OPENING DOORS

‘ Allo Vera .......            

“I’ve been down so long, it’s starting to look like up” are the chorus lines from a Seasick Steve song. In this case you could just substitute my name as I was lower than a snakes belly just after Christmas this year. A combination of illness, infection, exhaustion, mood swings and general lethargy and depression had seen me lose my joie de vivre, suffer constantly with pain and stiffness, insomnia  and weight gain. A chance meeting in a coffee shop would lead to more than the consumption of pecan plaits.

Vera Whelan is quiet. Unassuming, grounded, stable and in fact the polar opposite of me. Which is good. “Come to me for a session, I may be able to help” .

(I should at this point add that I had met her before when I signed up and paid for a series of Yoga classes and attended only 2 !  -  Self sabotage  at its finest. Through a series of phone calls where she desrcibed my Heart energy as a beautiful Emerald green I ascertained where her rooms were and got my Octogenarian Father to drive me out.)

The Kyle Gallery in Crossabeg used to be a school house and her  treatment room is a relaxing tourqoise. There are tea lights lit and charts on the walls showing the energy channels of the body. The sounds are of the sea -  waves, dolphins, gulls. It is very relaxing. Because my persona is normally somewhere way past high doh, and I have a constant manic thought process and am usually skidding from pillar to post,  I was almost swaying with complete exhaustion when I stood on the mat for her to “read” my energy channels with her hands.

“Oh, Michelle” she says. “You are not in your body at all.”

Vera was studying at Art College when she was herself diagnosed with M.E. and used bio- energy to treat and remove her symptoms. She trained in the Mandala Yoga Ashram in Wales, and in Ireland with Jenny Beekan, and the legendary Michael O’ Doherty. ( He is renowned as the guy who “fixed” Michael Flatley when his famous legs just stopped. ) She explains that the frequency of clients energy manifests as colour in the creative brain, and that the therapist can literally see the blockage. It’s like how electricity works. A house is filled with electricity but there is only a socket to channel it. Ditto, the human body.

It is part of the human condition that we spend an inordinate amount of time “in our heads”  ( or off them !) and it is part of the bio-energy practice to bring awareness into the body. To be present. To be grounded, and so she led me to the bed and I lay down like a hundred year old woman and tried to relax. My butterfly mind was even then trying to sabotage the process and my thoughts were running at a mile a minute. I was already analysing the session, and trying to imagine how I would write it – which is surely counter productive. I closed my eyes and focused on deep chakra breathing and tried to calm down and be in the NOW. Vera placed her hands over my ears and I felt like crying. It is a beautiful feeling. In a world where we have an instant gratification mentality and a goldfish memory, it is so nice to be just touched . As she moved around me I could feel myself calming and relaxing and when she moved down to my ankles and held them firmly I was finally coming back into my self.

“Wow” said Vera, when the session ended. “In all my years of treatments I have never worked on anyone who was so high and had so much colour and presence around them. Your problem is that you are never present in your body and are speeding and playing with the angelic forces around you. You need to be focusing on your feet and legs and be grounded all the time.”

Grounded ? I barely know what that means. When she told me to get up I could barely move. Feeling like I weighed about fifty  stone, I lurched from the bed and tried to get my boots and coat on. Dear reader, if I tell you that I was slumped like a four stone bag of spuds against the window of the car on the way back  and had barely the ability to put the key in the door when I got home, you will realise that this stuff works . And quickly. These are not stand-alone sessions and are usually followed up by about two to three treatments in quick succession, ( in MY case ...........SIX ! ) and the client usually feels instantly better and pain and blockages are released. These sessions combine powerful movements which help clear and maintain the physical, emotional, and mental well being and health of the body. On subsequent visits Vera described “an orange shower of sparks pouring out of your spine” , and “legs that are like tree trunks rooted in the earth” . She wasn’t joking. One of the many benefits was indeed a feeling of being aware of feet and legs and consciously bringing my attention back to them. In my own meditation practices I have always been aware that to be out of ones egoic mind , it is necessary to “go” into the feet.

In summation, my thinking became far more relaxed and positive. Aches and pains disappeared and a feeling of well being and calm takes over. My sleeping pattern improved dramatically and I just generally felt “better” . Whether you are a convert or a sceptic there is definitely a link between this energy treatment and the ability of the body to repair, and function, and enhance the quality of life of the client.

 

Figure 1 This is NOT what it was like !!

Vera Whelan – Bio-Energy Therapist/Yoga Master

Kyle Gallery,

Crossabeg,

Co. Wexford.

Tel.05391 – 28433 . Mob. 086 – 4009535 email – vewheel@eircom.net.