[ Return to Articles ]

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.