Glasses top up with champagne, expectant voices count backwards in unison, a humongous clock, (BONG! BONG! BONG!,) chimes in the new year. According to most peoples’ beliefs, the new year acts as a rejuvenation system–a cleanser for life’s pores. A reduction in dirt and foreign junk aids to clear all the pimples and all the blackheads accumulated over a twelve month cycle so that the year can start anew. More than ready to leave last year’s baggage behind, I blindly plunged ahead into the new year, (no pun intended.) At first everything went well. Then, about halfway through the month my physical health took a backslide. Now that we are in September it has been approximately nine months of massive pain.
After 26 and a half years of having lived and coped with excessive pain, January 2011 brought so much more than was imaginable! Trying to relieve it by implementing any method necessary overwhelmed my life so, so that everything that I touched, heard, smelled, tasted and saw, at least in my mind’s eye, was composed of countless needles utilized in acupuncture, fingers and hands consistently massaged, applied acupressure or did energy work which was that beyond my comprehension, but well-known to the masseuse, to the acupuncturist and to the woman also permitted to try lifeweaving. In addition to all this I also incorporated many painkillers prescribed by a pain management physician as well as antidepressants and antianxiety medications written by my PCP. Scents to calm the mind and the body such as lavender, dragon’s blood, and white angelica were sprayed in my vicinity or dabbed on each temple, behind the neck, at the top of the head where the seventh chakra is located, and on the heart where the healing fourth chakra is found. Finally, when nothing else managed to ease the pain, which felt like a rug burn anywhere from ten to twenty-fold, imagery meditation came into play as often as up to four times per day. Desperation leads a clear path to so many open doors that you never would have considered to walk-through before desperation cleared the obstacles in your walkway. Although meditation had been a part of my life long before neuropathy took over my knee nerves, it had not been something I practiced regularly. If practiced daily or routinely meditation can create a healthier, happier life for you.

Color Cleansing
Before commencing the exercise, please find a quiet room where you can sit or lay comfortably and where you will NOT be disturbed! Okay… Ready?? Great. First, sit or lay in a comfortable position. Second, take a couple deep breaths as described in my previous post encompassing breathing techniques. Good. Now, focus your attention on the pain area. (If there are multiple pain areas, use the area with the most pain as your main focal point.) Next, assign the pain a color. (Yes, giving pain a specified color can be perceived as a ridonculous concept, but after doing this exercise a few times it not only gets simpler to imagine pain as a color, but the thought of putting the two nouns together no longer seems completely worthless and a waste of time.) Then, take that color which you assigned to the pain and bathe yourself in it. Envelope your body in the color. Use your mind’s eye to even bathe your inner body in the color. Next, imagine a drain is somewhere below you. Okay… Pull it! All of the color drains out from you and from around you taking the pain down with it. Once it has all gone down the drain, revert your attention back to the pain area. What color do you see now? After assigning a color to the pain, repeat the above steps. Afterwards, assign another color. Repeat each step till you get to white and the pain has substantially released, or till it has released to your personal standards. TIPS:
1. Color Cleansing eases the pain by draining at least half of it and keeping it from pouring right back into the pain area for a couple of hours, though the outcome usually depends on the strength of a person’s mind’s eye. In other words, the outcome depends on how clearly one can see or one can focus on the imagery at hand. Practice makes it easier to see the colors in your mind’s eye more and more clearly. 2. When there multiple pain areas, beginning the color cleansing procedure at the area which oozes the most pain SHOULD automatically reduce pain in ALL areas. If this does not seem to be the case, simply continue on to the next pain area once finishing with the worst area. The pain will let go soon enough.

Iveta