I have been dreaming since 7 years to visit a religious place. I am mad about this place and I hoped someday I will be able to visit it. Finally, that day came on October 25th 2022 and I travelled with excitement and gratitude. I stayed there for almost a week. I was lost in devotion and had tears of joy. Trip ended and I came back with the dreams of permanently settling down in this place someday in future. I was flying and was lost in my sweet, little dreams.

And then, “teacher life” sent me an unforgettable lesson and brought me back to the reality. After coming back home, I went through terrible food poisoning and had to be admitted to hospital in emergency. I stayed in hospital for 3 days. This unexpected episode of ill-health taught me some lessons. Here are my learnings.

1. Home is heaven: I loved travelling to spiritual places and ashrams. My husband and I travelled a lot. I enjoyed planning the trip, exploring the ashrams and being in a new place. I always dreamt of settling down in a Himachal Pradesh village or Vrindavan or Rishikesh near an ashram. In this travelling spirit, I did not appreciate Hyderabad(the place where I live) and my home very much. When I was in hospital, all I dreamt was to be in the comfort of my home. It did not matter to me in which city my home is present. I finally realized my home is heaven and God placed me in a perfect city.
2. Life is a reflection of mind: Due to ill-ness, I could not meditate or do any other spiritual practices. I was just sleeping or lying down. I had same amount of wealth like before, same wonderful family but I was quite depressed and frustrated. I could not appreciate the medical help and family support I received. My mind only complained. I understood very clearly that if my mind is chaotic, life feels terrible no matter what I have or not.
3. Importance of Psychotherapy: When I was in hospital, I was quite depressed as it was tough for me to take so many medicines into my body. I always believed in minimal medical intervention for my body and now, I am just at the mercy of medicines. Tubes, drips and injections increased my frustration and I could not handle it gracefully. I got my psychotherapy healing done from IWC and I felt calmer and stronger. I realized how important Psychotherapy is in facing life as it is. Yes, situations in life cannot be changed but we can always take the support of Psychotherapy and go through the tough situations with calmness.
4. Don’t take things for granted: During this illness, I realized how many things I took for granted in my life like the freedom to move my body, my regular meditation, my family, my job as an energy healer and energy healing teacher, good health, comfort of my home, energy in my body and so many more things. I am inspired to live each day with more intensity, mindfulness and gratitude.
5. Family is more important than work: I could clearly see how much my family has done for me in this tough time. My family members changed all their plans and prioritized my well-being over their interests and plans. My husband could not even sleep peacefully for few hours in these 3 days. Many times in the past, I prioritized my work and interests over family and now I realize it is a foolish thing to do so. My work will not take care of me when I need the help. It is my family who will take care of me. Work is important but not too important than the family.
6. Health is Wealth: I know this is a cliché but it is the truth. Good health is one of the most precious blessings of life. Our body has so many aspects and if everything(or even a major portion of the body) is working great, it calls for a celebration and infinite gratitude. I also understood good health is something that needs to be safeguarded carefully everyday like financial assets.
7. Importance of meditation and self-healing: My travel schedule was too hectic and I could not meditate or do self-healing. I visited many temples but my mind could not be disciplined. It carried judgements and disappointments at times. Surprisingly, I felt lot more happy when I meditated from my home. Chanting is great, bhajans are great, lectures are great, devotion is great, temples are great but they are only add-ons to my meditation and energy healing. There were many days in my life when I was lost in the bliss and peace due to a simple 30 minutes meditation or 15 minutes self-healing. I realized nothing in this world could bring me peace other than my wellness meditation and self-psychotherapy. This became more clear to me in the hospital. “So, what are you dreaming or running about when you have the treasure of meditation and energy healing with you?”- This is the question my inner self asked me and I have no answer.

These are some lessons I learnt in this phase of illness.

I am deeply grateful to the team of doctors and nurses who helped me survive this phase. Special thank you to my neighbour Arun and his family for going extra mile in supporting us. Ever grateful to the healing support I received from IWC. And I can never thank enough my family members who gave their everything. Thank you all the friends, neighbours, well-wishers, students, healing clients and my boss Manjula who prayed for me and blessed me. And my big thank you to God, my Guru and the greatest teacher called life for this life-transforming experience. Excited to restart my life with these lessons.

Sarve jana sukhino bhavanthu!

–Contributed by Geetanjali Balachander