is little no doubt in my mind now that the best health insurance is mindfully and actively taking care of oneself on a daily basis so that illness never has to occur. I do believe it’s possible, although it does take effort.
Go well!
Kim
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )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.
Megan Otto is a freelance writer also based in New Zealand. www.megan-otto.suite101.com
END
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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:
- Dealing with unresolved, unexpressed, unfelt emotional hurts from the past which are stored in the body as pain, sadness, anger, frustration, resentment etc
- 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
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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
Ph + 64 9 833 6553
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Gossip and Toxic Friends Detox!
Stop feeding your inner critic and nourish your inner wisdom!
Stop feeding your inner critic and nourish your inner wisdom!
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
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Getting to know – and manage – your inner critics
Stop feeding your inner critic and nourish your inner wisdom!
“A critic left to its own will dismantle any good that you have created” Sark
This blog is the first set of tips that come from the call with SARK on how to manage your inner critic(s).
GET TO KNOW YOUR INNER CRITICS!
Do you know all the different inner critics that you have? For example:
‘The Pusher’ – who can never do enough
‘The Perfectionist’ – who is never good enough
‘The Comparer’ – who always thinks others are better than me
‘The Unlovable’ – who always imagines they are not lovable or acceptable by others
‘The Guilt Inducer ’ – who feels guilty for doing anything for herself
According to Sark, our Inner Mean Girls (hereafter referred to as IMGs) are a result of early conditioning to life which grows out of proportion. The energies are unconscious and have not been attended to.
However, it’s important to remember we have an Inner mean girl and an inner kind girl – we have both. And the BEST antidote to IMG is self love. That inner wisdom, that part of our self that is all loving and unconditional, no matter the circumstances.
Inner critics just want to work. So we have to redirect them, give them a new job. Turn the inner critic into an ally and get a team of inner helpers instead. So, how do we get more connected to inner wisdom?
Here are Sark’s tips for dealing with these inner mean girls:
EXERCISE ONE
Practice the THREE ‘A’S:
“You can’t change what you are not aware of” Dr Phil
‘Awareness’ – notice when one or more of your inner critics is at work. Awareness is 80% of the solution. If you are not aware, you cannot change anything.
‘Attention’ – Give your whole attention to your inner mean girl. That’s what she really wants – ATTENTION! She’s been craving it for years. Invite that part to speak on paper or have some sort of a conversation.
‘Allowing’ – Allow your inner wise self, your nourishing adult, to participate, respond, lead the way and offer a different perspective. We need to claim our power back from this inner critic. We give our power away when we allow the inner mean girl to run our mind. Reassure yourself you are more than your parts. Stop your inner mean girl making decisions – let your inner wisdom make our decisions.
Awareness + Attention + Allowing = Profound transformation
EXERCISE TWO
‘IF YOU REALLY KNEW ME’
A major key in health is being honest and authentic. It has immense healing power.
So get together with some friends and fill in the following question:
“If you really knew me, you’d know I’m really hard on myself about …………………..”
For example:
“If you really knew me, you’d know I’m really hard on myself about my weight – a man will never accept me with my body not being ‘perfect’”.
EXERCISE THREE
SELF-LOVE DARE:
So, here is your ‘self-love dare’ for the next week:
- Practice the 3 A’s
- Practice the ‘If you really knew me’ exercise with others
See what happens when you make a conscious decision to be kind to yourself!
For more info on Sark: http://www.planetsark.com/
Kim Knight, director of the Art of Health, specializes in teaching people the art of looking after their own health. This includes learning life-affirming behaviours and dropping life-depleting patterns. Some of Kim’s tools include coaching people:
- how to put yourself first without feeling guilty
- how to be authentic and communicate your needs and feelings safely
- how to increase self-esteem, self-love and self-value
- how to work out what YOUR body-mind needs to stay healthy and happy
You can find more info at http://www.artofhealth.co.nz
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