We have collected together articles on various topics related to spiritual healing and spirituality in general and we hope that you will enjoy them as well as finding them informative. If you have any comments about them, please contact us. [link to contact us form]
Bone Tissue Disorder in Both Knees
The Breath of Life and Relaxation
We all know of people who can remain in a room with a dozen people who all have colds or flu and they never succumb themselves. Equally, we are all aware of others who it seems only have to pass someone in the street who has a cold and they are laid up in bed for several days afterwards with the same ailment.
Everyone is different; every body is different. This is one of the joys - and one of the challenges - of being part of humankind. Some people can be given a very poor prognosis for their survival with cancer and they go on to confound the medical profession by living for several, or perhaps many, years more. During this time they often raise huge amounts of money for charity and help numerous others to cope with the same disease. Others who are given the same prognosis can pass at roughly the same time as predicted or perhaps even earlier.
Setting an intention
Some of the main factors in our capacity to improve or overcome illness are the way we view the disease, our perception of our world and what we see as our role within it. If we have always perceived our life as an unequal struggle, at various levels, the chances are that the challenge of working creatively with a disease to prolong our life (and the struggle, as we see it) will not be something we will pursue. In this case, we would probably have little faith in our own, or the medical profession's, ability to extend or save our life and the disease would take its course.
If, on the other hand, we are prepared to live our lives fully until we pass and our view of our world is one of optimism, love of life and other souls, and support from those around us, we can live on for a significant period of time after the predicted time of our demise.
In both cases, we have set an intention. In the first case, we have decided, on the basis of our past experience, that working with our disease will be too much for us to cope with, and that the medical profession is right in its prediction of when we will pass. Our intention becomes aligned with that prediction. In the second case, our intention is to work with our disease and 'own' it as part of ourselves that we will work with - just as we would everything else that is brought to us during our lifetime - so that we can prolong and hopefully improve the quality of our life.
How do we think?
Intention is all about the way we think about ourselves, our lives and our health. And this applies to us just as much when we are in the peak of health - this is the way we maintain our health so that we avoid contracting many of common illnesses. If it is our intention to remain fit and healthy, we will automatically pursue this by eating nutritious food and drinking enough water for our particular body, exercising regularly, taking sufficient relaxation and recreation, and avoiding any substances that would harm our body. Our intention to remain healthy becomes an integral part of our life and we live in a way that supports this intention.
If we do then succumb to a health imbalance, we are in a far stronger position to work with a disease because we have been working with our body creatively up to that point. But, even if we haven't been consciously setting an intention to maintain our health, we can still do this as soon as we receive a diagnosis. There is much information in the media that will help us to actively achieve improvement, and perhaps even cure, if we opt to pursue this intention.
It is all about choice. We have a choice about everything in our lives, including the choice to do nothing when we are diagnosed with a terminal illness and just allow it to take its course. This is a valid option. Even though some may say they had no choice in contracting a disease in the first place, despite living a healthy lifestyle, they still have the choice to work creatively with the illness and prolong their life or simply be kept comfortable until they pass.
Giving thought to our intention in everything we do is our way of making choices - and this is essential when we are ill, regardless of how trivial or serious that illness might be. Through our intention, our illness can teach us many lessons that we would never have had the opportunity to learn under other circumstances. And this may be one of the ways in which we find coping with our illness helpful. It is part of the human condition to strive and learn, and experiencing illness is just as valid a way of doing this as being in good health.
Affirmations
If you find it difficult to maintain an intention, you may find it helpful to use an affirmation like, I am feeling fit, healthy and wonderfully well. This is a way of telling your subconscious how you want to feel. Your subconscious has no judgement; it simply brings to you what it has stored in its 'memory banks' so you are programming it to bring you thoughts and pictures of health and well-being.
If you have a health imbalance, you may prefer to us something like, I am improving my health every day. Once you get to the point of feeling better, though not completely restored, you can use the first affirmation to move you further down the road to recovery, or at least significant improvement. Your subconscious cannot distinguish between what you wish to be the case and what is happening in reality, and it will bring you what you wish to be the case if that is the predominant intention you hold.
The medical profession, whose pharmaceutical prescriptions can often make a difference to our bodies without our intention, acknowledges that without the patient's intention to get well, they will often remain unwell and can even deteriorate. Studies have shown how much difference there can be in the time it takes for patients to improve through the presence or absence of intention.
You are what you think! This is how intention works and it is a very powerful tool as thousands of people have discovered.
As children, we were told that we must pray for forgiveness for our 'sins', for those who we feel have done us some wrong, for the return to good health of the sick, for our food, and many more issues in our lives.
The definition of 'prayer'
In the dictionary, the definition of prayer uses words like 'desires', 'ask earnestly', 'supplication', 'beg' and 'entreat'. A prayer is primarily a request for something. At the same time, we are encouraged to give our thanks for what we already have. But the requests are usually made many times if we really want something, with perhaps a little less emphasis on gratitude. So this has been the traditional way of praying to the spiritual force that we believe to be more powerful than ourselves and to which we give many names. For the purposes of this article, this power will be called the Source.
Wishes and desires
Those of us who are parents are aware of how our children keep nagging us when they want something badly - they keep asking and asking until they finally get what they want or we get very annoyed and tell them that, unless they stop asking, they will never get the object of their desire.
This is how it must be for the Source when we keep asking for the same things over and over again, and when we wait, sometimes patiently but sometimes not, for these things to manifest in our lives. If our desires are not for our highest good, this great loving force is unlikely to fulfil our wishes; we cannot know what is ultimately in our best interests because we cannot see into the future. So we may be begging for something that is never going to appear in our lives.
How often have we wished for something to happen and it has all worked out completely differently for us - and in a much better way that has led us on to better circumstances in our lives, even though it meant that we had to experience some hardships along the way? Ultimately, the alternative to what we desired was, in fact, in our best interests. We never have the complete picture of our life circumstances because we are right in the middle of living our lives.
A different way of praying
Perhaps we should never ask for anything in our lives and perhaps we should give up praying in the formal sense. How much better it might be if we were to confide in the Source as a mentor rather than as a sort of 'spiritual genie' who brings us what we desire if we pray in the correct way. Having an ongoing mentoring relationship with the Source means that we can talk about what it would be nice to have in our lives and the reasons for that, but accepting that this may not be the best course for us. In this way, we have an opportunity to crystallise our thoughts and ideas by 'discussion' and we allow the Source into our lives so that what is right for us may be facilitated.
Of course, whether you pray to or you have a mentoring relationship with the Source, the essential element is always to take action towards obtaining our desires. The old saying, 'The Lord helps those who help themselves' is very appropriate here. While we take action, the Source can nudge us in the right direction if we listen to our intuition - which is effectively the Source giving us feedback.
When healers ask for the healing energies to be channelled through them, they simply ask for whatever healing is for the patient's highest good. There is no judgement as to what this should be because we have no idea what is needed; in most cases we have never met the patient before.
Gratitude If we viewed the primary purpose of prayer as that of gratitude for everything that is brought into our lives - good and not so good - perhaps our relationship with the Source would give us much greater satisfaction. Everything that happens in our lives is there to help us learn the same unconditional love that the Source demonstrates. It would also give us the opportunity of using the gift that we, as human souls, are privileged above all other creatures to have - free will. Free will, used intuitively, is a wonderful way to manifest much to be grateful for.
People often ask why terrible things are allowed to happen in the world and many of these claim to have no faith in a force greater than ourselves for that reason. Because we have free will, we create the terrible situations that arise within our relationships - between souls and with the environment. There is no evil as a separate entity; it is within us and created by us. The Source does not punish us for our destructive thoughts and actions. We are here to experiment and learn - the Source simply gives us unconditional love so that we can learn from this wonderful example, which is another reason for gratitude.
Prayer used primarily to express gratitude and in a secondary sense to establish a mentoring relationship with the Source can be very liberating - if we choose to allow it!
If you have any comments you would like to make about this article, please contact us through this website and we will publish these, if you wish, at the end of the article.
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In Daniel Benor's 1992 book called 'Healing Research' he cites over 150 controlled studies of (prayerful) healing that have been published. And he offers further information on his website at www.wholistichealingresearch.com.
Most people are not aware of the guidelines that are used in healing and few people truly understand the energies used. As a result, mainstream scientists have been reluctant to carry out studies on the power of healing and prayer because it can put an end to their scientific careers. The methods used in science cannot be transferred across to spiritual studies of the efficacy of treatment so a new range of tests has to be used. But more sensitive and highly effective monitoring equipment has now been created and used which is raising questions about how prayer and healing energies impact on us.
In the 1960s a behavioural psychologist, Dr William Baud, became interested in the biochemistry of memory and learning, and in particular the way that people could influence their own muscular reaction and heart rate by purposeful mental direction. In 1971 he began research into telepathy and consciousness. By 1990 he had become a leading expert in this field. His experiments would include placing his subjects in a ganzfeld environment, i.e. one where all sensory input is cut out, to test the ability of one group of people to affect the mental state of a second group of people sometimes many miles away. The outcome of these experiments when combined with his other studies resulted in a success rate of 82%. Apparently, the odds against these results coming from pure chance were a phenomenal ten billion to one. It was these studies which led Braud to conclude that human intention could be used as an extraordinarily potent healing force. Prayer is intention and, as such, offers the potential for significant changes to the health of those who are the subject of prayers.
Further research is being carried out at The Institute of Noetic Sciences in California, which was founded, in 1971, by Edgar Mitchell, the astronaut. The Institute was inspired by his visit to the Moon on Apollo 14. The names comes from the Greek word noetikos, means 'inner/intuitive knowing'. www.noetic.org.
The Institute conducted or supported significant projects during its formative years, including research on mind-body interactions and healing, psychoneuroimmunology, spontaneous remission, bioenergetics, and the nature of the 'healing response', as well as laboratory studies of extended human capacities such as precognition, gut feelings, extrasensory perception and remote viewing.
The Institute continues to push the boundaries of our knowledge and is well respected for its work, to the extent that research has been conducted in collaboration with an exemplary group of frontier researchers and visionary scholars from institutions throughout the world, including: California, Pennsylvania, Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, The Max Planck Institute, California Pacific Medical Centre and Harvard Medical School, as well as The United Nations.
Members of the Institute, like Dean Radin and Marilyn Schlitz, have written books detailing their work and conclusions that give us great insight into how the energies that are around us and within us work.
Other authors from different backgrounds have also written books that help us in our understanding such as Larry Dossey, Lynne McTaggart, Mario Beauregard and Denyse O'Leary, and Jeffrey M. Schwarts and Sharon Begley. Details of these books and others that might be of interest are listed below:
Healing Beyond the Body: Medicine and the Infinite Reach of the Mind by Dr Larry Dossey
Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine by Larry Dossey, MD
The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD and Sharon Begley
The Field and The Intention Experiment, both by Lynne McTaggart
Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life by Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, PhD, Cassandra Veiten, PhD andTina Amorok, PsyD.
The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul by Mario Beauregard, PhD and Denyse O'Leary
The Noetic Universe and The Conscious Universe, both by Dean Radin
The Power of Intention by Dr Wayne W. Dyer
www.amazon.co.uk / www.amazon.com
From these and other sources, it becomes apparent that intention and consciousness appear to be the secrets behind the effect of distant (prayerful) healing. If those praying or sending distant healing genuinely wish to see a change in the health of those to whom they are sending their thoughts, this will have an effect - and sometimes a profound effect.
Studies on the positive effect of religion on health have also been carried out in other institutes and the papers from these are listed below.
American Journal of Public Health (1997). Study reports the results of a 28 year follow-up study of 5,000 adults involved in the Berkeley Human Population Laboratory Scheme. Mortality for persons attending religious services once a week or more often was almost 25% lower than for persons attending religious services less frequently; for women, the mortality rate was reduce by 35%.
International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine (1998). The relationship between religious activities and blood pressure was examined in a 6 year prospective study of 4,000 older adults. Among those subjects who attended religious services once a week or more and prayed once a day or more, the likelihood of diastolic hypertension was 40% lower than among those who attended services and prayed only occasionally.
International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine (1997). Findings suggest that persons who attend church frequently have stronger immune systems than less frequent attenders, and may help explain why both better mental and better physical health are characteristic of frequent church attenders.
American Journal of Psychiatry (1998). Found that depressed patients who had a strong intrinsic religious faith recovered over 70% faster from depression than those with less strong faith.
American Journal of Public Health (1998). In a 5 year study of 1,931 older residents of Marin County, California, people who attended religious services were 36% less likely to die during the follow up period.
American Journal of Psychiatry (1990). Reported that among 33 elderly woman hospitalised with hip fracture, greater religiousness was associated with less depression and longer walking distances at the time of hospital discharge.
Please contact us with any anecdotal or research evidence you have discovered and we may include it on this page.
Bone Tissue Disorder in Both Knees
This is an authenticated testimonial taken from the files of a healer (the names have been changed to protect the identities of both parties).
"My name is Jane and I am 27 years old. I have suffered for many years with a chronic and often debilitating disorder with both of my knees which has caused extreme pain. The problem became steadily worse and was particularly prevalent during cold spells.
Having seen my GP many times I was eventually referred to a specialist at the General Hospital who examined me several times. I was subjected to sessions of extremely painful physiotherapy which did not help and was eventually told that I would need surgery to correct the disorder. They refused, however, to proceed with this surgery unless I attended more painful physiotherapy sessions, which I was unwilling to do.
I subsequently went to see Elizabeth who offered to give me healing, an alternative therapy which did not involve any painful manipulation whatsoever. After only two sessions (each lasting no more than half an hour) the pain in my knees had almost completely gone, even during cold weather. I am now able to walk long distances with only minor discomfort and I suspect that the damage to my knees has almost completely healed although I am unable to verify this with my specialist; he still refuses to see me unless I undergo the physiotherapy!
I will see Elizabeth again for further sessions and I would thoroughly recommend her treatment to anybody who genuinely needs it."
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Many healers work with terminally ill patients and with the loved ones of those patients. Both can benefit from the effects of the healing energies in different ways but, at the least, they can both experience a sense of calm and clarity that helps them to accept the situation. For the patient, this is important in allowing them to be at peace during the last days, weeks or months of their illness to ease their passing, or death as many people prefer to call it.
Grief in stages
We know that everyone goes through several stages of grief and these are not necessarily experienced only once or in a specific order; everyone is different, so whatever we feel or do is natural for us as individuals. It is important that we allow ourselves time to go through these stages without thinking that we should be feeling something different. Grief takes varying periods of time for every individual.
Initially, we are in shock so we can feel a numbness in the first few days; we go about the business of life in a sort of daze. A little later we can feel a sense of restlessness as we pine for the person we have lost. We become aware of the 'hole' that has been left in our life and try to make sense of what has happened.
Although it may seem surprising, we can feel anger at our loved one for leaving us so abruptly, even if they have been ill for some time. We can feel unreasonably abandoned and marooned in a sea of despair that seems to be overwhelming.
Guilt will often follow and this can be the result of our anger because we realise our loved one did not have a choice and that the timing of death is out of our control very largely. If we've had a poor relationship, this can also trigger feelings of guilt. Equally, if we've had a very good relationship and we feel there was something we didn't do at the end of their lives or something we said or did that we felt was thoughtless, we can feel a sense of guilt. Often these issues are very small and unimportant but they can grow to epic rpoportions for us in our grief; we have no choice but to take them seriously at the time.
At some point, we may feel relief that our loved one has passed over, especially if they've been ill for some time, and this gives way to feelings of sadness and reflection when we can spend a lot of time just sitting and thinking. This can often be a cause for concern for our circle of family and friends but it should resolve itself in time.
Letting go of our loved ones
The quality of a person's life immediately before they pass over is a vital factor in the way their loved ones cope with their loss. Modern drugs allow most people to experience no pain and so there are few passings where the patient is in extreme anguish.
The greater anxiety and guilt can be caused by the emotional aspects of passing over. In some cases, there has been a rift or ongoing disagreement between them, and it is important that an understanding is reached before the passing if it is at all possible. This can be as radical as an acceptance of the part each played in the diagreement and a forgiveness on both sides, which is of course the best outcome.
However, this is not always possible because each may believe they are 'in the right'. If we can do no more than agree to differ and forgive the person we know and love by separating the deed from them as individuals, this can make a great difference to the feelings about our loved one in the weeks and months after the passing. We all do insensitive and silly things in the process of living but it doesn't mean that we, as souls, are without love and compassion, particularly for those closest to us.
We all view every situation in a slightly or radically different way. We all have a selective memory, whether we like to admit it or not. Accepting these two facts can help us in agreeing to forgive and remembering our love for each other. It can bring great peace to all those involved and allow them to 'part' in love, remembering all the good things about one another.
But sometimes neither side can bring themselves even to contemplate forgiveness; the hurt and resentment is so deeply felt that one or both sides resist any attempts at reconciliation. This is when our grief after someone's passing may be almost overwhelming because we can feel anger and guilt that we did not achieve an amicable ending of the relationship.
It is not too late to bring about a reconciliation through love and forgiveness even after our loved one has passed over, and this may be important if their passing has been sudden with no illness leading up to it. Even if you have no belief in an afterlife, you can still make your peace. It is a process of 'letting go' of the person with whom you have experienced such a difficult relationship.
If we sit quietly when we will not be disturbed, and think about the situation that caused the rift between us and our loved one, trying to maintain a detached view, we can clarify what we really feel. We can acknowledge our feelings which can be guilt, anger, resentment, disappointment or any other emotion. If we are to forgive anyone else for anything we first have to forgive ourselves and know that, at the time, we did the best with the knowledge, wisdom and experience we had. We know we can do no more than this is any situation, and that once we understand this we have a much greater chance of being able to let go of the emotions that have arisen within us.
Having reached a point of understanding of ourselves, we can bring a picture of our loved one to mind or look at a photograph of them and send them our thoughts of love and forgiveness, knowing that they too were doing the best with what they had.
We may have to do this several times before we finally release our negative feelings towards ourselves and our loved one but each time we do it, it should become easier to detach ourselves from our feelings and see the situation for what it was - an opportunity to experiment and learn for which we can be grateful.
Describing it here may make it seem as if it is an easy process but this is not necessarily the case. It requires a commitment on our part to allowing ourselves to let go of our emotions and to forgive. Whilst we may not start out with this commitment, hopefully by persevering and repeating this exercise, we will achieve a willingness to resolve the situation so that we can move on.
Different types of loss
Up to now, we have talked primarily about the loss of someone within our close circle. But we can also grieve for the loss of others, such as work colleagues, schoolfriends, children other than our own if we've had close contact with them and pets who, for many people, can be as close as family, and other souls who have touched our lives - even, in some cases, those who are famous and whom we've never met. We can also grieve for the loss of anything else in our lives, for example, a job or career, an activity that we are no longer able to participate in, a car, a partner in a divorce, our children if we have to live apart from them, permanently or temporarily, or simply a routine if we have changed our lives in some ways.
Grief can be experienced in many different situations and is just as valid as our grief for the loss of close family members. The level of grief and the length of time we grieve will vary depending on how deeply we have been touched by the situation or the person.
Talking it through
Whether we are grieving for another soul, a set of circumstances or an object, we often feel a need to talk about it and this is another healthy way of dealing with grief. Keeping our feelings inside can lead to physical and emotional imbalances that can be difficult to resolve.
When we lose a loved one, there are organisations in the UK that offer bereavement counselling, like CRUSE, and there are websites like this one that offer advice and information; counselling can also be provided through the NHS in the UK. Counselling is a good route for those who would prefer to talk to someone with whom they have no prior relationship. It can sometimes be easier to talk to a stranger than to those in our own circle.
But we can also be surprised to find a member of our family or a friend who is good at listening compassionately to our remembrances of those we have lost and to join with us in celebrating their life. Some people have an, often untapped, ability to help their family and friends to come to terms with their loss, so it's a good idea not to dismiss any offers of help. However we make it happen, allowing ourselves to talk about our loss is a good way to heal our grief.
Healthy grieving
Grieving is a normal and healthy part of our lives and by accepting this we are able to let go of those other souls, situations and feelings that hold us back from living our lives fully. During a grieving process, it may seem as if we stand still in our lives temporarily and, in a sense, that's exactly what we do. We move outside of our everyday lives to give us a breathing space. But we are still progressing because we learn from our grief, if we allow ourselves to take something positive away from the experience.
By seeking healing during our bereavement, we can often open ourselves up to allowing this release so that we can continue on our life's journey in a creative way.
If you have any comments you would like to make about this article, please contact us through this website and we may publish these, if you wish, at the end of the article.
The Breath of Life and Relaxation
'Doing' vs 'Being'
We live in a fast-paced society today where we are not thought to be achieving anything or living our lives to the full unless we are engaged in constant activity. This can create a permanent state of tension in the body. Many people are not able to let go of their tension even when they get the opportunity; it has become so familiar to them now that it seems like an 'old friend' who accompanies them wherever they go - so much so that they have no insight into their level of tension.
Fear
Much of this tension is based around fear - of failure, success, loss, being less than others, being unemployed, being rejected - perhaps even a fear of life itself.
It is easy to become fearful today: the media whips up negative thoughts and emotions by ensuring that they find the worst in almost everything they report; older pe.jpg)
ople live in fear of their future well-being; parents worry about allowing their children to walk the streets on their own; people read reports about the health of our planet and wonder how, or if, it will be inhabitable for future generations; and many people fear for the security of their employment. The list goes on. As someone was overheard saying recently when she had heard yet another report on global warming: "That's one more thing for us to worry about then!"
Reducing the tension through breathing naturally
If we are to dissolve our fears, we need to be able to relax deeply and completely for at least a few minutes every day. Practised on a regular basis in the same way as we make a few minutes to clean our teeth or make ourselves a cup of tea, relaxation can make the difference between living in good or poor health. Constant tension leads to health imbalances; the body was never designed to be in a state of constant tension at one level or another. Our bodies are wonderfully resilient so the symptoms of negative tension will often not become apparent for a considerable time but they are likely to manifest at some point.
If you watch healthy babies sleeping, you will see they are completely relaxed and breathe freely by allowing the abdomen to expand. This moves the diaphragm downwards and allows more room for the lungs to expand. They do not use energy in expanding the heavy ribcage of the chest but instead expand the soft, light tissue of the abdomen. The abdomen is one of the places where we hold our tension but it is difficult to be tense here when breathing in this way.
Many of us have forgotten this very natural way of breathing; we expand the chest and contract the abdomen on the in-breath and do the reverse on the out-breath. This promotes shallow breathing, which is how we breathe when we are nervous or fearful.
The whole thing is a cycle: we feel fear, tension is created and we breathe shallowly, which creates further tension, which narrows our view of the world and promotes fearful thoughts, and so it goes one.
Many of the people who seek healing have conditions that either have an emotional root cause or have been worsened by emotional imbalances, often to do with fear. Those who receive healing often realise that this is the case when they start to become more able to cope with their condition or it disappears completely. Once they have addressed the true cause, they can help their body to return to balance.
If you think in terms of having a balloon inside the abdomen which you are inflating with each in-breath, it can make it easier. Also, arching the back slightly on the in-breath, naturally leads to an expansion of the abdomen. When you first start practising this type of breathing, it is a good idea to lie down and place one hand on the chest and one hand on the abdomen so that you can feel the rise and fall as you breath.
Relaxation
Part of the benefit of relaxation is learning how to breathe naturally again because all relaxation exercises depend on the breath - the breath of life. Healers will encourage you to take a few deep breaths to relax you before the healing starts but usually people tend not to do this very much outside of the healing room. Unless the point is made that it is essential to good health, they simply view it as part of the therapy and not something to extend into their daily lives.
Once you have mastered this way of breathing, it is so much easier to slip into a state of relaxation. The following is an exercise you can use to relax the whole body:
Sit in a comfortable chair that supports your back and your thighs with your feet flat on the floor and your hands in your lap or palms downwards on your thighs. Make sure you feel perfectly supported.
Close your eyes or direct your gaze downwards to a point on the floor in front of your knees.
Take a few breaths expanding your abdomen on the in-breath and contracting it on the out-breath. Try not to breathe too deeply so that you avoid feeling light-headed.
Now focus on the back of your neck and your shoulders and, with the next out-breath, let go of any tension you are holding in this area. Take more breaths to let go of the tension if you need to.
Move your focus to your back and, as you breathe out, feel your back become warm and imagine the warm fluid between your vertebrae;
Now feel this same warm fluid in your elbows and your hands, and allow them to relax on the next out-breath.
Now focus on your hips and thighs allowing them to spread on the seat as you breathe out. Really feel yourself heavy on the chair.
Now feel the warm fluid around your knee joints and let your knees roll outwards slightly as you breathe out; feel the muscles of your calves soften and warm as you breathe.
Now focus on the ankles and feet, feeling the warm fluid around all the joints and allow your feet to spread on the floor as you breathe out.
Return to focusing on the breath without trying to change the rhythm of your breathing and periodically check through your body to make sure you are holding no tension.
Sit in this relaxed state for as long as you can and then visualise the room in which you are sitting. When you are ready, open your eyes and just sit for a few moments to bring yourself back to the reality of the world.
It is helpful to avoid doing anything too strenuous once you have finished your relaxation period, which can be as little as five minutes - although most people find that they enjoy it so much, they want to have ten or twenty minutes, which will bring even greater benefits.
'Being' vs 'Doing'
Regular relaxation can bring many benefits and is certainly not a waste of time; on the contrary, it can help us to use the rest of our time more productively. It can sharpen the senses and the brain generally. It can make us more relaxed in everything we do so that we have more clarity in our activities.
It can also make us much more pleasant to be around because we may become less irritable and more co-operative and, as a result, we can experience a much greater enjoyment of life.
Quite simply, we are lowering our levels of tension because we are, just for a few minutes a day, stepping off the 'merry-go-round' of life and giving ourselves space to breathe - literally.
For healing to be absorbed to its maximum potential, it is important for the person receiving it to be relaxed. It is also vital that the healer is as relaxed as possible to allow the energies to flow through them. So, if you seek healing, you might consider doing this exercise while the healer is working on you so that you gain the most benefit.