Hillary Oat Healing

  “Your body is your best guide. It constantly tells you, in the form of pain or sensations, what’s working for you and what’s not.” ― Hina Hashmi   Go inside and listen to your body, because your body will never lie to you. Your mind will play tricks, but the way you feel in your heart, in your guts, is the truth. ~ Miguel Ruiz I have been in the process of writing this piece and this morning I saw a letter to Dear Abby that totally illustrated a point I was making. A woman had reconnected with an old flame from 30 years ago. His wife died a couple of years before. She was writing because she was concerned about what she called co-dependency between him and his daughter. She talked with him about her concerns and he basically blew it off saying it will be ok with time. She also said that the majority of their time is spent with daughter and granddaughter. She asked him for boundaries around t...

  “Across the history of time, music has been used in all cultures for healing and medicine,” ~Shilagh Mirgain, PhD. Recently, it seemed music was coming to me from all directions. My cousin told me about a country song by Anna Avery that made her think if me. Later I was checking YouTube subscriptions for new videos when I came across lists of songs to aid in recovery. It reminded me of how useful music is for healing.  Kahlil Gibran said "Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret language of life by bringing peace, abolishing strife". "I've found that no matter what life throws at me, music softens the blow." Said Bryce W. Anderson, and I would have to agree.  An interesting dynamic with humans, is that we can get caught in a loop of repeated thoughts and emotions, mostly the ones that don't feel good like worry, fear, hurt, and regret. When that happens it can set the tone for hours or even days. Knowing how to reset ourselves a...

  Vicious words drift away from their meanings  And the sun melts the chill from our lives  Helping us all to remember what we came here for  This is love This is la la la la love  This is love This is la la la la love                                     ~ George Harrison. Cloud Nine. Since it is Valentine's Day, it seems a good time to talk about LOVE. We actually do talk about it all the time. We love "this" and love "that", including everything from favorite people, chocolate lava cake, children, pets, to the feelings we get from a wide variety of experiences. We want it, and we need it. Many of us have created elaborate mechanisms and defenses just to insure we will get some. It is easy to say we need to love more and better, fully and unconditionally - but how? What do we do with a...