Yoga Psychology: Addressing the Root Causes of Dis-ease
Healing is a word we use a lot in spiritual circles.
We’re healing ourselves, we’re healing our traumas, we’re healing our karmas…
Healing, healing, healing.
But, what is that, really?
Webster defines healing in a few ways:
- To make free from injury or disease
- To cause an undesirable condition to be overcome
- To restore to original purity or integrity
In my estimation, healing, like any spiritual practice, is a constant process. One without end, and that requires consistent attention on our part.
For the rest of our lives, we will always be “healing.”
What I want to focus on today is what we consider “healed.”
Period. Past tense. Done. Finito.
To consider something past the point of healing to healed means that we put in the work required to free ourselves from mental, emotional, or psychological trauma. It means tending to undesirable conditions in such a way that we restore our integrity.
To do this, we must employ two things:
- Resolve
- Vulnerability
To resolve something, we bring it back to its original state of wholeness (integrity).
This means: We have to be tired of our own shenanigans.
We can’t rely on others to do the work for us, and we must be so darned over our suffering, we’re willing to live without it.
Secondly, vulnerability means we have to stay with the discomfort.
Oooh…. I know that sucks. Trust me.
I’ve been working to heal my Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (an autoimmune disorder) for nearly two decades, and it has caused immense suffering at times in my life.
But, I understand that healing is not possible until I am tired of my own suffering.
(Remember, suffering is a state of mind. Thanks, Buddha, for reminding us of this.)
While I’m still a work in progress in terms of my own healing (read my story here), I can tell you that everything around the disease has gotten my swift and direct attention. Because even the most physical of diseases have powerful underlying psychological, emotional, and mental root causes…which often contribute to suffering.
Even as we do our best to get the physical form back into a state of optimum health, working with our mind and emotions is an essential part of our healing process…
It’s actually something we have the power to heal.
Doing the work to heal the psyche and soul empowers us to move past suffering.
We are free to identify ourselves with our wholeness, rather than with what might be missing, or broken.
All of us are capable of this. And, I want to help.
Watch my Thursday Facebook Live broadcast below to learn about the power of your psychology to influence the deeper root causes of your healing journey. Whether you struggle with physical, physiological, or mental ailments, my interest in in the underlying factors that support health and wellbeing.
I talked about one of my favorite tools of resolution, vulnerability, and resilience to help you on your healing journey.
Resources and Links
For more information about personal practices that can help facilitate healing you can read my book, Yoga Beyond the Mat.
If you suffer from any sort of thyroid disease or issue and would like to learn about thyroid specific healing practices check out my Thyroid Healing Yoga course.
Chakras are, of course, at the root of it all! If you would like to learn more about Chakras I encourage you to join me on my Chakra Webinar or in the Alchemy of the Chakras course.
