Where I live it rains a lot and it’s warm for most of the year. The soil is rich volcanic clay. Things grow really well, including grass and bugs. Along with those wonderful things come mould, mud, mosquitoes, tropical parasites and a roaring trade in lawn mowing and garden equipment repairs. And along with all that also comes – ANT MOUNDS!
Picture yourself coming out on a sunny morning to see your beautifully mowed, bright green spring lawn covered in little conical mounds of mud at the rate of up to 20 per square metre: like a minefield on your lovely lawn that you have to step carefully through, unless you want mud packed into your soles and up the sides of your shoes, or between your toes and under your toenails.
Many people in this area react by poisoning the ants, to keep their lawns looking pretty. All good, yeah?
Well, hang on a minute, let’s look at what’s really going on here. That high rainfall and that rich clay soil means – waterlogging. I watched my lovely big tomatoes and avocado tree curl up their toes and die in one very wet season, and there were shortages of avocadoes, tomatoes and many other fruits and vegetables all over the region.
So, what have ant mounds got to do with it? Well, ants live in a dense network of tunnels – like a city under your lawn. When they make those mud mounds they are bringing up all the soil that’s washed into their hallways due to the rains. They clear their underground city’s tunnels thus allowing air to flow though.
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The piles of mud brought topside can at last dry out in the sporadic warm sun. And they are in tiny grains, no longer the big rock-hard, water-repellent clumps they used to be. Thus what the ants do for themselves, they are also doing for everyone, keeping the soil aerated and soft so plant roots are happy and plants can grow well and be productive. Great, so we must accept the good work the ants are doing and perhaps adjust our perspectives on aesthetics.
But what’s this ant mound blog got to do with health and healing?
Well, just like that ant-soil-plant-ecosystem process, there are ALL kinds of processes of clearing and correction to maintain vitality and balance whether it be the ants, bandicoots, groundhogs or badgers digging up our gardens, or entire rainforests, deserts, oceans, coastal reefs, etc., right down to our cells and our body. Our body is also an ecology which maintains itself dynamically, clearing out stagnation and old stuff to keep the flow going and the balance harmonious. And our body process, the ant and soil process and all others like it, are connected and mutually dependent in one big sphere of life.
Do we treat our bodies like many people treat the ant mounds? Do we complain about the farts, coughs, rashes, headaches, pains, cellulite and pimples? Do we resort to various treatments to keep ourselves ‘looking good’ (on the outside) like a pretty lawn, while the stagnation and old toxic substances and energies build up unseen below the surface because they are not being cleared?
Do we want a temporarily pretty lawn at the expense of the long-term health of our garden and the land? Do we want a nice-looking body, one that we can do to whatever we want at the expense of our long-term health and wellbeing? Well, ‘better out than in’ as they say, is my feeling here. Of course clearing something from our bodies can be uncomfortable and not-so-pretty at times.
What if we were to change our views and accept the lovely ecological re-balancing opportunity being offered by our illnesses?
With this I don’t mean trying to get sick, continuing to disregard and abuse our bodies or keep accumulating toxins, which will then force our body to correct and clear itself! What I do suggest is taking a deeper look at our relationship to how things look on the surface, our comfort, convenience, and aesthetics, and what might really be going on underneath as a totality.
So perhaps when we see those ant mounds, or holes dug by the other little ‘ecology minders’ in our gardens, it can be a reminder to us about the ecology within our bodies and how that connects to and is part of the whole big picture of life on Earth.
Inspired by the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
By Dianne Trussell BSc Hons, Goonellabah, NSW, Australia
Related Reading:
What are Illness and Disease?
Choosing the Best Medicine for Me: Bringing Self-Care into Health-Care
Illness and Disease are Healing
Words on Serge Benhayon 
When we are too caught up in nature we loose sight, or maybe better said, connection to our innate essence 😇, which never loses the divine nature we come from, so not to get lost in the woods because of there being too many trees, prunes our life to focus on our most divine movement, through the way we speak and thus communication of the true Love💜 we all are.
Dianne, I love how you have presented this invaluable analogy and suggested that we can approach things differently. I have worked in Natural and complementary medicines for several years now and I must say that my approach is always to see the surface issues as symptoms of a deeper condition that the body is calling our support for. This means that the way you deal with it comes with a more wholesome approach and not one that seeks to eradicate the symptoms only.
Henrietta I know from my own experience with ill mental health that the medical system addressed the symptoms but not the deeper condition that was causing the symptoms in the first place. It wasn’t until I met Serge Benhayon and attended the workshops and presentations that I started to address the root cause. My body as you say was calling out for support for a true healing and not a fix.
“Do we want a nice-looking body, one that we can do to whatever we want at the expense of our long-term health and wellbeing?” – Too many times we chase having a body/skin/hair etc that looks good but getting rid of a symptom picture does not mean that the condition or the disease has been eradicated – I say we are better seeing what is happening and working with it rather than hiding the symptom and not knowing what the disease is doing in the background.
“And our body process, the ant and soil process and all others like it, are connected and mutually dependent in one big sphere of life.” – isolating body parts and trying to deal with health by looking only at one part does not support in the long run as everything is connected and we do need to consider the whole always otherwise critical details and understanding is lost.
Purging our bodies of ill energy and foods that no longer serve us is imperative if we are to evolve, and this includes those damming thoughts, which take us into comparison and jealousy.
Not just with physical appearances what about other aliments that people seek spiritual/energy support for? I was given certain energetic techniques as a kid and it seemingly solved my problems but actually buried them deeper only to come out later on. We can’t bury things indefinitely, they will surface at some point so might as well let it happen.
I have always loved watching nature programmes, especially with David Attenborough, and remember when seeing ants what I felt is how they show us purpose, there is always a purpose to everything they do and also teamwork showing us how to work together for the bigger purpose/picture. I love the point that you make in that do we treat warts, farts, coughs and cellulite how we would treat ant mounds on the lawn or again are we willing to look at how we are living, what we have eaten etc that creates this. No matter what we do it always comes back to us taking true responsibility within our lives, something I am forever learning.
It’s true that we don’t realise the body is an ecology, and it is being both nurtured and polluted and it has to clear its own natural debris and what’s introduced into it that is harmful. I remember as a teen not wanting to make the link between chocolate and sweets and my acne, but I did know, I just didn’t want to be honest because I knew I needed to make the choice to let go of my comforting fun foods. The body is so very sensitive and communicative and as I listen and work with it the results are very supportive for my health and wellbeing.
Melinda I totally agree with you, I know that sugar races my body and can give me a high and the sugar drop can put me to sleep, I actually have to lie down until it passes. I also have come to understand that I go for sugar to offset the amazingly vital feeling I often feel. It’s as though there is a voice in my head telling me I cannot be this amazing and I had better temper the feeling because it won’t last and something will go wrong and I’ll end up feeling crap, and so I’d better self sabotage than allow someone or something else to come in and destroy this amazing feeling. I can now see and feel clearly what trick is being played out by my mind and the negative thoughts that grab me. Now I listen to the sensitivity of my body rather than my head so that I don’t self sabotage and know that actually when our bodies are in harmony with the universe they do feel very amazing, light and joy-full. This is our body’s natural state.
I was talking with a colleague yesterday how so powerful and effective some medications are in dealing with a symptom it is quite scary when we think about what else it might be doing to the rest of our body. Especially those ones that we take internally. Ok, it is called side effect but it is an effect nonetheless.
Even more concerning is the unknown effects of taking multiple medications and what they do together in the body.
If we make a mountain out of a mole hill, or we cannot see the trees for the woods, then could it be when we step back and give ourselves the space to see the over-all picture we don’t get stuck in the mud, but are able to extricate ourselves out of the dilemmas of life and live life from our essences or as a Truly-divine-soul-full-being that we are all equally.
Dianne I had a lot of joy to read your awesome blog. Not only am I now informed about ants – now I am also more aware about my body and so I love your question: “What if we were to change our views and accept the lovely ecological re-balancing opportunity being offered by our illnesses?” For me it is a wonderful invitation to change and expand my view on illness and that is what my body loves most – a more positive way to look at it.
Ants like bees are a great reminder or reflection of what it is to work as one community for the benefit of the all. They all have their part to play one job is not greater than another. Unlike humanity where we seem to work for ourselves and are obsessed by titles so that one can be distinguished above another.
I love how your wonderful blog always gets me to thinking about life Dianne, especially as it is so obvious that to most, it’s the outer appearance, what is on the surface, that seems to be more important than what is on the inside. Crazy really, as it is what is going on, on the inside that eventually shows up on the outside. For example, you can take as many antacids as possible to relieve an upset stomach, but the issue is only going to be masked and won’t be healed, until the question is asked – I wonder why? A question that these days, I ask regularly, with some life-changing answers always forthcoming.
Definitely better out than in. When I allow myself to register how I feel after something has come out often there is a sense of space and freedom that wasn’t there previously. If I recover from an illness and jump straight back into life before the illness occurred I learn nothing.
Humans work for themselves. Ants for the sake of all.
Yes our bodies are continually clearing and renewing themselves, and to understand illness from this view brings a loving responsibility to how we treat and care for our ‘vehicles’. As you say,’ there are ALL kinds of processes of clearing and correction to maintain vitality and balance.’
I love this blog Dianne reminding us of our inter-connectivity. I have a renewed appreciation of ant mounds. When we bring awareness to the inner workings of ourselves and life we naturally have a greater understanding of the whole of life and the wonders of natures order.
A recent tooth extraction, on the surface all seemed well, but beneath was a raging infection with potential to spread to other parts of my body. I had no idea this toxity was building up before the first signs of discomfort kicked in. Yes, the treatment and after effects were painful, but getting to the source and clearing the infection, a blessing.
Crazy how we’ve become so disconnected to nature, its movements and cycles, we feel threatened by a natural occurence, see it as a threat and seek to destroy a process designed to balance the ecology.
So when our bodies start processing something, rather than dwelling on the discomfort, or the inconvenience, its time to consider what the message is and that this is simply a clear communication and there is a gold mine of information about how we are living woven into it.
Very beautiful how observing nature around us helps us understand and appreciate our very own nature and its workings. And if we step back a bit, the climate is also unrelated to how we are living, and maybe, just maybe, there could be a time when no more ‘ant mounds’ are needed to replenish the soil and therefore we might end up having a mounds-free garden, not by controlling them, but as a natural outcome.
A lovely reminder of how nature looks after itself and how there is purpose in many things, a great reflection of how much our body looks after itself and us, and how we can help ourselves in the process too.
There are so many reflections in nature that show us how to live in harmony with ourselves, each other and our surroundings. Where I live there are many wood ants that make enormous nests from pine needles. One ant working on its own could not make the mound but with all working in harmony together it is amazing how quickly and efficiently it is completed and then maintained.
I looked up images of these ants and their nests after reading your comment, how amazing to see the nests which are quite enormous. It’s very reflective of how much we can do together, thanks Mary for sharing.
We all can strive to make our lives picture perfect, but in this strive for perfection we miss out on the true beauty of the reality we live in. We are blinded by what we think life should look like and robbed of the glory of the reality in our surroundings – the true magic of having birds and bees in our back garden, ants who work hard to build their living and many other creatures from nature which are here to reflect the science of symbolism. If we’re interested in that, life becomes a lot more fun.
” it can be a reminder to us about the ecology within our bodies and how that connects to and is part of the whole big picture of life on Earth.” as the ants clear away the debris that blocks the channels of communication so does our body clear away by illness and disease, what has polluted our body system, so our energy channels can flow.
I always appreciate how Dianne brings her wisdom back to the ‘ecology within our bodies” and in the process reminds us of our part in the bigger picture. I love watching ants work, and this week watched them totally demolish the carcass of a fly that was lying on a window sill. I decided to let them work away and within a day there was nothing left to see, including the ants who had obviously gone off to doing their amazing cleaning up somewhere else.
Yes Ingrid there is a whole other world going on within our so called world that if these creatures, fungus and bacteria were not actively present in the world as we know it would not function. Everything has its place and everything is interwoven and this reflects back to humanity so that we can see just how lost and disharmoniously we are all living.
Lovely to come back to this blog today and be reminded of the appreciation for all the clearing that our body does for us however it does it. It’s awesome how it works 24/7 to keep us as healthy as it can.
Our bodies are the most magical gifts, and we are all given one to wear for a lifetime… its entirely up to us how we treat it.
What a very important message from these wonderful ants. It’s a message that says, don’t just look at what’s going on, on the surface and go into a quick fix reaction, but take the time to investigate why this is happening, what’s going on within. It’s a bit like taking an antacid for continual indigestion thinking that will fix it while deep within the digestion system all is definitely not well and the indigestion is simply the body’s way of calling our attention to it.
Healing isn´t necessarily a pretty process but it has a depth of beauty beyond the obvious.
It is amazing when we consider the same issue from a different angle, it gives us a completely different understanding.
Do we want a life to match the pictures we want life to be or are we willing to embrace life for what it is ?
Love the reminder Dianne, of the precious “ecology within our bodies and how that connects to and is part of the whole big picture of life on Earth”. We often get lost in our own individuality and forget that we are a part of the whole, so everything we do affects everything else, including these awesome ants.
Isn’t mother nature both wise and wonderful…
Our bodies are naturally aligned to a universal order that when dishonoured naturally seeks to correct the disorder it knows it is in. When we ignore the messages our body communicates to us of how we are unharmoniously living we develop a chronic illness and disease that if not address will make us eventually stop, as this is the purpose of our bodies; to facilitate us to live in connection to our Soul, in harmony with the universal order and cycles that we are intrinsically part of.
This analogy reminds me of another one of humanity ‘sweeping things under the carpet’ with a ‘nothing to see here’ kinda attitude. To me, it feels a bit like the ants are bringing up the contents under the carpet in a way, to clear it out for us but we don’t want to see it so we ‘shoot the messenger’ by poisoning the ant. And humanity continues on its own merry way but whilst underneath its feet, the world is rotting away.
Thank you Sarah, I noticed that when I came back from the healing courses with Serge Benhayon this June there were 3 molehills in a row in the grass area quite near my house. It feels like a reminder to keep looking at what has been unearthed and allow it to heal and not to suppress my feelings or hold back my expression.
Great analogy Dianne. The ant mounds that people don’t like are very similar to the illnesses our bodies sometimes have to have to correct and imbalance in our bodies ecosystem. The choice is to poison them and hope they go away (ie take pills, use lotions etc) or be appreciative of the amazing work they are doing to clear and maintain the wellbeing of the whole.
It reminds me of how we “keep up appearances” and don’t allow people in to see exactly what we are feeling or what is going on in our lives, yet it is still there festering away – better expressed out than held in!