Tips to recover from a General Anaesthetic

 

A recurring issue I encounter in my clinic is that of recovery from a general anaesthetic. I have people come in distressed, confused and depressed sometimes long after the physical issues have resolved. They report not feeling in their bodies, feeling under attack, and occasionally not even feeling like they are themselves anymore.  As this is such a common problem, and doctors do warn patients that depression can occur after a general anaesthetic, I thought that I would share what it looks like from my perspective and give some tips on how to minimise the impact.

Being under a general is very traumatic for the body, mind and spirit. Basically, the body thinks the ‘bus driver’ is dead and therefore it goes into shock.  Often the person’s spirit leaves the body although it obviously doesn’t detach fully. The first thing I have to do then is to clunk the person back down into their body, to anchor them in and to ground them back into the earth. I can see the relief in their eyes, and I often get comments such as, “Oh I feel normal again!” or “I can see out of my eyes again properly!”

The next issue is that while surgeons believe that they are only cutting through layers of skin, muscle and fat, there is also significant damage to the auric shield around our bodies and the chakras above the area being worked on. Unfortunately, these rips in the aura leave the person energetically unprotected and open to negative attack. Because hospitals, where people are at their most vulnerable, are not spaces which are regularly cleared, there can be a lot of heavy negative energy lurking around. When we are not protected energetically, we can pick this up. Now we are lugging around someone else’s fear or panic or sadness all the while trying to recover from an acute medical procedure. This is especially an issue for empaths and energetically sensitive people.

Tips to avoid post general anaesthetic distress:

• Do a full visualisation of the operation, with everything going well, and talk your body through what is going to happen. Emphasise that you are only asleep and calm and have not left the building! (Visualisation is very positive to do anyway. I have friends who visualised a particularly nasty bone break coming together like so many jigsaw pieces. The surgeon commented afterwards that he had been concerned about the operation, but it had all come together, just like a jigsaw!!)
• Get a friend or relative to hold your ankles and rub your feet once you are in recovery. If they are more confident, they can also imagine gently drawing your energy down into your body and then down into the earth.
• ‘Pump’ up your aura before and after surgery – just imagine the auric bubble pumped up like a taut balloon and then visualise a nice coating of silver on the outside. (Again you can ask someone else to help you do that.)
  
• Buy some space clearing and/or auric clearing sprays for use before and after surgery or make your own with a little salt in water, 4 drops of clove oil and 3 drops of geranium oil. Spray under the bed in your hospital room and around your aura. Also spray onto your hands and then move your hands in a circular motion through whatever chakra covers the area operated on. It can also be useful to also focus on the solar plexus chakra as that is where we can be vulnerable to drawing in other people’s energy.