self-love

The joy of feeling everything

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

to fully claim my physicality....to not want to escape it, shrugging it off like an outfit I didn't choose but, rather, to feel the delight and exhilaration of it, daily, like a child that notices everything and never fails to marvel at how beautifully it all works...there are no adequate words. I would go through the whole of the journey again to have reached this point and know what I do about every square inch of this beautiful organic playground of me and how to operate it like never before, relishing its symphony of experiences and the delight of knowing how I chose to have them. It is in this overspilling love for the human bodily experience that the healing of just so many people (certainly mine) can be found and if, in any way, my experiences help to end the stalemate that has been perpetuated for just so long, between those who feel they have struggled with their own body and that they are at logger heads with it, then these words will have been worthwhile.

Hand-picking your support team

~ Helen White ~ 2 Comments

When you scan and tune into how all the various people in your life "see" you, what do you get and how does it mirror your own highest sense of self? Do they closely match or not even get close? Do those people really know that most extraordinary "you" that is online with some serious aspirations … Continue reading Hand-picking your support team

Daring to be different

~ Helen White ~ 2 Comments

It takes a particular kind of courage and determination to be a pioneer of a whole other way of thinking that is helping to form the cracks of light into a the transformed reality that this world so badly needs. In all cases across history, it is the contrary thinking, the new and the challenging that springs the leak on a world that feels "stuck" in its ways. Face it, you've done some of your profoundest inner-work in that time alone feeling so marginalised and perhaps its time to share those gifts around to others like you who would welcome the helping hand. All those years spent like a fish swimming tirelessly upstream will be rewarded in full by the magnificently liberated perspective you get to enjoy in the middle of your life rather than at its very end (in place of the sudden "crack" in the ice that is the classic mid-life crisis), as I am now discovering for myself. And forging new territory is always going to mean you are the one breaking news, peddling viewpoints that are foreign, saying things that no one is used to hearing, provoking those uncomfortable thoughts, suggesting the unsuggestible, seeming all a bit too eccentric for a lot of people's taste. Probably, you feel like it is taking every ounce of your stamina to keep giving like you do and yet no one seems to want to accept the precious gifts that you bring to this world since, being so new as to lack definition, most people often don't (yet...) know what to make of them. You might still feel (though you are pretty used to it by now) that you are the one that people roll their eyes at or sidle away from at the social gatherings; even before you've said a word since people can sense your dissenter energy as soon as you enter a room. So you have a choice; you conform (or you try to, probably making a complete hash of it) and you make yourself ill with the untruth of how you are delivering yourself to the world, or you own it and value the "you" that has this amount of courage, stamina and self-worth. You thank yourself in advance for being part of the movement towards what the world needs more of in order to question the status quo and evolve. You find your tribe (doesn't matter if they are down the street or across the other side of the planet) and you forge deep and mutually transformative friendships with those people, until you appreciate all that you are SO thoroughly, so deeply and without reservation that you wouldn't give yourself up for all the tea in china.

Do it for you

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

There is a level (and its the fourth dimension, where ideas about ourselves become reality...) where we have to be fully prepared to heal, at a moments notice, and no "ifs" and "buts" about what that leaves us holding in our hands or who we would let down or leave behind when all we have been for a number of years simply vanishes as if it was never even there. Its only once we are fully accepting of this possibility and all its ramifications, as laid in front of us on the table of all potential, that it can get even close to us (though this is the territory of spontaneous remission so allow some excitement to come into it since this is its very rocket fuel). If you are serious about this, you have to feel into what it is that is keeping you attached to this thing that has so-long defined you and make sure you are 100 per cent happy to let it go...and this can take some serious amounts of inner probing but once those sacks of ballast are identified, you can find yourself in an upward spiral that will blow you away and leave others watching you with their jaw-dropped.

Yoga-ish

~ Helen White ~ 2 Comments

That thing that I do most(!) mornings on my yoga mat probably doesn't bear scrutiny from anyone who attends a yoga class or really knows their stuff...its not "proper", its not pretty, its not lengthy, its just what I do (a mixture of what I've learned, what feels good, movements I've half invented); but the key is in the words "I do it". I know of plenty of yoga aficionados who still only do yoga when they go to a class. Sometimes I roll movements together so much I feel like I'm a butterfly about to take off then, at other times, I use long pauses and gravity to do the work with me, holding positions until my body tells me to stop, a method that can deliver exquisite release to some of the deepest entanglements. The sense of fine tuning what my body is most asking for, to my own rhythm, has been palpable and the real gift of home practice; being unique to me and that most-intimate inner dialogue (the one that starts with the invitation "show me what you want and I will do that" without uttering a word) and not something that could follow the rhythm of a teacher or class. A conversation such as this, based utterly upon trust, is one that never (ever) stops again but, rather, carries on spreading its magic across all aspects of your daily life. Approaching yoga in this ad-hoc way, the mat remains somewhere that I'm accomplished, doing something that its impossible for me to do wrong or badly (which is a good starting point to get to know this truth about all of life). In listening to my body, what it wants, what it calls out for (today...which may not be the same as yesterday), I do something that is a central tenet of what yoga is all about and that takes me into that same hallowed space where the alchemy of yoga really happens. Like a meditation or a pause for breath, a moment of grace in a life that can be physically challenging, a demonstration of pure self-love and of listening to what my body is telling me, I get there...all on my own.

There’s no such thing as “inevitable”

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

I'll say it again, there really is no such thing as inevitable...a foregone conclusion...in matters of health or anything else. Its a mindset we fall into a lot, especially when it comes to our bodies. We assume (either consciously or so very deep down that we don't even notice ourselves doing it) that one thing … Continue reading There’s no such thing as “inevitable”

Its not your fault, you aren’t doing anything wrong…

~ Helen White ~ 1 Comment

Lets get this straight - when you have fibromyalgia or any other chronic issue going on, you are no more broken, missing the point, off-track, lost, wrong, misguided, less-than, flawed or misaligned than the next person. It was nothing that you did or didn't do that "caused" this and, no, expressing (truly) how you feel about it is not halting your progress on some imagined journey to wholeness on which you feel you've got to pretend its all "great" along the way. Imagine if you are already there - fully aligned with your highest purpose, exactly where you are meant to be - and are allowed to feel all that stuff, to say it like it is - warts and all - and to give voice to everything that is going on for you, without apology or fear of consequences - how self-loving is that? From that place (where you already are), you can dump all the self-blame, the finger-pointing and, yes, the inner chastisement that stops you from feeling, allowing and EXPRESSING it all, including all the frustration, the disappointment, the unspeakable pain that halts you in your tracks when you want to be dancing. Maybe, just maybe, that's where the biggest gift of them all is awaiting you - as you unleash the voice that wants to say it exactly like it is in this perfectly imperfect moment of now!

The universe in a foot

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

One of the most effective techniques I have adopted lately is the practice of self-massage and especially of the feet, although the hands are also extremely effective. The art of reflexology knows all about this, of course, and there are many useful books and technique guides out there (below is one that I found helpful). … Continue reading The universe in a foot

Living the animated life

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Movement is so key to good health and I'm sharing some that have really benefitted me on the recovery path from chronic pain. If there’s a thread running through all these activities, its the importance of hooking onto the ones that you really want to do, grabbing onto the coat-tails of enthusiasm (even if laced with fear and self-doubt), not forcing yourself against the grain to follow 'recommended' programs. The more movement becomes an integrated part of life, the less pain remains part of the fabric of life - it just gets shimmied out!

Breathe. Be in this moment.

~ Helen White ~ 2 Comments

Birthdays can be such profound time of year for grasping some some of the broader truths of this existence. On mine, the other day, I was at once receiving well-wishing messages as I was receiving updates on a Facebook thread I had commented on that morning, posted by a friend whose elderly father was slipping … Continue reading Breathe. Be in this moment.