The Spirituality of the Intestines
We are only beginning to explore the true influence the Intestine has on our physical, spiritual, mental, emotional well being. Not only is the intestine the place where food and nutrients are absorbed, but this is also the place where we assimilate, absorb, and process our reality.
The intestine is the body’s largest sensory organ with a strong connection to the brain. The intestine sends more messages to the brain than it receives from the brain. With all this communication between the brain and the intestine, the intestine works to keep informed of what’s happening in the body. The intestine influences, keeps the brain aware of pain, fatigue, nausea.
What this means is that your intestine tells you how to think, how you experience pain, what kind of energy you have, and how much sleep you get. This impact on the entire body means that the intestine is very important to our overall perception of how you feel.
In order to be in the best physical, mental, emotional, spiritual health possible, it’s important to honor the brain-intestine relationship. Eating the best possible diet will promote the balance your body needs in order to achieve the best health possible.
Not everyone needs the same diet. Different bodies have different needs. However, there are some guidelines. A healthy diet is low in fat, sugar, calories and high in fiber, fresh fruits, vegetables. Eat real, whole food which is as close to natural as possible.
Find out which probiotics are best for you and take them. Our understanding of the function of gut bacteria is not advanced. Frankly, we are in the learning stages of how the bacteria in our gut affect our overall health. In a few years we’ll all know a lot more and we’ll all be healthier for the knowledge.
Our intestine has a language. This language includes:
the emotions we feel.
our search for homeostasis.
our immune system.
our conscious desires for food and/or drugs.
how we react to stress.
peristalsis.
Find a quiet, safe place where you can talk to your intestine. Sit quietly as you get comfortable. Turn on some music you are comfortable with.
Breathe into your intestine as you take deep breaths.
As you breathe into your intestine, talk to your body to encourage homeostasis.
As you exhale, ask your intestine to release issues which prevent ultimate good health for you and your body.
As you breathe in and breathe out, examine your relationship to food. Talk to your intestine to allow less controversy and emotion to enter into the act of eating.
As you breathe in and breathe out, explore your connection between love and food. How does this affect your intestine and its communication with your brain?
As you breathe in and breathe out, listen to your intestine to learn what it needs to help your body, mind, and soul be healthier.
After a few minutes, thank your intestine for any and all information you received. If you have not received any information which you understand, know that you will receive knowledge which you can use in the coming hours and days.
You can return to this dialogue with your intestine whenever and however you need. Your intestine offers insight and wisdom about your health. It is ready to share this information when you can receive it.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Spirituality of the Hips
The hips offer balance and grounding as they connect the upper and lower parts of the body.
The bones of the hips are heavier and stronger than other bones because of all the activities performed in this part of the body:
give birth,
make love,
sit,
carry,
eliminate no longer needed food.
All of these actions revolve around security, survival, relationships. Very often, with issues around the hips, the person is wrestling with core beliefs.
When focusing on issues with the hips, we realize we are holding onto negativity from the past. Sometimes, we feel unable to stand on our own and unable to release problems of the past. The thing to do is let go of these issues.
So, get comfortable in a quiet place. Choose a place where you can feel safe, quiet, to be undisturbed for a short time.
Breathe into your hip area for a few minutes to ground yourself.
Hold your hands about 2-3 inches above your body as you slowly move your hands over your hip area . When you feel stuck energy or negativity, move your fingers in a counter clockwise direction over the stagnant energy.
The movement you want is that of opening a jar. When you move your hands in this direction you will release this energy from your body.
Encourage this negative energy to leave your hips so you can have a lighter, more positive environment for your spirituality to develop.
Repeat this exercise several times and then move on to another part of your hip area where the energy is stuck or stagnant.
When you feel as if you have discovered enough stagnant or stuck places on your hip area, begin to breathe in and breathe out into the now cleansed area.
Continue to breathe in and breathe out into your hip area for a couple of minutes more.
Now, rest quietly for a few moments until you are ready to continue with your day or take a nap.
It may be necessary to repeat this exercise several times before you feel you have cleansed all the stuck, stagnant energy from your hips.
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Photograph donated by Renee Ruwe
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Spirituality of the Heart
It has been said by many that our eyes are the window to our soul. When we speak of the heart, we refer to it as our emotional home. The heart is where we struggle, hurt, yearn, like, dislike, feel joy.
When we fall in love, we feel our heart flutter, beat loudly. When this happens, we go a little wacko. We also drop about 50 points on our IQ scale. We recover as we move into the second stage of love.
We all experience conflicts, abuse, hurt, loss. Occasionally, the heart becomes the repository of love locked away. If the pain is too great, we limit our feelings and have trouble expressing love.
People isolated from love experience mistrust, uncaring feelings, hate, prejudice, and fear. Fear shuts the heart down. When that happens, people feel worthless, angry, bitter, stressed, anxious, disappointed and lonely.
People come into embodiment to open the heart. This task can take a lifetime and is a powerful teaching. Respect and trust are hard to learn sometimes. Learning to listen to one’s heart and act on that message can be very difficult indeed.
Our hearts protect us through love. The heart carries much wisdom. Learning to listen to the messages the heart offers is important.
Opening your heart to experiencing love is one of the most essential life experiences a person can have. When you open your heart, you allow people to get to know the real you. When this happens, you allow yourself to experience the many forms of love.
Take a few minutes to find a quiet, safe place where you can breathe into your heart.
Sit comfortably. Put on some quiet music if you like.
Begin to breathe into your heart. Place your hands on the heart space in the center of your chest. As you inhale, breathe in softness, openness, positive thoughts,
Now exhale, as you release fear, resistance, any negative experiences in your life.
Breathe happiness into your heart space as you inhale.
Let go of fatigue, heaviness, stagnation as you exhale.
With the next inhale, breathe in unconditional love to protect yourself.
Now begin to offer gratitude to your heart for its work which never stops as it keeps you alive and as it works ceaselessly to offer love in your life.
Listen to your heart’s wisdom and guidance.
Resolve now to pay more attention to what your heart is telling you.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Artwork provided by Michele Garner
Spirituality of the Gall Bladder
The gall bladder, a small bag behind the liver, processes the bile manufactured in the liver. The gall bladder releases this liquid into the intestines. When digestion is slow, the gall is not released quickly enough and it congeals, creating stones.
The gall bladder may go along for years without causing problems. Then, one day, without any warning, it begins to scream and the pain can be quite intense. A trip to a physician is then necessary. Don’t try to deal with gallstones without professional help.
Spiritually, the issues contributing to gall bladder problems include anger, resentment, depression, irritation, and bitterness that have been building for years, decades even.
If you feel your gall bladder needs positive support, find a quiet, safe place and begin breathing deeply.
Breathe in grounding energy as you inhale.
Focus on your gall bladder as you speak to it.
Ask your gall bladder:
what the discomfort looks like.
how long it has been distressed.
what color it is. When you understand what color it is, find out what color surrounds the area of the gall bladder.
Now, listen quietly to your gall bladder. You may hear a sound related to this discomfort.
Then, ask your gall bladder what negative issues are impacting it. When you learn what they are, take several deep breaths and then exhale deeply as you release those negative issues. Encourage them to dissolve and then evaporate…never to return.
Now, quietly hold your hands over your gall bladder. Visualize it releasing any toxins that may be stuck. See them leaving your body as well as your life as you successfully remove them from your physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional being.
Drink ample liquids throughout the day to support your body’s effort to release toxins created by negative issues in your life.
Repeat this exercise daily for several days.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Spirituality of the Eyes
We perceive our world through our eyes. This perception is more than just seeing what is around us. It’s an emotional/spiritual response to what we comprehend, feel, know, sense. We know our surroundings through what we see.
What we see is influenced by our upbringing, education, religious beliefs, experiences. No two people see something the same way. We all experience life events with our own biases based on experiences we’ve had throughout our lives. This includes everything done to us by others and everything we have done to others in both this life and past lives.
We also see our inner selves…our true feelings. Except when we don’t. Often, when things are too painful, we develop distorted observations of reality in order to make life more acceptable to ourselves. Sometimes, we also develop spiritual vision as well and need glasses. Inner (spiritual) changes will affect our vision accordingly.
Distorted vision blocks the intensity, danger, anger, impact, of a situation to make it more acceptable. Distorted vision allows us to retreat from the harshness of the situation as we move into a more private inner world.
Cataracts are common in the elderly. Cataracts work wonders for those who want to distance themselves from the details, struggles, and a fearful future. Cataracts help when we see too much helplessness, sickness, and loneliness.
Glaucoma deals with issues created by unshed tears, blocked and repressed emotions. Like Cataracts, Glaucoma becomes part of our lives when we fear the changes that the future is bringing to us. This is especially true if the changes are beyond our control and the future appears bleak. Glaucoma often deals with past life issues.
Spend a few moments each day focusing on what’s right in your life.
Find a quiet, safe place where you can go for a few minutes each day. Cover your eyes with a soft cloth or use an eye pillow. Turn on some quiet, regenerating music as you meditate for a few moments on healing and regenerating your eyes as well as your entire body. Ask yourself to focus on strength, vitality, flexibility. Ask the universe for homeostasis – the balance of all your organs.
Ground yourself for a few moments and then begin to release anger, distrust, fear, frustration, irritation, problems, negativity in your life.
Now might be a good time to shed some of the tears which you have been unable to shed in the past. You may be able to do this if you feel safe enough.
Offer forgiveness as you move forward with positive thoughts into your future.
Your goal is to free yourself of the negativity in your life.
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Peace and food for all.
Michele Garner provided the picture in today’s article.
Thurman Greco
The Spirituality of the Ears
Our ears are our most sensitive sensory organs. We can hear sounds around corners and through walls. But, we not only hear the different sounds around us. Through our ears, we also listen, absorb, understand them. When we listen to sounds with our ears, we also become aware of intention, awareness, presence.
When we listen, we not only connect with others and what their message is but we listen to our own inner voice.
Our ears absorb much information from the many sounds surrounding us. We filter out large amounts of information because we either do not want to hear it or we are overwhelmed by too much information.
Hearing loss can have both physical and spiritual causes. Spiritually, people who don’t want to hear anymore have deafness as an option. Deafness can be a way of blocking out what we don’t want to hear.
People block out negativity, anger, frustration, criticism. They also, sometimes, block out guidance which is generated not only from within but also from those around us.
Go to a quiet space – a room or a corner of a room.
Sit quietly for a few moments and take some grounding breaths…inhaling and exhaling deeply.
After a few moments, when you feel you are quiet and grounded, place your hands lightly over your ears. Listen carefully for your own wisdom and guidance. Ask your spiritual self how you can use your ears to experience balance, clarity, grounding, self love, self appreciation, and increased self esteem.
Sit quietly for a minute or two. You may or may not receive answers to your question.
Remove your hands from your ears and thank your spiritual self for any guidance you have received or will receive through dreams, signs, or messages.
Now, return your hands to your ears. Hold your earlobes with your thumbs and index fingers. Massage your earlobes for 1-2 minutes using your thumbs and index fingers to make small circular motions. Make small circular motions all over your outer ears. Work slowly and with intention. Then, slowly, massage your earlobes with long, luscious pulls.
You are not doing these circular motions and pulling motions to create pain in any way. You are offering love, healing, grounding to your entire body – both physical and spiritual.
Your ears have many pressure points which will respond to this slow, loving work. Thank your ears for all the work they do and have done since your beginning.
Now, return to the present space you are in. Try to consciously experience what happened to your body and soul in the past few minutes.
Sit quietly for a moment to absorb the present moment.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Spirituality of our Breasts
Breasts are very complex spiritual body parts. They aren’t complex because of their place on the body or because of what they do. They’re complex because of the ways we relate to a woman’s breast in our society.
Breasts have 2 primary jobs:
They are sexually attractive body parts.
They nurture the newborn baby.
Our culture has interesting attitudes about human breasts:
It’s all right for women to spend thousands of dollars to enhance the breasts…even though to do so means that breastfeeding one’s baby may possibly not happen because of the surgery.
It is all right for women to expose breasts in low cut dresses and bikinis.
It is not all right for a woman to feed her baby in any but a private space…even if both she and the baby are covered.
THE MESSAGE HERE IS THAT THE SEXUAL ROLE BREASTS GENERATE IS SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE BUT THE NURTURING ROLE IS NOT. This message creates worry and apprehension in women. Women feel victimized, on some level, by society’s attitudes about breasts.
BREAST CANCER IS VERY COMMON AMONG WOMEN. Breast cancer is believed by many to be caused by hormones, chemicals, environmental toxins. All of those things may be true. But, it is also true that women often overextend themselves day after day for years. In short, women in our culture are depleting their spiritual tanks with no chance of refilling them anytime soon.
IT’S HARD TO NOURISH ONESELF AND OTHERS WHEN THE SPIRITUAL TANKS ARE DRY. When this happens over an extended period, something has to give. Often, that something is breast cancer.
In supporting the spirituality of your breasts, work to overcome the disconnection you feel from your own needs. Honor your fatigue. Address any feelings you have with victimhood.
Offer Reiki therapy to your breasts with the intention to heal and regenerate your body to maximum health and well being.
Focus on ways to nourish yourself so you can fill your spiritual tanks.
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Artwork created by Jennette Nearhood
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
The Spirituality of the Brain
The brain is, of course, very spiritual.
The brain is like a computer with a lot of storage. Now, about the mind: no one really knows how the mind works…certainly not I. A question often asked is this: do thoughts come from within or without? I think thoughts come from both within and without.
There’s a strong connection between what happens in our spiritual lives, our emotional lives and our bodies. The roles played by our brain and mind are extremely important to our overall health. The connection between what happens in our daily lives and our bodies is intimate, strong. These parts (mind, body, brain, spirit, emotion) all respond to one another.
Our spiritual lives and our emotional lives offer information to our brains and bodies. This information subsequently becomes reality. Thoughts and feelings have their own energy.
When I write about the brain, it’s impossible to omit the abdominal brain. The brain receives more messages from the intestines then it sends to the intestines. For me, this increases the importance of the abdominal brain. (I will be expanding on abdominal brain information in future posts.)
Negative thoughts, worries, anger, feelings, stress are mental static. Sit quietly in a private space and bring up negativity, worries, stress. Tune them out. Focus on eliminating all negative events and activities from your life.
After this exercise, get yourself a glass jar with a lid, a piece of paper, and a pencil or pen. List all negative worries, stresses, depressing events/thoughts, boredom, patterns, memories on the paper. Remove the lid from the glass jar and put the paper in the jar. Replace the lid on the jar and screw it closed. Put the jar in the trash. Discard the trash.
In the next day or so, return to this quiet, private space and focus on healing and regeneration of self. Encourage your body to build health, vitality. Begin incorporating the following words in your vocabulary:
gratitude
humility
forgiveness.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Photo provided by Renee Ruwee
The Spirituality of the Bladder
The bladder is an emotional/spiritual part of your body which constantly expands or shrinks, based on how much urine is passing through your body.
As you adapt to changing life situations, it is sometimes difficult to respond to needs of the present. It’s hard to leave attachments to the past for unknown future conditions.
WHEN THIS HAPPENS, YOU MAY FIND THAT YOUR BLADDER REFLECTS YOUR FEELINGS WITH FREQUENT URINATION.
Incontinence often occurs if:
you are unable to adapt to new circumstances,
you find yourself in a hopeless situation,
you experience grief.
Bladder infections often occur in times of strong emotional change:
separation,
breakdown,
moving to a new community,
changing jobs.
Bladder infections are often the body expressing questions you cannot ask in any other way.
That is not to say that these issues don’t need medical attention…because they do. Bladder problems always need attention from a professional healthcare provider. When you have bladder issues, you are on some level asking yourself some serious questions.
Offer yourself Reiki therapy weekly for several sessions.
If you don’t know Reiki therapy, get a practitioner and make 6-8 regular appointments spanning about 2 months. Good forms of Reiki therapy for spiritual bladder issues include Usui, Jin Kei Do, or Lightarian. Set your intention when you receive these sessions to heal the spiritual issues in your life which are being expressed through your bladder problems.
Get regular reflexology sessions. Weekly sessions encourage homeostasis which bring calmness and grounding to both your physical/spiritual situation and emotions. They also work to boost allopathic medications. These 2 things are very important to your overall healing.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Photograph donated by Renee Ruwe.
The Spirituality of the Arms
Arms are very important in our spiritual lives. We use our arms:
to hug people, as we share love.
to protect ourselves as we fold them across our hearts and lungs.
to manifest our creativity as we paint pictures, plant gardens, build buildings.
to mount attacks as we carry arms to battle.
to lift, carry, and move objects as well as ourselves through lives.
When we are having difficulty moving forward in life, we sometimes break or bruise our arms. They may become weak or tired. They may be stiff and painful. The bruise, break, or pain sometimes offers a respite from the difficult task at hand.
Arms work, essentially, with energy coming from the heart and out through the shoulders as they perform tasks to manifest our inner desires and needs.
One of the most healing things you can do for your arms is to massage each arm with the hand of the other arm. Begin above the elbow as you work your way down to the hand. While massaging your arms, speak to them, offering support and love. Honor the work your arms do all day long everyday.
As you massage your arms, ask them what feelings are stuck in the muscles, tendons, connective tissue. Try to unearth and release any buried negative emotions.
After you have massaged each arm for a few minutes, feel the stress and tension leaving your body. Encourage it to leave through your fingertips.
Include some deep breaths focusing on releasing stress, tension, pain, density, stagnation, blockages.
Breathe in balance, calm, positive feelings.
As you exhale, work to release negative emotions keeping your arms from being calm and focused.
Repeat this massage/exercise for several minutes over a period of 5 consecutive days or until you begin to feel better.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Media art created by Jennette Nearhood
