Tag: body

Healing, Life

Treating Yourself with Tenderness

Erin Keane

Providing yourself  with a source of quiet can create a sense of calm within your life and in your body, and rejuvenate you.

The last few days have been very noisy. Noise seems to be something that seeps into my being and removes me from being balanced in my life. I have become more attentive to my body lately, and realize how deeply I hold experiences, sounds, touch, etc. Thus, I really am trying to be better about taking care of myself.

Tonight I took my pup, out for a walk after sunset, in a light drizzling rain. And I became profoundly aware of the quiet all around me. There’s something really peaceful about the night, especially at twilight. It has always been one of my favorite times of my day. There is something about the world getting ready to go to sleep that feels me with a sense of gratitude and peace.

As I walked I opened myself to this peaceful quiet and let it soak into my bones and flow through me (even the rhythm of my footsteps calmed me–moving our bodies in a repetitive motion is calming—think of rocking a baby).

I am feeling this sense of quiet deep within me, and I take it with me even as I walk into the hustle and bustle of my home life. I let myself feel it within me–and being connected to my peaceful self creates a boundary around me–separating me from the chaos, even though I am in it. My body does not soak in the noise this time and I feel whole.

What brings you a sense of calm/quiet? Are you good at allowing yourself to experience calm when you need to?

May you become more deeply aware of your body, and nourish it with calm and quiet. You deserve it!

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™ All rights reserved.

Inspiration, Life

Listening to your body is Good for You!

Erin Keane

It always amazes me how much our bodies hold. I know this too well. Whenever I am confused or stressed about something, my body goes into overdrive and falls apart on me…headaches, tummy aches and all that other stuff that comes with stress. I realize I need to be very conscious about my well-being during these times. As a person who has suffered from depression– I put myself on ‘high-alert’ so that I can regain my equilibrium without falling off the deep end.

I’m not always good at following steps—I just like to go with the flow, but these things seem to help me and re-ground me:

Take a Step Back: Remove myself from the stressor and find a place to go and breathe. Do you have a special place to relax?

Breathe in Deeply, and Let Go: Release all that is within me that is causing me suffering—Letting go with every exhale. And breathing in calm and peace. What do you do with your breathing that is helpful during a stressful event?

Pour a Cup of Coffee: The caffine helps with my migraines—they come along when I’m really stressed. I’m really good at holding stress right in my neck and head…Where do you hold stress in your body? Do you have a ritual of coffee or tea etc. that helps you re-center?

Listen to songs that make me move my body & dance: Even though I need the calm I also find I need to move my body and get those positive endorphins moving! There is something freeing about moving your body—it gets me out of my state. What do you do?

Get a Hug: My son is good for hugs during the day, and my dog and 2 cats also love to be hugged—there’s something about connecting to humans and animals through touch that releases so much of the negativity and refills my body with a sense of love and care. Do you have someone or a pet that you who reconnects you to sense of care and well-being?

Writing about it: I know this has been the topic of lots of my recent posts, but I’m realizing how much better I feel by having an outlet for my feelings. I used to journal all the time when I was younger and stopped when my life got too busy…and of course that’s when depression got in my being…I guess I need to write to get to that place of balance after I’m stressed, anxious, etc. What about you? Do you find change happening within you when you write or sing, etc.?

It’s Friday evening in New England. So I’m letting go for a while, and ready to just enjoy the evening. I hope you are well, and find joy in your journey today too.

Remember: You are capable of feeling good in your life whenever you want to—especially when you change  your state and give yourself the freedom to be happy.

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™

Related Reading: Tea & Comfort by I Stop for Suffering

Health

Show Your Body Love: Be Mindful About What You Eat!

Erin Keane

Your Body is an amzing, beautiful creation! Love it! Nourish it! Be kind to it! Eat well! Let the foods of the earth bring harmony and healing into your body with every bite, every taste, every smell!

Love your body! Love yourself!

Today I am pausing and focusing on my body: I nourished my body by reading an article on the Huffington Post called, “Could Mindful Eating Wean us From our Bad Food Habits?” by Harbir Kaur, a UK science teacher. She states, “Allow your senses to be electrified by something as simple as a slice of bread.” To be so focused on something like a piece of bread, to savor every single bite; to let your mouth be conscious of how the bread feels on your teeth, and your tongue to notice every flavor and texture takes a lot of intentionality. Of course it does! But who really has the time to truly enjoy what they eat? That there, is the challenge-making the time! So challege yourself: make yourself feel alive! Savor your food and enjoy it more; notice how you begin to eat healthier and thus, your body reaps the rewards of healing and wellness. Congratulations to you! You have joined celebrities such as

Oprah Winfrey as an advocate for ‘Mindful Eating.’ In fact if you are interested in this even more there is an entire organization centered around the goodness ‘Mindful Eating’ does for us:

Mindful eating has the powerful potential to transform people’s relationship to food and eating, to improve overall health, body image, relationships and self-esteem.-The Center for Mindful Eating.

Okay, so if other people are talking about this, it must mean something! Pause! “Let me take a bite of this grape. Ahhh..refreshing, crunchy, wet. sweet and a bit sour…”

So today be intentional about eating your food!

  • Enjoy every bite.
  • Recognize what a wonderful gift it is to be able eat food.
  •  Take the time to pause and reflect on what an amazing creation your body is: You open your mouth, take a bite, and your body knows just what to do with the food you eat: giving you energy for the day ahead, healing your wounds, bringing you back to a childhood moment of something good…all happening in moments without any effort from you other than eating your food.Today be intentional in your life, and see what wonderful things may happen! Heal your body!

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™
Parts of this post were originally posted February 2012.

If you would like more daily inspiration and healing in your life please visit my Facebook Page.

Healing, Health, Inspiration

Your Body Holds Deep Wisdom: A Metaphor

Erin Keane

Your body holds a deep wisdom. Your deep truths to healing and connection flow right in the very cells and tissues of your created body. When you listen to the wisdom of your body and work as a partner in your body’s healing you actually become healthier.

A metaphor for the wisdom of your body:

Pregnancy is an amazing and mysterious state of life. When I got pregnant with my son, I was amazed at how my body just seemed to know exactly what to do. You are going about your normal way of taking care of yourself: eating, working, exercising, talking, & sleeping, and yet your body is being transformed millisecond by millisecond to make space for a little person who will be changing your life forever. Your organs are being pushed around and moved to different places in your body, and yet they still function exactly the way they are supposed to in order to keep you living and well. You don’t have to give orders or say, move this way; they just know. Your body knows.

I’ve always been the kind of person to pay attention to what my body is telling me. But I haven’t always been very good at listening to what it is really saying. When I was pregnant I started to really listen though. And I realized that my body really is a miracle.

Your body really is a miracle.

I didn’t have to tell my body to produce  milk for my son, it just did.
I didn’t have to tell my organs to go back to where they belong after birth, they just did.

I did have to care for myself though, and show my body gentleness and respect, so that I could heal. We have to work as companions with our bodies towards our healing. Your body already knows what it needs to do to seek healing and well-being for you-i.e. bodily wisdom, but you need to work with your body so that the healing can be effective. If you work with your body to be well and heal, you will heal.

If you work against your body or do not take care of your body your healing will take longer and your body may work against  you–I also know this is true because I had many healing complications after my pregnancy because I wasn’t taking care of myself (my depression was in control then).

What has your experience of physical, mental or spiritual healing been like for you?

This metaphor of pregnancy and the wisdom of your body isn’t just for those who have given birth, it is a metaphor of bodily wisdom for all  persons.

Your body knows what it needs to do
to heal
to create
to be well
to regain strength.

Take time to be with yourself today
to listen to your body
to be aware of your body
to feel your body
to experience your body—being cognicent of all your organs, cells and tissues working to keep you well.

Your body has deep wisdom. Learn from it. Nourish it. Love it.

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue


©️2012-2020. Erin Keane. Bella Bleue Healing and Blessings. All rights reserved. No portion of any post or photo may be copied or reproduced without prior written permission from the author, Erin Keane. Find me on Instagram @Erins_blessings and at Facebook Bella Bleue Healing & Blessings by Erin Keane.

Healing

Trust in Your Body’s Desire to Heal

Erin Keane

 

We are naturally created to seek healing in our lives.Your body is created to seek healing, health and well-being for you.

As we all know, sometimes we feel like our body has failed us, or betrayed us…either physically, mentally, emotionally and/or spiritually, but even so, it is in our nature to seek and desire life. If you are alive today, even after all you’ve been through, then you have already discovered this desire to heal, and live. So why not trust in this as your truth rather, than the negative things: the words, beliefs, images, diseases, etc. that are trying to get you down?

Just think for a second: When you scrape your knee, *your body naturally goes to work to seek healing for you.  You don’t really think about it much, but all the little healing cells in your being are saying, “Hello! I gotta get to the knee!” And they do just that. And you begin to heal, day by day. Of course some of your wounds may be much deeper than a scrape, and might take longer to heal, but when you trust in our body to want to heal because it already is made to heal, imagine the healing that can happen within you.

Healing is an energy force that dwells within you and flows through you. It comes forth through the healing cells in your body as well as your desire for healing through your thoughts and feelings.

    •  Sit down or lay down alone for a a bit.
    •  Deeply focus on this image
    • Open  your hands: receive healing
    • See the healing light flowing through your body
    • Imagine all your cells being filled with this healing energy

Flowing through you with love, peace, strength, or whatever healing you need

  • Be still for a while and become one with yourself.
  • Listen to this beautiful healing music while you imagine healing moving through you.
  • All those beautiful healing cells, gently calling your Name and saying to you, “I am healing.”
*I have witnessed this as true in my own journey of healing, as well as, in the journey of many others. I especially witnessed this healing occuring for patients who were receiving their bone-marrow or stem-cell transplants. When you truly focus on healing, and imagine healing happening, it transforms your healing experience and your life.

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue

©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™

Image from Google’s search engine: Healing : Healing Hands
Healing, Inspiration, Life

A Peace Within

Erin Keane

When you look in the mirror
Who do you see?
Are you the person you imagined yourself to be?
If you have any doubts
If something just doesn’t seem right;
Don’t just put on make-up,
Or turn off the lights;
Don’t just shave your face,
or brush your teeth;
Instead take a look again.
And start to speak:
Tell yourself, how wonderful you are;
Notice the crevices in your lips
The depth of color in your eyes,
The design of your brow,

Take a look again,

But this time look a bit deeper,
Not just at your skin,
but deep within.
Look at your heart,
your lungs,
your liver and spleen,
the parts of your body,
that hold your story,
keep you healthy,
living and alive.
Send them love,
Think intentionally about each and every part
of your body,
and tell yourself,
“Thank you.”

Now pause and breathe in,
breathe in peace,
breathe in love,
breath in sunshine,
breathe in smiles,
breathe in success.

Feel your body again,
notice every part of you.

Notice the very depths of you,
even the depths of you,
that may feel connected beyond this world.

And in doing so
Let Go!
Let Go of all that burdens you
Let Go of all the false images about you.

Wash your face with water and tender hands.

Dry off with a soft towel.

Look up again into the mirror.
See yourself.
You are all that can be imagined,
You are beautiful,
You are amazing,
You are a living miracle.
You are Enough.

Give yourself a smile.

And walk out the door with your head held high!

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™

Health

Healthy Living is Worth Laughing About!

Erin Keane

Yesterday, I was tickling my son. His laughter rang through my ears, and actually caused me to start laughing too! He loves being tickled, and loves laughing! It’s amazing how fabulous laughing makes you feel! When I was starting to feel well after my long bout with post-partum depression, I sat down and watched, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and I started to laugh! Until the laughter started, I hadn’t realized how long it had been since I last laughed! And at the same moment, I realized how good I felt! And I stared laughing throughout the movie. And it seemed that after I laughed that night, I was finding things in my life to be happy about again!

It’s amazing how easily and readily children start laughing. Its a part of who they are. So…we were all children once upon a time, thus laughter is in our blood-literally! Children are spontaneous &  often do things in life that, we as adults, wouldn’t think twice about! Put your chocolate birthday cake all over yourself and smile about it!

 

Are you smiling yet?! Maybe even feeling a bit like a laugh could come along?

I know when we are stuck in a rut, or feeling depressed, its really challenging to just read along and change your state; so do something intentional to change your state:

  • Turn on a movie that’s always made you laugh,
  • Go on YouTube and search for something funny
  • If you have your own little one, laughing along with them while you tickle them.
  • Go out with friends, who always seem to laugh about something
  • Play with your dog or pet

Whatever it is that you discover to make you laugh, know that by laughing, you are making yourself healthier!

Laughter encourages health:

  • Laughter relaxes your whole body
  • it boosts your immune system
  • it releases endorphins–your body’s natural feel good chemicals
  • it protects your heart–protects your blood vessels and increases the flow of blood
  • For more medical support on laughter’s good effects, check out:

Give Your Body a Boost-With Laughter by WebMD

Stress Management: Laughter is Good for You 

So do something really wonderful for yourself and Laugh-Out-Loud! LOL!

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue


Copyright, the blog, Bella Bleue Healing Health and Inspiration for Your Life

Healing

Filled with Gratitude: Healthy Healing

Erin Keane

When you say thank you, and allow yourself to be filled with gratitude, it changes your state of mind, and your worldly out-look is suddenly filled with a positive perspective. –Bella Bleue

  • Your body feels this positive change as well. Even the cells in your body become energized to work towards healing, and health in a more rapid focused manner.
  • You see the world as a more welcoming place, filled with acceptance and motivation.
  • You become healthier each time you allow yourself to feel this gratitude. . You look and see a healthier person in the mirror.
  • Your gratitude and energy surges into the relationships you have, and they too change for the better—they are healthier, more full-filling, more energized, more satisfying, more complete.
  • Your moments of living become gems instead of obstacles.
  • Your Life becomes a GIFT.

Take the time to feel gratitude, and see the powerful change that happens within you!


Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue


Copyright, the blog, “Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life.”

Bella Bleue Quotes, Health, Life

A Formula for Health

Erin Keane

So one of the formulas for living Healthy:  

Live in the Moment: In the Here and Now and 

1.) Let wisdom guide you:

  • choosing those things in your life that are right, just and true because these choices will lead you to have deeper more meaningful relationships with others;
  • and  you will have less worry about the future because you know you are living life the best way you able to.from moment to moment

2.) Lead your life with your heart and mind:

  • living life the best way you can comes from deep within you. When you choose to be intentional about allowing wisdom to guide you, you are connecting to the deep truths about who you are as a human being.
  • Thus, you are not denying who you are, and therefore you become healthy in your daily life.

If we are not able to be healthy within ourselves then no diet, doctor, medicine etc. will be able to really help us.

And thus, the challenge is to really deeply love yourself,

and by doing so, nothing else at any given moment, will have the power to take You away from Who you are.

Look at yourself in the mirror today and know that you are BELOVED.

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue

©Bella Bleue Healing, Health and Inspiration for Your Life ™ All Rights Reserved.

Connecting to the wonder we are, Healing

Bleue Sky

Erin Keane

20120216-210817.jpg

Today I was literally up in the sky. Seeing the vastness of the puffy white clouds and the sun shining brightly was almost transcending. It puts me at awe how awesome our world is and how small I feel at times like this. Today reminded me that even when we feel small and disconnected that the world is actually a part of us (think of any time you’ve felt awe in nature and how deeply your body feels this awe during that moment). Our body holds even that which we may feel is greater than us. Take a moment tomorrow and let yourself feel the wonder of the world within yourself. Feel the wonder alive in you.
When we feel connected to that which is greater than us we begin to heal.
-Blessings, Erin

All words and images are the property of BellaBleue