"ILLNESS"
This chapter is dedicated to illness; causes, effects
and prevention. There will come a point in your study
where you will learn how to direct energy toward healing,
but this comes a distance down the path from this
chapter. However, there are certain things that you can
do now to prevent and cure most common illnesses (and
even those unique to you).
Let's first explore the causes of illness. What most
people take for granted as causes, are merely symptoms.
Illness stems from imbalance on one of the three planes;
spiritual, mental or physical. It could be any one of the
three planes, or a combination of the three. Remember,
emotions span all three planes and, therefore, are the
main factors in most illness.
Instead of concentrating on the diagnosis, symptoms,
or physical cause, let's turn our attention to finding the
imbalance. Remembering the large role emotions play in
this, you might want to start your search there. How have
you been feeling mentally lately? Have you been dealing
with stress, depression, mood swings, or anxiety? Have
you been under any pressure? Is there a problem with a
relationship?
Believe it or not (and if you ask yourself all these
questions and answer honestly it won't be long before you
do believe it) the answer to your illness will lie in the
answers to these questions, rather than the physical
cause of the illness. I am not trying to intimate that the
illness is not real. It is real, but is created due to an
imbalance, rather than catching a chill or coming in
contact with germs. Your system is meant to cope with
most things thrown at it, and as long as your mental and
spiritual attitude are healthy, the body will generally follow.
It is when there is an illness that can't be seen, and is
ignored, that the symptoms will finally manifest physically.
Stay with me now, and don't tune me out by saying
that I think it is all in your head and not truly happening.
Of course it is truly happening, but anyone who tells you
that what is going on in your head is less important than
what is going on in your body is uninformed. Let's look at
this for a moment logically (for those of you who view life
this way). The head is over the body, and everything your
body does from breathing to lifting a pencil is done by
direct orders from your brain. You don't consciously
remember to tell your lungs to fill with air, heart to beat,
etc. This is all done on a subconscious level. Your mind
knows how to maintain a healthy body, but if it is not
feeling healthy and is cluttered with conflict, or getting
conflicting messages, then illness ensues.
For all intents and purposes your brain is in total
control of your body. Therefore, it only stands to reason if
your mind is troubled your body is going to react. This
has been proven many times by hypnotists. They have
proven to us, logically, that if the mind can be convinced
of something, no matter what the circumstances, then it is
considered true, and the body can be made to react
accordingly. I personally have seen documentaries
demonstrating this very fact. Under scientific conditions
subjects had there hands held over an open flame with no
resultant burn. Others had there hand held over a piece
of ice and developed a nasty burn right before our eyes.
In both cases the subject's mind was being convinced
under hypnosis of the circumstances. The circumstances
were being invented, but once the mind was convinced it
developed the symptoms corresponding to the
circumstances.
It took me awhile to discover how literally this
happens (I am hard-headed and have to be emphatically
convinced of things before I accept them). It started by
my noticing that each time there was somewhere I really
didn't want to go, or something I really didn't want to do, I
became ill. The amazing part was that I felt 100% better
once the time for the appointment had elapsed and I no
longer had to worry about the commitment. I was not
consciously aware that I was making myself ill, and yet I
felt truly sick. What is even more amazing is that once I
discovered what was making me ill I was able to put a
stop to it. The way I stopped it was by simply refusing to
go somewhere I didn't want to go, or doing something I
didn't want to do. I know we all have obligations at times
that we can't get out of, so this is not always feasible.
However, by discovering what effects not wanting to do
something can cause, it can help change your attitude
about the event and prevent illness. I have become more
direct as I have gotten older, (and hopefully wiser) and for
me the best approach is simply refusing to do things I
don't like, and letting other people either accept it, or deal
with it.
Another thing that came to my attention, was that
every time I gave an excuse for not going somewhere,
such as calling into work sick, I became ill. I believe that
lying is wrong, and for me to lie even about being sick was
not being true to myself. My mind corrected this situation
by making my body ill. I learned very quickly, and at a
very young age, to stop this practice and be very careful
what I said and how I said it. I have witnessed this same
phenomenon happen to several other people.
This all goes back to creating our own reality, for
better or for worse. Usually we are on the worse end if we
are creating illness. Sometimes, however, illness is
created by the mind in order to slow us down and give us
time to think and ponder our situations. There are times
that it is used to take us out of stressful situations, giving
us time to step away and look at circumstances from a
different perspective. If we know and understand this,
then it only follows suit that we should be able to eliminate
most illness from our lives.
Doctors are just beginning to realize how much effect
stress has on health. Many doctors are recommending
meditation, and even self-hypnosis, for patients' with
chronic stress.
This has been common knowledge for many years
among fire walkers. There is no trick to walking across
coals that are red hot, other than convincing the brain that
the coals are not hot. I know this sounds simple, but in
reality it is much harder to convince the mind of these
things than it sounds. Total convincing is what it takes to
accomplish these acts. Healing is not nearly as tricky.
Before we talk more about how to alleviate these
symptoms, let's look at one of the major contributors to
illness in this era. It probably was a major factor in other
eras too, but it was this era that actually scientifically
documented it to be fact. This factor is stress.
It is well known within the medical community that
stress is the major contributor to a myriad of illnesses.
Studies are still going on as I write this dedicated to this
factor. So much has gone into this, and the reports have
been so widely circulated, that now even corporations are
paying attention. There are no people more skeptical and
practical than the corporate community. Yet, in this
community most major corporations have invested money
into stress management classes for their employees.
They have invested in clinical psychologists to be on staff
at all times. There are mini gyms' available to the
employees to relieve tensions. There are classes given in
oriental relaxations exercises, including yoga. Last, but
certainly not least, there are classes in meditation. In fact
a lot of large corporations have started giving meditation
breaks' to their employees. They have found that it
improves morale and gets much more work
accomplished.
The corporate world has learned that meditation is
not a hoax, or a subject for the twilight zone. They have
no idea, of course, all of the benefits that can be derived
from meditation. They do, however, know that it works to
relieve tension and make for happier employees, that call
in sick to work less often.
You see, health needs to be looked at on all three
planes. If you have a healthy body, but your mind is
diseased, then it won't be long before it shows up in the
body. The same goes for the spirit. If the spirit is
diseased, then it won't be long before it shows up in the
mental attitude, and then the body. All three are
interconnected and cannot be separated when it comes to
illness. Things are rarely as they appear. Most of the
time people look for the easiest and most obvious causes
for illness. In reality, most causes are not as easy as not
wanting to go somewhere and getting ill to get out of it'.
Serious illness is brought on by serious problems that
need to be addressed. Sometimes the illness slows us
down and puts us on our back, so that we don't have
anything but time on our hands to think about our
situation. I have seen many people get totally new
perspectives on life after given this time.
I believe that in all things everything happens for a
purpose. Instead of ignoring what has happened, and
seeking out the symptom, more time needs to be spent
searching for the "why" of it. Generally when we find the
"why" we can get to the root and eliminate it. Blowing
your nose when you have a cold does nothing to eliminate
the illness, other than you are getting rid of some of the
infection. More congestion will form immediately and
continue to form until the germ is killed. No matter how
many times you blow your nose, it will not blow away the
cold.
Illness is somewhat like this. If we don't get to the
root and take care of the problem, it will just keep making
more problems. With this is mind let's look at stress.
What exactly is stress? We all know the feelings
from stress, as we have all experienced it at one time or
another. Sometimes we don't even notice that are
experiencing stress until the symptoms start to occur. It
hits each of us in different ways. I break out with large
hives on my face and body. Other people may get severe
headaches. I have known some people to get dizzy and
faint. Some people have anxiety attacks, which feel very
much like a heart attack. In fact, most of the time the only
way to tell the difference is through medical tests. Some
people hyper-ventilate. There are a myriad of symptoms,
and I'm sure I haven't even hit a minority of them. As you
are beginning to see that this is very serious, and not to
be taken lightly?
Stress, while only materializing as one of these
symptoms, or maybe more depending on the situation,
has many drastic changes that are seen or felt. When
you are putting your body under this kind of strain the
whole body is affected. Every organ feels the stress in
one way or another. The symptoms you feel are caused
by the part of the body feeling the most stress at the time.
As a result of this many doctors are now turning to
stress management. They are finding that it is not enough
to treat the symptom. Many doctors are recommending
relaxation therapy, which includes meditation, instead of
drugs.
As I said, we live in a society that is built on stress. It
would be nearly impossible to live without experiencing
stress in some form or another on a daily basis. If we are
going to be surrounded by it, then we need to learn how to
deal with it. Think of it like driving a car. If you pay
attention and drive defensively most accidents can be
avoided. It is when we are distracted, and start driving on
autopilot that problems occur. Stress is very much the
same way. If you acknowledge that it is present in the
world, and that you will be surrounded by it, then you can
be watching for it and avoid it. When it is unavoidable,
then you deal with it immediately and eliminate it.
How do we eliminate stress? I once heard a saying
that stuck with me. It was someone's philosophy of life. I
don't know who said it first, and frankly I don't care, but it
is as true the first time it was said as it is now. "Two rules
in life; l) Don't sweat the little things; 2)All things are little
things". This pretty much covers it all. I realize that it isn't
that easy for most of us, but it could be. You see, as we
have said over and over, all of life is perspective. All we
need to do is change our perspective, and all things
change for us. Understanding that the only person things
really need to change for is us, makes the changing much
simpler.
For instance; if my boss is constantly ranting and
raving and being unfair, I can't stop him. However, I can
look at his attitude differently. Instead of taking what he
says personally and to heart, I can look at the reasoning
behind what he is saying. I can stop focusing on "me" and
start looking closely at him. I can stop thinking that
everything that happens is a direct result of what people
are doing to "me" and understand that most of the time it
is a direct result of what is going on with them.
I have often heard the best writers say, write about
what you know, so I find that my life are my best
examples. Of course, my family doesn't always
appreciate it because they are generally in those lessons.
My children come to mind now. They are always trying to
read' me to see what is going on in my head, as they are
sure it concerns them. Countless times my daughter has
looked at my face and thought I was angry, when in reality
I was in deep contemplation over something. Each time I
had to stop and explain that it had nothing to do with her,
but with some thought or situation I was exploring. No
matter how many times this has happened, she has
always been sure each time that it was something she
had "done" or "said" that was causing the look of
consternation on my face.
What I am trying to get at is that you cannot deal with
someone else's stress, only your own. You can change
your perspective, but not someone else's. What is going
on in someone else's head generally has nothing to do
with you personally. You may be their focus for the
moment, but it is their own problem. I find this the most
commonplace with employers. The employees are trying
so hard to read what the employer thinks of them, that
they totally forget that this is just another human being
with problems like themselves.
By understanding one another, we can relieve a great
deal of stress. By looking outside of ourselves and taking
the "me" out of a situation, we can relieve stress. If I feel
that you are upset with me, that causes stress. However,
if I feel that you are upset by personal problems and just
taking it out on me, that puts a whole new perspective on
my attitude. I can now be supportive and understanding,
because we have all been in that situation. I don't have to
feel defensive or aggressive toward the person, but can
feel empathy and understanding. You see, we have not
changed what the person is doing, but we have changed
the way we look upon it. By doing this we have now
changed the way we act toward this person. Instead of
reacting to their mood, we are acting on our own to what
we perceive their mood to stem from.
This holds true with relationships. I have done much
counseling and have found that the biggest problem in
relationships is communication, or lack thereof. When my
husband comes home and starts snapping, I don't buy
into his mood and start snapping back, instead I ask what
is wrong. You would be surprised at the kind of response
this gets. It also gets down to the problem, alleviates it
and then we can move on. Now this doesn't mean that he
is going to be in a dandy mood the rest of the night, but it
does mean that I am going to act differently toward him
because I know what he is experiencing. It all comes
back to coming outside of yourself, and looking at the
other person.
This is not just a selfishness on our part with the "me"
syndrome. It goes much deeper than that. I think it goes
back to childhood when we start blaming ourselves for
things. We are sure that everything that someone close
to us is feeling is our fault. Somehow we have screwed
up, and that is why this person is treating us this way. If
my husband is snapping at me, then I must be doing
something wrong. If my children are bad, then I must be a
bad parent. If my boss is upset with me, then I must be a
bad employee. We need to stop buying into this. We
need to get to the point of being okay with ourselves.
When we get to this point, instead of constantly blaming
ourselves, we need to look at the other person.
Sometimes the best way to do this is to forget the
situation for a moment. If you allow yourself to be drawn
into the situation, then it is difficult to be objective. Once
drawn in, no matter what the situation starts out as, we
are put on the defensive. From the moment this happens
we are put in a different "mind-set". We can no longer be
objective, and we have to go on the offensive so we can
defend ourselves.
In a situation like this things can escalate rapidly, and
before you know it, you can't even remember where it all
started. I cannot tell you how many couples are fighting,
who can't even remember how the fight started or what it
was about. I can tell you family that has not spoken in
years, who can't even remember what the initial argument
was about. Are you starting to see a pattern here?
I think the important lesson here is to stop thinking
about "me", and what others are thinking of "me", and be
more concerned with what is going on in the mind of the
other person you are dealing with. Take "me" out of the
situation altogether, and see what you have. You might
find yourself surprised at how little thought and action
actually pertains to you from another's point of view.
We are each self centered to some degree or
another, and if held in perspective this is a good thing.
We need to be most concerned with self, because in
reality it is all we have. The problems arise when we
come out of self and worry about what others think of us.
The point we each need to realize is that others are most
concerned with the same thing you are "self". Your life is
only important to them with regards to the role you have in
their life.
This in no way means that we should not care for
others or try to help them. What it does mean is that if we
aren't able to give to ourselves and help ourselves, then
we basically have nothing to offer anyone else.
Stress is something that we need to be constantly on
guard against. Look for the warning signs before they
materialize as illness. "A pound of prevention is worth a
pound of cure", is sound advice in this case. Don't wait
until a tiny pebble becomes a boulder. Instead, deal with
each situation as it arises. Sometimes there are no easy
solutions. Sometimes, there are no solutions at all.
However, if we each remember the prime objective "the
only person we can change is ourselves", then we can
learn to look at things through a different perspective. By
changing our perspective, in essence, we have solved the
problem, maybe not for others, but definitely for ourselves.
I have found that no matter where a person is along
the path the same feelings arise. We don't eliminate the
feelings, we learn to control them. We learn not to allow
them to manipulate our lives and control us on the
physical, mental or spiritual planes. When you learn how
to control these feelings they are not going to go away,
but they are not going to be able to hold you hostage ever
again.
You will no longer have to worry about illness, or fear
it. You will learn to know your body, read the symptoms,
and do what is needed to prevent illness. If you are tired,
rest. If you are hungry, eat. If you are stressed out,
remove the stress. If you are anxious, calm yourself
down. Pay attention to what is needed and comply.
Do not allow things to get out of control. If you are
flat on your back in bed sick, it is because somewhere
along the line things got out of control. Now is a good
time to look at all the things in your life that led up to your
illness and change them. The body has the capability to
heal itself. The mind has the capability to remove any
objects in the way of this, and the spirit has the capability
of guiding the body to the healing it needs.
You can see by the above, that when the whole body
on all three planes is allowed to work in harmony, then
good health will ensue. You will feel when this happens, if
you pay attention. You will also feel when it doesn't,
unfortunately, whether you are paying attention or not.
The best way to alleviate stress is to learn to
meditate. This will not only relax you, but help you to find
out where the true problem lies. Below I have included a
very basic meditation exercise.
There is a form of illness that I would like to make
note of here at the end, and that is hypochondria. We all
know of people like this, and we have all at one time or
another probably been its victim to some degree or
another. This is brought on by many factors, the most
basic being a manipulative force. I have known many
people who manipulated their surroundings, and the
people around them, through illness.
Another factor to this illness (which this is an entire
illness in and of itself, even though we tend to ignore it or
tolerate it in others) is attention. A lot of people with this
disorder have found that being ill brings attention.
Sometimes it takes attention away from things that the
other person may not want noticed, and places it on the
illness, which all can sympathize with. This is a
dangerous disease as it can take over a person's life.
Do not fall prey to it. It is easy to do and hard to stop.
My mother was one of these people as she got older. I
notice that this affects older people more, which could be
partly because their lives become routine and restricted.
Some of it is that they have nothing viable to talk about or
add, so they fall back on talking about their illness' which
elicits sympathy from those they talk to. I do not say this
in a cruel or unfeeling way. I have great sympathy for
people who have fallen prey to this because it not only
makes their lives miserable, but affects all they come in
contact with.
We all have had people in our lives that we really didn't
want to ask the simple amenity of "how are you today"?,
because we knew that it would elicit a ten to twenty
minute dissertation on all the aches, pains and maladies
with which they are afflicted.
My mother fell prey to this disease, and there wasn't
a time that you talked to her that she didn't tell you about
every ache and pain in her body. The interesting part of
this example (and there is a point bear with me) is that
when my mother got a lump in her breast she didn't tell
anyone. She waited, and then went to the doctor. She
called me when she had come back from the doctor and
told me about the lump, and that the doctor wanted to do
a biopsy the next day. I lived 1,700 miles away and
wanted to come for the surgery. She insisted that it was
no big deal, and that she would call me right after surgery.
She also mentioned that if the tumor was malignant he
was going to remove her breast at the same time. She
told me not to worry, that this was routine and she didn't
need the breast anyway, since no one was ever going to
see her naked.
I had never heard my mother so positive in my entire
life. This was a woman who could go on for half an hour
about her gout, but now was about to have a breast
removed and was acting as if she was just going to go in
and have her teeth cleaned. She told me she had never
felt so well in her life. She told me how she knew
everything was going to be fine, because she felt so well.
She went in and had the surgery. The tumor was
malignant, and the doctor performed a radical
mastectomy. She was home within 48 hours in high
spirits. I couldn't believe that this was my mother. She
was happy to be alive. This was the first time she had
seemed truly happy to be alive since my father had died.
I couldn't believe the change in her perspective. Faced
with real disease and possible death, she had turned her
total perspective from one of being negative, to that of
being totally positive.
Every time that I talked with her after this she was up
on life. This lasted for about 3-4 months, then she lapsed
back into her chronic complaining. However, it opened up
my eyes and taught me quite a bit about perspective and
adverse conditions, as well as positive conditions affecting
it. As a side light to this, my mother was 73 at the time
and her stamina and recuperation were amazing to the
doctors and nurses, which once again goes right back to
perspective and her totally positive attitude. The cancer
never came back.
Let's talk about meditation for a moment. There are
many misconceptions about meditation. Each person has
their own perspective, but many have never experienced
meditation and are only following the perspective of
others. Meditation is merely a quieting of the conscious
mind, allowing us to listen to our spirit. It is not scary. It
has nothing to do with religion or dogma of any kind.
There are no spirits that are going to take over your body
if you meditate, contrary to some myths. No one is going
to do anything scary to you at all. You are going to get
quiet with yourself, as this is a very personal experience
and includes no one but yourself. You can be Christian,
Hindu, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist or any number of other
religions and still meditate. It goes against no religious
precepts that I am aware of, and I have read the precepts
of all the major religions of the world.
There are many steps and levels of meditation. The
one thing that all of it has in common, is that it deals with
you, and only you. This is by you, about you, and for you.
The only person then who could hurt you during this
practice is you, and you must agree that is very unlikely. I
say all this because if you mention the word meditation to
some people they visualize a dark room with a gypsy and
a crystal ball, and are immediately frightened of this
scenario. We are afraid of things we don't understand.
There is nothing to be afraid of with meditation, unless
you are afraid of yourself. If you are afraid of yourself you
have a real problem, because you have to live with
yourself even if you don't have to live with anyone else.
The exercise below is a very basic meditation
exercise and is given for relaxation purposes. I will be
writing a book at a later date about meditation, in which I
will include all of the exercises. If you feel that you are
beyond this exercise and need more advanced exercises
before I get the book written, just write to me at
lorri@intur.net and I will forward you the next exercise.
MEDITATION EXERCISE;
The first thing to do is find a comfortable position.
Usually your bed is the best, because you feel the most
comfortable in your bedroom. If you feel more
comfortable on the couch fine, wherever you feel best.
Lay flat on your back (pillow under your head is fine if that
feels best) with your arms by your side and legs straight
out in front of you. Do not cross your arms or legs (stops
the energy from flowing freely).
A darkened room is best and as little noise as
possible, unless total quiet drives you crazy. If it does,
then put on some meditative music. I personally like the
Nikei tapes. He plays the hand made Indian flute and it is
very relaxing.
Now you are ready. Close your eyes. Command
your toes to relax, first one foot and then the other. Say
this command in your mind, as verbally is too distracting.
Continue to say it over and over until you can literally feel
the heartbeat in your toes. The
beat should be so strong that it is palpable and can be
counted. You then want to move on to your feet, ankles,
calves, knees, thighs, etc. until you have reached your
head. By the time you have reached your head you
should have no feeling in your body. If you have feeling in
any part of your body go back and work on that part until it
too is numb.
If thoughts keep springing into your head, don't worry
about it, just push them out one by one and go back to
what you were doing. If you fall asleep don't worry that is
perfectly normal, especially when starting out.
Practice this for at least one week until it becomes
easy.
HOMEWORK;
The first part to this homework is the above
meditation exercise. This will help to relax you and
alleviate any stress.
The next part is to analyze everything that you feel
emotional about. Anything that doesn't feel right. Tear it
apart until you can deal with it, and control the emotion it
erupts. Remember you are not alleviating the emotion,
you are controlling it. If you start to feel it again you have
not failed, you just need to go back to the reasoning
process and deal with it again. Reason it away. You see
pure logic knows no emotion. Therefore, it stands to
reason that if an emotion is causing us problems our
greatest weapon against it is logic.
There is no logical reason for anyone to allow stress
into their life. Stress is not a positive thing and does not
help, but hinders. This holds true for any situation, and
virtually any emotion.
Using this same thought process; if you are ill look for
the cause. Don't look toward catching a bug' from
someone. You very well might have caught that bug, but
if your system was strong and healthy it could have fought
off that bug, and you would still be well. There is a
purpose for everything, including illness. If we can find
what that purpose is, we can eliminate the need, and then
the illness.
If you are not ill, but still want to try out the theory,
think of the last time you were ill. Go over the events that
happened directly before, during and even after the
illness. Look for correlations. There is always a reason,
and if you haven't found it, then you are digging deep
enough.
Write all of this in your journal and refer back to it
when illness threatens.
The meditation exercise can be abbreviated and used
even while at work. Simply go to the restroom and get by
yourself in a stall, but be careful you don't fall asleep, that
could be embarrassing...