934 thoughts on “I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful”

1. What if the way we live is making us sick, many of us seem to be living in the drive to get something accomplished and then move on to the next and the next? When we drive our bodies in such a way is it any wonder we do get sick. The daily pressure we put on our bodies is bound to have an effect and catch up with us eventually. We seem to forget we are not machines but flesh and blood, that our particles are made up of the universe and that make us very special you use the word precious Danna and that is precisely what we are very precious beings residing in a human body.

2. What came to me reading this, was if we don’t truly look after ourselves when we are well, will we know how to truly look after ourselves when we are sick? I can so relate to ‘having to do things’ and lately have been seeing the challenge in just being with me (aka not ‘doing’ anything) … starting to surrender to this more … a bit! 😶

3. I love the vulnerability I feel when I am sick. Those moments are a reminder of my body that I can live (and need to live) in that vulnerability.. a reminder to be really loving with myself in every circumstance, even when I’m not sick. This simple choice changes everything, as by allowing me to be vulnerable I need to honour, love and take care of myself, deeply so, and this has very positive consequences to my health.

4. The revelation that we can observe what is going on in the body without the being being affected by it was a profound one for me. In the space we can offer ourselves through allowing and observation, we can learn so much about our choices, our lives and universal love and order.

5. Danna, reading this made me appreciate about being sick too and seeing it for more than what it is. It is the body’s way of clearing that what no longer serves it, as well as the feeling that it needs to heal what we have pushed into it that is unloving.

   Every organ of our body’s hold a purpose and when we indulge in something, whether it be an emotion or foods etc. it has to give. And this is the body’s way of letting go.

   Illness and disease is the body’s clearing mechanism. We need the support from the medical professional but there is also the energetic side often ignored. Any illness or disease needs to get to the core of the cause, and then it can truly heal. I have not understood this till I also met Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and their practitioners; I now know I am on the path to true healing, whilst before I was only putting a band aid to cover it up.

   1. Shushila, I agree with you when you say
      ‘Illness and disease is the body’s clearing mechanism. We need the support from the medical professional but there is also the energetic side often ignored. Any illness or disease needs to get to the core of the cause, and then it can truly heal’. I know from my own experience when I was mentality ill with the support of the medical professionals I managed my illness, but it wasn’t until I met Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine practitioners, that l got to the root cause of the condition. When I got to the root cause I didn’t have any mental ill health it has just evaporated, it’s truly spectacular, I live such a different life now.

6. “The moment that I became sick it was hard for me to really settle down and be still and take a real rest.” This is so common in society today. There are so many things ‘to do’, so much to achieve and to show that we have done this and that.. Making time to be still is a low priority. Our body then screams stop and gives us symptoms that cannot be ignored. Moments of repose are vital throughout our day, That quality of stillness can then be taken into the motion and ‘doing’ of our day.

   1. Sue, I used to find sickness a hindrance when I was on the go all the time. Sickness is the body’s way to put us in the pit stop to refuel, regather, repair and appreciate where we have come from.

      The world is in constant drive and many struggle with stillness and I used to be one of those statistics too. And now I realise that the world doesn’t stop because I am sick, it still continues and everything will still be there, it’s the quality we present ourselves, is the key to serving and working.

7. There have been times when I have felt a vitality when sick, this has been a revelation.

8. “I simply accept the fact that I am responsible for how I am feeling, how my body is doing and what state I am in.” How often do we consider the only way to take responsibility is to carry around a guilt for what we have done? What you share here has none of that, it is an honouring of the rebalance needed in the moment and we can either honour our body’s need to rebalance, or fight it.

9. I’m very rarely ill and so a recent illness took me by surprise. I sought help from medical practitioners, equally, I learned to be with and accept it as the body’s way of clearing itself. Though painful, it brought new awareness and understanding of pain and people who live with constant pain on a daily basis. It also taught me to not take being in optimum health for granted.

10. Thank you Danna, I have recently started accepting my body’s symptoms more and surrendering to them, allowing myself to feel the fullness of the fragility that comes with being unwell, and the honesty on offer to truly change my life by understanding what choices I made that contributed to this and what my body is communicating. I have also felt resting quite a challenge as I have been judgemental or hard on myself with how I got there, instead of just surrendering to what’s needed and accepting the loving choice of resting.

11. I have been sick for several weeks and it has been a huge learning curve and exposed just how many pictures I have about needing to get better as soon as possible and to be doing something productive. This time that has not been possible and it has allowed me to go deeper and surrender to the learning on offer and the understanding that it is about how I am being in the world and not the amount that I am doing.

    1. How we respond to an illness is the key to recovery and healing. To not fight, but surrender to the wisdom and stillness offered is a blessing in itself.

    2. Surrendering rather than fighting an illness. That feels so graceful with no push or drive. The body then heals in its own rhythm and time. We take our own good health for granted. When we get sick we have to stop and reevaluate how we’ve been living.

    3. The biggest lesson I am learning is what you have touched on Helen
       ‘that it is about how I am being in the world and not the amount that I am doing.’
       I have come to the understanding that I cannot save the world from itself and the choices humanity is making. That going into sympathy doesn’t solve anything, in fact it probably makes it worse as I am enjoining in the mess that’s been created rather than standing on the edge of it and asking the question ‘When are we going to clean this mess up’?

12. “I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful.” That is amazing, to still feel the beauty within you in sickness, that’s something. I tend to feel like I’m dying when I’m sick, so lose sight of my beauty.

13. So conditioned are we to be on the move, in constant drive, that we feel a failure when we’re not. Your honesty shows us how to stop this vicious cycle and that when we introduce love as our first priority we find delight in making space just to be with ourselves. Stillness is a blessing to be cherished and nurtured.

    1. Illness gives us an amazing opportunity to embrace stillness and feel the beauty in it and ourselves.

    2. Thanks Kehinde, you have such a beautiful way with words, much appreciation for your comment.

14. The body, wise and wonderful, signals through an ache, skin eruption, tiredness, fall or illness that we need to listen, pause, stop and allow it to re-balance. To push through regardless and ignore these messages of love is foolhardy and can lead to more serious health conditions.

    1. So true, and as with nature, the warning signs are always there, we just don’t listen, see or hear them because we are so busy trying to get somewhere, finish something or change something!

15. Quite often being busy is not just a way of receiving recognition, it is also to avoid being still – of feeling something, or feeling what is going on for us. If I find myself unable to get still, in constant motion – it’s a big indicator that I need stop to address something.

16. “I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself” – this is just so gorgeous.

    1. Yes it is Fumiyo and yet how often do we resist this call to give ourselves more love. It is often the last thing that we turn to, if at all.

17. It’s true Doug, the more we appreciate, the less strategies to escape we need and the more joyful our life is.

18. When I read such a beautiful experience like this I feel inspired and very grateful for the deep support received by Universal Medicine. Being able to go through life with full understanding and acceptance towards ourselves is very key to take the responsibility about our choices, but also to see our daily life as the opportunity to heal and learn that is. When we open up to that we can no longer feel judgmental or like a victim of our circumstances but empowered and aware of every step we take.

    1. Inma Lorente what you are describing is a different way to live with full understanding and acceptance of who we are. This is a small part of the teachings of the Ageless Wisdom that we are much greater and grander than we allow ourselves to be.

19. Thank you Danna, in reading this I realise how much more loving I can be, loving to me and my body.

20. The body often gives us very clear and sometimes painful messages that it feels dis-eased, often a consequence of our mistreatment. If we heed the warnings, stop and reflect on what is happening and why, it’s often possible to see it as an opportunity to support and love our body more, not abuse it.

21. Thank you Lieke, this was so perfect for me to read today and offered me a great healing. As I read I realised I hold disregard of myself as a mistake which prevents me from more gracefully making changes, and just accepting I am learning. This is a very inspirational line and brings a purpose to our self care in illness, “I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.”

    1. Melinda Knights that sentence you have brought to everyone’s attention is actually very beautiful:

       “I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.”

       Just because we all have a tendency to give ourselves a hard time, but actually our bodies are always asking us to slow down, and at first be more gentle which is the bridge to being more loving towards ourselves, because if we do not love ourselves we have no true capacity to love another. We may say the words but they are empty and meaningless without the actions.

22. Our body is our dearest and closest friend that always tells the truth.

23. If we are not defined by how we feel, but heed the communication from the body to seek care and medical support true healing can be sought.

24. My first reaction when I am sick or have something physical is usually: ‘what have I done wrong?’ I always have to come back to an observation and then ask myself what is my body communicating here, what is on offer? And it is magical how the energetic part supports the healing of the physical. When I had an inflamed right eyelid 2 weeks ago, I ceased in a day as soon as I was willing to look at what I had allowed my spirit to get away with.

25. I really had to learn that life is not only about doing things to get appreciation and recognition, but that my quality of being is what counts most and influences thereafter anything I will do.

    1. Yes. Quality in how we move supports quality of life. Surely that is the best investment ever?!

26. I so love this sentence:
    ‘My body actually needed love – it needed to be treated with love – by ME!’
    This goes for all of us, all of the time. And when you practice this your body is super grateful and reveals its preciousness more and more.

    1. There is no other person that can offer you the level and quality of care that we all deserve. Listening to the body allows us to know when and how to make this come into fruition.

27. The effect of ‘doing your best’ is very impactful on the body, it always pushes it further and doesn’t allow you to rest and simply be where you are at.

28. I too have learned to listen to my body and have a huge appreciation for it. I find that whenever I have some big project on or an important meeting my body is well and vibrant and ready for whatever is needed and I enjoy that. At other times when the space is there it tells me that today it needs to work at a slower pace and rest more and I respect and enjoy that too.

29. Wow such a great blog, when we let ourselves accept where we are, feel what is coming up and truly feel the body then this actually opens the doors for a much deep healing that is on offer if we really choose it.

30. This is wonderful to read, about how you no longer will react to illnesses in your body, but rather welcome it for them lessons that they bring.

31. We are so ingrained in our momentum of doing that we truly can feel worthless when ill because do we even deserve time off from work? It’s crazy that this is what the norm of our society has come to, the driven state of our bodies which only thinks about the next do, do, do. There is no care but simply a desire for recognition, a need for another to pat us on the back and to feel acknowledged. That is a bigger illness than anything that manifests in the physical body.

    1. We look everywhere for recognition and acknowledgement because we don’t give it to ourselves. In that state even if we receive it, it does not satisfy or we don’t believe it. When we start to care for and appreciate ourselves we don’t need to get it from others and in fact start to appreciate and consider others much more too.

       1. Nicola Lessing I have an understanding of what you are saying that when we fill ourselves up with the love that is pouring through us constantly from the universe that surrounds us then we are naturally satiated. We are then ourselves over flowing and this is felt by the rest of humanity and they get switched on as it were to know that they have this capacity to fill themselves up with the flow of the universe, rather than being empty and miserable. We all know the feeling of emptiness within ourselves. To actually feel satiated within ourselves is completely different and feels so joy-full.

32. Inspiring to read how you’ve changed your relationship with being sick to one where instead of just focusing on the issue, i.e. the feeling sick, and wishing you weren’t feeling it, you focused on everything that was there to appreciate, instead. We decide how amazing our lives are, by how we react or respond to whatever happens, and whatever we feel, along the way.

33. Love the title in recent weeks I have felt super fragile and my eyes have felt reflected clarity beyond words.

34. You say you used to only think you are worth something if you were doing things. I think many if not most people share that idea which in itself is a sickness!

35. Are we living in a way that makes us sick? There is much we can do to make choices that assist and support our livingness which helps us enjoy life fully, and if we do get sick, we need to look back and see what it was in our livingness that resulted in our body bringing us to a stop in order to take stock of how we arrived there.

36. As odd as this may well sound, I love a good sickness. It is akin to the raging clouds that clear the thickened atmosphere so that fresh air may once more be breathed into the lungs.

37. I wonder sometimes how we use the word sick. For example if our body gives us a message that we need to rest that seems like quite healthy message and we might call it being sick versus perhaps someone who keeps pushing on without listening to their body and might think they are healthy but that is a sickness.

38. And loving and adoring ourselves is a great medicine.

39. Thank you for the links. I realise how much more I could do for my body, what a great friend I could be to it.

40. This is brilliant the way that you have exposed the fact that the more doing and doing that we can drive ourselves to do mostly leads to feelings of loneliness.

41. I love how you have described sickness as being a message from the body that it is needing more love from us. The body responds so well to being loved.

    1. Every-one and every-body responds to love.

42. If we approach sickness not as in inconvenience but as an opportunity to learn something new about ourselves there’s a possibility of approaching life with a whole new clarity once we recover.

43. After surgery a few years ago, despite my body being weak and more fragile, I actually felt clearer and more tender and open than I had for a long time. Fragility and vulnerability can mean a different kind of strength.

44. I love your approach to sickness, such a different way of regarding it. Rather than seeking a quick fix you listened to your body, honouring it and appreciating it for what it told you. Beautiful blog.

45. This is such a different approach to sickness than we have been brought up to perceive it. It seems the more surrender we can allow during sickness the more we feel the clearing it offer.

    1. Kim I know, I would be feeling so “poor me” when I got sick I love the way Danna is approaching this.

46. I’m watching a member of my family growing older. Her body is becoming more and more fragile, but her soul is getting stronger and stronger. She is shining brighter than ever before. Our body is our home, but we are actually a soul living in our body. We can be healthy inside even if our body is disintegrating.

47. A great reminder that even when things are not going well, if we’re sick or have things not go as we expect, we can still choose to live and feel the beauty of who we are … that doesn’t go away despite what might be going on, we need to be deeply honest about what the stop is presenting to us and feel our next steps .. how do we move, and to see that actually in that moment we are being called to give more love to ourselves. Thank you for a gorgeous blog.

48. Holding on to something or someone no doubt has an impact on our health and wellbeing. Being aware of holding on to anything in life creates moments or opportunities to let go and it is through this letting go and surrendering, that restores vitality and health within the body.

49. There is definitely a surrender and a stop and honesty in being sick that I know I sometimes do not want to feel. However whenever I do let go I always learn something valuable.

50. It’s so true that after recovering from sickness we often feel a lot clearer in our body, but do we stop to appreciate this or notice how it changes our life and attitude, or do we go straight to the vices we know will bring us right back to the point we were at just before getting ill?

51. When I was sick (I don’t often get sick these days) I used to welcome it, especially as a teenager, purely for the fact it did give me an opportunity to stop without feeling guilty about it. (This in itself says a lot about the pace of life and the drive we don’t like but align with). I would love to spend hours in my room just resting, reading a book or allowing myself to sleep. During these times I didn’t really appreciate what I was appreciating otherwise I may have made some different choices when I was well! Ironically it was when I was at school or out in the world that I struggled most with myself – being forced to opt for self-nurture was a time to connect and to confirm, but it was something I struggled to maintain when I was up again.

52. I can totally relate to this feeling Danna. There is nothing quite like knowing that you are releasing accumulated toxin from your system (letting go of energetic poison) and the clarity and clearness felt at the completion of the process is well worth it! Much like how the air looks, smells and feels after a storm has rolled through it.

53. I totally get what you are saying, during the Christmas break I was ill, I had to really feel in to the reason why, when did I override the signals my body was giving me, and why? It didn’t take me long to work out that I had pushed my body too hard, I tried to do everything without honouring my body and taking a rest when it needed one, and consequently I was ill, my body brought me to a stop, in fact I ended up taking an extra week off because I could feel my body was telling me I needed to change my rhythm before I went back to work.

    1. Thanks for this sharing Sally there is so much in what you are sharing with us all, that we can learn from so that we do not have to experience what you had to learn the hard way as it were. When we do not honour our bodies then it makes sense that we will get sick. The way we currently live does not encourage any sort of honouring, instead we are encouraged to abuse our bodies to achieve the goals that we set ourselves. Which means we actually work against our bodies, could this be the reason why there is such high rates of illness and disease in the world, because we abuse our own bodies?

54. It is such an incredible feeling, having something come up to clear but at the same time feeling great if not amazing. It turns the whole feeling sick on its head and when we embrace the clearing then a deeper healing can take place.

55. Like you Danna, I’ve come to appreciate my body far more than I ever did. In that appreciation it’s like anything is possible, and whilst I may have my body feeling sick inside I can feel alive. It’s the beautiful feeling of aliveness when sick that is so different to feeling dead when sick. All of this comes from the care in how I live that means that whatever comes up I feel prepared to deal with it.

56. Linda, I love what you share here as I can feel a real understanding from you that we make a choices and more choices and it is an accumulation of all these choices that takes us to the place where we experience an illness or an event that asks us to deeply reflect on the way we have been living and in doing so we find that we can be more caring and more attentive to the messages from our body.

57. This is enormous, as the last thing most people want to do when they are sick is feel what’s going on, as it is those uncomfortable feelings that are the hardest ones to sit with. I love what you share,as by sitting with those feelings and staying true to you, as by doing so you felt underneath the thin layer and felt your innate beauty.

58. Being sick but feeling beautiful – yes, it does sound contradictory, but if being sick is how our body tries to clear itself of what does not belong, we are actually being presented with an opportunity to be the more of who we truly are while being sick – and it starts to make sense how beauty-full that is.

59. It is a magic moment when we become aware that the way we move through life is reflected in the health, or otherwise, of our physical body.

60. In our world today it does sound a bit crazy – but I can very much relate to feeling gorgeous when feeling sick. The last few times I haven’t been well I’ve not fought it, I’ve stopped and listened – and in that listening I’ve gone much much deeper with myself. It was so clear that a deep healing process was taking place – which I could allow or block depending on my attitude. If we allow it there is so much grace even when there is physical discomfort. And we realise how precious and fragile our beautiful bodies are – and how amazingly intelligent they are too.

61. ” When I was alone, I would feel the emptiness inside me and feel very uncomfortable. ” its so beautiful how our body lets us know, the truth of whats really going on , no matter what. Thank you for sharing Danna.

62. Pain is another whole area where people do not take the opportunity to tune in to what is really going on, and to perhaps learn and even evolve.

    1. So true Chris. More often than not we see pain as being a huge inconvenience and want to get rid of it as quickly as possible, rather than understanding that it is just another way of the body reflecting back to us how we have been living. Indeed, its a great opportunity to change something about our lives.

63. I love your 5 keys to feeling sick, such as being ‘Honest’ and ‘Precious’. Sickness doesn’t have to be a fight, but can instead be an amazing opportunity to surrender to what the body is showing us, evaluate how we have been choosing to live and make new foundations for the way forward.

64. We can feel sick and then miserable. We can get sick because we feel miserable. We can also feel sick and not miserable. It is just a choice.

65. Our periods of illness are small moments of grace by which we allow ourselves to feel all that has come to stand in the way of us and the expression of our exquisite beauty.

66. When we are unwell we need not indulge and feel sorry for ourselves. We can still be responsible and heal the causation whilst having fun and continuing our service.

67. I’ve been reappraising my approach to being ill this last week and chose to notice the symptoms but not be owned by them, allow myself full fragility and let my body lead the way. In the moments when I felt I could squeeze in an odd chore, the chore itself remained stubbornly complicated until I realised that I wasn’t fully surrendering to the healing that was needed. We live, we learn. Illness isn’t an excuse to dissolve into a heap or a gift of ‘extra time’ to catch up. It’s a healing – and when I honour this, I am able to expand and rejoin life recharged and ready for whatever’s next.

68. Being sick or unwell is an awesome opportunity that is offered to us to reflect on how we feel and what has contributed to or been the reason for the sickness. There is true beauty in this and the way our body, Soul and universe bring truth for us so that we may learn and let go of what does not belong.

69. There is a beautiful humbleness that is present when we are honest about why we are sick. This supports us to appreciate our body for the immense love and support it offers us constantly, which opens more space within us to allow the healing being offered.

70. Being sick provides a great stop moment to reflect on choices and how we have pushed the body.

71. ‘Being sick has offered me an opportunity to feel what was actually happening in my life, that I was living in drive and stress.’ awesome – if this realisation was accessed by everyone who is ill or live in disease then we would begin asking for true answers to what we can all feel and is clearly affecting humanity.

72. What you are sharing with us is in fact a beautiful way of experiencing illness, it allows the gift that is being communicated by the body to be received in whole. I do not get sick very often, if I do it is very short lived, I gather that this is the case as I am now willing to look at the ill as soon as it presents.

73. It sounds like you have found such an honesty in your sickness, and the purpose of what it is communicating to the body. This is so far from how we normally deal with such situations. In honouring ourselves whilst sick, and bringing understanding to it, we disarm sympathy or grief from others.

74. Sometimes we just need to rest and regenerate – why do we fight this fact?

75. When we feel sick it’s a sign that we need to seriously look at the choices that we have been making, because it is normally our body’s way of asking us to stop and change the way we have been living, a beautiful moment, if we listen.

    1. Sally thats so true, it’s strange to consider something when we are sick as beautiful but the truth is there is beauty in everything especially the message and fact our body is speaking to us and allowing us the space to rest, reflect and perhaps not repeat the same thing again.

76. So true Danna, we can have a very sick body but the Being we are, is untouched by this. If we can stay connected to this essence of ourselves, then despite our ill-health, the sense of being ‘well’ at that same time is in complete contrast.

    1. Very true Jenny, and in that deeper connection that we allow, more of the ‘being’, more of our essence is embodied. And how can we not rejoice that?!

77. I can feel your beauty ooze out of this blog and that is very beautiful to feel. It is super important to deeply cherish and care for ourselves when we are sick and not shut down before the TV or computer until we get better life starts again. We matter all the time and not just when we are feeling super.

78. The key word here that I feel in this blog when we combine the words feeling sick but feeling beautiful is surrendering to the body and allowing what is needed next to do its work.

79. Great offering of how we can be with illness, an invitation to go deeper, and to bring more love our bodies, and to understand that no matter what we are beautiful.

80. I love this. We can get hooked into feeling sick and then feel miserable. Or we can let the body do it’s thing and stay with ourselves.

81. Any shift in perception from believing that life was about what you can do to being about who you are can only bring movements in life that are founded in truth. We all have lost ourselves in presenting our skills and ticking the many boxes that life can present but it is not until we connect to and express all we are, do we bring true purpose to our movements, whatever we do… and enjoy the beauty of them and ourselves in every moment.

    1. Very true Samantha. This ill-seeded alignment to getting recognition for what we do and achieve, eats at us, rotting our self-confidence in the true sense of what this is, away. We become owned by the addiction that we’ve succumbed to, to be told we are good, clever, attractive etc etc etc, and so more and more we go to the doing, to get the tick box, to get the approval. While all along what we are really doing is creating more and more of a separation from the essence and truth within ourselves. It is a vicious game that keeps us trapped into a far lesser existence than what we are meant for.

82. I think that being sick and not feeling guilty or yuck but in fact feeling beautiful is a huge step for a woman. I know that I still get very caught up in the doing side of things and when I am asked to stop is when I get exposed. Great blog, thanks for sharing!

83. I can relate to what you have said Danna having observed someone being close getting sick, and in the beginning there was only the desire to stop and not feel this situation, so without thinking twice pills would be taken to “solve” the symptoms. But recently I observed a change and this time, while being sick the first response was not to stop feeling the symptoms, rather time was allowed to feel, so initially in this space more emotions surfaced. Medication was still taken, but it was not to shut out from feeling. It took a few more days to heal the sickness, but the awareness gained is much more. Our bodies do know how to heal if we allow it to guide us, and the understanding we gain from being aware of this relationship we have with ourselves as well as the support from conventional medicine is deeply precious.

84. I too used to be in the cycle of regularly being sick and absolutely hating it, just wanting to get better and get back to my life. To come to a place where, if I am sick, that I know that my body has a message or two for me is such a different feeling. There is no beating myself up as to why I got sick, no ‘poor me’, but an appreciation that my amazing body is communicating to me so clearly. These days I choose to stop, listen and take note of the lesson that is being offered; it is so worth it.

85. I am really interested how you describe using excitement about things coming up to help you get through the present moment. This highlights how much we are avoiding being in the moment and our dissatisfaction with what is, or more truthfully disconnection from what is.

86. Danna your joy to now appreciate yourself, your body and even sickness was beautiful to read – thankyou! This is a great line about illness and body symptoms “that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.” How true and how simple – no wonder there is so much joy expressed in your blog!

87. Being sick is like having the writing on the wall, we cannot ignore that something is amiss and we know what that is. If we are not aware of it straight away, with a little contemplation or just tracing back what our movements have been, with whom and why etc., a little self exploration, we can find the root cause and with this understanding, we may truly heal this illness.

88. Many people are uncomfortable being on sick and on their own if they used to being busy and distracted. It can feel like, ‘what do I do now?’ If you haven’t rediscovered your body and how steady this place feels, you can feel quite adrift at these times. For re-connection I would recommend Esoteric Yoga, which has brought me back to my body and away from the emptiness of living in my head.

    1. It can also be really uncomfortable feeling how vulnerable and fragile the body is, we rely on a sense of toughness to cope with hiding how sensitive we actually are (and on many levels) Toughness is so highly valued but it doesn’t work very well for the body, being real in our vulnerability allows us to listen more closely to the body, to respect its symptoms and signals, and offer ourselves greater care.

89. These days I rarely get sick, but when I do, I know there is something I need to pay better attention to. Staying with me and my body and even enjoying the ‘stop’ my body gives me, allows a speedier healing and a new emphasis on listening to and honouring what my body tells me, as it is giving us feedback all the time.

90. I can so relate to needing to ‘do’ things rather than just being me in order to feel I’d achieved. My diary would list the things I had done during my day. As I get older I realise I can no longer do the things I did during my thirties and am placing more attention to the quality with which I do the things I can do and how I am in my everyday life at home; learning to pay more attention to being rather than doing, knowing this not only affects me but everyone.

91. It’s a great question – do we listen to our bodies and what they are telling us, or do we want to just carry on living the way we always have… 9 times out of 10 that way is not necessarily our way, and our body will tell us every time – but we ignore it and just carry on. Crazy…..

92. I can so relate to you blog Danna. I used to get headaches and let them get me down. Now I get very few headaches and no migraines at all which I am so grateful for. Yesterday I had had very little sleep, drove for an hour in the dark and I carried some heavy bags and I got a headache. I nominated how it had come about and realised that my lack of sleep could well have been due to an unresolved issue and resolved to look after myself. When there was an opportunity I took a rest on my friend’s sofa and then drank lots of water and continued to enjoy the party that I was at. I left with no headache. This would have been unheard of a few years ago but because of the overall and consistent way in which I have been looking after myself (on a daily basis) and caring for myself and the way that I am choosing to deepen the quality in which I do this, my approach to having a headache and the intensity of the headaches I get, has changed hugely. and I can get to feel beautiful even with a headache.

    1. It’s beautiful isn’t it Elaine when we can respond to our inner being and body with greater love and care as a result of a symptom like a headache.

93. I agree with what you share Danna about the fragility that emerges at those moments and how beautiful it is not hiding or overriding, but simply feeling and allowing the healing that comes to us.

94. Feeling very sick myself today I can totally relate to feeling beautiful as well, a few years ago I would only have been faced with that emptiness and the reactions to being ill but these days what is much stronger is that feeling of beauty that is underneath the illness.

95. This has been very timely to read as I have recently been unwell. I could feel how much I wanted to check out, watch movies, kind of numb out whilst recovering, but reading your blog was very inspiring to really stay with myself and deeply surrender and honour that process of being unwell, not to check out.

96. “I feel that while I am sick I am actually more sensitive and able to feel and accept that I am fragile. When I connect to myself in this fragility, I actually feel that I am precious and that my body is that too.” I have experienced this too Danna. Part of the healing is to support me to reconnect to this preciousness that I haven’t been able to or choosing to connect to without a nudge from my body.

97. Being sick is always somewhat of a wake up call to me, it’s the body’s way of calling us back when we get too wayward and I’m always thankful for the correction.

    1. I agree Meg, when I see my body as a loving teacher there is so much to appreciate from the illness or ailment I have, showing me what I need to look at in how I am living and the opportunity to make changes.

98. Yes it is possible to feel beautiful when we are sick because illness brings about a correction or a clearing of something that is stopping us from fully feeling ourselves.

99. Danna this is not how the majority speak when sickness and illness stop them in their tracks. We weren’t taught this when we were growing up, to look at how we had got to the state that we were in. Most, including myself in the past, say things like “I wish I could get rid of this nagging cough or scratchy throat or dam flu!”, all from a belief of something happening to us without any input from our choices. It is so empowering and a healthy choice to look at what our body is bringing to our attention.

    1. I agree this is definitely not the normal approach to illness, it’s super refreshing to read that there is perhaps a different way we could approach our own personal health and healing.

    2. The willingness to be responsibility and trace back what caused the irritation and the initial signs that we were not feeling very well are often so clearly offered to us through the body. The difference being the willingness to go back and trace its roots so that we are working with the concerns from a root level where we know that true healing has the potential to burn.

100. This is a very wise sharing Danna! To stop when our bodies are asking us to, we then prevent something more serious eventuating. There have been many times in my past when I have overridden the signs from my body and pushed through an illness to my detriment. Why is it we feel a sense of worthlessness if we are not doing something? Is it because we don’t see our worth unless we are appreciated by someone else! I too have been learning to really appreciate my body and all the wonderful ways it looks after me and does my bidding, for this I am truly grateful.

101. Thank you Danna, you are worth something tremendous, even in your busiest times and even when you are run off your feet, you still bring a beauty with you that is beyond compare.

102. ‘I feel that while I am sick I am actually more sensitive and able to feel and accept that I am fragile. When I connect to myself in this fragility, I actually feel that I am precious and that my body is that too.’

     I agree Danna, that in sickness we have an opportunity to feel our own fragility. I’m also working with feeling that same sense of sensitivity and fragility as a result not of being sick, but changing my relationship with food (no longer eating to dull or dampen what I feel) and losing weight (having much less of a physical barrier between me and the world).

     I’ve recently realised that what I feel when there is less in the way (weight, food) it terrifies me in the sense I don’t feel like I can handle how the world and people feel in full… that I can’t handle my own sensitivity, as what I sense makes me feel very vulnerable. So my solution has been to return to over-eating to dull and dampen it all down again, and re-create the extra protection. This has been my way my whole life – yo-yoing back and forth.

     So being at home with what I feel and sense is requiring a bucket load of acceptance – of people and their behaviours and intentions, of the world, and of this very sensitivity of mine – as well as an understanding that my sensitivity and fragility is to be nurtured and honoured, not feared and shut down, as there is strength, beauty and empowerment that lies therein.

103. We resort to our movements to confirm our worthi-ness (I was ‘worth something’ if I was doing things). Yet, we are worth independently of anything and everything else. This includes having a condition that may stop us in our tracks.

104. The teachings Serge benhayon delivers asks us to take responsibility for what we create. And also invites us to build a true loving relationship with ourselves. Which is the core of bring lóve to the world.

105. Being loving and nurturing with ourselves when we are sick or well is so important, as you have so clearly pointed out Danna, thank you.

106. Committing to life I once thought I had ‘to do’ and while it was a needed experience I am realising that I can commit to life by committing to myself first. I can feel the truth of this fact and some resistance to living it in full yet I no longer can go back to the ‘old’ way of living in raciness and drive. What my body is showing me is that it needs plenty of rest as I re-adjust and imprint choices that support and nurture me in my everyday livingness with a focus and intention on the quality I am in and not how much I can do.

107. Thank you Danna. I am sick at the moment and I know why. I am actually very grateful to my body for giving me some stop time which is exactly what I needed as I had not given this to myself. So I can be sick with appreciation and go back to loving myself and listening to what my body needs. Yes this is beautiful and I am beautiful.

108. Taking adequate rest for our bodies is crucial and it really doesn’t matter how old we are or how incapacitated if the body needs rest it needs rest. No matter how beautiful or ugly or ill we feel caring for our body lovingly is a first step and in that space we can allow for more awareness of what this unease or disease might be presenting for us to look at, having possibly closed our eyes, or tried to close our eyes, to it previously.

109. ‘I have noticed that when my body is sick it is actually telling me something…’ and when we wake up and listen to what our body is telling us we can learn so much from the wisdom it is sharing.

110. Danna, this is really gorgeous, ‘I feel that while I am sick I am actually more sensitive and able to feel and accept that I am fragile’. I have noticed this with myself and others, that when we get sick we often stop the drive and momentum and we feel more fragile and sensitive, we seem to care for ourselves more when we are sick and are more likely to put ourselves first, nurturing our bodies and listening to what is needed.

111. Understanding that sickness is not something bad and connecting to what it means to you is a great step forward.

112. One thing I have noticed when I am sick of late, is the importance of how I am viewing my sickness. If I see it as an offering to go deeper within to feel what the sickness is showing me, I feel clear in my mind and I’m gentle with myself. If I drop my awareness of sickness and all it offers, I mentally drop and go into a state that is unloving and extremely unsupportive for my body. We can either heal or harm ourselves in times of sickness: both are a choice.

113. Even when we are sick we are still able to feel beautiful inside, because we are so much more than just our physical body.

114. A friend of mine is unwell at the moment and I notice how difficult it is for them to stop doing all the things that they have been doing and to just rest. I know that happens for me. It is like the first day or so of being ill carries the imprint of how we have been living and it takes a bit of time to stop the momentum of this. It is like being on an out of control train that takes some time to grind to a halt.

115. Growing up, I used to fight the feeling of being sick. I refused to be still, or acknowledge that I was unwell, and saw it as an awful hindrance. Of late, that has changed, and I have learnt there is tremendous power, and tremendous beauty to be found when taking the opportunity to stop that illness presents. Why power? Because it gives you a very needed moment in time to completely stop, to surrender, and extract yourself from the momentums of life. As such, there is opportunity to rest, heal, and ponder. Quite often clarity of mind follows after a period of being sick, and things feel fresh, and it always feels like there is the possibility of a new start.

116. By breaking the cycle of busyness that drives us and bounces us around from one task to the next, it allows us more and more space to actually appreciate the quality we bring to what we do, and not to just tick the proverbial box of what we do.

117. I have recently had the flu. During my time off it was interesting to observe all the emotions I went through about having to rest and not being able to go into work. It was a great time for reflection and I have made some changes to the way I work as a result. One thing that did come up was the drive I can work with that is increasingly becoming unsustainable.

118. There is also obsession with sickness. This is when someone thrives on being sick and identifies with the body only in as far as it relates to innumerable ailments pains, aches, crises, medication, survey and medical appointments. In this person, self is totally subsumed beneath presenting ‘problems’ and gives reason for them to not participate fully in life. In effect they have chosen ‘sickness’ as a way of being and denied themselves the opportunity to go deeper and understand why they live their life in such misery.

119. I love this Danna and can relate. I can feel the same when I’m tired – there’s actually a gorgeous sense of surrender to the body that comes with that. I’m also noticing you’re a student nurse (or perhaps qualified by now) – either way, what a beautiful understanding you’ll be able to offer those in your care.

120. The doing confirms ourselves, so if we cannot do because the body is sick, the doing does not do it for us. What a great opportunity to connect deeply with ourselves and to confirm ourselves from our being-ness!

121. Wow Danna from what you say the true sickness we suffer from is attaching our value and worth as a human being to our physical health and the way that we seem. If we get honest are there not a bucket load more of value attachments that we have, to partners, jobs, or money etc, and so we find ourselves on a constant roller coaster of being assessed. Just writing about it is exhausting to me, how ironic if we found that this self-worth dependency played a big part in disease?

122. ‘I could feel that my body stopped me, wanting my attention for how I had lived so far, and that it was tired.’ I am sick at the moment and although I know this is a blessing and a clearing I am not surrendering to it completely and letting my body deeply rest. There is still an anxiousness/nervousness within my body. My body doesn’t feel great at the moment but I know that when it has stopped clearing I will feel a lot lighter and stronger. It is also making me look at just how many times during the day I override what my body is asking … which I have just realised with more clarity after reading your blog so thank you. So now it is how will I re-imprint the way I live once the sickness has cleared? That is up to me to change.

123. Clearing the body of it’s ills and poisons is a beautiful experience to feel.

124. Hi Danna, experiencing sickness has allowed me to go to a deeper level of self-care and self love than I have experienced in life. There is a level of preciousness we can hold ourselves in that teaches about how we can be in life. Being sick brings many blessings, it is like waking up to what is true if we are open to being more honest about the way we are living.

125. I saw so clearly in your sharings why we fight being sick. Because we have to simply be with ourselves and our bodies and not ‘do anything’ except rest. And we rarely just be with ourselves.

126. Sometimes we can find ourselves in a very challenging situation and can succumb to stress. We often push and drive to do whatever we can to fix the problem or sort it out so the stress goes away. When we feel stress, our bodies are in a lot of tension and are held, as if in a constant fight or flight mode, which of course impacts on our kidneys and we get tired, and in time exhausted because we have to keep borrowing energy to keep going. This makes us so much more susceptible to illness and disease. It doesn’t have to be like this and with the pointers you have given us it’s possible to connect to something deeper inside and we can feel beautiful even when we ‘stuff up’ and find ourselves with an illness. This is huge, and both facilitates and supports our healing.

127. It is beautiful Danna when we realise that illness isn’t there to annoy and frustrate us and to ignore or push through but is the very healing we need to correct our ill choices and momentums.

128. While our bodies are the key indicator of how we are actually living, they are not everything that we are. We are multi-dimensional, and if we connect with energy first, with our soul and the light within then that is immutable no matter what the body is doing.

129. Having this experience and awareness that we are not less when we are sick is going to be an incredible reflection to offer as a future Nurse. It is exactly the message and reflection that will support those who are requiring support through the hospitals.

130. ‘By having a more truthful understanding and connection with my body, I felt what being sick actually means for me.’ What a beautiful gift to give yourself Danna. We all can learn so much by listening to the constant messages our body is giving us.

131. My experience of being sick has changed a great deal over the past few years. When I was last under the weather I went to a level where I treated myself as gently as a baby. Warm baths, soup and hot meals and early bedtimes. I didn’t over exert myself and I went on a few walks. All in all, I reset the bar of what self care and self love was for me. It’s when I’m out of this rhythm for a long enough period when I get ill. But it’s awesome to know why I’m unwell and how to heal.

132. “My body actually needed love – it needed to be treated with love – by ME!” A beautiful prescription for living all that you are.

133. It is interesting how when we are sick we can come to a stop and really feel what level of agitation or disharmony we have been living in. It seems that as soon as we have relief from our symptoms we can rush back into the ill energy we having been living rather than choosing another way.

134. Funny how we say “I am sick” because often we can actually be very well whilst our body goes through a healing, letting go or adjustment that we call being sick. Sometimes we are more sick when we think we are well but are overriding or burying what is really going on.

135. Beautiful sharing Danna, thank you. I love how you broke the cycle, also what you wrote on honouring yourself really struck a chord with me;
     “Honouring: I honour the fact that my body stopped me to look at and feel how I have been looking after myself, what has happened the last days/week or even months”.

136. Our body teaches us to honour and respect it, ‘I can take care of myself to make sure that even though I might have disregarded my body, I can take care of it now’.

137. Even when sick or in reaction we are still beautiful, I am also experiencing this more and more lately. Before I used to react to what I was feeling and those emotions would completely block out and blind me to the beauty within, but that is not the case anymore it seems as it is becoming much simpler to see through the emotions and to the beauty that is worth treasuring underneath the momentary flare and faff of reaction.

138. What a totally different experience you describe Danna of being with your body when you are ill rather than riding it out distracted with TV and the like. If feels like the former allows us to connect with the body and feel the quality that we have lived in up until that point.

139. Wow what a journey you have had here – to feel for your body what it is to be sick and why, I used to override being sick in the past, but your blog has inspired me to keep on developing a relationship with my body in which I can be honest with where I am at and see the sickness as a communication from my body.

140. “I caught myself in moving and walking in a way that was out of rhythm, out of connection with myself.” Once we start building our foundation of self awareness and connection within our bodies our powers of observation being to open up and we begin to notice when we are ‘out of step’.

141. If our illness is a way for our body to clear the dis-ease we have been living in, then it makes sense that we loathe being sick because we don’t want to feel the effect our past ill choices are having on us. To truly care for ourselves when we are sick shows a willingness to address what made us sick in the first place and this is the best medication we will find.

     1. Dropping the reactions and emotions that are used to cover up and avoid addressing our choices that got us sick actually helps the body heal faster!

142. When we choose Love we feel that in abundance, nothing else can enter, but when we are seeking from our emptiness we are filled with all sorts of rubbish…. anything that will distract you from feeling vulnerable, open to the inner Wisdom the body is presenting to heal.

143. To not react and listen to your body carefully takes a commitment and dedication to a greater purpose, to that which allows you to see the fuller picture of what is taking place and uphold the responsibility that the choices one has made have led to the outcome.

144. Such a credit to you Danna that you chose to take the opportunity of an illness to stop, reflect, deepen your awareness, surrender and thus heal. What you have expressed is a beautiful reminder to live from and emanate our true essence and beauty whilst choosing to deal with our hurts and physical illnesses.

145. When we pin our happiness on expectation we set ourselves up for all kinds of feelings of disappointment, sadness even loneliness as you describe. I’ve found that even though we might try, we can never really predict in detail outcomes and we can certainly never hand over our state of wellbeing to any thing outside of ourselves. There is only the deep and loving way we are with ourselves that can bring us to the inner steadiness, fullness and confidence.

146. I have been doing a lot of healing with support from Simple-Living Global and Universal Medicine. Deep down I know this is what I need to do and mostly I accept it. But it amazes me how I can still resist the healing. I understand that when I resist I just increase my suffering, but I can feel the part of me that says “No! I don’t care, l don’t like this and I am going to do what I want!”
     Part of my process in all parts of my life is surrendering. If I can surrender to what is, (not having an agenda to what is happening), my body relaxes and things start flowing in my life.

147. This resonated with me as a pattern that is all too familiar. It is an easy one to slip back into, being precious and tender with yourself when you are sick and go back into the raciness of life when well again, only to repeat the cycle.

148. I can so relate to all that you have shared about all the emphasis on what you can do rather than who you are, as it is very much my own experience of how I live in life – and I am also beginning to discover what it means to change this pattern and see my worth as being tied to far more than what I can do.

149. A juxtaposition of two states of being that wonderfully reveal that beauty is from within “I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful”

150. Dear Danna,
     I am re-reading your blog tonight and there is so much that I want to comment on. There are so many aspects, understandings and layers of wisdom in it, totally packed full.
     But for tonight it is this paragraph that is asking for my attention.
     “Honest: looking honestly at why I have become sick, and what I am feeling. Example: when I feel lethargic, I could feel that this emotion was not only because of the fact that I was sick, but actually an emotion I was holding in my day-to-day living.”
     This is absolute Gold, I too have felt that I can feel lethargic is an emotion, for me it is a sense of why bother and a giving up on myself and the world.
     By observing this in myself, and honestly feeling it when it is present, I can address it now in moments, by address it I mean that I choose to no longer give it airplay. I choose to live differently.

151. This was confirmed to me yesterday. I was speaking to someone on the phone who is recovering from a major operation and is currently on a feeding tube inserted into her stomach. I didn’t know this at the time as it was shared later in the call. This woman felt truly beautiful. I couldn’t see her, but her quality was felt the moment I started to speak to her. In the course of a day I take calls from all sorts of people, none of whom I can physically see. We pick up a lot from the quality of the voice and while this woman was considered ‘sick’ her quality was so very beautiful to be around. It reminded me of the grace and beauty of healing and how it is for everyone, as I was very touched by our conversation.

152. Danna its so very similar for me as well, in your example “The more things I was able to do, the better I felt about myself, but once I was not doing anything I felt worthless and unhappy.” I find myself reflecting on how I am when I get sick, or when i used to get sick, I would see it as the enemy – something that gets in my way of doing what I “wanted” to be doing. Yet I’ve also noticed a change in myself that there is a way to allow my body to be sick and heal with the understanding that it is exactly what it needs at that time. How far from truth are we living though to feel worthless when we are not doing things, when there is far more done by our quality of presence than by the act itself.

153. “Being sick, but knowing that I am beautiful no matter what, now is the best feeling I have and can support myself with.” Reading this again I feel that we don’t have to wait around for a major sickness to feel that we are unwell or in dis-ease with something in life. But knowing that no matter what tension I may be feeling that underneath it all is a beauty and clarity that we can connect to and that from here our bodies know how to handle any situation. Thank you

154. It is a lot of hard work when we try to ‘do’ something, and of course the end result may or may not be the outcome we were looking for. However, when we just are… living the being we have been all along, then that can be effortless, as we are not asking ourselves to be anything more (or less) that who we already are.

155. A wonderful reminder that no matter how we are feeling, either well, unwell or in pain, our essence stays whole and unwavering; the illness and the pain is not us, but it has come to us as a message from our amazing body that we have not being treating it as it needs to be treated to maintain its vitality and well-being. Our body is actually our best friend, our wisest ally, and to learn to listen it to it is the most loving thing we could ever do.

156. Being unwell is a time for refection and our bodies saying it is time to stop. I can relate to so very much of what you shared here Danna, always being in a rush to get somewhere, not ever feeling complete, always needing the next thing on the horizon to keep me in raciness. So allowing ourselves to fully surrender when we are sick is actually a blessing.

157. Those times of feeing and being unwell I now realise were opportunities for me to feel what it is like to be still and to have the experience of just being.

158. Thank you Danna for a beautiful sharing of listening to the bodies wisdom, learning to connect to it and heal. I love this line “Today, I am sick, but actually with feeling all of this, I feel beautiful. I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.”

159. Danna, such a gorgeous and deeply profound blog, it puts another angle on being sick and it shows that how we relate to our bodies, how we are with our bodies affects how we are sick. As you show we can be miserable and refuse to see and feel what is offered to us with out illness or we can choose to more deeply connect to our bodies and feel what they offer us and take that understanding into our day to day living. That is the thing that comes through loud and clear our lived consistency affects how we are and we take it with us everywhere and our beautiful bodies are our ultimate guide, and they always show us how we are and offer us another level of depth in our connections with ourselves.

160. Hello Danna and this blog certainly puts a different spin on being ‘sick’. We often think of being sick as a failure or it means you’re unhealthy. Those that aren’t sick will often feel better if they see someone else sick. It’s almost like we view sick so badly that we don’t even see what it’s about at all. Those that are sick have been bad while if you are well at that time you must be doing good. It’s super important to bring things to where you have directed them Danna and that is back to your body. Using a sickness as a stop to check in to see how you have been with yourself, your movements, your interactions etc. Great to see the sunny side of sick for a change, or at least for a moment and as you are saying, being sick is more than just looking forward to feeling better.

161. More recently I can remember seeing people who may have just been released from hospital or are going through what we would consider a major medical issue or diagnosis and I can’t help but feel how much lighter they feel. Their physical body may have the dis-ease but on another level there is a whole new quality that can be felt. This is when I understand that we are so much more than what the eyes alone can see.

162. Now this is true medicine “I was being asked to look in more detail at my relationship with my body and the responsibility I have to take care of it. This touched me, because I could feel I had abandoned my body a long, long time ago. That I even forgot that I am responsible for it!” Danna, I feel many of us can relate to this.

163. ‘I am sick but I am feeling beautiful’ – how rare and gorgeous is that? Awesome blog Danna, brimming with pearls of wisdom.

164. I have to agree Henrietta, it is actually quite funny to experience being really sick and absolutely amazing at the same time. In the past when I was sick I was so immersed in being sick, so connected to the pain and being downright miserable I did not see the opportunity to learn from what was happening, or the clearing being made available, nor did I see my being sick as the consequences of my lifestyle choices. But once I started to become aware of my part in my illnesses and to take responsibility for listening to and caring for my body, things changed, now when sickness occurs, which is not often, I feel it in my body but I feel removed, not so immersed or self indulgent, so that I can actually feel great in my being even though my body is unwell, therefore I am able to rest and recuperate feeling much lighter and more at ease with what is happening allowing a greater degree of healing to take place.

165. I love what you have shared here Danna. And I can share also from experience that I generally have two kinds of ‘sicknesses’: the first one is when I feel sick and miserable and awful, and the other is when I feel physically really sick and unwell, however on another level I feel absolutely amazing. This is actually quite funny to experience. I feel that when we are sick, it is the body’s way of clearing out that which ‘should’ not be in the body, so part of the feeling sick can come from feeling the ‘gunk’ that is coming out to be cleared. But if we can work with this process and appreciate it and support the body and have the understanding of what is happening, then we can actually feel really good about it all at the same time. However, if we are digging our heels in whilst feeling sick, not really wanting to admit and accept that we may have played a major part in becoming sick, and just grabbing that grumpy feeling and staying with it, feeling like we are missing out on so many things in life, then it is likely that we will just generally be feeling miserable on all levels. Something here to ponder on for sure!

166. I love what you have presented in this blog Danna. Learning to listen to an honour our bodies provides such amazing lessons and clearings;
     “. . .the truth is that illness and disease offers us an accelerated clearing of that which does not belong in our body.”

167. Danna I love how you have embraced feeling beautiful whether your body is sick or well. Once I surrender to the fact that my body is needing to stop (that can be a rough ride if I’m fighting it) then there is beauty in allowing oneself to feel fragile and allow whatever feelings that are there to be, and to truly nurture myself. In this way I get to feel how the sickness was how I had been living, and the actual body ill-health was in fact the healing I needed.

168. Danna your title “I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful” made me so interested to read your awesome blog. It is so refreshing what you have shared and it showed very easy and clear that we are responsible for how we are feeling even in our illness.

169. How you have learnt to not react to your body throwing up symptoms is very inspiring; it really turns everything about ailments, illness and disease on its head. We have a lot to learn and humbly accept yet.

     1. Beautifully said Gabriele – we have so much to learn about illness and disease, and about how to embrace this rather than fight it. It is about welcoming illness and disease and working with it to gain an understanding of what is happening on a deeper level, rather than fighting it and trying to stop it from happening.

170. The coughs and colds season is amongst many at this time of the year and it’s interesting how the conversation includes ‘I caught it off my husband, kids or work colleagues’. Just yesterday I was having a chat with a work colleague who was showing signs of a very nasty cough and chest infection and her response was so honest in how she was feeling… “I’m feeling run down because life has been so hectic these last few months, no wonder I had to be stopped to rest with a cold.”

171. If we truly feel beautiful why would this change when we feel ill? Allowing and going with the illness or disease means we can stop and look at what is going on in our lives that needs changing or readjusting so we can go even deeper in our relationship with ourselves. Thank you Danna for sharing your embrace of this.

172. To surrender and accept when we fall ill allows true healing to take place. It is through deeply surrendering that we give up on the battle in the mind, but not on ourselves as we connect to the soul.

173. Thank you Danna, this is a great article for me to read today while I am home unwell. Thank you for the gentle reminder not to go into judgement and the beauty and simplicity of what is on offer when we are sick, to spend time with ourselves listening to and cherishing our bodies more deeply and from there being able to take greater responsibility for how we live and care for ourselves.
     I agree, the Universal Medicine presentations and workshops are a game changer in this arena – before I had experienced these teachings I would feel very given up and desolate when I was sick and did not deeply consider the choices I had been making that had contributed to my circumstance. There is something very beautiful and empowering to recognise our choices, and that in each moment we have the choice to return to care and/or deepen the care for ourselves and our physical bodies.

174. This is wonderful Danna, our body is always communicating with us, we just have to choose to listen, ‘Being sick has offered me an opportunity to feel what was actually happening in my life, that I was living in drive and stress. My body actually woke me up, letting me know that something in my daily living was not right. I learned to become more honest and listen to signals that my body was sending’.

175. Danna the fact that you choose to look at why you got sick, use it as a time to reflect and see what areas of your life you could bring more care and love to is already a world changing approach to illness and disease. When you add on the fact that you genuinely felt beautiful even though you were sick and its unheard of.

176. This blogs shows so well how we can separate ourselves with the sympathy that can be played out with how we “should’ act or feel when we are ill.

177. I too used to be in the seemingly never-ending cycle of sickness, and even though my body had brought me to a halt I really didn’t listen to what it was saying, I just wanted to get better and go back to living the way I was. To have come to know that “sickness” is simply my body’s way of clearing what I have dumped into it, and that taking the time to listen to its very wise messages is of paramount importance, has brought such huge change into my life, along with the deepening of love and respect that I now have for my amazing body; these days, it speaks – I listen!

178. What I love about this blog is that it shows that we are not our sickness or disease or our issues of whatever is going on in our life.

     1. Great comment Mariette. It is so easy, and normal, to become consumed by the illness, the issue, and lose our connection to ourselves. Each is an opportunity to deepen this connection and understand where and why we are losing it in the first place.

179. “… now I make sure I look after my body every day, and I actually enjoy it and if I get sick, I understand why and I still feel beautiful.” What an empowering statement and an inspiration for all.

180. “. . .the truth is that illness and disease offers us an accelerated clearing of that which does not belong in our body.” If more people realised this they would not fight the illness but be open to learning what it has to offer us. We hear many stories of people with life threatening diseases who have changed the way they live completely and it has been a major turning point in their life.

181. Danna, I love the title of your blog: “I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful”. It shows me that you allowed yourself to surrender and connect with your body which always feels lovely inside no matter how sick we are. This also allows for healing, for when we are connected more can clear from the body because we are not fighting the process. However, if we focus on the symptoms and are impatient about getting well it can be hard to feel beautiful.

182. “…even though I might have disregarded my body, I can take care of it now.” Danna this is a lovely reminder that it’s never too late to start taking care of ourselves and stories like yours show how it is possible to make that shift to honouring our body by listening to it in every moment and bringing that loving quality to everything we do.

183. “My body actually needed love – it needed to be treated with love – by ME! “ Danna, it’s so true that we are the ones who need to care and love ourselves. Without that we do not feel the love in us and we then look for someone or something else to provide it which sets us on a path of doing things for recognition.

184. You’re so right Danna, illness offers us an opportunity to look at how we have been living and make new choices.

185. I used to be like this and for many people this is normal, ‘My body was always hard and dense; I had little awareness of how my body felt at that time. I moved in a way that was tight, stressed and busy, not knowing of the effects that was having on my body. I was always trying to ‘do my best’. This was quite exhausting.’ I agree Danna, thank goodness for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for showing us another way, a way that makes sense and allows us to be loving, respectful and honouring of ourselves if we so choose. What a beautiful turn around of your life.

186. How many people have felt like this, I ‘ felt miserable and inefficient, because I could not ‘do’ anything. I used to only feel like I was ‘worth something’ if I was doing things. The more things I was able to do, the better I felt about myself, but once I was not doing anything I felt worthless and unhappy…’ it is a sad truth that this has been and still continues to be the truth for many women. It is great to see how you have turned this around Danna.

     1. How many people feel lost when being ill? And overriding the illness with medication so that they can go back to ‘normal’ or ‘sit it out’ watching a screen or such? What Danna has shared here is huge as it shows that we need not get lost or be confused when illness and disease bring us to a stop. We can make friends with our bodies and be open to asking why we are experiencing such and what our part to play has been. Responsibility is a huge dose of medicine that allows us to bring in more understanding and less reaction when we are unwell.

        1. Responsibility is by far the best medicine. It might not be the nicest tasting one, or the prettiest one, but it gets right to the heart of the issue and works wonders when administered correctly – absolutely no half measures!

     2. I know that I can really feel sorry of myself when I am sick, but knowing that it’s the body’s way of communicating something that needs to be looked at as a ‘pull up’ moment is to be appreciated.

187. I loved reading this it was a great reminder for me as I was dealing with feeling 100% and realised I had placed all these conditions on how I thought I should be behaving rather than feeling what was needed.

188. “I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.” So true Danna, our body is always working towards optimum health, it is always us that hold it back by withholding our love for ourselves.

189. I can very much relate to this. The last few days, I have been quite sick with a cold, and yet in many ways I have never felt better. My eyes in particular are as clear as they have ever been and felt. Whatever the reason why we fall ill, and regardless of whether we needed to get ill in the first place, the truth is that illness and disease offers us an accelerated clearing of that which does not belong in our body. Sometimes, yes, that results in discomfort and even death, but if we were to consider the possibility that life is an immortal cycle that is not limited to what occurs between what we refer to as birth and death, then it opens us up to the revelation that illness and disease, and even death as we know it does not have to be such a morbid or stressful experience, but rather an opportunity for us to deepen our awareness of our own divinity. And to clarify by this I do not mean that the illness itself is what gives us that feeling of divinity, but rather by virtue of what the illness energetically clears that enables us to feel that connection.

190. Being unwell offers an enormous opportunity for reflection and insight to be able to discard behaviour patterns that may have contributed to the illness. Being brought to a complete ‘stop’ offers an opportunity to surrender the body and let go of all those long held ideals and beliefs, the “should’s” and “shouldn’t’s” . It is quite a lesson of letting go and acceptance.

     1. Being unwell in our body always offers us the opportunity to choose differently and to appreciate that our body is forever unfolding and changing. As we allow these changes to support our way of being we become aware that what in the past we may have seen as problems are actually moments of empowerment and letting go, so that we may further evolve.

191. “it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.” I love how you have described illness in this way, Danna, because it associates illness as being a gift for us rather than an inconvenience. Being ill is offering us an opportunity to stop, really feel into our bodies and to appreciate and love what is there to be felt.

192. This line really sums up so much for me “… I could feel I had abandoned my body a long, long time ago.” How true this is for so many of us on the planet, living completely ignoring the body except for the bare, basic necessities. It’s a very big wake up call to not abandon the self, but instead listen lovingly to our body and by this, bring a deep level of care to our health.

193. Lovely to read Danna; how gorgeous to feel beautiful when you are sick. I love the way you have highlighted that there is so much to learn and so many opportunities to evolve when we are sick. I could not agree with you more.

194. “My body actually woke me up, letting me know that something in my daily living was not right ” Our bodies have a great way of showing us what we need to do to untangle these situations.

195. ‘The more things I was able to do, the better I felt about myself, but once I was not doing anything I felt worthless and unhappy.’ And for many they can also feel very guilty.

196. Our body is very clear in what healing it needs, and especially when it is sick. Or do we pay more attention to it , when we are sick (that makes it more obvious)? We might want to escape feeling what is really going on in our bodies. Or numb it down. But what if being sick was actually a moment of absolute healing, and opportunity for growth?

     1. Yes Danna – I feel we pay more attention to our body when we get sick or have an accident because only then will we stop and listen to our bodies, trying to tell us how we have not been looking after them. It is indeed an opportunity of surrender, awareness and healing.

197. The word ‘precious’ and connecting, when unwell, with how fragile and delicate the human body is can drop us into humbleness and in humbleness we feel our beauty. Mostly though we live with an arrogance towards the human frame, this is reflected to me by how we often drive our cars. Many times I have been driven or been the driver myself and felt how much we disrespect the fragility of our bodies. So arrogant we are that even hospital staff that encounter the fragility of the human body on a daily basis in most cases live with just as much disregard.

198. This blog explains how illness can be a positive experience when we are willing to understand how we have lived in disharmony and effectively put the disharmony, the illness or disease, in the body ourselves but then make the necessary shifts and changes to fully heal. It is the balance of honesty without indulging in self-bashing and critique; making what we choose in the next moment and the next what counts.

199. Great description of how going through life getting things done without an awareness of how we are moving breaks down the body. I have also found when I make getting something done more important than the quality I am in makes my movements more jarring and strains the body’s tender tissues. The trouble with this is the more the tissues harden the more numbed they become to the tension and strain.

200. Danna, you depict so many relatable situations and attitudes in your writing such as ‘I was comparable to a bouncing ball; even though this was not always visible from the outside, I always felt anxious and bumpy.’ Chatting with some friends yesterday we all shared that as soon as we are not being ourselves anxiousness creeps in that is often not visible from the outside and at times is even undetected by ourselves.

     1. Thank you Deanne Voysey for giving this back to us.. Yes, that is very true and relatable for many. When we are not ourselves, something else seem to be running us, something that is quite unsteady, bumpy and for sure not in balance with the essence of life. Or should I say essence of being. And therefore we slip up this trail of uneasiness and it is our way to come back to the way that is ending this bumpy ride and make it one of love and balance again. Meanwhile, we should notice and allow our body to heal via making choices that lift up its vitality and love embodiment, nothing else.

     2. Deanne I am amazed at how regularly I detect anxiousness within my body and as you so rightly say, it is often not visible from the outside. Often it feels more like a slightly carbonated feeling in my chest and although it isn’t apparent to others, it is none the less apparent to me that it does not belong in my body.

201. ‘Now, being myself is way more important than what I can do.’ Ultimately, is there anything else to life? Nothing we do is greater than being ourselves because what we do when we are ourselves will then be true, yet there are many temptations and pressures we bring into our lives that we let get in the way of this.

202. The more I honour myself the easier it has become to surrender to and with my body when I am sick. What’s amazing too, is that in not fighting, I actually allow my body more energy to help clear what needs clearing…thus working way more efficiently any way!

203. I love the title of this blog as I felt unwell the other day and rose from my bed to the delicateness I could see in front of me from my wardrobe mirrors. The inner beauty was pouring out calling me to let go even more and rest the body.

204. “and that when my body speaks to me and I am listening, all that ‘I can do’ seems to matter less and ‘who I am’ starts to mean more. Now, being myself is way more important than what I can do.” Very power-full statement to listen to your body. If only we listened all the time – it is the marker of truth. What you are choosing or have chosen is in your body. So, when I choose my body there is a message and somewhat guidance. If I do not know what to do next a simple stop and commitment to my body and feel what is needed next.

205. Being honest and truly looking at the real reasons we get sick and taking responsibility for our choices is a huge step in the right direction.

206. I love the part where you share about living from excitement to excitement. I think many people can relate to this as I can for sure. It is so normal in society to do this. Like when we are at work looking forward to the weekend, at school looking forward to the afternoon or evening, living from meal to meal and so on. Living like this is not really living I would say, where are we in the moments in between? When you think about it in that way it is actually really showing that the way we are living in between the good moments is not really something we like yet is this not already a wake up call? The point is I think that it is so accepted to live from ‘excitement’ to ‘excitement’ that we do not even consider it does not have to be that way, and even more that our lives can be full of enjoyment every moment of the day. I deeply appreciate Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for presenting these truths about life which made me able to see more clearly in what way we are living every day.

207. I have many times overridden my body’s need for rest in times of illness which only led to delay in healing and at times being forced to stop and then taking even longer to recover. Surrendering to the body’s wisdom, is a very wise choice.

     1. I have noticed how I have been doing this – overridden my bodies needs for rest that is – and how my body has contracted and hardened as a result. I had let myself believe that I had to keep going, when I know that being steady and honouring my body’s pace offers so much more spaciousness, free flow and lightness in life.

208. This lovely blog confirms that illness is not a failure but a beautiful opportunity to look at my choices and learn from them. Allowing the space and time to just be with whatever is occurring is an essential part of healing.

     1. I agree Jeanette – we can be so self-critical when we become ill, either for the fact in itself or because we are not able to meet our own usual expectations or those of others. This actually hinders the opportunity we have for healing at this time. As you say, allowing the time and space for this is an incredible gift to ourselves and each other.

209. This is so lovely Danna and so very pertinent for me this morning. There is an wonderful appreciation here for the loving communication that is present when we allow ourselves to feel our body and the deep call to stop and heal. Even more so, there is a deeper awareness that no matter what our body may be healing, our inner beauty is forever within us and that in fact that inner beauty is us whatever else is happening. Thank you.

210. ‘I actually did not know how to be with myself’ – reading your words this morning I realised that there are still times when I feel this same feeling. It feels like a gradual process – letting go of the busyness that blocks us connecting. It’s no wonder that we do not know how to relate to others when we do not know how to be with ourselves. I am finding a whole new world is opening up as I learn to be with myself and gently and tenderly allow myself to be all that can be found when I surrender to the wisdom that surrounds us when we connect to the space that surrounds us and supports us. There is grace to be found in every moment that is forever evolving.

211. Beautiful story of breaking a cycle, that is harmful to us, by taking responsibility and making self-loving choices. By allowing the stillness, accepting the illness as an opportunity to evolve, and deeply listening to our innate wisdom is the key, which you have pointed out Danna, thank you.

212. “Healing: by allowing my body to let go of anything that it has been running around with, due to choices I have made that were breaking it down instead of supportive.” To own and accept that illnesses are the consequences of our life choices is such a huge step in one’s healing journey.

213. Honouring our selves and caring for ourselves are a vital part of living in our bodies and this world. When we are sick this is simply another way our body needs looking after and treasuring for what it is and has taken on that it needs healing and is still beautiful in essence.

214. Danna the title of your blog is very revealing and definitely an invitation as to what this could possibly look and feel like. Thank you for sharing such a lovely understanding of how you appreciate your body’s way of showing what it is truly calling for. Illness is not an inconvenient disruption to our lives – it is a way to show us which choices are the loving ones for ourselves.

     1. Yes being sick is not a narrow space that we are held in that is a time to ; beat ourselves up, put ourselves down, drive ourselves forth or criticize… But actually a time for loving self-reflection, healing and true surrendering. To surrender to what it is we need to feel in our body – and were it is coming from. To feel and let go. To learn and flow. This makes so much more sense to then the current restricted version we have made being sick and ill to be. Thank you Serge Benhayon, for showing us where illness and disease is about – through this understanding I am able to feel it myself.

        1. As we know truth, we know lies. The matter and level we use lies is then exposing us how much we do not want to evolve and come back to truth. A game I have played for long, and I have and still see being played by all. And so, we have the power to make choices, as we have free will. And so our illness and disease shows us how we have lived and the areas we have not looked at or disregarded. Why should we play victim about that?

215. Becoming sick, really sick, has quite an impact not just on the person with the illness but many other people. The body can do some quite strange, painful or scary things, especially if you lead quite a normally active life and there is a sudden change. I’ve cared for people who were struck down permanently with injury or illness with their lives changing dramatically. It is without doubt a challenge and really worth appreciating what is considered ‘normal’ everyday living.

     1. I agree, Mathew Brown, when we have an active life and feel rather healthy we often take this for granted, instead of appreciating and deepening this relationship to our body and becoming aware if we are truly vital or just racy and numb and because of this do feel “healthy” .

     2. Thankyou for the reminder to appreciate my health matthew and to appreciate my illnesses are offering me a gentle reminder of areas in my life I could be more loving and my choice to listen before those messages get more severe.

216. Wow Danna, reading again the title of this blog made me aware of the sweetness and beauty we all hold. That our choice to connect to that inner-beauty and sweetness (and all those other qualities) is simply just a choice. Regardless if we are ill or not. As a society we have lost the connection with this Amazingness inside, so if we’re sick – there’s not a Livingness of connecting to ourselves that supports us. This period could be an absolute moment of Grace and re-connecting to the deeply loving being that we are, offered to us as a ‘gift’. Something that is needed and lovingly been ‘given’ to re-establish a deeper connection with our True self and our bodies. And all along this time, whether it be one day or over a year (or even longer), we are able to enjoy our sweetness and beauty while our body is doing whatever is needed.

     1. I love your confirmation Shirley-Ann. To me what you’re sharing is also taking away any form of competition or comparison. “No matter what the scale of it”, is actually about the seriousness of the disease, but also telling us that we are not to compare, but just surrender to whatever our own body represents and presents to us. How amazing is the science of acceptance…

217. Danna, I love how you have found the true beauty within what we would normally consider the grotesque. Our illnesses are our body’s way of restoring the true light within. Thus, through the surrender we feel once more, the nature of our true self. Just gorgeous.

     1. “Our illnesses are our body’s way of restoring the true light within.” This is so true and what I witnessed in my children when they were little as once they were over an illness they would be bounding with energy and enthusiasm in life. I always used to welcome their illnesses as their bodies were having a ‘good clear out’ and actually that is exactly what is happening.

        1. I love how my house feels “after a good clear out”… the same too can be felt after an illness; my body feels clearer, lighter, more open and honest.

     2. That is true Liane Mandalis. Ps: I love your writing style, it is absolute pure and truth.

218. A beautiful article Danna reminding us to feel a deeper commitment to our amazing bodies.

219. I have certainly been in the same situation Danna. I was always doing and trying to please others but had no idea what was going on in my body or the harm this was causing. If I became sick I would give myself a day to rest then think, ‘I should be better by now’ and back to normal activities, rather than feeling what my body was capable of. I loved your comment about your body needing to be loved and that love had to come from you. This was something I never considered but now know this is so important, the love you give yourself.

220. Sick and Beautiful are two words that I’ve hardly ever seen used together. Perhaps because my understanding of sick and beautiful was something very different to what I understand and am starting to feel that they mean today. Beauty conjures up images from magazines, yet in truth is the quality of essence, the genuine spark in someone’s eye and the way someone is in relationship to themselves. Not once is that shown in mainstream magazines. Yet is inside all of us.

     1. Feeling beauty comes from inside and is not dependent on the state of our health. Sometimes allowing myself to be honest, fragile and vulnerable is the most beautiful feeling as I am honouring how I feel and realising how precious and delicate I am.

221. So true Dannah, that we have the tendency to make ourselves less than that what we do. I know that too – to make who I am less than that what I do – and what I observe is that I make it about the doing because it brings me recognition and reward, but by doing so I make my being subordinate to my doing. How awful is that, as my being is rewarding me constantly from the inside out, but I have not appreciated that for a long time and in that I have ignored that beauty that lives within.

     1. I love this comment Nico, and the honesty with which you write. “…my being is rewarding me constantly from the inside out, but I have not appreciated that for a long time and in that I have ignored that beauty that lives within.” My feeling is that this is the same for many of us. It really is time to appreciate the miraculousness of our bodies and to deeply honour how amazing they are.

        1. To me it is an every day deepening journey Sandra, the journey back to that sweet and delicate relationship I am building with my body. Everything is there where I was looking for all of my life but I had never thought about looking inside myself for that before I met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. There I was inspired to be love to myself first and now I start to understand what this actually means. As for me this is the way back to that beautiful, delicate and truly tender being that in fact I am when I allow that to be lived from deep within.

        2. Nico, I love this, not just because it is so true what you have shared, but also because you are man writng so tenderly about what it means to be love to yourself and finding the way back to how delicate and tender you are when you live from that connection. This is so inspiring for other men, to realise that they do not have to always be tough and hard on themselves, but that they can allow themselves to be vulnerable and tender and that it is ok to show their fragility to the world. Thankyou.

        3. Thank you Sandra, and I can share how important it is for a man to express himself like that, for as women are, we are naturally sensitive and tender beings and the hard and tough layer many men show, as I have done myself too, is only a way to protect our hurts from not being met in who we truly are, but instead being fed the harsh ways men are to be like. Expressing in this tender and loving way is like medicine, as it is honouring and appreciating who we as men truly are, and by that restores that natural rhythm in our bodies.

        4. Beautifully expressed Nico. And it is beautiful for women to feel men opening up and connecting to themselves in this way, and the more they do, the more women are inspired and able to open up to themselves more as well. And I can say from experience this is truly gorgeous to feel on so many levels.

        5. And to add to that Sandra, in living together like that will re-establish the natural relationship between men and women in which we will honour, appreciate and support one another to be who we truly are and with that restore the natural harmony between the genders.

        6. Absolutely Nico. Beautifully expressed.

222. And how many people are invited by this blog to see the body as something that we can love, learn about intimately, listen to and feel without judgement? Thank you Danna for this celebration of a different relationship with our bodies; a true one which we are all deeply longing for.

223. That is a great gift Danna, you mention a couple of times the precious feeling, I agree completely. It has been a preciousness that has come from fragility for me. There were times when every movement hurt so much I felt I would break yet if I treated myself with the utmost delicacy, and preciousness, as if I was a fragile baby, then my body would respond with feeling less fragile and more appreciated. I always wonder why I don’t make that my normal as it feels so honouring of who I am on a day to day basis but often I get sucked into a pace of life that leaves that honouring behind. The tools offered by Serge Benhayon through sound recordings, workshops and all the students through these blogs have been the call back to change my normal. I too am in deep appreciation of what is offered to us.

     1. I agree Lucy. We tend to harden up in life to get through it. Sickness can be a great catalyst to break down those hard walls and feel how precious and delicate we really are. We treat little kids as precious, but seem to feel we have to leave this behind in childhood and toughen up as we get older. We are still the same being inside that we were when we were little.

        1. Fiona that is so true – we are so attentive to being really gentle with babies and children really honouring their preciousness but we totally forget that we too were one. This is something that I have started to open up and work with, treating myself with that same care and preciousness and it feels super loving and supportive. Being able to let go particularly when I am sick is a real blessing one that has been definitely inspired by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine teachings. I used to push on through and be as hard as nails but that really didn’t feel great at all.

224. How many people are offered a fresh perspective by this blog, to see their illness not as a failure, but the opportunity of a lifetime?

     1. I like that Janet, very well said and true. It is so important for us all to realize that we do not get sick because we did something wrong, but we get sick because our body is letting us know that it needs more loving care!

225. To come to a place of knowing and receiving messages from the body, is the connection we have been missing, the awareness of the power within and the unconditional love we are offered is beautiful indeed. The support felt when clearing via an illness is to be celebrated as its our body discarding that which no longer supports us … how amazing is our body.

     1. Beautifully expressed Merrilee. There is immense power in connecting and listening to our body. This is where our great wisdom can be found that nullifies all the ideas we have running us that cause so much harm to our bodies.

226. We all tend to talk a lot. But how many of us are actually good listeners? Do we sit and receive, feel and consider all that is said, or do we judge and measure and impatiently hover waiting to interject? Your words on Illness have helped me see Danna that I am always having a conversation with me, and my body deserves the grace to be heard, listened to and understood just like any person. The less I look to control the conversation and situation, the more the body’s wisdom is there for me.

     1. I Love your words Joseph, it actually all comes down to the relationship we have with our bodies and to make our body an equal and important part in that. Our bodies have that much to tell from the wisdom it is connected to. It is the wisdom from our hearts we allow to speak if we can let go of the control and judgement and instead surrender to that grander wisdom that simply lives within and that we have so stubbornly ignored for that long.

     2. Love it Joseph. The more we listen the more we hear. True in life with nature, friends and especially our bodies. 🙂

     3. Very true Joseph, which says to me that we are very good at doing but not so good at being. In other words, we keep ourselves in perpetual motion to not feel the divinity we so naturally are. Our bodies hold within their every cell the wisdom of the ages, needing only our stillness to be heard once more.

     4. Very true Liane, this perpetual motion is indeed the force of escape and to not move forward and evolve. This is palpable in the words already. If there is no resistance and full allowance of who we are, there is no need for perpetual motion to escape and or to not move forward. Constant evolution it is.

     5. This is gorgeous Joseph. Our bodies need to be given space to speak and to be heard without us interjecting all the time as if we know better! A great reminder, thank you.

227. On the other side of illness, i.e. when one has recovered, there is a wonderful feeling of clarity and aliveness and a time to really feel what is possible to be like everyday.

     1. That’s true Matthew. I find having been sick is like a refresh button and the rest phase allows me to have time to re-prioritise what is important in life.

        1. Yes Fiona, being sick does give us space to be and come back to ourselves so long as we can surrender and allow it to take its course, and from that place we get a clearer view of our life and may see changes that are necessary to make.

     2. Yes Matthew I agree. There is a deeper appreciation for feeling clearer. This is a wonderful time to take our self-care to a deeper level.

228. Last week I became sick with flu a condition I’ve not experienced in many years. Initially, I resisted the illness and felt some disappointment with myself. Space to truly rest revealed a level of disregard I had imposed on my body with out realising it. I had been pushing forward, not allowing things to unfold, and completely forget myself. My body is still in recovery, each day I’m shown the value of gentleness, stillness and trusting myself. I really appreciate the learning and wisdom this bout of flu has given me.

     1. That is beautiful Kehinde, that is a really open and honest sharing, I love that! Thank you for letting us in and share so honestly about your life. Very transparent. What is clear is that we are choosing ourselves how we cope with our illness and disease – and so we learn to either to disregard further or to change the cycle and chose to no longer disregard the way we had treated our body. This is the fun about healing!

229. Developing a relationship with our body’s – that feels quite an invitation to appreciate in full this amazing gift, that never lies of how we truly live our each and everyday.

230. Our bodies are run under the premise that we tend to avoid being with ourselves. Being ill forces us to be with ourselves. There is no escape from this fact. This is very hard to swallow for many. Being in an unsettled body that creates uneasiness in us is not a very sound combination. But it is the result of choices that helped us to land in that airport and not other one.

     1. Brilliant Eduardo our choices certainly are the ones that we have flown and landed to be in the airport where we land. No hiding and no escaping just a true reality of what has been.

     2. The thing that strikes me from your posts Eduardo is just how common illness and dis-ease are across all of humanity. I can hear billions of bodies screaming out ‘This is not the way to live – it is making me sick and tired and exhausted’ and yet for the most part the lifestyle factors contributing to illness and disease are only superficially addressed. I really appreciate the depth of how Universal Medicine explores what a healthy lifestyle actually is, how they present, and more importantly role model, ‘The Way of the Livingness’ as the path to true mental and physical wellbeing.

        1. Jeannette, the response of many to illness and disease statistics and the call to make different lifestyle choices is often indignation and resistance and often met with, ‘you can’t tell me how to live my life.’ We still have a way to go to raise public awareness of the value of choosing a truly healthy lifestyle as presented by Universal Medicine.

        2. And many also just want to be fixed up so they can get back to the same lifestyle that created their illness in the first place.

     3. Very well said Eduardo, you have spoken the truth for mankind to read. We can not escape and or want to escape what our body is showing us, as it is our responsibility to make choices, it is our responsibility to listen and feel the effects of those choices we made.

        1. And this is actually a very freeing thing, better then to sit in it!

231. When we get sick, we are forced into repose mode. Part of the reaction of having to go there is the fact that as human beings we have constructed a difficult relationship with repose. We do not truly appreciate what it is, what does it bring and why does it matter.

     1. We run from Stillness for in this space, God is known.

     2. Beautifully expressed Eduardo and Liane. A truth I am feeling at this very moment.

232. We pollute our body by means of how we live. As a result we get dis-eased. Yet, a polluted body does not have the same capacity to read why it got sick in the first place. That is where the esoteric comes in gloriously. By helping to re-imprint our way of living and by being opening to heal, we become much less polluted. Therefore, we get less sick and if we do so, we have a much better capacity to read why we got sick in the first place.

     1. This is something I had not contemplated before Universal Medicine. I just had no concept of reading the body and its reasons for clearing the body. I just knew that I would be exhausted and get sick. What a simple conversation it was having all his time!

        1. Its good to be reminded of this Lucy, how we lived and the relationship we had with our bodies before Universal Medicine. Deepening our relationship with our bodies and appreciating the gift of illness, supports us to be more respectful and honour our body.

233. One day we will all know how precious we are, we will be nothing but honest, we will appreciate, love and honour ourselves in every moment and the need for healing will be replaced with the conscious heeding of an ever present call to evolve.

     1. And to actually know that our body is already calling us to be more aware and feel what is in and around it – our present call to evolve is and was always there – it was just a matter (level) of attention we had given it. As seemingly not enough. But this is never something negative, actually something very beautiful that pops up. Our body is calling us to be loving, this is our greatest gift and pull. This is why I love medicine. This is why our body is the marker of truth and the upfront one of science!

        1. That’s the epitome of love – the ever-present call from our Soul to evolve. It calls with a steadfast consistency that is unwavering in the face of any, and I mean any disregard or harm we inflict upon ourselves, or others for that matter. That is love. Through our bodies the Soul is calling us to be loving, that is divinity in action and all we have to do is live in accord and with respect to the messages flowing through our bodies. Pure science, pure and simple.

        2. And with this simplicity stands out love, this is what we all can do – if we respond to the call of our Soul. Best thing of All – our Soul is with us all of the time, just a matter of recognizing that you can never separate in truth from it , and so in truth we can never truly separate from each other – as by light we are connected. Our divine magic light that everyone has inside. A light that might not be visible to our human eye, yet our heart is very capable of tracing it, as it is fully from it, and so once we recognize our light within we can see it in All.

     2. Thank you Jeannette, humanity desperately needs to hear these words and see that it is possible for us to be this way.

        1. We do Kehinde, and by listening to and heeding the call of our Soul to return to our gloriousness, as Serge Benhayon has taught us to do, we too shall inspire others – until it is the norm.

234. When we truly surrender to the body, we learn that illness and disease is not necessarily the failure we think it to be.

     1. Yes, Adam, it might well be the thing that helps us to turn our life around from disconnection and dishonesty to a more loving way of being in relationship with ourselves. In this respect it is a gift.

        1. Absolutely, if people change their life to being connected and being more loving, respectful, and honouring of themselves as a result of illness and disease then it is a blessing.

     2. Well said Adam – illness and disease are often seen as ‘negatives’ as failures or as bad things to happen. But in reality it is the body allowing itself to ‘get rid of’ that which does not serve it and is not supportive to it – how could this be a bad thing?

        1. Yes Beautiful Adam and Henrietta, as what is being exposed to us when we are sick is much more obvious (because of the intensity that has arise). But it is never ever a failure. Purely a healing to stand by, feel and allow our body to fully heal in everyway. It is a moment in our life, our cycle, that we can end careless behavior and actions, I mean that is good thing:)!

        2. It is a blessing to be offered another opportunity to change the way we live. If the way we live makes us sick, then changing the way we live is a our best medicine. Some illness or disease is not as obvious to see this with, but essentially most illness and disease can be appreciated in this way, and this then can help us accept and live in a way that is more supportive of true health and wellbeing.

        3. Yes Henrietta. If the body is able to get rid of what does not support it, surely we should marvel at how amazing it is to be able to do that. Our body ultimatley does everything it can to support us to be well, but so often we continue to choose to ignore that and override how it is feeling with our thoughts and actions.

        4. Spot on Sandra, the body that we house in this life is the tool of connection to the Masters we are. When we neglect the body, we neglect our inner wisdom, we neglect the connection with love, we neglect the deepest and most dearest part of ourselves.

        5. Yes Henrietta what you say here is so true. “When we neglect the body, we neglect our inner wisdom, we neglect the connection with love, we neglect the deepest and most dearest part of ourselves.” And herein lies the irony, because this true connection to who we are, which is in essence, love, is what we all crave most in the world.

        6. I agree Sandra, it is ironic how we avoid the very thing we crave – our essence, the love that we are, the connection to our true home.

        7. Yes Henrietta, to truly change life – our living space. To evolve with whatever comes up; be it an illness or disease or depression. To not stand by and say ‘ well how did that happen, why me?’ but actually to stand still, feel why we really are sick or feeling unwell, so that we can learn and move on, let go and grow more honesty within our lives.

        8. Illness so does bring us to a well needed stop, a forced repose, an opportunity for stopping and feeling the stillness on offer as you have so beautifully said Danna. How many of us actually use this time in that manner? Sadly few of us do so, yet it is a moment that represents a blessing, a moment that represents a gift to ourselves – a moment to be embraced as it returns us to the true care of our body and the respect that we all deserve.

        9. Yes Henrietta, it is the stillness within us – that is touched by the repose that our body offers us when sick or ill. It is not so much something from outside of us that stops us , as our body is revealing us that there is something worth to bring attention to. So when we do, it is actually a moment of evolution and true healing. Best gift our body can give to us – and especially if we have been ignoring the previous messages.

        10. Henrietta that is so true, the perception of illness and disease is that it is something bad or negative, but in truth it’s an opportunity our body is giving us to say the way you are living is not supporting your health and that a change needs to take place. If we listen to our body and start to honour this, we can start the healing process.

        11. Spot on Amita. What an amazing blessing for us to have the realisation of this!

        12. It’s amazing that the body works for us and knows so much, and we work against the body – yet we think we are more intelligent than the body! The magnificence of the body is surely a lesson in humility. How lovely it will be to live fully surrendered to the body and all the wisdom and intelligence it has to share.

        13. Ah, but Melinda, that would be too much responsibility! Argh! The body, what a nuisance… (this is the spirit speaking, seeking distractions and entertainment rather than taking true care of the precious body)….But as you have said, what if we did surrender to the body and its wisdom and intelligence. How much would our lives changes?

     3. Not a failure at all Adam and it takes the whole judgement and drama out of the situation meaning our body can get on with healing.

        1. if we only consider life as one life, then it makes sense to see illness and disease as the world does. However, once we consider the possibility of religion, it brings a whole new light to the way we look at illness and disease. What if life was one ongoing life, where death was actually nothing more than the marker of a new beginning and a renewal of life as it enters yet another cycle. What if illness and disease was simply the result of energetic momentums. If I spend a life in anger, surely that has an effect on the body.

        2. Agree, once you open to the possibility that life is ongoing then the responsibility is enormous. There have been some enormous turning points in my life where I stopped being angry and after every one of them it was my body that hurt, ached and fell apart from the tension of holding on to something that was not natural to my body. It felt like such a waste of time, my anger never ever changed anything, it just built a deeper divide. Thank you for the comment as it supports a deeper conversation.

        3. Well said Adam. As the first sentence totally explains us – why we are seeing illness and disease as we see it, but also why we are choosing to see it this way. It all comes back to responsibility – and not wanting to feel that we have escaped it in truth for a very long time. And so it frightens us when illness and disease comes so close; that it is in our body. The irresponsibility is then more visible than ever before. So putting a coat on it when it comes out ‘ might look better’ but in truth it never truly hides away the fact: we did not stand for love. But, no, curtains down, we can change it. As we have the power to not stand for truth and be responsible for who we are and what we bring – we can also be responsible for who we are and what we bring and stand in our full power. It is a matter of honesty, self-reflection and recognizing the truth within us.

        4. Yes I love this Danna, when the illness is in our body it frightens us because the choices we have made are much closer to us and we have the choice, once again, to take responsibility or not…unless there is love then the self judgement can stop someone wanting to consider they had any hand in the cold, cough, or diabetes.

        5. Our power is indeed in the love we have in our bodies, and so if there is lack of love – our body will expose it. The clearer marker we have of what love is inside our body – the greater the expose of evil, abuse and all that is non-love. So the best way to defeat evil is to love mankind.

        6. Yes Danna, no giving up.

     4. For in this surrender the wayward self is rendered naught so that our true self can shine from this our temple of flesh. Therefore, to hold our bodies with reverence is to remember the divinity that is able to express forth through them if we allow it so. We are love and as such anything that is not of this love has no place in a body of love and will need to be cleared via illness and disease so that true harmony can be restored to our heavenly vehicles. Illness is a blessing, not a curse. It is a moment of grace afforded so that we can once again feel the love that we are.

        1. Love what you have said here Liane: “Illness is a blessing, not a curse. It is a moment of grace afforded so that we can once again feel the love that we are.” And in the same way, if it is the way that we live that is making us sick, then our best medicine is to change the way that we live.

        2. ‘Illness is a blessing, not a curse. It is a moment of grace afforded so that we can once again feel the love that we are’. This is how it is Liane, we’re offered the choice, and it’s up to us to feel the wisdom expressed here, or not. The tragedy for many is they resist making the connection between illness and self and without this cannot take responsibility for making fundamental changes necessary to truly heal their bodies and their lives. Even after a diagnosis of chronic or progressive illness, many continue to make the same choices that led to the illness in the first place.

        3. Absolutely, ‘We are love and as such anything that is not of this love has no place in a body of love and will need to be cleared via illness and disease so that true harmony can be restored to our heavenly vehicles.’ This is beautiful.

     5. I love what you say here Adam. Surrendering to our body when we are ill is very important to connect to the deeper message our body is offering. Surrendering to our body is an art of living that supports us to reconnect to our divine nature.

     6. That is so true, it is usually a blessing for us to stop and reflect on how we have been living our lives and what choices have we been making to get us to this point. When we can see it from this angle it allows us to make changes to support the healing of our body.

     7. Great point Adam, illness can show us so much about ourselves and our responsibility with how we are in the world – offering us a stop moment to reflect on how we have been living.

     8. It is certainly worth surrendering to our body and all its wisdom and intelligence, and see what happens, we have nothing to lose as our present way of living is certainly not working with the phenomenal increase of all illnesses and diseases. We can then see if our lives change, Danna’s clearly did.

235. Danna, what you share about ‘lethargy’ being not only a physical fatigue but an emotional sensation in the body too is so true. I have found when I have been sick, if I surrender to it rather than fighting it, I can feel the emotion, drive or disregard my body as been in mixed in with the physical sensations that go with the illness. If we listen, our bodies will actually tell us why and how we brought them to the illness.

     1. Listening to our bodies katemoreney1 I have found my body is very loud when I am going against the flow, it sends me messages that cannot be ignored, I have learnt to surrender to allowing the clearing physically and deepening my understanding and the opportunity to evolve

236. This part that Danna talks about being alone and feeling empty and lonely is very familiar to me. It has taken some time to re-learn the art of being alone, because actually it is a very special time when there is nothing holding you back, there is no one imposing on you, there are no excuses to be anything less than who you are.

237. There is a point of ‘listening’ that I come to that suddenly opens up a great expanse of understanding that often makes me momentarily teary… with inspiration and a sense of the vastness of the wisdom that is there to be tapped into. Listening to my body has been a gateway to such rich learning and has enabled me to break so many ingrained and unhealthy thought patterns.

     1. I know what you mean Matilda, I know I have cleared an ‘ill pattern and behaviour’ and got to truth when I become teary… It’s a clear indication and my body is giving me the loving feedback.

238. Illness is the result of us abandoning our bodies. In turn, abandoning our bodies is also the result of choosing not to honour ourselves (as beings) first regardless of our circumstances.

239. How much of our dislike for being sick has to do with that it reflects full blown the misery we love to create for ourselves as we walk in life?

240. We do not necessarily like feedback when it turns out to be negative. Yet, we take it as such when it comes from another person but not when it comes from our own body in the way of illness and disease.

241. We tend to think that moving is a simple act devoid of consequences. Hence, we move in a specific way and that becomes part of who we call us. Yet, what if that is a cause of the problems we create for ourselves? What if there are energetic cycles that invite us to move differently? What if doing so is medicine?

     1. I love this Eduardo Feldman. Energy is continuously moving which means so are we, in every cell of our bodies. That we can have influence over the quality of our movements by choosing the quality of our movement is revolutionary. The quality of energy and our choices! What is more fundamental than this?

242. There is no doubt that the body talks to us. Yet, communication with the body is a two way street. We talk to it all the time, implicitly by means of decisions that affect it, or explicitly, when we command it to do things for us. Exploring the latter is worth a try. Magic happens.

243. ‘…all that ‘I can do’ seems to matter less and ‘who I am’ starts to mean more.’ I can always remember this feeling when have been unwell, of it simply being about ‘how you are’ and not ‘what you are doing’ and that there was always an element of me that welcomed this whenever I have been ill. So important to have the understanding of why this is as presented here.

244. Really interesting to read about knowing change in oneself has occurred and then finding illness quite different. Sickness happens to me rarely these days and especially full blown colds, headaches etc. Yet even the slightest off day is a sign to reconnect deeper to my body, feel and read what is going on and honour the new choices that this brings. It is truly a different relationship with illness, compared to ignoring, pushing through, taking symptomatic relief and ending up with something full blown. Like Danna, I would be very curious about what my relationship with a severe bout of illness would be like now, especially knowing these days that it would be a case of allowing something more old and entrenched to surface to be cleared and how in such a situation it would be a true blessing.

245. This article is as beautiful as you are Danna. This week I can feel my body offering me the chance to understand how I can be more loving with myself. Today I am sick, my body saying to me, be still and reflect on how you are living. My body is doing this because it knows I can be so much more, and there is so much more I can offer and be of service in the world, but that is not possible with the current way i am living. Illness is opportunity for evolution and I embrace today with all my heart as next week I move forward with a new livingness which will reflect the level of love to move to next.

246. “At first I had to learn not to react to what I was feeling, I had to stay with my body and listen carefully.” Thank you, Danna, for so clearly sharing the benefits of this as it is inspirational.

     1. Yes, throughout society, illness is framed as a source – something you suffer, but we are not taught to listen to what our bodies are telling us through the illness and accept the process as a blessing and learning opportunity. If we adopted the view of illness that Danna shares, could this completely change our experience of being sick, whether this be with a cold, cancer or even as our body shuts down in preparation for death?

247. Yes Danna, when you put it like this illness offers us an opportunity to become much more intimate with ourselves. Because we usually experience some kind of pain it can seem counter-intuitive, but truly we should be celebrating the fact that we have a big chance to see and live more of our beauty.

248. I used to think I had failed when I was sick and felt bad and guilty. These days when my body is going through something it is often because I am healing or clearing an imposition from the past and not because I have done something ‘wrong’. When this is the case I usually experience the healing as something very joyful and can almost glow like a pregnant woman as if I am giving birth to a new level of well-being in my body by letting go of an energy or configuration that no longer serves

     1. Giving birth to more service through illness feels like a labour well worth bearing Nicola. In fact the whole of humanity benefits with our growing self awareness. Absolutely beautiful!

249. The connection to ourselves and who we truly are is always there for us to feel. Often though we override this until such time that we are sick and our body forces us to stop, and we have less of a choice to override its signals. This is a true healing, an opportunity. If we were taught this, we may see illness and dis-ease slightly, if not hugely, differently.

250. Thank you for sharing this very real account of how sickness can actually be a healing in itself. How it can offer us the choice to look at why we are sick, what have we welcomed into our lives to get us to the point where our bodies say enough. To address illness and disease in this way, and not as the enemy but rather as the lesson, changes the game – and brings a whole new level of responsibility to the individual.

     1. Yes, and it also frees us from the grief, the ‘why me?’, the fight and the turmoil that we put ourselves into when ill.

251. Danna thank you for sharing your journey with us. I can really relate to your words “I could feel I had abandoned my body a long, long time ago. That I even forgot that I am responsible for it”. Reading these words was very revealing for me as I had not previously thought of this as being part of my neglect of my body, but it rings true for me. A great sharing and one I will return to again and again

     1. It has become the norm to live with a sense of entitlement over our bodies – seeing them as ours to use as we choose. What if the body were a vessel given to us to house our essence and express and learn through in this life? What if we viewed our bodies as a part of the universe that has been specifically configured to serve us and for us, to in turn, to serve through in this life? Could we then continue to abuse our bodies or make choices that override what the body is asking for? We can choose to abuse our bodies, but there is an arrogance in this choice – one that disregards the greater role our body has been given to us to play in a much grander scheme of things.

252. I love this line Danna – “I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.” What a beautiful way to look at illness.

     1. And not only does my body flag up ‘that I have more love to give myself’ it also shows me very clearly the how, when, what and where. There is an accessibility and simplicity to our body’s dialogue that is inspiring and hard to misinterpret.

     2. Yes, and also that we are so much more than our physical bodies. Identifying with an illness and allowing ourselves to be consumed by the physical experience of being sick reinforces that we are our bodies and nothing beyond our bodies. What Danna introduces is the possibility that we can approach illness in a way that confirms that we are so much more than just our physical bodies.

253. Reading your blog Danna I have realised the body already knows all there is about Esoteric Medicine – all I have to do is listen.

254. Danna, as I was reading your blog again I was endeavouring to recall any instance that I could actually relate to as far as having a loving awareness about in regards to “feelling/being sick, but feeling beautiful.” I can say that I could not recall any instance in nearly 70 years, until 2 years ago when in an almost emergency type situation I found myself booked unexpectedly to see a Respiratory Specialist after hours at a nearby hospital as I was having difficulty in breathing. On being asked to straddle a chair, with back bared, tubes inserted lovingly and carefully by two gentle nurses, and a considerable amount of fluid slowly being drained I actually felt ‘glorious’ during the whole lengthy procedure. The level of love I felt was almost not of this world, and yes, I felt amazing and beauty-full. This would not have been my experience I am sure in my life before I chose to develop my awareness and re-connected with my inner self, my inner heart, my soul, and that experience would not have occurred before I chose to become a student of The Way of The Livingness as presented by Serge Benhayon. So thank you for the reminder to be in appreciation.

     1. This is amazing, very beautiful Roberta, very beautiful. What you share is so important. It is exactly about surrendering to our body and the support it needs from people or specialists or things… And how very perfect it was for you to experience what you had experienced. What was very touching was: ”The level of love I felt was almost not of this world..” As you share this, I can understand that as a reader we are touched by this love you share about, as it is palpable in your words.

255. Surrendering to oneself and what is going on in our body and allowing the messages as to why come up and guide us is a beautiful evolving way to live.Thank you Danna a beautiful blog.

256. A wonderful blog Danna. I too was sick recently, and for the first time ever I actually surrendered to my body and what it needed to clear. It was an incredible feeling, and a true healing. Without the pressures I normally put upon myself, my body was able to recuperate and build strength naturally and I actually felt majorly supported this time, not weak like normally when I’m sick, all because I chose to support myself, and surrender.

     1. Very inspiring Jenny, it exposes how harmful the attitudes of defeating, conquering and overriding illnesses are, and how truly supportive surrendering is.

     2. That is beautiful Jenny Hayes, as this is a testimony that healing supports us, and that by virtue of this healing we can feel majorly supported, simply by our choice and the vitality that can come from that – even if we are very ill or sick. Thank you.

257. This is another topic that needs much more exploration Rebecca Turner. I love the word surrender and its resonance is deep and full. By surrendering I allow my essence to emerge so it can be felt and embraced – it is like the protected and constructed paradigms fall away and the deep still pool can be felt and seen for the eternally steadfast source that it is.

258. Surrendering to illness is actually a beautiful feeling once we have accepted it. Illness is a great lesson in surrender.

     1. I have witnessed a person close to me surrender to her illness with grace. It is very humbling to witness such a proces and see that although this person cannot have an active live, the quality of her life and her presence in life is greater than ever before.

        1. Katinka, what you share touches me as I also know a person with a chronic illness who is surrendering more and more with grace. She is so much learning from her illness and so accepting the steps she has to do in order to surrender.

        2. Beautiful Katinka. This just shows us that we are more than our bodies, and we can shine brightly even when our bodies are deteriorating.

259. Danna, this blog would be great for people to read in a doctor’s surgery waiting room! Your honest reflection and being prepared to take responsibility deepens my connection with the same responsibility. The importance of yours and my expression cannot be underestimated in growing the awareness that there is so much more to illness and disease that we currently accept or talk about. Thank you!

     1. Great idea Bernadetteglass about being able to read this blog in a doctor’s waiting room. Knowing our essence remains intact regardless of whether we are ill or not is actually a huge part of the healing that is required when we are ill. If a person for example who has cancer knows this it hugely supports their journey with cancer. I have seen this over and over again.

        1. There is something key here Elizabeth about knowing who we truly are and when this topic is broached we all naturally make some sort of response. When we are ill or unwell we are more vulnerable and likely to be more open to the questions about the meaning of our lives. Separating my essence from the state of my body is a conversation that I welcome with open arms and it would be fabulous if the medicos did too! This conversation is truly needed…

     2. Great idea Bernadette, imagine finding this article while you wait at any medical facility?

260. Danna the way you approach and deal with being sick is pretty cool and it’s almost like becoming unwell is an offering for one to learn from.

261. So beautiful to read your blog again this morning Danna – and to feel that when we are in sickness there is time to observe and understand the intelligence of our own body. As we still the mind the body has space to come into its own unique way of communicating to us the wisdom that is a constancy in our life, and will bring us back to loving and honouring ourselves once again.

     1. Susan I agree and feeling sick myself at the moment I can see how easy it can be to get frustrated by this instead of embrace what my body is showing me.

262. So lovely to read about your transformation, increased self-awareness and healing; very inspirational Danna.
     Your obvious love and appreciation for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is a beautiful testimony to them; and I could not agree with you more.

     1. Yes Shirl Scott, healing is our way.. At times, in the past, I had want to escape this fact, but my body has shown me that there is no other way. So now I am in , bring it on.

263. When we do not appreciate the preciousness of ourselves, we tend to want to do things unendingly to prove our worth. This is not a judgement or critique, as this is what the world in general has chosen to be the norm, and being born in a collective choice of not honoring our own worth becomes an accepted way of living. And yet, how amazing is our bodies, that when we begin to honor it, our relationship deepens. I am finding that not appreciating myself in any moment is an attack towards myself, which is leading me towards a path of sickness if it is continued. And simply stopping and reviewing what needs to be appreciated rather than be involved in an unending doing, is much more wise and worthwhile.

264. What does connection with oneself really mean? What you have shared Danna, the feeling of being beautiful, something that came from deep inside despite being sick or no matter what is going on on the outside for that matter, is this connection that words cannot truly describe until it is felt. Connection cannot so much be forced or learned, but like the deep preciousness that we are, connection is to be nurtured through deeply caring, honoring and appreciating our bodies. So what is so important about this connection we have with ourselves? Absolutely everything. The connection we feel with our bodies allows us to choose how our relationship with life is to be.

265. I remember my body feeling hard and dense. I dreamt that I was standing next to myself at the bathroom sink. I was aware of me, but the other me wasn’t, he didn’t recognise that it was me. The other me bumped into me ever so slightly, but it was noticeable and I could feel in an instant just how unresponsive I was to being bumped into by another person. I woke and realised I could feel the numbness that was within my body, it was so very obvious. I then began to change how I treated myself, dedicating to taking care and introducing a very nurturing and self-care way of living.

     1. Beautiful sharing matthew brown! What a poignant message received through your dream. I know that being present and loving in my movements is key to the quality of my day – my self nurturing flows from and is part of this.

        1. It was an incredible dream that literally changed my life. It is still so fresh in my mind as if it happened last night yet it was at least 5 years ago. With it initiated an incredible journey of self-care, which has had a profound effect on my body, not just when well, but also when sickness arrives and the body needs to release something.

266. Today, I am sick, but actually with feeling all of this, I feel beautiful. I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.

     1. This is beautifully expressed, Katinka, that your body is showing you through illness, that you can surrender deeper into love and truth.

     2. Beautiful, Katinka, to see illness and disease as a necessary part of our return to love.

        1. I love how you phrased that back Janet, I feel such trust in the process of us all returning to love.

     3. I often feel that our illnesses are a way for our bodies to make more space for love.

267. I feel that this blog raises important questions about how we perceive illness and disease and it is important to state that there are two different forms of illness and disease. The first is when our bodies are clearing an excess of something that we are continually choosing to put into them – they are saying “please stop!” This kind of illness and disease is designed to make us stop repeatedly saying no to love in our lives. The second kind of illness and disease is when we are actually saying yes to more love and are more open to going deeper in our awareness. Then the body clears energy from our bodies that may be getting in the way of this evolution to make space for the next step. So in the latter case being ill should be celebrated! We have to move away from the thinking that illness and disease is a failure.

     1. Yes, well said andrewmooney26, and in both cases our bodies are calling us back to harmony …and this is something to celebrate.

     2. Well expressed Andrew. Love the clarity with which you share here. For me it is discerning honestly what my illness or ‘feeling unwell’ is telling me. If I become still and open, the truth always reveals itself!

268. My experience of being sick in the past was that I would breathe a silent sigh of relief, because I had got off the merry-go-round and had an excuse to stop. I used to get under the duvet and not move and I liked it. I used to hide, I knew that my life was chaotic and stressful, and ironically on reflection I was in some ways more healthy when I was ill, I would go to bed early, rest, not drink, not smoke and eat food that nourished me and reflect on life. I did not have ways of handling stress in my life and so I took the opportunity of illness to allow me to have what I considered to be a ‘legitimate’ reason to stop. I used to be more ill in the past than I am now, my immune system is now flourishing through making more choices to self-care and self-nurture. And now I do not need excuses to stop and rest because I have started bringing this within my life because I am worth it and because it supports me. I agree the teachings of Universal Medicine are insightful, offering real ways of bringing self-care and self-nurturing into everyday life.

269. Interesting title of this blog for I would say that from an energetic point of view, the moment you are not connected to your essence then you are ‘sick’ and yet if you are feeling beautiful then you are clearly connected to your essence. So perhaps illness and disease is really a discarding of energy that we have accumulated in our bodies at some point in time that the body chooses to discard at the perfect time for our own evolution back to our soul?

     1. Well said andrewmooney26, a perfect time for our evolution indeed, all offered to us by this amazing vehicle we call our body.

     2. On the subject of illness and energy, it is incredible that there is a physical expression of ill energy once the energy converts itself in the body, but prior to the event of becoming sick, that energy was just locked away in what we would consider an otherwise ‘healthy’ body. As you say Andrew, it is the discarding of energy that we have accumulated and this process of it coming back out can feel quite unpleasant at times.

     3. Yes indeed, Andrew. We are constantly clearing the body in order to enhouse the soul – this brings a life and love affirming perspective to illness and disease.

     4. Simple, accessible and empowering expression and explanation about illness Andrew! I love it!

     5. interesting comment Andrew for in that case the true illness is not when the body is discarding but the time lived accumulating the ill energies.

270. I have felt the ill-ease, the dis-harmony in not moving in a way that supports me. We embed illness through these movements. I know this on a personal level, the way my shoulders used to hunch, my brow was furrowed, my lips where pursed tight and my feet were heavy on the floor, I was repeatedly establishing stress, self loathing and anger in every step I took. This can change through choice and it has changed through choice, when I go back into heavy and disregarding movements I know there is something going on and I take a look at it, my new normal has a flow, gentleness and grace to it, that consistently chosen supports my body to be healthy and well.

271. Danna I was feeling quite sick the other morning and it is quite lovely to reflect on your blog and appreciate the sickness was not me but what was going on for my body. With that ability to observe I recovered quicker than ever before.

     1. David, I have noticed the recovery to be quick too, when I do not attach to the illness and just appreciate the sickness is not me, but what my body is going thorough. It is great to observe the body this way.

     2. This is very beautiful news David – it is so important to feel this, as the moment we feel we are not the illness – we can feel our way of healing and love.

272. There is a tremendous beauty is being able to surrender deeply when we are ill. It is a humbling moment because we tend to arrogantly drive ourselves until we reach a point until the only thing that will stop us is getting ill. We, therefore, have to embrace illness as the stop moment that it actually is.

     1. Surrendering and embracing, two words not often used related to being ill, but both inviting us to connect to the sacred messages we receive through our bodies.

     2. Couldn’t have said it any better Elizabeth.

     3. Wise words, Elizabeth. Having recently observed someone surrender to their illness, I would agree that it is extremely beautiful and full of grace. It’s as if we finally are willing to listen to a deep wisdom that has been there all along, waiting patiently to be heard.

     4. This is a big one Elizabeth being able to surrender fully to what the body is asking of us. What is crazy is it takes a serious illness, dis-ease or even a flu that makes us stop and even then the arrogance you speak of slips in and we push through or get the assistance we need to recover, then go back to our way of living that created it in the first place.

     5. ‘There is a tremendous beauty in being able to surrender deeply when we are ill’ and when we do it sets up a listening and honouring relationship with our bodies that has this wise and deepening counsel as part of our every day.

     6. “There is a tremendous beauty in being able to surrender deeply when we are ill”.. and when we are not, the second being the key to perhaps remain well.

     7. Spot on Elizabeth! If illness comes from the way we live, then the illness helps us to stop and change the way that we live so that this then becomes our best medicine.

     8. Beautifully said Elizabeth, it is our moment to stop and be honest – why have we become sick?

     9. And that ‘stop moment’ is actually a gift beyond measure, a time to deepen my awareness and commit to myself more fully so I can be more fully who I am – that is my responsibility.

273. Danna this is a great blog. I particularly resonate to your point ‘looking honestly at why I have become sick, and what I am feeling. Example: when I feel lethargic, I could feel that this emotion was not only because of the fact that I was sick, but actually an emotion I was holding in my day-to-day living.’ The enforced rest that illness brings is an invaluable opportunity to really feel what is going on emotionally or in our thoughts and to correct these ills that are at the root of the physical symptoms.

     1. Yes Anne, and this opportunity is given to us – every single day – not because we are less, but because we deserve the absolute truth to be offered to us every single day. We could then say that our body is the most honest to us , more then we are at times willing to admit.

274. Illness can be a time of great vulnerability. While this can be scary for the patient I’m observing it is also a time that defenses are down and hearts are open.

     1. I agree, I have experienced great vulnerability when I have been ill and it has been a marker for me in life, to know that I can be fragile, still, vulnerable and delicate. It has offered a different quality that once experienced can become part of every day life.

     2. So true Sandra, when we are put in a situation and we don’t feel our normal then we start to feel vulnerable and scared. It is a perfect opportunity to surrender and feel what the body is so clearly telling us.

     3. Beautifully said Sandra.

     4. Aha… so it is in vulnerability that we can come to new depths of understanding and wisdom… loving this, Sandra, thank you.

275. I agree Marika, it is a beautiful realisation to see the blessing that is presented with illness and disease it offers a reset in our bodies and an opportunity to reflect about our lifestyle choices.

276. What I love about your blog Danna is the fact that whatever we do, whatever happens in our life – like getting sick, none of this changes who we innately and naturally are…it is only our choice to dis-connect from who we are.

     1. Very true Paula; our bodies may go through illness and disease but remain unaffected in essence. Illness is actually an opportunity to connect to ourselves on a deeper level.

        1. Spot on Victoria – and in my experience, in those times when I have been unwell, it is like I become super sensitive and get super powers that allow me to hear and tune into my body like never before – and so I know exactly what I need to do or eat when I am unwell! This is our natural ability to connect deeper as you have said, and really is a blessing in itself.

        2. Yes this has also been my experience Henrietta, it is a blessing.. and we can be living with this sensitivity everyday. Often when we are ill we are more attentive and then when we recover we go back to business as usual.

277. A beautiful and powerful sharing Danna…completely changing how we perceive illness and disease. It is not something to resist or complain about but something to embrace and learn from – a gift if we choose it to be.

     1. From the comments it sounds like there are many changing how illness is perceived.

     2. Appreciating that this is an opportunity to stop and surrender to the choices we have made that have not supported the body in the long run.

        1. So very true nb. As you say the key here is the appreciation of what is being offered. This way we don’t identify and indulge in the stories but recognise the choices that were made so we can make different ones now.

278. Danna, I love what you write here and I can relate to how you used to feel when you were sick. Changing this as you have done is a work in progress for me, learning to surrender and rest when my body is clearly calling for this.

     1. Yes, listening to our body is wonderful. It has such positive consequences for our well-being. The difficulty is to just do it and act on what we receive.

     2. It is the vastness I become aware of, that is there to tap into as I start to surrender, that I find so totally inspiring… I want to keep letting go to be able to explore further!

279. “..even though I am sick I am absolutely wonderful…” Even though I make mistakes or people may reject me or I am not feeling myself, I know that I am absolutely wonderful. Appreciation of ourselves helps us to not get swallowed up by reactions to our circumstances.

     1. ‘Appreciation of ourselves helps us to not get swallowed up by reactions to our circumstances.’ Thank you Annie, these are the words of lived wisdom I needed to hear today.

280. Danna, the loving awareness that you bring to your body and allowing of yourself to feel your beauty is inspiring.

281. I can relate to the feeling of sickness in the body but feeling so beautiful, There was a time I felt quite nauseous yet I felt it was not a part of who I am. I could feel the beauty of my connection, my stillness and such a contentment in that, that the physical discomfort was ok to just be with and observe.

     1. Yes, just yesterday I was feeling unwell with a fever, headache and nausea. But despite this I could feel myself as beautiful within. The illness was not me.

        1. Exactly Loretta, we are not an illness – we are love. And our body is calling us to be that love instead of anything else.

282. Danna something else that has just come to mind is that I used to see getting sick as a weakness. I had no concept at all that it was something that could be supportive and beneficial. I prided myself that I rarely got sick and yet I was a physical wreck.

     1. Hmm.. Yes Alexis, how many people have that and see sickness in that way.. As this is actually the opposite message our body is giving us. It is very delicate and fragile and this should never been seen as a weakness – as it is a absolute strength. As if it was not delicate and fragile , for example our cells, as it is designed to be highly sensitive and strong at the same time , we would not be able to hold a body and our body would not be able to exist. As our cells are so small but at the same time so beautifully important – this is a symbol that we are also very sensitive and strong, and that we need to treat it the way our body naturally and harmoniously can function. If we play it tough and rough, it is absolutely going to fall apart, as it is not made to be that way. So it is not us being weak – but we need to get real and honest and see that being hard does not work and it makes us break down all our yummy delicate cells and or other body organs/parts – as why we are getting sick.

283. True Susan, and this means we often try to ‘get back to work’ sooner than our bodies need. For me it’s been a process of becoming aware of how my body feels and honouring this, that might mean staying in bed/resting more/eating differently/or simply taking my body through the day extra gently.

     1. It’s interesting isn’t it? – the accepted judgements that keep us from truly caring for ourselves and supporting ourselves to be more of who we are.

284. Allowing sickness to be a reflection from to which to learn rather than endeavouring to fix is so empowering and a blessing as it liberates one from being a victim to it.

     1. So true Jonathan – it brings the end to the struggle and fight we so often see as part of being ill.

     2. Absolutely Jonathan. Once I learned to surrender to the illness then it opened the way to reflecting on what was really going on for me in all areas of my life and then make the necessary adjustments.

     3. Indeed Jonathan. Illness is our way to evolve.

     4. Gosh yes, to be free of the thought patterns that I am a hapless victim of random circumstance, is huge and very empowering; letting responsibility and awareness of my choices become a bedrock of daily life.

     5. Yes Jonathan, appreciating our bodies for giving us the opportunity to clear that which does not serve us is a time to reflect on why we created it in the first place… It’s a stop to consider the message for within. Once we surrender and appreciate such a blessing we are empowering ourselves to evolve.

285. Danna you have triggered a memory in me of a time when I was off work sick and because I too was driven to do things in order to feel good about myself, I was unable to simply sit on the settee. I did sit on the settee but polished everything that I could find, so that I didn’t feel that I was just ‘doing nothing’.

     1. So true Susan and Alexis, I remember being quite ill and being told very sternly by the doctor to go home and rest and DO NOTHING! I protested that I had just moved house and had so much to do but she was very firm with me and I really appreciated it because it helped me let go of what was essentially a fear of stopping, of letting go and allowing myself to feel where I was at.

286. In the past I looked at illness as a weakness an inconvenience holding me up from what I planned to do. Usually I would just push through and get on with life no matter how unwell I felt. Although even 30+ years ago I was into alternative medicine I would look up in the books that were available back them to see what the meaning for my symptoms in the body meant and often read it and thought ok that probably could make sense I never took the time to sit and feel into truth or make any changes in the way I was living. Since being deeply inspired by the teachings and presentations of the Ageless Wisdom by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I have a deeper understanding of life and am learning to truly love myself and connect with my body and listen to the messages it offers me and choose to rest when my body tells me I am tired, I experiment with foods when I feel they don’t support my presence in my body I eliminate them, I feel my feet on the ground when I walk. I have discovered all the little things like that have a huge impact on how I feel in my body, my level of energy and my ability to stay present with myself. If I feel dis-harmony or dis-ease in my body it is a direct consequence of how I have chosen to live either now or in the past and my body is ready to clear the energy of my past choices supporting and empowering me to go to deeper connection with my authentic self a deeper level of love.

287. Even in the absolute sickness you woke up in, the love that you are shone through. This is a message to all about how we can identify with our physical existence or we can look from our innermost outward and see all for what it is.

     1. Well said Simon, our innermost essence can never be touched or tainted, The more we appreciate this innate quality rather than focusing on our bodies and our performance in life the more accepting and understanding we will become of ourselves, others and of life.

     2. The body not being who we are but the vehicle we live in and express through and hence reflecting the choices of the being that is in charge of the body: either to not consider one´s body as precious allows the being to diss and mistreat it; or understanding and holding the body as a precious instrument for the being to express and share love, grace, intimacy, truth, tenderness… divinity for all to be inspired by.

288. Nothing can squash our inner beauty once we are connected to it, our inner-heart, because a wisdom and compassion beyond measure lives there, and it lives there equally within us all.

289. Gorgeous blog Danna, and one that I too can relate to in my experiences of when I have been sick. I too used to struggle with being sick, especially if it was for longer periods of time (for more than a month or two), and would easily become depressed and feel worthless. It seems our society has conditioned us to only feel worthy if we are being useful in some physical or tangible way, and in this it is a forgotten thing to appreciate us for who we are rather than just what we do! Thank you for the reminder that who we are is beautiful and being sick does not take this away, ever!

     1. I agree Henrietta in the past we have been conditioned to feel worth through what we do. It has been a real journey for me to learn to love myself for who I am not for what I can do. As I learn to surrender to the love that I am all that is not love falls away and this is sometimes through illness.

        1. That’s it Margaret – it is like the illness plays a part in reminding us to just be and learn to appreciate who we are. As the heaviness lifts, we feel the ‘life’ seep back into our veins and so we feel the vitality and the appreciation come back too. Illness does play a role in supporting us to surrender more to love. The question is how much do we fight or how much can we work with it?

        2. We all have free will, therefore the choice is ours to choose how much we fight or ignore the messages illness and dis-ease offer us or how much we work with our body to release the underlying truth of the symptoms our body presents us with, a message that our bodies are in dis-harmony. The degree of the symptoms is often determined by our resistance to listening and making more loving and self-nurturing life style choices. I have learned over the years my body doesn’t lie and the offering of symptoms of dis-harmony are always presented for a reason.

        3. This is so true Margaret, and I especially love what you have said here: “The degree of the symptoms is often determined by our resistance to listening and making more loving and self-nurturing life style choices.” – though of course each person’s body is different and expresses illness and disease differently too. But in the end our body does speak so loudly, it is about us tuning in and listening to it and then taking action lovingly so, heeding what the body says.

        4. I love and appreciate all that my body presents and with an even deepening connection, I have a greater understanding of what my body is offering me.

290. To let go of the belief that you have ‘done something wrong’ when you get sick is cause for celebration. It’s one I still hold onto, but after reading this I can see how much that holds me back. Why would we give ourselves a hard time for being ill when it’s the giving ourselves a hard time that causes the illness in the first place? Makes no sense.

291. This is both beautiful and inspiring – as are you Danna. I feel I have been given so much in reading your journey of reconnecting to yourself. To feel beautiful despite feeling ill is gorgeous.

292. The purity that can be seen in one’s eyes is enough to remind us that there is a whole universe of wisdom living in our bodies.

     1. Beautiful comment nicolesjarin “The purity that can be seen in one’s eyes is enough to remind us that there is a whole universe of wisdom living in our bodies.” that is so true the depth of love and wisdom that can be felt when we make a truly connect with another through their eyes.

293. Your beauty Danna is undeniable, it even fills the spaces between the letters, words and sentences of this blog, so much so that arriving at the end of this blog I was ready to start reading it over again and relish your expression.

294. Danna the way that you write is quite incredible, because you manage to convey what you say with not a shadow of a doubt, and that solidity comes from the fact that you have shared what you have from the absolute authority of your body.

     1. Yes I agree Alexis, when we speak from the body’s experience it is known, there is no uncertainty.

295. “Without the teachings and modalities of Universal Medicine, I would still be in that cycle of making myself sick over and over again and being miserable with it.” Danna I can whole-heartedly say the same thing. The teachings and presentations of Universal Medicine have changed my perspective on life and health completely, and I thank my lucky stars for all that this awareness has brought.

296. Danna, it is very interesting reading your article, this really stands out for me, ‘In the past I would have felt miserable and inefficient, because I could not ‘do’ anything. I used to only feel like I was ‘worth something’ if I was doing things’. Reading this I can feel how I can still link my worth with doing things and that if I have not cleaned the house or achieved something noticeable during my day, then I can feel like a failure, and so even if I feel to rest, sometimes I can find this hard to do, as I would think that I would be judged as useless for not having achieved enough that day – great to ponder on.

297. This comment struck me Danna – ‘I feel that while I am sick I am actually more sensitive and able to feel and accept that I am fragile.’ I too have notice the same thing, and in particular now when I am having my period. Rather than pushing through and trying to keep up with all the things I normally do, I am learning to surrender and take things more gently. This approach is so much more respectful and honouring to the body.

298. What I am noticing now is that I am more willing to take rests when I need to than to keep going until I actually get sick. This is still new for me, but I am feeling more comfortable with myself and not so much in the constant need to be doing. I too used to feel that stopping was lazy, and that being sick was somehow a failure.

299. I can relate so much of what you have shared in this blog Danna. Thank you for expressing this so clearly and exposing the drive I believe so many of us live with.

300. I too now enjoy being sick with a cold or the flu. Once I have accepted that I am going to be ill, it feels great to surrender to it and give myself the rest that I obviously need. I know that my body is just clearing itself, and that my essence remains untouched.

301. The distinction you make so clear between ‘feeling beautiful’ while at the same time feeling sick is a game-changer Danna. Knowing who we are as this inner beauty and essence is key to being able to truly heal, to be honest to our core and to be able to surrender to the healing process as needed. Thank you, this is such a gorgeous account of what it really means to do so.

302. Very beautiful Danna thank you, having this sort of appreciation for not only yourself, but for your body and the way you have ‘run it’ is such a needed shift for us all. We are so accustomed to considering illness, however minor, a failure – that somehow we are meant to run like machines, keeping up with our every whim and fancy.

     1. Very true Jenny, I certainly used to view illness as a failure rather than my body’s way of communicating to me a healthier way to be. I now see it as an absolute gift that my body has its own means of clearing the way I’ve lived that got me to a point of physical illness. This understanding means I’m naturally making choices that are more healthy and supportive.

        1. Yes Rosannabianchini, and that is such a crucial paradigm shift you are describing… ‘that my body has its own means of clearing the way I’ve lived that got me to a point of physical illness’. This is the key to understanding the real purpose to illness and disease. With this understanding comes responsibility… which is also what’s needed to relieve the incredible burden on our health systems to keep up with the demands of the population. Something significant has to change, and what you describe has nailed it.

     2. Yes, Jenny, I am reminded of how I used to expect my body to run like a machine, and would get cross if it could not keep up with the demands put on it. Then there would be a slump of exhaustion and feeling bad about myself because I was not achieving as much as I wanted to. What a loveless cycle to be caught in, and my body is relieved to be out of it!

        1. Yes it’s interesting how we can do this… operate completely separately to our bodies, pushing it to our mind’s agenda without the slightest regard for how it is fairing. It often takes significant illness or disaster of some sort before we stop this momentum and look seriously at doing things differently.

303. Being sick affords us an opportunity to stop and feel what is going on within. When we accept and do not fight being sick we can surrender deeply to the clearing and healing on offer.

     1. Spot on Mary Louise – and often in my experience, when we surrender to the quiet that is being asked of us when sick, then it is like that determines our experience of how ‘light’ or ‘easy’ the illness will be – even if it is painful and can be complicated, the surrender itself allows an openness and a release of tension and worry that makes the experience beautiful in the expansion that is being offered.

        1. Great point Henrietta that has been my experience too. The level of surrender I come to supports the level of connection to my body and ease of the releasing of what is not love offering deep healing to my body.

        2. That’s it Margaret – like a huge weight is lifted and so the heaviness is replaced with a lightness and the deep healing is allowed.

     2. Being ill is a natural part of the cycle of life. There is well-ness and there is ill-ness. Being ill requires to take care of some matters and do some things differently compared to being well. The goal of this is usually to feel well again. Hence, as part of our choices, we can choose, living in whatever way that makes us ill and then trying to feel well again or walking in life in such a way that being well becomes our new normal.

304. Being sick offers an opportunity for us to stop, time to be honest with ourselves, how we have been living in our body, that lead up to that sickness, what momentum have we been in. Time to re-connect to the tender, delicate, person you are ….with lots of love.

     1. Jody so true, i got caught up with some choices at work yesterday which meant I did not take the care for myself that my body was asking. As a result I got super sick. What a gift that my body shows me so quickly and clearly what choices I make, in that I can feel I am not the sickness, but it is the way of having a deeper relationship with my body and way I live.

     2. Yes so true Jody, it is a real wake up call and the perfect moment to take stock of how we have been living and what we have been demanding of our bodies. We are so, so delicate and truly deserve the best care in the world and its up to us to deliver it.

305. Danna I too am deeply appreciating the Ageless Wisdom and how no matter what there is always something that you can connect with and it’s sole purpose is to be the Love that we are.

306. Hi Danna, this sentence summed it up for me. . . “Now, being myself is way more important than what I can do.”

     1. Yes kathleenbaldwin, this sums up probably the single most significant shift needed by us as women. We have long run ourselves to the idea that we can do anything, and are applauded for the fact. What we need is to applaud a woman who will not leave herself to DO anything! That is worth celebrating.

        1. Absolutely agree Jenny – dropping the whole idea of our worth as women being the sum of how much we can do (and how good we can look while doing it) is so very needed – we simply can’t go on and our bodies are showing this.

        2. Yes Hannah, such a pity we wait so long before stopping to acknowledge what a state our bodies are in… thyroid conditions, auto-immune diseases, hormonal imbalances, anxiety, depression… these things are at an all-time high. Our capacity to carry on is extraordinary, despite all the warning signs from the body that it’s time to stop. The answer is so simple… to listen to the body, and yet it seems the hardest thing to do once we’re at this point.

        3. Yes Jenny, our capacity to carry on despite all the warning signs is pretty remarkable – it makes me wonder what we could actually achieve if we did stop and listen to our bodies and truly take care of ourselves. It would be a complete shift from the accepted norm of struggle and getting by…

        4. Yes Hannah, and our ability to carry on sometimes even despite significant signposts that we need to stop is also astounding at times.

307. ‘The more things I would do the better I would feel about myself’ feels like a powerful statement of honesty here. At no time when women or men are in this feeling does the true beauty of who that person naturally is emanate out. It’s solely focused on the task at hand and achieving superficial feeling of worthiness from continuing to achieve things but never from the fullness of who we are.

308. ‘I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful’ What a great title to your blog Danna and one I can relate to. Those stop moments I have to make if I am ill are not just moments that allow me to rest, get well and recharge my batteries. They are also opportunities for me to feel that I am so much more than a physical body and that a deep, warm and nurturing love resides within.

     1. This is so very true Jane. I have noticed that when I am not reacting to what my body is showing me and choose to embrace the stop moment offered and to deepen the care I provide for myself and my connection, I invariably end up also so very impressed and appreciative of the inherent intelligence and wisdom shown by my body. The whole process becomes a reminder and reconfirmation of the greater order and intelligence we are all a part of. And I feel so held, loved and cared for. Quite exquisite.

        1. Beautiful Golnaz. And it is in these moments we can feel the blessing that illness brings

309. We are so much more than our body. It is super important to deeply honour the body as it is what houses our soul, but it is also important for us to not simply identify that we are only the body. What you have described here Danna is an example of feeling the beauty of you, connecting with your inner-most which is not limited to just the physical body. By connecting with that part of us that remains untainted, an inner beauty that we all have, when we are unwell we no longer identify ourselves as the illness but feel ourselves as so much more and are able to express from this place regardless of if the body feels well or not.

     1. Beautifully expressed Donna, which helps to explain the experiences I have had when sick – I too, like Danna, have had the experience where I am feeling so unwell on a physical level, and in much pain and yet at the same time I feel so open and trusting in the process, so surrendered that I feel the ‘inner glow’ and there is a warmth (not from any fever) but from a knowing that I am not alone, that I am connected and so loved and held. And this is indeed a very precious space to be in…

310. What has also been amazing for me over the past few weeks when I have been facing some discomfort in my body, is the amazing inspiring reflections offered by so many students of Universal Medicine who have a deep understanding and appreciation of what a support illness and disease actually is. I have been inspired by many tips anecdotes and shared insights. What Danna has shared is so very different to the general reflection of concern, panic, sympathy or helplessness I have noticed everywhere else, and it is a realisation and relationship sorely needed among people everywhere.

311. I’m realising that in times of illness, even though feeling unwell, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to settle in to myself and I can understand it when you say that ‘I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful.’ And I feel this is because the stop is allowing us to feel who we truly are and the beauty within.

312. Thank you, Danna, to accept our choices and appreciate the opportunity to clear them allows us to live in grace and an openness to constantly be learning from our body.

313. ‘My body actually needed love – it needed to be treated with love – by ME!’ This is an empowering message. We can take our bodies so much for granted as we take them around with us everywhere. It can be easy for us to dismiss ourselves as we go about our day. Bringing love, care and awareness to how we treat our physical body changes the ball game of life.

     1. This message is crucial for a healthy life. And isn’t this actually very obvious? That our bodies need our Love first, before we share that love with anyone else. Typing these words make me realise the absurdity of the otherwise sold belief that our body is just a ‘functioning thing’. It’s very arrogant to think that the mind leading the body is the truth… There’s so much intelligence in our bodies and in our mind. But it’s quite logical that the two have to work together as one. Which can only happen if we love ourselves constantly, building an forever expanding relationship with our body.

314. Being sick, having a progressive or chronic condition and not connecting to the body’s messages is a deep sickness that inflicts many millions of people. It continues to baffle me how we can totally ignore and alienate our greatest resource and friend. Thank you Serge Benhayon for your wisdom and showing me how to befriend, love and nurture my body.

315. I used to get sick annually on New Year’s Eve, no not from the festivities but from a year of self abuse. As I am self employed I never allowed myself to get sick, for if I didn’t work I didn’t get paid, so at Christmas I would have the time off and my body would respond by letting me know in no uncertain terms what an idiot I had been. I always looked at this as a curse and my wife wasn’t that happy about it either, seeing another New Year in, in front of the telly while I was on death’s door, but now I realise how much of a blessing it was and how amazing my body actually is.

     1. Kevmchardy, this is so common. I often hear people say that they get sick when they take annual leave. It’s from pushing on for so long and then when the body stops, it just lets go and cold, flu’s and viruses seem very common. And so annual leave, or like you Kev, end of year holidays are spent recovering from the momentum of the year prior.

     2. What struck me in your honest sharing Kevin, that you had this illness every year, but you were not able to understand the lesson nor act on it. I know people who experience this, but often are not totally open to the truth and its consequence to make changes, so they get ill and ill again.

     3. This has reminded me of how I used to live kevmchardy. Working in education, I would push through each half term and then always get ill during the school holidays. Getting to the end of term always felt like the end of a marathon or one long rugby tackle, where I got my head down and didn’t look up (read here – pay attention to my body) until the end. Being ill during the holidays was a guaranteed inconvenience. It was only through tacking how I was living that this pattern slowly began to change.

     4. This also reminds me of when I hear people say “I always get a cold/flu in winter” or “I get this about this time every year” or “there is a virus going around” – as if these are the reasons for becoming ill. As a society, we have lost touch with the fact we live in cycles and it is in these cycles that if we have been living in disregard, our body needs to clear for the next cycle. Hence, I feel, the annual cold/flu experienced by many.

316. Danna, Coming back to your article, what comes towards me this time is : “Therefore I no longer hold on to what I did wrong or can or cannot do now. I simply accept the fact that I am responsible for how I am feeling, how my body is doing and what state I am in.” I realize that sometimes I am in a mood which is running hiddenly my whole state of being and feeling. Only already becoming aware of it, I can take responsibility and change the way I am with myself.

317. Love that. What a different way of seeing yourself when sick: beautiful. I get that when I get period pain… I am in pain, but I am able to feel that I am beautiful also. As I understand that it’s clearing out what I haven’t been loving myself with.

318. Hi Danna, you talk about feeling worthless and unhappy when you were not ‘doing’ things. This is rife in society. There seems to be one speed and that is fast forward with little to no self reflection. Rest is kept for the 2 week holiday that is six months away, but until then it is full steam ahead. This is such a draining way to live life and a guaranteed way to exhaustion, whilst on the way the signs are ignored with the use of coffee and any other stimulants to hide the true feeling in the body. In the ‘doing’, we forget to feel the being inside and just how lovely that can be, there’s nothing worthless about this.

     1. Well said Matthew! you sum up just how society is running at the moment. We are to ‘soldier on’ whenever we feel sick with pills for the day and pills for the night.

     2. You have summed up the way we live very well Matthew. And the way we live is contributing to the rise in illness and disease. We are literally driving ourselves into breakdown.

     3. well said Mathew, and yes no wonder why the explosion increase in stimulants such as coffee and energy drinks! when are we going to stop, reflect and feel what our bodies are telling us?

     4. Absolutely Well Said Matthew. People can be doing something so simple as walking from the train station to work – but what is killing us as a society is that we take everything unresolved with us. We are carrying 10 other things with us whilst we walk (including a cup of coffee) and we don’t walk in the fullness or grace/balance of who we are. This world is indeed in too much motion, because if we were more balanced and brought stillness into the equation we would all be extremely wise, bright, intelligent and not needing coffee, stimulants or entertainment. What a mess we have gotten into.

        1. A very interesting reflection Harry – and reminds me of how I sometimes overload myself with stuff – when I am enough as I am. We carry things around with us to give us security – when there is nothing that needs to be added.

319. Being sick provides us with an opportunity to stop, and feel how delicate, precious and sensitive we are, and how perhaps we have been not living that. Being sick is always clearing energy out of our body that does not belong to our most beautiful, radiant and delicate selves.

320. There is something quite amazing about being sick, it makes us realise the way we have been living, and the huge momentums we have been choosing.

     1. Yes absolutely Harry – the stop moment that is offered to us by illness and disease is quite amazing, only we don’t get to appreciate this when we fight the opportunity for reflection and evaluation and continue making the same choices during/after the period of illness.

321. ‘knowing that I am beautiful no matter what, now is the best feeling I have and can support myself with.’ What was amazing about when I last got sick was that I could feel my beauty and all the very yukky stuff I could feel wasn’t me just gunk I’d picked up along the way. This line is super supportive for all the moments I may feel yukky as I can discern and feel I am beautiful regardless of what I’ve absorbed.

     1. Yes Doug, being hard on ourselves about getting sick is just more of what got us sick in the first place.

322. ‘Being sick has offered me an opportunity to feel what was actually happening in my life.’ This is so true. a couple of weeks ago I was super sick and could barely move. I felt all the emotional stuff I’d absorbed in work trying to do a good job and the effects of getting stressed which had been a long time coming. In the past I’d have ignored what happened without reflecting on supporting me in my day because the choice is so clear – look after myself or get sick.

323. “When Humanity chooses to fight illness and disease it feels exhausting, angry and a fight fought between adversaries. To approach illness with love and a willingness to look deeply feels much more loving, truly healing and confirming.” I absolutely agree ch1956

324. Thank you for sharing your experience with illness. It is was very insightful, honest and loving. I resonated with this line as I am guessing many people would – “At that time I did not know how to deal with being sick, I actually did not know how to be with myself. The only remedy I used at that time was sitting it out and watching TV. “. Thank you for showing that there is a greater awareness and a level of surrender to what our body is sharing with us and another way to be when we are sick.

     1. I am one person that definitely relates to this Sarah.

325. Surrendering to the illness and feeling all that it has to offer means that there is more amazingness to who we are after the illness has passed. When an illness or injury has meant I am not able to get out of bed or move with the natural fluid movements I naturally move with – when I re-cover I have a new awareness of me and how precious life is. This is the gift illness brings. When Humanity chooses to fight illness and disease it feels exhausting, angry and a fight fought between adversaries. To approach illness with love and a willingness to look deeply feels much more loving, truly healing and confirming.

     1. Awesomely said. At the moment, illness is dealt with hardness and little true understanding. It’s awesome to bring some acceptance and understanding to the illness in our bodies via Universal Medicine and listening to what’s actually going on inside it.

     2. ‘when I re-cover I have a new awareness of me and how precious life is. This is the gift illness brings’. Yes it is ch1956. In the rush and pace of life it is often easy to take for granted the gift of life we’ve been given. Ill-ness is often the only way we get to stop, re-appraise and appreciate the preciousness of what we have.

326. Sickness can be an incredible point of reflection when we take the offer.

     1. So true Kimweston2- If we surrender and see our sickness as an opportunity to really listen to our body and then choose differently, great awareness and healing can be had.

     2. I agree Christoph and Kim, it really is and understanding our bodies and what they are communicating is something to really appreciate, as for so long I have been able to override and keep living unlovingly, as I did not allow my body to stop and communicate and then when I did, I really could not turn a blind eye.

        1. I was the same aminatumi with over riding sickness. I also find with many things in my life now, that once seen I no longer can turn a blind eye, and in turn wonder why I ever did, much health and happiness come from choosing to see. Now I’m more than happy to be living with my eyes open.

        2. There can be such an identification with ‘pushing through’ sickness – being seen to be hard-working despite being ill. I have done this myself and it has been in a very martyr-ish energy, which, incidently, I took great pride in. For me it proved my commitment when in truth it was showing the opposite – my complete lack of commitment to myself. As Sandra discussed above, it’s a very exposing reflection of our self-worth when we can’t let ourselves rest when we are sick. It shows that our sense of worth is tied up with what we have to do.

     3. I love this Kim, ‘taking the offer’ it shows me that things that may initially appear awful are an opportunity to more deeply let go and allow more love in my life. Difficulties do not need to be dramas and can instead allow that letting of and an embracing of being fragile and vulnerable, they can offer us a great healing.

        1. Beautifully expanded Monica, reading your comment I could feel how many missed opportunities go by with illness and how as a society we completely missed the offering and do many other things instead to cover up and choose not to see whats on offer.

        2. ‘Difficulties do not need to be dramas’ beautifully expressed Monica. I see this writ large on billboards!

     4. Absolutely true KimWeston, so much to offer when we are sick. One big love message from our body even though it might sometimes hurt!

        1. Love this Danna. My body hurts at the moment from a gym session that I honestly felt I hadn’t pushed at all, my body is telling me that there is something to look at.

        2. Sometimes we despise illness, yet as you share Danna, there is much to appreciate about the body’s communication and the opportunity to stop and be delicate with our body.

        3. Yes Annie, if we stop and appreciate where we are and what our body is feeling, we are instantly creating a space for ourselves to feel what our body is telling us.. And so to appreciate the nature of our communication with our body. This should be our normal law and science, as it is actually a very normal feeling to hear what our body is signaling out, just our lack of connectiveness makes it looks weird.

     5. Yes Kim, the reflection is always there in so many aspects of our lives – it simply comes down to whether or not we are willing to look in the mirror.

327. I had a similar experience the other week. I had the flu for the first time in a very long time, my body was aching all over and my head was throbbing, which usually would have me sulking and in bed feeling less from not being able to ‘do’ anything. Since listening and attending and living what Serge Benhayon presents, I have so much more awareness of my body. This time when I had the flu, I felt how incredible my body was for being able to clear how I’ve been living and offer another opportunity to walk in a different way. My head was clear and not a sulk in sight.

     1. Yes, embracing illness when it comes is extremely helpful for our body, our selves and our recovery and, in many cases, fewer future illnesses.

        1. Agreed Christoph the surrendering to what is happening in our body is a very important part of healing.

     2. Awesome Kim. “I felt how incredible my body was for being able to clear how I’ve been living”. So true, our body is so incredible.

     3. Very inspiring to read Kim. What I got from your sharing is that it’s up to us whether we’re choosing to empower ourselves or indulge in whatever emotion we choose to. Now this alone is turning the way to be with illness and disease upside down. It’s amazing how much emotions are there around being ill or sick. It’s unheard of to answer questions on how’re you doing, with lovely, learning, beautiful, alive, clear, etc. Wow!

        1. It was tricky to answer how I was feeling to others when I felt so clear in my being. I found I answered with how my body was feeling and then finished with how clear I was. I could also feel the tendency to want to go into ‘playing sick’ when talking to people I felt wouldn’t think I was sick at all. In this I could feel how I would drop my worth by not feeling my spoken truth was enough. Plenty of learning.

        2. Thank you for your honesty Kim. I’m sure lots of people can relate to this. The pattern of being dishonest when we’re sick is very strong. And as you’re describing, this is also very delicate. One part of our body might feel awful, tight, indeed ‘sick’, where other parts may feel Joyful, clear, expanding, lovely, etc. We are to learn that we don’t have to excuse ourselves for whatever we feel. I am learning that I don’t have to keep my sensitivity just for myself, or for sessions, or for… But I can indeed be the sensitive, tender, loving and caring Man where-ever I go and where-ever I am. The polar opposite of how I used to live and think, which was – looking back – very controlled and narrow.

     4. Reading these comments I am reminded of how we rush back to work (often because we are feeling guilty), way before we are ready, or even push to do things around the house when ill. We don’t allow ourselves the time to get well and as a result the illness often hangs around for much longer.

        1. So true Debra, it can be very confronting when we feel how hard it is to rest and why this is so.

        2. I can relate to this Debra, in an earlier, younger me. Since learning to self-care, I’ve observed something different occurring. Sometimes I feel the sensation of illness ‘hovering’ around me and I don’t feel myself. I take a long bath with essential oils, I go to bed early, overnight I may experience fever or flu symptoms and in the morning it’s gone: the hovering illness passed through and out of my body. Self-awareness in the early stages supports us to respond lovingly with nurture and rest.

328. I feel that our sense of self worth plays a part in whether we give ourselves the space to rest when we are sick. To feel like we can stop and not have to keep ‘doing’ things such as working, studying, chores, etc means we value ourselves enough to say ‘I’m not feeling well and I’m going to rest’. Deeper sense of worth means ability to deeply nurture when we’re sick.

     1. This is such a beautiful way of expressing it, Sandra. I love the warmth in your words.

        1. I agree Felix, Sandra has really taken this to it core. Bringing it back to self worth is such an enormous unfoldment, as I have been discovering how self-worth is at the core of so many unloving choices.

        2. I agree Amina, I also have discovered how the lack of self worth, the lack of deeply appreciating myself and what I bring is the root of many unloving choices I take.

        3. …” self-worth is at the core of so many unloving choices” resonates in me and exposes that every moment without self-worth, holding oneself as precious and valuable, is a moment of abuse and thus harming the body and being. Illness and disease are the consequence and offer a chance and way of letting go and clearing the ill harming energy we allowed and actually chose to begin with.

        4. “…every moment without self-worth, holding oneself as precious and valuable, is a moment of abuse and thus harming the body and being”. Wise words Alex. I love the reminder in this blog to hold ourselves as precious.

     2. Sandra, so well said. I feel that also, we are so worth resting and caring for ourselves when sick.

        1. Absolutley agree Emily – and we are totally worth caring for even when we are not sick. I love how getting sick can actually be an opportunity to deepen the care that we take of ourselves as we have the opportunity to slow down and be a whole lot more tender and vulnerable.

        2. agreed Hannah. Sometimes I find it weird that we have to wait for these times to come around though. But they are a great wake up call for more caring none the less.

        3. True Emily, it’s not like we want to go around ignoring everything that is going on for us until our body says “enough!” and packs it in. But when we do get sick, it is an opportunity to take stock so to speak, and to deepen the level of care we have for ourselves.

     3. I agree Sandra, and our self worth not only affects whether we rest when we get sick, but also if we spend time resting as part of our day to day life. I know sometimes I just keep going with tasks and things to do late into the evening or do things that are unnecessary rather than taking time out on days off, due to a lack of care for my body and appreciation that it’s worth taking care of.

        1. So whether we are well or unwell, our self worth determines the level of care we give ourselves then – how worthy are we of taking time for ourselves to rest when well or unwell?

        2. Absolutely Susie, our self-worth is reflected in all our daily choices, and choosing to rest or not is one of the indicators. Taking short rest periods rather than ploughing on honours and replenishes the body. Why would we not want this for ourselves.

     4. Beautifully said Sandra, you are correct valuing ourselves does allow us to nurture as we never nurture what we don’t value..

        1. This makes perfect sense ‘we never nurture what we don’t value’ – this is where appreciation helps us to feel that we are worth the time and space to heal from an illness or even rest before it gets to the point of illness.

        2. Absolutely Julie, when we appreciate anything it grows in value. So appreciating and valuing go hand in hand.

        3. Wise words kathleenbaldwin – “…as we never nurture what we don’t value”.

        4. Kathleen you have summed it up in a nutshell ‘valuing ourselves does allow us to nurture as we never nurture what we don’t value’, which also sums up why I drove myself into utter exhaustion. All of my sense of self worth came from what I managed to get done and so at the end of the day I would go through the things that I had managed to complete in my day in order to get some sort of satisfaction. After committing to healing through Universal Medicine I now have an incredible amount of self worth and consequently don’t need to get things done in order to feel good about myself, I’m more than enough just sitting in a chair and being me.

        5. That’s great Alexis! The interesting thing that I found though is that once I did value and nurture myself without needing to get things done to validate me, time and space seemed to open up and I found that I could actually do more than I have ever done in my life; the difference being that there is no stress , strain or push involved.

        6. When we don´t value ourselves, our attention obviously is directed to something else, something we give more importance / value to than our own welfare. In other words, we prioritize different aspects of our life and when our state of being and consequently the reflection we give others is not the number 1 we neglect the first and foremost responsibility we have: to be ourselves in full for everyone else to also be themselves in full.

        7. Yes spot on Alex, truly valuing ourselves is the best way we can value everyone else.

        8. What a simple truth, Kathleen – “we never nurture what we don’t value…”. This is a valuable reflection to take with us into our day, as to whether we do truly value ourselves and what we bring to the world.

        9. agree Janet for recently I realised the utmost importance of valuing myself as the multi-dimensional being I am and nurturing the body that enhouses my being-ness seems the least I can do.

     5. Absolutely – perhaps the calls to stop through sickness, accidents and incidents are actually presenting us with an opportunity to feel what it takes before we realize our self-worth.

     6. I agree Sandra. The idea of giving ourselves permission comes to mind when I read your comment.

     7. Sandra I often observe people pushing themselves to the limit without any regard for self. To stop and rest when tired is seen as a weakness, a failure. Bringing this back to lack of self-worth brings deeper understanding to why people choose to punish themselves like this.

        1. And as I wrote the above, a memory flooded back. Twenty five years ago, I trod a similar path, lacked self-worth, adrenaline fuelled my life, I saw stopping to rest as a sign of weakness. It’s humbling to observe the harmful way I once lived and I am grateful that is no longer part of my way of living. Today, I listen to my body, when sick or feel the onset of some imbalance, simply stop, rest and reflect.

        2. Kehinde2012, I too trod a similar path and can recall many times pushing through to what now looks like self neglect as I valued others more than I valued myself and didn’t want to let others down who were relying on me. But what quality was I taking to them when I was pumped full of antibiotics and pain killers just to get through a working day?

        3. ‘what quality am I taking to them?’ a great question to ask ourselves Sandra when making the choice to push through sickness and ill-health or honour our body’s call to rest. When we self-neglect or de-value ourselves the choice has often already been made. The true choice is to live in a way that is self-loving, everything else flows from there.

     8. Absolutely spot on Sandra. I love how you have expressed this – there is so much grace and understanding in your expression.

     9. So beautifully said Sandra and I needed to hear it this way.

     10. Agreed Sandra, the lack of self-worth plays a key part in the way we sabotage and abuse our bodies, the more care and love we choose for ourselves the easier it is to honour how our bodies feel.

         1. It’s a never ending cycle of honouring how we feel and not overriding it because we feel we are letting people down or are not up to it in some way.

329. I too have learnt and am still learning a huge amount from listening to my body. I have found that if my body has an ache, pain or is not well it does not always mean that I have “done something wrong” as I used to think. Sometimes it is can be a message to tell me to be more aware in a certain area and sometimes it can happen because I have been more aware and as a consequence I am healing and letting go of something. Whatever the reason it is always a healing!

     1. It is lovely Nicola how every example you have mentioned is a loving support of some kind. If it is a message for us to be more aware in an area, that is so very useful. If it is due to our increased awareness and therefore healing and letting go of something, how wonderful. And even when it is showing us that our choices were harming to us and the world, it is still providing a healing and possibility to deepen our understanding and connection. Great to reflect on how it is worth deeply connecting to our body to feel what wisdom is being offered, and to know the message is always very honouring and loving.

        1. Lovely Golnaz & Nicola. This completely cuts through the common belief that illness is a weakness or that it can simply be treated with symptomatic relief (eg tablets) so that we may ‘soldier on’ as a TV advertisement I once saw would have us believe.

     2. I too have done that in the past Nicola, as soon as I feel a bit out of sorts, I would go into a blame at what had I done to cause this. As I have developed my love towards myself, this relationship has changed so that now I offer myself the space to feel and read the true message of what my body is showing me, with love.

     3. That’s a great point Nicola, I used to think I had done something wrong and self criticise, but now I know that is not necessarily the case.

     4. Nicola the way you explain this takes the judgement and self critic out of the equation as no matter what a healing is always taking place.

        1. I agree Sally our body always offers us a healing and judgement never offers any healing and is therefore harmful. Better then to listen to our bodies without judgement!

     5. This is a great sharing Nicola – the level of communication from our bodies is astounding and the more we learn to develop a relationship with them and ourselves, the more they can reveal.

     6. I realise how ingrained judgement is in our lives and the world around us. When I feel my preciousness it does not seem to make sense at all. There is no such thing as doing something wrong, only an allowing of the awareness that there can be a possible greater level of love and care for myself and others.

330. That is a great point Susie “returning back to ‘normal’ is the worst thing we can do!” How often do we hear illness, disease or incidents in life described as something to ‘defeat’ so that we can ‘get back’ to how we were living before. Completely missing the point and going against the support offered for us to deepen our awareness and relationship with life.

331. Looking back on my life and seeing the times I have been sick I can also see that there were things going on in my life that I needed to look at. The more aware I have become of this, the more I am able to embrace illness, knowing that it is giving me an opportunity to look at and change the way I am living.

332. I have experienced feeling truly amazing and light when my body has been full of aches, pains and fever with a heavy cold or flu. The first time I experienced this, I was surprised, but I’ve experienced it a couple of times now and the feeling in my body was similar to when I’ve had a powerful chakra-puncture treatment – very fiery on the inside. And this confirmed for me the healing that takes place on many levels, despite how my body feels when I’ve been sick.

333. Thank you for sharing Danna. Being sick is often thought of as being ‘weak’, ‘vulnerable’ (in a negative sense) and ‘unnecessary’. This means that when we get sick the first thing that we do is go into self-judgement, get frustrated and fight the illness – wanting it to go away ASAP so we can return to life as ‘normal’. What you’ve shared is super important, as you’ve brought up the fact that illness or sickness is actually designed to stop us in our tracks, and is an opportunity to look at our choices or deepen our relationship with ourselves or bodies. Thus returning back to ‘normal’ is the worst thing we can do! As the whole point of getting the flu or ill is to provide us an alternative reflection and route.

     1. Well said Susie, “Thus returning back to ‘normal’ is the worst thing we can do!”. Surrendering to the stop of illness and disease and reflecting on how we have been living is one of the most powerful medicines we can offer ourselves.

334. Medicine can be the way we live, nurturing, loving and being aware that we are worthy and beautiful. By living this way we become solid in the way we feel about ourselves. We no longer need to prove that we are worthy of love, we know we are made of it.

335. It has been super healing this morning to read your blog Danna, as I’ve been feeling out of sorts the last week or so and being hard on myself for being so. And yet now I feel the beauty that this has offered me, showing me I know and can feel when I’m out of rhythm, and that there is a solid foundation in me that knows the truth of who I am. So now having read your blog again I have an understanding of the fact that I feel so much and my body always clearly shows me what is going on. And I love how you share it ‘I simply accept the fact that I am responsible for how I am feeling, how my body is doing and what state I am in.’ That line is gold today and I feel a huge surrender in hearing it.

     1. I agree Monica, I also love the line: ‘I simply accept the fact that I am responsible for how I am feeling, how my body is doing and what state I am in.’ It is incredibly empowering, liberating and joyful to know we are responsible for how we are and everything that happens to us.

        1. Yes Nicola, it is so joyful to know we are responsible, it shows the power we all innately hold and that choice is always at play, and no matter what choices we’ve made to date, in this very moment we can make a different one, a loving one, that is always there. And that’s the very cool thing, we have an instrument, our body which always shows us the consequences of our choices, so we cannot ever go completely astray, our bodies bring us back and show us, and where needed, illness is part of this.

336. Healing, Honesty, Preciousness, Honouring and Appreciation – five words to live by!

337. Spot on Danna – I’ve long associated being sick with a sense of failure, of being less able to do, and most definitely an irritation that I can’t simply carry on. All of this leads me to try and fight off the illness and be back up and running as quickly as possible, getting on with what I was doing before. In that pattern, there is nothing that asks me to look at how I was living that made me sick! No learning from it, no evolution. Of course we get sick for a reason, and there is something to look at… and a pause to reflect on what that is makes us grow as human beings.

338. A beautiful reflective blog Danna, the cycle of propping myself up with things to look forward to, only to be left restless and unsatisfied when they arrived and passed with the same feelings of emptiness and unease, is one that I remember being in for so long. It is so much better to live with that day to day appreciation of what is in our bodies and not be looking externally to be fed happiness and stimulation. I too have a great appreciation for what Universal Medicine has offered my life and how that gives me a platform to then support others.

339. How beautiful it can be to have a fever that purifies you from the inside out, a process of alchemy and surrender (in full appreciation and with support of medical care).

340. ‘The more things I was able to do, the better I felt about myself…’ I recognise this and recently I have had the feeling of being on a train and waiting for the train wreck, in other words, I had a feeling a big stop was heading my way if I didn’t change the way I was living. Why wait? At the moment I am getting warning signs that I’m overdoing things, but as I start feeling my body more, I can feel how exhausted I truly am, and can take more care of my body. We ignore those warning signs and we get sick, love our bodies more, nurture and nourish them and harmony is restored.

341. ‘Listening to one´s body’ sounds easy and it actually is but when we are not familiar with doing so it can be somehow abstract, similar to speaking a foreign language. We know some words but without the need to actually speak the language it will be quite rusty. Therefore activating our language skills by having conversations is the learning-by-doing approach to get to know one´s body again and understand its messages..

     1. So true Alex, learning to listen to my body was a whole new skill because for so long I didn’t listen to the subtle messages and only when the loud ones came did I listen. But it has only been the past 9 years since using the techniques presented by Universal Medicine such as the Gentle Breath meditation and Esoteric Yoga that I’ve really started to listen and get more in touch with my body and build a deeper connection and relationship with my body.

     2. We all listen to our bodies whether we are aware of it or not or use that language or not. One question is how loudly do we need to make our body speak or shout before we will listen? For example, if we hold our hand over a flame our body shouts OUCH that hurts and we have a choice to move our hand away from the flame and not do that again. Of course we also had a choice to not put it in the flame in the first place.

342. Wow Danna, how you are now approaching being sick with a deepening appreciation for what your body is showing you, is true medicine that would work marvelously along side western medicine. I’m looking at being sick in a whole different light now as well, thanks to Universal Medicine. I know those thoughts of ‘oh no I’m sick, and I can’t ‘do’ anything’, and most of my life even if I took the day off work to get better, I still trudged along and caught up on domestic jobs at home instead.

     1. I agree Aimee it is such a blessing when we allow ourselves time to listen more deeply to what our body is telling us – and there is always a new depth to be reached. It feels that the deeper we go the more we can access the delicacy of our body responding to each vibration that it picks up both from us and from our surroundings. It gives us the space to feel the true communication of the whole universe.

343. I have really appreciated the wisdom you share in this wonderful blog Danna, the timing has been perfect. For the last week I have been sick and there have been times when I have felt nowhere near beautiful, but each time I found myself going into self judgment I would recall this blog, stop and allow myself the space to truly feel me; not the illness, not the discomfort, but all of me. I am still in the healing process and I know that another read today has been the best medicine I could take.

344. Getting sick can often be an opportunity to surrender to a complete stop – which in itself can be a blessing when our life is otherwise one of constant motion and distraction.

345. Such a cool blog ….being honest with ourselves why are we sick? How have we been living in this body that lead to us feeling sick…..taking responsibility. It just makes so much sense.

346. What you’ve shown here Danna is that medicine when we get sick is far more than a tablet or something from a bottle. You’ve shown medicine as being the way you are with yourself at this time, the love and care you afford yourself, the appreciation of what is showing in your body and the responsibility to learn from it. Something that’s not just taken ‘twice a day’ but a way of being that’s effective throughout the day.

     1. Your comment made me smile Rosanna – Danna’s prescription is not something that can be taken twice a day, but something to be lived moment by moment… a very different approach.

        1. Awesome isn’t it? Such healing in self responsibility.

347. Thank you for sharing this Danna. Before living in the way I currently do, which is based on self care and self love, if I was sick I would lie on the couch watching TV feeling miserable and waiting for it to pass, wondering why I had to get sick. Since developing a deeper connection to myself through the work of Univesal Medicine, when I am sick these days I lovingly support myself, rest when I need to, feel what is going on in my body and allow the process rather than fight against it and think why me? The way I care for myself now is an everyday livingness when I feel vital and when I am sick.

348. “being myself is way more important than what I can do”. For me this has been the most remarkable paradigm shift that I am still learning to accept and appreciate. For so many years what I did had been far more important than me and what I did gave me my identity. To let go of that has been huge but so rewarding as it has led me to discover that there is a ‘me’ that is beautiful and amazing irrespective of what I do and that is amazing. In huge gratitude to Serge Benhayon for introducing me to me.

     1. I second that Jonathan, it has been a massive step for me to see me for me and not me for the things I do, completely life changing.

349. “Today i am sick, but actually with feeling all of this, I feel beautiful. I know that I am so much more than an illness and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give myself”. It’s wonderful when we can appreciate that being sick is truly a gift, giving us the necessary stop to honestly reflect on how we have been living, which then gives an opportunity to be more responsible and loving in the way we choose to live.

     1. To not see being sick is a gift or a blessing or even just an opportunity to stop and reflect, is a missed opportunity to heal more deeply. Any wanting to push on, push through, pop a pill until the symptoms go away and get ‘back to normal’ is just more of the same energy that contributed to getting sick in the first place. There is something quite humble about surrendering to being sick and feeling how fragile the body is, and taking the time to rest and nurture.

350. Usually when the body is sick the mind is polluted with thoughts of similar quality about ourselves, so it is gorgeous to feel beneath all of that to the true beauty that remains untouched within… constantly reflecting how far we live from that but never without it.

351. “When our bodies are sick they are telling us something” I recently got sick and could feel how it was a way of being told to stop and be gentle with myself, that how I had been living was in a motion that my body couldn’t support. It never anymore feels like a bad curse to be sick but more a telling of what I have allowed.

     1. And an opportunity to reflect on what we have allowed, and choose differently next time.

352. ‘Being sick has offered me an opportunity to feel what was actually happening in my life, that I was living in drive and stress.’ This is a complete turn around in the way of looking at being ill. This is a beautiful sharing.

353. Wow Danna – you open up a whole new perspective on sickness and what it means in the body. As you share – being sick can teach us a lot and our bodies never stop talking to us even in this state. But the default is to try and do things to get better – ie take medicine, eat foods, watch TV, sleep more, have a bath ect – but all this doing needs to be met with listening. I love the points you cover about how you are when you are sick – to listen and heal and nourish your body – it feels like something we have been missing out on for so long because we get so caught up in doing rather than being.

354. Danna you have inspired me so. This is so very beautiful all that you have shared, from the first to the last paragraph pure beauty through your openness and honesty. I love that you let yourself really feel the truth of it, the sickness and your absolute preciousness both together, and I can feel how must this is allowing your healing and deeper self awareness.

355. I love how you have learned not to condemn yourself for becoming sick and thus don’t lose your beauty, whatever state your body might be in.

356. Learning this love for your body through listening to what it is telling you through sickness and calling you back home to the preciousness and Beauty you are when you are young is an amazing foundation for your whole life, Danna. I am in my older years and am only just learning to feel all you express because of what I have learned from Universal Medicine practitioners and courses. It is never too early or too late! As a nurse you will be so inspiring for your patients for they will feel the truth of how you live; what a loving service to humanity, for in feeling who and how you are they will also begin to care for themselves in the same way and take a responsibility they may not have connected with before. Serge Benhayon opens doors and shines light into the dark corners of ourselves so that they can be cleansed and healed, like a wound.

357. Feeling unwell is often not such a nice state to be in. To become honest, surrender and feel the beauty in this process and in oneself is enormous and when I am able to do this it brings a huge healing. The body has to tell so many things and to feel its loving response when we listen, is beautiful

358. It could sound strange to say that you feel beautiful whilst feeling sick and I think many would have that opinion, those two words are not usually in the same sentence. The fact is allowing yourself to feel while having an illness is a great opportunity to be present and connected and it is quite incredible that beauty can be felt even when we are terribly unwell.

359. We can really add to and make any illness worse, by the way we are when we have the illness. Self pity can add to the load and just make recovery that much harder.

     1. Yes you could say self -pity was an ‘illness’ in itself so why add more ill to the body that is already unwell?

360. If I am honest there have been many times when I have been sick and felt ‘poor me’ and not ‘done’ sick very well! But I now see the absolute importance of first taking responsibility for why I got sick in the first place, and then surrendering to this and taking care of myself in a way that is very loving. Thanks for sharing. ✨

     1. For many, sickness and ‘poor me’ is the perfect pairing to avoid the responsibility of even looking at the way they have been living that may have contributed to their body requiring a stop or clearing. But in the uncomfortableness of being unwell there is much to learn, if one deeply surrenders and listens to what their body is showing them.

361. I can feel the beauty of your preciousness as I read your loving article. Loving of yourself. How awesome, finding the medicine that suits you.

362. ‘I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful.’ Thank you Danna for sharing what happens when we are willing to feel the truth behind all illness and disease and the blessing they actually are.

363. I enjoyed this very poignant blog Danna. I too am sick, and feeling very beautiful.

     1. I wonder sometimes about how we use words. I can’t imagine YOU are sick. Could it be that your body is going through a healing and clearing process and you are feeling your beauty.

364. This is beautiful Danna and brings such an honesty and realisation to being sick, listening to our body and all it is showing us and the love and tenderness our body cries out for that only we can give ourselves.

365. Beautiful Danna and very timely for me as I read this while I was unwell. I could relate to what you shared and a big part for me was being honest with myself as to why I was sick. That then allowed me to surrender to being unwell and I could let the my body do and clear what was needed instead of fighting what my body was trying to tell me. I felt how precious I am, but the one thing I did not do was feel my beauty. I have taken note for next time!

     1. I like what you wrote about surrendering to the sickness, I could feel how when this happens we allow the sickness to run it’s course smoothly, as opposed to holding it and stopping the job the sickness is called to do.

     2. Why wait until next time? Your beauty is there to be felt now and always!

        1. Yes, good point!

366. It was interesting going to work yesterday on the tube in London, it was like a Doctor’s waiting room… it was packed with people coughing, sneezing and sniffling. In the past I had always tried to avoid people like this in the cold and flu season. Now I may or may not catch what is going around now, and if I do it is a time of reflection for me, a time to rest my body. I just see it now as a measure of how people around me are living, just as an observation of how I have lived in the past.

367. “Precious: it might sound a bit out of context here, but I feel that while I am sick I am actually more sensitive and able to feel and accept that I am fragile. When I connect to myself in this fragility, I actually feel that I am precious and that my body is that too” – i have felt this truth myself very recently Danna, and what is interesting is that holding oneself in this knowing of body-preciousness has a touched-effect on our surroundings as if to draw surrender by other people to become aware of this precious fact too. That people in the office for example, start to look at the way they handle and hold themselves such that in this way ‘being ill’ and honouring this period of repose, acts as necessary inspiration.

     1. Yes I have noticed this too. It feels like the more I honour my sensitivity, vulnerability and preciousness the more open I am to others. They feel that and so begin to dismantle their own protection and shields and masks. It definitely has this ripple effect.

        1. Someone just recently shared with me how much he fears the reactions of his workmates when he would change the way he is at work, instead of always being quick, winded up, funny, willing to take on whatever is needed he actually likes and needs to wind down a bit, develop his own inner rhythm and find a balanced state of being. But the role and expectations he thinks he has to comply with are a serious hindrance to him. At the same time he recognises other colleagues after having a burn-out have changed their behaviours and are still accepted; a reflection that now supports him in making changes for himself.

     2. I love what you are sharing here Zofia, when others see us in this way, surrendered and honouring what is going on in our bodies, it offers a strong reflection for all.

        1. Yes I agree Zofia, Andrew and Anna, we are so used to battling our way through these things that seeing someone being loving with themselves, surrendering to the needs of their bodies, treating themselves with tenderness and care, it really stands out. We have such a huge responsibility not only to our own welfare and care but those of others too by reflection. The ‘do as I do’ approach bears so much more weight and power than preaching at someone, because the results are plain to see and feel and speak volumes.

     3. Just goes to show that people are inspired by other’s movements… a reminder that we all offer a reflection to each other, all the time. If you see someone being tender then that is offered up as a possibility for them in the next moment.

        1. Beautiful Simon. Movements inspire movements.

368. “….feeling my loneliness (my lack of connection and satisfaction with myself)” – this is also so amazing Danna, because you share the difference and joy in fact between being ‘alone’ and ‘lonely’ – because how can there be loneliness when there is self-connection and self-contentment? Learning this is the very basis for all relationships.

     1. Yes and when we are ill we are often forced to withdraw a little from the world and spend a lot of time on our own with ourselves, so it really exposes the level of connection we truly have with ourselves.

369. “….and that when my body speaks to me and I am listening, all that ‘I can do’ seems to matter less and ‘who I am’ starts to mean more” – how beautiful, and how revealing is what you say here Danna, in that you expose the origins of true self worth is not what we ‘do’ but in ‘knowing who we are’ innately so, and applying this quality to whatever we happen to then do. So that it has the touch of us in it, as opposed to the other way round and us being almost impregnated by something external as our measure.

     1. Your comment Zofia is equally as beautiful as the quote you share of Danna’s. Being stopped by sickness can help bring us back to what matters most ‘who we are’. I’ve experienced this lately when I let some nurturing routines in my life go and found that I started to not care for myself, pushing through, over eating and feeling lethargic and tired all the time… but once I started to appreciate what was supportive in my life and what wasn’t, my whole body and feelings changed.

370. Danna I love the way you share honestly with us the way it is for you when you have been sick. Not putting yourself down for the ill choices you may have made but listening to your body now and giving it the loving attention it needs, and recognising your beauty within is not tarnished in any way.

371. Being sick gives us an opportunity to really stop, reflect and take stock sometimes; it’s great how you have really embraced this Danna.

     1. I agree Fiona it is key to embrace the space that being ill gives us to learn more about ourselves, rather than the usual approach of fighting and resisting and detesting being ill that we can often take.

        1. Fighting the disease campaigns never made sense to me, because how do you fight with or against an illness? The only fight is with oneself and rejecting the responsibility for one´s choices and way of living up to the point of getting sick. It is most likely that we get sick because we are fighting ourselves most of the time, and the sickness is giving us an opportunity to change that.

        2. I completely agree Alex. I regularly read in the newspaper an article championing how someone has fought their battle with cancer or lost their long battle with cancer. It is really crazy to glorify fighting which is harmful, creates separation and may well have been a contributory factor to the issue in the first place. Healing comes from love and not from fighting.

     2. I agree Fiona, this level of acceptance and understanding is inspirational.

372. I love this blog Danna, it inspires us all to go to another level of acceptance of who we are and where we are at. – Beauty- full blog and an absolutely beauty-full author.

     1. I agree samanthaengland, this does invite a whole new depth of relationship with our bodies, what we are feeling and who we are in our essence. A very inspiring blog… and yes, absolutely full of beauty!

373. There is an art to being sick and from what you describe you are a master of this art. Thank you for the inspiration.

     1. I felt that too Gabriele, the way Danna has approached being sick is an inspiration for all.

     2. ‘There is an art to being sick’ – this comment has triggered pondering on what Illness and the balance of not getting caught up in the illness, not indulging in what is happening but simply observing it and holding the clear and pure essence of who we are gently within all that is happening. Is it all about the choice is to stay connected and to confirm that as the illness passes, you surrender all that is not you? Love your comment Gabriele and thank you Danna for sharing.

        1. Yes, ch1956 from Danna’s words it’s beautiful to see that ‘‘There is an art to being sick’ and this in itself is a revolution for a way of thinking that sees illness as negative and debilitating when what it is really doing is offering us another opportunity to take stock and to connect back to our body rather than ignoring it. What we hold within in our essence is undeniably precious and whole and not damaged and redundant – and as we learn to embrace and accept ourselves completely we will heal ourselves and return back to wholeness again.

     3. Danna sure is! Bringing so much insight to the common cold.

     4. I like that, ‘there is an art to be being sick’. It is an opportunity to let go of what doesn´t belong and surrender to what does belong – a very liberating love affair with who we are.

        1. Yes beautifully said Alex, it is a very liberating love affair with who we are, and something Danna has illustrated so clearly. The idea we are carrying something the body is needing to ‘discard’ is already revolutionary when it comes to illness and disease… to understand it this way makes perfect sense of course, and allows for that surrender you’re referring to.

     5. My friend Judith McIntyre truly mastered that art. Her body gradually died over several months as the cancer she had spread widely into her back and many organs. However, she herself never got sick during the process but in fact more and more well and aware. Yes, her body was bed bound and eventually died but Judith was in absolute joy and presence. I interviewed Judith before her death and called the interview “a healthy death”. It was an absolute blessing and inspiration to visit her in those last months.

        1. …she herself never got sick…” – defines being sick completely new.

     6. Gorgeous and true way of putting it: there is an art to being sick. Letting go of control sure supports that.

374. It is a powerful point to come to when we realise that we are eternally beautiful beyond measure. As we then also realise that it is only us that choose to live less that the fullness of the love that we always are within, through what we have surrendered to.

     1. Beautifully said Carola, and very confirming of the power we all hold.

     2. Gorgeous comment Carola, oozes forth from you through and through.

     3. This is so true Carola and I say this as I experience this myself. The beauty within me is ever present but over time I see how I can choose emotions, like frustration, annoyance, sadness even to not stay with my inner beauty. However the more aware I become the more that I can feel that the emotional way of living is redundant and really does not serve.

     4. If we connect with our true beauty and feel this as the depth of quality that it is, not a superficial appearance. Then we can feel our beauty in all situations even when we are sick.

     5. Thank you Carola how gorgeous: “It is a powerful point to come to when we realise that we are eternally beautiful beyond measure.” – if we lived and embodied that truth we would not need to keep trying prove ourselves and override our bodies with the doing we do for recognition. Our actions would come from an entirely different and abundant space.

     6. Beautiful Carola, calling one to the deep responsibility we hold, and how all is our choice as to what beauty we allow ourselves to see, for it is shining bright eternally.

     7. Well said Carola. “Eternally beautiful beyond measure” – that is so gorgeous.

     8. That’s gorgeous Carola. It’s also very powerful when we realise that our beauty is not impacted on by a physical condition or appearance. However a physical condition or appearance can ask us (sometimes challengingly so) to deepen the connection we have to our beauty, which is infinite.

375. It’s a true gift that has been given when we can see any illness as a blessing and a healing and not as a punishment.

     1. Agreed Jennifer a totally new way of looking at life. Seeing illness as a blessing and not a curse. There is so much our bodies can teach us if we are prepared to listen.

     2. Yes Jennifer there is a difference between taking responsibility for looking at the choices we may have made along the way that the body is highlighting to us and learn from this, but not to beat ourselves up about it or feel we are inherently bad or deserve to be ill. For we are inherently amazing divine beings in essence. Better to see illness as a correction or rebalancing that steers us back to our divinity, rather than a punishment.

     3. True Jennifer, and in this, we receive the true healing of illness.

     4. How true Jennifer, it is a gift and yes I am getting there with this amazing realization.

     5. This understanding is turning the common concept of health and sickness upside down. There is a depth in healing that still needs to be grasped in full due to the multidimensionality of who we are.

     6. I agree Jennifer, I took me a while but slowly I have come to see how our illnesses are there to assist us and not hinder us.

     7. Well said Jennifer. To see and understand illness in this way completely changes one’s approach to being sick, as Danna shares in this blog. When we do this we are no longer a victim to the illness, but are empowered and can actually receive a healing from the illness.

     8. Absolutely Jennifer. Any illness can be a healing, even if that illness results in death. It can be a time of amazing growth, connection and understanding.

376. I absolutely agree Doug honesty develops awareness and with this awareness we can make true change with how we treat and love ourselves.

377. So beautiful to read your words Danna as it offers another way of looking at illness. I could really feel how you have truly given yourself permission to drop into your body, get honest, not judge but actually feel the choices you have been making and the fact that you can choose differently from this moment. It feels so supportive and honouring of your body and something that inspires me to look closer at the way I have been with myself in sickness and in health.

     1. This is a great point you make here Jade, as what it presents to me is that why wait until you are ill to reflect back on how you have been living, that even when you feel amazing in your body this is a time to also reflect and check in, sometimes the feeling amazing I have found can be false and other times it is real, but only when I stop and feel do I know which one I am in.

        1. Very true Jade and Amina – there is no need to wait until our bodies break down to listen. Developing a loving, listening and appreciative relationship with our body is a 24/7 healthy and joyful way of living. The benefits are so huge it often makes me wonder why I have not always lived this way and why so many of us abuse, numb and override our bodies.

        2. Absolutely Nicola. If we paid attention, we would find our body is sending us signals and messages 24/7.

     2. So true Jade, illness can be such a time of connection and reflection. Holding up the mirror to all the choices we have made that have led us to where we are.

378. I have also really become much more aware of the quality of all my movements of my body during the day and how much they affect my state of being. And surprise surprise what led me to have this greater awareness was an injury to the body which required me to move in a much more gentle and considered way.

     1. So true Andrew. Looking back at any illness or injury in my life I realise whenever I have surrendered to the situation and have allowed myself to unfold with it, there is always some deepening in understanding or expansion of expression in my life.

379. I can really relate here Danna to what you said about sometimes feeling rough or poorly in the body but when I look at my eyes they feel amazing. This redefines what we believe about illness – that it is actually a clearing that brings us closer to our soul.

380. I absolutely agree with you, Danna: “I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.” Being sick is such a big invitation from our body to clear and to deepen the love that we are.

     1. We are indeed so much more than an illness. At our essence we are untouched by illness. If we can reconnect to our essence we can remain an observer of the illness and let our bodies do the clearing.

        1. I have noticed when patients take the opportunity to let their body do the clearing, there is a stronger clarity and the divine essence is stronger – visible and felt.

381. Up until my forties I wasn’t aware that I did not know how to be with myself and actually didn’t like being with myself. I just had a lot of appointments and always had activities going on with others. Being sick was the most difficult thing ever, because everything would come to a stop and instead of surrendering to that I would fight it and try to keep doing as much as possible.

382. Thank you Danna for a beautiful sharing of your journey through sickness and finding and holding the beautiful you through the sickness. The body in it’s wisdom actually brings us what we need to feel by us becoming ill, and offers us an opportunity to observe and to choose a more loving way of being with ourselves.

383. ‘I must say that I was walking the last days in nature, and the sentence that came to me was: ‘I am sick, but I am feeling beautiful.’ This sounded quite odd to me, but I actually felt that this was true. For the first time in my life I actually felt very sick, but at the same time I felt so deeply beautiful.’ – I know what you mean Danna. When we are connected it is always beautiful.

384. ‘….when I feel lethargic, I could feel that this emotion was not only because of the fact that I was sick, but actually an emotion I was holding in my day-to-day living.’ This brings in another level of honesty to not only look at the physical state we are in but that also the emotion we choose to be when we are ill is a reflection of our daily live. Thank you Danna for your ‘detailed’ blog about how to treat our body and ourselves with an absolute honour we deserve every day.

     1. Dear Annelies,
        What I am becoming more aware of is when an emotion is influencing my body, or for that matter, a belief or ideal, there is a tightness a holding in my body that takes a great amount of energy to maintain, no wonder we feel exhausted.. For when my body is clear, there is an ease, a flow and steadiness of strength that supports an open posture. The difference is truly remarkable. One supports the body in full the other uses the body to express its falseness, which takes a great toll on our bodies.

385. “I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.” This is such a great gift of understanding you share with the world. Imagine the expediential healing that people experience when they know this to be true for themselves. We all have this choice it is equally available to everyone, thank you for sharing how to make steps towards choosing this Danna.

386. Dear Danna,
     While reading your article I could feel my body dropping and surrendering, to where I can honestly feel that it is exhausted. My life is completely changing just now and I feel that I have become hard and driven in needing to get things done in a short time frame. Yet my body has gone, woohoo, things are changing, now feel how exhausted you have made your body from your old way of living. I now honour this process more and know that just now my body is calling for a deeper love from me and that rest and deep tenderness is required to support it as I now do what is needed.

387. A very beautiful blog Danna. You have offered so much through what you have experienced and shared here. I love this realisation of yours – ‘My body actually needed love – it needed to be treated with love – by ME!’ – as it highlights the truth that we, and we alone are responsible for the care of our bodies. When we are willing to be honest with ourselves we can develop a loving relationship with our bodies, and then begin to honor the messages we receive that either confirm or alert us to the choices that we are making. It makes so much sense that our bodies are our best friend, one that never fails to communicate the truth to us. It is very true that we are not our illness, it is simply an opportunity to heal so we can deepen the quality of how we live in connection to ourselves.

388. Thank you Danna, being sick is a stop moment that allows us to contemplate the way we have been living life and make more loving choices in our everyday living. It is very awesome to have this understanding as we no longer have to feel sorry for ourselves when sick but see it as an opportunity to evolve and be more of the love that we are.

389. There may be two types of illness. In one we clear the excess of our crazy lifestyle so our body can cope a little better with the way we behave. In the other, we are living in a more harmonious way and a less harmonious imprint from an earlier time is then able to clear.

390. ‘Instead now I make sure I look after my body every day, and I actually enjoy it and if I get sick, I understand why and I still feel beautiful.’ To say this is a miracle in itself as how many of us are raised to feel this way?

391. It is a game changer when we view being sick, or having an illness, as a gift from our bodies – not as an enemy and something to conquer but as an opportunity to cleanse and truly heal.

392. What an awesome inspiring article about honouring our body and ourself through illness (or health). Danna I completely resonate with your appreciation of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine “ for showing that there is another way – a deep and loving way to be with oneself, and to treat the body with absolute care.” The list of the qualities with which you love and care for yourself: Healing, Honest, Precious, Honouring, Appreciating are absolutely gorgeous. No wonder you are feeling beautiful through and through.

393. So beautiful to read this today Danna. It is so true that our body is always calling for us to go deeper, and when we override the messages it sends it hurts us deeply. Thank you for sharing this.

394. Wonderful expressed Marika – each illness asks us to make some adjustments, to make even more loving choices. And it is a great opportunity to deepen our relationship to ourselves and to our body.

395. A very beautiful sharing Danna, thank you. I can relate to so many things you are describing. Very similar to you, one big challenge for me in the past was – when I felt terrible, my self-worth was going down, when I felt great, I felt very precious – in other words, how I felt determined my self-worth. Today I know, no matter how I feel or if I’m sick or not, I’m always precious – my divinity nobody can take away and it doesn’t depend on anything.

396. What strikes me while reading your blog Danna is it cannot be denied that the way we live effects our body and yet most people, like you and myself included “… forgot they are responsible for it”. Your blog is a beautiful reminder to stay tuned to what our bodies are telling us and live in accord with these messages, for our body shares a wisdom beyond beliefs and ideals, if we choose to listen.

397. The title of your blog is quite extraordinary and reveals how much more there is to being sick than the unwell feeling and wanting to get over it.

398. This feels so lovely. How often do we keep on rushing and doing when we are sick, instead of just resting and taking the time to heal from whatever is going on in our body. Even when we are sick, we don’t allow our body to rest. When the doing drops, we are still absolutely beautiful, just like you share Danna.

399. “Precious: it might sound a bit out of context here, but I feel that while I am sick I am actually more sensitive and able to feel and accept that I am fragile. When I connect to myself in this fragility, I actually feel that I am precious and that my body is that too.” This is very beautiful Danna, the fact your illness brings you more sensitivity to realise your delicate nature is a blessing in itself.

400. I like this how you share you have “come to appreciate the wisdom that the body speaks and how much it is communicating to us in every moment”. I too feel this way since meeting Universal Medicine which is refreshing as I used to feel cross with my body when it was sick. Now though I realise I was actually cross with myself and the choices I was consistently making but did not want too change. I understand now why it is necessary to look after my body through my choices.

401. I really appreciate your blog Danna. Almost every day I wake up feeling tired and achy. Sometimes I try hiding under the blankets until I feel better but I just feel worse and my kidneys get sore. When I read that you can feel sick and beautiful at the same time it allows me to see that I don’t need to give up on life when I am not feeling 100%, I can simply appreciate what is being reflected to me, take care of myself and go about my day in a supportive way.

402. Beautiful and sensitive sharing Danna – building a relationship with your body has allowed the wisdom held within to speak for itself. Sick or well your beautiful essence is there and is to be celebrated.

403. You are indeed beautiful Danna. There is a beautiful innocence in your writing and your observations. The vulnerability you share here is absolutely beautiful.

     1. I agree Rebecca you can really feel the vulnerability that Danna is writing in here. We all tend to re-discover our vulnerablity through being unwell.

        1. True Andrew. There is a surrender required when we are ill, even with a common cold. It shows us much about how vulnerable we actually are. When we accept this it is very humbling and very beautiful.

404. Being sick doesn’t necessarily mean we are flat out – sometimes our body gives us early warning signs – a twinge in the back or a knee that we need to pay attention to, or it will get worse and we will be flat on our backs. ‘I make sure I take moments to stop and check in with how I am feeling, to connect with myself. I am learning to not react to choices I have made that I know are not good for me, but to be with myself and look from there how to make even more loving choices.’ Such wise words, thank you.

     1. I agree Carmel…our bodies do give us the grace of warning signs – it is up to us whether we ignore them or choose to make loving changes in our lives to honour our bodies.

     2. Great point Carmel. On the weekend I needed to move some boxes, I pushed myself too far with it and could feel my back was sore so I stopped and lay down- it took a day to recover but I was glad I listened when I did otherwise it could have been a more serious injury. It made me consider how I moved the next boxes which was to lighten the load and spread it out more- this felt great.

     3. Good point Carmel. Our bodies always tell us whenever we are living in way that is dis-honouring. As you say it begins with something subtle like a twinge, at which point we have the opportunity to stop, pay attention, observe and adjust the way we are living. However if we do not pay attention the dis-ease intensifies to a point where we are made to stop and again offered the same opportunity to adjust the way we are living.

     4. I agree Carmel I have noticed that sometimes I get really sick if I have ignored or over-ridden the earlier smaller warning signs!

     5. This is very true Carmel. I recall many years ago working permanent night shifts and after a while I began to notice some subtle changes in my body, which did not feel great. So I went back to regular shift work. I remember one day after that realising that I no longer felt ‘under the weather’ and that because I worked permanent nights I was operating under a permanent fog, even when I wasn’t working. But I only realised this when I stopped doing it. Needless to say I never looked back. I am certain if I hadn’t observed those changes I would not be where I am today.

405. If it was not for the teachings and presentations from Serge Benhayon/Universal Medicine I would still be in a state of ‘unwellness’, dis-ease constantly. Not understanding why the consistency of those ill feelings kept coming into my life on a regular basis (daily). What an amazing body of truth we all have, it never lies. The clarity in which it shares with us always is the living truth of actually how we go about an everyday way of living (or is it existing!). The choice is always ours to take back the responsibility for the way in which live our every moment of every day, and those ‘stop’ moments (wake up calls) are in fact a blessing. Thank you Danna.

406. Danna I simply love the power and fragility in how you express your blog. And this part shows a real humbleness and willingness to approach feeling sick in a whole new light “I have noticed that when my body is sick it is actually telling me something… and that when my body speaks to me and I am listening”.

407. I love this refreshing new outlook on being sick that you have shared with us Danna. It is such a positive account of how you have taken responsibility for yourself and your body and have embraced being sick as a way to deepen the understanding you have for yourself so that you can learn to be more loving. A stark contrast to the usual feeling fed up and sorry for yourself that most people experience when being sick, as I know I did for most of my life.

     1. Yes, to see illness in this way is revolutionary and supports one to truly heal. By surrendering to what is without reaction we can easily find our way back to ourselves even through challenging times.

     2. Absolutely Eleanor well said. Danna has offered us all an approach to illness that is far more honoring of the way we can be with and care for ourselves.

     3. When I used to get sick (it is a vary rare occurrence these days – in fact I honestly can’t remember the last time I was) I used to enjoy it, simply because I would allow myself to do what my body needed and I would put no stress on myself or think about the shoulds etc. I would snuggle up in bed and allow myself to surrender and rest. What this says to me is the amount of pressure I would be living with daily that I would self impose. I have been learning to lovingly listen to my body like this as the norm, not only for the times when illness would occur.

408. Danna, what you are sharing here is ground breaking. So few of us appreciate illness as a communication from the body as to the choices we have been making in our daily living. To not only see this, but deeply appreciate this and appreciate and love yourself more because of it, is gold. Thank you for sharing this.

     1. It is indeed ground breaking Michelle. There’s such a battle in the world around fighting the body not becoming sick and when it does, judge ourselves for ‘being’ wrong. Where the only thing the body is actually sharing is the accumulation of choices we’ve made. Sometimes it’s actually a result of loving choices where the body assists to let go of the energies that do not longer belong because of the loving choices. This is a totally different approach. The body as a friend, as our Truest friend in fact. Thank you dear Danna. The Love, Fragility, Power and Courage to share all this, are very needed and will inspire a lot of people. Not only the blog, but also the comments. I’ve definitely been inspired.

        1. When we can start to appreciate illness and disease as the blessing it is then we know we will have evolved as a humanity!

        2. Yes! We will have found that we are not illness and disease, but that we are Love – by nature. Illness and disease is always a loving act to get rid of an overdose of what is not Love. So, it is indeed True that we’ve evolved hugely when we do appreciate illness and disease.

     2. ‘So few of us appreciate illness as a communication from the body as to the choices we have been making in our daily living. ‘ This quite sadly is very true Michelle. If more of us understood this responsibility we would understand medicine in a different light, therefore lightening the burdens on our healthcare systems.

     3. Absolutely, Michelle819, to appreciate and love yourself more because of an illness almost sounds like the world upside down and yet it is exactly what our body calls for when we are sick.

409. ‘At that time I did not know how to deal with being sick, I actually did not know how to be with myself.’ Thank you Danna for your awesome observations and supporting me to unpick my feeling of failure whenever I used to get sick. The stop moment offered by my body getting sick was always a confronting and uncomfortable experience for me, until I started to accept responsibility for how my lack of self care had led to this point. Recently when I got sick I could feel how I surrendered more into it, but my appreciation of myself, despite my illness, was lacking and I can feel how this allowed you to still recognise your beauty and how this supported you to be deeply loving with yourself.

410. “I had a drive to do things, always looking ahead of me to what ‘exciting’ thing there was to come. This thought helped me survive till the moment came. But after the event I always felt unhappy; it felt incomplete. Therefore I tried my best to do more exciting things, as I thought that this might help. But nothing really helped. I began to feel even more sad and lonely.” Much like the christmas calendar countdown, it has become normal to live in a cycle of constantly looking forward to vacations or weekends, planning future excitements; if we had real true quality in our days and our relationships we would no longer be putting so much emphasis on these treats.

     1. Absolutely Lucinda, it feels like we are constantly on the look-out for the next thing, which just shows that being in this moment is never enough and fulfilling. What an illusion game we are playing here…

     2. I have lived like the Christmas calendar everyday! Rushing from one thing to the next losing consideration for myself and all others. There simply is no joy in living this way, as in truth we are going no where, just around in circles, so it makes sense to be fully with yourself in whatever you may be doing.

411. “I am learning to not react to choices I have made that I know are not good for me, but to be with myself and look from there how to make even more loving choices.” This is a great reminder to me to not be so over-criticical of myself for the bad choices I have made in my life. Being critical and bashing myself over with a judgemental stick is just another unloving way of being and does further damage to my body. So here’s to becoming aware of past choices and appreciating the awareness so that more loving choices can be made from then on.

412. Great to show that doing doesn’t make a person whole. The actions we perform don’t define us. It is great to read how we can define ourselves without any deeds or tasks.

413. “Precious: it might sound a bit out of context here, but I feel that while I am sick I am actually more sensitive and able to feel and accept that I am fragile. When I connect to myself in this fragility, I actually feel that I am precious and that my body is that too.” With the relationship you now have with your body Danna, you have allowed yourself the grace to surrender to the fragility that is offered by your body – this is gold.

     1. I agree lucindag. Preciousness: this is a powerful marker to have in the body as we are worthy of love beyond measure. It is so true that this comes from allowing ourselves ‘the grace to surrender to the fragility that is offered by your body’ – beautifully said.

414. This blog brought up for me the enormous amount of remedies and treatments we go to when we are sick to make us feel better, which feel to me more like a way of also avoiding feeling what is being shown by the illness in the first place, as opposed to soul being a remedy for it. It is a bit like we are only doing part of the healing, getting the physical being better, but not looking at what truly might be at play emotionally and spiritually. Thank you Danna, your sharing is deeply appreciated.

     1. I agree that medication has it’s place, but it is true Joshua, that most times we do not look deeper. As long as we are starting to feel better, we just go back to carrying on as we did previous to the illness not taking into account that our way of living may have had something to do with it.

        1. It seems like it actually is more challenging for us to not look at the real issues and be humble about what they show rather than face the pain and realness of the illness itself. It shows that hurts are actually more painful inside than those we experience physically.

     2. I can relate to your comment, Joshua, with us looking to better ourselves and not look at the root cause of the illness. All we want is to get going as soon as possible, missing the big opportunity for true healing.

        1. It is true and when we do this what are we then making the focus of our lives…True health and well-being or just physical function?

        2. It also shows a ‘narrow’ vision of time, like we only live once and that the things we do in this life don’t have consequences in our next life. Such an illusion.

        3. And no true responsibility at all

     3. Fighting an illness tooth and nail rather than understanding what its reason and origin are is a sure way to avoid looking at the deeper issues and possibly even take responsibility for our choices. And once that is done the body can heal so much more quickly in my experience.

        1. Very True Gabriele. When we ‘fight’ what is in front of us, we are avoiding the opportunity to become more aware, and more responsible in our choices.

           It’s interesting that ‘fighting’ illness and ‘soldiering on’ is so often rewarded and celebrated… when in fact, it is the surrender that allows us to expand, learn and grow.

     4. Fantastic comment Joshua. I was recently sick and I went into looking for a remedy that would help. But the thing was that my stomach was so raw and fragile that I didn’t want to put anything into it. I simply sat with my stomach pains, reflected and took responsibility for why I was in this state and stopped fighting it. Once I did that, the illness was able to flow through me with more ease. When fighting it and not being responsible for it, I was holding it in my body. And on a different note, there is a way we can support our bodies to heal with certain remedies, but it is the way in which we use them that is of importance – to remedy vs supporting the body in healing.

     5. Absolutely Marika, we can dress up the ill to look whatever we like it to be, but it is always there from our choices and nothing else.

415. Danna, this is very gorgeous to read, I love the title, ‘I am sick but I am feeling beautiful’, it makes me realise that when I have been sick in the past that I have been really hard on myself for not being able to ‘do things’, for being a bit ‘useless’ and for not looking very pretty, and so it is lovely to feel how these critical thoughts are not true. I can feel that when we are sick there can be a beautiful fragility and sensitivity that is often more apparent – I notice this very much in others.

     1. Gorgeous sharing Rebecca. I agree in the way that Danna has written this you can feel the stillness and fragility of being sick and the moment of grace that is offered to you in that.

     2. Yes one of the beautiful things about being unwell is that it forces us to slow down and just be us, to reconnect to our being, without all the usual doing and busyness. It reminds us that we are much much more than what we do and to not define our worth simply on the things we do in our day.

416. “I had a drive to do things, always looking ahead of me to what ‘exciting’ thing there was to come. This thought helped me survive till the moment came. But after the event I always felt unhappy; it felt incomplete.” This is the anti-climax phenomenon, which I also know very well. I would spend days, weeks or even months, looking forward to a particular event; a party, holiday, get together with friends, etc. And then when it came around it either didn’t live up to my expectations, or I would feel so disappointed when it had passed. I was always left with this deeply unsatisfied feeling and then move on to organising something else to be able to look forward to.

     Nowadays I find I don’t need to do that half as much, as I feel so much more content and happy in my everyday life doing normal things. When we connect to ourselves and the joy of God that is everywhere, all actions and events become part of the beautiful flow of life, and there is no need to fill the diary up with events to distract us from that dissatisfaction that is felt inside, as there is no longer space for it when you are filled with love.

417. I have often heard and said that taking care of our body is part of a job, but it has always been just a concept that would be uttered to actually pressure ourselves to work harder and longer and make ourselves a failure if we fall ill; and rarely we allow ourselves to care for ourselves in a way that would truly support our well being. What you offer here is a great example of how else we can be with our body. Knowing that whether we are sick or not, we are beautiful no matter what – that is very inspiring.

     1. Great point Fumiyo, to see taking care of our body as our job does not reflect the love and care we can live with on a daily basis. It is not a job if we connect to who we truly are as we live then by the grandness of our divine origins and our body is our vehicle of this divine expression and can never be a failure, only an instrument in our all evolution.

        1. And as part of our evolution, there is naturally discarding and clearing that occurs. The key is to observe it rather than react to it.

     2. Gorgeous Fumiyo, what a great job to have, taking care of our own bodies.

418. Isn’t it beautiful to discover the enormous love that lies within an illness?! Our body has its way to get rid of energy (that we did put in but which does not belong to us) and this is a blessing. The reflection we’ve got here is such an opportunity to clear and come back to who we truly are.
     But to see it like that, it needs some development and willingness to take our full responsibility. This is a process and needs some support, because what we learn and what we are familiar with in reference to dealing with illness can be far away from ‘taking responsibility’. Great to get some support here from Universal Medicine and its students.

     1. Yes, to embrace illness and disease for the blessing it truly is, is a challenge but when this is understood it changes the experience of illness completely.

        1. Yes, getting an understanding is changing the experience of illness completely.

     2. YES Sandra! It is indeed very beautiful the discover the enormous love underneath any illness, and that through having the illness, disease, or accident, that great change has occurred for the true better (as you say, more of who we truly are can now be in situ) which is something to really, really appreciate, not indulge in with any sadness, remorse or regret.

        1. I find myself going into sadness or blaming about my illnesses when I am not willing to take the responsibility about my choices which made the clearing (illness) necessary. To see the love underneath my illnesses I need sometimes help, because the choice which brought the illness to me is the same which holds me back from being honest with me…

     3. So true Sandra it is absolutely beautiful to discover the enormous love that lies within illness. There has been time when I have felt so sick and exhausted at the same time I could clearly feel how unwell I was I could also feel an amazing underlying feeling of vitality when I took the time to connect with my body and feel the messages it was presenting for me to feel and the old loveless patterns of self-abuse being cleared through the illness I was experiencing.

        1. I can relate to that Margaret. I once had a session with an Esoteric Healing Practitioner while I was sick and she said: “I can not feel that there is anything not alright with your body, do you?” And I was surprised because an ill body did feel very wrong to me this time. To discover the clearing-process as something very beautiful and a chance to learn about me and expand is such a revolution.

        2. Our bodies truly are a conduit to the soul. The body communicates with us supporting us to clear dis-ease and dis-harmony within the body that blocks us from a clear connection with our essence.

        3. Good picture Margaret – illnesses are clearing our blockages. We misuse or abuse our conduit to the soul (our body) so strongly, so often. Be it the food we eat, the harmony of repose and action we dismiss or the general dishonoring of what our body reflects, asks and offers us. So we put in the stuff that blocks us and then, has to be cleared by the body again. Not fair to blame the body or circumstances for our illnesses. In fact it is our soul knocking on the door.

        4. yes Sandra now we have an understanding of true Universal Medicine it all comes back to responsibility and choice.

419. I have to say since I have been a student of Universal Medicine I am rarely ill, but if I do get sick it is great to take responsibility for why I am, and not just blame it on someone else giving it to me.

     1. So true Kev, no-one ever gives us an illness.

     2. One of my greatest learnings in life was to see someone who had cancer. She enjoyed life and deeply appreciated every moment. There was no resentment in her and this was a huge lesson for me on how to live when I am well.

     3. I have experienced the same Kevin about rarely being sick and that when I do get ill It is a moment of reflection to see how I have be living.

420. I love your reminder about being beautiful no matter what is going on. To feel I am beautiful even if I am feeling tired (another one next to being ill that is often seen as less) or sick.

     1. Yes its a gorgeous one isn’t it. That our beauty is untouchable and ever present.

     2. This is a fantastic reminder. I recently was travelling and ate foods I don’t usually eat and I was out of rhythm. I was not feeling so great. I started to go into it and I remembered what someone had shared with me at a retreat: “Our light is stronger than any of that”. And it is true. We have symptoms going on on the surface, but our light remains unchanged at our core. And at our core we are divinely beautiful.

        1. Yes Nikki. I find there is this belief in the world that if we make a mistake we ARE wrong but that is not true. In our essence we are always truly beautiful what ever mistakes we make.

421. Such an amazing blog and sharing Danna. I can relate very much to what you share, as can probably almost everyone. Being ill is mostly seen as a weakness or annoying hurdle that comes in the way of our productive life, and that is how I saw it too for a long time. I am also deeply inspired by the teachings and presentations by Serge Benhayon about the fact that if we are ill it is a message from our body to tell us that the way we are treating and living with it is not its natural way of living. That is just a totally different way of looking at it and I love it, as it just does not make sense to see it any other way.

     1. Well said Lieke. I too can relate how the Ageless Wisdom Teachings as presented by Serge Benhayon have inspired me to understand that illness is not something to just get through but rather an opportunity to go deeper, to discover a deeper connection to ourselves so we can live with more love in our lives. I love it too as it is so much more of an empowering way to live.

     2. It seems to be a common paradigm that being sick is a real annoyance that we need to get rid of as fast as possible and without ever truly looking into the cause of it. Is it any wonder we keep getting sick then?

        1. Crack up Gabriele, when said like that, no it isn’t any wonder why we keep getting sick.

422. This is beautiful Danna, It is so true that all we do and how we move has an effect on our body, I can feel that allowing ourself to feel these effects is making it possible to also feel what we are, that is what you so beautifully describe. Thank you, it is inspiring to see that the way we are with our body gives us the opportunity to stay in the unharmonious movement or get out of it and see what we truly are.

423. When you first are asked to “be with your body”, be it through a meditation, or by simply taking a moment, it can be quite challenging, for in that moment, you then actually have to feel how your body is running – and for most of us, it is not at first a pleasant experience. We feel anxious, nervous, wound up, tight, exhausted etc etc. And so first it seems to be offputting. Who would want that? But the reality is this can equally inspire us to change the way we live – the way we eat, sleep, and relate with others and the world. And as we do this, we start to see how our body changes in accordance with our choices. And that is a marvelously empowering realisation.

     1. Yeah true Adam, I can remember when I broke my foot. I didn’t want to stop, I went to work the next day and pushed through but became more and more exhausted. When I actually allowed myself to stop, I was totally exhausted and needed to rest for a few weeks, I could do very little but could feel my body recovering and it was actually quite an amazing experience that I enjoyed.

        1. Interesting isn’t it the body will go to whatever extreme our loveless choices force it to to support us to return to true love.

     2. That is very true Adam, when we start to listen to our body there is not glory what we find in the first place, but often things we don’t want to look at and that’s why we are so resistant to stop and truly feel our body as it is very exposing and often very painful to accept and assume the responsibility of where we have chosen to be. But as you say and Danna describes if we are open to look behind it we will discover our true power. It is very empowering to live and see how our body is changing due to our choices, indeed.

        1. Responsibility is key here Rachel. Any stop moment, whether it be illness, or an accident etc. is an opportunity for us to take responsibility for how we have been living and the choices that do and don’t support us. Illness is a real eye opener and opportunity to review our choices.

     3. True and great point Adam, if it was as easy as stopping and listening to our bodies I am sure we all would. But like you say, when we stop we actually have to listen to all that our body is telling us and hear all that we have done to it. But stop we must, for as long as we keep going we keep adding… at some point we stop or we are stopped.

     4. When we first feel our bodies it can be unsettling and there can be a pull to go back into disconnection. That pull for me is constant and something I work on. But whilst it can feel unpleasant to really feel what is going on in my body, there is a truth to it and the truth feels better than living in the not-truth.

     5. It’s like we see it through blinkers – if you are going to take the way you feel as a reflection of how you are living then that can be shocking, confronting, and not something you want to look at for long, so we come up with ways to ‘turn away’ as quickly as possible. But, if we can hold a steady gaze at how we are actually living, and use that as an opportunity to learn, and change… then we grow, then the magic happens!

424. “I was being asked to look in more detail at my relationship with my body and the responsibility I have to take care of it”.
     Serge Benhayon presents a different way of understanding illness and disease that makes so much sense. When we understand that illness and disease is a healing and our body is showing us that the way we have been living is making us sick, then, rather than thinking we are a victim of the illness or disease we have the choice to make changes.

     1. I too loved this line Mary, “I was being asked to look in more detail at my relationship with my body and the responsibility I have to take care of it”. We do indeed have a responsibility to look after our bodies, but with increasing technology and all the great advancements in medicine we have negated this responsibility and put into the hands of “professionals”. Imagine if we all lived this self-responsibility, the decrease in illness and disease would be significant.

425. In the past if I was sick in the winter season I had my tried and tested medications already purchased in waiting, like one of those adrenaline shots in case of a bee sting ready just in case. I would load my self up so I could function doing whatever. The masking of the symptoms would just cause the cold or flu I had last 2 or 3 times longer to shake off. Now if I catch something it is a clearing and is gone in days, or the body as you have said Danna is showing me the way I have been living, and it is an opportunity for rest and self-reflection.

426. This is a beautiful sharing, Danna, of your journey dealing with sickness.I have these moments as well and it inspires me to even more deeply change my behaviour concerning sickness or feeling unwell.

427. Beautiful blog Danna and thank you for showing me the other perspective of being sick, that being sick is a way for our body to heal our body of living in a way that was not supportive to it. That illness and disease is actually a means of our body to clear out that which does not belong into it, as it is interfering with our natural way of moving our body and the flow of energy through it. When we as a human species will accept this level of responsibility for our own wellbeing, then the stress that we currently put on our social health systems will cease and to me is the only way we can go. You Danna, are showing us a way of living that is from the future, but by your choice to live a life in dedication to yourself and humanity, you already live it now. By that you show us that it is just a matter of choice for all of us too, as when you can live it, the same way of living is available to all of us, equally so.

     1. “That illness and disease is actually a means of our body to clear out that which does not belong into it.” I love this line Nico. When we recognize this and allow our bodies to do what they will do to restore us to harmony, illness is no longer something we fight. I remember a few years ago I told a practitioner that I was fighting a cold and she replied “Why are you fighting it?”. It was life changing.

        1. haha, I like that Nikki. Surrender offers us the opportunity to deepen, to let go and heal; whereas fighting illness is only us fighting ourselves and the opportunity to deepen that is on offer.

        2. Indeed Nikki, It is just one of this false beliefs we live with that you have to fight a cold or any other disease, that life is a struggle and that we have to toughen up to cope with it. We actually are asked to surrender to a natural way of living in which there is no place for fighting or toughening up, but being love instead.

        3. It’s so common mikkimckee to hear those words by someone who is ‘fighting’ an illness, particularly colds and flus. Our pharmacies are loaded with shelves full of products that support people to do this with all the cold and flu medications that suppress symptoms so that people can keep going.

428. I love this, Danna. It’s so beautiful how you describe your journey of rediscovery, realising how your body has been there for you to be with all this time, and opening you up to the innate beauty and preciousness you are. Serge Benhayon has returned so many of us to our own understandings by the the way he lives and works; his teachings and workshops are so accessible and only have to be lived to be felt.
     This love that we all are is right there inside us! I share the joy you feel even when sick, knowing that my body is simply returning me back to myself, and that if I am willing to be at least honest, I will see and understand what needs adjusting in my life so that perhaps next time, my illness doesn’t have to be quite so drastic! I actually enjoy feeling everything, my body being attuned and sensitive, and if it takes being sick in order to feel this fragility within myself and I take more care to be more loving as a result, then so be it.

429. I love Danna how you have honestly and in detail set out how you have felt and what you have done in the past and how you feel now. I have experienced exactly that which you describe. One can feel entirely beautiful when sick and deeply understanding what is happening for the body and why. Even as I write I am sitting on my couch with a broken foot, having moments of wishing I could walk, but on the whole feeling absolutely light and beautiful – understanding what the body is saying to me, about clearing a past energy in which I played the piano, has brought such understanding and I appreciate what is happening very much.

430. “By having a more truthful understanding and connection with my body, I felt what being sick actually means for me” – a pearl of wisdom…

431. There is so much beauty in your blog Danna – your honesty, the way you share your fragility, how you simply express the opportunity of true healing that illness and disease offer, your own feeling of beauty, your process of surrender, everything really. What a gorgeous and deeply touching moment to read your blog. I can relate to all that you have shared Danna and it certainly has been a turning point in my life too to choose to bring honesty, self-responsibility and surrender around any illness, disease, disharmony I am being presented with (or have seen others being presented with).

432. Awesome blog Danna, thank you for sharing your experience, showing us and appreciating that there is a way to embrace sickness that deepens the healing process, allowing our body to do its job. Your choice to be more aware and listen to your body is an inspiration. The amazing connection we can all develop with our body will assist us in living a more loving and joyful life. The deeper we are willing to love, care, nature and listen to our body, the more we are then able to connect to life.

     1. It is currently far from the common way of approaching being unwell, however ‘appreciating that there is a way to embrace sickness that deepens the healing process’ … and surrendering to that, is a deeply beautiful way to honour ourselves and learn what is there to be seen about the way we have been living.

433. Thank you Danna, it is clear from your account as with many others, that Serge Benhayon is a true inspiration and that what this actually means, is that many people are getting what the importance of self care, self love and self responsibility actually means. These words, bandied around in society in lip service while it gets sicker and more corrupt, have a true meaning and it took a true man to deliver them, who knows the importance of living love inside out.

434. I can relate Danna, I used to find it so hard being unwell because during the times I literally had to be with myself and stop. Now it’s very different, I have a far deeper relationship with my body and know that if I’m not feeling well there is a deeper listening that’s needed, and those precious stop moments are just that — truly precious — in allowing this deepening to take place.

435. It’s so easy, when we’re stressed, overwhelmed exhausted, to just keep piling it on, pushing on through to get things done, thinking that completing it all will make us feel better – until the body says a very loud ‘stop’ through illness or disease. But how much more empowering to stop and feel in those moments what exactly we’re doing to ourselves, and in doing so, realise that when we’re stressed and exhausted is precisely when we need to turn up the self care and self love, not abandon it by pushing through and getting things done. What if honouring our bodies and what they’re saying doesn’t always mean ‘stop working’, but stop working in that hard, pushy way. If I have to work more, then I also have to look after myself more. When we don’t do this, our bodies just end up flat and empty feeling: no amount of overwork or doing can compensate for the fullness and sense of connection we can feel if we truly look after the body first.

436. “Being sick, but knowing that I am beautiful no matter what, now is the best feeling I have and can support myself with. Therefore I no longer hold on to what I did wrong or can or cannot do now. I simply accept the fact that I am responsible for how I am feeling, how my body is doing and what state I am in.” Love this Dana, thank you, what you share is so simple but very powerful.

437. There’s a belief in our society that is thickly ingrained, that illness is a failure and something of which we should be ashamed. It hurts too, so understandably this is not something we usually want to do. But as you sum up beautifully here Danna, it feels like the real sickness we have been suffering from is the inability to grasp that illness itself is actually a beautiful part of life and that who we are goes way beyond our physical body. What’s ironic is that when we start to see illness and disease and our frame is not us, we actually take much greater care of our body. Go figure.

     1. I can so relate to that belief Joseph, and what a destructive one it is, simply adding to the impact on a body that is already feeling miserable. To now understand that illness, disease and pain is not us, but a marker as to how we have been living, offers us such a wonderful opportunity to change how we have been caring for ourselves, and making the choice to increase our level of self care and self love: the best medicine available.

     2. ‘…something of which we should be ashamed…’ This is huge and purely a trick for us not to talk about what is happening when we are sick, lest the truth be known.

438. I love your introduction in the title Danna, ‘I am sick but I am feeling beautiful’, I am sure there are not too many people that would say that when they are not feeling well, but I can totally relate to what you are saying, there can be a deeper clearing out than just the sickness, and we can feel much lighter for it and this in itself can be a very beautiful experience.

439. For most of my life I felt my body was there to fight, so I could achieve whatever goal was there. I remember the earliest memory of this was a long distance cross country run in primary school where we were celebrated or disapproved of based on how hard we could push our tiny bodies. Celebrating pushing ourselves by always making the outer goal more important than the body still feels like an epidemic for adults and kids alike. This blog is so sensible, and a great reminder of how precious we are as people, how fragile our body truly is, and the care we need to encourage ourselves and each other to take everyday.

     1. Great comment Melinda, this is an awesome reminder indeed on how to care, love and nurture our precious body. Thank you.

440. Danna, what a treasure this blog is! I can relate to everything you have shared. I also have the sickness of being addicted to “doing”, and not being comfortable to just be still, to truly rest when needed, and to be in surrender to myself. This is such a tiring way to live for the body. Thankyou for the inspiration to look at this again and also to realise my body’s messages are simply there to restore me to a more loving way of living.

441. This is quite something, writing a blog like this when being sick.

442. Awesome blog Danna, thank you for sharing an amazing journey from such isolation and emptiness to feeling so beautiful inside. Your appreciation of illness transforms all those beliefs that illness is a bad thing. Your ability to be with, feel and trust your body’s messages is a learning for us all. Sickness is not curse but an incredible opportunity to cleanse all the junk inside and all unloving choices we have put ourselves through.

     1. Brilliant comment Rowenakstewart, very well said. By appreciating that illness or sickness is actually cleansing our body, getting rid of junk inside is a great way to heal. It is our body’s way of healing itself if we are not consciously choosing to heal regularly.

     2. Beautifully expressed rowenakstewart, until I met Serge Benhayon I had zero appreciation of the body’s miraculous ability to cleanse our ill choices.

443. Danna, how amazing is it when we change our lives and perspective so profoundly that we can be ill and beautiful. I feel it in how you write and live and it’s such a different way to be, and yet it feels absolutely natural. Being ill can offer us to much taking us away from that grind of all we do and back to who we are and as you’ve unfolded for us here, there are many layers and as we allow ourselves to hear our bodies, to listen to them and not judge them, it opens a window to a greater level of self care and love.

     1. Yes Monica it’s inspiring to feel Danna embracing the opportunity that is being offered in getting sick.

444. I love your 5 principles of how you are with yourself now when you’re sick. It’s an inspiring presentation of a truly self-loving approach and represents a framework for self-reflection for anyone harbouring any kind of illness or disease. I particularly felt the role of preciousness in the mix, allowing ourselves to truly get just how fragile our bodies are and are allowed to be.

     1. Beautifully expressed Cathy… And I love the notion of what Danna has presented as a framework for when we are sick. Imagine if this was plastered on hospital wards and this was something the world widely knew and accepted.

        1. Yes Katerina and Cathy, it’s such a different approach and one that is body and human centred first. That preciousness is in the mix is so key and one we all can so easily forget in our modern world – we are fragile and to embrace that is a huge blessing and strength.

445. Me too Marika – being sick presents that stop moment and reconsideration a little more clearly where perhaps we have moved on past the earlier signs of that which we are choosing not to be aware of. Beautiful to have the body and Soul on side to provide this communication as required.

446. Being sick is definitely a blessing and not the inconvenience we have thought it to be. As you share, it is an opportunity to bring more love into our lives. Is this not worth celebrating?

     1. Absolutely worth celebrating – what I love here is the way through reclaiming her relationship with her body, Danna is naturally pulled towards true responsibility.

447. Great to turn sickness on its head where instead of feeling sorry for ourselves we see it as an opportunity to view how we have lived in order to get sick. And awesome that even though your body was feeling sick you could still connect to your beauty deep within 💖

448. What is best about this blog is how a shift in perspective has changed Danna’s thought processes, which have helped her to recover and to heal. This further goes to show how we have the will to choose our perspectives on life, and these are what make the fabric of life itself.

449. Awesome blog Danna, and what wisdom you will bring to your nursing. I can relate to what you have written, as I often feel guilty when I get sick. It’s like I feel that I have let myself down, but that’s just the story I’ve created. And as you point out these stories and momentums are counter productive to healing and get in the way of allowing ourselves to just be with our ourselves and our bodies, listen and reflect on the wisdom it offers us, and deeply rest as is needed.

     1. I agree Stevie, there can be such a sense of guilt or failure from being sick, rather than an acceptance of the healing that is being offered and the possible learning as what lead to that healing.

        1. Yes, I agree Joel and Stevie. What a completely different way to approach sickness. To allow our bodies the deep rest they need during this period, without feeling guilty or emotional, and to allow ourselves time to reflect back on our choices that may have led to the sickness and perhaps learn from it. This totally makes sense, so from listening to our body and learning from it, we can avoid repeating the patterns and behaviours that run our body down, therefore we are less prone to sickness.

        2. One of my more recent learning is the need to do that deep rest, even when I am not sick…just allow the body to release deeply… I find esoteric yoga great for that.

        3. So agree Joel L, the feeling of failure associated with being ‘sick’ I have seen cripple my whole family growing up. It’s a horrible misconception that really limits our potential by not allowing true healing to take place if needed.

     2. I can relate to the feeling of guilt when it comes to sickness, but as you say Stevie then we are just continuing to spin the story our body is calling us out to stop.

     3. It is easier to feel guilty and sorry about ourselves when being sick as it is like our default program instead of stopping and really appreciate what is on offer to deepen our relationship with our bodies and connect to the stillness within.

450. We have all grown up in this pattern of learning that ‘doing’ is the thing that is noticed, encouraged and admired. ‘Doing your best’ was a trait that was especially rewarded throughout my life and unfortunately I raised my children with the same mantra. Asking myself or someone else to stop and listen to their bodies and then allow actions to follow from that was unheard of until I heard Serge Benhayon present on the topic of everything being energy and that our bodies are sacred sources of intelligence – not the mind. I have definitely changed in recent years and the more I do so, the more I am becoming aware of how my body is communicating all the time. Thank you Danna – your blog makes a lot of sense to me and I can feel the joy behind what you have written.

451. ‘I used to only feel like I was ‘worth something’ if I was doing things. The more things I was able to do, the better I felt about myself, but once I was not doing anything I felt worthless and unhappy.’ I can relate to this a lot. I hadn’t really thought about it until you brought it to my attention, but I definitely always feel sorry for myself if ever I am unwell, and always feel useless and hopeless. What a waste of energy for my poor body trying to clear out the toxins. Taking on your approach would certainly be a more effective way of healing!

452. Being able to feel beautiful no matter the circumstances is a true inner development and something I feel everyone – men & women – could develop.

453. Amazing Danna. Who would not want to feel beautiful when they were sick? Such a different way of being altogether.

454. This is a very beautiful blog Danna and very inspiring as it makes me realise how far I have come in my relationship with my body and how much I naturally feel beautiful now even when I am not feeling well.

455. What you describe Danna of feeling the emptiness inside you when you were alone is not uncommon. There is also a fragility that we feel when we are unwell, which I agree does remind us of how precious and fragile our body is and that it needs to be taken care of. I write this as someone who has not yet broken the tie with doing and pushing and trying but I can feel that there is so much more to me/us underneath those behaviours that is VERY beautiful.

456. Thankyou for sharing this Danna, it is inspiring, recognising the responsibility we have, first and foremost, to our own beautiful vehicles and you share it so joyfully. I needed to read this as it is right on for me at the moment.

457. Hi Danna, it is amazing what we have learnt from Serge Benhayon but more importantly to me, is when you feel it in your body and thy way you live reflects it.
     I was sick recently and it was great to feel sick, as in my body was unwell but me, I felt great even though I could hardly move. It is great when we don’t have to let getting sick take over all of us.

     1. Amazing Rosie, this goes to show that if we allow our minds to indulge in guilt, failure and misery then not only are we are giving permission for sickness to take hold, but also interfering with the body’s natural healing.

        1. This is a good point, Lucinda, how indulging in the pain and misery interferes with the body’s natural healing as well as meaning we deny the connection we naturally can have with ourself as well.

458. What a great confirmation this is that every moment is the opportunity for a different choice, to respond in a different way to whatever is being presented and bring a quality of love and care to ourselves. Thank you Danna.
     “I can take care of myself to make sure that even though I might have disregarded my body, I can take care of it now. I always remind myself of the fact: That I am beautiful, also when I am sick, and that I deserve to absolutely care for myself in the most loving way”.

459. I can totally relate to this Danna – until attending Universal Medicine presentations I had no idea life was like living in a performance, being super busy and super exhausted in all the ‘doing and being nice’. I love being more aware of my body these days, it is always in communication and lets me know in no uncertain terms when I ill treat it through food or in the way I am moving.
     “I was used to always performing, doing, acting and being busy in life. My body was always hard and dense; I had little awareness of how my body felt at that time. I moved in a way that was tight, stressed and busy, not knowing of the effects that was having on my body’.

460. There is so much to learn about ourselves, the way we are living and the choices we are making. Being sick is actually a gift from the body to stop and focus on this, and an opportunity to make more loving changes … illness and disease is not the enemy so many see it to be, as something to be fought, but a time to rest deeply, be very honest and to make more loving choices in the way we are living and how we are being with ourselves; a time to honour the healing that is being offered by our bodies.

461. Danna, it is gorgeous to read how many changes you have made by listening to your body and embracing illness in this different way, committing to be more present and have a deeper relationship with yourself. The presentations by Serge Benhayon have been key in my own life choices and changes to bring a deeper level of true healing to my body. Thank you!

462. Beautiful Danna. Our bodies give us so much wisdom if we only listen, and then make the necessary changes. Illness is certainly a signal that we need to pay attention to; not with a quick fix but uncovering the deeper cause, and to heal by loving and honouring ourselves more. How gorgeous that despite your sickness you still felt beautiful.

     1. It appears that most address sickness like they would an inconvenient cut – pop on a bandaid and get on with it, never looking further than the quick fix to relieve what has ‘happened’ to them… so it is just so inspiring to read an article about appreciating that there is more to an illness than an inconvenience, with a lesson to be heard and a beauty always there to support the process.

        1. I agree Samantha, it makes life so much richer and fuller if we are willing to look deeper into the reasons for why things are happening to us.

463. A beautiful blog Danna clearly showing the wisdom of our bodies and the loving changes that can come from being honest and honouring ourselves.

464. Wow, Danna, what a transformation,thank you for sharing. I find that being ill or sick is a blessing because it means that there is something more to understand by listening to my body and taking even more care with it. Nurturing our bodies is also important as this is not such a doing thing but an awareness thing. Nurturing to me means to be aware of what is not serving us, letting go of any ideals and beliefs that may be hindering a more expansive awareness of my life and body.

     1. So true Susan – nurturing is so important. To make loving choices is part of the healing process and to listen to our body, what it needs in each moment.

465. What a joy Danna to read how you have come round to realise that you are beautiful when you are sick and in fact you are “beautiful no matter what”. A great inspiration about how we can be with ourselves in every aspect of life.

     1. Great quote to highlight Golnaz and what a true achievement to attain, to feel “beautiful no matter what”. How many can claim to really feel this in their everyday life? It is a true credit to the awareness and responsibility that Danna has chosen for herself and a clear example that the quality of our inner and outer welfare remains firmly in our hands.

     2. ‘Beautiful no matter what’ – another awesome bumper sticker… for this is something people live in denial of and it’s in the knowing that makes things such as feeling unwell in mind or body, a great reminder of how far we are living from that at any moment, and how we are then only a choice away from surrendering and embracing the truth and power that lies within it.

466. Dana, like you I’m thankful for all I have learnt from Universal Medicine. I have only skimmed the surface but the changes I introduced in my life, especially looking after my body after a life time of pushing it and ignoring its messages, have turned it around. And the beautiful thing is that these changes do not benefit me alone but all those I encounter, as life is now more joyful and I am inspired to open up to the world.

467. “My body actually woke me up, letting me know that something in my daily living was not right.”
     The body has so many ways to communicate back to us how it is doing, even well before it gets sick, it might show us with a little pinch or niggle here and there or we bump a body part and hurt ourselves. The more we pay attention to it, the more subtle the messages become.

     1. That is true to me too Judith, the more I pay attention to the signals of my body, the more detailed and subtile the messages become. To live in accordance to these signals and to not ignore them as I have lived in the past, brings a feeling of vitality and joy into my life that I never had before.

        1. I agree Nico and Judith. We can refine our relationship to our body every day and the more we listen, the more we pick up the smallest signals, which is just wonderful.

     2. Not paying attention to even the smallest of messages like bumping ourself or even a headache is something that most of the time is overlooked, I know I can do this and then only pay attention once the illness comes along. However as you say there are many signs before this point and the thing is inside we know this to be true but override. I love how you have brought this to our attention as a reminder – thank you Judith.

     3. And it’s in the subtle messages that we can really hear and read what the body may have been calling out for for years. The technique of truly listening to what the body is asking for, from the body, as opposed to the overriding mind.

468. Hello Danna and I can relate to always needing to find things to do so I didn’t feel a lonely ache inside, even if at the time you were surrounded by people. It made no sense, but early on after every achievement, no matter how big or small, came that lonely ache.

     After meeting up with Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I had space to look at the ache and what it meant. Before that I just thought this was a normal part of life and gave it no question, I knew it was there but went no further. Dealing with this ache has been the best part for me because it’s something that has always plagued my life and followed me everywhere, and to be free of it and understand it has changed everything.

     Who knew that I missed myself? Serge Benhayon knew because he had once walked in the same steps.

469. We are so much more vulnerable when we are sick, the body seems more alive as it releases and clears what is not needed. It is a very beautiful feeling.

     1. I agree Emmadanchin, having always struggled with being off work sick, I never thought I would ever see illness as a blessing which gives us the opportunity to have the necessary stop. Now I am asking myself why wait until I get a cold or something more serious before I look at my ill choices.

        1. Great point Julie. I have done so many detox programs in my life to get back to harmony in my body and it has finally dawned on me that in fact living in that way is the most deeply supportive thing I can do for myself and not to deviate from this to satisfy tastes and pleasures. Then everything is so much clearer, our connection to our innate wisdom intact and telling us exactly what we need to do to make loving choices.

     2. So true Emma – when I’m sick I feel much more fragile and vulnerable, a very good observation.

     3. My body really loves surrending into the vulnerability. It’s like it gives itself permission to really let go.

470. When my body calls me to a stop, I thoroughly enjoy the space it provides me with. It is not easy if there are people relying on me and I can’t work, but then I realize that by stopping properly, I will able to support them with much more care if I give myself the care I need.

     I have never had a problem with this but I would say that in the past, I would definitely resist the slowing down around menstruation and feel like I should be doing a lot when my body wanted me to be very still. This has changed because now I have a consistent rhythm in my life where I do what is needed when it is needed and I don’t have a backlog of things waiting to do.

     1. Beautiful, emmadanchin. Inspiring what you have shared here. When our rhythm is such that we consistently address what needs to be addressed, there is no looming back-log. This gives me an insight as to why it I have found it challenging to simply surrender with my body in the past.

     2. “When my body calls me to a stop, I thoroughly enjoy the space it provides me with.”. I relate to this very much Emma. In me there’s sometimes still a fight about the ‘judgements’ and / or comments from the ‘outside’ world. I would love to be completely resistant to those, but am not fully. But last time I was sick, I felt for the first time that it was actually a gift in which I could learn (a lot) about myself and my choices. Such a completely different way of being sick and being with the illness – much more observing and wondering, rather than being emotional and telling myself off.

        1. “In me there’s sometimes still a fight about the ‘judgements’ and / or comments from the ‘outside’ world”. I can ditto that comment, Floris, I have had a couple of bodily problems for quite a time now, had hoped they would clear of their own accord, but that did not happen. I kept on putting everything else that had to be done first, and I can admit that I had held back from putting me first, mainly because of the sense of responsibility I feel to be doing what I ‘think’ needs to be done, and because of the possible judgments from the ‘outside world’ if I do not do all that I have committed to.I have now at last been convinced that it is time for me to take full responsibility for myself first of all, and begin really regular exercise, making that the first priority in my life. Quite a turn around for me now, even though up until about 10 years ago, I led a very active life physically. No more holding back for me from really taking care of me. I am at last listening to my body.

        2. I love your honesty here Beverly, I’m sure many people can relate to what you’ve described. I certainly do. I’ve been very active, sporting wise. I dropped all the sports, do walk quite a bit, but still feel that my body would love to do some more gentle exercise. For years there’s a holding back in me, claiming to do whatever I (!!!) feel that I’d love to – rather than what I think I need to. A loving approach to be with my body and exercise what I would love to is something for me too that needs action.

     3. This is great Emma, and supports in how we can be with our bodies, being super still and allowing our bodes to enjoy this, is not what we are taught at any point of the working world, and really should be something in every work place to assist with us not reacting and or reaching for more work.

471. Any symptom of illness in the body is a signpost to some form of adjustment we need to make, calling us to more awareness and more love. When seen in this way, being sick or displaying symptoms becomes very useful and a corrective mechanism that can be easily embraced.

     1. Yes Emma. Knowing this allows enormous grace and the wisdom and healing that takes place within our bodies and ourselves can be enormous.

     2. If we can see the divinity of this, then we understand and can connect to the fact that any illness or disease is a gift from heaven to assist us in returning back to soul.

     3. “illness is an opportunity to embrace more love”, how beautifully expressed Marika. I love it, another one worthy of being stuck up on the wall. A great reminder to me when I am not feeling well, to embrace more love, yes, that is the key requirement to healing.

     4. I agree Emma, “any symptom of illness in the body”it is a huge signpost, one flashing with neon lights as our body attempts to finally get the attention it has been wanting from us for most likely sometime. We ignore these signposts at our peril.

     5. True Emma and sometimes I feel myself waiting till the illness is over instead of truly being honest and look into why I am ill, what my body is asking me; a surrender to the love that I am.

     6. Beautiful emmadanchin and Marika, illness offering us the grace to change our ways of living, the grace to see the way we have been living has some kind of disharmony.

     7. I agree Beverley it is a time to embrace more love. But why wait until we are sick?

472. I have read and heard about this approach to illness before, in Buddhism, in native religions, in Hinduism or Yoga… but I have never felt it lived with such ease in people as I can feel it in your writing, Danna, and with people who study with Serge Benhayon including myself. Beautiful that you took the time to write down your experience. Thanks.

473. So beautiful, Danna and a reminder for me to truly honour my body and what it is showing me. We have always viewed sickness as something of a weakness in our bodies and something we need to get over quickly so we can go back to the life we had before it was interrupted. Sickness is divine communication from our bodies with many messages if we choose to feel and listen.

     1. It is so common Anne that we push ourselves through a sickness as you say it’s “something we need to get over quickly”. I wonder whether this is about us not wanting to feel how we are living and how this must contribute to our state of health and wellbeing? For if we did truly take note, we would never do this to ourselves.

        1. Beautiful statement Jennifer. We have these feelings all the time but being sick is a message that is loud and clear. I see many totally override the message and go to work or continue on the same path without considering anything the body is screaming. I find it amazing how eventually they do get better after a long while (and their words are they cannot shake it when they are not stopping) but it is like the message is buried deeper back into the body.
           From a positive side to this how amazing is the body to cope that it is pushed against itself already when its down, and to know that the custodian of the body is not listening, with the issue being buried deeper. The body knows you’re not listening but you are allowed to go on. So, if you listened imagine what you would be provided – GOLD!

     2. Beautifully said, Anne. Sickness is often seen as a nuisance, as something that gets in the way of living! But little do we realise sickness can teach us true living.

474. Thank you Danna for a beautiful sharing which certainly shines a whole new light on illness and disease. “I know that I am so much more than an illness, and that it’s my body’s way of showing me that I have more love to give to myself.” this is such a valuable sentence as many people identify with their illnesses especially when it is a chronic one and do not see themselves as anything but this medical issue. What you bring in this writing is how it is possible to learn and grow when our body stops us because of our wayward ways, through illness or disease.

     1. This is a super important point…. i.e. changing our approach to illness and disease and being able to feel this as an opportunity to reflect on our choices and the quality in which we have been living. Treating and addressing the physical symptoms is an important part of this process, but cannot result in true or long lasting healing if we ignore or avoid the former. And if we do, the symptoms may temporarily be relieved or alleviated, but will eventually resurface again in our bodies. The increasing incidence of illness and disease in society is evidence of this fact.

475. That’s so cool Danna that you’ve changed your relationship with being sick. Lying in bed reading this (currently being ill myself) I appreciate that my relationship with being ill has also changed. From pushing through any illness to actually stopping and allowing the body a chance to heal is huge, and what you’ve shared here opens up what our down time with the body can be. Thank you.

     1. Exactly Leigh, what has been presented by Universal Medicine, we live in natural cycles of repose and action with the moon cycles reflecting the light of who we are from the Sun. If we are opposing this rhythm of the cycle that supports us to evolve we are creating an ill-behaviour. Just like the body needs to be in repose at times and action in the other even throughout this bigger cycle we are all pulled under. So, being sick you cannot escape that it is time to be, rest and confirm the healing.

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