I started biting my nails when I was about 6 years old, or even earlier… I remember my mother telling me not to do it, and eventually buying some foul tasting liquid to put on my nails. Despite this awful taste I persisted. It became a very unconscious habit that increased when I was aware of being anxious, for example reading a tension-inducing book or in my teens watching a literally – for me – a “nail-biting” TV programme! As I grew older and became more self conscious I tried to hide my nails by folding my fingers inside my palms so no one would notice. I felt helpless to do anything about it, although I would like to have stopped the habit. I chewed all the way through my school years.
I got married with bitten nails and let the end of my fingers drop when people wanted to see my engagement and wedding rings. At one point I even went for a manicure and had false nails put on. This worked for a while as I couldn’t chew my nails through the false ones. But even though my nails grew a little underneath, when the false nails fell off my own nails were so weak and brittle that they split and I chewed once more. Later I decided to try hypnotherapy in an effort to stop my habit: this technique worked for a while, and I dutifully performed the self hypnotherapy programme I had been given, but this didn’t hold and I once again chewed my nails. I was trying to treat the symptoms, not the cause.
As a result of being introduced to Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine teachings 8 years ago, I realised that self-love was a new concept to me! I began to understand that my self-loathing and lack of self-love in my case manifested as nail biting which I used as a form of anger against myself. It was safer to literally “eat myself” than to show my anger outwardly. How unloving was that?! My self esteem had been very low for a long time.
I began to alter my former lifestyle habits by choosing a gentler rhythm in my daily activities: this involved sleeping according to how my body felt and also eating a diet that suited me, for true nourishment – foods that didn’t make me feel heavy or bloated. I became more aware of how I moved about in my daily life and began a gentle daily walk. I stopped pushing myself, which had a hardening effect on me and my body. I became a lot more accepting of myself and appreciating myself for who I truly am, not what I had been told I was from childhood. I noticed how I began to feel so much better about and even like myself, something unheard of for as long as I could remember. I had spent a lot of money on various spiritual modalities before Universal Medicine, but nothing had really changed, as I had only experienced temporary relief from some symptoms.
I began to develop love for myself, which meant that I cared for and nurtured my body more, and this has lasted until this day.
I have also received Esoteric Healing from Universal Medicine practitioners. A few years after my initial introduction to Universal Medicine and as my self-love grew, I observed that I was no longer constantly chewing my nails… and in fact my nails were growing. This happened without any trying to stop! It seemed like a miracle to me. Fifty years of a habit evaporated over the next few months. Wow! I no longer hide my nails and hands out of embarrassment and even paint my nails, have manicures and choose to wear rings on occasions. Thank you to Serge Benhayon and all the amazing Universal Medicine practitioners who have supported me over the past few years as I return to the true me – a work still in progress.
By Sue Q, Somerset UK
Further Reading:
Learning to Feel my Feelings: Human Beings, not Human Doings
Words on Serge Benhayon 
What a time to stop biting or sucking our thumb as at present it has become a no, no, to put our hands near our face.
At the age of 4 as it is still a vivid memory, can I share that a sales man at the door noticed I was sucking my thumb and he assured me that he had sucked his nail away and it would also happen to me if I continued to suck mine, so I immediately stopped and years latter I found out he had it shot of during the 2 WW. But had I stopped or simply replaced one habit with another? True healing as shared By Serge Benhayon brings a remarkable difference to all we do and our healing never stops so one day I will deal with what ever the replacement was.
Well shared Richard – for when we are feeling more solid, there is less of a tendency to bite our nails – and thus it (the nail biting) is a sign of the anxiety, a sense of not really knowing how to handle what we are feeling, which again confirms the sensitive beings that we are.
When we can get to the root cause of any issue, the nomination of it is incredibly powerful. It does feel miraculous and liberating when we can let something go that we have been living with for a long time, and once we have let it go there is a wonder at it ever having been there at all!
I’ve got spots on my arm that I pick at times. The part about it being safer to eat yourself than let the emotion out in another way really stuck with me. If I don’t pick there’s a very strong emotion and reading this has got me wondering: what if I didn’t pick at let myself feel that intense emotion? Got nothing to loose by being curious.
Self-love was a new concept for me as well. Even just simply to be gentle with myself, was something that had never entered into my awareness as an option. And that says so much about what was propelling my every choice of action for a very long time.
Teaching young children to be gentle with themselves and each other can be taught so naturally at home and even in school. How come so many of us were unaware of this possibility when we were growing up?! As you say this says a lot about what was ‘propelling my every choice of action…’. What energy do we allow and thus live in that allows so much self abuse?
This is a great blog for everyone to read and discuss how our habits can show us the disregard we live with daily. The other great point you raise is that you were treating the symptom and not the cause. How many times do we take a head ache tablet to relieve the pain of it but don’t consider why we have a headache in the first place.
Yes treating the symptoms may be a relief, but doesn’t reach the true cause that needs to be addressed for true healing to take place
So many of our creature habits are due to our lack of self-loving ways of living and by starting out being at-least gentle as you have Sue makes habitual habits simple to be life changing, which is absolutely amazing.
Symptoms that we have are all a means for the body to communicate to us about an imbalance. When our normal balance is out, there must be a consequence. Hence the focus should not be on removal of the symptoms alone, without addressing the imbalance.