How to Heal Yourself When No One Else Can

by Amy B. Scher

  Chanting is so easy that it almost feels too simple. Whatever approach you decide to try, remember to find your own rhythm and go your own way.

  Tip: I love to use chanting for surrender. However, chanting while focusing on moving energy blockages in specific parts of the body is excellent, too. Remember how the vibration of your chant moves through your cells? You can really use that to your advantage by directing your focus to whatever in your body or mind needs it most. Simply set your intention or say a short prayer stating what you intend for the chanting vibration to clear. Choose a mantra that feels good to you, and chant away!

  Graceful Begging

  While I didn’t grow up praying, and even rebelled against the idea, sometimes during my deepest, darkest days, I just begged. I called out in the dark and I begged for help from no one in particular. Over and over when I reached places of despair, I’d beg. Not gracefully (at the time), but from a place of total rawness, with a mixture of tears and snot dripping down my face. When I had sunken into places I believed I couldn’t pull myself from, I’d reach for this and it would bring me the reprieve I so desperately needed.

  Just knowing that this was available to me, void of rules and full of organic and creative liberty, helped to solidify my love affair with it. Over time, it became a dedicated practice where I could feel my energy shift even before I started. I began to wonder why. How did this help?

  It’s all in the surrendering. It’s the throwing of it from your hands and your heart and soul and simply moving beyond that heaviness of “I have to fix this in this moment.” It’s the energy of handing it over to a force greater than yourself.

  In the practice of surrendering, we are eliciting the ever-so-important relaxation response. Surrender is the ultimate space for relaxation, for there is nothing to do but simply be. In fact, I believe that the positive benefits linked to prayer, which are now being studied more than ever, are based largely upon the relaxation response, too.

  My original practice of screaming out and crying is now the technique of Graceful Begging , which has a resemblance to prayer but is free from any negative religious associations. In fact, at some point I discovered that the word prayer comes from the Latin precarius , which means “obtained by begging.” It makes this practice available to and relatable for everyone. It works best for me when I’m in a place of total willingness to let go—which often isn’t until I’ve exhausted all of my options for trying to control my current circumstance.

  While the goal of this practice, whether praying or begging, is not necessarily to induce healing, it seems to be a common byproduct.

  The Gerontological Society of America published a study of the role of prayer in psychological recovery following surgery. The effects of private prayer on a group of 151 older patients following cardiac surgery were observed. 3 Results showed that most patients pray about their post-operative problems and that prayer seems to significantly decrease depression and general distress.

  A study funded by the National Institutes of Health showed that people who prayed at least once a day were 40 percent less likely to have high blood pressure than those who did so infrequently. 4

  A study conducted by researchers at the University of Cincinnati revealed that i nner-city kids with asthma who prayed and meditated had fewer symptoms than those who did not. 5

  As I healed, I turned much of the begging I did into more formulated, purposeful requests that I made and then let go of. Here, I’m offering you some of my own scripts that have a little more method than my original scream-it-out-to-no-one madness.

  Let this practice be a way for you to ask for help from outside of your current control, for surrendering, allowing you to feel better about where you actually are. It will make it far easier to then flow or float into the next space you are meant to be in.

  Just remember to be gentle with yourself during this process. You have been conditioned by society, the media, and probably the medical community to “fight.” We have the “war” on cancer, we “beat” heart disease, and the list goes on. We are subconsciously being trained to fight till the death—our own death, if necessary. Changing takes bravery. We are all born brave, though. You’ll do just great.

  Most importantly, feel free to beg loud and proud and repeat the words that feel best to your soul. Place your hands over your heart, a calming position for most, then take a big, deep breath and recite any or all of the following suggestions. Take deep breaths in between each round, and repeat until you feel relief.

  Directed at the universe:

  Dear universe, please help me surrender to where I am in this moment. Please help me surrender to this process. Please help me trust that I am exactly where I need to be, and when I need to be somewhere else, I will be guided in getting there. I leave it all with you. Thank you and so it is done!

  Directed at your own inner being or higher power:

  Dear inner being, please help to reassure me that I am okay exactly where I am at this moment. Please help me release this energy of overwhelm. I need to do nothing more than allow what “should be” to unfold for me. Thank you and so it is done!

  A “graceful begging” with no particular receiver in mind:

  In this moment, I ask to release all resistance to where I am. I ask to release myself of all fighting energy so that I can harness it for my healing. I ask to feel that I am okay right where I am at this moment, and trust that clarity, ease, and abundance are making their way to me. Thank you and so it is done!

  Now that you’ve got the hang of it, feel free to come up with your own versions of graceful begging. Alternatively, if my original ape-style craziness feels like it would be a better energy release, then beg and cry and scream out loud. I can tell you from experience that definitely works, too. When the need arises, go for it!

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  You now have two tools to help you start your surrender process: Chanting and Graceful Begging. In part three, you will learn Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which applies most fully to changing your relationship to stress. However, if you are still struggling with surrender, EFT tapping may be a handy technique for this as well. It may also be helpful to remember the story about my IV experience, because when all else fails, you really can choose to let go.

  Now that you understand what good a healthy dose of surrender can be, let me reassure you of something. From this place of feeling more comfortable with where you currently are, you will see that it’s easier to flow naturally to a better feeling place. In the next chapter, you will learn how, from this more relaxed state, to build a solid foundation for your healing.

  [contents]

  3 . Amy L. Ai, PhD, Ruth E. Dunkle, PhD, Christopher Peterson, PhD, and Steven F. Bolling, MD, “The Role of Private Prayer in Psychological Recovery Among Midlife and Aged Patients Following Cardiac Surgery,” The Gerontologist Vol. 38, No. 5 (Oct. 1998): 591–601, http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/5/591.full.pdf.

  4 . Harold G. Koenig, MD, “Religion and Medicine II: Religion, Mental Health, and Related Behaviors,” The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine Vol. 31, No. 1 (2001): 97–109, www.rish.ch/mm/Koenig_%282001%29_Rel_and_Medi_II_Rel_Mental_Health_and_Related_Behaviours_IJPM_31%281%29.pdf.

  5 . Richard Schiffman, “Why People Who Pray Are Healthier Than Those Who Don’t,” Huffington Post , January 18, 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-schiffman/why-people-who-pray-are-heathier_b_1197313.html.

  Chapter Four

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  Create a Solid

  Healing Foundation

  The way I see it, there are just two things we need to know:

  The universe has our back. Everything is going to turn out okay.

  —pam grout , e-squared

  While you are in this place of learning to be okay with where you are, there is space for something wonderful to happen. In the absence of the constant-fighting energy, you will now be able to create a solid foundation for your healing work. In this chap
ter, we’ll be setting the stage for all the shifts and changes to come. You’ll learn four effective ways to create a foundation to build on. None of these things require giant leaps of time or energy. If you’re willing to take baby steps, and take them consistently, you’re already winning.

  In this chapter, you’ll gain tools to do the following:

  1. Correct your body’s polarities

  2. Encourage a crossover energy pattern

  3. Balance your thymus gland

  4. Inch your way to better thoughts and feelings

  Addressing these elements is like pouring a solid cement foundation before building a house. The more stable the foundation, the easier it is to make that house stand tall, right?

  Let me show you how this works.

  1: Correct Your Body’s Polarities

  Just like magnets, our bodies have both a north and a south pole, the south being the bottom of our feet and the north being the top of our head. In fact, every organ and cell in the body is polarized. Imagine each cell like a tiny little battery. Generally speaking, the top surfaces of your body (your stomach, tops of feet, tops of hands) should have a positive polarity and your body’s bottom surfaces (your back, bottoms of your feet, palms of your hands) should have a negative polarity. However, they are often reversed or switched. In simple terms, it is like your batteries are in backward. When this happens, we don’t function well and can be resistant to respond to energy work.

  Grounding (sometimes called earthing ) is essentially the practice of connecting yourself to both the earth’s north and south poles. Grounding allows the natural healing properties and rhythms of the earth to correct the body’s polarities.

  Throughout history, humans have walked barefoot and slept on the ground. This process helped the body calibrate itself to the electrical rhythm of the earth, stabilizing the electrical current of organs, tissues, and cells. In other words, our batteries worked correctly. But our modern lifestyle—including the use of rubber and plastic-soled shoes and being almost constantly connected to electrical devices like cell phones and computers—has disconnected us from the earth’s energy. Emerging research has now revealed a benefit to reconnecting with the vast supply of electrons on the surface of the earth. A study in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health concludes that reconnection with the earth’s electrons has the potential to trigger positive physiological changes linked to stress. 6 The researchers discovered that grounding the human body can “strongly influence bioelectrical, bioenergetic, and biochemical processes that appear to have a significant modulating effect on chronic illnesses.” In the study, changes in the subjects after grounding suggest a decrease in stress levels and a balancing of the autonomic nervous system (this system is the primary mechanism in control of the fight, flight, or freeze response).

  Let me explain why this discovery is so essential to your healing foundation. Having reversed polarities, similarly to having batteries in backward, makes it hard for things to work correctly. This includes changing your belief system, retraining your thought patterns, and other positive changes you try to make. As an added benefit, remember that ever-so-important triple warmer meridian? The process of grounding also affects this energy dynamic. Grounding is a very gentle, natural way to coax the triple warmer meridian into relaxing. Our bodies already know how to use the earth’s supply of electrons in order to balance. When the triple warmer meridian relaxes, you do, too. It is then far easier to change habits, stress patterns, and energy patterns than it would be in the state of fighting everything.

  Grounding both the north and the south poles of the energy field completes an important electrical circuit in the body to help it function. I’m going to share two ways of doing this: outdoors and indoors.

  Grounding Outdoors

  In order to ground both the north and the south poles of your body to the north and south poles of the earth, you can use the very simple technique of sitting against a tree. Find a tree, align your spine against it, and place your bare feet on the earth—either in dirt, sand (yes, I just gave you a prescription for the beach!), or grass. Hang out. That’s it. The roots of the tree carry the body’s energy down into the earth and then return it back up into the body. This is very effective for helping you complete a healthy energy circuit in your body. Fifteen to thirty minutes a day is ideal. Often, though, if I only have two or five minutes, I notice feeling better from that too.

  If you don’t have a tree to sit against, walking in grass (wet grass is even better) is a very powerful grounding technique as well.

  Tip: If you can’t get your feet on something natural, unsealed concrete is a good grounding source. Concrete pools, because they are underground, are excellent as well.

  Grounding Indoors

  For this exercise, you will need a stainless steel spoon. If you are unsure if it’s stainless steel, you can check by looking for an imprint of “ss” on it.

  The areas in between the tendons on the tops of the feet are places where lots of energy get stuck. Because of this, the feet can make it difficult to “draw up” a ground, which we need for healthy polarities. Using a stainless steel spoon, you can change that. Stainless steel possesses a mineral that aids in the break-up of congested energy. Using the rounded edge of the spoon on the tops of the feet, gently make big crisscross patterns with it. This will help break up energy in the tops of the feet. Next, rub the curved bottom of the spoon on the bottoms of your feet (in any pattern you wish). This helps activate little energy centers on the bottoms of the feet.

  Aim to do this for a few minutes at a time, at least once or twice a day. This is a practice that is beneficial to do all the time, whether you are trying to heal from a major challenge or simply maintain a healthy energy flow.

  2: Encourage a Crossover Energy Pattern

  For optimal functioning of the mind and body, energy should flow in a crossover pattern in the body. This is the body’s natural way. Think about how many crossover movements are natural to the body: the brain using both its left and right hemispheres together, our arms swinging across our body when we walk, crawling in a crossover direction when we are babies, and more. Even our DNA is a crossover pattern. If your energy system has become scrambled, it will stop crossing over and start flowing in an up-and-down pattern in your body. In Donna Eden’s work, where I first learned about this, it’s called a “homolateral” energy flow. When your energy is running in this homolateral pattern, you are not at your full healing capacity. Luckily, the correction for this is easy, as long as you are persistent. Retraining your body’s energy to flow in a crossover pattern can be as simple as reminding it to do so—very consistently. Even once you reach your healing goals, this is something that you can continue doing daily. Keeping the crossover energy pattern strong in the body is essential to gain, and maintain, your well-being.

  Eye Trace

  Trace Around the Eyes

  Tracing around the eyes in a crossover pattern is a great energy retraining tool that takes very little effort. I’ve found this technique to be very helpful. Donna Eden also has her own exercises for this that you may want to explore.

  First, place the middle finger of one hand at the bridge of your nose in between your eyes. Next, pressing firmly, trace figure eights around your eyes. Start by dragging your finger up about a half inch around one eyebrow, circling on the forehead around to the outside orbit of your eye, then under your cheekbone and back up to the starting point. Continue the pattern while dragging your finger in the same way around the other side of your eye. You’ll want to do this full trace about ten times. Repeat it three times a day or however many times feels doable for you.

  Thymus Gland

  3: Balance Your Thymus Gland

  The thymus gland is the master gland of the body’s immune system and is located in the upper part of the chest, behind the breastbone. It sits right over the heart. Because of its location, Dr. John Diamond, a pioneer in the field of holistic healing, says the thymus serves as
the link between mind and body. 7 It’s located in the area of the heart chakra, which you’ll be learning more about in Chapter Six .

  The thymus is responsible for making T-cells, which are vital to healthy function of the immune system, including protection against allergies, autoimmune diseases, and immunodeficiency. I believe this makes the health of this gland essential to achieving complete and permanent healing. The thymus is so powerful, and so connected to the rest of the body, that almost any block or imbalance in the body, no matter where it is located, can be cleared through balancing it. In chapter 7, you’ll learn how to clear stuck emotions from your body using the thymus gland.

  Tap Your Thymus

  Tapping the thymus gland using your fingertips acts as a stimulating, strengthening, and balancing exercise. It’s quick and of great benefit to your overall system. Simply tap for about 15–30 seconds while you breathe deeply. This should be done at least three times a day. To make it easy to integrate, you can tie this exercise to other daily activities like getting a drink of water or going to the bathroom. Make a habit of doing thymus tapping each time you do the other activity.

  Your thymus gland might be tender when you tap. Do not stop because of this. Tenderness is usually a sign that there is some stagnant energy there, which means you really need this exercise. Over time, as it becomes more balanced, it will become less sore.

  4: Inch Your Way to Better Thoughts and Feelings

  If you have been interested in spirituality for any time at all, you are most likely familiar with the law of attraction. This is often called “The Secret,” made popular by the movie with the same name. The law of attraction is based on the idea that “like attracts like.” This means that we attract or draw to us whatever energy we are putting out there. While the concept of the law of attraction is wonderful, we have a tendency to place blame on ourselves when things aren’t working right. Also, people often make the mistake of trying to force drastic change while they are already in a place of great struggle. This is rarely successful and can even backfire, creating a situation where you end up more frustrated, fighting against what is even harder. I’m determined to help you develop a new and positive experience with this process. I know just how powerful it can be! Instead of too-grand attempts, here we will learn just how effective baby steps can be.