How do we heal ourselves?

And why it is important to try

[My original post can be found on Medium]

I recently read a book “Elle” by Elle Macpherson, the famous Australian model. The book starts with her childhood, then modelling career, but later on she talks about her breast cancer. When Elle found out about the cancer, she couldn’t choose the right way to go about it for the longest time. Doctors were urging her to decide on her treatment but nothing they offered felt right. Then she decided that the right way for her is to try and cure the cancer by healing her mind and body first.

While it is definitely not the path many of us would choose, she was able to get rid of her cancer by taking care of herself. Have you ever heard of the saying “All diseases come from stress”? We don’t really think about it but there is a lot of truth in that saying.

Let me start with this: we have sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for our fight or flight mode, it alerts us when we are in danger and makes sure we act fast. It is an incredible system that is essential for our survival.

Meanwhile, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for our rest, digestion and recovery. It is essential to maintain our long-term health balance.

Ideally, we should live in balance where our parasympathetic nervous system is active more than the sympathetic one to make sure we can heal and stay healthy. But with our fast-paced lifestyle, our bodies find themselves stressed more time than they are relaxed and that’s when it becomes a problem.

What did Elle Macpherson do?

She left her family for the time being and went away to work on herself. She had help, of course, but the idea was to work on her mental health and take care of her body, while getting rid of stress and toxins in her environment.

What can we do to help ourselves?

We can focus on our mental health.

Remember to breath

One simple habit that helped me tremendously over the years is breathing techniques. There are a few you can try and see what works best for you but a simple habit to stop and focus on your breathing can make major impact.

How do you remember? Set yourself reminders! You can do breathing exercises at work, while sitting in traffic, at home, while walking, anywhere you want really. Breathing exercises help your parasympathetic system to take over and help you focus and relax.

Are you finding yourself nervous in the dentist chair? Breath. Waiting to present a big project at work? Breath again. Noone but you will know what you are doing, but the outcome will be your confidence and calm.

Pray, Trust and Let go

You may or may not believe in God, but most of us believe in some sort of higher power. Learn to let go of the sorrows, the past, painful experiences. Forgive people that have wronged you and trust that everything happens for a reason.

When we hold grudges, it does not impact the people we hold them against. It only impacts us and not in a good way. Work on letting go of the grudges, send good thoughts and look ahead instead of focusing on the past. Instead, focus on here and now.

Practice gratitude

I cannot repeat this enough. Practising gratitude changes our mindset. Instead of thinking what is wrong with our lives, we start noticing what is good instead. And the more good we notice, the more good will happen. Show the Universe that you are grateful for what you have, and the Universe will give you more to be grateful for.

Know your worth

Accept that you are worth to be treated well, let go of what does not serve you. It may be people who drag you down daily, the job that only brings you stress, habits that do not allow you to improve.

If you need to, use mantras daily to remind yourself and convince yourself that you are worthy and deserve to be treated right. Only when you convince yourself that you are, your life will start to change.

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I hope this was helpful! If you would like to read Elle MacPherson’s book, you can buy it on Amazon using this link. It is an affiliate link and this way you will support me as well.

My book review: 5 of 5.