Illness is often the gateway to personal development. Along with the pain and suffering of a physical illness comes opportunity to change and to grow. There is a great deal of evidence that many health problems arise primarily from mismanagement.
Many illnesses respond more to better self-management and self-healing than allopathic medicine. If you think this is an exaggeration, consider Mick, a successful businessman, forty-three years old. He was diagnosed with gout, a disease in which an excess of uric acid in the blood causes painful swelling in the joints. Some days he could only walk using crutches.
Although gout is often associated with past centuries, it is widespread today. The main cause is opulent living – especially a poor diet. Mick was certainly guilty of that. His alcohol consumption was well over the recommended limit, and he loved high fat, sweetened, refined foods and generous helpings of meat, blue cheeses and creamy desserts.
The doctor gave him some tablets and a diet sheet which prohibited (among other things) red meat, dairy foods and alcohol, and prescribed an increase in salads, fresh fruit and vegetables. ‘Sod this,’ he said, ‘if I follow this I’ll starve.’ So he carried on as before, relying on the tablets to ease the pain. Needless to say, initially the condition did not improve, but in time, he came round to following his doctor’s advice and made a full recovery! Mick had discovered that the only way to enjoy optimum health is to take personal responsibility and bring your living habits into line with the body’s natural processes.
Self-help
If you have an accident or become ill, there’s usually a lot you can do to help yourself recover more quickly.
Let’s suppose you go down with an everyday illness such as the ‘flu. Immediately, your body isolates the intruding viruses and absorbs them in the white blood cells designed for that purpose. Similarly, if you break your arm, your healing processes promptly begin to weld the parts together. As long as this is allowed to proceed as nature intended, healing takes place naturally, but if the mind interferes in the form of ‘negative’ thought-forms, progress can be much slower.
Remember, every thought you think affects every cell of your body. Thoughts of fear, anger, guilt and so on can impede recovery.
Your body wants to be in balance. Sometimes all it takes to free yourself of minor ailments is a gentle focus of attention. Take your attention to the affected part and ask yourself, ‘What is my body trying to tell me?’ Ignoring pain and discomfort causes strain.
The Role of Beliefs
‘Drugs are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is.’
Norman Cousins
A cancer patient was told by her doctor that her chances of survival were ‘about one in a million.’ Without hesitation she shot back, ‘I’ll take the one!’ and promptly proceeded to defy all medical expectations and make a full recovery!
Beliefs deliver a direct command to the nervous system. If a witch doctor points an animal bone at a tribesman who believes in his powers and tells him he’s going to die, he probably will. His belief is so strong that his body obeys – but it is the belief, not the curse, that kills him!
If you think this is farfetched, consider what happens when a hospital consultant tells a patient that she has only six months to live. If she believes him (and doctors are like gods to many people), she rapidly deteriorates. The belief in the infallibility of doctors can also work the other way, of course. Patients who are given placebos – pills containing no active ingredients – often make a full recovery.
Some believe that illness is a sign of failure on their part, and that pain is a punishment for errors and mistakes made in this and previous lives. These people heal the slowest of all.
©David Lawrence Preston, 12.7.2016
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