Loving Your Body to Mend Your Mind.

Happy New year! I wish you a year of Big Love and Perfect Health in body, mind, emotions and spirit.

After the chaos that I experienced in my inner world after my trip to Hawaii last year, I began re-reading a book that has reminded me how to stay centred and calm. I love the title, of this book, “Minding the Body, Mending The Mind”, because it is so true. If we look after the body, we strengthen and take care of the mind.

In the book, Dr Joan Borysenko talks about her own experience of intense stress and ill health while she was studying to be a doctor, and goes on to give practical strategies for staying in the present moment by strengthening and relaxing the body, in order to live with vitality and ease, and to create a peaceful mind.

I started doing my daily stretches and meditation again, and I made sure that I received some form of body work ( Kahuna Massage or Kinesiology or Body Stress Release) at least once a week for the period leading up to Christmas.

The results were instantly tangible. Within days I had more energy and felt more relaxed. Whereas I usually feel frazzled and extremely anxious around Christmas and the related activities, I actually felt calm and excited. I glided effortlessly through the holidays and was able to fully enjoy each moment and appreciate my time with my new husband and my extended family.

Yes, I got married in December (!)  It was a quick decision, and everything slotted into place in the short space of time that we had to arrange our marriage (uh, two weeks!), and I’m now happily Mrs Loukes Johnson.

I’m sharing all this with you today because my wish is that we can all live with this kind of flow, ease and vitality, and experience what I call Big Fat Universal Love every day. My own experience in the past 12 years has taught me that the best way to navigate life’s ups and downs is to take good care of yourself first, especially by taking care of your body, and now I realise it’s also through creating a deeply loving relationship with your whole self through your mind.

In a nutshell, it’s through the experience of profoundly loving ourselves that we come to a place of peace, where life flows easily and more love and abundance fill our lives.
I have been so very lucky and blessed in the past 12 years. Like anyone else, I’ve had many trials and tribulations – death of a parent, depression, anxiety, divorce, heartbreak, illness, a nervous breakdown, sick children, job loss –  and the thing that’s brought me through the dark places each time is Big Love. Love from friends and family, yes, but most importantly, I had to discover the healing power of profound love for myself. 

I’ve learned that all the talk about loving yourself means a lot more than just treating yourself to a candle lit bath or the odd massage. It is absolutely about how you treat your body, and it’s also about how you think about yourself and your life. It’s all about the subtle messages you keep sending to your innermost self.

In my work as a Kahuna massage therapist, I’ve had so many clients (both men and women) come to me with fatigue and exhaustion because they give so much love and energy to others in their jobs and in their families. I’ve heard how much they give out and I’ve heard how much they judge and criticise themselves, or allow others to break them down. It breaks my heart when I hear these beautiful souls being so hard on themselves.

And then I’ve also witnessed the change in their lives and in their spirit when they’ve started releasing the old stories of judgment and started to really love and appreciate themselves fully, in body, mind and spirit. The physical release and changes in the body happen alongside the change in thoughts.

The transformation is visible and tangible. And it makes me teary and so happy.

So as we begin another New Year , if you are feeling frazzled after the holidays, or uncertain about your year, or exhausted and fatigued, or generally miserable about yourself today,  I’d like to offer you some questions to ask yourself instead of setting yourself New Year resolutions.

How would you like to feel inside your heart, in your body and in your mind this year?

What do you want to feel more of?

How do you speak to yourself internally?

Do you know what it is that feeds your soul?

What or who gives you energy to enjoy life?

What or who depletes your energy?

When last did you do something entirely for yourself?

Most important, how often do you look in the mirror and tell yourself “I Love you” and really feel it?  These words have so much power to change the chemistry in your brain and the physiology of your body.

I wish you so much Big Love, magic and happiness for 2018.

Warm Aloha blessings from my heart to yours,