By Rachel Mascord BDS (Hons), Dentist, Five Dock, Sydney.
For most of my life health was something that I pursued, thinking that I did not have it, and that if I did have it, my life would be nothing short of amazing and I would be able to sit back and cruise through anything, free from all worry and care.
From the time of being a very little child I was sick, almost all of the time. I had bad croup as a baby that developed into very bad asthma as a 4 year old. This caused a lot of alarm in my family. My mother wanted so much for me to be healthy, that health started to feel like that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – a prize somehow beyond reach.
What did I think health was? What did I imagine it would bring me? Somewhere along the way I had developed a sense that it meant I would be very robust and tough, able to withstand anything that life threw at me – a sort of Superwoman-like capacity to handle life and its physical challenges.
As I got older and able to fund my own pursuit of that elusive health notion, I entered a rambling journey that had me engaging with many and various doctors, and when that failed, through the strange world of alternative therapists. I ate bizarre foods, juiced undrinkable concoctions, grew my own wheat grass and supplemented myself, took on eccentric practices…yet health eluded me and I became sicker and sicker. In my version of what health was, my body became my enemy, a dysfunctional mass of tissues, deeply flawed and wrong at its most fundamental level. In pursuing this notion of health I entered into a war against myself.
In 2007 I came across the work of Serge Benhayon, and the school Universal Medicine. Battle weary and with the body carrying the scars of a hundred alternative pursuits and the deep wounds of self loathing, I listened to the words of Serge Benhayon, and it was as though a light, long forgotten, ignited inside of me.
Over the years the teachings of this man started to break down the ideal of health that I had constructed – the mass of lies that had kept me running anxiously in an endless round of pursuits; a mouse, exhausted on a wheel that takes it nowhere, no matter how hard it runs. And more than the teachings that he delivered in word, were the teachings he delivered through the way he lived, the way he moved, the relationships he had with other people, the way he put on gloves and warm scarf in cool weather with such tenderness and such a deep level of care for himself…and the way he was always present with himself, knowing himself to be so deeply worthy of that.
The other aspect of Serge that inspired and continues to inspire me is his capacity for service to humanity, the like of which is beyond anything I have ever seen in another human being. What I started to feel was the quality of a life lived from the innermost essence – its beauty, grace and absolute commitment.
Is that the meaning of health, I started to wonder? Not an endpoint marked with an invincibility that makes us rough and careless with ourselves, but found in a deep level of commitment to ourselves, and our bodies, and consequently to all other people?
This is something I have started to explore for myself, and gosh has it been a slow process to scrub away the notion of physical perfection that I believed health to be. But how much simpler and more honest is it to allow the body to be as it is? To allow it to speak to us through its illnesses and diseases and aches and pains that let us know exactly the way we are treating it and consequently the way we are living. This new understanding of health has called for a far greater level of awareness and care and far greater acceptance of how I am feeling, free from judgment and the aspiration to a “greater” state. My sicknesses have become a blessing, not to be judged, eliminated so that I can just get on with it, or indulged for attention. I go to the doctor, get the tests that are needed and take the necessary medications or have the procedures carried out as needed. But I also see those sicknesses as signposts to the choices that have taken me away from who I truly am – the real illness.
So what then is health? Is it as simple as living all of who I am, from my essence, with no perfection, just love, acceptance and the deepening commitment to that?
My life is the exploration of this possibility, no more a mouse on a wheel, but a human being willing to look within, to the divine spark that was re-ignited that first day of meeting Serge Benhayon – the day I came home.
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
“But I also see those sicknesses as signposts to the choices that have taken me away from who I truly am – the real illness.” To me this highlights how the behaviours and roles we take on are linked to ill health, as in this we override what we know is true for ourselves, and separate from the essence of who we are.
Rachel I hear you, ‘what is true health?’ Many of us have this construct of what it looks like often influenced by other people, TV or the media. And if anything, it takes us the other way. We push our bodies to the extreme, make it do things, or eat and drink things that we wouldn’t consider giving to our babies or young children – so why are we different then?
What is beautiful to read is that you have found another way, another way to be, live and that is through a man (it could have been someone else too), who merely presented that there is another way. Much more loving and nurturing and when we apply this, our bodies love it, I love the simplicity of this.
‘…how much simpler and more honest is it to allow the body to be as it is?’ Yes Rachel and listening to the messages of our body as they come, makes our communication with it easy, which sensibly increases the possibility of healing.
That notion of chasing after health is so relatable, trying to be ailment/pain free and while I am at it hating myself for not being good enough. It feels like before health can physically manifest itself, it needs to be in our relationship with ourselves first. When we can accept and start enjoying being who we are, we get a step closer to being healthy.
Fumiyo, there is another part to our true health and wellbeing and the aspect that disease and illnesses are part of our vitality that leads us to our true health. It is the mere cleaning of stuff that we have shoved away, not wanting to face or deal with it, that needs closure too. It is part of the decluttering of the body, so we can create space for what is essential when serving from our bodies.
“I listened to the words of Serge Benhayon, and it was as though a light, long forgotten, ignited inside of me.” So true, and listening to the words of Serge Benhayon today more sparks are ignited.
There is a prevailing and false belief that the way to stay healthy is to build a body of iron. People get high pumping their bodies hard with weights and participating in arduous fitness feats, rather than simply nurturing it with loving tender care.
Most people believe being healthy means an absence of illness. Few understand true health to be a quality we live and experience in our bodies connected to our inner-most. When we accept low levels of energy and absence of any joy in their lives as normal, we have given up and settled for less. And yet we all have the potential to be so much by turning our attention inwards, start to love and care for ourselves, rather than outwards trying to be all things to all men.
“In pursuing this notion of health I entered into a war against myself.” It is interesting because we can’t really pursue health it is something that comes from within. I used to pursue what I perceived health to be but I can remember all the time I was doing it, spending a fortune on vitamins and minerals and looking for practitioners to make me feel healthier and better in myself, I seemed to be less vital and healthy than my friends that were just getting on with their life.
Health is incomplete if we just look at the physical body. We have a being that is love and that love is there to care for ourselves, others, and our communities. When we don’t express that love and live without our love as our primary intelligence it has a big impact on our health. Living with love, true love and not emotional or idealistic love, is to me true health.
I love this Melinda ” When we don’t express that love and live without our love as our primary intelligence it has a big impact on our health. Living with love, true love and not emotional or idealistic love, is to me true health.” Without love in our life we are indeed unhealthy and mostly distressed. Thank you
While I have learned so much from the presentations from Serge Benhayon, I learned equally as much from simply observing him move through life. The way he moves speaks volumes as to the quality of the life he lives, and it doesn’t change from the time he walks onto the stage until he steps off it. It is his consistency and commitment to the health and well-being of humanity that for me, is beyond inspirational.
Serge Benhayon is a master of true movement that honours the body in full with every stride, lift of a finger or movement of an arm. His deep level of care offers us all the opportunity to live from this quality as he constantly reflects..
“And more than the teachings that he delivered in word, were the teachings he delivered through the way he lived, the way he moved, the relationships he had with other people, the way he put on gloves and warm scarf in cool weather with such tenderness and such a deep level of care for himself…and the way he was always present with himself, knowing himself to be so deeply worthy of that”.
There is vastly better health available than ‘normal’ health and our body may be quite different if we don’t give it the food and emotions that are not harmonious for us.
I have come to view true health as committing to supporting my body to heal past ills and accepting them as reflections of how I have lived in the past always knowing that from now on I am free to make different choices.
Great question Rachel what is true health? It has become a multi million dollar business as we all pursue ultimate health and we think including myself for much of my life thought that it was obtained through fitness pushing my body to the limit and telling myself I was enjoying it too. And now I find that health and vitality come from the connection to my innermost the stillness from within and knowing my true self first, and living in the harmony and natural flow my body offers.
A question which is so far from our perception, our health is constantly deteriorating, and we are accepting less and less as “good health”. So many of us, as young as 20 are suffering from multiple symptoms in our every day, but as long as we don’t have cancer or something big like that, it seems okay and we can continue going the way we are.
How many of us are seeing physical perfection as health, I know I still can fall for that from time to time although I know it is not true and it doesn’t help in discarding what is truly going on in the body when there are aches and pains or illnesses, what you call the signposts, the choices made that led to what ever is going on inside.
“and the way he was always present with himself, knowing himself to be so deeply worthy of that.” I think that a large part of our health is our ability to be present with ourselves. I tend to absorb everything that goes on around me and get very tired from that. Just knowing we are worth feeling ourselves all the time makes a big difference.
Thank you Rachel for removing the notion of physical perfection from the definition of health. I could feel how strong that ideal was for myself, which would constantly keep me in anxiousness – not a healthy state of being.
For me it was the opposite – I was mostly healthy except for a persistent cold and over time things got very slowly worse until the last 14 years where things have been much better.
What an amazing blog, thank you Rachel. “But I also see those sicknesses as signposts to the choices that have taken me away from who I truly am – the real illness.” This line to me explains what’s going on with humanity and the rising rates of illness and disease. Living from our essence, our soul, brings a beauty back to life, and love and tenderness, joy and harmony – no activity or product can fill the gap of living from our soul.
It is very interesting how we try to force our bodies to fit into an ideal or picture of health or what it is to be healthy whilst negating the quality of being and the wellness of that being. Clearly it is a way that is not working for us. The body is an intelligence of its own with access to worlds more than what our minds could ever imagine, and what we have not generally been taught or fostered to learn is that our bodies know precisely what is needed for it to return to a state of homeostasis or harmony with the being, when we are open to listening and honouring what is being communicated. We then are able to live in greater connection to our body and being, our bodies being impulse by our Soulful light, and this exploration of the wonder that we are and are connected to is awe-inspiring to say the least.
It is quite a remarkable experience to go from ‘normal’ levels of health and vitality – the odd thing being wrong and needing coffee and sugar to get through the day – to being healthy and having lots and lots of vitality, which is not a peak feeling but a steady, ongoing experience.