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Exploring the Healing Power of Love
Self Help Healing Action
The page may allow the exploring of the healing power
of love It is usually good to start with our own experience. The
following activity may help us to review our own experiences of love and
bring it into greater awareness. Others have found it helps to set aside
enough time to explore the following inner experience. They then read the
description of the activity through and then take the time to go through it
again slowly and as deeply as possible. Others have made a recording of it
and then played it back to themselves. When they do this they allow plenty of
time at the pauses (....) as this may allow time for things to unfold in
experience. If they find that the pauses needed to be longer, so they have
more time to experience things, they remake the tape. Others using a guide to take them through the
experience have found it useful to set up a finger signal to indicate to the
guide to slow down and commence segments of the experience. If you do this by yourself a few may find that towards
the end they drift off. For some this may happen. If so, you will move off
into normal refreshing sleep and wake refreshed. If you have other things to
do you may want to set up an clock to wake you after a time. Here now is the
experience: Experiences of Love, and its effects ·
Perhaps
you can......settle a little...giving yourself more to your surroundings and
you may find that as you relax more and …..begin to let yourself go …..that
the eyelids have a natural tendency to get heavy ……and close....just noticing
the changes as you listen to this and first of all ......you may bring to
mind....now..... a time when you had a very pleasant experience… when you
felt unconditionally loved ..........feeling unconditionally loved.....an
experience you can perhaps bring to mind now....an experience when you felt
you were more loved than at any other time in your life....and you can wait with
curiosity as that........comes to mind...now.....taking all the time
for....that to come to mind ..... or for some....if this talk of
unconditional love may be an unfamiliar idea.... then perhaps you can begin
to imagine what that may be like.....to feel that…..receiving unconditional
love ....... or perhaps recall a time when you saw someone receiving
unconditional love from another person ....and recall that ......and then
imagine placing yourself in a similar role....and perhaps you can bring any of
these to mind now more clearly……and when you have that.... noticing where you
are...as you enter more fully into that experience now...and have a look
around in your mind’s eye and ......see what time of day it is.....noticing
the direction of any light source….any colour …....if that is present....and
sensing what you are wearing in this other place... and what you are hearing
in this other place...and what you are in contact with...so that you can see
if you can tell how you feel...being here in this loving experience again
now...who is with you now and staying in this other time and place ...being
there...and how that makes you feel and ......what is happening now in this
past time...and who it is who is loving you now, and all the things that are
happening....how it feels inside of you.....the parts of you involved in the
feeling.....and taking all the time you want to experience that.......and
keeping all those beautiful feelings with you .......and how to enter those
pleasant states.....when you are ready....and knowing you can do this again
in the future......you can say your farewells.....taking your time to do
that...the sharing..... and your eyes may remain gently closed and keeping
all those beautiful feelings with you….. as you return to being with me at
(.......) on (say the day)....taking all the time you need ......and you can
do that ...... now.... and perhaps you can ponder on what it is like for you
to receive loving like that...some of the loving qualities of this person
....and perhaps in the future you may want to use some of those qualities in
your own life and perhaps to notice how it feels to know that this person
already shared those qualities with you......and that your memories of this
person may help you to increase those qualities in your own being in the
world .......and perhaps now you can enter into a pleasant safe future time
and place where you have already been showing unconditional love to
others......where you can look back to that future time….when you have been
doing this loving and enter that time again where you are safe as you are
giving and receiving unconditional love .....with one or more caring people
…..entering that time more fully....seeing yourself now in that time and
place....watching yourself involved with that .......noticing what you look
like......and hearing what is happening now.....getting a sense of all that
is going on..... and then moving over and stepping into that ......so that
you can see and be yourself and .....actual experience looking through your
own eyes giving and receiving now unconditional Love now.....to feel that
happening...... and taking all the time you want to do that….and knowing you
can do this again in the future......you can say your farewells.....taking
your time to do that...the sharing.....and keeping all those beautiful
feelings with you as you return to being with me at (.......) on (say the
day)....taking all the time you need ......and you can do that ......
now....becoming more aware of being with me.....moving your fingers and being
in contact with (ground/chair/cushion etc) as you open your eyes and have a
gentle stretch..... ·
You
may want to make one or more drawings of that experience and then share the
drawing with someone ·
And
you may want to write about that experience...what you are feeling and
thinking about it and any thoughts and feelings that may come to mind from
deeper levels now ·
And
perhaps you can find a symbol for those qualities and you may want to sketch
the symbol as you find one. People often find that if they put a pen on the
paper (or a finger in the sand) and start moving, that the symbol begins to
emerge in the flow ·
And
you may want to share this experience with two other people and if you like,
invite them to do it too and to share their experience And now a second
experience:
·
And
having already done this before you may find that ....as you relax ......more
......and begin to .......let yourself go ........that the eyelids have a
natural tendency to...... get heavy.......and close....just
noticing.......the changes..... as you.....listen to this again and perhaps
you can.....now again have your mind.......go back and ......recall a
time......when you yourself showed unconditional love to another person or
persons....and if you have a sense for that... you can begin to do that ....or
if this is an unfamiliar idea you can begin to imagine what that may be
like.....to do that.....or recall a time when you saw someone showing
unconditional love to another person and recall that …..and then imagine
placing yourself in a similar role....and you can bring any of these to mind
now - and certainly the personal experience of that in whatever way and
….when you have that....remember where you were.....and when that becomes
clear now you can enter that time…..and place again in your minds eye as it
were….and look around and notice things that are happening in your minds
eye...perhaps…..noticing the light source......night or day.... noticing....
who it is you are showed this love to.....noticing that... and what is
happening and perhaps now entering again into how you
feel.....feeling......experiencing being unconditionally loving.....so as to
re-discover .....how much of this love you can recall and re-experience
now....re-experience being there with this person or persons again now and
loving them....feel how you feel as you do that.....what you are doing
physical and emotionally....... the sensations in your body now…..feelings
and thoughts you are having ... and see if you can tell how you feel ....what
it is like for you to give love like that.....and taking all the time you
want to experience that.......and keeping all those beautiful feelings with
you .......and how to enter those pleasant states.....and when you are
ready....and knowing you can do this again in the future......you can say your
farewells.....and return to being with me at (.......) on (say the
day)....taking all the time you need ......and you can do that ......now....
as you open your eyes and have a gentle stretch. ·
You
may want to make one or more drawings of that experience and then share the
drawing with someone ·
And
you may want to write about that experience...what you are feeling and
thinking about it and any thoughts and feelings that may come to mind from
deeper levels now ·
And
perhaps you can find a symbol for those qualities and you may want to sketch
the symbol as you find one. People often find that if they put a pen on the
paper (or a finger in the sand) and start moving, that the symbol begins to
emerge in the flow ·
And
you may want to share this experience with two other people and if you like,
invite them to do it too and to share their experience Glimpsing consequences of Blocked Love, and their
effects This exercise may allow you to have far greater choice
and flexibility. Many have found that a profound healing experience is
discovering how to recall in a way that separates out memories from the
feelings that were associated with the memory - so as to begin to reclaim our
wellbeing. This next experiencing may allow us to, in a
sustainable and self caring way - have a sense - a glimpse in a very caring
way - of all the negative consequences caused by lack of love. This may help us to focus our minds and wills upon the
importance of increasing the love flowing in the world. It also may motivate us to want to learn more about the
process of forgiveness, to heal and enrich our forgiving. Forgiving has something to do with no longer continuing
to harm or punish ourselves because of what others may or may not have done.
It has something to do with no longer continue to diminish our overflowing
love, joy or freedom because of the real or imagined wrongs done by others,
or because of any outer circumstances. The Forgiving Process has something to do with
cancelling all the conditions that we may have placed upon ourselves which
may be preventing the flow of love, joy and vitality through us,
independently of the behaviour of others or any circumstances. The forgiving process may place all sorts of conditions
on our relating with others so we are not treated as a doormat and trampled
upon and at the same time it may have all of our love flowing
freely. Others have found it useful to set aside enough time to
do this activity thoroughly. ·
Have
you been in a situation where you could look in two mirrors at the same time
so you can see yourself from different angles …..so you can watch yourself
doing things......if so you can recall doing that now...as you imagine doing
that again...taking the time to do that.......and you may have seen one or
more photos of yourself and you can imagine seeing a pleasant photo of
yourself now as you imagine hold it up in front of you.......and some can do
this easily or if this is strange and difficult you can talk to yourself and
just imagine you are doing the following things or imagine feeling doing
this....as others have found that just imagining doing these things works
just as well ....so imagining seeing that photo of yourself....and noticing
what you are doing in the photo.....and looking at the background....to
identify the place...........or imagining a pleasant photo of
yourself....now..... and make it a coloured photo.....noticing the
colours...........and then making the photo large......so it is about half a
metre wide and high …..and notice what that change does to your
experience........ ......and then make the photo into a black and white one
and notice the changes in you as you see it this way......and then shrink
this black and white photo to being the size of a postage stamp........and
notice how you feel looking at yourself this way ....and then have the small
black and white photo .....in your mind’s eye five metres away.....leaning it
at the base of a tree….. and look at yourself in the photo from 5 metres
away.......noticing how that feels.....then have the photo 10 metres away in
front of you.....and notice the difference....and then 30 metres away
slightly to the right of you.......so you know that is where it is......to
get a sense of that.......now swish the photo quickly into your hands and
have it large and now something different…..imagine a person has just taken a
colour photo of you holding the other photo.......so you can now imagine
looking at yourself looking at yourself....... and get a sense of doing
that....looking at this new photograph....and check how you feel about the
original photo now as you see yourself holding it in the second
photo......and then make the photo of you looking at the first photo into a
black and white one and notice the changes in you as you see it this
way......and then shrink this black and white photo to being the size of a
postage stamp........and notice how you feel looking at yourself this way
....and then do what you did the first time and place the small black and
white photo .....in your mind’s eye five metres away.....leaning it at the
base of a tree and see yourself from 5 metres.......noticing how that
feels.....then place it 10 metres away from you.....and notice the
difference....and then 30 metres away slightly to your right.......so you
know that is where it is......to get a sense of that.......now swish the
photo quickly into your hands and have it large and in full colour to see
what that shift does to your experience...... and then step into the photo so
you are again holding the original photo...... and you may have noticed that
your emotions and feelings changed as you made these changes and we made
changes to the colour, size, and distance of the photograph......now explore
what it is like to change the original photo to black and white and imagine
it moving away round to your left out about 3 metres......and get a sense of
how you feel having it there......then in your mind’s eye have it move around
behind you to your left and back 20 metres.....and sense how that feels.......then
have it move back to the horizon......so you cant see it though you know that
is where it is...... and sense how that feels...and now swish the photo back
to being right in front of you and make it half a metre square and colourful
and have it revert to being the first photo so you can see yourself in that
pleasant experience and step into that photo so you are actually back their
again experiencing that again for real….. and take your time to do that….and
say your farewells……and keeping the good feelings return to being with me now
at (place) on (say day) Others have found many possibilities flowing from the
above experience. In doing the previous experience you may have noticed
that with each of our senses we can experience in different ways. In the
visual mode we may be able to see in our minds eye: ·
black
and white and shades of grey ·
colour
·
size
·
shape
·
distance
·
three
or two dimensional ·
location
·
as
if out our own eyes (associated) ·
we
can imagine seeing ourselves doing things (dissociated) to name a few submodes. Some find that reliving something larger than life as
if it is re-happening in full colour readily allows them to re-tap into the
feelings. Some find that their feelings are activated
simultaneously with recalling seeing something. One 'fires off' the other -
see and immediately feel. Others have found that feelings are far less
intense and slower to arise from what they are seeing if they reduce the
visual image to shades of grey, to a two dimensional still image (like a
photograph) and if they place the image slightly to the left and way behind
them. They can be further disconnected by turning the still photo to one
where they are watching themselves in the photo, that is, they are in a
dissociated way of looking. They do this before they store the image behind
them. We use the expression, 'put the past behind us'. People who want to
distance themselves from the painful past may literally do that. By moving
the picture very quickly (swishing) to the back and leaving it there 3-5
times it can be stored there. Start with another similar photo on each swish.
That is don't swish the first one back again to the front. Others, without even noticing that they have done this
have taken all of the visual memories of giving and receiving of love...all
the good times in their past and turned them into small, black and white
still photo like images in their mind and stored them so far behind them that
they cannot reconnect with the joy. Having this information, some have found that they can
leave the 'painful' memories behind in a way that separates the imagined from
activating pain, and bring their good memories to the front so they may
reconnect with joy. Think for a moment of areas of the world where you are
aware there is lack of love, where instead of love there is resentment, hate,
envy, jealousy, fear, grief, guilt, false guilt.... It has been said: "One who hates another (blocks
love) digs two graves". When love is blocked the following changes in our body
may occur: ·
Our
muscles may tighten, causing postural imbalances or pain in neck, back and/or
limbs. ·
Headaches
may occur. ·
Muscle
tension squeezes the joint surfaces together decreasing blood-flow, making it
more difficult for the blood to remove waste products from the cells and
tissues. It reduces the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the cells. Both
these contribute to delayed or inadequate tissue repair during sleep, impairing
recovery from injury, arthritis, etc. ·
Our
teeth may clench, especially at night, contributing to dental bills for
problems with our teeth and jaw joints. ·
Injury
through inattention, accident, or violence is more likely. ·
The
blood-flow to our heart is constricted. ·
Our
digestion is impaired. ·
Our
breathing is restricted. ·
It
is now being to be realised that our immune system functions less well.
(Refer Mindbody Healing) ·
If
we have a tendency to allergy, the level at which the allergic response tends
to trigger off can be reduced, so that allergic symptoms occur more
frequently. ·
We
become more vulnerable to infections, and perhaps cancer. ·
We
feel bad, moody, irritable, and so on, and our mind is less able to see its
way through problems and difficulties. ·
Making
decision can become harder. ·
We
may become depressed, - even suicidal. ·
Our
creativity is reduced or even blocked. ·
In
these and other ways our "stress reserves" are constantly draining
away, like water from a leaky bucket. The list goes on. Indeed, it becomes a list of many of
the conditions seen by doctors all over the world. And while unforgiveness
may not be the sole cause of all of them, it is not unreasonable to say that
it increases vulnerability to them. It can "set the scene" for them
and delay, or even prevent recovery. The effects of unforgiveness on relationships can lead
to: ·
Stony
silences ·
The
sweet "Yes, dear" which really means "No! I cannot stand this!"
·
Rows
·
Various
sexual tensions and dysfunctions ·
Verbal
and non-verbal abuse between adults, and from adults to children, including
violence, sexual, educational, spiritual and ritual abuse ·
Decreased
productivity in the workplace ·
Subtle
sabotage of ourselves and others ·
Tension,
bad atmosphere or "vibes" at home or work This list, too, could be extended, and represents
dis-ease in the body of a person, family, nation, or indeed, of humanity
itself. You could also explore this in a purely personal way at
first. What have been the effects of resentment, lack of love and lack of
forgiveness in your own life? In the lives of people you know? Is it easier for you to do this for places further
away, or for you own self and close associates? We invite you to play with the above experiences. We
suggest that at first you see something 'in your mind's eye' and then make
one of the above changes, and then notice the difference the change makes and
then return what you are seeing back to the original. Keep making and
restoring separate changes till you find the ones that make the most
difference to your experience. These ones are the 'potent' changes. You may
find that 'size' is very important. Others may find location (near - far, or
back - front, or right - left) make big differences. For some, a combination,
such as a change to 'small and behind on left', makes the potent change. Many have found that seeing themselves, rather than
personally reliving it as if it is happening again, 'fires off' a far less
intense feeling response. If this is the case for you, you may want to
separate painful feeling from memories by revisiting the memory in a new way.
Form the memory framed with the changes that 'work' for you. It may be that
most useful 'framing' of the memory has you in a small black and white photo
(two dimensional) and you are in this particular photo watching yourself in
the context. This means that you are twice removed from reliving it. Suppose
that way behind you to the left is the most 'neutral' spot for you. You are
imagining looking at a photo that depicts you looking at yourself. This photo
may be way in front of you. Now start to bring the photo slowly closer to you
such that it does not increase emotion, and when you sense that it is close
enough to you, then suddenly swish the photo very fast around to your left
and far behind you. Cease the experience and open your eyes. Then create a
new photo identical to the other one and place it way in front of you like
before, and then start to bring it back as before, and then when you sense it
is right to do it, swish it back behind you as before. Do this three or four
times. You may then want to test your outcomes. Go back and
recall your prior experience and test how you respond emotionally. Many find
that the spontaneous see-feel awful pairing has been severed. You can recall
without being so devastated or even without strong feelings necessarily
emerging at all. Share your experience of doing these things with
others. Other links: .
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