Illness, particularly cancer, can challenge us to examine how we care for ourselves and to learn new ways to help ourselves heal. Here is a simple practice we can do on our own that helps develop a healing state in both body and mind in every moment, beyond medical appointments, yoga classes, meditation cushion and reiki session.

The idea

The state of health and healing happens when there is freedom of movement in all aspects of our body, mind, emotions and soul. When we restrict free and open movement of muscles, breath, emotional expression and feeling, even soul direction, the entire body-mind is hampered and health is compromised.

The practice

Stop... pause... tune in to the body and ask where are my muscles holding, where is my posture constricted or collapsed? Am I holding my emotions in to not feel them or to appear strong? Then consciously drop the shoulders, expand and lift the chest, deepen the breathand drop the weight of the body onto the legs. Imagine the pelvis is like a bowl of water getting heavier with every breath, allowing the upper body to become light and free.

Acknowledge feelings with compassion and imagine them flowing out of the body on the out-breath. Letting more physical and emotional energy flow will bring both physiology and mood into a state of deeper healing and well-being, enhancing the effectiveness of all medical and holistic treatment modalities. Bodymind awareness is the key. To take this awareness to the next level, body-centered therapists can help uncover the roots of the body-mind patterns that develop over a lifetime and help them release more deeply.

Alison Shaw is a holistic nurse practitioner, integrative therapist and founder of Bodymind Repatterning, located at The Center for Body Mind Integration, 109 Massachusetts Ave., Lexington. She helps people further their healing by discovering and resolving the hidden body-mind patterns beneath illness and pain. In-person and telephone sessions are available. For more information, call 781-646-0686 or visit BodymindRepatterning.com