Change is a familiar theme for success in any arena.  And it’s no different if you want to heal.   As unavoidable as change is—we still resist it.  Change happens to us constantly—hourly, daily, monthly, yearly.  Just look at your physical self—do you see any difference in how you look now versus, say 20 years ago—how about 10 years ago.  How about just last month?

Our lives change too.  Some of us have gone through divorce, separation, kids leaving home, kids coming back home, being grandparents, getting fired, getting hired, gaining weight, losing weight.  Even our mental and emotional states change.  We should gain more wisdom and maturity as we age.

Change requires us to do something.   Something that that takes us out of our comfort zone.   How many of you do some sort of physical exercise?   Years ago, I used buy exercise videos and sit on the couch and watch them.   I told myself I would watch them first, replay them, and  then exercise along with them.  Never happened.   I convinced myself that watching was as good as exercising.  I had good intentions, right?

Even when we know things are good for us (like exercising), we still can’t muster up the resolve to change our behavior.  Why?

I’d say it’s probably hard-wired into our psyche.  There’s really no logical explanation for it.  We just resist change as humans.  We show our resistance to change in many ways.  Here are  few nonverbal clues that show our resistance to change:

• changing the subject
• leaving the room
• being late
• getting sick
• procrastinating by doing something else, wasting time, busy work
• flipping through a magazine
• refusing to pay attention
• creating or ending a relationship

We often assume things about others to justify our resistance to change.  We make assumptions such as:

• It wouldn’t do any good anyway
• My husband/wife won’t understand
• I would have to change my whole personality
• My case is different
• I don’t want to bother them
• It will work itself out

Do you recognize some of the ways you resist?   If you do, work to CHANGE them.  Making external changes such as exercising, lifestyle shifts, change behaviors is good.  But seek out some internal changes as well.  Now those take more time and thought.   Look at your attitudes, personality, your thoughts and things we have done and avoided.  Look at your shadow side–the self you don’t let anyone see.  If you’re going to heal you have to face your shadow side also.

If you want to heal, you must give up your resistance to change.  Identify behaviors and patterns in your life that may be causing you to stay sick.   Take action, and that action will bring about a change in your circumstances. Face the things that you have resisted to promote healing.  Ask yourself:  What do I need to change?

And remember, “If you want a different result–do something different.”   If you want to heal, engage in behavior that heals.

Please leave a comment.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I look forward to healing with you,

Cheryl Y. Price, Ph.D.

W: www.anewwaytoheal.com

E: holisticspeaker@gmail.com

Intuition is a still, small voice that tells you the truth.   Intuitive healing is listening to your body’s signals—your inner voice and heart, your spiritual connection—to find out how to become more physically and emotionally whole.  We are born with intuition.

Intuition gives you a head start on preventing illness.  By sensing warning signals you can act sooner to restore the integrity of your internal defense system, sometimes before symptoms appears. Listening to your intuition can go a long ways toward prevention.  Some illnesses could have been prevented if we had just listened to our intuition.

Let’s look at 4 ways you can experience intuitive healing.

1. Pay Attention to Your Beliefs.  Your beliefs set the tone for healing.  Notice positive as well as negative attitudes. Positive ones aid our growth, negative ones impair it.  Our beliefs trigger biochemical responses.  And these chemicals can make us sick or keep us healthy.
2. Live in your Body.  Our bodies are intuitive receivers.  You must be in it to heal.  We are trained to only pay attention to the neck up–our intellect.  We don’t pay too much attention to any other parts of the body.  Start to feel sensations in your bodies. This can open your intuition.  Doing so may mean noticing early signs of pain so you can act on them.  Be aware of your body’s energy as a doorway to healing.
3. Ask For Inner Guidance.  All of us have reached a place in our lives where we found ourselves in a desperate situation.  Or we experienced intense heartache or loss.  When you found yourself there, what did you do?  Did you ask for help or guidance?  Just asking for inner guidance is in itself therapeutic–it’s healing.  I’ve always believed that all the answers we need are inside of us—we know them.  We just have to get in a position or posture to hear–at state of quiet, rest, calm and silence.  We can hear when we are quiet and meditative.  Meditation is a state of quiet that amplifies intuition.  In practical terms meditation lowers blood pressure, relieves stress, can help reverse heart disease and retard aging.
4. Pay Attention to Your Dreams.  Dreams are given in symbols.  So they don’t make sense to the logical mind when we are awake.  But dreams do have answers and messages for us.  Dreams can give revelations about your illness and how to heal.  Record them as soon as you awake.   Dreams are fleeting so make a note of them immediately.  Then when meditating, ask for the interpretation.  Your dreams are instructive and can give you information needed not only for healing, but for our lives in general.  If you need some healing guidance, ask for a dream.

These four steps can help transform your health and your life.  Like with any gift, the more you practice, the more you will hone your intuition.

Please leave a comment.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I look forward to healing with you,

Cheryl Y. Price, Ph.D.

W: www.anewwaytoheal.com

E: holisticspeaker@gmail.com

Forgiving is an art.  One that must be practiced.  Forgiving doesn’t come naturally.  I’m a witness because I’ve been in one too many situations when I’ve wanted revenge.  And I know better.

One reason it’s so hard to forgive is because our ego has been bruised.  We have this need for justice—to right a wrong.  To make them pay.  Everything in us screams for justice when we have been wronged.  But payback is not God’s way—forgiving is.  And here’s how we can.

Releasing the Past

 
Do you live in the past?  If you really think about it, most of us do.  The past has great influence on our present.  And we make many of our decisions based on past events.   And if our past experiences were negative or hurtful and we have not forgiven, our present experiences will be hurtful or negative.  As long as we hold on to the past, we cannot live in the present.

You may be in a new relationship and things are not going as smoothly as you would like, but don’t know why.  Stop for a moment and notice if you brought old baggage into the new relationship.  You may be blaming the person for hurts you’ve experience in the past.  When in reality, person you are  currently with has not hurt you.  But you’re treating them as if they have.

I’ve realized that the past has no place in the present.   You can’t see the past, you can’t hear the past, and you can’t touch the past.  Actually, it doesn’t exist.  It’s history.  How then do you know past experiences happened?  Someone has to verify the event for you.  Otherwise they are only memories, or may be your imagination or a dream.  Without validation, it’s as if the events didn’t exist.  So, since you can’t see the past, you can’t hear the past, and you can’t touch the past stop letting it control your present.
 

Forgive and Heal

 
It takes a lot of energy to hold on to people who have hurt us.  Negative emotions like anger, guilt, anger, fear, frustration and resentment can attack the body and cause illness.  Chronic negativity alters nervous-system functions and suppresses the immune system.  This can lead to problems that include more frequent colds and flu, fatigue, hypertension, asthma, and migraine headaches.

I read an account where a patient suffered from high blood pressure and ulcers.  Her doctor finally asked her if she was holding any anger.  She confessed that she was angry with her family because they deserted her when she really needed their support.  Her doctor told her to forgive her relatives for her own health and well-being.  A few months later he received a letter from her saying she had forgiven her family, and her high blood pressure and ulcers were gone.

Holding onto negative attitudes keeps us locked into stagnant behaviors which can lead to illness.  Forgive and healing can be yours.

Forgive Yourself

Oftentimes when we speak of forgiving, we usually think about forgiving others.  But self-forgiveness is just as important to do, if not more.  You may have caused hurt to yourself physically (self-mutilation), emotionally (holding on to guilt), mentally (name calling).  Just as you practice forgiving towards others, practice that same forgiving towards yourself.  Sometimes we don’t feel we are worthy of forgiveness.  That could go back to how we were nurtured.  If you are feeling unworthy of forgiveness, just remember God loves you and is always willing to forgive. The pathway to love is forgiveness.

Forgiving others and ourselves releases us from the past.  Forgiving opens the door to love in your life.  Forgiving frees spirit to love and be loved.

Remember that forgiving does not mean excusing, forgetting, denying, condoning or seeking justice or reconciling at all at all costs.  Instead it is a voluntary gift of mercy that can open the doorway to personal healing.   It’s also a process that does not necessarily end in reconciliation or restoration of trust.  Forgiveness does not absolve the offending party of the wrong, but you no longer hold to the right to hold on to that hurt.  When you forgive you get your life back.  But you may not get the relationship back because it may be toxic to you.

If you want to begin to practice forgiving, here’s a starting point.  Five steps are listed here:

Five Steps to Forgiveness

1. Recall  objectively the hurt or blame.
2. Empathize with the person who hurt you.
3. Recall the times when you hurt or offended someone and how it felt to be forgiven.
4. Ask yourself if you are willing to give that gift to the person who hurt you.
5. Speak aloud your commitment to forgive.

When we forgive it’s a voluntary gift of mercy to the other person.  Forgiveness is not something we do; forgiveness is something we experience.

Please leave a comment.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I look forward to healing with you,

Cheryl Y. Price, Ph.D.

W: www.anewwaytoheal.com

E:  holisticspeaker@gmail.com

Being a kid is tough. It’s even tougher when the school bully threatens to beat you up after school.  When I was in the 5^th grade, that’s exactly what happened.  Jackie (her real name) would randomly choose her victims to beat up after school.  So it was just a matter of time before she got to me.  Now if Jackie threatened to beat you up, you were beat up.  It was a done deal. You didn’t even think there was the possibility that you might walk away, and she would be the one running and screaming towards home.  She had us.

The chosen place for my butt kickin’ was the candy store we stopped at every day on the way home from school to buy our goodies.  With my Mr. Goodbar in hand, I’d walk home down the railroad tracks skipping and kicking rocks until I got home.  But the day of the announced butt kickin’, my Mr. Goodbar had no taste and my shoes felt like they had rocks in them.

I didn’t tell my parents that night about the imminent butt kickin’.  Probably out of embarrassment, or maybe I thought that there was nothing they could do about it.  But after being distressed for hours, I thought of someone who just might be able to help me.

Our two-bedroom and house was overflowing with 11 people and you can imagine there was little privacy.  Where could I go for privacy?  The bathroom.  I made sure no one was around to hear me, went in and locked the door.  I kneeled down in front of my make-shift altar–the toilet.  I put the lid down, bowed my head and squeezed my hands together as hard as I could.  I prayed, “Lord, please don’t let Jackie beat me up.”

That was the beginning of my spiritual practice.

Life is challenging.  Healing is challenging. And if we want to live our best life, we most certainly should develop a spiritual practice. In developing a spiritual practice, we must get to know ourselves first.  We must communicate with our higher self to gain insight into our lives—how we should live, who we should forgive, where we should go, when we must speak, how we must love, who we should love, and when to say no.

A spiritual practice will help you to get to know yourself and know your God.   When you are constantly examining yourself and improving yourself, you can’t help but improve your family, your community, your nation and finally the world.  That’s what your spiritual self will do—the life of God is good and will cause you to do well.

And by the way, Jackie didn’t beat me up.

Please leave a comment.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I look forward to healing with you,

Cheryl Y. Price, Ph.D.

www.anewwaytoheal.com

cheryl@anewwaytoheal.com

Each week for the next 10 weeks I will be posting excerpts from my audio series, Ten Commandments for Healing.  These Commandments will introduce you to 10 ways you can heal holistically by incorporating spirit, soul, mind and body practices into your life to get a healing result. Healing is spiritual and it’s lasting.  Curing is physical and results are short-lived.   Put these Commandments into daily practice and discover your path to healing and continued well-being.  The first Commandment will be posted on Monday, May 10.

Please leave a comment.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I look forward to healing with you,

Cheryl Y. Price, Ph.D.

www.anewwaytoheal.com

cheryl@anewwaytoheal.com