By Joan Calder, retired/volunteer work, Frome, UK.
Hello! I am called Pityriasis Lichenoides by the medical profession, although they freely admit they do not know what causes me to exist. It’s a long complicated name but it makes me feel important and I had a big presence in the body where I have lived for eight years, in fact, you could say, I have been in control of the situation during that time — up until now.
I was born in the gut of a female human; my parents are of unknown origin, although there is a possibility it started with my hostess’s inflammatory reaction out of a response to Father Virus or Mother Bacterium. This is not surprising considering the way she maltreated her body, and her emotional reactions to everything around her. I lived quite happily in those long dark serpentine tubes for a long time until one day she met what is called a Gentle Breath Meditation and started to practise it.
My world was suddenly changed. I felt I was being called to come out of my tunnels of damp warmth, to be drawn to the surface into the light and the air, and explode myself on her skin for all to see. It started with a huge red patch of skin across her upper chest, and then one day I burst forth there with an itchy rash so virulent that hardly any skin could be seen.
Let me describe to you what I am like. I start to appear on the skin as little, very itchy, bumps or small pimples. It depends where I am located and what mood I am in. I cause as much irritation as I can at this stage, just to get attention. When I have achieved my goal and the heads of my pimples have been lacerated, then I start to form hard crusty scabs over the wounds. I stay dormant in this stage for a long time, getting crustier and crustier and ruminating on the effect I am having. I can make this stage really irritating and itchy for my hostess as well, and if it gets infected, then it heats up and spreads throughout the whole of that great organ of the skin where I express myself, and often back into internal organs as well.
In this stage I can make my hostess believe she is me. I possess her and she totally identifies with me.
Eventually I allow myself to fade, but I leave a brown scar for many months, if not years, to remind her I am the boss. As one lot fades then I find a new outlet and start again. I use the whole body except the face, I leave that to my cousin eczema, although she doesn’t use that very often, preferring to inhabit the life-sustaining moist hidden cavities of the ears.
I am sure you get the picture, but I have to tell you I am not so powerful these days and feeling distinctly weak and as though I am losing a lot of ground. I have no stability, and as soon as I start to appear, my hostess has found ways and means of dealing with me.
At first, in the past, these were desperate means, I could feel it, she would use anything and everything to try and combat me. This was war and I am very good at that game, my main allies being anger and deceit. Everything was waged against me: steroids, creams, lotions, UV rays. I retreated to base camp in the gut, my home-base, while they were going on, for they did my self- image no good at all, and recuperated until the onslaught stopped. Then gradually I would emerge again for a new round.
But there was one treatment that worked differently and I really did not like it. Having taught my mistress to do the Gentle Breath Meditation, esoteric healing practitioners were now calling me out to show even more of myself, roots and all, so they could be recognised and cleared. This way I would have nothing to hang onto. This was agony, having to let go. I raced from one part of the body to another attempting to escape the scrutiny, but the practitioner always knew where I was hiding, usually in a dense part where my hostess had been holding onto emotions for a long time, and eventually I would have to let go.
How do you fight something that says “Bring it on, show yourself, let’s see the real you, not just all that irritation and anger, but the you that really wants to come out into the open; the you that is truly loving if you would let yourself feel it.”
A RASH – LOVING? Rubbish, that wasn’t my image of myself at all, and it took me by surprise. I had made my hostess identify with me by my devious means so that she was caught in all the anger and irritation, and we had wound up in symbiosis, but here she was taking charge and turning the tables on me, and showing me a thing or two.
She showed me that nothing could hurt her, especially not me, because there was something much, much deeper and more powerful inside her than me. I might be lurking in the deep recesses of her body, but she was learning there is MORE to her than her body. I started to feel a chemical change I could no longer fight. It felt like Alchemy, a long forgotten ancient ability of some humans like mine. I lost the control and am fading fast.
She showed me that I am loving, as my very existence and expression on her skin has given her an important message about how she was living her life. Because she sees I was created out of her own choices and I am actually an illusion, she is changing and healing.
If she forgets and chooses the food of irritation and anger I am still trying to feed her, then I have an opening and can spring up again, but it’s weak and ineffectual. If she does not react in an inflammatory way but chooses to actually love me for what I am showing her, then I have no reason for being at all.
Suddenly I realise I have been in a prison, locked into an identity that no longer serves me, and that life of creating pain and havoc and investing in that for sustenance and reward, no longer seems relevant to me. I feel I have been very young, and now I am growing up to realise there is more outside this skin I have created eruptions on, and I no longer look like my old self, in fact sometimes I can make no mark, I am not there at all. This feels like freedom, released to live and dance with all the other particles that make up the Universe. I would never have believed it possible, so entrenched was I in my self-gratifying, addictive existence.
I no longer have a name or an identity. My hostess is no longer giving that to me, and I am passing slowly out of my habitation to a new state of being. It started on the day my hostess first met the practitioner who showed her a new way. It’s taken her a long time to understand it and start living it. She no longer needs me and is becoming lighter; if she keeps on choosing all this for herself, I must loosen my hold and fade away, and so we will move on together. We are not quite there yet, but it is happening now we both know the Truth is always there for us to choose.
From the hostess … With deep gratitude and appreciation for Serge Benhayon who showed me I am so much more than my physical symptoms, and the many Universal Medicine Practitioners I have worked with these past 8 years.
Read more:
- Gentle Breath Meditation Tips for Beginners
- Gentle Breath Meditation Introduction
- How do I become a practitioner of esoteric healing?
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
“If you can’t beat them, join them” doesn’t really work when it comes to illness and disease. If you can’t beat it, understand, accept and love it is the way to go.
Joan this is a brilliant blog to read about the damage we do to ourselves via our unloving ways we think is us. What you have said here makes complete sense to me.
‘Suddenly I realise I have been in a prison, locked into an identity that no longer serves me, and that life of creating pain and havoc and investing in that for sustenance and reward, no longer seems relevant to me.’
When we start to heal the hurts that we have hung on to believing that they part of who we are, then a whole new way of living expands before us and we can feel the joy in our bodies that has always been there but suppressed by the hurts that we identified with.
Thank you Joan, this blog makes me reflect on the ‘beings’ I give life within me, inviting me to observe and understand the interactions that take place in my body, which allow its balanced flow or boycott it. Great learning to ponder on.
Joan I love your take on this condition, in fact we could apply this to any condition we could be experiencing. It brings a whole new perspective on diseases, as the disease is communicating to us. It is so spot on when we go about our lives identifying ourselves by a label, and I’ve done it myself and probably still do and yet we also can heal it, by addressing it head on.
It’s at perfect timing when subtleties appear within my own body and in some ways, it is an opportunity to develop a deeper relationship with the body.
This is a whole new perspective to health and wellbeing, if people are open to it, there’s no mumbo jumbo, it is pure connection to one’s body and open communication channels to listening and responding.
This is a beautiful wise tale, playfully told and rich in insight. Thank you Joan for sharing; for being so generous with your honesty and openness. I can imagine this article being read for many years to come, touching people’s lives and reawakening their awareness.
Matilda I could not agree with you more, it is ‘a wise tale, playfully told and rich in insight’. To be honest, the penny did not drop till four paragraphs later as I was developing these visions of Joan not knowing her parents, and birthing through a gut, oh dear!.. – LOL.
On the reality side, this is a powerful blog, to actually perceive the messages from a rash’s perspective is a whole new take on health. Would the health care profession be open to this?
Matilda I read the blog again and it is such a brilliant blog because it exposes the harm we do to ourselves and others when we identify that we are the illness and can be overwhelmed by it. To understand that we have made choices such as anger that then has a chemical reaction in our bodies makes so much sense because as we all know anger is so toxic for the person who receives it and the person who delivers it.
We really do try fighting any ill condition more often than not, and the sense I am getting here is that in that fighting we shut down a part of us, like dimming the light so that we don’t have to see our so-called enemy – and that’s exactly what the enemy wants. I really get when you say “How do you fight something that says “Bring it on, show yourself, let’s see the real you, not just all that irritation and anger, but the you that really wants to come out into the open; the you that is truly loving if you would let yourself feel it”” – really, how do you?
This is such a joyful blog presenting how everything we’re shown is in fact there to expand us, to offer us an opportunity to move away from old ways which are not us, and we do this not in fight but in surrender.
I agree. Thank you and well said. It is an amazing feeling to relinquish the fight, any struggle and/or control. in letting go and surrendering, life feels so super joyful, simple and spacious.
This blog is always a joy-full re-visit. I continue to be amazed at how my body responds to small changes that reflect on my skin. Over the past few months I have been caught on the slippery slope of sugar, causing an extremely itchy rash developed on my legs. Fighting to get off sugar made the craving worse – bringing more purpose to details to deepen self-loving care and nurturing rendered sugar cravings to zero and the rash has cleared on both legs. I continue to appreciate my body more and more.
Stephanie I have come to the realisation that such things as sugar have been created as a way of stopping us from feeling and knowing who we truly are. It’s a trap in my opinion because as soon as we eat sugar our body becomes racy and we lose all sense of our origins. Only through stillness I feel we will come to understand ourselves. As we have created so many things that race our bodies I guess the question has to be what is it are we trying to avoid? We must know the answer or we wouldn’t be avoiding it.
“If she does not react in an inflammatory way but chooses to actually love me for what I am showing her, then I have no reason for being at all.” What a great line about changing our relationship with our health conditions, and bringing in a sense of purpose.
A wonderful way of showing that the way we live is reflected in the way our physical body responds.
When we stand up and address what our reactions to life can exasperate in our body, it is the starting point to begin the process of pulling the teeth of the beast we created.
I love this because it shows that no matter what we think about illness and disease in a negative way, at the end of the day it is there one because of our choices and two because it’s helping us to clear the ill momentum we have been living with.
Yes I agree. And from this approach we have the richest opportunities to learn.
The power of the Gentle Breath, the power in practising the Gentle Breath Meditation and having that as a way of breathing in our day to day life means that we become reconnected to the truth of who we are, to the love that we are. When we are not breathing our own breath is when we seek identification. We look for something outside ourselves to make us feel ‘better’ and yet we are not even considering what is really, or truly, going on. We have not considered the energy at play. The support of a good Universal Medicine Practitioner can allow us evolutionary steps in the relationship with ourselves as we become more honest about everything we have used to prop ourselves up or hide in.
I love reading this blog Joan, it shows us very clearly that raging and going to battle with a health condition without getting to the root cause is futile.
This makes me realize how our identification has a solidifying effect and puts us in a separative perception where things are either good or bad, victim or villain, but really, the essence is exactly the same. Everything comes from the same source, and that which does not, does not exist in truth.
Very beautiful blog with a very powerful message delivered with such grace, humour and wisdom. The moment we embrace what our bodies are showing us including the ailments and illnesses rather than fight them or seek to subdue or suppress them is the moment when true healing starts to happen.
‘How do you fight something that says “Bring it on, show yourself, let’s see the real you, not just all that irritation and anger, but the you that really wants to come out into the open; the you that is truly loving if you would let yourself feel it.’ You cannot but become love yourself by surrender to what the hostess offered you! How wonderful you have been given a voice by her so we know what happened with you.
Super cool to read Joan and love the perspective you have in detail shared. That identification of our issue is such a huge one and to be able to detach from it is the first stages of being able to heal it. Thank you.
I love re-reading this playful and wise blog – a powerful reminder and inspiration to return to listening to the body and its wisdom constantly on offer, when we are humble enough to listen to it and act upon what is being asked.
A great reminder that our ailments are messages to listen to rather than fight.
I enjoyed reading this take on how you dealt with your skin rash condition Joan. It shows how when we look at our medical conditions in a way that is no longer identifying with them as being us and learn to love that part of us that may have at first felt awful (as in a serious rash) for it is showing us what needs to be healed at some level, we can let go of any victim mentality and really appreciate what our bodies are trying to tell us.
Very true, an illness or disease is a byproduct of our choices and not who we are.
I agree – it is impossible to keep fighting love that keeps telling us that we are love also. We can try very hard, but it sure is hard work.
It’s life changing isn’t it Joan when you realise ‘I am so much more than my physical symptoms’ ..for me it was I am so much more than my pain. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I got to see how I was identifying with my pain and that it was indeed not who I am. Identifying with my pain intensified it, where as when knowing it wasn’t me allowed me to care and support myself with it and for it to heal.
Yes Ruth I know there were times I was totally indentified with my severe headaches and migraines. It made me feel a victim and I had the feeling I could not cope with it. Now it is different, occasionally I have a headache but when I accept how I feel and treat myself lovingly, it still can be there but it has no impact on who I am and most of the times it will vanish.
A beautiful way of understanding the underlying cause of any illness and disease.
Everything happens to us has a story to tell… Whether it’s a simple rash, or cancer, or an itchy nose… There is always something to learn.
I love this blog Joan, I had read it a long time ago but it is so beautiful how you have detached from your illness, a very irritating and visible one and how you gave it its voice but at the same time no longer let it have control over you. ‘Because she sees I was created out of her own choices and I am actually an illusion, she is changing and healing.’
My rash is back Annelies but this time I am embracing it from the beginning as it shows me yet again the choices I have been making. I also see it as a deeper layer to be healed coming up from within my body. It has a different presentation this time and is on very specific places in my body that gives me clues as to what is needing to be cleared and healed. It is very itchy and sore and uncomfortable, but hey! that is what I have created from some time way back. The rash is actually a gift, otherwise I would continue to make those choices, they are so ingrained. Becoming aware of them at a deeper level brings the healing.
Wow this is amazing Joan how you have not only embraced the learning but are choosing to see it as a perfectly targeted gift to support you with deeper healing.
Unless we are able to make sense of what really feeds a condition, we will not be able to eradicate it from our body and will never understand why are we having it and what is the message therein being conveyed to us.
What great exposure about the negative form of symbiosis that can occur between body and disease when we choose to identify with symptoms.
When we look at truthfully at why we have something, from a sprained ankle to a nasty rash, we then and only then can heal completely.
“I am so much more than my physical symptoms” thank you for this Joan.
When we get wrapped up in emotion, anger, sadness etc we leave our body open to illness and disease, as the body is already overworked and when we live from a point of love first without emotions our body has the opportunity to begin to heal the unloving choices we have previously made.
To consider honestly the emotions that feed our physical symptoms exactly how you have done in this blog Joan is where we need to take our understanding of our body, our health and true medicine. Great blog thankyou.
How love can indeed conquer all and how no matter what we’re presented with in the body, we can approach it as a way to heal, and rather than blame and fight we can un-earth what it is showing us in how we are and how we live.
Joan I love the way in which you bring to life the condition and how amazing the body actually is at showing us what is really going on. If only we listen, in fact when I do its life changing.
As much as this is a wonderful illustration of the true causation and healing of a disease, this is an equally beautiful story of the spirit surrendering to and merging with the soul.
Super clever and profoundly insightful. The alchemy that is possible with love is remarkable… a truth that can be applied to all areas of our lives.
This is one of my favourite blogs, its fun and true. Last time I read it, I joined in and had a ball writing from the prospective of my illness and disease, it was funny and I think we had plans to develop something more with it. I am feeling really inspired again after reading this, what a great children’s book it would make, you could make it funny and educational, there is heaps in this and I am ready to explore, you will be hearing from me, its too good!
A very beautiful understanding of how we truly heal. That what is within must come out. To allow it so and not fight and try to suppress the poison within our body is to be deeply appreciated.
When you choose Truth, it sets everyone free.
Joan, I love the way you’ve expressed your story, so playful, inspiring and powerful. Thank you!
It is great re-reading this playful and powerful story – a great reminder too, that my body is communicating to me if there is a rash appearing on my skin, letting me know that things are being eaten that do not agree with it.
Beautiful sample that exposes how Love can support us to understand, embrace and dissolve everything that is not harmonious in our body and life.
I love the playfulness here -writing from the perspective of a skin rash and showing how it is actually loving to have things like this appear – as they are merely a means of communication from our bodies on where we are at.
Joan this blog is brilliant – what a great key to healing you offer with embracing the condition and surrendered to accepting it in full – the miracle and magic has occurred from this.
Such a humourous but very clever blog. By looking at the rash from its own point of view you can truly understand it and also detach from it. I love how you have overcome it and grown to love it over the past 8 years. What a journey.
Joan, so light and very beautiful – I feel the joy of having a rash – odd to say I know, but I can see and feel how every time the body is not honoured, then the rash appears and amazing warning beacon to say stop, not this way. And that we are so much more than our physical body, we are light and no matter what is going on with and in us, it does not take away from who we are, unless we identify with it, so well done from your journey in moving away from identifying with the rash in your body and going underneath to understand what it was showing you.
As I let go and allowed myself to feel a glimpse of that which I truly am, it was life changing. I am so much more than what I thought I was before I attended Universal Medicine but it is a commitment to saying ‘Yes’ to the power and grandness within me and ‘No’ to that which is not me in a world that is purposely set up to not support who we truly are.
From the last paragraph the story continues, “From the hostess … With deep gratitude and appreciation for Serge Benhayon who showed me I am so much more than my physical symptoms..” As this as a point, if we are much more than “physical symptoms” we must be much more than a physical body as well. Could everything that goes on with ‘us’ be pointing in a similar direction and telling us a similar thing. More care needs to be taken with our bodies I agree and also more care needs to be taken with everything we are. Remember when the world was flat and then also remember when smoking was considered not bad for your health? Are we seeing the world or believing it’s a certain way, only to arrive at another point and see how ridiculous that thinking was? Then what controls or gives us the thinking? We obviously don’t think for ourselves, otherwise we would have known that. What gives us the thoughts or more still what holds us now at this point only to a physical part or physical life? I could say we need to broaden our thinking, but more so we need to see where our thinking is coming from, because at times it seems to lead us completely in the wrong direction.
‘She showed me that nothing could hurt her, especially not me, because there was something much, much deeper and more powerful inside her than me.’ What a beautiful way to tell how we are not our illness or disease but that love has the power to make great changes and will heal what holds us back from living this love when we let go of identifying ourselves with our illness.
Irritation and anger, becomes anger and deceit, becomes war. Obvious you might say but this impressed me today and made me realise how easily these feelings/reactions can escalate. Love, as you have shown, is the antidote and The Gentle Breath Meditation can help us connect to love. How amazing it is to teach this in schools and share it whenever we can. Could there one day be a world without wars? It’s possible because everything is possible……
Great blog Joan, we are so much more than our illnesses, they are a by-product of the way we live, and as we change how we live the illness no longer has the same hold or identity it once did.
I loved reading this again today. We are not our illness – no matter how chronic or painful or progressive our illness might be it is not us and never will be. We do not need to give power to it but rather become powerful ourselves by surrendering and reclaiming more of who we truly are.
I had never conceived of being able to release a disease – of having its particles rejoin the natural flow of the universe. What an amazing transformation this represents. We loosen the grip our illness has on us, and it is free to return to the one source, just as we are.
Brilliant and inventive Joan, thank you so much for sharing – and so honestly. We are not our illnesses, it’s true. Resisting that identification can be challenging when they (seemingly) take us over, and so obviously and visually so. Congratulations on your farewelling of Pityriasis Lichenoides.
That’s some appreciation for what sounds like a hideous skin disease! Amazing what’s possible when we’re willing to get beyond the surface!
Thank you Joan for showing us that all illness and disease has a root cause and that the illness is not there just to irritate us, but to show us our unloving choices.
What you are say is so true Joan as many of us do become so overwhelmed by our disease processes we make it a part of our identification as an individual.
We cannot truly heal any ailment or disharmony until we let it go roots and all.
I love this Joan – what a great perspective. It really shows us how we become owned by our disease and start to identify with it until such a time that the suffering gets too much and we realise that there truly is more to us than our body. By bringing this ‘more’ out into the open in a full open-hearted expression, we are able to transmute all that does not match the love that we are, back into this love. It is a very simple alchemy that we as a humanity have ignored for far too long and this is a great and practical example of how it is done, thankyou.
Absolutely amazing blog Joan, thank you so much for sharing it. Reading it I realised I have been fighting a condition I have in the way you used to, going into battle rather than surrendering more deeply into my body and the power within. To turn the tables, step back and observe lovingly and thank it for its messages is definitely the way to go.
What an amazing way of looking at your condition. By giving your rash an identity of its own you detach from it and can observe it. It’s then free to leave if it needs to as you are not identifying with it. A powerful story of true healing. Thank you.
Thank you Joan, great blog. Ah the healing powers of the Esoteric Medicine Modalities, what a wonderful testimony you have presented.
Brilliant Joan. Giving a health issue a voice allows us to hear the impositions of illness and disease we are inviting into our body with the way we are living.
Joan, I love how you have written this post, really fun and interesting.
This is such an entertaining and profound perspective on what most would consider a very stressful and upsetting symptom. I read this blog today because I have been frustrated by my own skin conditions lately. Accepting that our bodies reflect the state of being we have chosen is huge. I can’t feel sorry for myself when I consider that I am being shown love and the way back to responsibility.
I am discovering that the rash, which is still returning intermittently in a few isolated places, comes from my lack of love for myself. I have bashed myself up with blaming thoughts all through my life, and this results in dullness and dampness and tension and anxiety. Now I can feel the warmth inside me through knowing the Love I am, I find the rash is having a hard time of keeping its hold. The moment I step out of line and do something in lack of awareness or disregard, it takes advantage of the emptiness. It is such a teacher.
Joan what a great thing the body is, guiding and supporting us to return to loving ourselves consistently. I also will have my skin suffer when I don’t take deep care of myself, my body showing me what is possible and with that I know the more I live taking care of myself, including expressing how I feel in many different situations, the greater clarity not only I have, but also my skin.
Such an interesting way to look at how and why a recurring issue might be there.
A powerful reminder that we are not our illness. But also of how when we lose touch with our connection through our bodies to our love within, our true intelligence, we instead allow our disconnected minds to be taken over by any other force that is invited to take the lead. From within we have a deep sense that something is not OK and so we seek, chase or pursue something from the world outside to quickly rectify the situation, or we seek to numb, disregard or comfort ourselves so that we are not aware that we feel that something is not OK. Either way with this choice we continue to deepen and magnify the disconnect and all that we are not, presenting as illness or emotions etc. Through our willingness to build self-love in our bodies our connection to Love deepens and the truth of who we are is then what magnifies through our bodies, rendering naught all that is not of Love.
Whenever we choose to tune into our bodies, there is always an amazing story to be told.
I returned to one of my favourite blogs this morning as I love the humour and the cheek in it but on a serious note, what an incredibly uncomfortable illness you had to endure but you didn’t just endure it, you addressed it, made fun with it and are unfolding the healing process with support. I have had skin rashes my whole life and find your approach very inspiring.
‘Sarah ditto, Joans approach to her condition is quite remarkable, something I don’t hear often, yet has a lesson in it for all of us. No matter what condition we get, it can be there to support us to return to a more loving way of being, showing us if we’ve been wayward. It’s not just what condition we may have but how we approach and care for ourselves that really matters.
Sometimes you need to hear something a thousand times before it actually sticks (I do at least!). And your writing has really made me realise how HUGE self-love really is – how foundational it is. One might not think it would be a rash that would teach you this, but your sharing has helped me.
What a great post – so interesting, fun to read and an honest account. It may sound strange to say, but what a blessing this is – the body speaking loud and clear (or even writing an article) that the way we are currently living/self-loving isn’t working. And so we can then look within and begin the healing as modern medicine would only be a temporary fix. How amazing that doing a meditation and seeing esoteric practitioners have been able to help identify the root of the dis-ease…and that you are now able to take steps to clear this.
Once again the body’s support is seen for the Love and grace in which it reflects our inner state of mind, revealing the discomfort it feels at our lack of connection. Reflecting to us how we are treating ourselves by giving us a disease or illness to contemplate, reflect and learn from and truly heal. Such a gift….
Each symptom that presents itself is no different from the others, all illness comes rom the same root cause, an attachment to our emotional reactions to life. When we are so attached in this way we separate from ourselves and give the outside more importance and lose connecting with our own breath. Returning to our own rhythm and the pulse that connects us to the Universe, brings us to a stillness where the change can happen and we can respond to life from our true inner self in the inner heart. Then the lymphatic system and vascular system that support all the systems of the body come into harmony.
Wow Joan – so powerful. I just read your blog yet it wasn’t until I read your comment that I clocked how instrumental the Gentle Breath Meditation was in your healing. Thank you.
It’s as if the skin rash could not but help join the “love party” taking place everywhere throughout your body, it wanted to join and also become love.
How amazing that your body chose to show you in such a clear way what you needed to know. This is indeed very loving, and it is inspiring to read of you acknowledging this as such.
This is just magic to read again Joan – from the perspective of not only how it is written, but the message of what illness and disease truly is. We look at symptoms with the intention to fix or remove them, rather than the simple perspective that perhaps what happens to us and what is shown to us is a message about our choices and how we have been living, and a huge opportunity to listen and respond in a loving way.
Yes, hvmorden, and the disappearance of the rash is not necessarily the end of the story. Recently a few small patches returned to my body, and it became very obvious that I had slipped into some old behaviours and so invited them in. They were in very significant places that showed me exactly where I need to work in making different choices for myself. As I make a commitment to this they are fading. It is neither good nor bad, or right or wrong, just the opportunity to deepen a connection with myself that brings true healing.
Joan I love the way you describe your skin condition from it’s point of view. I had a persistent skin rash that flared up again after I started having Esoteric healing. It lasted for more than 2 years and then left. Recently a milder more localised form appeared in response to a food I was eating (which in turn was a response to a feeling I was not dealing with). I have come to appreciate how skin conditions make visible something that was hitherto hidden deep inside and when itchiness is present that certainly demands attention.
“If she does not react in an inflammatory way but chooses to actually love me for what I am showing her, then I have no reason for being at all.” This really does change our perspective on how we view illness and disease. I love this line because it asks us to take responsibility for our well being. Every time I react it is going to have an impact on my body and those around me. This is not loving. Becoming aware of the abuse I do to my body and others every time I react is something to ponder on most deeply.
“She showed me that nothing could hurt her, especially not me, because there was something much, much deeper and more powerful inside her than me.” This is so true for nothing is ever greater than our essence within. At times the hurt felt in my body is painful but to hold onto and indulge in it serves no-one. Surrendering and letting it go are key.
This could be applied to any illness. It is a fantastic way of ‘outing’ the character and identity of disease. To write a story from the point of view of the disease enhances our understanding of it so we can work on clearing it. An amazing way of getting underneath the disease so to speak and claiming back our bodies.
Hello Pityriasis Lichenoides!! My host and I were just reading your blog, sorry I am so rude, let me introduce myself, my medical name is Allergic rhinitis but you can call me hay fever!! I am not nearly as exotic as you once were but I do have some pretty good numbers, affecting around 1 in 5 people (children and adults) in Australia and New Zealand but I just remembered you and your host reside in the UK. Well my claim to fame over there is, hay fever sufferers could reach 30 million within 20 years if things continue the way they are heading. With half of Britain being affected by me already, I may not be rare but I sure am popular.
I can be seasonal, but in the case of my host I am present ALL YEAR round, why take holidays when you’re having so much fun, right?!! The experts in Australia say Allergic rhinitis is not caused by a food allergy and only from the environment!!
Which is not really true but it keeps hosts eating whatever they want that makes me stronger and medicated on nasal sprays.
Universal Medicine not only knows that food can be involved, but informed my host that her choices in the day also affect how much I am hanging around, this was a hard blow for me.
When my host first met the founder of Universal Medicine and discovered a new way to eat and live, her hay fever was gone, no dairy, I hardly had anything to work with in regards to sinus stuff.
But I am smart and so I evolved, over the years I came up with really good strategies to get back in the game. First it was Soy ice-cream and soy milk but then the host cottoned on as that being a trigger, coconut cheese didn’t last long, cashew cream, aioli was a winner and almond milk is nearly impossible for her to kick along side Tahini. So, in short, I just keep on finding a way back in, plus she has a bad day and I didn’t even have to encourage the dairy substitutes that day as the work was done for me.
My host has turned over a new leaf now and she now knows that anything creamy, even if it’s dairy free, does not fit anymore.
As she evolves, I feel like I am evolving too and as I read your blog, it’s got me thinking if hanging around annoying my host is as fun as I thought it was, I am reconsidering my life direction as a cell. For this I am grateful to you, I am not ready to totally leave and let go of my identification as hay fever yet, but you certainly have shaken up this fish pond and made me consider if maybe there is more to life than getting up someone’s nose.
Hello Allergic Rhinitis, pleased to meet you. It’s been tough for us, hasn’t it, once that founder of Universal Medicine arrived here showing everyone how to love themselves and each other? We both found ways of evolving to survive in the bodies of our hosts, but once we learned that this very thing was actually a loving act, it took the wind out of our sails and they were left flapping uselessly. Change was never easy, especially out in the open, transparent, and the bright light brought a clarity after the safety of those dark, damp, mucusy passages that felt so vulnerable, but it seems we are both changing and singing anther tune. Its great to get together, is this what is called Brotherhood?
It really is an absolute blessing as you say Sally, as hard as that may seem at the time but ultimate no one wants to get sick and if we do, we want to get rid of it and not have it come back. So to be able to have the tools, support, willingness to heal the root cause of any illness or disease is the only true way forward to true vitality and health. This is where Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine offer a new way with illness and disease.
To finally come to the deep understanding that I am not my symptoms, my rash, my aches and my pains was like taking the fullest breath I had ever taken, and as I breathed out I began the letting go of the identification around illness and disease that I had held on to ever since I was a child. It is still a work in progress and there are days the pain and discomfort will try once again to have me believe that’s who I am, but slowly and very surely this is changing, and with the letting go of this belief the quality of my life is increasing.
Thank you Joan, a great blog, and, as you say, we are so much more than our physical symptoms.
Absolutely Jenny, I also loved reading Joan’s blog as it brings the subject to life in a way we can all understand. There is no doubt a book that Joan could write or a series of short stories that would be a great education for our children (and adults!).
I agree David. There is a lot of scope here for much more. The story is calling out for some great illustrations and a broader audience.
A book for children with illustrations. I will ponder on it and see what inspiration comes through me from a true source. Thank you David.
Yes David. This story comes with such vivid images, it would be great as a children’s book. It would really provide a deeper insight to what happens in the body, and that how we live has a huge effect on our health. Very educational!
I absolutely agree David, Joan’s blog is written in such a way that it is fun. Put some pictures with it and children and adults will love it, not forgetting it’s educational too!
Yes, Joan’s blog is written in a way that is so easy for anyone to understand what is truly going on and the more people are educated in this way about diseases and dis-harmony in the body, the more true healing can happen and the ripple effect of this will be felt in many areas of life that are currently at crisis point.
Get writing Joan! It would be lovely to read more from you as your deep and true healing continues. There are countless testimonies of healing from people who have been deeply inspired by the Ancient Wisdom Teachings as presented by Serge Benhayon.
Yes, I would love to read more of this story as it continues to unfold. It is always inspiring to read stories of true healing.
Ha, ha Rebecca Turner! I am still giving my hostess the occasional opportunity to recognise what is going on. I am like a gadfly seeing any chance to go in and give her a nip and wake her up from any slumber she has gone into. I don’t make much headway but when a gap appears I am in there. Maybe this is for another blog as it is the next stage in our relationship. It could be entitled “Son of Pityriasis Lychenoides”, or “Pityriasis Lichenoides Part 2”. Watch this space, with love PL
Joan, I have enjoyed re-visiting this blog today. I love the playfulness and humour you have brought to it by writing from the perspective of the illness and the appreciation from the ‘hostess’ of understanding illness from the energetic way as presented by Serge Benhayon which has clarified so much for you.
The more attention I pay to my body it seems the more there is to notice. With our health system in such crisis, paying attention and noticing the small the things I believe be the way of the future as there will be and is a need for us to pay much more attention and attend to changes, and some of the more subtle signals that we receive from our bodies.
This is an amazing story of reclaiming your body Joan. I love the way you describe how the skin rash had taken up residence in your body and had a huge hold over you until you started to love it and love yourself. It simply had to release its hold and make its way out. This is true healing.
I totally agree Rebecca. The way Joan writes from the angle of the skin rash shows how much she no longer identifies with the condition and the lightness she has brought to the whole experience. Very inspiring.
This article can relate to any condition what so ever, not just a skin rash. So cleverly written for us to feel and see that any medical condition and in fact any emotional condition is something that we have chosen as a way to not be our truly gentle and tender selves and that there is an underlying seed or explanation of the truth behind what our body may be experiencing or the emotions that may be coming up. Living in a way where we are choosing to truly love and nurture ourselves and let love out bit by bit these old habits and issues can be squeezed out of our body, with ease and without a fight, as we are the ones who are totally empowered to bring the change.
“any medical condition and in fact any emotional condition is something that we have chosen”. It is so interesting what you have written here Danielle, because as I was writing I realised that the rash was the same as me, its story was my story. Exposing this to myself helped me to detach from it and observe it without emotion, at the same time as recognising many traits within myself. As you say it is the same for any condition, so now, if anything is showing up in my body the experience with the rash helps me to adopt a different approach from the past.This means I am in charge rather than the symptom.
I love the empowerment in this “This means I am in charge rather than the symptom.” Very inspiring thank you.
It’s also possible to consider that we are so powerful that we can always feel and see any disharmonious seeds before they are even planted. We just need to choose to live and move in a way that allows us to connect to this power, and not hide from it in the ill seeds.
This is so true Danielle, every ill seed we plant we know exactly what we are doing. The ill seeds I have planted have kept me small, contracted and in my comfort… I knew what I was doing all because I did not want to live in a way that would make me stand out and in my power. This is beginning to all change as I begin to re-imprint with new seeds of self-love.
Joan, what a great thing to not give your power away to your condition but instead claim yourself and see the condition as it truly is, an opportunity for you to clear out what is no longer needed.
Knowing this gives us great power and for me a sense of easing tension. I no longer have to try and be in control of this thing, the rash, a disease, etc. It is there to serve a purpose, and a healing one at that. Much better to surrender to it and take the time to look wisely at the choices I’ve made to get me here in the first place.
Joan I feel that you could write a book (or two) the way your sense of humour takes us on a journey of you rediscovering the truth of your deeply rooted irritating rash. Having a deep appreciation for the introduction of the Gentle Breath Meditation and the many Esoteric Practitioners who support us all with our journey in life. In your wise words Joan. How do you fight something that says ‘”Bring it on, show yourself, lets see the real you, not just all that irritation and anger, but the you that really wants to come out into the open; the you that is truly loving if you would let yourself feel it”. Beautiful Joan thank you.
Absolutely Gill, I am thinking of writing another blog called “Son of Pityriasis Lichenoides”, or “Pityriasis Lichenoides Rides Again”! There are always the deeper levels to be cleared that were the cause of the condition in the first place. It is like the man and woman’s hero/heroine journey all in one, the action of developing a deeper relationship with the centre of our being.
Joan I love how you depict your illness from it’s point of view. It puts a whole new understanding on how, through our own emotions, we bury illnesses deep into our body, and why it can take a long time to heal. I have been witness to the journey you are on and it has been amazing to watch you heal each layer as it surfaces to be looked at. To know that we have layers that we have to heal which explains why, what may seem to be separate illnesses are often in fact inter-related.
So very true, it is so easy to bury what we don’t want to feel into the body. To allow time time to heal, knowing there are layers there that may need to be addressed as there always is. Then feeling the responsibility that then comes with that healing process.
You show that we are so much more than just our physical bodies and they have remarkable ways of reminding us of this.
When we start working on ourselves, everything that was buried in the depths of ourselves and our bodies starts to rise to the surface. How cool then is it to have these things at the surface rather than buried so deep we don’t know they even exist? What I also loved about coming back to this blog today was when emotions or disturbances rise I know they are not me and don’t have to control my life. Thank you.
It is cool to deal with our issues that rise to the surface rather than bury them deep within even though at times they may be challenging. I am learning to deeply appreciate what is front of me especially those issues where first they may seem big as they earnestly ask me to step out of my comfort.
Yes Leigh I agree, this blog is a great reminder that we are far bigger than any emotion running through our body. Whenever I feel not me I call it out and I can let it go very often straight away but on the odd occasion where I feel I am holding onto it I make a loving commitment to myself to surrender and not beat myself up, reminding myself that I am constantly learning.
Wow, this is such an amazing article which has completed taken me to whole new level looking at illness and disease, particularly when you shared about the disease being freed and joining the other particles. It is clear what a disease can offer us, rather than seeing it as an enemy with nothing to do with us. Everything is connected and interrelated.
Yes Karoline, I keep reminding myself and being aware that any symptoms, physical and emotional, are about not allowing the energy to flow through us. When we hold on to them they inhabit the body and cause obstruction and a lot of pain and illness. As all is energy, and all energy is passing through us all the time, it is obvious that if we attach importance to it by reacting, then it will find a harbour to anchor in and get stuck in the mud. When it is freed it can move off again onto the open sea.
This is such a great reminder for me Joan as I could feel the tightness in my neck as I read your words. Time to allow my expression to flow
Your blog Joan shows the impact of self love and self caring and the wonderful medicine it is. As your self appreciation blossoms, the disease fades away, unable to resist your power and light.
Well said Patricia “…wonderful medicine it is” meditations are a great support, but if we don’t connect to our relationship with our self, then true healing does not happen, it’s like only half is done.
This so wisely says it all: “How do you fight something that says “Bring it on, show yourself, let’s see the real you, not just all that irritation and anger, but the you that really wants to come out into the open; the you that is truly loving if you would let yourself feel it.”
I really love the quirkiness of your blog Joan – told with a delightful sense of fun and shows that truth does not always have to be a serious matter.
This is so amazing, a virulent skin rash talking about itself and saying: “She showed me that I am loving, as my very existence and expression on her skin has given her an important message about how she was living her life. Because she sees I was created out of her own choices and I am actually an illusion, she is changing and healing.” Brilliant and very inspiring, a deeply felt sense of what illness and disease are there for us to do and learn.
Thank you Gabriele – you have brilliantly put into words what I was feeling when I read Joan’s amazing blog.
When we listen deeply to our body’s much is revealed, we haven’t forgotten this ancient wisdom as much as turned our backs upon it, focusing on bettering and improving our life’s through technology and so called advancements. But have we really advanced or become more lost, more disconnected and wayward as humanity?
We may have become more advanced in technology, but is this at the expense of our bodies and our health? If we gave all the energy and focus that we give to technology to understanding and living health in the body, we would have a very different race of people. Joan has shown us how this can be done in much detail, and how this approach is so healing on many levels.
Definitely the latter. And we live in our heads waaay tooo muuuuch. Because when we listen to our bodies – as you say – much is revealed but in such an honest and loving way – and oh so simple. And quite often we dismiss these messages because we choose complexity over simplicity and we are not prepared to be really honest.
“She no longer needs me and is becoming lighter; if she keeps on choosing all this for herself, I must loosen my hold and fade away, and so we will move on together.”
I have never before understood that is us that need the illness, dis-ease, pain, and discomfort as human beings, our bodies are like a barometer that records our every move the way we speak and live. If we are in any way not living in a loving, respectful way towards our bodies’ and not expressing the love in our hearts then our bodies let us know very loud and clear with illness and disease. Seen in this way our aliments become a blessing as with out them we as a humanity would be even more wayward, reckless and out of control, doing exactly what we want with little or no regard as to the effects on our bodies and other people, let alone the environment and the planet we live on.
“She showed me that nothing could hurt her, especially not me, because there was something much, much deeper and more powerful inside her than me. I might be lurking in the deep recesses of her body, but she was learning there is MORE to her than her body. I started to feel a chemical change I could no longer fight. It felt like Alchemy, a long forgotten ancient ability of some humans like mine. I lost the control and am fading fast.” It feels that the more self love, deep self acceptance and appreciation we bring to our life’s and bodies, the less our physical ailments and diseases can stay in a body that vibration and frequency is being turned up. Think about it, if we walk around in anxiety, anger, fear, and depression Etc. the whole day it has to have a physical, chemical affect on the body’s chemistry over the years? The body which is designed to always bring harmony and balance, has to discard these un-natural ways and emotions we have dumped in it, so it causes illness and disease to clear them out and bring us back to love and She no longer needs me and is becoming lighter; if she keeps on choosing all this for herself, I must loosen my hold and fade away, and so we will move on together. Harmony, if we see illness and disease in this way, and willingly embrace what it’s trying to teach us, great can be the healing.
What amazing and unique way and manner you have described and have a relationship with a skin rash, it seems you have turned a extremely challenging physical condition into one of learning, looking deeply at the deeper bigger picture of what was going on, a very inspirational story for us all, thank you Joan.
Yes I agree Thomas, it is very inspirational, and so easy to connect to the truth of it….
Great point Gill, although there will be a time that there are no more issues, which in itself may be something to learn to be with. I have found we can recreate what we are familiar with to not feel the fact that there is nothing left that can keep us from taking complete and full responsibility for our lives.
A gorgeous blog Joan as it is a great way to show how we can communicate with our bodies and everything that is going on. If we do not react to what our body is showing us we can read what it is actually saying about the way we live and the emotions we hold on to.
Yes Carolien beautifully said – “If we do not react to what our body is showing us we can read what it is actually saying” and this is the building of a relationship with our body.
Joan another great thing about your blog was the identification that can come up with both emotions and illness. This to me is a symptom of living in emptiness as opposed to connecting to the essence within and understanding we are all a part of God. It’s actually very powerful to take responsibility for everything that happens to the body, otherwise the wayward part of us will run with it and create as much drama and emotion as possible. Far more nurturing is the self love and stillness!
Hi Joan, I really enjoyed your blog. I can relate to your line about living with emotions and that feeling like living in a “self-gratifying, addictive existence.” Stepping away from that to ” to live and dance with all the other particles that make up the Universe” sounds like an amazing invitation!
Another awesome thing about your story is how clearly you convey the healing and love in what must have been such an agonising and tormenting condition. Therefore, on reading the story instead of going into sympathy, one gets a blessing and deep understanding for a situation that involves everyone at one time or another and an opportunity to communicate with our bodies and selves in a whole new way.
Wow Joan what a beautiful read, that was amazing. Love is certainly the most powerful and transformational energy on earth.
Joan, your excellent blog gave me smiles, goosebumps, joy and laughter! The way you present your story is playful, deep, clear and so so brilliant. It is impossible to miss the point => fight the illness/dis-ease: your body fights back, or treat it with tender love and care: you are left with a tender, loving body. Nothing makes more sense. Thank you.
Not to give a name to the illness is a great step in the healing process, I love the idea that the particles of the illness are no longer bound to this specific identity. Brilliant.
Absolutely incredible blog, and so true. We are maybe talking about a bacteria here (or maybe not;)) But we are exactly on the dot of nailing something very very important here. Being it : We are more then our physical. And that everything that we have to accept within our lives is love – a love that is holding everyone equal and is steady and strong, eliminating everything that is abuse etc.. Simply because love is love and no abuse. Thank you Joan, superbly written. Made me truly ponder about how I life my life. Is it in order or out of context?!
Beautifully written Joan… from the inside out perspective!
Wow fantastically written Joan, I love that you brought love and appreciation to your body and the skin rash had to go, surely this must be the answer to most of our ills!
I just had the feeling that this would be so much better as a bedtime story than one of those usual old fairy tales. They used to frighten the life out of me. A child could actually learn about listening to their bodies and what a loving thing that is to do, self respect, love and appreciation.
Thank you Jeanette, you have offered me an inspiration which I am going to follow through. So many stories told to children are about being “heroic”, and submitting the body to many tests and trials of strength and endurance. However if the story was about how to be gentle with ourselves and our bodies, and so find out how that creates an inner strength and power through surrender, how much more of a preparation for a loving life that would be. We could all consider telling stories to children in this way whenever we are with them. Talking to my body and my body talking to me, what a wonderful conversation and story that could be!
That’s just gorgeous joanchristinecalder.
I love the idea of this bedtime story…
Joan thank you this is a beautiful example of how illness and disease is part of our bodies clearing and healing and something to embrace lovingly . This really does turn medicine around and offers the truth and answer everyone is so desperately seeking.
I wonder how much longer the majority of humanity is going to keep on ignoring what is so blatantly obvious, that there is method to the body’s ‘madness’ in showing us the errors in our ways of living, through rashes and other ailments, serious or not so much.
I overheard someone the other day saying how angry she was that her body had ‘let her down’ when she had ‘so much to do’. It is this attitude that helps to create illness and disease. Our bodies are simply lovingly telling us that something is wrong. What a refreshing way of looking at it. Perhaps people can actually feel this but are totally in denial of this truth in case it happens to be inconvenient.
Yep the truth of the matter is that she had let her body down. By listening to and nurturing our bodies we are capable of so much more with less effort.
When said like that kevmchardy “I let my body down”, it makes me feel the responsibility I have to lovingly support it, rather than blame it (“my body let me down”) for all the ills, the lack of regard for it that I, nobody else but me, put it through leading up to that point.
Thanks Joan for all you share here delivered with such lovely humor-full awareness and appreciation for what was happening with your body. From time to time I get a rash and it popped up again the other day. With the lovely support of your understanding I have surrendered deeper into appreciating that what ever it ‘is’ to come out, accept and appreciate this. I’ve done absolute minimal scratching just observed and surrendered more. A little pondering on what there is to learn but no thinking with resistance and irritation. Thank you for your inspiration to surrender deeply.
“…I might be lurking in the deep recesses of her body, but she was learning there is MORE to her than her body…” This is such an inspirational read Joan – your willingness to lovingly and honestly work through this illness is heartfelt.
A great blog defining how we should not be identified by any illness and disease and when the root of it is called out we have the awareness to live a lighter and true way to how we were living.
Very true Rik. We do have the opportunity to increase our awareness when the root of the condition or illness is called out, but so very often this truth is met with reaction and denial. The reason for an illness is usually the way that we have been choosing to live, therefore if someone is not willing to change the way they are living they will resist what the illness is trying to tell them. What I love about Joan’s story is that although she had resistance to the rash at first she was willing to be open to the lessons from it, and by doing so has transformed her quality of life.
Appreciating rather than giving our power away to the clearing from our bodies allows us to read the situation and understand deeper. This has brought an understanding to me that every occurrence of dis-ease is another love message from the body, and whether I accept this loving message would be the foundation and relationship I am building with my body.
I love your way of putting this, Adele, “every occurrence of dis-ease is another love message from the body”, – and by treating the dis-ease with love is also the way of healing it.
It is truly amazing to know that we are not being punished by these illnesses we find ourselves with, but are being given a gift, an opportunity to find out what’s underneath and to heal it once and for all. No longer am I seeing illness as curse and something to endure but as a blessing and an opportunity to go deeper with my body.
Yes, illness is indeed a gift, giving us an opportunity to stop and reflect on what is my part in this illness, what way have I been living that has not been loving and caused my body to have this ‘warning symptom’, as a way of communicating with me.
Yes absolutely it is a miracle in itself just to know that illness and disease is a blessing and opportunity.
Once again thank you Joan and Pityriasis Lichenoides for this blog. Every time I read it something different stands out for me to look at and learn. This time around it was the fact that when these illnesses and diseases arise it can be that we have chosen to uproot the whole plant so to speak, roots n’ all. What if illness and disease is a result of us saying ‘there is more to me that I can feel’ and the body, like a best friend pointing out clothes in our wardrobe that no long fit, helps by bringing out the what is not us? When I paused to feel the root of the main illness that I have chosen to be plagued by I couldn’t feel it, and if it was there it is faint. Now it feels like a case of accepting that the root is gone and saying, now with that out of my body – what do I feel to fill the ground (my body) with? what quality and what energy is naturally there wanting to fill this space that my body has helped create via the illness and disease?
You have taken it to a new place, Leigh … “What do I feel to fill the ground (my body) with? What quality and what energy is naturally there wanting to fill this space that my body has helped create via the illness and disease?” This is very significant, because if we do not go on building that new foundation we have discovered in ourselves, than the symptom can hop back in and start rooting again as soon as we leave space for it to do so by literally going into our emptiness.
This is a powerful comment Leigh. It acknowledges that the body clears itself of poison via illness and disease, and we have a choice to recreate the same poison in our bodies, or actively choose a different energy to live by.
Joan, this blog was fun to read and it conveys very clearly a deadly serious message; that we allow energy to control us and that once we see it is not us we have the power to stop creating it, or to vamp it up. Things like this rash can also be an opportunity to heal the results of past choices and an opportunity to make different and more loving choices on our way forward.
Loved the blog, great indicator of the power of self love and the gentle breath meditation
Very timely for me Joan! I will listen and respond in kind to what you have shared. Thank you.
What a fun and awesome way to present this Joan. A great insight into how illnesses can rule our life~ until we start to feel our worth and know our truth.
Joan what you share is such a powerful healing. Discovering you are so much more than your physical symptoms and choosing to feel with honesty what has been at the root of the symptoms is a gift to us all. Thank you for sharing what is possible when willing to go deeper. A medical mystery turned miracle.
When we are ready to let go of being the victim of our circumstances and learn to be patient with ourselves we allow ourselves to be powerful in claiming the truth of our particular predicament. As we slowly allow ourselves to connect to our own innate essence from within, we do as others have said become our own doctors, and are healed by the wondrous wisdom of the Universe that supports us in every moment.
Well said Susan .
I fully agree Elizabeth – this needs to be published widely – Joan’s playfulness and honesty could bring a new awareness and understanding of debilitating health issues in a different way.
Yes Annie, this is truly awesome, “to have the understanding that emotions, reactions and self hatred only feed the condition… and that we can have a totally different understanding and relationship with our illness. That we can love ourselves, learn from the choices we have made that allowed the ill condition to arise, and let the deeper ill come out to be released.” To look at illness and disease as a healing and clearing for the body rather than a burden and something to fight, would be revolutionary in the world of medicine and a true gift for all of humanity.
This is awesome – to have the understanding that emotions, reactions and self hatred only feed the condition… and that we can have a totally different understanding and relationship with our illness. That we can love ourselves, learn from the choices we have made that allowed the ill condition to arise, and let the deeper ill come out to be released. Illness can be the healing and clearing we need if we let it guide us to greater wisdom and understanding.
Yes, its not about getting rid of the symptom or what is presenting, but reading, listening and honouring the body so the underlying energetic cause can be healed, ‘let the deeper ill come out to be released. Illness can be the healing and clearing we need if we let it guide us to greater wisdom and understanding.’
How beautiful are our bodies that they tell us everything that we need to know. All we have to do is interpret correctly.
Our bodies do tell us everything we need to know and in my case, when that wasn’t enough, my dog’s body started to get sick!
All we have to do is listen to what our body is saying.. then one day we might not need to let any ‘rush’ inside of our body!
It is listening to your body’s wisdom but having first a relationship with our bodies so we can hear what our body is telling us in its way…how supportive and loving is the body to us!
It is so wonderful when we allow our bodies to do the talking – they have a lot to say and we can learn a lot by listening.
If only we would choose to permanently give over communication to our bodies we would learn and know a lot more than only being fed thoughts into our minds from elsewhere.
It would seem there is much to discern about being fed anything in relation to our well-being.
“How do you fight something that says ‘Bring it on, show yourself, lets see the real you’. So very true. What you share Joan is amazing and so inspirational. The many lessons that we can learn from our amazing, honest bodies. If we choose to listen.
Our bodies are communicating and reflecting back to us all the time – it is like learning a new language, it takes a bit of time and understanding and developing a new vocabulary, but a whole exciting world opens up.
True Nicole – and we have the very simple choice to respond and listen. There is no point going along with what someone else does – there is no ‘best practice for what to eat, how to exercise, how to express’ – whilst there are certainly role models, the best advice we can ever have is by truly listening and learning to our bodies. I can say I have been someone who has always followed others, but recently, and especially being pregnant, I have dropped all this and simply let go of trying to be someone for others. To truly listen to my body has cut anxiousness and tension away, and I realise how much I was holding onto before, when all I needed to do was just listen to me.
It is an eye opener as you start to reconnect the amount of ideals and beliefs that we can have riddled throughout our bodies.
I love that metaphor, that listening to our bodies is like learning a new language. I agree, that a whole exciting world opens up!
I have found that I disconnected at such an early age form the natural rhythm of my body but the memory and understanding was as strong and true as I have relearned to connect.
Joan, the joy I can feel in your writing confirms how you have mastered to deal with your skin rash. Awesome.
Yes Kerstin, there is much joy in this. It is quite something to learn how to love a skin rash that is itchy and irritating and trust that it is actually loving in its presence. I can feel that when Joan finally accepted the skin rash this was the turning point for healing.
Wow, imagine what would happen with illness and disease if people chose to deeply love and accept what was presenting, to listen to and honour this symptom, ‘I can feel that when Joan finally accepted the skin rash this was the turning point for healing.’ Amazing.
Great blog and way of expressing about how symptoms we have in our bodies do speak to us, it is up to us to listen and work out what it means for us.
Absolutely, making it literal as in the blog really shows how much our bodies are saying to us all the time, if we choose to listen to or be aware of if we can.
And they can tell us so much, bringing about true, and lasting, change.
I agree Raegan, we hold the key to understanding and thus debasing the root cause of all our illnesses and diseases.
The ‘food of irritation and anger’… how interesting. I have at times experienced skin rashes, over recent years mostly around my jawline and neck, indicating a release of frustration and control, expectation and opening up of my expression. It usually occurs when I let go more in my body and often after sun exposure, which feels like the healing light of the sun bringing out the patterns for me to release. Once I acknowledge this, actively release expectation and express myself more consistently, it seems to subside quite quickly.
That is interesting emmadanchin, about the sunlight. During the time I was seeking “relief” by UV treatment at the hospital, the nurses told me to go out in the sun as much as possible for short periods at a time, and let my skin heal. They were very insistent that using sun block prevented this healing process and was now considered to be more dangerous than the rays, and also prevented Vitamin D absorption, another skin healer. Within reason, of course, but that is all part of taking tender care of oneself. For me, Pityriasis Lichenoides is associated with damp, and it hates the sun’s warmth and light, rather like Gollum in “Lord of the Rings”. When we are in the sun we relax and let go, and the irritation and anger have no place. Now that is another metaphor for choosing love as our source of being, and living it, where there is no room for all those angry thoughts and feelings, (and hence no irritating rash).
All amazing insights Joan. It feels like when we surrender our body to the light of our Soul, harmony and true power is possible.
A great reminder Emma about the powerful cleansing ability of the light of the sun. I have often felt subtle things in my body that feel foggy or cloudy within me clear after sitting in the sun. I also felt clearer mentally and emotionally afterwards. It seemed to draw out the dampness, evaporating it as it would dampness on the grass. There is so much more to life than we realise.
Absolutely Melinda – we are surrounded by nature which abounds in magical opportunities of cleansing, healing and nurturing – we simply have to tune in.
Congratulations on your journey of discovery to unravel these rashes and skin irritations, to discover that you are so much more and completely debase the symptoms. I enjoyed reading from the perspective of the rash, feeling the energetic interplay of the particles, all particles of the universe, ultimately being free to change their behaviour once your awareness made this possible.
Joan, you have beautifully described the chemical change that gradually occurs when we begin to choose to be gentle and present with our bodies, ‘the long forgotten ancient ability of alchemy’. We are so incredibly powerful. We live in a way that denies and diminishes this power and yet when we allow ourselves to be deeply still, the power of our oneness is vast. When we see illness as a gift, a loving support to guide ourselves into more awareness, love and connection, we are so very blessed with this wisdom.
I love this comment Emma. We are indeed capable of alchemy, and this is possible if we choose to live in a way that honours this, as Joan has so beautifully shared.
Thank you Rebecca. I now understand that alchemy occurs when we surrender our body to the divine will of God. Something so very beautiful and amazing, our divine purpose for living.
Our understanding of what we are capable of is limited by our beliefs of who we are. We are capable of more than we know and opening to that fact can in itself begin a healing process.
Gorgeous words emmadanchin – you really do appreciate the body and all if offers us. As you say, illness can be a gift – many would fight this, but when we look at the truth of what illness offers us, it is a reflection of how we have been living and an opportunity to change our ways. We are always presented with choices, and the body will respond accordingly. What a gift for our bodies to ‘talk’ to us and show us what is loving and what is not.
‘When we see illness as a gift, a loving support to guide ourselves into more awareness, love and connection, we are so very blessed with this wisdom.’ It is an important messenger, reminding us to listen and honour our bodies.
Linking the fact that a chemical change in our bodies is directly related to how we are in our bodies is HUGE. Our body responds to how we treat it, and with that, it has the capacity to suffer or heal. As you share – illness can be a gift.
Playing victim to what is going on in our bodies does not support healing on any level. When we see our ailments as a gift, an opportunity to look within and see where we have been living and our symptoms of dis-ease in the body are reflected to us to heal we are freed to live more of who we truly are.
Margaret what you share here turns the way we approach our health, our vitality and wellbeing on its head. To consider that our illness is not the issue but a way of our body showing us something about the way we have been or are living is not supporting our body puts the level of responsibility back on ourselves to truly heal. From here we can get the support that is needed, as Joan’s blog shares in her story from the rash itself.
Yes David it does and it is time to turn the way we approach our health, vitality and wellbeing on its head and when we look at the rapidly rising statistics of illness and disease it is time for humanity to take responsibility for our health and wellbeing. For too long humanity has been going to doctors looking for a magic pill to numb and override the ailments our bodies offer as warning signs that the body is in disharmony so we can continue to live self-abusive lifestyles in disregard for our bodies.
Spot on Margaret – it is so commonplace for people to get caught up in playing victim to illness and disease which, unfortunately, is unwittingly reinforced by sympathetic family and friends.
Victim is a role I think we have probably all played in various situations at some stage in our lives. Sympathy feeds victim mentality, by presenting true to all circumstances we offer a new perspective to be felt and considered. I know for me there has been times when truth has been presented and I have reacted because I didn’t want to hear it but when I sat with it and felt it I appreciated hearing it and was able to move on from being stuck in a role I didn’t realise I was in.
I love how you have expressed, Joan, in a very humorous and playful way taking the seriousness away from the illness and seeing it more as a teacher than an enemy.
Yes kerstinsalzer15 they say life is ‘one big lesson ‘ and from Joan’s experience and my own I have learnt some strong lessons from my body. Now I know I do not get away with any disregarding behaviours, they are always lovingly presented for me to look at.
It takes courage to see our problems as our points of learning. Well worth the path though!
So true Kerstin, life is one big teacher if we but choose to be the students of ourselves !
I agree Kerstin, Joan’s sharing was fun and playful, whilst still conveying its important message.
Thank you Joan and Kerstin, I also find the way in which Joan presents this blog very humorous and yet the reality is life can be a great teacher if we take the time to be play-fully loving.
Thanks for sharing Joan, embracing what symptoms and feelings we are having is key to understanding what is going on for us and learning from them. Our body is an awesome marker for truth and when something happens to it we have to ask why, ok what is my role in it? and not simply try to suppress, bury or fix it.
I was pondering today about the various symptoms that we feel are layers of lived choices in life James. If we take the opportunity to listen to what they are saying we can clear them one by one to come to the core of ourselves, and accept our divinity within. I realised today Ii is like the labours of Hercules; cut off one head and another one appears to be seen, felt and listened to. We are evolving, there is no end, for there is more and more love to be felt, and the more we connect with it, the more we will feel what is next to be cleared and healed. What a journey! It is never boring.
That’s a great comparison Joan, the depth of our love is endless. Everytime I come to a point thinking ok I’ve got it, there is more waiting.
I have had similar experiences Lee and I feel too that the body assists us in every way it can to heal from any disharmony.
Oh so comfortable and easy Lee, to immediately go into the drama and anxiety and wanting to fix it mentality! And I do mean “MENTAL”. Just last week in the lead up to full moon, always a big clearing time for me, after three months of being completely clear of Pityriasis Lichenoides, a few tiny patches started to appear in places where I hadn’t had it before. My wayward arrogant spirit did not want them to be there, and went into poor me again. But there they were, and I cannot avoid the message from my beautiful body — “This is me loving you and showing you there is more to be cleared and healed.” and then I was again accepting and welcoming what is happening. This shows me that I am deepening in my true relationship with myself. I don’t even have to ask, “What is this about?” but just FEEL what is there for me to take notice of.
Just inspiring Joan – the way you now approach messages from your body is a healing in itself. For us to bring understanding to how our body behaves is to not treat it as a faulty mechanism, but to stop and listen. Yes there are lots of things that can happen to the body, but perhaps the joy of this is that is speaks to us loud and clear and is a result of how we are living. To bring this wisdom to health is to heal where we are at and work with the body not against it.
Yes H.V.Morden, I agree. Working with the body feels allowing and loving and gentle, whereas fighting the body and resisting a disease creates tension and anxiety. How many people talk about fighting cancer? It seems to be the current attitude, and many are commended for their fight and “winning” it. Yet, even if they return to full health — who has won? The cancer is still the winner because its underlying energy has not been cleared and healed , so still drives the patient into the same old behaviour patterns and way of life, nothing has changed and an opportunity has been lost.
Absolutley hvmorden. Understanding that when our body gets sick is not because there is a faulty mechanism, but rather a reflection of how we have been living our lives up to that point, and it is calling us to stop and listen to the underlying messages it is sending us. Only when we begin to do this can we bring about true healing.
Thankyou Joan for your comment here. We also fight life in the same way you describe fighting the body and illness. We fight situations, want things to be different, react and get emotional, instead of accepting and allowing, and working with whatever life presents in a loving and gentle way. There is a purpose to everything it seems. For me the reactions are often bigger than the situations that present themselves, making the situation seem much bigger than it actually is. Loving responsibility certainly brings a simplicity to life and a steadiness, as opposed to the fluctuating highs and lows of emotion.
I agree H.V.Morden and Joan, for us to not to treat the body as a faulty mechanism, fighting the battle against disease, but instead to bring understanding and listen to what the body is telling us with love and gentleness. When we get medical treatment and professional care we greatly assist the process.
I agree Melinda we have a history of fighting ourselves, situations, health conditions and getting caught up in emotional turmoil because of this. Thanks to Serge Benhayon’s presentations we can all know there is a far more harmonious way to live.
“Loving responsibility certainly brings a simplicity to life and a steadiness, as opposed to the fluctuating highs and lows of emotion”.
I can relate to having a wayward arrogant spirit not wanting to take responsibility. I often choose the arrogance of my spirit when it comes to my health and ignore the little gifts offered by my body overriding the dis-ease in my body usually with foods that give me energy to push on through my day ignoring the messages to rest my body is offering me.
Such wise words Joan “accepting and welcoming what is happening”. A beautiful example of elder energy inspiring all. Thank you.
Wow Joan – this is so so powerful and inspiring. Such an awesome learning to never be daunted by anything that comes our way – just lovingly embrace it!
Joan this is beautiful to read that you are appreciating a deeper level of healing presenting itself for you to feel and surrender to. I love the honesty you are expressing with. The ‘Poor me’ mentality has definitely gone out of the window!
A forever call and invitation. Our bodies are always talking to us – our willingness to listen is our choice.
A very powerful perspective of the true healing that is possible when we no longer react or play victim to what is going on in our bodies but rather embrace it as an opportunity to look within and be honest with how we have been truly living with ourselves.
Beautifully said Penelope – building the awareness and understanding that Joan has, is the power of Love in action. A Healing for us all.
The body is indeed capable of true healing, we just need to know how we caused the illness and disease in the first instance. Because we think we have got away with so many disregarding, unloving behaviours we have no part in their manifestation, but true healing will only occur when we go back and fully uncover our lack of self love and lay a new foundation. Then we are clear to heal.
Totally agree Penelope. The victim approach keeps us stuck, trapped and playing the blame game – leaving no room for an ounce of truth as to what is really going on.
Yes Penelope….I too found this writing incredibly powerful. I could feel the sinister energy that the rash was living in and that it is a war when you go head to head. But to come at from another angle, as an opportunity be honest and understand why this is going on, the whole relationship changes and a new way forward is revealed. Stunning piece of writing, thank you Joan.
Absolutley agree Penelope. It comes down to taking full responsibility for the way we live, as this ultimately is reflected in our health and well being, and whether that is positive or not.
Yes Penelope, bringing honesty to what is going on in the body can at times be a challenge, we want it to be different and yet. Being able to embrace what it is sharing with us, can be a process, one of responsibility and also bringing love, love to a body that we have many a time, neglected, protected or abused.
Absolutely Penelope. Our way of living affects our health in a myriad of ways so it is definitely worth embracing exactly how this is affecting our bodies.
Penelope, your words come with the power of having lived this yourself – “embrace it as an opportunity to look within” – this allowing opens up the potential for true healing far beyond the disappearance of symptoms.
Great point Penelope, there is no point playing victim to what we have created in our bodies, as harsh as that may feel at times. Honesty and understanding supports us to appreciate our situation.
That is true Penelope, it is really powerful to see it like this, as this is a way where I am taking my responsibility, instead of feeling helpless or playing the card of not knowing what to do.
Most recently I awoke with heavy bruising on my left thigh with absolutely no reason for it being there – I had not hurt myself and yet there it was tender as anything and starting to colour quickly. After the initial figuring out and analytics, the woe is me, how could this happen dramatics – I started to realise that this was a sign of how I had been living. Beating myself up was what was being now seen on the outside – often never seen on the inside – so the perfect way to let me know that this behaviour is deeply harming and bruising to me as a whole. Amazing how the body is guiding me through the lessons I need to feel and learn from.
Yes Lee, our bodies are amazing at showing us how we have been living, when we so readily try and lay the blame on some outer situation that may have caused the problem. How our lives would change if we learnt to read our bodies in this way – we really would become our own doctors!
Yes Sandra it is interesting how we can look to find something or someone else to blame about what it is the body is telling us but the more we listen and act on what the body is telling us then the body can work with us not against us.
Thank you for simply highlighting what is true Sandra. It will go this way again Sandra sooner or later, we will learn to read our bodies more just as we did in former great civilisations where there was a high lived wisdom and where esoteric healing was a part of everyday life. It is returning again.
Yes Dean, indeed it is, and there are many of us who are doing exactly that, learning to read our bodies again in the same way that it was done many aeons ago.
So it’s not really the latest in alternative medicine or new age quackery is it – Esoteric Healing has been around for as long as human civilisation itself.
No Dean its not. And when you put it so clearly, it of course makes complete sense that ‘Esoteric Healing has been around for as long as human civilisation itself’, because all people had then was there bodies to listen to, and listen they did. All that we have created since has just been a way of trying to better ourselves, but have ended up losing that deep connection to ourselves in the process.
This is the key Sandra – reading each and every thing, however small it may seem.
I love this thread as it resonates with the age old knowing of true medicine within us. Serge Benhayon once said that western medicine is what should be called alternative, as the working with and from the body, Universal Medicine, has been around for all time.
Am for EM
Wow Lee his is an amazing example of how the body will go to any length to get our attention to show us how we have been living and the dis-harmony. Your body offering you a reflection of how you have been beating yourself up on the inside is such a support for your learning. this is really something to be appreciated. We sometimes override the less obvious messages it has been offering to us, leaving the body no other option but to increase the intensity of the message.
Margaret Shadforth great point – it has to talk louder if we do not listen to its whispers.
Lee, I have been getting bruises on my body and the scary thing is that I sometimes don’t remember bumping or knocking myself which means I wasn’t very aware in the moment it happened. I have been endeavouring to stay more present as I move rather than projecting myself to the next thing and I notice then that my movement is more fluid but when I start to get ahead of myself, I find myself knocking or bumping things and even a gentle tap can cause a big bruise so my body is letting me know I just can’t do this any more.
Brilliant Sandra, staying present and with my body is a daily moment by moment practice. The body talks very loudly and if we don’t listen it starts to shout…
It is certainly true that if we don’t listen our bodies start to shout, however the more we listen the more we can hear and the louder and quicker our body appears to speak. In the past when I drank alcohol and used to numb myself with bad food and lots of emotions I was not aware of many body symptoms, although they were there. Instead I was on track for dementia or some take me out illness or accident. As I have grown to respect, love and develop a relationship with my body I hear the messages clearer and louder. It is a blessing to have this communication, so when we do get a message such as the bruises you both mentioned, we can see it as something great that we have the communication and that we are listening, make the changes to our living ways that our beautiful body is offering and appreciate ourselves, our body and our choice to learn and evolve.
Sandra our body is far more delicate than we realise. It’s great to feel this and find more opportunities for self care, and of regarding oneself as precious and valuable.
It is miraculous that our bodies are able to do this, it is whether we are aware enough to pay attention to those signs, as more often than not when we notice a bruise or other injury we immediatley question, ‘how/when did I do that?’ If it’s our bodies showing us how we are living rather than a result of an actual injury, it is no wonder we often find it hard to remember when or how it happened.
I agree Sandra – it often takes some time to be re-connecting with our body at a deeper level to begin to listen to its ever present wisdom rather than numbing out from it. I don’t always like the messages or reminders that expose where I have not been living in a harmonious way but am able to appreciate it offers much for me to learn from it continuously.
This makes perfect sense Lee, I also had a big bruise recently on my calf muscle with no recognition of how it got there, yet if I feel back to how I have been with myself this week there are times when I internally give myself a unnecessary hard time. This is a great wake up call to be the love we are rather then focusing on our imperfections.
Great sharing Lee. The body is so very wise and it is incredible how it can share with us where we are out of alignment with living our natural way.
To see illness as a gift to highlight what we are not, a way to heal unwanted emotional behaviours which the body turns into a physicality, turns medicine on its head.
Completely Gina, we are no longer at the mercy of feeling helpless or not knowing what to do.
What I felt was profound about your beautiful sharing Joan, was to understand what the symptoms were telling you about how you were living in order to arrest those emotional behaviours which weren’t you – and so in line with this understanding, you then actually demonstrated LOVE and APPRECIATION towards the conditions. To feel how you filled the body up with love to heal the illness instead of anger and frustration resonates and bursts out of your blog just as the same as you can feel and sense the love is now bursting out of your body.
So we start to drip feed love into our bodies, which definitely displaces anything that is not love, and over time all the disregard, abuse, self-loathing, criticism etc. has to overflow out… as skin conditions, illness and/or disease. I totally get this as healing and a blessing.
Such amazing science Matilda, of the body. If the body did not release this as illness, then we would not have the opportunity to understand the behaviour root cause. To see this as a gesture of love is so important; to become aware of our choices and behaviours without going into judgement is vital, instead to lovingly make different choices. To see the whole process as pure love, to experience and understand our failures is part of the process in order to return to that love.
The skin rash’s story is superbly and humorously told, and what a pure reflection it offered its host who has willingly learnt from its presence. I especially enjoyed how through the Gentle Breath Meditation, the light of the soul drew the rash out of hiding in the damp and dark recesses of the body.
Yes, this demonstrates how powerful the gentle breath meditation is. The rash was living dormant until this meditation was practised. It could no longer hide.
Yes, Deanne, a beautiful example of how by bringing love into the body we can heal all of our ill choices.
This is story telling at its best, Joan. How great would it be to put together a book of allegories like this, about true health and well-being. Let’s talk…
Joan or should I say Hostess I love the real and playful way in which you have written this. My whole body feels still like every cell has heard and understands what can play out in the body when we feed it unnatural emotions. With the loving changes you have made, you offered a loving way forward for every part of your being including your friend. It’s funny that the rash starts with the word ‘Pity’.
Great point Deborah, “an ill will lose its grip on us when we let go of our tight hold on it and see it in its true light.” Our own understanding plays a greater role in healing than we currently generally accepted. Brilliant example here Joan, in the power you have afforded yourself.
I applaud your wisdom delivered with such playfulness and warmth.
It is true as you say that an ill will lose its grip on us when we let go of our tight hold on it and see it in its true light.
A beautiful testament to the beautiful, wise and sacred woman you are Joan, we are all blessed reading all of what ‘you’ share…deeply supportive and illuminating.
Joan, I love the way you have the rash negating itself, and no longer being able to take control in it’s reckless way – “I am growing up to realise there is more outside this skin I have created eruptions on, and I no longer look like my old self, in fact sometimes I can make no mark, I am not there at all. “
I agree Rosanne, it just shows how powerful our bodies are and how we can heal some deep lingering conditions, by working with our body and making living choices.
Joan Calder, I have learned so much from reading your journey. Thank you for sharing, it is really amazing all the unfoldment you have gone through all these years! and the clarity you now have. Your amazing strength and steadiness can be felt, completely the opposite to the person that was permanent living in emotional reactions and in the torture of feeling identified with something that was painfully happening on a physical level. I feel this is such a huge thing many, many of us haven´t been able to understand, feel and master. I can relate to it all. It is a great support for anyone that is or has gone through a long term health issue, and finds it super hard to see it from a different perspective, missing the amazing opportunity this is to return to the true power that lies inside, through which a great clearing can take place.
Joan’s transformation from living in emotional turmoil to her current amazing strength and steadiness is an inspiration for all. And out of the ashes of ‘Pityriasis Lichenoides’ has emerged a world-class storyteller!
I love this blog Joan. Powerfully written. We can so easily fall into the trap of becoming our disease , you break it down in a way that reveals it all.
This is a great point Jenny, that we indeed can become identified as our disease or illness, preventing us from going deeper and looking and taking responsibility for our choices.
I loved this! This is how I would like to learn about all illness. Thank you!
Me too Abby. It really sunk in and I could completely feel the level of responsibility came down to ones choices. A great children’s book on healthy choices could be written in this manner.
Wow, Love truly changes the world – inside and out. Thank you Joan for helping me to understand how the choices we make become the force that brings the future to us now. I loved your comment – ‘She showed me that I am loving, as my very existence and expression on her skin has given her an important message about how she was living her life’. There is much to be pondered here on taking energetic responsibility in the way we live our lives and loving ourselves as the truth unfolds.
What A beautiful relationship you are developing with your body and a enjoyable sharing the way you write Joan thank you.My skin also shows me what is going on and becomes alive and itchy when i am clearing energy from my body and speaks loud and clear and calls for a surrender and allowing of what is needed.
Yep me too Marika I loved that analogy it’s very powerful. It makes me wonder what my body would say if I literally handed it a microphone. Although it would be louder and clearer and I would not be able to escape what it says I can still do this and listen to my body without the microphone … although a microphone would be good … or maybe a megaphone!!!!!!!
I find this very beautiful to reread once again. It shows so clearly that the truest medicine is to Be Love, nothing more nothing less. And in fact that by not being love in the first place, we are allowing the illnesses and diseases to exist.
Thank you Joshua so beautifully and simply said the “truest medicine is to Be Love, nothing more nothing less.”
Another amazing story that can inspire people, so many of whom feel the hopelessness of long term illness.
Wow Joan, a powerful piece of writing that had me wanting to read more. You certainly have turned illness and disease on its head. If we can take what you have written and apply it to any ill we experience then how we view illness and disease would have to change. We are then no longer victims but become the masters of our body.
Our bodies get ill for a reason. If we can embrace this and look at our lifestyle choices, we can vastly reduce illness and genetic predispositions to disease in our lives.
Absolutely – to bring this understanding to Humanity and to live it’s wisdom will surely change the state of illness and disease as we know it and return us all to much needed healing.
Dear Joan, thank you I was riveted by what you wrote. Imagine medical books being written like that, now that is a science I would love to read about. Combining energy and the physical, what a powerful combination and the only way true healing is possible.
Laura that would certainly bring things to life, what a great way of allowing children and adults to actually understand what is going on with so many conditions and our body. We would have a very different relationship with illness and disease if it was understood like the way Joan has presented it.
Yes, Laura B, teaching about the human body could naturally be done in a very inspiring and accessible way like this.
Laura B, that is exactly what I felt too about how different it would be to study medicine and nursing if we had books written in this way. What I loved about this way of writing is that it puts the person at the centre and disease and illness in its rightful place.
Yes Laura – I too would be interested in the science and true alchemy if medical books were written in this way.
Great point Laura, it would be an approach that would change the whole perspective for the study of medicine and health.
Yes, this would be a much more engaging way of learning about illness. And a way that is understandable and one we can relate to.
I could feel how children could relate to medical books being written in this way. I could really relate and understand what was happening in the human body from the perspective of the illness speaking. Very clever.
Insightful ways to explain the energetic at play – this would be amazing for everyone.
Beautifully expressed Joan. I love the playfulness of your description, how apt is our bodies in giving us the powerful messages. out loud to support us to return to who we truly are. I definitely have had my share of powerful message, but thankfully I am beginning to read them more easily these days.
I had not realised that Floris, that my energy in this respect is the mothering holding energy, so unused am I to experiencing that for myself. It is amazing how a rash can bring me to a place of claiming myself and knowing the power of the femaleness within. Thank your for your appreciation of that, and expressing how you feel, How beautiful that a man can give the gift back to a woman.
” If she does not react in an inflammatory way but chooses to actually love me for what I am showing her, then I have no reason for being at all.” If, and when, humanity reflects on life in the same way, we will have Heaven on Earth and we will have no reason to be here.
Thank you, Joan. It is great to feel the playfulness in your description of the relationship you have developed with your body and its communications.
Thank you Joan – Reading your blog written from the perspective of Pityriasis Lichenoides is very revealing as it helps to expose our own behaviour and choices and the energetic effects they have on the physical manifestations in our bodies.
Revealing and very clearly said, I love Joan’s words with the disease speaking – ‘but she was learning there is MORE to her than her body. I started to feel a chemical change I could no longer fight. It felt like Alchemy, a long forgotten ancient ability of some humans like mine. I lost the control and am fading fast.
She showed me that I am loving, as my very existence and expression on her skin has given her an important message about how she was living her life. Because she sees I was created out of her own choices and I am actually an illusion, she is changing and healing.’
All too often it feels like we are at the mercy of an illness and that we have to grin and bear it, and manage it the best we can, but what you have offered here Joan is a deeper understanding that there is more to an illness than just being inconvenient and that there is so much more to learn if we care to look a little deeper.
We are so like sponges, we suck up and take on all sorts of things if we are not discerning where we put ourselves and so eventually it has to come out at some stage. Probably much easier to never take it on in the first place.
Beautifully said Elizabeth – “..our illnesses are not who we are, but are a call for us to lovingly take a look beneath the surface of our symptoms to see what they are revealing to us.”
Joan Calder I absolutely loved your sharing and the release of the old self-identifying fortifying ways. The reclaiming of your love as the core of your being is the alchemy that comes through in the playfulness of your writing.
I feel the gentle breath mediation could benefit all of us, with or without a rash, and whatever is going on in our lives. It supports in creating a fundament where we can stay with ourselves and breathe our own breath. This is key in the hectic world we are living in.
So true Mariette, staying with ourselves is key in this hetic world we have created for ourselves. I find these days that the gentle breath meditation has and continues to support me through many stressful situations, enabling me to anchor to a strong sense of stillness in my body that supports me to hold a steady course through the ups and downs of life. What a gift from Heaven and such a simple tool to share with others.
It does, and the beautiful thing is, it is always with us and we don’t have to go anywhere to just start breathing our gentle breath. By breathing our own breath, we can live and be in the hectic world, but we don’t get affected by it.
I agree Mariette, and the reason that when I started to Gentle Breathe and the rash came out, it was because I had not been breathing my own breath or feeling the stillness within me. The rash was the result of having lived a life taking in everything from outside me and letting it affect me, and having huge emotional reactions to it. The Gentle Breath Meditation just exposed (literally!) the underlying root of my dis-ease.
Thank you Joan for providing yet another gem! If we are not breathing our own breath as in the quality of our essence as stillness, we must be taking in the qualities that we are around in the world. Hence the beginning of the toxic roundabout of absorption and reaction and the layers of emotions that fuel illness and disease.
Beautifully expressed Jenny, and how simple it is when we perceive it that way. The first thing we do when we come into this world is breathe our own breath, and it is very gentle, and natural. As Serge Benhayon often mentions — breathe like a baby, gently.
This is a such a whole new way to look at a rash and with that, to other dis-eases. Normally we just think oh I have a rash and I have to get rid of it. What you share is such an eye opener, as you really go to the root of why you had the rash in the first place.
It’s beautiful how as you have developed the consistency of your livingness Joan, Pityriasis Lichenoides is not able to be a host or be welcomed into your body, but dismissed and diffused with Love from the hostess.
What is very clear in this article is how powerful our choice to react or not react to the illness that comes up in our body – are we it or is it happening to us? – they feel very different. Do we observe or do we fall into the emotions of it all? There is a lot to ponder here about how we respond to illness and disease.
Joan what a gorgeous piece of writing. I love the dialogue for it perfectly captures the relationship we can have with our bodies, how neither is in ‘control’, but how both can work harmoniously together.
Hilarious, I was laughing and laughing, there were some quiet moments as well, but the way you wrote this is inspired! So playful and really felt like you got to the root of the rash and how it had had a free reign over the ‘hostess’. I really got to feel what it feels like in the body to begin to make new choices and heal old hurts, the alchemy, the transformation of energy occurring and so the results are felt in the body through the lack of flare up of rashes etc, very powerful.
If only our body could talk – hold on…..it does!!!!!
And I get to choose is to connect to my energetic hearing and senses to simply understand what’s being relayed around my body. A far wiser way to hear what’s going on rather than a major outbreak or diagnosis.
Loud and clear.
Yes Elizabeth, my body agrees with you.
Every day in every way our bodies talk, with exhaustion, with aches, with pain, or possibly with joy and enthusiasm for the day ahead!
It is huge what you are presenting here Joan. I know for me whenever I have become unwell it has often felt very difficult to accept it. It seems like such an ingrained habit of going into fright or fight mode when things happen in our physical bodies. One of the gems you are presenting here is that if we truly accept that we are multi-dimensional beings and much more than physical bodies, then there is a way to connect to our divine essence which is untouched by the illness. The illness is simply there to show us the way back to living our divinity in full. Beautiful.
“The illness is simply there to show us the way back to living our divinity in full. Beautiful.” So beautifully put Andrew and what a complete reversal of our attitude towards illness and disease. We have so much to gain from taking time to stop, feel and consult the symptoms, as they are offering us the opportunity to discover something profound about our selves and the way we live through our lives.
I have often wondered about that Andrew, how much of the physical pain is actually debilitating us and how much is it the emotions and reactions towards such bodily processes? I feel it is more the latter than the former that makes us the most ill and prolongs the healing process.
Interesting point Leigh, there is definitely a lot of emotion in discomfort, yet there is a real power in acceptance of disease, taking it as a reflection of what we have chosen, and not being emotional about it surely creates less reactions and thus a more surrendered body better placed to heal the ill with less pain being suffered.
To not react to illness and disease and to actually embrace it and welcome the message it is giving us about how we are living is a revolutionary change in how we view medicine.
And humour is great medicine Andrew and the best antidote to reaction I know.
Hear Hear Rachel, nothing like the ability to be playful and use humour as we take responsibility for our choices. It can often prevent us falling into the pattern of beating ourselves up for our disregard.
Humour – To be applied liberally and daily, as often as needed.
love it Rachel, it’s so true, that well placed humour can cut through some of my most committed bouts of wallowing:-)
Committed wallowing….oh yes! I do know that one very well indeed. Very good for a giggle, unfortunately it often happens too late to stop the wallowing process….
‘Humour – to be applied liberally and daily – as often as needed’ – prescribed by a doctor (just in case we needed that authority!) Apply immediately when the first symptoms of ‘wallowing’ appear and re-apply responsibly and attentively until the symptoms subside.
It is a also a wonderful preventive for wallowing Matilda, and it is non addictive. The major side-effect is that you will start to enjoy life and people will love to be around you. I would all recommend that we apply a little, daily.
That it is Andrew. Becoming ill definitely has its challenges and many illnesses are quite difficult to deal with but it is time to re-define the illness model that is currently practiced.
Absolutely Andrew – we can learn so much from our bodies, and whilst doctors are brilliant at what they do, there is room for a personal reflection and understanding of what is behind what is going on with our bodies. It comes with the fact that everything is energy, and therefore something that happens to our bodies will always offer us a message. To approach medicine in this way, bringing more of an understanding to it, is to truly heal.
So true Andrew, taking responsibility and listening to our body is a beautiful medicine.
Well said Andrew – if this was true in all cases this would be a monumental shift in our health and social care systems.
Listening to what a disease has to offer is a pathway for true healing.
Joan, I love the way you have given the voice to the dis-ease in your body and how by connecting to the gentle breath and by letting go of emotions you have taken away the energy that was feeding it. I love that you have learnt to appreciate what the rash is communicating to you when it chooses to show itself and how little by little its strength has weakened as you have grown stronger. A beautiful account of how much emotions, like anger and frustration, impact our health and well being.
Hello my name is haemorrhoid, I come back to haunt Kevin when he holds back his light.
I love your humor kevmchardy. You share the absolute truth in such a light-hearted way. Our body does tell us the truth no matter what. Imagine a book for children about how much our body is sharing with us. Now that would be educational!
Yes indeed there would be much laughter and honesty if this was revealed in a children’s book and truly educational.
love it Kevmchardy. The sun does shine out of your rear 🙂
Rolling around on the floor laughing!!! You guys!
I did not realise that I have been sitting on my light for so long and not allowing it to see the light of day!
Hello Haemorrhoid, don’t give up, make him feel it every time he does that and success will be yours. Success? well it means we have to surrender! with love Pityriasis Lychenoides x
I love every bit of this blog and this comment. This method could be applied to any dis-ease we have in life.
This blog and these comments are so precious. Thank you everyone.
More Kevmchardy, less haemorrhoid please.
Pleased to meet you haemorrhoid, do you know where Kevin is as I want to say that I love him that much? 😊
Love your comment Kevin and your ‘light-full humour. Let me introduce my old self: my name is Mrs Emotional, addicted to emotions; my own and those of others…. which prevented my light from shining….
Yep it’s good to put a bit of humour into illness and disease even though it can be a pain in the arse.
Sorry, Haemorrhoid, I cannot see you (phew!) Kevin McHardy is simply too beautiful.
To me this blog shows so clearly how we are giving our power away to illness and diseases when we call it by an impressive name and by its outer appearance, but rarely by the roots that is causing it, so as to avoid our own responsibility in its existence. By acting in this way, we in turn avoid supporting our bodies in healing the root cause of the illness, that it is bringing up in order to heal itself from the abuse we have let in, and by doing so we allow this abuse to further ingrain into our system. Sounds not that intelligent to me and for me it is time to look to the underlying causes of any illness or disease that comes into my life, as that is the actual signal that my body is communicating to assist me in clearing out what does not belong in our return with me living with my soul, as this is our original way of being.
Interesting point Nico, perhaps if we name our diseases more in relation to what is energetically happening in the body we might be able to approach the ill health from a different perspective and more easily see the connection between our behaviour and our wellbeing.
Yes Nico, if all we do is try to make illness and disease go away then we are usually (always?) missing the point. There has always been something to learn for me in any of my ailments. Sometimes the learning was quick, sometimes slower.
Joan whilst walking around the park the other day I was passed by a lot of people running. What really stood out to me was the incredible difference in the structure of their bodies. It was very clear to me that each person’s body was a reflection of their choices. Each part of their body had a story to tell. Plus their very different running styles was yet another story.
Yes Alexis, people are fascinating to observe and it is remarkable how clearly our lives are written into our actions, how the way we move and hold our bodies is a tell tale of how we have lived the whole of our lives. There is no poker face here, all the cards are on the table for us to see if we so choose to look and perhaps learn deeply from.
The face may try to be “poker” but the body shows every card in its hand. Observing people is incredibly revealing, but most crucial is learning to observe ourselves – not so easy at first, and often very exposing. It also allows us to bring essential understanding to our observations of others. That is the best medicine for judgement, and also allows us to learn from others with far more lightness and joy.
So true Stephen, our choices are reflected and held in our bodies for all to see. We might try to hide behind certain roles and behaviours but the quality that we move in and be in life can reveal much if we wish to listen and learn.
It is extraordinary the different ways our bodies find to talk to us – a sudden nosebleed, a twinge in the foot, a sore mouth, a sudden pain in the kidneys – each subtle or not-so-subtle feeling or symptom means something and when we can learn to read our bodies like a medical map, then making different choices becomes simpler.
Absolutely Carmel. Yesterday morning I discovered I had two absolutely identical, small bruises in the same place on both of my shins – I wonder what that means! It is indeed incredible how our body communicates to us, and how many opportunities we are given to stop and ponder on how we are living.
It is extraordinary how the body communicates. Learning to appreciate this though for me has taken quite a while. For me simply acknowledging that a condition is there and asking the question – what is this telling me? supports me to understand the choices I have been making and to slowly train myself to make different ones in the ever deepening self appreciation I have as a result.
Listening to our body is hugely important and hugely beneficial. Ignoring our body is very harmful. Now, what will I choose….?
The map of our bodies is very clear and easy to read once we turn our attention to it.
What I love about the way you have written this story Joan is from the perspective that the disease actually didn’t really want to be there. It was accepting that it was no longer in control as you took over the reins of your life, as the illnesses we suffer are not about punishing us, they are a reflection and perhaps sometimes a wake up call to consider how we live and what there is that needs to change. The willingness to change is what really counts, being able to see that dis-ease is a simple guide steering us towards how to live more wisely and thus healthily.
Yes Stephen, like a gift from the body to support us to deepen the love we have for ourselves.
Agreed Stephen and Marcia, if it were not for the body, we would never know how off we are. I don’t know how many times I have heard someone say, it took me to get sick before I paid attention. A shame it has to be done this way, but thank God we have the body to tell us, otherwise who knows how messy the world could get. As Serge Benhayon says ‘the body is the marker of truth’.
We have been given the greatest gift , knowing that the ‘body is the marker of all truth’.
I agree Stephen, ‘The willingness to change is what really counts, being able to see that dis-ease is a simple guide steering us towards how to live more wisely and thus healthily.’ This is such a great, simple, healing way to look at illness and disease, if we learn from what our body is showing us and make changes to how we are living, then the body can be an amazing guide, rather than the all too common way of dealing with illness and disease of making it into a fight against our body, when our body is simply showing us how we are living.
I love the playfulness and honest truth in how you have described the hold your skin disease was having on you. Nothing like letting your body speak loudly for you, so you can lovingly address your past choices and make more loving ones.
There is such a shift in the relationship from struggling with trying to eradicate the skin condition to addressing the underlying emotional issues and quality of being in life. It is so playfully done I think the skin condition had no where else to hide.
Agreed simonwilliams8. The way Joan has learnt to build a loving relationship with her dis-ease is truly inspirational and it is something that we can all learn a great deal from. How amazing would it be if medical science were able to look at dis-ease in this way and so inspire patients to do likewise.
Agreed Sandra, medicine once did look at illness this way and is starting to again, people are hungry for more and know we do not have the answers, rising illness and disease, despite more research, funding and medical practitioners than ever before. How is this possible if we are not missing a key ingredient, energy first.
Yes indeed Laura we need to look further than just our lifestyle, food and exercise regimes and genetics for the root cause of illness. Whilst at times medical science has looked at say the effects of a type of personality on heart disease, there has been little understanding of the effects of our undealt with emotional issues. As you say what is the energy or quality that we are living in?
It’s gorgeous the way you have given the microphone to the dis-ease. Rather than fighting it, trying to rule or control it, and eventually beat it…. you have learned to let it speak to you, to inform you about how you are living and as it quietens down… TO SPEAK LOUDER so that you can learn everything that it has to offer. Now that is a truly awesome way of looking at things!
Yes, this opens up a different relationship with the body altogether, as every part of us has a truth to share.
Yes true Jane, if only our bodies could talk, but the truth is they do, every part, every organ has its own story to tell, I guess the real question is are we ready to listen. Guessing by the increasing rates of illness and disease the unfortunate answer right now is no. Yet has Joan has shown it can be done and the results well worth it.
Yes Simon, it is a gorgeous description of dis-ease from its own the perspective. When it speaks in this way it reveals how illness and disease creeps in and eventually invades the body if we ignore the signals. It reminds me of other conditions like anxiousness. The moment we identify with it, we give it power and it intensifies, Reflecting, understanding and returning to the truth of who we are through the gentle breath meditation reduces and clears anxiety.
It is indeed when we ignore the signals the body is sending out loud and clearly. It is up to us, if we want to listen to them and make other choices.
I couldn’t agree more Simon! Learning to let our illnesses and diseases speak to us loudly and take heed is an awesome thing and a true blessing. Loving the inspiration offered through this blog and others like them..
Allowing your illness to speak to you, love it Simon.
Yes it is Simon and therefore the body has a opportunity to heal itself even faster if it is given full rein on how to heal.
Absolutely, simonwilliams8. We might think we are in control when silencing another, but willingness to listen from all angles gives us an amazing opportunity for learning a new perspective.
Beautiful summing up Simon of the relationship we can choose to have with our bodies and the pearls of wisdom they offer when we listen.
Truly evolutionary – the dis-ease no longer owns but is given the responsibility to highlight and point out where we can choose living lovingly more.
Wonderful and playful way of describing the relationship that one can have with an illness. It can be all consuming when the illness is felt to be running the show. As you so powerfully described, that it can feel like you are taken over by it. But through the grace and support of Esoteric practitioners, but also your dedication to yourself, you have deeply claimed that you are more than what the illness is and taken responsibility for why the illness was there in the first place. Truly great.
It is true raegankcairney, and it shows how when we are educated about why illness and disease occurs we can therefore have a different relationship with it, one that is supportive and understanding.
Indeed what has been described here is a totally different relationship with an illness, such as acceptance and deep responsibility to look at the quality that we live in as the root cause of conditions.
Well said Raegan. To give our power away to an illness is to give away our sense of who we truly are. To identify with our illness is another distraction to not feel and connect to the beauty of who we are; exactly the same as identifying with the behaviours which cause the illness in the first place.
I love about Universal Medicine that its approach is to see symptoms not as the enemy, but as a teacher. This is unique, precious and truly healing.
While reading your remarkable, funny, profound and honest sharing Joan, I became very still. And I still am. This is simply a blog with so incredible much power. It deeply touches me. It is telling, teaching us the fact that we are all precious and by choosing to reconnect to this preciousness by allowing ourselves to feel whatever is there to be felt, we’re finding our way back to ourselves. And! you’ve done this so with lots of support as you’re writing. This requires an enormous humbleness and will-ingness to look honestly to yourself. Not hanging on to proud, ignorance or arrogance. Thank you Joan. That your story may inspire many, many people around the world.
And it continues, Floris; every single little twinge, tummy ache, itch, or muscle spasm are the body showing me my choices and how I can continue to connect with the truth of myself and heal. This experience of reading everyone’s comments is also such a learning for me, and is supporting me to feel those deeper layers of connection with myself. As we are all connected in brotherhood, the sharing of all our expressions together brings the truth into greater being from all the unique points of light. We are never on our own, we work together continuously.
This is showing me the commitment you have Joan, how you’re willing to contiously choose to deepen the relationship with your body and so with you. By reading your comment and Wisdom I can feel your holding energy, a ‘mothering’ energy that is offering me and anyone else who so chooses to surrender to it and let go of the drivenness and does allow me to just simply ‘be’. Without a need to do anything. This is beautiful. I am learning to accept this, not always have to care and to allow myself to surrender. Thank you Joan for your reply, for choosing you and for the Wisdom you’ve shared.
We Are Never Alone, this feels important to highlight Joan, and this has been my own experience because when we are diagnosed with an illness or disease, the first feeling that surfaces is that we can feel alone, and feeling super vulnerable, and well that’s a new feeling – our vulnerability – what do we do with that….having lived a life to numb feeling vulnerable. It can be a super challenging time, and for me, my first step was to seek support, which I did through seeing a Universal Medicine Practitioner for my heavy emotions. Was the best thing I did for myself!
How beautiful Joan – ‘we are never on our own’ – as we reconnect back to ourselves more deeply our sense of being able to be with others also deepens. The more I am with myself, the less I am needy of others and instead I am truly with them in a deep sense of love and brotherhood. It is truly spectacular.
Excellent Joan, I love how you have given us a detailed look at the life cycle of a skin rash. What makes it flare up, and what makes it dissipate. The things that matter the most are the things we don’t usually suspect, attitude toward self, and towards the rash, our emotional state, and our whole way of life.
Joan, I love your humour in presenting this blog written from the perspective of the ‘culprit’ (the ‘skin’ condition)…and most of all I love how you have allowed us to get the message that we are greater than any of these conditions that we might get. When we are unwell with something, it can become easy to identify oneself with the condition – in this blog you break this consciousness and it frees one to be all of who we are and use the condition to understand ourselves deeper. Illness and disease are a blessing in the sense that they help clear stuff from the body that does not belong.
Amazingly Said Henrietta. “in this blog you break this consciousness and it frees one to be all of who we are and use the condition to understand ourselves deeper.” That is really amazing to consider that we could come to know ourselves on a deeper level by understanding our illness and not necessarily thinking of it as a bad thing or a burden, how truly freeing.
Thanks Harry – I just re-read my comment and I have to agree it is amazingly said! 🙂
The truth is that though illness does not feel great to experience, and at times can feel like a burden, there is another purpose to it which is the clearing or cleanse that we get of something that does not belong in the body. If this is appreciated, then it makes our experience with the illness completely different – we still suffer the discomforts and pains but we understand that there is something else going on here too – this is the freeing part!
I loved sharing this story on Social Media Joan – it has been liked and re-tweeted several times on Twitter by the public.
Joan you bring the wonder and truth back to the illness and disease process, when so many see it as a disturbance they are victims of and are not prepared to engage with the whole process. You have made that process honest yet taken the fear out and shown how people can be responsible in the healing process.
It’s so easy to think we are our conditions, yet the way you have presented this shows in a true yet playful way that the opposite is very true.
I love your point Joan that when we have a disease or illness we tend to think that the illness/disease is who we are. We see ourselves as the illness when we are not that in essence at all.
I agree with you Joan that as Serge Benhayon is presenting we are most certainly more than our symptoms and if we let them run our lives then we have lost the plot. How many people identify with what illness they have and the symptoms?
Just the fact we talk like that – for example we say “I am a diabetic” instead of saying I have type 2 diabetes or whatever. I trust you get what I am saying here.
I know for me in the past BSB (before Serge Benhayon) I loved the attention, the drama and the constant recognition I would get because I had this or that wrong with me and today not having these symptoms or health issues, I can clearly see in others what I was doing. This in some way helps to me have a deeper understanding about people and not judge them like I used to and this helps me with my reactions.
Great comment Bina, I have realised how much I am using my symptoms to get attention, whereas they are really calling me to give attention to myself and feel what is going on. If I gave myself the true attention of appreciating, loving and nurturing myself then the symptoms would not be there.
Totally agree Bina – and not only with physical symptoms of an illness or a disease, but also with the petty dramas, and sorry stories that I have come up with along the way as well.
I agree Bina that there is something about us human beings that wants recognition and identification as being special so bad that even suffering an illness and disease will suffice! As Joan says though really any illness and disease or symptoms we are getting is really telling us that we are much more connected to the whole universe than we behave and much more responsible than we might want to live.
This is a huge point Joan. “I have realised how much I am using my symptoms to get attention, whereas they are really calling me to give attention to myself and feel what is going on.” If we can understand this we have the key to true healing.
I agree great comment Bina, having used illness and disease as a way to get attention myself in the past it’s now easier to recognise it in others – like you say with understanding helps me with any judgments I may have.
So true Bina, the way that we talk about our disease shows that we identify ourselves by it. What this wonderful blog of Joan’s shows is that we are not our disease. This is such an important point.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you have said Bina. In the general public there is a huge misunderstanding of illness and disease, people who have Diabetes for an example may say “I’m a diabetic” but may not even have an idea how this relates to their physiology or understand it completely, let alone what has caused it and the responsibility that they need to take to live in a way that won’t make it worse or to live more harmoniously with their own body. Serge Benhayon really has brought sense to illness and disease.
Joan Thank you! I love what you have shared playfully and how it shows that we have the power to change our lives for the positive or negative according to how we respond to life – Brilliant!
This blog is totally brilliant, wow! To see through the eyes of the disease was absolutely fascinating and a great perspective to have. It really does show that the way we are choose to live can create a breading ground for the very things we abhor. The power is in our hands.
I absolutely love the story telling nature of this blog. I feel like a child sitting wide eyed being told a very good story. And there is so much joy here in the message. You are indeed a natural story teller Joan, and from these comments it is clear I am not alone in feeling this. Yes please, we would love some more!
It is great to read that you have detached from the medical condition. Very inspiring, as conditions of the body are always there to heal.
I really love this, Joan. Such an expressive way of communicating that we are so much more than our physical ailments and this also applies equally to our jobs, hobbies or any external activity that we identify ourselves by.
Spot on Jonathan – Joan has really opened up the conversation here about how we can identify ourselves with a medical condition, but you take it one step further by recognising that this can happen in any area of our lives – a total disempowerment of ourselves. But as Joan has shared, it does not have to be this way – with simple steps to start with (such as the gentle breath meditation) we can begin to self empower and realise that there is no need for the identification, as deep within we carry a knowing of who we are and how grand we actually are.
How true, that we can think our ailments are us and how freeing to be able to change all that with love.
Joan, wonderful creative writing, a testament to the fact that illness and disease is not the enemy we carve it out to be, but instead a way to heal our body and clear it of the unloving behaviours we create. There really is no better way to approach illness than to accept that it is showing us how to clear from our body that which is not ours to be.
It’s funny Joan, that what you describe here as how your skin rash has been operating is the same in many ways as how we as whole beings can operate .. ‘Suddenly I realise I have been in a prison, locked into an identity that no longer serves me, and that life of creating pain and havoc and investing in that for sustenance and reward, no longer seems relevant to me.’ Our prisons can be many, our ways of being and our need to be recognised, and have others validate us, and today I’m looking at this and considering how exactly I still live in a way that is suffering and how I can meet those ways without fight but with tenderness, care and understanding – to let go those ways and identities which do not serve me or any other.
So true Monica; when I re-read what I had written, I realised that the piece you quote was the way I myself had been living, so I was speaking for the rash and me as well. I had chosen the prison of suffering in my life, which causes frustration which brings on irritation and so — a rash. I find it amazing how energy works, and how the organs have an intelligence we choose not to connect with. Three cheers for the gall bladder!
Ooh that piece was so apt for me Joan, in what I was seeing and feeling at the time and beautifully showed how easy it is to fall into those old suffering ways which are not needed, and indeed serve no-one. I love Your honesty in seeing how the rash you got was the outer manifestation of how you had been living and isn’t it great that our bodies are that honest. For me it tends to be headaches as I get frustrated with feeling how I can unnecessarily get into suffering and berating myself for it – I’m learning right now to be tender and observe it as much as I can. There is indeed this huge body intelligence we can tap into once we allow ourselves to accept, let go and just observe the body and how we are – I love the honesty of our bodies and how no matter how lost we get they always bring us back to ‘earth’ so to speak and show us what is truly going on.
“In this stage I can make my hostess believe she is me. I possess her and she totally identifies with me.” It can be so easy to become identified by our illnesses if we let them become all consuming and allow them to take over and run our lives.
This is awesome….This blog you have shared speaks for all illnesses and diseases we create. By dealing with what ever is inside of us to deal with and embracing the love that we are, everything will change.
What a delightful blog Joan. So playfully offering some great observations. I chuckled when I read about the times that you were chucking all manner of treatments at the issue and it casually retreated deep in your body and waited it out until it was safe to come out again. This demonstrated how with most therapies success is the disappearance of the symptom, but all that happens is that the actual underlying issue is buried further in the body too, often simply buried to come out later in the same or in another form. Yet the fact is that the symptom is part of the healing, and it provides valuable insights into the underlying issues that require healing. I loved the playful comment made by the practitioners in your story to issue“ show us all you’ve got” inviting for it all to be exposed and also as the healing progressed the reduction of the attachment and the hold the issue had on you. This is a gorgeous and playful description of what I too have experienced with Esoteric Medicine.
Yes me too Golnaz, I have also experienced this with the Esoteric Modalities and it has quite transformed the way I regard any ache, pain or illness in my body. Joan has brought such a playful and lighthearted awareness to the subject that encourages us to connect to and communicate with our symptoms, so they can tell us why they have appeared and what’s required of us to get to the bottom of the issue and heal them. Abolishing the symptom is not healing, because all we are doing is killing the messenger and ignoring the message. The Esoteric Modalities actually support us to read and respond to the messages, so that our bodies can stop sending us them either in the same format or stronger ones. It has for me brought a magnificence shift in awareness and appreciation of illness and the gift of its message to us.
It is indeed so empowering and supportive beyond words to understand that we ‘can’ connect deeply and read the messages that our body is giving us through the very specific illness and physical issues it is manifesting. Nothing is random or luck, everything is directly related to our choices and we are forever getting very loving nudges, which when we ignore it can turn up the dial to what feels like a ‘whack’! None the less still loving. Esoteric Modalities are great at supporting people to re-discover this fundamental connection to our bodies. I too have found “the shift in awareness and appreciation of illness and the gift of its message to us” magnificent and a blessing.
Golnaz you raise a very important point about how we judge a therapies success by it’s disappearance or relief because we judge a symptom as something that’s ‘wrong’, but all our body is doing is communicating to us that it needs to clear the energy in which we have been living. In Joan’s beautiful example…irritation and anger. It changes everything.
What true healing is possible when we are willing to be honest and come out of hiding.
Fabulous piece of writing Joan. This is written with such a great sense of humour. Love the way you have presented your coming to terms with what could and is often seen as a curse and turning it into the blessing it actually is.
Thank you Joan for the way you have playfully let ‘A skin rash’ tell the tale.
This powerful story gives us the feeling that we are so much more than our illness
and disease and that there is nothing we cannot heal once we connect to the truth.
Hello Pityriasis Lichenoides
I must say I am rather thrilled that you no longer have a name or an identity which means that you are fading away.
I am also truly inspired by your hostess Joan and her choice to deepen her connection with her body, thanks to Serge Benhayon and other Universal Medicine Practitioners.
Absolutely beautiful Joan. I love the playfulness in which you have shared your experience and I can definitely feel the lightness of which Pityriasis Lichenoides speaks. It is amazing to see the difference that being open to fully explore our responsibility in our own illness and disease can make. Taking responsibility and dealing with our issues is healing on so many levels.
..you have masterfully revealed how much wisdom we can uncover through our miraculous vehicles..
Joan Calder, thank you! This is a wealth insurmountable to any health document or diagnosis given, you captivated me with every word, I would line up at the chance to read your next piece of Heaven.
Joan what an interesting blog, making your ‘rash’ feel the love in your body and allowing it to release its hold and be free of its own habitat. It’s wonderful how you describe that the rash gets to feel love and how it evolves as well. This is a truly, deeply loving way to accept the rash and work with the rash for it to freely leave your body and you not forcing it out without recognizing what the rash stood for.
Brilliant blog Joan, I love the way you’ve expressed here, it is deeply inspiring. This part ‘the Truth is always there for us to choose’ this is so simple, powerful and true. I am understanding that our illness and disease is our body’s lovingly way of giving us this very message.
This was great to read and consider for possibly all medical conditions and not just a skin rash. Thank you for such a relatable and well written blog.
I love the playful way you’ve written this Joan and in doing so, have shared so much about how your choices and way of living and being had such a massive impact on symptoms showing themselves in your body.
This blog clearly demonstrates the undeniable and unbeatable power of love and how this heals everything. There is no place for anything that is not love in our bodies.
Yes, it has no place anymore and has to go or almost gets pushed out. Like the love takes over and takes up the space of everything that is not love.
Dear Joan, actually a funny blog, but it brought me also tears. How beautiful you have embraced and loved what you have fought the most. It is actually you, you fought and thought it is your rash. Realising the rash is actually your friend telling you what you needed to hear, see and feel: love yourself and treat yourself accordingly .
I love this blog. Such a playful way to really give insight into what goes on in our body. It can be so easy to stay in the place where we see the rash as a rash and we try to treat it as best we can. To go beyond this to the layers below involves much honesty.
This is so brilliant Joan you have given voice to a illness – so playful and objective and not personalising or identifying with it. Love it, so amazing how our bodies clear the energy of emotions.
I agree Vanessa, and Joan shares in a very playfull and powerful way how we can heal our bodies.
Joan I simply love your article. I love the acceptance, understanding and absolute joy you write with. The depth with which you have owned your responsibility in your body’s illness is very powerful. So powerful, that any person who reads what you have shared will be blessed with the grace of being opened to see and feel their own responsibility for the place their body has come to.
Great blog Joan! I love the way you write about your healing, making it a very engaging and interesting story on Pityriasis Lichenoides, there is so much you present here that we can learn from.
Our skin is amazing how quickly it tells us something is not right, if we ignore it the conditions get worse. Over the last 10 years in the beauty and body industry I have had many clients share they have experience many different skin conditions. This really highlights the way we are living as a society needs to change.
Pretty much all of my life I have been dealing with symptoms here and there, even when I was a kid and my parents asked me how I was, there was usually some kind of complaint. And as I got older the symptoms got worse to the point that they were running my life quite a lot. I couldn’t stand this about myself and always felt weaker than others or just a bit pathetic for having such a sensitive body.
But when I think about the choices I have made in my life because of my sensitive body, I can see that they were all actually very loving nudges for me to make changes in how I was in the world. I now feel and see that how my body communicates to me is a blessing, as it doesn’t let me get away with much, keeping me on track to being my true self and forever deepening my connection with love.
I too feel this Eleanor, I am coming to love my sensitivity. I had a moment today where I didn’t like what I felt, but I chose to stay present with it and then it just simply changed and became still. I would not have felt the change in the energy around me if I had not chosen to stay with my so beautiful sensitive body. It really is a blessing to embrace how truly sensitive we are.
Great comment Eleanor, Thank you for sharing your experience. It is truly amazing how our body works, when we listen and honour it there is so much to learn, allowing it to guide us to grow and expand.
This article really shows how we call in the illness and disease we have and that we have the power to change that simply by making different choices.
What you bring you here about ‘sensitivity’ is very touching and illuminating. So often we do have symptoms expressed and they are telling us something. Something about our choices and something about how truly sensitive our bodies are. This is often a neglected fact when it comes to health and body awareness. Our bodes are deeply sensitive and this is something we can honour, nurture and develop.
Talking about an illness as being ‘loving’ is something I haven’t really considered before, but of course all disease and ill health is loving when we understand loving as helping to bring someone back to their true selves. What is so common in society today is that when a problem occurs in the body we often just want to find the quick fix that will get us out of the discomfort, but in doing that we are ignoring the message that the body is trying to tell us.
And we go into so much sympathy for those that are sick ‘poor you’ rather than appreciating that being ill is very unpleasant but that ultimately the illness is there to support you to be more aligned to your truly loving body that can exist now or next life after the clearing of the ill energy. It is very awesome and often not something I embrace, rather preferring the poor me stance!!!!
yes Eleanor, i gave myself quite a surprise when I came to the reaiisation that the rash was just another Esoteric Healing Practitioner! We carry our own practitioner within us all the time, and it is called love, and the body reveals its truth.
That’s beautiful Joan. I had never thought of illness as being a practitioner! Any symptoms we might have are love’s way of communicating with us the truth.
I agree Eleanor – it is common to just want the ‘quick fix’, to get back to ‘normal’ as soon as possible without appreciating what the disease or illness might be there to communicate to us or help us to understand in order to assist us back to being and living more of the love we in essence are.
One of the brilliant things that can be learnt from this blog is how the host took responsibility for the illness and knew that it was there because of the choices she had made in her life. She also came to embrace it as a part of her healing process knowing that it was showing her the next thing that she needed to look at. This is the power of the body and the divine particles that it is made up of, as they constantly communicate with us about where we are at and what needs to be done.
Beautifully said Eleanor, I agree the host indeed revealed a wisdom from inside of herself that would not have been accessed had she have only been in the fight of it all, unprepared to get the heart of the matter.
Thank you Joan for bringing a deeper understanding of our bodies and the effects of the choices we make. This blog reflects amazing wisdom that speaks of loving ourselves, and of how our emotions feed unwanted and unloving expressions. A ‘Story’ reflecting something we can all relate to.
Very well said Ch1956, this really exposes the harm of identifying with our emotions, illness and disease, allowing it to run us. This is definitely a blog I can relate to even though I don’t have the same symptoms the way I dealt with my emotions was the same, holding it in my body and letting things fester. This is something I have learnt to let go of and I feel absolutely amazing for it.
I love it Joan. Your ability to turn around a clearly quite debilitating condition into such a beautiful light hearted story is amazing. The story is so playful and kept making me smile all the way through it. Thank you!
Me too Eleanor, the way Joan has written is genius.
I loved every word.
It is a reminder of the power and wisdom that lives inside every cell in our body; a Divine and Godly wisdom that is far greater than anything we could ever think in our minds.
Me too Eleanor. This was an absolute joy to read and I will take it with me throughout my day. Thank you Joan.
Felt very playful and freeing to read, we are not victims after all!
Beautifully expressed Eleanor Cooper, so true, the symptoms of the condition do sound ‘debilitating’ and yet Joan Calder makes it so light and playful, you can feel the healing in the words and how clearly the author has been letting go of the issues that resulted in the of presenting this rash. Inspirational!
Wow Joan what a blog! This is so deeply touching…thank You for sharing this with all of us. This is so power-full and truly inspiring to go deeper and see everything our body shows us as a healing process instead of identifying with it…that I still do and learning again not to…
You are right Nadine, this blog is deeply touching. By giving the rash an identity of its own we can relate to it. It was an extremely touching moment when the rash realised that it was in fact loving in its nature, purely by showing its hostess what she needed to know about the way she was living. It is a reflection for all of us as naturally loving beings who often get caught in the belief that we are the horrible emotions that we allow.
Absolutely Brendan, the change from fighting what is going on in her body to embracing what it is there to show her is awesome to feel.
There are so many illnesses or conditions that we can keep ignoring because they are not visible. A sin rash is visible and irritating so it cannot be ignored. It was indeed a huge gift for you Joan because you simply had to look at it. And it revealed to you how you needed to change the way you were living which has been for the absolute better. An amazing story which is so revealing and healing in many ways. And a delight to read. Thank you.
When we appreciate these things as gifts from our body and soul to help us see what we are doing and the choices we are making, it flips things around. It can be the same with many things in our lives. We can stay in reaction to them, or we can see them as opportunities to heal.
So true Rebecca. This got me thinking about those less visible “minor” issues that can easily be ignored and buried until they flare into something that can’t be ignored. Maybe true preventative medicine is not ignoring these “minor” issues and feeling deeper into them and addressing the root cause or underlying issue so that we don’t have to become unwell before we deal with the issue. A rash is highly visible and feels like our body’s way of saying “hey, over here! Something for you to deal with”.
‘There are so many illnesses or conditions that we can keep ignoring because they are not visible’. Agreed Rebecca, even more reason to pay attention and listen to our bodies. Sometimes an inner voice gives a signal to stop doing something that is unloving, but we continue because it offers comfort and there is no outer symptom. True connection is listening and acting on these messages and always choosing the more loving way to live.
So true, how we often attempt to ‘do’ something about the visible signs of illness. Say, bags, spots, rashes, bloating and weight increase. My feeling was it is this thing about it being seen by others and not hidden, a bit like what happens behind closed doors is okay because it can’t be seen, but ill health visible says something is wrong and we are ‘failing’. I would take it further to suggest that it is behind closed doors even to ourselves in many cases, and often we refuse to be aware that our bodies are suffering or ill because the symptoms are not covering our skin from head to toe. This is where the commitment to feel and be honest about what we feel make a whole lot of difference.
Joan this is so deep and playful just like you are , I love your story telling way of describing your healing very much and can really relate to it ,thank you.
Oh gorgeousness! I just love the playful way you have written and exposed all that is you and not you. Blessed are we for reading it!
I agree Cherise an absolute delight to read and a marker of how far you have come Joan!
I too love the playfulness in Joan’s writing. I really enjoyed reading it, it was absolutely brilliant.
Joan I love the way you have expressed this and come to the knowing that you are so much more than the physical body and its itchy skin. The changes I have seen in you over the past few years are amazing – the constant battle and war with yourself was totally exhausting you and now you are more vibrant and radiant every time I see you.
Simply gorgeous! A Deeply inspiring and playful blog – thank you!
I feel like this is huge Stephanie – to realise that we are more than our physical ailments, appearance or even our talents. Each of us has a wholeness of being that we can bring to each and every aspect of our life and expression.
Joan, I love your expression that you are not this skin illness, but how it has shown you to be more loving is remarkable. It’s been a great journey to accept yourself as the lovely YOU.
Yes, well said Gill. Often with illnesses, especially those that are long lasting and intense or those that leave their mark, it can be so easily to identify with them. It was a very clever way Joan presented this non-identification by giving the rash a voice of it’s own.
I agree, Joan’s way of writing shows that we are so much more than our illness and even our body – power full piece.
I love your wisdom Gill.
Gorgeous Joan, I love the way you have written this blog. It’s amazing what can happen to our bodies if we change our lifestyle to support us, and lessen our reactions of anger/frustration or doubt.
From my personal experience, lessening my reactions of anger/frustration or doubt has made a HUGE difference to my body and therefore my life.
As soon as I have a high level of any of these reactions my body shows it almost instantly including itchiness of skin, sort knees, going to the toilet problems, a lack of clear thinking, tiredness, irritation in general, a reduced capacity to deal with challenges and many other symptoms.
I agree Dean our choice is so powerful – just how Joan has shared. When we don’t feed the source that is creating that which we are not, simply changes the outcome on how this will reflect in the body. When we really stop and feel the core of who we are, then everything else starts to show itself that which is not from this key quality. Serge Benhayon is absolutely the person who has shown, supported and presented endlessly how we can choose this on a regular moment by moment way. Serge’s Love and dedication is phenomenal and deeply inspiring.
I am with you Dean, now I am aware of these reactions and symptoms in my body I feel things immediately, which is a very different picture to how I was living before I came across Universal Medicine.
Yes me too Dean, when I get frustrated I may as well have just overeaten on 5 cakes! My body becomes super dense and heavy, and my head no longer feels clear, rather like it is full of a viscous liquid. I try to convince myself that these emotions won’t affect me, and that I can get frustrated or angry because I’m ‘allowed’ to be emotional sometimes. However, when I’m like this it affects my body and other people, therefore I have a responsibility to make different choices and not indulge in emotions that harm.
These emotions spring up so automatically we don’t initially realize we have a choice, when we register how it feels in our bodies, it can no longer be denied, then we get to the emotional cause, and with honesty we become aware that we have choices. We transform from the victim to the master, it is so empowering as Joan, Dean, Natalie and others have shared.
So true Susie. Dealing with our reactions to our illnesses or diseases is an important first step that then allows us to look at the root cause underlying the illness without the clouding of our emotional reactions.
It’s a very important point you make Lee. Reactions or emotions are what created the illness or disease in the body to begin with. Reacting to the illness or disease is creating another layer of ill energy in the body and you kind of sandwich the illness in between the negative energies with no where for it to go but out.
Well said Lee, I agree. Whenever I get sick, bruised or injured my automatic response is to go into reaction and complain about why it’s happening, become emotional or blame the illness on everything or everyone around me. In other words – I try and duck responsibility. But as you say, dealing with this reaction and looking at OUR part in the sickness/injury, as in our choices that have led to us becoming ill, is the first step to truly heal. On the occasions I have done this it has been a very freeing experience.
Susie it’s true, as you say,how amazing the changes in our bodies are when we make changes to how we live. Even structural changes can occur. We believe the way that we are built is simply ‘just us’ like collapsed chests and high shoulders, but over time these things can change as we change.
Absolutely Alexis. I’m learning to never underestimate the power of the daily choices I make, for as you say they can completely transform the body and our lives. I have observed how many people’s physical forms have transformed due to the loving choices they began to make, and it is incredible to watch. I have also felt this myself, and find that losing weight or changing shape is equally to do with how we are in every moment WITH our body, as it is to do with the foods we eat or exercise.
Thank you Joan – I feel that I have received a healing just from reading this today.
Yes me too Marion. I too have/ had skin rashes and got/get caught up in the irritation which is what they feed on and I can feel that plainly. A diet of love brings the alchemy of true healing.
Lovely Karin ‘A diet of love brings the alchemy of true healing.’
Wonderful, Joan. I love how you have presented the inescapable truth of how illness and disease is a way to clear the body of our past choices.
What a delightful way to show how we are not our illnesses and how, when explore our bodies at a deeper level, we find we are so much more.
Joan, I love the play-full way that you have presented this story of your years of dealing with skin problems. It is a joy to read it. I especially love “She showed me that I am loving, as my very existence and expression on her skin has given her an important message about how she was living her life. Because she sees I was created out of her own choices and I am actually an illusion, she is changing and healing.” What a beautiful way to express this understanding of why you were suffering all the skin problems for so many years, such an important sharing. Yes, all these bodily problems that come up are to make us notice how we are not living from the loving being that we are within. We keep on over-riding how we need to be living, keep on ignoring all the signs that our body gives us, that we have created these problems through the choices we have been making, until eventually we come to learn why we are being given all these signals. Yes, we are love, and we need to be living from that wonderful being that we truly are. How wonderful that, with the help of your esoteric practitioners, you have overcome and changed your choices.
What you share Joan is a wisdom I have re-connected to for some time now. But your blog has brought me something else to embrace and appreciate which is the fact that any disease or condition is there because we have chosen to heal the impost of our ill and unloving choices.
Joan – what a brilliant piece of writing that shows me through and through the absolute grace and appreciation that comes with understanding ailments rather than fighting them. If every illness and disease had a voice – this would be it. I absolutely love the way this has been written, and how you have shown us the huge change that is possible just by connecting with your body. For long term irritations I am currently addressing, it shows me there is so much more that the inconvenience of it but a true message of communication for us to learn from.
Your blog took me to the deep and dark places in our body we cannot see but get affected anyway by the choices we make everyday. For years the effect of our choices are kept hidden deep inside our bodies until the moment we are calling them out to show us where we can live more of the love we are.
Joan what an incredible sharing, it is inspiring to hear from the condition itself and appreciate that everything that happens to us from our body ultimately leads us back to love through a sign of love.
Absolutely brilliant writing Joan, thank you for telling the story. I love the creative yet deeply insightful perspective you have used for an all too common physical symptom. I am to re-read it right now to reveal more of your insights.
This blog presents a new way forward in medicine and that is that how a patient/client feels about themselves and therefore treats themselves has a huge effect on the healing process.
Yes I agree it is the relationship that we are willing to have with our own bodies that makes all the difference to the healing process.
I have never had tears reading about a rash before but here I have had! To understand illness and disease in the way that you have Joan is what has touched me so much. Illness and disease as not a curse from God or just bad luck, they serve a purpose and it is for us to understand and know what that purpose is. When we do that true healing begins.
Very clever and deeply profound. There is no denying how powerful we are when we address what does not serve us.
Wow, how something so uncomfortable can be eliminated with something so simple, the gentle breath. I like the style of how you have written this.
This shows us a new way to look at illness, Joan. Thank you.
Joan you are living testimony that even the most awful and uncomfortable hidden health situations can be transformational to our lives. Thank you
Brilliant and Empowering.
I LOVE the way you write and what you are saying Joan Calder. You had me from the first sentence with your playful, joyous expression and you left me in tears with the profundity of your message:
“Because she sees I was created out of her own choices and I am actually an illusion, she is changing and healing …. If she does not react in an inflammatory way but chooses to actually love me for what I am showing her, then I have no reason for being at all.”
The tears flowed because I was feeling how ALL the multitude of woes of humanity are created by our own choices and really have no reason for being at all! They flowed because I felt that if we knew these woes are an illusion, messages to show us how we need to change the way we are living, we could then heal them all, as you have done – and that we are very far away from this at present.
Thank you Joan for an interesting and delightful way of sharing the disease’s journey from illness to healing.
I love this Joan. I love it all but particularly the way your rash becomes more loving as you do. Simply brilliant.
I love how you have written this Joan. The way you accepted to take responsibility for your skin disease and to willingly feel deeply into the cause of why it occurred and to see it as a way of clearing these held in emotions from the body.
What a powerful piece of writing Joan. You have offered so much wisdom through your shared experience, of how it is possible to overcome giving our power away to our physicality and the symptoms we experience. We are ‘more’ than our bodies but it is through our bodies that we can live the ‘more’ we are. And so the relationship with our bodies is one of great importance. It is through this relationship and deepening our awareness with this connection by way of healing and letting go of our hurts, that we are able to be guided the way to live the truth of who we are and as such in harmony with the vitality that we are in truth designed to live. Thank you Joan for reflecting how this way of true healing and living is possible, and available to all who have a body.
Super powerful Carola and Joan, I agree! We are so much more than our bodies and the emotional turmoils we have invested in and carried along the way, we are the lightness and preciousness that I began to truly sense in your final paragraph. Thank you Joan for inspiring us all to commit to the relationships we already have with ourselves.
Learning from what our bodies present to us by way of illness and disease is key. There is always something to reflect on in the way we have been living, or a root cause to be examined. Exploring this can actually be a beautiful process, as you have shown us here Joan. Thank you for sharing!
What a thought provoking blog Joan, thank you! I loved the way you have described the rash as a loving part of you that needed to be appreciated and accepted, rather than something you were at war with. It has got me pondering on how I can work more rhythmically with my body when symptoms of ill health present themselves so that all particles are able to work more harmoniously together, supporting repair and healing along the way.
A very beautiful story with such strong message (more then one!) what stood out for me was this: “Because she sees I was created out of her own choices and I am actually an illusion, she is changing and healing.” Seeing illness and disease as my own responsibility has taught me so much about the ill ways I have been living. To not see illnesses or conditions like a rash as something that just happens and that I have no hand in them but to see them as messages from my body that I am living in a way that is not supporting my well-being.
I love how you have written this Joan as it really ‘gets underneath the skin’ of what is going on in your body in a way that it is then easier to understand what contributes to skin conditions occurring and especially around the way they can lay dormant in the body causing issues possibly in other ways, but until the rash surfaces on the skin, we may not be paying full attention. So yes actually it makes sense to not fight the process but instead feel blessed that there is the opportunity to make changes and clear the upset. Amazing – thank you.
Joan this is wonderful. I love how you have shared this experience in a story that allows us to follow it in pictures – what a gift you have given us here. Definitely something you could share more of in this way.
What a delightful article told from the source and thereby allowing a different perspective on all healing, thank you Joan. As the skin is our largest organ and visible it can show us so many things about how we are living by excreting any toxins as in your example amongst many other things. What a wealth of information is available to us just through observing our skin.
I love the way you have playfully shared the journey of the skin rash here Joan. What stood out for me was the line “she showed me that I am loving, as my very existence and expression on her skin has given her an important message about how she was living her life”. Looking at all our illness, disease and issues as a message of love rather than an annoyance, inconvenience or being a victim of them is a refreshing way of seeing them. It allows us to appreciate and embrace the message and take responsibility for choosing another way to live that more deeply supports us.
The way that our bodies show us the effect of our choices is one of the grandest blessings we all have.
I really love your writing Joan. Its such a light-hearted yet informative article about this rash. I know from experience what it’s like, as I’ve had a similar skin condition, mine more like eczema, on my face and neck, for several years. I also have all the creams including steroids, antihistamines, and was on several courses of antibiotics due to infection (from scratching the itch). All the creams from the doctors played their part in helping to manage the condition.
Only by attending Presentations by Serge Benhayon, have I understood the true causes such as the symptoms are my body’s way of expressing deeply hidden emotions. By accepting and allowing these to re-surface, can a true healing occur. I am still in the process of healing this, and recently shifted several cycles of rashes from both arms. I feel the key is to allow these old hurts to emerge and be banished for as long as it takes. I will then be truly free of them, as long as I don’t repeat the same behaviour that instigated them in the first place. I have had much support from Universal Medicine practitioners as well which I am truly grateful for.
Thanks again Joan for bringing this topic out into the open.
I love the authority you have in expressing this from your own experience Sue, and the understanding of Esoteric Medicine; “the symptoms are my body’s way of expressing deeply hidden emotions. By accepting and allowing these to re-surface, can a true healing occur” …. “I will then be truly free of them, as long as I don’t repeat the same behaviour that instigated them in the first place.” So simply summed up.
What a creative way to tell the story of an illness from the vantage point of the disease itself. You are a master story-teller Joan and I can relate to the skin condition as I had a similar one all over my body just before finding Universal Medicine, and I remember that the more stressed out I got about it and angry that nothing worked to get rid of it, the worse it got. This shows a direct correlation to our thoughts/emotions and the physical state of our body. In addition, if we all took some time to view a certain physical or medical condition from the point of view of the illness itself or the area being affected, and looked at it as an opportunity to heal something that was originally caused by an emotional aspect of the way we were living, we could heal ourselves more effectively and quickly, rather than just fighting a ‘war’ with it as has been the norm in the mainstream medical approach with phrases like ‘fighting the war on cancer’, etc., etc. Joan has showed an excellent example of this approach.
What a journey your rash has had! And love that we now understand that a rash is the body’s way of clearing itself.
Yes rosannabianchini, and here Joan has shown us the power that can be found in the acceptance and understanding of this.
Giving the rash a voice has been a touch of genius!
Even the things that we don’t like our body doing are there for a reason, what a great insight into what a skin rash is a reflection of.
What a timely blog Joan, love it. I am dealing with a skin condition too and I am learning to not see it as my enemy and want to get rid of it, but as a reminder that I can deepen my relationship with myself constantly. Keeping the dis-ease visible for me on the outside of the body is a great blessing and the unbearable itch is the loving reminder of nurturing myself deeper.
I have had this experience intermittently also rachelandras and it has always shown me that there is a much deeper level of nurturing I can go to with myself. When I do this the rash and ‘drive you crazy’ itchiness goes. I am thankful I now have this understanding and thankful to my body for using my skin to expel all manner of ills. The more I lovingly attend to my body the more it responds in kind.
I found that to be so true Rachel, I began to miss the these indications on the skin that made me stop and feel the way I had been living that may have caused them! Funnily enough I have two small patches now, so tiny they hardly exist, but just as itchy! This reveals to me that it is not “gone” but always there to be chosen if I choose to abuse myself in some way. After all, it is all energy moving or held in the body.
We are what we have aligned to and what we identify with. This is a great testimony of how illness and disease is something we are responsible for and that it always offers us something to look at and grow.
A profound truth Rachel “we are what we have aligned to and what we identify with”, and one we cannot escape.
What an awesome blog, loved reading it from beginning to the end. It just shows that we are in the drivers seat, and no one else.
Agreed Mariette it is truly empowering when we realise this fact. That we are the ones that choose how we are living or not living.
You are an amazing and very cheeky story teller Joan, while at the same time imparting so much insight and depth; thank you for sharing this with all of us.
Joan this is an inspiration to me. I love the way you recognised that this rash was indeed actually telling you the truth, that you needed to listen to what the rash said and find out why it is there and the changes you needed to make. Once we all realize this and listen more to our bodies, (something that keeps coming up for us all) self nurturing will come naturally to us such as the Gentle Breath Meditation.
Brilliant Joan – I loved reading your every word and how you have shared the very important and fundamental fact that our symptoms are most definitely not the ‘enemy’. When we are willing to let go of the identification and the distraction, they give us the very loving opportunity to take a deeper look at the root cause and let go of our old hurts that keep us from realising that we are so much more….
This is a great point Heather. So often we address our symptoms as the ‘enemy’, the reason why we are experiencing ‘dis-ease’ and not feeling vital, and as something we have to physically conquer or overcome to be well again. But with this we are missing the point, and as such missing the truth being offered, that is, why we are un-well and not living all that we truly are. As you say, we are being offered ‘the very loving opportunity to take a deeper look at the root cause and let go of our old hurts that keep us from realising that we are so much more’. And it is though looking deeper as to why we are unwell and healing all that which is not well that we can live all that we are through a body that supports us.
It changes up how we understand symptoms altogether – not some condition to get rid of but more one to be used as a gateway into understanding the root cause of something and ultimately let it go.
Joan, what comes through in this blog is the way in which you have claimed 100% responsibility for the skin rash as well as why and how it came into being in your body. This level of responsibility is not common when people experience ailments of any kind. The medical profession often supports this detachment from responsibility by looking only at the condition itself not the person carrying. A powerful lesson for us all!
This level of responsibility is beautiful.
Agree Katemaroney1, well said. The medical profession has become good at naming diseases and attempting to cure them but has come nowhere in its ability to say to people “what is your responsibility in all of this”. If medicine started doing this now it would change the game completely and maybe people would react at first and be upset, but in the long run it would do people a lot of good.
Love it Joan, such a creative approach to sharing your learning, your healing and how you change from battling Pityriasis Lichenoides to loving it enough to let it go.
Yes I agree Joel, here Joan has shown us the power of acceptance.
Yes Elizabeth, Joan has not only accepted her skin disorder she has also accepted her part in creating the need for it in the first place by being prepared to get to the root cause of the problem. This is such a great example of loving the messages we are receiving from our body. I also love Joan’s playful approach to this.
What I really appreciate, is that there is no hurt or resentment in how she describes this part of her life, the playfulness that comes with acceptance is astounding.
My skin has been a great indicator of what foods my body likes and what foods don’t agree with me. When I have paid attention, the results have been clearer more glowing skin. Being stressed shows up on my skin as well. Our bodies are very good at showing us how we are living.
Yes, I agree Debra – from the first day of attending presentations by Serge Benhayon my skin began to initially express itself very clearly on my face for the world to see! My body and skin continue communicating in this way and like you, when I pay attention the quality of my skin changes completely.
Thank you Joan for highlighting the fact that we are not our illness and disease – but that these come from us purely to show us the harmful way we have been living. I love your process of bringing love consistently to the body and the effect it had on PL.
Yes, a very different but wise way to look at illness and disease Deborah – something that shows us the effects of the harmful choices we have lived.
This is brilliant. I love it, Joan. You have so amazingly cocooned everything with love. Very healing and inspiring. Thank you.
Joan I like the way you have written this from the perspective of the disease. A clear message that illness and disease are not the enemy and they don’t mean failure. Embracing your rash for what it was showing you is not what we humans normally do. What an amazing journey you have had, and how marvellous that your body is now more harmonious.
Joan what you share in a playful way, really shows us that what we experience is through our own choices. Rashes are just another way of letting us know how we have been living and using our body. It’s great that when we connect to ourselves, we can start to clear what is no longer us.
To add Joan that we all learn in different ways and you have such a gift of imparting knowledge to those who learn best through imagery and words that are light hearted. A real gift.
This article by Joan is a true gift to us all, the way she has used “imagery and words that are light hearted” as you say. I have really enjoyed reading it, and she is sharing a really important subject here. Another blog that should one day be part of a book that could be put together to give a variety of messages in a play-full way.
It is really beautiful how Joan has shared this it is very accessible and makes illness your friend rather than the enemy.
I have had eczema on and off throughout my life, I can really relate to how the anger and irritation plays such a big part in how I experience it. I can now see how when I get a patch of eczema it is related to something about the way I’m living. I treat the rash in a practical and nurturing way but know there is a route cause to be looked at too. Although it can be uncomfortable, itchy and frustrating at times, I do see it as a blessing because it is showing something about the way I’m living needs addressing, my body’s way of speaking to me…
It makes such a difference when we start to see illness and disease as an opportunity to heal instead of being something to fix.
I used to battle with being sick. If I felt a cold coming on, into battle I went. Someone once asked me “Why are you fighting it?” It stopped me in my tracks and I dropped the fight. By surrendering I allowed my body to do what it needed and strangely enough, the cold or whatever it was that I was trying to fight off, was very short lived and I came out the side feeling healed and much clearer.
In this way Laura your body through eczema gives you immediate feedback and you can respond to it in the way you describe and appreciate the gift it brings you. I know of someone that lived with psoriasis, another skin condition, often directly related to distress, upset or anger for years, based on treating symptoms not causes. I observed how his psoriasis completely cleared when his emotional life stabilised.
It’s funny, but I have come to see sensitivity in the body.. to creams, foods, emotions or anything else, as being a real benefit. Traditionally I was brought up to see it as a curse, something that you were unfortunate enough to have. But without it, we can blithely carry on with an unloving way of living that may come out later in an altogether more virulent and unpleasant way.
Absolutely beautifully said Simon. What would we do without illness and disease?
Joan your expression is so delightfully playful and yet incredibly insightful at the same time. A joy to read.
‘But maybe our first goal should be to examine the cause of our ills, for if we don’t understand them they will only return – in the same form, a different form or even carried forward into our next life.’ I’m quoting myself here because there wasn’t an option to reply to a reply but I just wanted to add when I was presented with this latter possibility – of coming back in with the same momentums with which we left – this explained how infants can come in with all manner of ailments and conditions. They haven’t lived long enough for it to be a ‘this lifestyle’ thing and genetics don’t always account for it. It made complete sense to bring reincarnation into the picture and the notion of things coming ’round again.
Yes, Victoria, I agree with your own quote very strongly. I realise I must no longer hold back or delay dealing with any issues that I still have, I dread the possibility of coming back into the next life with the same momentums with which I leave this present life. Oh, no, I don’t want to have to live with them for another life, the only way to save me from that is to get on and deal with them all.
It is all up to me and my choices, I have many esoteric practitioners now to help me along the way, but it is up to me to make the moves required. I am so glad that I know about reincarnation and the need to do what I have to do.
Agreed Beverly gotta deal with hurts now not next year, as it is so human to be very arrogant that I will live til I am at least 80! Rather than feeling that in any moment you could be faced with a life changing situation or life ending! If we really appreciated life and our bodies we would be very much more open to being responsible for how today is.
Victoria, great point you make- if we don’t look at the cause of our ills, they will only come around again. Often skin conditions and other illnesses can present from very young or from birth which opens up the possibility of reincarnation.
It is interesting, my asthma came on when my sister was born, as an emotional reaction in me. Which is pretty amazing, I had life long asthma until I changed my lifestyle and healed my hurts, which is a work in progress.
Yes exactly Victoria, bringing reincarnation in to the picture expands our awareness and understanding of health at all levels. If it is explained to us that how we are living at the time of our death sets the footprint for the next life, infantile illness and disease takes on a new totally new perspective. What this offers us is the opportunity to see life and death as two sides of the same coin and the coin being one seamless journey of evolution, a journey that unfolds on both sides, in life and in death. Whatever state we leave our lives in will be there waiting for us to step back into when we have completed our term in the ‘after life’. It therefore brings an immense responsibility to the quality of this life, knowing that all those loving and not so loving choices will just hang around until we pop back into physical form once again. When we truly realise and embrace this fact and fully grasp our own eternity, we will never again say “you only live once”. The responsibility we have goes way beyond just one life.
A lovely expansion on Victoria L’s comment rowenakstewart. Re-incarnation makes so much sense of why some babies are born with major medical conditions to deal with.
We are here on ‘Earth School for the opportunity to ‘clean up our act’ in order to remember and return to the Love we are in full.
It changes the way we see illness when we look at the possibility that we carry our undealt with issues and hurts into our next life in the cycle of reincarnation. I’m observing and supporting someone whose 1 day old nephew had open heart surgery for a heart condition followed by a 2nd operation on day 4 of his life. And so, it could be that this is something carried from his previous life.
I love how you have written this Joan, you are a story teller with a message to tell. I love how you started the blog, it brought me straight into what was happening to your body and where it was coming from.
Gorgeous sharing Joan, Thankyou. Our bodies reveal so much to us and when we choose to listen as you have shown, rather than fighting, healing is possible, even from a pesky skin rash that was determined to have its way. Nothing can fight love in the end.
What an amazing way to encapsulate a journey you have been on for the last eight years. Living with and learning how to deal with your skin rash condition has given you first hand understanding of how to detach yourself from disease and know that it is not who you are. Telling this story to the world is like the final step in diminishing it to its rightful place and popping it like a balloon! Go Joan!
Joan, the body is truly incredible. Imagine how it sends visible irritants en masse to get our attention that all is not well within. Conventional medicine treatment of symptoms offers temporary relief only. The rash’s story shows how devious and wily ailments can be until we face underlying causes head on. You did this Joan and can now unreservedly give thanks to the messenger.
I love this Joan, I have had lots of skin problems and am currently being given a message by a couple of my toes! Looking at it as a loving reminder to examine my choices feels a much gentler way to approach it than getting irritated, angry or feeling defeated which have been my defaults in the past.
Before reading this I googled Pityriasis Lichenoides and looked at the images, what stuck me was this really heavy feeling of suffering and that identification with the disease that this story explains. To then read how your relationship has changed brought tears to my eyes, it was beautiful to read how gradually there has been a building of love to the point where you are able to say ‘I am love and you (disease) are also love and all you are doing is showing me how I am not living that love. Should I choose to change how I live and the energy I live by I no longer require your very loud message.’ Thank you Joan and Pityriasis Lichenoides.
A visual and intriguing story Joan. Once you healed yourself, the rash has nothing to hold on to and no where to go.
Joan I love the way you have written this from the perspective of the rash, and how it is there to help you heal and not there as a punishment. This shows that no matter what the illness or discomfort there is so much to learn about our behaviour and choices for it to appear in the first place. Love it.
Joan, what an absolutely gorgeous, and playful blog. You show that ultimately when we fight the body, we miss the lessons you offers us. And most of all what I feel reading this blog is nothing trumps love. Show something love and eventually it joins in no matter where its come from, and the consistent application of that love is all that is required. I will never look on any ailment in the same way again.
Beautifully written. With great humour you have clearly expressed how we become identified by our illnesses. This is a topic that deserves far more public discussion and awareness than it gets and by so doing leads to a very different and empowering approach than the present one to health care, which your article demonstrates.
Very revealing. The power of listening to our body and not fighting what it is trying to tell us. The Gentle Breath Meditation and taking responsibility for how we live with ourselves as presented by Serge Benhayon is a way to true healing of what we carry in the dark recesses of our mind and body.
Can we have the same affect on evicting and making unwelcome other little hitchhikers we pick up on our journey though life?
Interesting point Joan that an illness has a life of its own and feeds off an energy of disregard and when we starve it of that energy it cannot survive. The point that the disease wants to come back to harmony is also very strange and interesting. Perhaps everything that is alive essentially wants this.
Joan, you and Pityriasis Lichenoides had me entranced as I read the story of your journey together. What an extraordinary and revealing view from the other side, so to speak. For me it brought the whole process of illness and disease alive and in turn has me appreciating my marvelously complex, but very wise body, a whole lot more than I currently do, which is already a lot.
It is so revealing to hear your side of the story Pityriasis Lichenoides. As you present to me that you actually exist to show your love to humanity in telling us the aspects of our lives that are not love and how we have entranced that into our bodies. It is up to us, human being to start to understand the messages that illnesses and diseases factually give to us instead of only looking at the inconvenience that these bring to our bodies and beings.
Cause and effect – once we know them, not just the effect, we can move mountains. A beautiful albeit sometimes hair raising story!
Oh wow this is quite amazing. I love the message in this, illness and disease is not the enemy and neither are our symptoms, they are telling us something about the way we are choosing to live, or react as you have so amazingly shared. What would we do without you oh glorious Pityriasis Lichenoides.
Said with utter enthusiasm, Harry! Could it be we might all respond to our various ailments in the same way. Unfortunately disease has rather a bad name and indeed most are unpleasant but at least we can be thankful for the correction they provide. We incarnate into a human frame and then arrogantly abuse it and ourselves – is it any wonder we get ill? The body is ever humble and reminds us to pull our heads in, so to speak.
Well, that is the hope at least. The goal of many after illness or diagnosis of a chronic condition is to have life return to the way it was as quickly as possible. In doing so we skip the lesson. But maybe our first goal should be to examine the cause of our ills, for if we don’t understand them they will only return – in the same form, a different form or even carried forward into our next life.
Well said Harry, how different the world would be if the relationship with illness and disease you are describing were commonly adopted throughout society.
This is fabulous Joan exploring an illness from the experiences of the illness. As I read I couldn’t help but consider how much we, generally speaking, hate illness and disease and what that means for us. Often it is seen as a failure or that we have done something wrong and how all that does is feed the condition. When we learn however that any condition is actually communicating to us about the choices that we are making and the way we are living and when we make these choices all about love, our perspective of everything changes as does our experiences of illness and disease.
Really loved the way this blog was written. Very clever and creative. It allowed me to see and feel the story from a different perspective. The way you told this journey exposed what making self –loving choices and using the gentle breath meditation can do and how powerful it is.
Ha ha ha! Good one Joan. The skin rash can be quite a helpful little creature to clear poison from our system in a way that is easier to bear than if the poison gets into the inner organs. Then things get much more difficult. I am very glad to hear how the hostess is now fareing after the introduction of such pure medicine!
Great point Lyndy, what Joan describes is actually pure or true medicine. How far removed are we living today that we have medicine reduced to pharmaceutical products instead of the way we live.
Great point rachelandras – pharmaceutical products are accepted as a normal way of living, something is wrong, just take more pills. Recently in a conversation with a woman, she shared her daily intake of medications with me – Breakfast time 23 pills, lunchtime 37 pills, evening time – another 40 plus pills. My jaw almost fell open, I had no idea there has been so much dedication to medication.
How far from our truly natural way of being this is.
Yes the level of pharmaceutical medication is massive, but it is not so much the intake we have, but more that we use it as a replacement for a self-caring lifestyle. I have been taking supplements to strengthen my body, but always with the aim to support me for a limited time and to work on why I was needing them and not to depend on them to keep on going. Often it seems easier to take pain relief than to look at why we are having constantly headaches. This doesn’t mean that we cannot take pain relief, I took them for my migraines, but worked on why I was having them meanwhile I was on medication. It is not about suffering, but about supporting the body meanwhile working on looking at the root cause and healing the origin of the issue and not only covering up the symptoms.
That’s what struck me about the article. Gels, creams, pills and other medicines will work wonders for your body…but ultimately it is a short term fix. What if everyone went that bit deeper to ask what is behind it, what is under it all? It is then we can begin the true medicine.
Joan, you are an amazing story-teller. This was so refreshing to read, playful, intriguing and so so wise. Please write more!
Wow, what an awesome sharing Joan, light-hearted and full of depth and wisdom at the same time…this is a parable for all illness, and the relationship we can have with ourselves and any afflictions or illness that comes our way.
Parable is the right word here and it is a very powerful one about how we can be with illness and disease when supported by Esoteric Medicine.
What an awesome article outlining your returning to true health and well-being, Joan. It was beyond awesome to read how you have supported yourself to free your body of this condition. Learning to connect to the inner stillness all people have inside them via Gentle Breath Meditation has provided a turning point in my life also and for that I am very grateful.
Thank you Joan and Judith, I agree, the Gentle Breath Meditation has the most profound affect when done in the way that Serge Benhayon presents Meditation!
An amazing piece of writing from the Rashes’ point of view, they way you do this shows that this condition is so not you. I love the healing process you depict as the illness changes from not only part of the furniture but as role as the boss to the stage where it has no pull no matter or influence. Very beautiful tribute to the power of Esoteric modalities and us Joan.
Joan this was an absolute delight to read. I smiled, I had tears, I am inspired. You have chosen to share your story in a truly ingenious and playful way while conveying universal truths that apply to every aspect of life. Thank you.
Joan I love this playful blog and the insights it presents. I too had a skin rash that would drive me crazy when I first began the gentle breath meditation and taking more responsibility for my life. It was not given any fancy names but I recall speaking with Serge about it and he said ‘That’s great! It means the skin is releasing what otherwise would settle in the bones or organs’. My skin remains my first warning sign when I am making choices that no longer support my body – and the answer is always the same – choose more love for you!
Love your sharing hartanne60 to know that what is released from the body onto our skin means that the issues that caused the rash have not been buried and gone deeper into the body to come out later in our bones or organs and possibly a more serious ailment, that to me is gold, and gives a better understanding of illness and disease.
“Every choice we make affecting our physical body – that’s how powerful we are.” The power of our every choice…love the perspective of power you offer here Marika.
So often we can find ourselves in a battle with one thing or another, either from within or from outside of ourselves. Sometimes, to change our perspective, to see things from ‘the other side’ can offer a healing. You show this so clearly in your words here. Thank you Joan.
This is so relevant and interesting to read Joan with such a powerful and wise message. The Gentle Breath Meditation is a tender, loving, healing and simple exercise to truly support us with many physical manifestations.
I’m sure that there will be many of us who can learn and benefit from heeding the voice of the annoying itchy skin rash.
Reading your description of the rash Shirl, I realise it was not just annoying and itchy, it became so painful as well and was with me every moment of the day so I became very exhausted with sleep patterns disturbed and trying not to scratch, so it disrupted everything in my life and I felt irritated all the time. I now know that this was also a reflection the way I had been living from very young and so was now manifesting on my skin. I could see the whole cycle — my anger and frustration with life and self leading to the rash leading to more of the same “irritation”. Coming to terms with that and accepting the responsibility broke the cycle.
What stands out for me in this blog is the responsibility Joan takes for her health and healing. So often we go for the quick fix, treat the signs and symptoms, and or ‘put a lid on it’ so we don’t have to look deeper at the root cause of what is truly going on within our bodies due to the choices we are making. Only when we take responsibility for our choices, and look deep within for the root causes, can the effects of our choices start clearing from our bodies and true healing take place.
I’ve enjoyed the playful look at this problem Joan. Really well written. We are so much more than our health problems, but let them consume us until the light inside us is so dim as we walk around advertising the problem. We seek treatment from outside of ourselves yet within is the medicine of light just waiting to be turned on.
So true Matthew ‘We seek treatment from outside of ourselves yet within is the medicine of light just waiting to be turned on.’
Yes – health problems can even become a source of identification for us, a badge to wear, a reason why we’re opting out of life. We are not our illness – accepting also that illness and disease can be very uncomfortable to live with.
Yes it is indeed a great illusion that the answers about ourselves are outside of ourselves. As in truth we are the ones that know us best, with our bodies being our best friends.
This is a great example of working with the body rather than fighting it….seeing and listening to what it is revealing and then lovingly honouring the healing being offered.
True Paula and I love the playful and light way Joan is sharing this with us which is a clear result of not being identified by what is going on and working with the root cause.
Our bodies are so awesome at showing us how we have been living, the choices we have made and are still making, and the ways we can clear those choices from our body. The consequences of our choices may take years to clear, but then we have been making those choices for a very long time, so there will be much to clear.
Yes we have, and yes there will! Us humans are not very good yet at loving ourselves and until we get extra good at it, we will continue to give our bodies a hard time.
True Paula, things don’t miraculously change overnight when we change our ill ways and make more supportive choices, but we can arrest the illness of our own separation with our bodies.
yes the quality of our every our choice is very powerful, and that is also the quality of the body we take out and share with all others.
Nothing happens by accident in our bodies and when we truly start to interpret their language and the way our bodies communicate and support us to return to harmony within, it opens up a whole new level of understanding. How we live, all we do or don’t express, everything has a story to tell in its outplay.
“Nothing happens by accident in our bodies”. That is what I had to learn, Victoria, and find out that it was my attitude of blaming everything and everybody else in life, choosing to be angry, frustrated and so on, that was the cause of the physical symptoms. Once I opened my heart to the rash and accepted it was not an accident it was there, everything started to change.
One of the messages that stands out in your story Joan, is that we are not our illness and disease, and need not identify with them. We can rather listen wholeheartedly with our body to their messages and the true healing our bodies are offering us.
Yes Victoria. Developing an intimate and honoring relationship with our bodies is one that truly supports us to be and live who we are as we heal and let go of who we are not.
Dear physical and emotional appearances in the body, thank you for all your loving greetings to remind us of the responsibilities in love and acceptance, the gold in vulnerability and surrender, the joyfull big picture of taking every step together, to be reminded that the body is a gift for us to work out the lessons we have avoided in the past. We are in this together, always learning with each other, in support to the both of us to returning deeper to love. Thank you Joan for your inspiring article.
A great story from the other side of illness and disease Joan, love it. It is very powerful when we suddenly realise that we are not our illnesses and that every illness or disease is in fact a very loving message from our bodies about how we are living. And it is a huge shift to make from waging war with a condition to suddenly accepting it, reading it and thanking it for its existence. It must confuse the hell out of the bacteria, virus, mutated cell or the like as its the last thing these particles are expecting! But in truth this is what they are, a beautiful blessing from our bodies to say “All is not well, please attend to me”. We have so much more to learn about why we get sick and how to truly deal with it. The Gentle Breath Meditation and the Esoteric Healing Modalities certainly bring a fresh new light by which to see our way and when applied to our everyday lives deliver true miracles of healing.
Joan thank you for a very delightful exploration of how to bring light and love to the physical symptoms that try to disturb us out of ourselves. Your experience is so meaningful and powerful and very worth sharing with the world. I am sure we can all relate to being so overwhelmed with symptoms that we start to believe we are this and lose ourselves entirely. Your re-connection to healing is so supportive for all to feel and offers the awareness that we can choose this for ourselves. There is an audio clip on UniMed Living about chronic pain that makes a wonderful exploration as well. Your articles together would empower many many people to understand that true healing is available when we choose.
http://bit.ly/1Zs0o6p
When the whole world reads and feels blogs like these and listens to the Unimed Living audio clips we will begin to see the enormous pressure lifted off the medical profession and start to see true healing occur.
I agree Tracy – when energetic healing (Universal Medicine modalities) walk hand in hand, side by side together with the Medical Profession, true healing and miracles will be the new-normal, ordinary way of living. A massive support for the dedicated and exhausted medical personnel and their patients.
Sadly we humans tend to let things get incredibly out of hand before we say enough is enough, something must change. I know if it wasn’t for chronic back pain that I too would still be making loveless choices with alcohol and smoking. When we deal with our hurts we can let go of the need to harm ourselves to not feel what we cannot but escape feeling. The medical profession looks to be at breaking point and I feel I will see the collapse of it in my lifetime. There is a new way forward, we just have to be prepared to listen, feel and heal our hurts.
A really powerful read Joan, I loved the fact this was written from the perspective of the skin rash as it gives a much deeper insight into how we can allow physical symptoms to embody us and begin to identify with them as who we are. I loved the fact that when you chose to see yourself as the love you are (and that includes all physical symptoms) that change began to occur from the inside out. Such a healing sharing that I know so many will benefit from reading.
Pityriasis Lichenoides, thank you for sharing your journey of release “to live and dance with all the other particles that make up the Universe” and the realisation that you cannot fight something which only shows love.
Gorgeous Jonathan!
There is a Universal Law too Jonathan that means every part of us that is not in alignment will, like Pityriasis Lichenoides, one day be released into it’s rightful place!
Jonathan – what a lovely response! So true – you really cannot fight something which is absolute love. We waste so much time trying to lock horns with it only to realise that it never engages this way. Living within it and having it all around and ultimately understanding we are it, we have to surrender to it and the laws of the universe in the end..
True Jonathan, from the microcosmic of the disease in our bodies to the macrocosmic of the universe we live in. Each particle makes up the world we live in. The more particles that dance in joy the more love there is in the world.
Love doesn’t fight or go to war – it just is. An emanation felt by all, even Pityriasis Lichenoides.
Joan, what a visual journey. Talking from the disease’s perspective really brings alive what’s happening on the inside of our bodies. Great article!
This is stunning Joan. You are a natural story-teller. I can see you sitting with a group of children all around you, wide eyed as you spin deep truths into a story called ‘life, the way it is in a human body’. To know we have choices and can make the changes you have made, is so inspirational. More please!
I agree Lorraine. Joan has a natural knack of expressing great truth in a playful way, a true teacher.
Great point – a true teacher indeed. This is so inspiring and at the same time very informative in such a light hearted and playful way.
Well said – very engaging and easy to read, I really enjoyed it. Keep it up, Joan!
Hehe, I enjoyed your playful slant with this Joan, what a great way of looking at what goes on in the body. The skin is an amazing organ.
This is such a great read ‘from the other side’ Joan. I loved reading every word of it, thank you.
An amazing perspective on the truth behind your condition, Joan. Beautifully explained from the non-host, ‘imposter’ position and in such a loving way that underscores the fact that, underneath it all, everything comes back to love.
Beautifully said Cathy and so true – ‘everything comes back to love’ and we are blessed with a body that will let us know when we are in resistance to returning to this Love.
What fun this blog was to read Joan. Loved your every word (or rather that of the skin rash). It shows how much we identify with the illness or issue we carry but it is simply not us!
Indeed Josh, it was fun to read this blog and this is also the strength of this blog as it takes away the seriousness that we normally tend to surround any illness or disease with. If we take illness and disease light we have the opportunity to see them as a support, signals from our body of where we holding on to what actually does not belong in there so we can start to release these and bring true healing to our bodies instead.
What you share is absolutely true Nico. playfulness and fun are actually just as important in the healing process as the physical healing itself
Nico – that’s exactly what I loved about this blog too. The gentle humour in seeing disease in this way takes the sting out of it!
It is not us but it is because of how we have chosen to live.
I agree Joshua, we see it all around us, people identifying with their disease or condition. The insight Joan brings with her blog is very needed and very powerful.
So true, Joshua – we identify as ‘I have xx disease/rash/tumour/etc’. We become defined by it and it can become part of us, who we are. But as you and Joan point out, it is not us. It’s is the way we have chosen to live which has brought it on. Simple but such an awesome revelation.
“If she does not react in an inflammatory way but chooses to actually love me for what I am showing her, then I have no reason for being at all”. Thank you Joan for your novel approach in sharing what you have been learning. This particular sentence struck a chord because it supports a much truer way to view illness and disease. If we view our conditions as our bodies working to return to harmony with itself then we are shown what our choices have been and how we have been living – not victims of something that fall out of the sky. When we understand this and the make loving choices we have no been making our conditions are rendered back to nothing.
So true Michelle, these things don’t ‘fall out of the sky”, they appear as signs and signals that the way we are choosing to live is not compatible with our health. I love how Joan has connected the inflammatory way she was behaving with the inflammatory nature of the rash. Our reactions have just the same impact on our health as does the food we consume, both can be extremely toxic and inflammatory.
Joan, what a very powerful and playful sharing. I can really feel the huge clearing in your body because of the divine connection you now have with yourself. There is no reason for this rash to control you. Awesome!
I enjoyed the playfulness in this blog too Anne. To me playfulness is so important to stay connected with. As soon as I become aware that I become serious I know that I have gone into something that is not really me. Being playful and fun, I have found is actually the true face of me…
True Anne, it was a huge clearing. It just shows how powerful the divinity is and how all the power is in connection to the body through the tools taught by Universal Medicine.
This is great Joan, you so clearly show how all that presents itself is giving us a learning of how we live, and when we listen and see that we are much more it has the possibility to leave and let us shine from within.
That’s the point I connected to as well Benkt – that everything that our body experiences as a symptom (be in a rash, a cold, or an illness or disease or simply an aching back or sore legs etc.) – is there for us to reflect on how we are living and taking care of ourselves, and is there to support us to heal.
The body is remarkable and is an amazing point of reflection to how we are living or have been living. It is great to read playful articles such as these highlighting this simple fact.
That makes total sense to me Angela:)
Yes Angela, and it is a great reminder to appreciate what the body is telling us instead of reacting to the pain and tiredness we sometimes feel.