Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thank the gods for MCS ... RETRACING ILLNESS, The Body-Mind Wisdom, Zen-down parlor, 12th House Perspective

Kwan Yin greets us at the door with daisies from our garden, gifts of tea pot, painting, galloping horses vase and three precious ocean stones in a pot of aloe. The tall swirling glass goblet a treasure still with me after all these years ...
Our zen-down parlor thanks to the healing affects of retracing
Changes to the oasis bed-room space ... lightening up, seasonal change, ulu (breadfruit) hang on the back wall.

We had a visitor to the Ledge yesterday. Company and social graces are often part of the losses that count heaviest in the process of living with long-term chronic illness. Multiple Chemical Sensitivities makes a visitor a very big deal! Our visitor is a friend who also lives with MCS. She was in need of a day's escape from serious logging being done right behind her house. Mustering enough energy to make the two hour drive is one more example of the tenacity that bubbles to the fore when you know what needs to be done, and do it even when it's hard. We spent the afternoon chatting and generally hanging out on the steps of the Vardo, conscious that there was lots of tree VOC (volatile organic compounds) emitting terpenes and tannins. Still, the promise of good company and shared experiences with an illness that creates grievous losses made the afternoon a time of grace.

When our friend called to say she was on her way Pete checked with me first. "Are you still up for a visitor?" He knew the past few days have been rough with symptoms. "Sure!" I answered still dazed from disturbed sleep, irritation and sensitization to EVERY thing, and an invitation to slip into the dross waiting with my name of it. I took all the time I needed to rest and comfort my body and mind that morning. In retrospect something I have known for a long time was feeding me positive inclinations. From the homeopathic frame of consciousness and well-ness the experiences of the past week have been and continue to be Retracing the illnesses that my body- mind remember allowing healing at a deep level to be possible. If I fight that natural wisdom the process is tougher. It lengthens. If I am unconscious of the process it's likely the Retracing will re-peat the next time I am exposed to an old trigger ie. herbicides and pesticides.
Today I needed to clear out even more 'furnishings' from inside the Vardo. A newly built oak bench milk-painted by my dear man Pete set off a reaction. No, not yet and maybe just 'no.' A change in the porch done a couple days ago is triggering additional reactions. The switch of sensitivity is 'on' and when it's a high-end trigger like herbicides the Retracing phenomenon activates. What I was not reactive to a month ago might create a reaction today ... This is the stuff that can be maddening if I take up that invitation to the dross.

I always look for the messengers and the messages(link on the colors to get a 12th house astrological perspective from one of my messengers ... Elsa P.) and a Visitor is always a messenger in what ever guise she comes. Because there was a distraction from the usual, we enjoyed interaction, shared stories, insight, laughter and strawberry rhubarb pie made fresh by aka. Turtle Woman. The reality of aging and illness showed up with pie, yet it was not the only presence. Retracing symptoms also called 'healing crisises or healing opportunities' kept showing up. The vertigo, the aches, sore throat and the explosive need to go to the toilet are all part of the Retracing. Along with the symptoms we have cleared the front half of our tiny home and now have a zen-down parlor with tiles bare and clear, a lighter covering of old cotton panels on the back wall and when we're not using the heater or laptop we pull the plugs to reduce electromagnetic emissions.

Here's an excerpt from an article called "Retracing: The untold story" from the Pythagorean Center for Natural Healing Newsletter. It may be review to some and new to others. It was just what I was needed to remember today.

The inability of the body-mind to self-heal may be expressed in these simple terms: health is a balance between inhalation and exhalation. In other words, we must be able to inhale good nutrition in the forms of good air, water, food and constructive emotions and we must be able to exhale physical and mental toxins. When this cycle is interrupted we develop "accumulations" which lower our vitality.

Natural therapies can open the circulation, restore the nerve supply, and improve the nutrition, allowing a person's well-being and self-healing ability to slowly increase.

Constantine Hering, MD., the well-known American homeopath, formulated what is called Hering's Law of Cure which states that "disease is healed from inside out, from the head down, and in the reverse order that it appeared." Healing occurs in the body at the deepest level first, then surfaces by moving from the head to the toes. The patient's most recent illness is the one that heals first, after which previous illnesses are "retraced" back to the oldest (historically).

As the patient begins to heal, he/she frequently experiences what are called "aggravations" which are flare-ups of present or past illnesses. These flare-ups are due to increased blood and nerve supply to blocked areas of the body, and after the aggravation, the patient always feels better.

Daniel David Palmer, D.C., founder of chiropractic, also referred to the flow of the healing process as "above, down, and inside to outside." This universal law of health, by its very existence, indicates that the body has its own priorities in getting well and, in fact, knows what to do better than we do. The Vital Force will direct its own healing if we supply what it needs. Dr. Bernard Jensen, D.C., Ph.d., in his book "The Doctor Patient Handbook," acknowledges the awesome potential inside all of us when he states:

"The body could manifest no greater proof of its ability to be self-adjusting, self-regenerating, and self-healing than it does through the retracing of disease and the production of the healing crisis."

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