Healing Arthritis with Martial Arts and Board Breaking

A Special Sneak Peek of the Arthritis Coaching Coarse



Learn how to get 2 free weeks of the Arthritis Coaching Coarse
For more information about Barbara and her book visit her website.

Read along with the Video

Today I am going to be talking about martial arts, in particular board breaking and what I’ve learned about healing from arthritis through this practice. And I’ve got a board here today which I will be breaking, but first I’m going to kind of set you up to get the full benefit of what I’ll be doing; because even if board breaking seems kind of esoteric and it doesn’t have anything to do with your life, there are really some important lessons to be learnt. So, the first thing that I’m wanting to illustrate actually is that even though my hands were so painful that I couldn’t turn doorknobs without a lot of pain—all my pens and pencils had these adapters because it was hard to close my hands very much. I had a hard time touching anything that was cold; like a cold steering wheel or pulling something out of the freezer. Now they’re just fine, so the first thing I am wanting you to get is that it is possible to cure arthritis, even really severe arthritis—I was in a wheelchair for years.

And then the second thing is that healing arthritis isn’t just a physical healing. There is almost always an emotion, a mental, and a spiritual component to any kind of healing, including arthritis. And the act of board breaking, it revolutionized my thinking about this process because it so clearly demonstrated what was going on. So when I was taught how to break a board in my dojo we were asked to write an obstacle on the board so the board represents an obstacle. And the first time I broke a board I was actually successful because the obstacle that I wrote was that I was afraid that some day I might get arthritis again. And what it showed me was because I was successful that that’s not really a real fear. The key to me was that it mattered so much to be healed and to be well that I was able to connect with the space behind the board. So one of the principles in healing is that you’ve got to—no matter how solid, how impossible it seems to break through whatever obstacle whether it’s healing arthritis or anything else, you’ve really got to connect to the space that will open up if you break through. So there’s really got to be something in your life that is so wonderful that you can connect to if you were healed that it motivates you to go there. Otherwise, who wants to hit up against that obstacle—you know, it just hurts. And so the first principle is striking all the way through, not stopping at the obstacle, but having a clean strike.

The second principle…and the second time I broke a board in our dojo or I attempted to, I actually hurt my hand really badly. And there were two reasons; one is I didn’t have proper technique. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had never done a knife hand strike before and with that if you hit too high up you can break bones, if you hit too low down you can break bones. You have to hit right here, on that part of your hand to correctly break the board because anything else is going to hurt you. And with arthritis there are many, many things that people try to heal themselves, but only certain techniques will actually work. And when they work, they work really, really well. So it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve mangled yourself using a technique that doesn’t work—if you stop doing that and you do what works, you can actually successfully break a board. So the second time, when I wasn’t successful, one, I had a wrong technique and two, the obstacle that I had written on the board was one that I hadn’t resolved yet. I didn’t feel like I deserved actually to break through barrier and I written down: I’ve got a tendency to rescue people in my life and I will put their needs ahead of mine. I didn’t want to do that rescuing anymore, but I didn’t think I deserved it. If I have the time, energy often, before I did this exercise, I’d actually give it to somebody else before I’ll let that time and energy fuel the wonderful things in my life that I would rather be doing.

And so I mangled my hand and in that moment the sensei the soka of my dojo said, “What did you just do?” And I knew I had pulled my punch where I didn’t strike all the way the through and so I had really intensified the way I had mangled my hand. It was really an illumination because I had not thought that I deserved that free space behind the board and I was the only one that kept me from doing that technique correctly. 1. I hadn’t enquired as to the right technique; and 2. I didn’t think I even deserved to do it correctly.

So then my third big revelation came because he said, “Okay do it again.” And here, you know it’s actually true that my hand swelled up later that night and it took about three weeks to heal and I was working with a hand that was very definitely mangled. It was very hurt, but when I actually connected with the space behind the board and when I connected with the fact that I deserved to be in that space and I used the correct technique: I never even felt the board as I broke it. It was so simple. It was so easy. And healing with arthritis is like that too. Often what keeps us from our physical healing isn’t that we can’t do it, it’s one, for some reason we haven’t hit on the right technique and two, we don’t think we deserve it for some reason. There’s still something unresolved.

So, I’m now going to break this board. And for you to get maximum benefit out of this process, I want you to imagine this very solid looking board being whatever it is that’s keeping you right now from healing from arthritis. So name it in your head, really connect with it. And then I want you to realize that even something as solid as this board or as insurmountable as healing your arthritis might feel, on a molecular level it’s really an illusion that this is solid. It is mostly space. Atoms are mostly space. This is mostly atoms and there’s a way to connect with that spaciousness where the obstacle ceases to exist. And more than that, I want you to connect also with what it is in your life that truly makes your life worth living—that you could do more of, that you could do better if you were to heal your arthritis. What is it that would be so wonderful that you would be willing to completely move through the board, strike through that board right into that life that’s waiting for you? Alright? Now we’re going to break the board.

Alright, now it’s time to break through whatever is preventing you from healing. Ready? Set, here we go. Hiy!

So, how was that for you when the board broke? Did you go right through that board? Or did you have some sort of obstacle that mentally or emotionally or spiritually kept you from breaking through your arthritis? This is really, really critical information because if there is some sort of block and you have some inkling what it might be, now we can work with it. This is very, very rich territory. There are many different ways that I will be giving you in this coaching course that you can work with these obstacles and I just want you to make a note somewhere what it is so that you will have that available as we go through these different techniques. So no matter whether you were obstacle free—which is totally fantastic—or whether you hit an obstacle and you now have some inkling what it is, either way this is fantastic information for you to know and we will be working with it in the next session.

Learn how to get 2 free weeks of the Arthritis Coaching Coarse
For more information about Barbara and her book visit her website.

Guided Meditations – Is a Bare Bones Style the Best?

What is Meditation?

What people mean when they say guided meditation can be almost as variable as what people mean when they use the word meditation. If you don’t ask, you might be quite surprised at what someone actually means.

For some people meditation means creative visualization, targeted thinking, systematic relaxation of muscles, sitting still without talking, or any number of other activities. For our purposes here, none of these activities qualify as meditation.

For our purposes here, what does qualify is a special kind of attention that makes it possible to radically retrain your relationship to pain.

I teach this special kind of attention because it is the kind of meditation that has so transformed my life, even though for years I used an electric wheelchair to get around, I am now arthritis-free.

I can’t guarantee these meditations will have the same kind of profound outcome for you, but that is my hope. It is the best way I know to have such an undistracted experience of yourself that you are able to experience the gift of deep and often impossible seeming levels of healing.

Benefits of Being Only With What Is

Because I am not intending to induce in you any transient feel-good states, I don’t include any feel good music on my guided meditation CDs. During our guided meditations together, I had rather you have a direct and focused experience of whatever you are spontaneously experiencing in that moment. The last thing I want to do is use external distraction, even if it is pleasant, to distract you from experiencing yourself.

One woman was initially quite disappointed when she started using my anger guided meditation CD. She was expecting beautiful music and beautiful words to help her not feel angry anymore. The last thing she wanted was to be more in contact with her anger. She was in the middle of a difficult divorce. Her anger was intense. Despite her disappointment, however, she decided to use the anger guided meditation CD every night for several weeks.

By the end of that time she had had a change of heart. She contacted me to get another set of the CDs. The ongoing experience of being with her anger without making it bad or wrong and without needing to act on it, was changing her life. She was feeling the benefits so strongly that she spontaneously gave her anger CD to a friend who was also going through a tough time. After just a few days, she missed the anger guided meditations CD enough that she wanted a copy for herself again.

She still didn’t particularly like the fact that the anger guided meditation CD brought her into deeper contact with her anger, but she loved how the rest of her life was gradually changing for the better because of doing this work.

Temporary Versus Long Term Transformation

If you want a guided meditation that will make you feel temporarily better every time you use it, you will probably not initially like my CD set, especially if you are in intense emotional or physical pain. What you are likely to experience is not distraction from your pain but a clearer, less distracted experience of that pain. This isn’t always pleasant. However, these practices do create ideal conditions for radical transformation and healing.

No matter what your initial expectations are, I encourage you to make at least a several week commitment to listening to these CDs, so that you too can begin to experience their healing potential.

Check out my six CD guided meditation set!

Arthritis Treatment and Emotional Release

Arthritis Treatment: Over the years, I have spoken with many people who either have or once had arthritis. One of the most striking things about those who are able to completely heal themselves, is that they have sought healing not just for their bodies, but also at the level of their thoughts, emotions and spirit. I have been struck again and again, how with an illness as difficult as arthritis, it is generally mandatory to address the body, but that alone isn't enough.

Emotional Release—The Importance

Last December I developed chest congestion, fatigue and a high fever. You could say that I had contracted what half of Phoenix seemed to have caught and on one level you would be right. But there is more to the story. No matter how much I rested, no matter how much I humidified the air, not matter what home remedies I used, and no matter what prescription medicine I took, I couldn't seem to get over the lung congestion.

About a month into this congestion, I was talking with one of my teachers. She said what I was holding in my lungs was grief. And indeed I was grieving. When I did what she suggested to release grief, I felt a shift. Within half an hour my lungs had cleared enough that I could breathe freely. Within a day they were almost entirely clear.

Arthritis Treatment and Emotional Release—How it Feels

In the case of my successful arthritis treatment, what was hindering me from healing was two underlying emotions, fear and anger, that were stored in my body. They were stored so deeply, that I couldn't have even told you they were there, until I reached a place during meditation where these emotions started to release.

Just like with the grief trapped in my lungs, when the fear and anger that had been causing my arthritis left my body, what I experienced was a slight shift within my being. If I hadn't have been paying close attention, I might have missed it. After the shift, there was a sense of more ease in my body and something returning to the way it should be.

With the releasing of grief there was no crying. With the releasing of anger there were no angry words or gestures. With the release of fear, there was nothing other than an uncomfortable feeling leaving my body. The healthful changes in my body were immediate and lasting.

Sometimes we think that releasing emotions involves some sort of big display. Emotions can release in a healing way at those times too, but those sorts of displays don't necessarily lead to healing. What is critical is not the outward display, but the release inside your being, which can occur whether or not anything is apparent at the surface.

Guided Meditation CDs for Emotional Release

To help people learn this emotional release process, I have created a 6-CD set of guided meditations that teach some powerful and effective ways to do this release work. What I teach I learned through the Buddhist tradition, particularly the Tibetan practice of Tonglen and the ancient Buddhist practice of Vipassana, which is the modern day practice most like what the historical Buddha taught.

Let me guide you through the meditations that were instrumental to the releases of anger that lead to my own healing from arthritis.

Anger leads to inflammation in the body. Releasing it is critical to deep healing of arthritis. It is better than any anti-inflammatory drug. I recommend adding it to your arthritis treatment program.

Sale on 2 CD set:

Intro Guided Meditation CD plus Anger Releasing CD.

Separately each CD is $27.

Get the 2 CD set for only $27: arthritis treatment and anger release CD set

View Barbara’s larger arthritis treatment guided meditation CD collection