Five Healing Modalities to Try
It is human nature to want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be – we are seeking that knowledge and the search brings us comfort. People are being drawn to alternative healing modalities to help them heal from past pain and hurt. It is not necessarily that we are very broken but we have become so expert at burying our pain and covering it with activity and busyness that any step into healing is valuable for accessing our highest selves. The more often we go there, the better for us, the people around us and the world as a whole.
It is from this place that I planned three weeks in Bali before landing in my new ‘port’, Italy. I'm drawn here over and over because it is such a healing place, a spiritual place, a place where I have experienced both these dynamics and where I want more. I went back to a few old favourite therapies and tried a couple more that are new to me. You may know of them form experience yourself or want to try them, wherever your location. These are generally universally available and just the experimentation of trying something new will move you forward in your journey and most likely deliver some deep release and healing in the process.
This is a little taste of what I experienced:
1. Sound Healing
I entered the very sacred space of The Pyramids of Chi, created in the peaceful countryside, just outside Ubud. There are literally two pyramids built from channelled instruction to capitalise on the very special energy created in a pyramid form. An hour of sound from a variety of bells, gongs and bowls brought me to a state of deep relaxation and gave me access to a deep energy within where I felt very connected with my soul. There are many soul-seekers in the pyramid but it is an experience that brings you deep within yourself in a very solitary state. This is how I reflected:
A symphony of sounds
Surround me
Invade my space
Deep into my bones
I surrender to the peace
To the healing
To the solitude
Over and over it comes in waves
Each wave washing me in love.
2. Traditional Balinese Healer
I have long since wanted to experience their wisdom and how I found mine was a story of trust. My driver from the airport touched me with his expression of the Balinese nature of reverence and both his knowledge of local healing practices and the fact his father was a holy man in their village led my intuition to trust his advice to visit Made Lunas and my trust was rewarded. Part psychic, part channel and part healer is how I would describe him, engulfed as he was in ritual and symbolism. He had many personal messages for me but these reflections on his universal messages are uplifting for all of us:
Made’s words had the underlying theme that I need to trust my heart to know where I am headed. He said all will be well if I continue with love in my heart. All the why, who, what, how questions keep us in our head and not in our heart where the truth really lies, always lies. My family and friends are widespread but he brought comfort when he said, ‘It doesn’t matter that you are not physically in the same location for love to continue because love is in your heart no matter where you are.’ His parting words, ‘Above all else trust yourself, the universe, God. Believe in yourself, feel confident.’
3. Breathwork
This is another session experienced at the Pyramids of Chi. Upon simple instruction an easy technique began of continual, cyclic breathing that allows access to a high functioning part of us, deep within. It is accompanied by music and the instructor and her assistant allowed me to feel very held throughout. It was a beautiful thing to experience this access to myself with revelations about past, present and future easily filling me with a peace and love that was so very real it was tangible. Again, this is something you experience with a roomful of people but your own experience is very personal, losing awareness of those around you. This is one of my later reflections on the experience:
As it progresses, much release happened for me and I felt I was being pulled back to my core – how soft and gentle I was as a child, like that is my true nature and it felt like my easy place. I want to incorporate more of that into my life and way of being. I'm thinking it affects things like, I don’t always have to be right, it’s okay to give in and accept something other than what I want – not always and not when the issue is core to my beliefs, but sometimes when it just doesn’t matter.
4. Theta Healing
DR SUJATHA AT AMRTASIDDHI IN UBUD, BALI
Theta Healing is an energy-based healing modality that works on changing negative beliefs that are deeply held and are stopping us from achieving our full potential in all areas of our lives. It is a little like re-educating us to think more positively about ourselves. These are some of the beliefs that I appreciated having re-enforced as I move into a different phase of my life:
My happiness does not detract from anyone else’s
I deserve to be happy
I am entitled to choose my own life path
These are clearly everyone’s right but our lives are so conditioned by society’s expectations that modalities like this serve us very well to re-enforce that we are ultimately our own source in life. This Theta healing session was with the wonderful Dr Sujatha who I’ve known for many years and who started Amrtasiddhi an Ayurvedic medical centre in Ubud, Bali.
5. Ayurveda
Healing with Ayurveda is something I’ve been doing for over 10 years now and I was fortunate to have 10 days at at one of my favourite places, Sukhavati Ayurvedic Retreat. During this time I undertook what is called Panchakarma, a series of specific treatments that focus on elimination of toxins to bring us to a state of wholeness, balance and wellness. But it is not just the physical healing that takes place here. There is meditation, yoga and opportunities for long periods of silence and reflection. It is indeed a blessing to have an opportunity to escape the daily grind as basic needs are met with love and care. It brings me often to a place within myself where long held pain can rise and be acknowledged free from the busyness of daily life. Here again is a place that is filled with others but the experience is deeply personal. This quote form, Discovering the True You with Ayurveda: How to Nourish, Rejuvenate and Transform Your Life by Sebastian Pole sums up its essence:
“Because we cannot scrub our inner body we need to learn a few skills to help cleanse our tissues, organs, and mind. This is the art of Ayurveda.”
I feel grateful and blessed for this time here in Bali where healing is a long-held and easily accessed tradition. Spending this time with and on myself has brought me to a greater sense of me, helped heal some long-held pain and allowed me to centre and reflect on my life and where I am heading. We’d love you to share any of your own experiences with healing modalities in the comments.
