I recently attended Atousa’s silent retreat, and it was a profoundly transformative healing experience. As I walked through the wilderness and along the river, I felt an incredible connection with nature—the rustling leaves, the ripples created by ducks on the water, the decaying wood, the vibrant stones beneath my feet. In that moment, I realized that we are all made of the same elements. A part of my body was once a stone, a leaf, or a piece of wood, and in time, they too will become something else. This realization brought a deep sense of relaxation, as my entire being opened up and connected with nature.

When I returned to my resting place, I lay down and became aware of the chronic pain in my body—the stiffness and coldness in my back, the aching shoulders, the persistent headaches, the discomfort in my hip. In the silence, I directed my energy towards my back, and to my amazement, the cold, rigid pain that had troubled me for years vanished. No massage, ointment, or heat therapy had ever fully relieved it before, yet now it was simply gone. Encouraged by this, I turned my attention to my head, where anxiety-induced tension had tormented me for so long. I gently soothed it with my energy, and the deep, tight bands of pain that no amount of pressure or massage could release melted away.

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Irene Haijing Qin - MD Part 1