Reclaiming Your Power to Heal
Exploring Cutting Edge Wellness Integration Concepts & Strategies for Evolution As Discussed in Healing Myths, Healing Magic
By Dr. Donald Epstein
Healing involves journeying towards a greater experience of the life energy that animates, inspires, coordinates, and heal… In coming home to healing and wholeness, there are a series of questions you may begin to ask of yourself, to help make the transition from the old story of curing your symptom or condition, to the new story of healing your body-mind.
These questions are not intended to diagnose disease, but to help the patient discover “the person inside.” The person inside is the one who develops conditions and resolves them, as distinguished from the condition itself. Asking yourself these questions may give you a better perspective of your circumstance, and empower the healing process.
In the questions below, you will evaluate whether you have the same health concerns as a family member, regardless of the symptomatic expression. If so, are they truly your concerns and your creation? Did you experience your concerns as your own, or as that of your parents, for example? It is common for people to have similar health concerns as other family members, with or without manifesting similar symptoms. We learn our stories of the world from our family, friends, and mentors. They teach us how to respond to life when we are placed under stress or challenged by unexpected situations.
1. If you have a health concern, have any other family member had a similar concern?
2. What did she/he do about it?
3. Did it seem to work?
4. What did the treatment “working” mean to her/him?
5. What was different about her/him after treatment?
6. What was different about the symptom after treatment?
7. What was different about her concern about the condition after treatment?
8. What have you done about this health concern?
9. Did it seem to work?
10. What did the treatment “working” mean to you?
11. What was different about you after the treatment?
12. What was different about the symptoms after treatment?
13. What was different about your concern about the condition after treatment?
To effectively monitor your own healing process, it is essential to separate the following three things:
Your symptom | Your concern about the symptom | Your assessment of yourself?
…Rather than asking, “How do I feel?” concerning the symptom, you might ask,
“How do I feel about how I feel?” Referring to the person inside, who is experiencing the symptom and projecting his/her story onto it. For example, you may have shoulder pain that bothers you, but the pain is not the basis of your concern. Your concern is that you will not be able to play golf as you normally do. For someone else, the concern may be that the symptom is an indication of a more serious disease. For another persistent pain is linked to their emotions, while for others, pain is viewed as the lack of motion (or lack of emotion) in a part of their body. Sometimes you may experience pain and still feel okay; there is just pain. At other times, the pain becomes your focus and major preoccupation. Again, the experience of pain is not as important as “How, do you, the person experiencing and giving significance to the pain, feel about it?”
It is of clinical experience that people who just want to “fix the symptom,” and do not wish to discuss their personal relationship to that symptom (including the life they have lived, or the concerns about the symptom), often have a powerful disconnection from an energy that has become separated from the rest of their body-mind. The symptom itself is rarely the problem. The major concern is tied into the story this person has about the world, and how she/he views issues like rapid change, chaos, and not being in control of her/his situation.
The very act of acknowledging that our symptom, our concern, and the story behind our concern are separate issues is part of the healing process. When we are “disconnected” from the energy and awareness of our body-mind, all three issues merge into one. As we heal, each of these questions can be addressed individually. Eventually, we are able to separate whether we have just a symptom, or a worry that we will not be able to do something, accomplish something, achieve a goal, or feel what we do not like feeling. Often, the concern is associated with a fear of loss (such as vitality, power, spouse, finances), or the ability to work, sleep, or have fun. As our healing progresses, we gain the ability to assess one aspect of our condition without having to reflect upon the other two factors. Usually this is accomplished only after a greater awakening to our body’s language, pulsations, breath, and movement.
When we are ready to dedicate ourselves to wholeness, the following questions may help us to further separate the experience of the symptom from the concern, and place it in the context of our daily life. It is interesting to see how life shows us what it needs by helping us to focus on those activities, thoughts, or relationships that may be causing disharmony.
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1. How is this symptom or situation altering my work? Play? Rest? Sleep? Relationships? Sex and love life? Concentration? School? Other activities or functions?
2. As time progresses, even if the symptom persists, is there less of an effect in all these areas of my life?
3. If the symptom disappears, are the above areas of my life still affected?
4. Is there any time, activity, or place I can go where I totally, or almost totally forget about the symptom or the concern itself?
5. Is there anything I do, or any place I go that intensifies the symptom or my concern?
(The next set of questions will often give us a direct answer that shocks us. First, quiet yourself and gently breathe while touching the part of your body you have concern about.
Now ask yourself:
6. Why do I think this has happened or continues to happen to me?
…Wait for a response. Then write down anything that comes to you. Keep writing nomatter how ridiculous or out of context the answer may be. Know that your body-mind wants to be healthier and wants you to know the truth.
7. Is this the soul cause of my problem?
…Wait a minute or two before you write down your answer.
8. If the answer is no, what else is involved?
In continuing to assess your healing, it is important to ask yourself the following questions:
1. If this condition were to go away tomorrow, what would be different about my life? (What would I be doing differently at home, work, play, or in relationships if I did not have this symptom or concern?
2. Would I have made that change if I did not have the symptom or concern?
3. How else would I have allowed myself to make that change?
4. Have I touched or rubbed a part of my body that I usually do not pay attention to, more, or differently, than before?
5. Have I talked to other people and pointed to this part of my body that I usually do not consider?
6. Have I cried, moaned, dropped to my knees, or fallen in a position that surrenders to my body’s rhythms?
7. When was the last time I did that, and what was going on in my life at that time?
8. What would have had to happen in my life to get me to take time to do this?
9. What do I think my body-mind is trying to tell me has to change?
10. What do I need that I am not getting?
11. What do I have to give that I am not giving?
12. Can I truly experience my symptom, condition, or situation as a gift?
Return to Wholeness
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