Any time a situation is happening to us, we are immersed in a whirlwind of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and beliefs. Our thought processes may not at all be clear depending on the intensity of the presenting situation. Illness and injury are the classic scenarios that create this tornado. First, we don't feel well. We may have pain, nausea, or a wide variety of negative experiences that are not usually in our repetoire. We want relief but sometimes, the "fix" is not easy or accessible to us. This brings up our emotions and challenges "our coping strategies". Pretty quickly, the situation can get "cloudy" and even dark. If there is a solution close at hand, great. If there is not, all variety of challenge surfaces. Such is the complexity of working with "chronic disease" (as differentiated from acute illness or injury). All this is complicated by the fact that we isolate ourselves in these instances out of necessity and out of a strong pull away from others.
How to come out of the dark? How to feel better and return to the "flow" of life? These are not easy issues in part because each person is different and every challenge is different. Every path thus requires an individualized plan. However, the world wants to design a care plan that can be generalized to all people. Care tracks are the norm. You have this condition so the treatment is this. Well, that's all well and good for the straightforward challenge--strep throat, appendicitis, even specific cancers. The tricky part is when all is not straightforward (which all too often it is not). What happens when the person is elderly and infirm or without family support or when the disease is chronic and poorly controlled with standard medicines? What happens when depression enters in or fear is intimately intermixed with physical symptoms? What happens when a person does not like his doctor or the doctor does not like the patient? These are all very real, very important blocks to healing. These blocks (and there truly are as many blocks as there are medicines) wreak havoc and create discord where there needs to be peace and equanimity for healing to happen.
Such is the challenge and the opportunity that illness and injury unroof. How can we heal when there is chaos and suffering? How can we come back into our power, strength and well-being? What will it take? Who do we turn to? This is every person's challenge when health goes awry. Will cure come with more knowledge, more God, more support, more medicine or surgery? Or, will it come at all? How can we stay "positive" when we feel so bad? Who do we trust with our body and mind and spirit?
The answer is not always clear. In fact, it is often quite the opposite. It is unclear. Cloudy and in the dark.
This is where I believe we have to dive into the context of our situation. How did we become enmeshed in such a drama? Where do we fit in the drama? Did we create it? Are we perpetuating it?
The only way out is to start at the root. What do we believe about our situation? How does it fit in the overall picture of our life? What are we supposed to learn? These questions and the answers which follow provide the light into our darkness.
I believe the following principles are universally true:
(1) We are all the creators of our life and all its manifestations
(2) Suffering is an inevitable part of life but it can be resolved.
(3) Transformation (healing) evolves out of perceiving our life challenge with new eyes.
(4) Awareness, acceptance, forgiveness and love lead to healing.
Modern medicine has brought spectacular modalities and chemicals to heal our world but innovation, technology and invention is too often limited. Limitation is transcended when one become conscious and aware of the meaning and purpose that health challenges bring to the context of their lives. When an individual can shift a worn out belief and open to a truer vision, Providence happens and healing is born.
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