Post date: Apr 24, 2010 11:26:24 PM
Common sense. How easy it is to lose it, especially if you find yourself in the midst of illness with a million conflicting view points and suggestions being tossed to you from just about everyone you know! Your neighbor has a healing story, your aunt knows of a great treatment, and your best friend has a theory about why you’re so sick in the first place and although coming from very good intentions, you find yourself overwhelmed, confused and implicated in a negative way. How can you not when you are told, 1. ”Oh, it’s Karma”, which means you must have done something bad in a past life or earlier in this life. 2. ”Oh, it’s God’s will”, which means you’re being punished for something. 3. ”Oh, it’s the anger you repressed” which means you’re the screw up.
I think it’s important to realize that no one really knows what the truth is. There are a zillion differing opinions about what is going on in this life. Each believes that their way is THE way, but to my mind, each presents a hypothesis and nothing more. For example, an atheist will tell you with total certainty that there is no God. An Agnostic at least admits to not knowing. Everyone else believes in God, but their God and only their God. It is outrageous to consider all the people who were put to death in the name of someone else’s God! Yet, despite all the holy wars, I still believe that no one really knows and therefore, with that assumption, I’ll tell you what I would do.
While trying to sort through the numerous suggestions and theories, take all those things that you can’t possibly know, out of the equation. Don’t worry about Karma or things that you cannot change. If you can’t know something with certainty, let it ride. Don’t drive yourself crazy with things you can’t know or do anything about!
Focus instead on helping yourself to get well by considering all the things that you can do that will move you forward. Work with what I call the 4 components for optimal health:
1. Stress Reduction: meditation/exercise and other ways 2. Nutrition: diet/supplements/ 3. Belief work: examining your personal beliefs about yourself/working to implant new beliefs through affirmation and visualization 4. Toxicity: eliminating toxins in the body.
Working with these four components is something that we all can do. If, however, you are already have an illness or a condition, you may very well need medical assistance as well. I believe in combining the two, traditional medicine and complementary medicine, using whatever works and is needed in conjunction.
In their book “Grace and Grit” Ken Wilber and his late wife “Treya Killam Wilber” write of their struggle with the cancer that eventually took her life. It is an amazing book and I recommend it highly. Something that always sticks out in my mind was the sheer common sense of something Ken said to Treya. She was, of course, affected by the new age belief that states that she had brought on her own cancer. What should she change she wondered….what should she do differently? It’s a daunting responsibility! Ken said something like this: We cannot begin to know all the causes of cancer….so why don’t you use the cancer as an impetus to change your life in areas where you desire change? Now that’s using your head, because it helps to improve the quality of your life when you give yourself permission to say no to certain things. And again, there is a common sense wisdom in doing what you can do and not worrying endlessly over what you can’t know!
This blog is very new and this is my second posting. I hope you will make a comment and let me know who you are and share your experiences with myself and my other readers. It is my intention to make this blog a resource network for all of us to learn from each other. I believe that each of us has a lot to share!
Be well in mind and body,
Sheri