By L.R, Midwife, VIC

Shift work is something that all nurses and midwives experience. It is part of our working contract, and something that we have all agreed to do. Shift work can be demanding – on our bodies, our family life and social life, but do we need to let these demands affect us or is there a way to go with the flow and live in a way that supports us throughout the working week and our working lives?

What does shift work entail? Continue reading “Is Shift Work Supporting us as Nurses/Midwives?” →

In this interview, Eunice Minford, Consultant General Surgeon, discusses the Esoteric Breast Massage (EBM) with the Esoteric Healing Practitioner, Philosopher and Author, Serge Benhayon. The EBM is a modality that helps women reconnect to their own body, to their essence and divinity and to the true beauty and stillness of the sacredness within. By deepening and developing that connection, many women have transformed their lives and lifestyles to be more caring, loving and nurturing of themselves and others and in the process many have also  experienced improvement or resolution of some health conditions.

Come and find out more about the technique from the man, Serge Benhayon, who is revolutionising healthcare by inspiring people to reconnect to their true self, to their divinity and to take responsibility for their health by making choices that are aligned to and of the same quality of love that they already are in essence.

Continue reading “Esoteric Breast Massage: Reconnecting to the sacredness within” →

by Eunice J Minford MA FRCS Ed. Consultant General Surgeon, N.Ireland

 

Let’s be honest, what are your first thoughts when you hear or read the words “Esoteric Breast Massage?” Disbelief? Shock? Revulsion? Laughter? Desire to ridicule? Think it must be dodgy? Quackery? Woo-woo medicine? Something sexual? And a ‘no way I would have that done!’  How many of you ladies, on first hearing the words ‘esoteric breast massage’ without knowing what it is, think – ‘Oh yes I must have one of those!’?? In my experience, many women (and men) have some form of reaction like those described when first hearing those words and before knowing and understanding what it is really about. I know I did. So you’re not alone!

 

Breast Massage – it must be sexual, right?

It’s interesting isn’t it, how the insertion of one word can significantly alter our perception and approach to massage. There is no issue with saying back massage, leg massage, head massage, foot massage, hand massage – there is no laughter, ridicule, guffawing, innuendo – we pretty much accept that all these areas can be and are massaged and can have a beneficial effect on the body – but as soon as we mention the word ‘breasts’ – the shutters come down, we back off and perhaps think ‘no way’, ‘not on my body’ or those of a different gender endeavour to sexualise it, make jokes, innuendo comments & ridicule – showing they haven’t really moved past the schoolboy age of ten where breasts are concerned; titillation (pun intended) being the order of the day. Yet, given we can have beneficial effects from massage on many other parts of the body, surely it’s also possible that esoteric breast massage can assist us with our healing and self-caring approach to our health?

Even though there is absolutely NOTHING sexual about an Esoteric Breast Massage (EBM), the media and others, including conventional doctors, immediately assume there is, or must be and that anyone promoting or partaking in such a modality must be dodgy, perverted, into quackery, on a ruse or have a few screws loose. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have been vilified and ridiculed by the media and castigated by those who are ignorant about the technique, how it works energetically and its energetic benefits. Although Serge Benhayon initiated the modality and trained practitioners through simulation, he has never performed an EBM on any client or practitioner, and it is a technique that is only performed by women on women. Continue reading “Esoteric Breast Massage: Quackery and Titillation or Transformational Healing Modality?” →

by Eunice J Minford MA FRCS Ed, Consultant Surgeon, N.Ireland

 

Evidenced based medicine currently dominates the Western model but who decides what is ‘evidence’? Is it being controlled and limited by academia and /or commercial interests? Is anecdotal evidence of a person’s lived experience a valid form of evidence? If a person reports that their life has changed for the better as a result of an operation, a medication or a complementary healing modality – is that in itself a valid form of evidence? We are trained in medical school that the history of the patient is most important and where the gold lies…….why is it ok to accept this personal testimony when someone is ill but to ignore the same individual’s experience when they report what assisted them to recover? This interview with Serge Benhayon, begins the conversation on these topics.

 

 

Continue reading “Improving our health = not limiting or controlling the word evidence.” →

by Anne Malatt, Ophthalmologist, Australia

What is the difference between care and cure?

Both words originally came from the same word – isn’t that curious?

The Latin noun ‘cura’, meaning ‘care’, became the verb ‘curare’, meaning ‘take care of’ and then the Old French ‘curer’, meaning ‘cure’.

The original sense of the word was ‘care, concern, responsibility’, particularly in a spiritual sense, but in late Middle English the meanings ‘medical care’ and ‘successful medical treatment’ arose, and hence ‘remedy’.

Interestingly, curare is also a type of poison, as are many medical treatments, when not used according to directions (and sometimes even when they are!).

Modern medicines are powerful, and sometimes a helpful treatment can become a harmful poison, especially if the dose is too high. Paracetamol is a great painkiller, but it can also kill liver cells, if taken in excess. Chemotherapy drugs are designed to kill cancer cells, but they can kill healthy cells as well, hence their side effects. Continue reading “Care and Cure – same same, but different!” →

by Anne Malatt and Paul Moses, Australia. 

Anne: I’ve always wondered about the term common sense.

We all use the words:

• “It’s just common sense!”
• “Use your common sense!”
• “She has no common sense!”
• “Common sense is not very common” as the saying goes – but is that true? I feel there is more to it than we commonly understand.

What does common sense mean to you?

Paul: I too have wondered about that and I looked it up in the dictionary, and the words are derived from the Latin sensus communis meaning ‘feeling in common’.

The word sensus means a sense, a feeling we have in our whole body, not just a thought we have in our minds.

The word communis means something that we all share and have access to, equally so, no matter who we are.

So common sense is a communal thing, the feeling we all share, that we all have in common.

Anne: So common does not mean low, stupid or less than in some way, but brings us to equality and shared values. It transcends all the barriers we have put between us – gender, age, colour, race, religion, nationality, culture – and brings us back to the truth, that we all share a knowing we have in common. Having common sense does not make us ‘common’, or a ‘commoner’, in the commonly used sense of the word, but makes us part of a community.

Paul: So in practical terms, what are we talking about?

Continue reading “Common Sense – True Medicine” →

By Eunice J Minford MA FRCS Ed, Consultant Surgeon, N.Ireland 

We all know what the phrase ‘the Big C’ means – it is a way of saying cancer without using the word cancer. I recall hearing it when I was growing up, people whispering it to one another that, “so and so has the Big C” – the feelings of fear, trepidation and worry were palpable. Even though as a young child I initially didn’t know what the Big C was – I knew it was something bad, terrible, to be avoided at all cost if possible, there was a sense of finality to it and the smell of death hung in the air. It didn’t seem to matter which particular big C you had – they were all cloaked with the stench of illness, disease, decay, sickness, bodily destruction and death. Even in the medical world, the word cancer was often avoided in the past so as not to induce such fears in the patient and euphemisms were used like ‘growth’ or ‘ulcer’ without revealing the true diagnosis.

The depth of fear around the Big C was and is huge – people instantly equate the C word with death, but not just death, it is a death that is considered to be slow, painful, miserable, full of sickness, sadness, a failing body, losing weight, having chemotherapy and its side effects like losing hair – of losing one’s bodily functions perhaps and being dependent on others for help and support in a way that we never think we will need to be. And the reality is that cancer can wreak havoc on the body and all of the above can be part and parcel of the journey with cancer – and suffering of one kind or another, be it physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual is a common experience for the cancer patient even with all the advances in palliative care, medicine and surgery. Yet all these medical advances focus more on the physical aspects of the disease and to some degree, but usually less so, the psychological and emotional components, with very little, if any, addressing of the spiritual dimension.

Yet many people with cancer struggle with the ‘why me’ questions: what is the meaning of this cancer, this life even? Why do I have cancer now, at this stage of my life? Is there a reason? Is there a purpose to it? Is it a punishment? Is it God’s will? The existential angst that arises through a cancer diagnosis is huge but often goes unaddressed and unanswered, especially in a way that is truly healing.

Continue reading “The Big C – why me?” →

By Anne Malatt and Paul Moses, Australia. 

In the not-so-distant past, contagious or communicable diseases were greatly feared, and the cause of many deaths, often on a mass scale. The Black Plague, the Spanish Flu, and smallpox all come to mind and are seared in our collective memories. With the advent of modern sanitation and medicine, these diseases have become much less common. As they have waned, the importance of non-communicable diseases has risen.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now account for 68% of all deaths, worldwide, every year. ⁽¹⁾

In Australia, chronic diseases are the leading cause of illness, disability and death, accounting for 90% of all deaths in 2011. ⁽²⁾

What are non-communicable diseases (NCDs)?

Continue reading “Contagion – Part two: Non-communicable diseases, are they really not communicable?” →