And still, I would not want to have missed it. How come?

To begin with, it made me listen. You see, I have the belief that what is normally referred to as an illness, in reality is our other than conscious mind talking through our body, giving us hints.

Now I am not the only one to think like that. When I studied to become a Shiatsu, Nuad Thai and Ayurveda Therapist, I got involved in the ancient wisdom of Chinese, Thai and Indian medicine,  where we can learn about the connection between our emotions and tension or blockades in the energetic pathways (referred to as meridians, sen lines or nadis).

On those pathways are certain acupressure points, which are related to our organs. By pressing, rubbing, holding or needling them, tensions can be released and blockades resolved, so that the energy can flow through the body again without obstacles.

According to Chinese medicine, problems with the bladder can mean that we are “pissed off” or are holding on to old ideas, being afraid, especially of letting go.
Louise Hay suggests the affirmation “I comfortably and easily release the old and welcome the new into my life. I am safe.”

In Ayurveda – the Indian way of approaching health- the bladder is in the area of the second “chakra” (Svadhisthana-Chakra), which is located around the sacrum, a few finger’s breadth below the navel.

It stands for sexuality, sensuality and reproduction, but is also related to creativity, inventive life force/energy, money, power, control, ethics and honour in relationships. Its colour is orange, the mantra is “VAM” and its element is water.

So besides drinking lots of water, I wrapped myself in my wonderful cosy, comfortable, cuddly and orange fleece blanket, while asking myself what I need to let go off and what I need to embrace (which was a suggestion from my accountability coach Shiona Long from ‘Authentic Success’).

Having recently read “The Journey” from Brandon Bays, I also considered a so called ‘physical journey’, where we can imagine ourselves in a mini submarine, swimming to the relevant organ and asking for what needs to be learned, so that the body can heal on a cellular level as Dr. Deepak Chopra teaches it.

In hindsight I really can’t tell whether it was one of the above techniques or simply using “Belladonna”, homeopathic globuli with highly diluted active substances.

Personally I like to believe that I healed quite quickly because I listened to my body and what it wanted to tell me, looking behind the physical pain to see the real issue instead of working on the symptoms.

I would love to invite you to do the same when next time your unconscious mind is asking you to listen by giving you a sign through your body.

What is it, that you need to let go of?
What is it, that you can embrace?
What wants your attention?
What needs to be balanced?

*source meridian picture: http://www.koerperbalance.net/meridian.htm

When I browsed through the book, I remembered how intrigued I was at that time about the Chinese, Japanese, Thai and especially the Ayurvedic Indian kitchen. Part of our studies for Nuad Thai was making our own Ghee (cleared butter), own herb bags for a certain type of massage and authentic Yogi tea (a combination of organic herbs and spices like black pepper, ginger, cinnamon…).

We also learned to cook with the five elements, which was fascinating. We had been given a sheet with the different food in the different element categories. We could start in any category we wanted, but we always had to go in a circle, a certain way and pick only one ingredient from that category, always finishing with the one category that would complete the circle. In the end we had sometimes seemingly strange combinations, but surprisingly they always tasted really good.

At home I tried it with my older boys and without exception they loved it, although it was “healthy stuff”.

I forgot about that when we came over here, but the book brought the memory back. Interestingly though, I just changed my diet again to eating more natural and less processed food and carbohydrates, which works really well for me to have more energy and also for loosing weight.

Although I should have known better, I was actually surprised to find a very similar suggestion for food intake in the book. So for today I will be going back to the roots of the old Chinese tradition and have a “5 elements meal” for dinner.

What is a root you could go back to today?
What could you do that you have not done for a while that would ground you?
Reading a very old book that you read as a child?
Walking a certain path? Visiting someone?

Whatever it is – enjoy it and remember to LIVE LARGE TODAY!