Kari Samuels, Intuitive Counselor

Eastern Mind Meets Western Medicine

Recently I was asked by a client how I reconcile the emotional, the spiritual, and western medicine. For instance, if you have a broken leg, how do your emotions enter into that? Or you suffer from depression, isn’t that genetics? How does the spiritual enter into the equation?

This is something I think about all the time and am still learning. I don’t claim to know, so this is merely my understanding from my experience with clients, with myself, from reading books by medical intuitives, and from listening to medical intuitives diagnose me and others on the radio. So please understand this is my interpretation alone–I don’t claim it to be anything more.

I believe physical ailments have a cause on the spiritual, emotional, and physical level. If you look at this as energy, it would be quantum, subtle, and gross (material) energy. As we learned in physics, energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed. A disharmony begins on the quantum (spiritual) level. Say there is an experience that you need to learn a spiritual lesson from (quantum energy) that causes you to have certain responses that are emotional (subtle energy). When we don’t have the tools, strategies or support to process all of the emotions in an experience, these emotions are stored in our subconscious minds until we are ready to process them. Energy flows through our acupuncture meridians. That energy is emotion, and different meridians channel different levels of emotion. So when we have an experience with this backlog of emotions that are still on our subconscious, the energy (emotions) don’t travel efficiently through a certain meridian, or meridians. This will also affect our choices (physical) about how we respond to and treat our bodies. We will not be aware that certain foods, relationships or behaviors are causing us harm, we won’t have healthy impulses in that area, because the consciousness of that meridian, or aspect of your life isn’t working effectively. We act more reflexively than consciously in those situations. So, over time, when the energy isn’t flowing properly in that meridian (which also will affect your behavior and habits in that aspect of your life) over time, this causes physical degeneration. And when that happens you need some physical help, which can often take the form of surgery, pharmaceuticals, etc.

My teacher of the LifeLine Technique, Darren Weissman says that symptoms are “gifts in strange wrapping paper.” The reason that these ailments are a gift, is that is the only way our body can communicate with us bringing the subconscious patterns to our consciousness. It is the only way that we can bring to consciousness that which we were ignoring before, and that is on all three levels: physical, emotional and spiritual. Therefore, it is always important to treat the physical symptom first – that is the area that has had the most degeneration, and look at the physical habits and treatments to heal that area. And you absolutely cannot address your emotions when you are in physical pain! But there is always more underneath that, that which needs to be healed. The physical is the most dense manifestation of an imbalance, but it always begins on a subtle emotional level.

Part of what I do is detecting certain health problems and understanding the emotional and spiritual reasons behind them – and they are always there. For instance, I noticed I was consulting with several women who had thyroid issues. They were all very outspoken, felt comfortable communicating, and couldn’t understand why they were having issues in their throat chakra – and yet all of them had creative/life purpose urges that they were repressing to accommodate the responsibilities of their family. I guided them to a doctor to treat the condition, and I also encouraged them to pursue their creativity to heal the underlying cause. Because even if you heal the physical, the energy of the emotions underneath that are still looking for expression. More examples: I also notice that several clients with knee pain were afraid of making changes in their lives, and men with back pain often feel overwhelmed with their material responsibilities.

I see the western medicine as being an integral part of the healing process. In some cases, there is nothing better for treating the acute symptoms of imbalance – once it gets to that level. But treating the symptom is one part of the process; you also want to clear the emotional and spiritual issues that led to the imbalance to begin with - and that does include some physical changes as well.

So the next time you’re dealing with your chronic sciatica, by all means go to a doctor. But don’t forget that the sciatica, too, has a spiritual and emotional core, one that needs to be addressed if it is to be truly healed.

Karma, balance, and why being “nice” isn’t always good

Happy Spring Equinox! This magical time of year signifies that balanca of light and dark, sun and moon, masculine and feminine. Last night in my Divine Intuition class, we talked about the nature of true balance, especially in terms of relationships. People were particularly intrigued  when we talked about being “nice” as not necessarily what’s best for us. It’s such a compelling and important topic, I will be writing a newsletter about it soon.

One thing we discussed is karma as balance, rather than a judgement of good or bad deeds. Oftentimes, we think we are doing the “right” thing by automatically forgiving someone who has wronged us, or by turning the other cheek to people who are treating us poorly and allowing them to dump their negative energy on us. One interpretation of “turning the other cheek” that might be beneficial is not taking another person’s actions personally when they act poorly towards you, therefore not engaging in the drama. So instead of taking on a person’s negativity and being “nice” about it, you can choose to view their negativity as a reflection of themselves rather than you, view that person with compassion, and disengage from that dynamic by choosing self-respect and self-care. Try that and see how that works for you!

If you think of all relationships of having a measure of energy, what is given and received, when we are in a reciprocal energy exchange those scales of karma are balanced. Yet, sometimes when we are being “nice” instead of standing up for ourselves, or asserting our right to be treated better, or walking away from people who mistreat us, then we can be tipping those karmic scales. We will keep attracting situations towards us to help us correct that balance until it is righted. You might want to look at any uncomfortable situation in your life that you seem to attract over and over again, and see if there is a lesson there about reciprocal energy exchange. You can evaluate whether you are giving too much or too little in that circumstance relative to the outcome, and make appropriate adjustments.

Too, if you are one of these people who tries to be “good” all the time and do the right thing, you might want to examine how that plays out in your relationships. Examine whether you are in reciprocal relationships, or if there is stuck pattern that needs to be rectified.

You might also want to look at the balance within yourself – do you have a balance of work and play? Alone time with socializing? Exercise and stillness? Just something to think about during this Equinox…