NC Files:
File 3 - Article 8 Previous Index Next
Author: Lyanne Mitchell
Title: My Nature Cure Tools

When I first became a Nature Cure patient with Alec Milne as my Mentor, I was offered a visualisation technique to help me change and improve my life-style. I am no stranger to visualisation. I use it regularly during my meditation and have found it a powerful tool for calming...energising....and affirming.

I was to imagine that I was becoming the new owner of a horse. The animal was badly out of condition - lacking exercise and proper feeding. I was to take my new responsibility very seriously. I was expected to provide a healthy, balanced diet (the correct mixture of oats and hay!). I was to exercise the animal every day and most important of all, I was to love and care for her, learning her rhythms and gently guiding her towards optimum health and vitality.

Of course, the horse was me! (Childhood memories of galloping home after matinee Westerns on my 'trusty steed' came flooding back.) Harnessing the imagination is a wonderful way to begin any new regime. The power of the mind is awesome. I have long felt that the well known saying -'You are what you eat’ ...should be amended to - 'You are what you think’ as this predetermines not only what is eaten, but all other action.

THE GIFT HORSE

My teacher, very casually
Bestowed on me a horse.
"You'll need to learn to feed her -
And take her out of course.......
50 minutes every day -
.....Canter, walk and trot!"

"Ride and train her gently,
She's been cooped up too long.
Keep her feeding simple,
You really can't go wrong........
50 minutes every day -
.....Canter, walk and trot!"

"She's big and strong and powerful
Though now, she's fat and weak
Be patient, learn her rhythms
She should be fit and sleek.......
50 minutes every day -
......Canter, walk and trot!"

Two old friends had whispered
"This teacher's very wise.
If you seek his counsel,
Prepare for a surprise."
50 minutes every day -
......Canter, walk and trot!"





I was so impressed by my horse's progress; I was inspired to write the poem opposite. Two, much loved elderly friends within my church 'family' had told me of Alec Milne's work with Nature Cure ....he came highly recommended.

Back in 2000, my main reason for seeking help from a Nature Cure Mentor, was to lose weight, to become fitter and generally to regain a good standard of health. I was at an all-time 'low' - quite severely overweight, addicted to a sweet and fatty diet, prone to chet infections (and pleurisy,) and needing surgery for prolapse and an infected varicose vein in my left leg. As if this weren't enough, I was suffering a number of menopausal discomforts ie -cruel hormonal mood-swings and insomnia.

I am delighted to say that I am now 3 stones lighter, enjoying a healthy diet, full to the brim with fresh fruit and vegetables, and I now take about 2 hours daily exercise on not only my 'shank's pony' but also my newer 'steed' - my beloved bike! I was a keen cyclist when I was young and have returned to the saddle with the greatest pleasure. As a result of these improvements, my self esteem has been considerably boosted, along with my libido and general energy levels.

Nowadays, my regular NC tools are as follows :- the morning cold splash ( now a way of life ); two 20 minute walks; at least one hour's cycle run (in all weathers); fresh fruit and vegetables (organic when possible ); meditation and Reiki healing practice for myself and others. When colds or high temperatures hit me, I slow down, go to bed and embrace them as healing crises.... (Although I still need advice for dealing with these, and hope to find some within this issue). Chest infections, pleurisy, infected veins, prolapsed and the menopause, are all in the past and I look forward to being considerably fitter in my 60's than I have been in my 40's and 50's.

The NC learning process is not finite. It is the journey of a lifetime. I feel sure that most readers will agree that deep healing is not limited to the physical plane only, but involves the whole person - body, mind and spirit. I was sick at heart - as well as in body. The next theme for this File will be concerned with food / diet....and this will be our opportunity to discuss and share the huge issue of how we 'use' food.

Each journey - each life-span - follows a unique path. A new friend sent me the following 10 'rules’ - (author unknown) - found on a refrigerator door.

(1) You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it - but it is yours for the entire time, this time around.

(2) You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called LIFE. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant or stupid.

(3) There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The 'failed' experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately 'works’.

(4) A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms, until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

(5) Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of LIFE that does not contain its lesson. If you are ALIVE, there are always lessons to be learned.

(6) 'There' are no better than 'here'. When you're 'there' has become 'here', you will simply obtain another 'there' that will again, look better than 'here'.

(7) Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

(8) What you make of your life, is up to you. You have all the TOOLS and resources you need. What you do with them, is up to you. The choice is yours.

(9) Your answers lie inside you. The answers to Life's questions lie inside you. All you need is to look, listen and trust.

(10) You will forget all this.

__________________________________________________________________

I have been fortunate. I have found excellent guides and teachers along the way. They helped me to look inside through meditation......how to use my considerable energy in better ways ....and finally, to take responsibility for my own health and happiness. I learned that I can never satisfy a hungry heart with food.

My maternal grandmother was a firm believer in 'healthy old age’. I had a fortunate start in life. My parents brought me up on good wholesome home-cooking, a love of the great outdoors and cycling. These natural 'tools' were firmly in place within my childhood. I foolishly allowed a sedentary, pressurised career, (combining motherhood with tight deadlines)....and comfort eating in a vain effort to satisfy a hungry heart following bereavement...... to lead me away from these healthy habits.

I am tremendously grateful to all my Guides and Teachers. We all need help sometimes to learn our lessons! Through Nature Cure and the care of an extraordinary practitioner / mentor, I am now making real progress on the long journey back 'full circle', to the happy, confident self I had lost along the way.

Why does it sometimes take so long to re-learn and re-appreciate what we already thought we understood?