Living the Therapeutic Touch
By Barbara Janelle M.A.
First Published In Touch, Vol. VIII, no. 4, December 1996
We know how powerful our thoughts are in affecting the energy field during TT treatments and in long-distance TT. Clear intentionality and visualisation guide the Therapeutic Touch treatment. When we begin to recognise the power that our thoughts have on our health and our relationships, and we take responsibility for them, we begin to live Therapeutic Touch. The following story illustrates this.
I spent three months this past summer with my husband on sabbatical in the state of Maine. In September we took our boat up to some small, northern lakes for a few days. We have a Folbot, which is a kind of folding boat first developed for expeditions on African and South American rivers. It looks like a canoe but is much more stable. It is paddled like a kayak, so two people must work in unison.
When I go out in the boat by myself, I like to dawdle along the shore and watch for fish or let the wind take me sightseeing. This summer I got within touching distance of large turtles twice and floated by a beaver feeding. I’ll often stay out for three hours in the boat. My husband, on the other hand, is goal-oriented. He gets in the boat to go somewhere–fast.
We put the boat in the southern end of a quiet lake. My husband checked the map and found that the northern end was a few miles away. When we started paddling, it was obvious he was set on going to the other end of the lake. He set a fast pace and after a while I asked if we could go slower and observe more. “We don’t have to get to the end of the lake,” he said, without abating the pace. A while later, I said, “I’m not really enjoying this!” He slowed briefly and then quickly picked the pace up again. My resentment grew.
Well, we got to the end of the lake, and more than four hours later, we returned to our starting place. I had been sitting on a very lumpy cushion all this time, and when I got out of the boat, my back was in agony. I did Therapeutic Touch on myself and got enough relief that I could go out for dinner. However, when I got up the next morning, I was in great pain. Anyone who has suffered a back problem knows that every move, indeed every breath, is ruled by pain. We thought that this day’s boating trip might have to be canceled.
We went to a small restaurant for breakfast. The waitress came up and slammed the menus down on our table and snarled, “Do ya want coffee?” I could feel my teeth clamping together! Then I remembered something Caroline Myss had said on an audiotape that I had heard the previous week: “When we recognise that our thoughts have power, we must begin to assume responsibility for what we think.”
Rather than fall into anger, which would only increase the hostility, I chose to fill the restaurant with blue light instead. I built a ball of blue light in my hands and let it expand until it filled the room. Then I asked, “Please, let there be love here.” When the waitress returned minutes later, she was kind, courteous and efficient. We had a good breakfast and when we rose to leave, My back was fine! We had a wonderful and harmonious day out on another lake–paddling slowly, stopping for lunch on an island.
Dora Kunz speaks of the role that resentment plays in establishing illness, and I certainly experienced this. Initially, I blamed my back problem on the lumpy cushion and long period of sitting, but I believe now that it was due more to my resentment, growing unabated for several hours. When I consciously assumed responsibility for my thoughts, and acted to establish peace through intent and energy direction, my health improved as the harmony in the world around increased.
Note:
Since this experience, I have used intention and the ball of light to heal relationships over time and space. With Donna Logan Van Vliet’s help, I combined this approach with Machaelle Small Wright’s meditation for clearing a space for healing an illness that has existed over many generations in my family. see”Email on Healing Relationships”). –BJ 2/99