Cleansing & Nourishing—The Path of True Change

True change is a challenge and sometimes very painful. Transforming one’s self means eliminating (cleansing) the old patterns and building (nourishing) new patterns consistent with the new person to which we aspire. We often want to just add our new self to our old self without doing anything to prepare ourselves for the new reality. Like the Christian scriptures says:

“Neither do people pour new wine into old wine skins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wine skins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wine skins, and both are preserved.” (Matt 9:17 NIV)

Or

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. For the patch will pull away from the garment, and a worse tear will result.” (Matt 9:16 NIV)

In the world of healing and health, the poison, infection, or unhealthy living pattern must be eliminated in order for any meaningful healing and wholeness to occur.

I am learning that this is true for all levels of life and reality. We must cleanse ourselves of the old, inhibitions and practices of life and living in order for the new to occur or grow. If we don’t, then there is an experience of “war” that happens within the person and in the entire external world.

My granddaughter, Riley, had a stress fracture in her leg, near her knee. Her parents tried many different things—vitamins, rest, homeopathic remedies, even crutches—to heal the fracture. None of those worked, until her holistic chiropractor, using muscle testing, found that her body was filled with some heavy metals. He put her on some supplements meant to clear the body of those metals and her leg immediately started to heal. The vitamins, minerals and the homeopathic remedies weren’t fighting the metal, but did the work needed to heal the fracture. She is now running around and happy again.

I also think this is what is happening in our world today, even in the political and religious realms. The past sexual abuse within the Catholic Church’s leadership and within much of the United States’ political, entertainment, and sports world is exposed now to the light and the painful cleansing is occurring. When the poison is removed, then the healing can occur. But if it is denied and not cleansed, then “war” will result.

For me, this cleansing-nourishing process is what we need spiritually as well. When I sit down and begin meditating, using certain cleansing and nurturing mantras, I am healing my soul. I am moving myself closer and closer to my true divine, infinite and perfect nature, as yoga would say. In Christian terms, I am becoming more and more like Christ. Even Jesus of Nazareth let go of all his power, “emptied himself” (Phil 2:7 NAB) and surrendered to his own divinity. Then was he able to experience the glory of his oneness with God.

It can be the same thing for us! Meditation will allow us to let go of all the painful, negative, hateful, fearful patterns within ourselves so that our inner divinity can nurture us to a new life of joy, peace and prosperity. The neat thing about meditation is that although transformation is a two-step process, we can experience the unity of the transformative process by meditating faithfully, every day.

Happy cleansing-nourishing to you!

Namaste’