Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Your mind: the natural cure for what ails you.

This is a reprint of my own article as it was published in the June/July issue of "Qi Dao," the newsletter of the World Institute for Self Healing. ~Michelle~


Why is it that most people have no difficulty believing the mind can cause illness through negative thoughts and emotions, but won’t believe the mind can cause wellness through positive thoughts and emotions? Have you ever heard the saying, “You can do anything you put your mind to”? The natural power of the mind, through the processes of conscious direction and sustained attention, can create anything, including perfect health!

Your mind is a very powerful creator that does not judge its creations as good or bad, it just creates. Illness and wellness are a matter of perception, a matter of how the creation that is the physical “you” is influenced and judged by your emotions. Your thoughts influence your emotions; your emotions influence your physical body. If you are not sure that is true, you can test it right now. Take a moment to think a neutral thought like “the sky is blue.” You have very little reaction to a statement of fact that is not part of your personal creation. Now, think of a sad or angry experience you had and notice how your body suddenly feels tense and uncomfortable. Now, think of a happy experience you had and notice how your body changes to feel relaxed and comfortable.

You have the natural ability to choose illness by thinking negative thoughts and having negative feelings, or choose wellness by thinking positive thoughts and having positive feelings. The natural state of your body is health and wellness; it wants to work harmoniously with you to return to that state of good health.

The last four lines of verse 51 of the Dao De Jing (Peter Merel interpolation) offer some suggestions on how we can use our mind to effect our own healing.

“Bearing without possessing,” Carry the illness, but don’t own it. Every time you think or say “my disease” you are confirming it is a part of you. If you have to refer to it at all, call it “the disease.” Do your best to not think of it at all. When you stop feeding the disease with the energy of your thoughts, you will deny it the energy it needs to exist.

“Nurturing without taming,” Take care of yourself without trying to change the nature of the illness. Don’t try to make the illness something you can “live with.” If, in your mind, you decide you can live with it, you won’t cure it. Always try to nurture yourself back to perfect health.

“Shaping without forcing,” Shaping in this sense means creating your healthy body without resistance. Self-doubt is resistance, disbelief is resistance. If you must work so hard to convince yourself of the healing power of your mind, all your energy goes toward the convincing and none toward the healing. Making statements like “I’m going to do this or else!” is resistance which can set up an internal power struggle or fear of failure that may do more harm than good. Create good health persistently but gently.

“This is harmony.” Give yourself permission to allow your body to follow its natural tendencies. Spend time influencing your body with intentional and sustained positive thoughts. Fill yourself with health and there will be no room for disease.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just awesome Michelle! I certainly know that negativity can cause illness, been there, done that....due to an out of control stress level. I am working on the positive thought process consciously and consistently these days, I do believe it makes a real difference for the better.

Your posts are excellent, informative and interesting. Thanks, G

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your article Michelle. The mind is indeed a powerful tool.

You must have liked the What the Bleep Do We Know? movie about quantum physics. If you haven't seen it, I think you would enjoy giving it a try.

No matter how we look at things - through the eyes of the scientist, the philosopher, the spiritualist, or the pragmatist - the body is inextricable from the mind, and vice versa.

Michelle Wood said...

Hi G, Thank you. It seems that as time goes on, I'm more and more drawn to the healing power of the mind. It seems both very awesome and very commonplace at the same time. :-)

JLB, yes, I have seen "What the Bleep Do We Know?" A friend and I have been having discussion sessions with the studyguide...pretty interesting stuff!

If you are intersted, here is the page, http://www.whatthebleep.com/guide/ and here is the direct link to the Guide in pdf format, http://www.noetic.org/research/files/Bleep_Study_Guide.pdf

The biggest mistake mankind ever made was to try to separate the mind and the body. I'm glad to see we are turning the tide back toward wholeness these days.

Anonymous said...

Michelle, It is so true that the mind can either poison the body or soothe it. Isn't it true that stress and anxiety are the cause of (non-chemical imbalance-related) depression, fatigue, and a host of other issues, not to mention how they wear down your defenses and make you vulnerable to other diseases.

By the same token my yoga teacher seems like one of the healthiest people I know. She has what I would consider a very stressful life (single mom, not much $$, far from her family), yet she does not have stress, is physically very healthy, and it's because she practices the yogic idea of "simple acceptance."

BTW, yes I have FINALLY started that yoga class and I love it! it's very relaxing.

Michelle Wood said...

Hi Caroline,

Good for you on starting the yoga class...that's great! I'm sure you will find that it becomes even more beneficial as time goes on. Your teacher sounds wonderful, too...truly a Wise Woman.

Stress and anxiety can be the cause of chemical-imbalance related depression, too. Because of the detrimental effect stress has on the digestive system, it can be at the root of chemical imbalances due to the improper or incomplete absorption of needed nutrients which are supposed to supply the proper chemicals. You don't get the chemical balance you require if the nutrients that supply those chemicals are not passed properly through the digestive system. It really pays in better all-around health to reduce stress as much as possible.

Enjoy your yoga!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Michelle!

First, I never even knew there was World institute of self healing! Oh well, I've learned something new today! :)

Secondly the healing power of the mind is incredible. I remember once, I came down with a really bad flu while I was at work, It got to the point where I could barely walk as I was so ill...but if anyone came upto me and said; "How are you Amit?" I would respond, "I'm feeling great!" By the time I got home, I pretty much collapsed on my bed but I carried on focusing on my wellbeing. I went to bed and woke up at 4am the next morning. By then I was 95% completely healed and this we a flu, that made most of my work colleagues take two weeks off work, but I was fully healed within two days!

The power of the mind strikes again! :)

Have a great weekend Michelle, Happy Diwali!

Michelle Wood said...

Hi Amit,

In their own words: "The World Institute for Self-Healing (WISH) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting self-healing and
mind power through medical qigong via research, education, exploration of new frontiers and practical applications.
We would like to work closely with all those who are interested in human self-healing and mind power and its
applications in health and healing to form a self-healing movement." ("Qi Dao Newsletter" January 2006) If you are interested, you can follow the link in the sidebar to subscribe to the newsletter.

Your flu story is a Great example of the power of the mind. We humans have so much potential for self-healing that we don't use, though your Power of Choice material points us in the right direction, too! However, your co-workers must have thought you feverish and delusional being so ill and yet saying you felt great! ;-)

myonlyphoto said...

Michelle, this is really good article. Thanks for sharing. It is amazing how it is our human nature to feel always more netative, than positive. A great example is media, they seemed to always feed as negative news just to spike us up. Thanks for the invitation, Anna :)

Michelle Wood said...

Hi Anna,

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

You are so right on about the media, and advertising in particular. They play upon the emotions, and negative feelings can and do cause illness.

We can actually counterbalance the negative by engaging in laughter; watching a funny movie promotes all sorts of health benefits!

See this (you may have to cut both parts out of here and paste them back together to get to the article):
http://bewellwithmichelle.blogspot.com/
2006/08/laughter-it-does-body-good.html

myonlyphoto said...

No problem Michelle. The laughter article is excellent. We do all that in my tai-chi class. By the end of the class we laugh from our belly, and believe or not it is contiguous when we are in the park, because every by passer laughs at us or with us, lol. Thanks again for letting me know. Anna :)

Michelle Wood said...

Hi Anna,

That sounds like a great class! :)

Wish I could be there, too!