BALI is where the leading pioneers of healing and some of the oldest, most potent traditional eastern healers reside.
I had no idea what I had signed up for when I first came here to complete my first yoga teacher training under Emily Kruser, in 2017 – Emily has people from all over the world fly to Bali to learn from her.
The ancient healers tell me Bali is the liver of the earth. Where people come to heal.
People go to Ibiza to party, and Bali to heal it appears.
The Balinese don’t have much money but they have deep connections in their families, communities and faith. You could leave your purse, laptop etc and it would never get touched. It’s the monkeys or other tourists that would harm you from what I have learned, but never the locals. The Balinese have a great sense of humor, from their self taught English (if they aren’t wealthy which very few are).
The Balinese self taught surfers have surfed all their lives and know so much about the oceans, what type of wave is coming next, and telling the time by the position of the sun in the sky. They seem to all smoke, enjoy a beer and are wild flirts.
I have never had a bad meal in Bali and I am fussy! Now I have had plenty of bad swals, let me tell you. It costs the same price as London for a decent margarita and wine. Do not drink the local or Chilean wine. It’s a great place to reduce your drinking or to go tee-total.
Ubud is the part of Bali that is very spiritual and where all the healers, spiritual teachers tend to reside.
I remember at the height of my cynicism, receiving a healing from a man who was 90 odd in 2017. He didn’t speak a word of English and moved with remarkable ease with the aid of a stick. He prodded me a few times with his fingers and said ‘stick’. Then after, the translator told me my whole life story.
Freaky.
This healer worked with the feet, how each toe was connected to a body part, an organ.
He touched each toe, which felt fine until I felt immense pain at a particular toe, I screamed the place down and pushed him away. He told me my mind was too strong and that was why I sufferred. He was right, I was always too in my head, attached to an incessant river of thoughts, clinging to the past or future. Til this stage of my 29 years (the age I was then), I was not in my body, and was trying to force my way through life with my mind.
They say it is due to the Ley Lines of the earth that run through six historic sacred sites on the island, that make Bali so powerful in awakening you and bringing the hidden parts of you to the surface. For you to connect to the whole of you, you must connect to all your parts.
We all have emotions we have learned to repress/ hide, unconscious choices made to cope and survive best with what we knew. When we realise, what helped us survive, is now holding us back, there can be an urgency, in my teacher’s words, to “heal hard, heal fast” which only creates more suffering. It takes time to be able to feel what we have resisted unconsciously for so long.
The body chooses the best survival unconsciously and we learn emotional regulation from our parents. They teach us how to feel not through words but from our young senses integrating their behaviors. What emotions our parents resisted, we resist. According to Indian philosophy, we inherit all our parents’ traits, especially the ones that rile us about them and it’s our job to heal them. Fantastic.
I have no idea why I feel at home here in Bali.
This is my fourth time here and I tend to never go anywhere twice.
I am here working online and I don’t think I have ever felt so content.
I just know this is where I am meant to be and I can’t explain why.
This feeling is telling me this is what is right for me.
If you ever get the chance, it’s one of the most magical places if you can cope with 24 hours plus of travel. If you are curious about the world of healing, and discovering more about yourself, you will fall in love with this island.
You can listen to more Bali updates on my Wise Yourself Up podcast where I use my lived experience and my work to make healing accessible and relatable to help you take those steps in really taking care of you.
Listen to Carla at: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DGc41DvT4vpXfd2RYWhfi?si=944a2a166a9e4de6
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