A Breath of Gold…
About sixteen years ago, in a two week span, my father had his second pulmonary embolism and my mother had a cardiac episode. Being the nurse of the family I went into action. I thought I was managing well but, with time I started to get a weird pain in my gut that escalated. It was unpredictable and could stop me in my tracks. After one severe episode, I found myself in the ER where, after 7 hours of tests, an $1800 bill and a GI referral, I was told I had gallbladder disease. It took every ounce of me not to roll my eyes and shake my head because I knew the diagnosis was wrong. I recall looking at the ER nurse (after the physician left) and saying, “seriously, gallbladder disease”? She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
So, I headed to my acupuncturist. Now, don't get me wrong, acupuncture isn’t a cure for everything but, I know how to walk the complimentary medicine line and I knew my acupuncturist would have an answer. He said, “it’s emotional”. After treatment (that's a whole different story) he said, I’d cry for a couple of days but that the release would let the healing begin. I felt a little silly but, I did cry and I felt better. For me this experience was the gift of learning how emotional trauma, pain, or stress can take hold in your body and become a physical symptom. It changed my life and my practice.
Now I'm more proactive, and when I feel stress, anxiety, fear, anger or even physical discomfort in my hip; I actually take a moment to address it by breathing. Not just inhale/exhale but, really deep breathing. And because I’m very visual I’ve associated a color with it. I inhale gold. My gold is textured, warm, spiraling and really lovely. It brings in only happiness and healing and can get into the deepest areas of my body. I circle it through my lungs, heart, digestive tract, joints, my hip, everywhere. And what color do I exhale? Bile green… bleh!!! Nursing days! But, it works and it takes out everything negative. I even do a belly button to spine exhale just to give it an extra squish. And, I repeat. I've done this with pacman faces too. They, just chomp everything up.
I wanted to share this tool for use during those days of angst. We all have to work a little harder right now to feel okay but we need to remember that we are in control of ourselves. So, breathe in whatever image or color that works for you, have fun with it, and be well.
Please share this with those you love.
xo Kathryn