Often people refer to me as I am sick (Henning hates this) but I am not sick. I don`t take any kind of medications or whatever. What I have is a condition. Just like my brain, my muscles also work and they need weekly therapies to keep them fit.
I go to pool therapy twice a week and I have physiotherapy at home also twice a week. One of the physiotherapies is standing therapy and that is to strengthen my bones and for hundred other good reasons like blood circulation. I should do the standing therapy more often, but I don’t drink nor smoke so I forgive myself not doing that often enough
I am ok with how I am. I have learned to accept it and live my life the best way possible even though of my disability. That does not mean though that I just have given totally up without trying. It only means that I did not put hope and faith in “being able to walk again and then live” as the only way to live a great life.
I have tried different therapies, regular medical ones and also alternative ones. To name some therapies I have tried (at least the ones I remember); of course my weekly physiotherapy and pool therapy, horse riding therapy, speech therapy, acupressure therapy, electric therapy, color therapy, Argentinean fire therapy, Balinese healing massage, many traditional Balinese treatments, healing by prayers, energy giving healing, dr. Schalow´s rhythmic dynamic therapy, hypnosis, magnetic therapy, reflex logic therapy, physio acoustic chair therapy and more, I just can’t remember all the names. I think you can understand why I´m so skeptical if people come to suggest some healers and therapies. I´m not saying that they don’t work though, every human being is different and different things work for different people.
It is a proven fact that meditation is one of our best weapons against pain. Pain is our survival mechanism. When we think of a certain pain we close our minds to other thoughts. Not just physical pain but also emotional pains. When the pain is chronic it becomes a burden that disturbs or prevents from focusing and one thing that can help with that is meditation. Try to concentrate on something else than to pain like to other body parts, different thoughts … The more you think about the pain the more it annoys you and the worse it gets. Always do your best to think in a positive manner or try to change your way of thinking gradually. Avoid bad, negative thoughts, pain feeds on this kind of thinking. According to studies a person who has started thinking in other manners has experienced unexplainable relief from pain. Positive thinking causes physical and emotional changes in us.
In this very exterior oriented world that we are living, people are very focused on in keeping their body looking healthy. So they watch what they eat and they go to gym often (which is great because this is also a good form of therapy). Physical movements can stimulate the mind, it helps with understanding things better and it helps with learning. It has so much positive effect on your brain. “A healthy mind in a healthy body”
Besides of just the mind, physical exercises are also good for our other organs and muscles. It is not a prevention method for all diseases and other misadventures of life, but it will reduce the risks of such and it will help with the healing after if you would encounter with some misfortunes.
One main thing that people nowadays forget though is; the most important therapy for a real healthy living. It is the final frontier, it is something that not meditation nor gym cannot provide to you.
Emotional exercise; It is a quite easy exercise to do, yet it is the most difficult one for the most of us. Only thing it requires from you is to open your mind and stretch it as much as possible. Do the same thing with your heart. Open it and stretch it as much as possible. It is as simple as that. Very often it is said that the best thing you can have is a strong mind and strong heart. I have to disagree with that. The best thing you can have is flexible mind and a flexible heart. You have to feel it to believe it. And when you do, you can make anything happen.
Now I am going to give you a great therapy tip. It is actually a Japanese art form. Kintsukuroi (golden joinery). It is a form of fixing pottery with gold. It works like this; let’s say that you have some nice antique bowl and by accident it breaks. It is precious to you and of course you do not want to throw it away, but it would not be the same if you fix it with glue. So instead of doing this you attach it back together using liquid gold and in the end you would have an even more beautiful bowl.
Well that same art form you should use on your broken heart. Kintsukuroi! Put your heart together with the most precious things that you have in your life, things that are like gold to you. And in the end you will wind up with an even more beautiful heart that you had before.
Kati
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