Advanced medical
specialty is established abreast of the notion of combat. We battle bugs and
agitate for life. As before long fears
feel pain or soreness, we at once try to arrest it from bechancing and
anticipate in some manner to comfort what we're carrying out. We feel we must alter our illness or
troubles, overcome them on our expertness.
This orientation
course leads to a ceaseless battle with altogether that impinges abreast of us.
After one and only illness or problem is appropriated, another bobs up. We live
in a state of ceaseless insecurity where at that place denigrates way for ease
of beware.
Alterative from
inside brings inside peace cutting-edge. It arises from another orientation
towards all the experiences of life. We're taught to stop, pay attention and
respect all that pertains us. It is as if we were re-focusing a camera, getting
our get through another lens.
Generally there has a
deep sense that annoyance is bad, and must be removed at all costs. Pain is not
bad. Pain arises by lack of counterbalance and contains much information. It
brings many messages along with it. When we see our afflict as a courier and learn
how to respect and listen thereto, healing leads off altogether forms of
methods.
The first of all step
in healing from within is to learn however to see anguish as an ally, to learn
how to "dialogue" with it. For most of us this appears almost unthinkable.
Ab initio this asks a complete
change of mind. Besides straining and geartrain for battle, we learn how to
interruption and understand there's a lesson that we have to learn. When we do
this we find the pain or trouble often comes belongings a gift in its deals.
Illness often comes
when we feel defeated. We may not wish to struggle anymore. Some people become
ill when they are overly exhausted. The illness is the only way they can give
themselves permission to stop, rest, and make much needed changes in their
lives. Each illness has it's own story. The same is true with psychological or
personal problems that grow strong, demanding our attention.
When someone is in
physical pain and suddenly understands what is troubling them, the physical pain
often subsides. For full healing to take place it may be essential to make
changes in one's total life. Cancer can be suppressed for many years, and then
it returns. When it reappears we must ask, "Why not? What is going on in
my total life?"
"We become sick becomes we act in
sickening ways,"
Louis Jourard
We are all experts at
brushing things under the carpet. Then the carpet begins to roll up at the
corners, and we feel we are coming unglued. During illness the body is
rebelling. It is demanding that we pay attention to all that has been
unattended. We may have been pushing ourselves for too long. Now our body is
fed up. Stop and listen to me, it pleads. When we learn how to listen and how
to reply, an entirely new life begins. Then pain and illness become an
opportunity for vital change.
Learning To Listen
We usually listen
only to part of ourselves. The rest is rejected. But no matter what we are
rejecting, soon or later we must come up against it and face it straight on.
Rejecting something
over and over never makes it go away. In fact, it will come back time and
again, just for you to accept it. Everything needs to be loved and accepted,
including our illness and pain. The best way is to make friends with the pain.
Fighting intensifies it. If we can relax into it for a little while and explore
it, many possibilities arise. Natural healing is always available in all
situations, but it can be cut off by fighting and fear. When we let go, and
allow ourselves to speak to the pain, and to listen to what it has to say,
incredible changes can happen.
To do this, we simply
close our eyes, stop fighting, and ask our pain what it is saying to us, what
does it need from us right now? Then we become very quiet and listen deeply. An
answer may not come right away. Patience is needed. As we do this process over
and over, fear diminishes and we begin to hear.
Answers come in
different ways. Some hear answers within. Others see images, some have dreams.
We learn to be open to all that comes and in this openness, we learn.
Exercise
Look at your illness
or problem now. Picture it within and
give it some kind of shape. What does it look like to you? Describe or draw it.
Now, look more deeply at what the image really means. What is this image saying
to you about yourself and the life you are leading? Listen carefully.
Next, ask the image
any questions you may have and let it answer you. (Ask what it wants from you
and what it would need to go away). See if you can give it what it needs.
This attitude is
called making friends with the pain. When we do this illness does not become
something foreign and frightening. We become better able to understanding what
the true causes are.
For example, if we
are sad for too long and have not done enough crying, our bodies may begin to
cry for us through the illness we are going through. If we feel that life is
meaningless, our bodies can start to express this by shriveling up and dying.
If we have held onto difficult attitudes, our bodies will bear the burden of
them. Persistent negative attitudes become wounds upon our entire selves.
Our attitudes are
messages we give our body. Though we may not be aware of it, if we feel life is
a dirty battle, we are telling our body to tense up with shame all day long.
Once we begin the crucial work of taking responsibility for and changing our
attitudes, our entire body can begin to experience on-going ease instead of
dis-ease. We must look at the basic attitudes we live with and ask ourselves if
they are conducive to our health, or do they contain the very seeds of pain?
In order to heal from
within, it is essential to handle these long standing patterns, to see them and
change them to attitudes and patterns that are productive of well-being. Health comes with learning to say
"yes" to all of our experience, in being willing to experience it
just as it is. Wellness emerges out of the balance and harmony of all parts of
ourselves.
When we are well, we
feel whole, accepting and in harmony with ourselves and the entire world we
live in. Like a fresh water stream flowing, this state of being brings
continual refreshment and healing day by day.