Illness is energy dammed, a choke that festers, hurts and weakens. Well-being is a great, glad, creative, giving flow of energy that heals and strengthens. This is what I learnt from a young man I read about. Barely 21 years old when his leg was amputated to save his life, he burned at the injustice, bile churning in his gut. He sketched how he saw his body — a vase with a crack running right through it.
One day, he broke through the gauze of anger and despair, and walked with his artificial leg through hospital wards to spend time with people who'd lost some part of their body. One woman who had both breasts removed was in such deep depression that she would respond neither to the medical staff nor visitors nor the music wafting out of her bedside-radio.
Who is to know what intuitive lightnings entered the circuits of the young man's brain, what energies from a higher world blew into his body? He did what he never dreamt he'd ever do. Impulsively, he unbuckled the artificial leg and hopped around on one leg while clicking his fingers to the musical beat.
The woman stared at him as though he were mad and then… oh, sweet mercy, the laughter burst out of her heart and lips like the golden rays streaking out of sombre clouds and she said, her voice shaking with mirth, “Man, if you can dance, I can sing!”
And the next time this young man looked at his sketch of the broken vase representing his body, he said, “This is where the light comes in.” With a crayon, he drew yellow light streaming through the cracks…
I am moved by this young man's heroic endeavours to bring a sense of well-being amidst the presence of illness. It's as if he's saying, ‘So what if I've lost a leg, I've got a whole lot left, the rest of my body that's fine, that's in good condition. So I'm going to tell others, show them that whatever they may have lost, there's a greater percentage of their body that's tremendously healthy and alive. And I want them to turn their attention to this beautiful part of them and let the light in!”
This is not to trivialise a physical loss. The objective is to find the best ways to reduce the suffering, triumph over it, and live in the wholeness of mind and spirit.
Born to navigate
For that, we need to understand that all of us are born navigation experts. We have navigated deftly to cross over from the still dimension of death to the breathing shores of birth. That special skill, that special intelligence is there in us to leave behind illness and cross over to the shore of well-being. As we've seen, one boat to steer is: giving. You give and… poof! you're on the shore of gladness, of well-being.
There are three mental currents to ride on to make our voyage easier:
Decide not to put obstacles like worry, fear, sorrow in the way of healing. Think, “I know that my body has the ability to heal itself. It has always healed all the little cuts, sprains, inflammations, fractures on its own. I bless it with all the restfulness I am capable of so that it may heal in peace.”
Accept the affliction and constantly tell it, “I am with you, taking good care of you.” Don't think your body is ‘ill' or ‘disabled', but in a place where it has to find new rhythms, new ways of doing things. The sagely say, “Life is a process of constant creation.”
Live deeply every moment, with sweet concentration. The breath-thought is a beautiful technique that facilitates us to go beyond the superficial into our healing, spacious depths. It enables us to patiently get rid of anger, regret, guilt, dullness, doubt, agitation, all those negative niggles that hinder healing. This is how you practise the breath-thought:
Close your eyes and, with each inhalation and exhalation, think: My breath calms my whole body. My breath heals my whole body. My breath helps me experience joyous wholeness. My breath helps me experience peace and purity. My outgoing breath helps me spread healing, happiness, wholeness, peace and purity to all.
Sattva
Ayurveda calls such practices sattvic — where the mind dwells only on thought and action that are creative, life-supportive and healing to arouse their positive forces in our very being. Sattva is said to be the higher impulse to move forward, progress, evolve. And interestingly, apart from right eating, right exercising and communing with nature, Ayurveda considers ‘giving' as a vital constituent of a sattvic lifestyle. Ayurvedics advises: Generously give gifts, sincere compliments, see the best in all, make others great instead of yourself, see all relationships, all interactions as opportunities to give. Yes, giving is the guardian of life's eternal flow. It stems the ebb and magically transforms all emptiness into a marvellous fullness.
The writer is co-author of the book ‘Fitness for Life'.