Talk to the mountain!

Several years ago I went to the doctor because I was experiencing a great deal of discomfort in my back, and was tripping frequently.  I kept catching the toe of my right shoe on whatever surface I was walking on, and since this hadn't ever been an issue before, decided I should get it checked out.  I was diagnosed with mild spinal stenosis.  This is a narrowing of the spinal column, generally caused by arthritis, which eventually compresses the spinal cord.  As the stenosis progresses and the spinal cord becomes more and more compressed, it causes, among other things, low back and sciatic pain, and weakness in the legs, often resulting in a shuffling gait, or tripping, as the person's ability to lift his/her legs is compromised.

Physical therapy helped, and I continued to do the exercises that I learned there on a regular basis, which helped strengthen my core and made it easier to walk and decreased my discomfort.   I also used over the counter pain medications when needed, got regular massages to relax the muscles, and went to my chiropractor on a consistent basis. Overall, I did pretty well.

And then I took a three month trip to Alaska!  The long hours of driving, and the sometimes long periods of walking when I was out and about exploring, combined with my unfortunate lack of attention to my exercise regimen, no massages, and no chiropractic sessions, left me in greater discomfort by the time I returned home.  So last February the doctor suggested I try a steroid injection in my spine to alleviate the pain. (The only 'cure' for stenosis, medically speaking, is surgery, and, according to my doctor, it only helps if the patient has very severe symptoms.   He said that my symptoms were not yet significant enough to merit surgery, and suggested another round of physical therapy, along with the injection.)

I agreed to give it a try, and was amazed at how much better I felt immediately after receiving it.  In fact, it was only after I got the shot and felt the difference, that I was able to recognize just how much pain I had been in. (Before the injection I felt like I had a ten pound cement block sitting on my tailbone!)  Optimally, the injections last six months, but many people get them and get no relief at all, or may get only a few weeks or a couple of months.  I've been one of the very lucky ones and the full measure of my discomfort didn't return until about a month ago. (Along with the injection, I have been religiously doing my exercises and seeing complementary practitioners on a regular basis to help 'heal' the stenosis energetically.  And of course, I've been doing self-Reiki too.)

As the pain worsened, I began to wonder what to do.  Being in Nashville now, I didn't have any idea which doctor to go to, so I put off doing anything medically, increased my daily self-Reiki sessions and tried to be more consistent with my exercises, even though the discomfort was so great at times that I just wasn't able to do them.

And then I came to the last chapter in a book I have been using as part of my spiritual practice.  It's called I Declare:  31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life, by Joel Osteen.  In the book, he offers an intention a day for 31 days that he suggests you read out loud at the beginning of each day.  According to Joel, as you do this, you will see positive changes occur in your life.   And I have to admit that since I've been using the book, I have seen positive changes.  I've had more opportunities to enjoy life and have taken them.  I've had more energy and enthusiasm, and my days are just brighter and better in all ways.  I was even dealing with the increasing 
discomfort in my back better.  But it's the last chapter in the book that has made an incredible difference!

In those last pages, Joel states that along with praying and asking God to get rid of the mountains (problems, burdens, illnesses, etc.) in our lives, we need to talk to the mountains themselves.  We need to tell them to leave. (He quotes Jesus in Mark 11:23:  "Whoever will say to this mountain, be removed, and does not doubt in his heart, he will have whatever he says.")

Talking to the mountain, as Joel calls it, isn't a new idea for me.  I even teach others to talk to the mountains (I call them blockages), offer gratitude for whatever they came to teach us, and then release them with love.  I just never thought about telling them to leave, or as he says, commanding them to leave, not from my authority, but in the authority of that Divine Source of all that is.  Joel says that when we do this, we call forth the unseen powers of the Universe, which then begin to work behind the scenes to cause the mountain to crumble.

By the time I read that last chapter, the discomfort in my lower back had worsened considerably.  It felt as if it were locked in a vise, the muscles were that tight and the pain that intense.  It had been that way for about four days and nothing that I did, or took, helped it at all.  As I read those words telling me to command  my 'mountain' to leave, I felt this energy run through my body: my signal from Spirit that this was something I needed to pay attention to.  I decided to lay on my bed and talk to my pain.  I don't remember everything, or even most, of what I said.  But I did make a point to command  the pain to leave.  I do remember that.  I was flat on my back for probably thirty minutes, and the words just flowed spontaneously, out loud, once I started.  When I finished, I laid there for awhile, not really afraid to move, just more unsure of how to move, since getting off the bed lately has been somewhat challenging because of the increase in the pain.

As I turned on my side and pushed myself into a sitting position, the pain that I had been feeling for the last four days was GONE!  Completely.  I was able to stand without that sharp intake of breath that people often experience when they are caught off guard by sudden intense pain.  And as I walked around the house, there was still no pain. And there hasn't been any pain, not that severe, I'm locked in a vise pain.  It's been several days now, and that pain hasn't returned.  There is still some slight discomfort when I stand up after a long period of sitting, but I am so much better it is almost hard to believe that I was ever in that much pain.

Pain is a symptom of dis-ease in our bodies.  My pain was a symptom of the arthritis that's in my spine. And the arthritis that's in my spine is a symptom of a dis-ease in my energy system.  According to Louise Hay, in her book, Heal Your Body, arthritis is caused from feeling unloved, being criticized or criticizing, and holding on to resentment.  Those are all things I've felt, been a victim of, and done to others in the past.  They are also things I've worked hard to heal within myself.  

I don't know why commanding my pain to leave worked.   I know I was so amazed that it did, that I wanted to shout it from the rooftops immediately, run to my computer and write about it, but I waited.  I wanted to see if the pain would return.  It hasn't, so I'm sharing my experience in hopes that adding this new tool to your toolbox, will help crumble a mountain or two of your own. 

In the book, Joel states that commanding your mountain to leave starts a process, summons the unseen forces, and in the unseen realm, things begin to change in your favor.  He acknowledges that it might take days or weeks or even longer, but as you continue to speak to your mountains, and continue to trust in the power of that Divine Source, your mountain will move.  So use your voice, your commanding voice, and speak to your mountain.  Tell it to leave. Tell it to be gone.  Tell it loudly and with conviction, and let me know what happens.