Listen to your Body Whispers®
Breast cancer is associated with the heart chakra, our fourth energy centre. Breast cancer sufferers usually have a history of repressed love, mothering too much or too little, losing a loved one or being betrayed by a loved one. In most cases, they have a history of over nurturing others while neglecting or rather denying their own needs for love and care. Our body sends us messages… If we keep ignoring them, they keep getting louder and louder until the Whispers turn into screams…
Some time ago, I met a lovely 30-year-old lady who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I was with her as she navigated the chaos of emotions: fear, helplessness, anger, depression… and as she suffered the pain of surgery, and the side effects of radiation and chemo. It was hard… extremely hard.
Yet, one day, she came back to see me. It was almost a year after her treatment has concluded. I will never forget her words: “you know, this cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was asleep and it woke me up.” She related how her illness gave her time to reflect on her life, her beliefs, and her values. She changed and she grew… And now, she was helping women on the same journey to navigate the pain and chaos of their illness and restore their life starting by the most important step: Awakening & Awareness.
Al-Harawy (d. 1089 C.E.), the Muslim scholar and Sufi mystic, described human beings as travelers on a life-long journey towards knowing God. His hundred-station journey starts with the most critical step: Awakening, which involves self-awareness and deep self-reflection. According to Al-Harawy, awakening initiates a life-long venture towards a sound heart, the center of human intellect that guides the way to the Straight Path.
How often does our life pass us by and go totally unnoticed? How often do we run on autopilot unaware and tumbling out of balance? Sometimes when we’re caught up in life challenges and pains, we miss those simple moments of awareness. Living our life with awareness allows us the opportunity to reflect on our trials and wounds. We do not bypass our pains, we do not deny our depression or brush away our fears; on the contrary, we learn to acknowledge our feelings; to savor every second of our life with its joys and sorrow, ups and downs; to live our life with gratitude and awe.
St. Teresa of Avila teaches “[God’s] voice reaches us through words spoken by good people, through listening to spiritual talks, and reading sacred literature. God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illness and suffering and through sorrow He calls to us. Through a truth glimpsed fleetingly in a state of prayer He calls to us. No matter how half-hearted such insights may be, God rejoices whenever we learn what He is trying to teach us […] The important thing is not to think much but to love much, and so to do whatever best awakens you to love.”