Allergies are an incredibly frustrating and uncomfortable phenomenon. It is easy to fell helpless. But you have a choice. You can react to the pollen or dust (or whatever your allergen is) with fear and resistance… or you can choose to cultivate love and acceptance. The physical discomfort and suffering you are experiencing in your allergic response is an invitation to cultivate an ongoing posture of submission and acceptance. If you weren’t having your allergic episode, you wouldn’t have the incentive to practice this. Think of your discomfort as being like an secret cup that you have within you. The allergy empties that cup and creates a longing for wellness. Yet unlike a really harmful invader like a flu virus, the pollen or dust that has “invaded” you is harmless so it is an easier act of self-mastery to dial down this response. Maybe even one day switch it off. 
Note: This is a 15 minute version of the Empty Cup episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Therapy to Lessen Your Allergies - The Empty Cup - 15 min

Ever wonder why a hug feels so good? Or a massage? Or hot baths? It is because these are the sorts of “words” our bodies understand. We can’t command a muscle to relax with a thought or a sentence. We have to speak the body’s language. We do this by combining love and attention with movement and touch. Music works too. This is the language our bodies understand.
The Happy Body Podcast takes a different approach to tackling the challenge of physical pain and sickness by combining the wisdom of the ancient masters with modern science. It starts from the premise that sickness and physical pain are often manifestations of an inner imbalance. By connecting the lessons from modern neuroscience with the wisdom teachers of old, the Serena system may well help you on a path back to health. You will find techniques that draw on Feldenkrais, Alexander technique, contemporary physical therapy, nutrition science, and of course the latest medical research from the best doctors and medical institutions around the world. And if you suffer from Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, chronic pain in your muscles or Fibromyalgia, you may find the muscle release exercises helpful. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Our feet and ankles are the most distant part of our bodies from our mind. Because of that they're sometimes overlooked or undervalued and can themselves communicate this very mindset about our whole self. Pain and injury is the body's way of teaching us how to take care of ourselves, our bodies. Our job is to listen. It can be as simple as slowing down, listening to what they have to say and sending them love. Or suffering in the feet and ankles can symbolize a much deeper sense of disconnectedness from the earth and nature, or undervaluing of ourselves, an inability to fulfill our ideals or objectives in life. This guided meditation will help put you in touch with what your feet and ankles have to say. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sending Love to your Feet & Ankles

The ancient Chinese philosopher and military strategist Sun Tzu is famous for saying: “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.” His wisdom is surprisingly relevant to the battle against insomnia. The key to winning the battle for sleep, to breaking our wakefulness’s resistance, is not to fight for sleep in the first place. You may be lying in bed wanting to fall asleep but maybe you shouldn’t even be bothering to try. Take these two tests to see if perhaps the moment isn’t right for you. Whether you are someone who meditates or not, these two simple tests will help with your insomnia.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Take the sleep test

It is bedtime and once again you can’t sleep. You’ve tried everything you can think of and you’re ready to give up but you don’t even know what that means. It is time take another tack. This meditation will help unlock the cycle you are stuck in. It may not work tonight, and that is okay. The extraordinary thing about meditation is that if you can concentrate properly, the time spent can be even more rejuvenating than sleep itself. Sleep, nature’s sweet nurse, awaits. Listen to this meditation to help you enter her care.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Use your inner fortress to help you fall asleep

Sleep really is such a strange phenomenon. No matter how much we want it, it is only when we let go of needing to fall asleep, and thinking about sleep, that we can fall asleep. Fortunately, doing peaceful sleep-time meditations is relaxation and rest enough for your body to be rested for tomorrow. It has a similar effect on the brain and body. So don’t worry if you don’t fall asleep. Just enjoy cycling through this meditation.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Bedtime Bath" - A guided talk to help you fall asleep

We can’t tell our body to fall asleep the same direct way we can tell our arm to move or our voice to make words. Unfortunately, that isn’t how that system works. So we have to play by the rules of the going to sleep game. Tonight, the way we are going to play that game is by pretending our body is a small child. She doesn’t want to go to sleep tonight so we have to help her. We have to remind her that we are the one in charge and make sure she trusts us and knows that it is safe to let the body go to sleep. Sleep tight and sweet dreams! For the companion podcast covering the theory behind why these meditations work, check out the Serena system podcast at https://goo.gl/Dxu4eo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Therapy to Lessen Your Allergies - The Empty Cup - 15 min

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