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How to Experience Bliss and Heal Body, Mind & Spirit & Loss by Choosing Compassion, Kindness and Love(#1)
“My religion is very simple. My religion is Kindness.”
The Dalai Lama
Remember the last time you were either ill or felt that your heart had been broken? Perhaps you suffered a crisis such as the loss of a loved one or your job or a medical ordeal such as a stroke, heart attack or the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness. At such times, we blissfully desire the loving presence of one who understands our situation, who feels our loss, who knows what it is like to suffer and who has the courage not to run away from us when we need them most.
Coming from a family of physicians, I have long felt that healing the body is about healing the soul as well as the body. Such healing encompasses the ability to be loving and compassionate towards yourself, humanity and, in fact, the world.
For more than a decade,, I would incorporate this message of the need to heal mind, body and soul each time I addressed a graduating class of physicians. Only last week, I was delighted to hear a new doctor- to- be, just a few days away from receiving his medical degree, announce to his class that his hope for his peers is that they practice compassionate medicine and treat their patients as they would loved ones. Nothing could have pleased me more!
Albert Einstein once said that we are our brothers’ keeper. This was in line with his research and thinking, as a quantum physicist, that everything is energy and vibrates. Given that we are all energy, we have the capacity to not only be individual templates of vibrational energy, but we also have the ability to merge with one another. Thus, he advocated that we be loving and compassionate to one another.
Have you observed how easy it is to notice when another has either been kind or not kind to you?. However, why not consider working on building your level of compassion and consideration toward others? Why not remember the adage, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”? By doing this, you experience beautiful feelings of well-being. (To be continued.)
Susan Barbara Apollon
Author of “Touched By The Extraordinary”
& Intuition Is Easy & Fun
©2010 Susan Barbara Apollon
Finding Bliss And Peace Via Meaningful Rituals – Part 5
One of the nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.
~Luciano Pavaroti and William Wright~
Where there is love, there is life.
~Mohandas Gandhi~
Food is such a valuable aspect of self-generated ceremonial rituals. Furthermore, food is an expression of healing, loving energy which enables you to feel good and experience bliss. Consider your holidays and how important it is for you to include traditional foods and dishes always associated with specific holidays. Somehow, knowing the treats you will serve or receive as a part of your holiday meals seems to ground and stabilize you, enabling you to feel safe, rooted, deeply loved and that all is okay with you and your world.
As you go about preparing and eating the ritualistic holiday foods, remember to project or feel love in every morsel of food. Actually, it happens quite naturally. Personally, hot dogs and hamburgers convey love, comfort and healing joyful energy for me each July 4th, as does turkey, my mother’s incredibly delicious stuffing and sweet potato pie with marshmallows and for Thanksgiving.
And how could I forget the matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, kugel and my home baked rugalah that have been a part of every Jewish family celebration? This is my heritage – and continuing the rituals helps me to preserve and more deeply root our family members. Think, for a moment, of your own family’s food-related traditions and feel the wonderful, energetic goodness of what this means to you.
Fortunately, for many of my friends, they are able to donate their time and energy to assisting their community members who are homeless by working at food banks. Others, I know, give of their time throughout the year and/or on the holidays to prepare and serve meals for those who have no homes. These acts become loving, ceremonial rituals which enable them to feel they are making a difference in the lives of others.
I often think about the women of the Holocaust who continued to find ways to celebrate special occasions such birthdays, holidays and anniversaries – and the Sabbath. These women understood that they could maintain a sense of some normalcy by continuing the traditions of cooking foods associated with their way of life, as well as maintaining rituals such as prayers and the lighting of candles at appropriate times. I have a cookbook written by the women of the Holocaust (something that I was amazed they could pull off, given the difficulty of their situation). Yet, I know that it is the meager food which was cooked with love and the meaning of the ceremonies and the rituals that sustained them and their families in those most challenging – and horrific circumstances.
Finally, have you thought about the many ways in which you carry on exquisite, loving, ceremonial rituals for your friends and loved ones who are ill, dying or who are grieving? Please consider these times in your life and the ways in which you and your family have either received or provided assistance, be it with a cooked meal , the running of errands, caring for children, being a chauffeur and support system for doctor appointments or assisting with hospital, insurance or burial issues and needs. Because you act from love, these rituals are all high energy shifting experiences for you, bringing you greater peace and comfort.
And, of course, there are the visits you make to either the hospital to be with the ill or to the funeral home or cemetery to honor the deceased. All of these help you and those with whom you visit by the gift of your presence at a time when it is very, very needed as an expression of loving support. You heal yourself and your loved ones by choosing such loving acts and rituals of compassion and kindness.
One of the secrets to a better quality life filled with joy is to consciously and wisely choose those rituals which will feel good to you and enable you to experience healing and well-being!
Susan Barbara Apollon
Author of “Touched By The Extraordinary”
& Intuition Is Easy & Fun
©2009 Susan Barbara Apollon
Life Lessons Learned In Healing From Grief And Trauma – Part 2
When we come to the last moment of this lifetime and look back, the only thing that’s going to matter is ‘What was the quality of our love?’” Richard Bach
2. Be open to changing your perspective! The experience of grief and trauma can contribute to your changing your thinking about what is truly important in life. For example, following the occurrence of a significant tragedy or loss, you may find yourself amazed at the decreased importance and attention you give to what were formerly valued items, perhaps a fancy car, china or clothing, or to participation in previously favored activities, such as sports, your job, traveling or entertainment.
3. Recognize the importance of Love in your life’s journey. You may even learn from your pain and suffering that the only thing that really matters is the person you love and your loving relationship with this individual. My husband taught me this years before we married (some 44 years ago!). Walking along a boating dock, the little bag I held that contained his rings and watch slipped from my hands, went through the boards and into the water, never to be seen again. I cried profusely, feeling great guilt, and will always remember his words: “Don’t worry, Susan. The only thing that matters is you. I can replace the jewelry; I can’t replace you.” His love touched, healed and soothed my pain of disappointing him!
4. In dealing with the pain of a tragedy, loss or grief, healing occurs as you discover that you are much stronger than you thought you were. Suddenly, being forced into roles that your ill or deceased loved ones once held, be it holding down a full-time job, paying the bills, maintaining your home or car, or creating your social life, you may find that you are now taking responsibility for areas of your life that you previously felt you were unable to handle.
5. With your new- found sense of personal strength, you may learn that you are more powerful than you had thought, more capable and more resilient. This new awareness may enhance your self-esteem, self-confidence and your belief in yourself. All of these are gifts because they come at a time when you are left feeling powerless, frightened and worried about your ability to survive. Tragedy often validates your ability to be a survivor, one who can handle whatever curve ball may come your way. My patients have repeatedly shared their awareness with me of how much braver and more courageous they feel they are, having proved to themselves they can survive without their loved ones
6. You learn that there are questions that better serve you than asking “Why did this happen?”, a normal response to such events. By asking “What is this teaching me?” and “What is the lesson I need to learn here?”, you find that you have an enhanced ability to cope with such stressful experiences. For example, such questions often move us from perceiving ourselves as victims to realizing that we have the resources to deal with such challenges. They also move us along in our having a sense of purpose, despite our angst and pain.
7. View the events as challenges or opportunities to learn valuable life lessons; patience, courage, compassion or forgiveness. Asking the previously mentioned questions helps you become more conscious of which life lessons you are here to learn. This, in turn, again, leads to a stronger sense of connection with your own Higher Power or God, as well as a change in your perspective about the meaning of such losses and traumas. Allow your perspective to become broader, inviting in more wonderful possibilities about life, its purpose and whether life continues in a somewhat different form; allow this change in perspective to soothe and heal the pain of your broken heart. (TO BE CONTINUED)
Susan Barbara Apollon
Author of “Touched By The Extraordinary”
©Copyright 2008 Susan Barbara Apollon
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