When you inherently know something – it just is! 2


As a teacher and practitioner, I feel it is important to show you where my interest lie and how they began. Through a conversation I was privy to, it guided me to a lifelong interest in mind, body and spiritual matters, which ultimately led me to set up Avena ‘Mind & Body’.

My journey has not been an obvious one. In my late teens I was working as a puppeteer and performer for a puppet theatre company based in London. I later went on to set up my own puppet theatre company (that also used the name Avena) and freelanced as puppeteer and performer for some major television series and movies. All of which was great fun.

Some of my colleagues at the puppet theatre used Alternative Medicine and Holistic Therapies. One day, during the lunch break, I was privy to a conversation about a friend of one of the performer’s, who had cancer. The performer talked about his personal perception of illness and in particular cancer. In his eyes, the cancer was the body’s way of manifesting and dealing with, unexpressed emotional turmoil that was going on for the individual with the cancer. The performers exact words were “the individual’s body it trying to commit suicide, because the emotional turmoil is being ignored and not being dealt with”. I was completely ‘blown away’ by the conversation. For me it was a very radical thing to have said and left a strong impression on me. In fact, it opened my mind and introduced me to a world I knew nothing about and to concepts that were completely alien to me!

Some years later I recalled that conversation. As I reflected I realised my view of Western-Allopathic Medicine had completely changed. I had become an avid convert to Alternative Medicine and Holistic Therapies. Exactly when this happened was not clear, as it had been a gradual process, which had occurred over time, but it had been heightened through my use of and on-going introduction to, a variety of different Alternative Medicines and Holistic Therapies. I now inherently knew that Alternative Medicine and Holistic Therapies were a credible way of healing the mind, body, spirit.

This was quite a profound thing for me to have realised, as there is a subtle difference about thinking something and knowing something. When you think something you often find yourself having to justify why you think it…

When you inherently know something, it is such an integral part of the way you think, that it needs no justification – it just is!

This might be a subtle difference, but it is a very important difference. Think about the things you inherently know, opposed to the things you think you know.

Prior to my realisation of the above, at the beginning of the eighties I attended an Exegesis training seminar. Exegesis was an encounter course developed by Robert D’Aubigny, who was a self-styled guru, who was offering a fast track to enlightenment! Well I guess it didn’t completely work, as I’m still here and haven’t transcended yet! That said, it was the catalyst that started my on-going interest in personal development and was a great life affirming and changing event, which I am glad to have experienced and taken part in.

A couple of years later I started to attend several different alternative therapy courses, including a self-hypnosis training course, which also enhanced who and how I am today. So much so, that a few years later I trained as a hypnotherapist, psychotherapist and self-hypnosis course facilitator.

In addition to hypnosis, I also became interested in different forms of bodywork and massage. I attended several different massage classes and related subjects and by the end of the eighties I had qualified as a masseur, aromatherapist and bodywork therapist. Later, I encountered Thai Yoga Massage and Shamanism – both practices were to have a profound impact on my life and I look forward to talking about these in future blogs, as I tell you more about my own personal journey.

I had now arrived at the point in my life where I completely stopped using all forms of Western-Allopathic Medicine and instead become a complete convert to Homeopathy, (and other forms of Holistic Therapy) which I have used for the last thirty years, as my main form of constitutional and preventative medicine – which in ‘plain speak’ means, I use Homeopathy on a regular basis, as a preventative form of medicine, to keep my mind, body, spirit, balanced and free from illness, which throughout the majority of my life, has affectively been achieved.

So, why do I use Alternative Medicines and Holistic Therapies as my main form of preventative medicine? Well since being privy to that conversation back in my late teens; I have grown to understand a lot more about how and why alternative forms of medicine work and why we become ill in the first place. I have discovered that many Alternative Medicines and Holistic Therapies stem from, or are in fact original forms of, medicine that has successfully treated millions of people, across the world, for thousands of years, prior to the arrival of Western-Allopathic Medicine.

Western-Allopathic Medicine is still in its infancy in comparison to many of the ancient medicines and treatments, which are now often referred to as Complimentary Medicine, Alternative Medicine or Holistic Therapies.

Interestingly, many of these ancient forms of medicine are slowly being introduced into mainstream NHS hospitals all over the country. For instance, you can receive Acupuncture in many NHS hospitals and there are many GP’s who offer their patients Homeopathic remedies as an alternative to some of the pharmaceutical drugs proscribed by the majority of Western-Allopathic Medical Practitioners.

In sharing the beginning of my story, I am hoping to inspire you to pursue your own personal journey into the world of mind, body and spiritual matters and the use of Alternative Medicine and Holistic Therapies.

Love, light and laughter to you all,

Hagbard xxx


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