How to Heal Your Disease Part Two:
Mind and Spirit
by Jackie Kosednar
Surprisingly enough, the first cause of disease
is usually in the spiritual arena, not the physical.
In the last issue we established that health is
a question of balance. The more stable the body’s
balance, the more vitality and resistance to disease
it will display. It stands to reason that the quickest
way to move a disease into remission and/or heal it
completely is to get rid of stress.
The holistic approach to disease management is to
treat the whole person: body, mind and spirit. Balance
needs to happen on each of these levels and between
levels as well. When this balance and cross-balance
occur, disease dissolves. We also treat the body with
natural things that work with it, not things that
stress it. If you are successful treating your disease
holistically, you will be in better shape than ever
before.
Spirituality
Surprisingly enough, the first cause of disease is
usually in the spiritual arena, not the physical.
Disease that manifests through the body usually means
that something is out of balance in the life of the
sick person. That individual is not at ease; he or
she is in dis- ease; going down the wrong track somehow.
Healthy, happy people, who are on course and love
their lives, don’t get sick very often. Their
spirit is free to express itself--as itself. Spirituality
looks at the big picture of your life. It is about
what your life means to you and how you are living
it. Are you being true to yourself and your own values?
Are you on the course you were designed to follow,
not someone else’s?
Sometimes disease is the only way Spirit can get
our attention and tell us that things really need
to change. Indeed, every disease has an agenda of
what needs to change for healing to occur. Lucky for
us, Alaska is blessed with many good spiritual counselors
who can help us figure out this part.
Emotional Stress & Negative Thinking
The cause of spiritual stress can be a combination
of things that are affecting us on the other levels.
Emotional
overloads of shock, fear, worry, grief, or being
in situations for long periods of time that perpetuate
these states, take our lives off track. In fact, some
say that the word cancer has killed more people than
cancer itself. Just hearing the words of this diagnosis
can deliver a death sentence of emotional shock and
stress. This comes from making the doctor your Higher
Power. If you believe a doctor’s best guess
as to how long you have to live (that is, if you make
them God), you will likely follow that course. Rebels
and spiritual people live a lot longer, or beat death
sentences altogether.
One reason malpractice is out of control is because
doctors are just plain wrong a lot of the time. They
are only human after all. I remind my clients that
doctors are not God. You have simply employed him
or her, and that individual is costing you a lot of
money. Always ask your doctor what is the best-case
scenario. Accept and believe in the best that could
happen. Ask questions. What is the best course this
problem can take? After all, there is nothing stopping
the best from happening, except us.
Thoughts and feelings have a powerful effect on the
body. With bio-feed back devices and muscle testing,
holistic science has proven that positive thoughts
and feelings strengthen the body while negative thoughts
and emotions weaken it. Author Norman Cousins wrote
about his experience with laughter in helping him
recover from serious illness in Anatomy of an Illness
as Perceived by the Patient. Cousins continually watched
old comedy shows and made himself well by laughing.
Laughter, fun, joy and love all make the body relax
and vibrate at a high frequency. Disease vibrates
at a low, dense frequency. Following your bliss will
definitely keep you healthy.
Forgiveness
If you are battling a disease state in the body,
the first avenue to approach is to get as much of
the emotional stress and negative thinking that you
can out of your life as well as out of your mind.
This process will automatically strengthen the body.
The spiritual practice of forgiveness is one of the
most powerful tools we have for cleaning up the past
and the present.
Much has been written about emotional clearing techniques
that remove from the body our old past traumas as
well as old, negative attitudes or belief systems
we have developed from those traumas. This is also
very important for disease prevention. You can use
techniques such as Emotional Freedom Technique (see
www.emofree.com or www.unstressforsuccess.com for
more) to clear up past negative traumas that keep
your body reacting negatively and producing old emotional
patterns. Indeed, this old emotional garbage is often
the cause of current disease states. Our emotional
garbage can easily throw us off track or lead us down
the wrong path. Addiction is the effort it takes to
keep emotional garbage suppressed or get relief from
emotional pain. Many therapists, coaches and spiritual
counselors use emotional clearing techniques to help
people clear the past and lead healthier lives. (To
find a practitioner check Healthy Yellow Pages in
print or on line at http://www.alaskawellness.com/HealthyYellowPages.html)
There are classes to help us use these and other
energy medicine techniques to clear our bodies. There
are deep relaxation techniques, such as some forms
of massage or hypnotherapy, that encourage us to let
go of emotional stress and prevent it from accumulating.
While clearing the spiritual and emotional causes
of disease and chronic conditions helps us to great
degrees, this doesn’t necessarily fully clear
the body. We live in a physical universe; as such,
our physical bodies also need help to clear unhealthy
conditions. The holistic/alternative health movement
provides us with a great many excellent therapies
and methods of healing the body. Next issue, in part
three of this column series, we will explore protocols
for physical healing using holistic health techniques.
Until then, be happy.
