“I’m imagining I’m pulling the disease out of me each time I rip a weed from the ground.”

After four months of dueling calendars, I finally had the great fortune and pleasure of having a leisurely conversation with a new friend.

The quote at the beginning is something her husband recently said after battling a long illness.

Though the quote is slightly paraphrased, the message relayed to me from a woman I met a few days ago is intact.

She’d been thinking about his remark and was thinking that he needed to change the thought to something more positive, something like “I’m bringing health into my body with each pull.”

The Law of Attraction was her frame of reference.

As often is the case, the timing of my experience is of great interest and curiosity.

You see, I had uploaded my video submission to speak at TEDxNaperville hours before I met up with this woman.

In that video discussion I talk about the need society has to ADD the healing piece to all of the grief resources available to us.

What the world needs now is not for us to extract suffering but to ADD healing.

A few years back I was having a difficult time with a coworker, the kind of turmoil that caused every single morning to begin with frustration and tension and anxiety.

It was awful and I hated going in to work.

Every. Single. Day.

I. Hated. It.

After months and months of this excruciating daily routine, I finally chose to do something about it.

But what?

I knew I had to get that negative energy out of my body, but then I had to replace what I removed with something else.

Once in my seat at work, I’d close my eyes and with each inhale I’d tell myself I was breathing in peace, love, joy, compassion…

With each exhale I’d expel words and energies of anxiety, hate, fear, revenge…

Remember the scene in the movie, The Green Mile, where the inmate is exhaling all that toxic stuff from his body?

That’s what it reminded me of, only I was sucking in all sorts of good into my body.

The process actually worked.

When my friend mentioned that her husband was drawing more negative to him, I offered that possibly there was an alternative way of looking at it.

I think that he does need to imagine drawing the disease from him, but I also imagine he needs to fill that space back up by ADDING healing.

When he yanks the unwanted weed from the ground he says to himself he is also removing something unwanted from his body.

But he needs to fill that empty space that is created with something, preferably something with positive or healing attributes.

What if he were to stress that when he breathes in, he is bringing into his body the healing powers of the earth…light, fresh air, growth, love…

When we remove negativity from our body, we need to fill the empty space with positive.

In doing so, we create balance.

I’ve been thinking about it for over a year, but before now I felt that I needed to go some place to learn how to meditate.

Because I know nothing about meditation.

Should I go to India, like Liz Gilbert did?

Should I travel an hour to a local town that has many places that teach Buddhism or Buddhist practices or whatever it’s called. I know so little about this stuff I don’t even have the proper names to attach to it…

My proverbial plate is already spilling over like the Pillsbury Doughboy’s waistline, so neither of those options seemed plausible.

And with children at home, no lavish book advance on the table, and a job that provides medical benefits for my family, I couldn’t very well pull up stakes and take off to India, now could I?

So I did the next best thing, I made use of the resources I had.

Years ago, when I wasn’t sleeping because I couldn’t shut my mind off long enough to fall asleep, I unknowingly began using a form of self-hypnosis.

I remembered from our Lamazze classes the instructor telling us to use cue words to take us to a calm and soothing place.

I like the beach, so Beach became my cue word.

When I noticed my mind wandering, I summoned the warm sands, the tranquil sounds, and the sun on my face with that single word.

Okay, so first I imagined my toes tucked into the earth’s surface, then I envisioned the sunlight kissing my face, and then I listened for those sounds I love.

If you’re having a hard time imagining, heck, even if you want to go to the beach but can’t get there, watch this video I made the last time I was at the shore… It’s sure to carry your stress out to sea and fill you up with the sights and sounds of tranquility…

Baby steps, Journeyer…

Baby steps…

As I contemplated how I was going to implement my immediate meditation needs without adding more stress to my life, I also thought about the recent group hypnosis sessions I participated in.

I recalled the leader’s process for quieting the mind, picturing a light energy, feeling my body’s contact with the earth, and then using those things as I focused on relaxing each part of my body.

When I finished my first home meditation, I thought I’d only sat for a few minutes, so I checked the time stamp on a text message that had come in just before I sat down.

Journeyer, I’d actually meditated for twenty minutes!

And I felt so much better afterward.

The day after I met with my new-found, KT, I thought about our conversations and set the intention for that meditation to help me achieve balance in some relationship strife I’ve been experiencing with extended family.

As I focused on bringing balance to my situation, I also acknowledged my belief that we cannot excise the negative from our lives, nor should we want to…

I know…that sounds absurd, doesn’t it?!

Have you ever exercised and then been so sore you thought you couldn’t possibly ever repeat what you’d done?

But you did, and the next time you weren’t quite as sore?

That’s muscle growth, Journeyer. You have to tear muscle before it can grow.

Our soul is a bit like that. When we are stretched beyond what we believe our limits to be, then we grow, we discover added strength.

Possibly you’ve heard of some of the quotes that attest to this very wisdom: “With pain comes strength” and “I’ve never met a strong person with an easy past” are two common quotes whose authors are unknown.

As I sat stretched out on my love sofa in silent meditation, the phrase “Yin and yang” came to me.

Journeyer, I am humbled and energized and in awe of what I found out about yin and yang…

Sacred Lotus website says there are four main components that I interpret this way:

1) Yin-Yang are opposites.

2) One cannot survive without the other.

3) The two entities are at their best when they work in tandem.

4) They shift back and forth, often taking turns leading.

Journeyer, I am even more convinced now that what the world needs now is for us to ADD the healing piece.

Together we can heal a world of hurt.

And now I’m going to do something that is very hard for me…

I’m going to ask you to help me get The Five Facets Philosophy on Healing out into the universe.

This work is about that very balance.

It honors the very fact that if we are to live harmoniously, healing cannot exist without its counterweight grief, and vice versa.

If you believe, if you dream of one day feeling better after experiencing some form of loss, then please help us spread the word. Click those little share buttons. Click every one of them that you are affiliated with!

LET’S DO ONE BETTER. LET’S USE THE HASHTAG #AddHealing OR #WhatTheWorldNeedsNow Heck…let’s use them BOTH!

Together we can bring healing through balance…

Thanks for your support and for sharing your journey with me.

Until we meet again,

Yours in hope, healing, and happiness,