A friend of mine, over sushi, told me that his father spent $5000 a month on his nursing home. He commented that the extra money he spent on health--in this instance eating sushi--was a great investment, because if he stayed healthy just one month longer, he had just saved himself $5000.
It’s food for thought.
Often, when it comes to our health, to use an old phrase, we are “penny wise and pound foolish.” How to go about undoing dysfunctional patterns that lead to $5000 monthly nursing home stays and general poor health?
One thing I have come to believe is that without growth, without education, we develop tunnel vision. The challenge is that we do not know it is tunnel vision until we emerge from the tunnel. We are experts at first building our own cages, and then living in them. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to disease. The problem is that the restricting cage of disease develops at a deeper level than what our conscious mind can access. A mentor of mine told us, “Find out what the patient’s disease is preventing them from doing.” This is an important idea: we develop our diseases for a reason.
If you are not feeling well in a chronic way, it is good to non-judgmentally ask, “Where do I have tunnel vision?” What deep, inner stream has come to the surface with this ill health?
If you can sit with the discomfort of this, some answers may emerge. Keeping in mind that you cannot make clear separations between poor health and dysfunctional patterns in other areas of your life, you can begin to make out the bare outlines of ways of being that do not serve you.
What beliefs do you cling to that perpetuate your poor health? Do you believe that you are beyond help, that you are “incurable”? If so, why do you cling to these beliefs?
Not infrequently, in this process you will encounter emotions that are uncomfortable. If you immediately shut down, this is a clear sign that you need help. Without it, you could easily stay stuck and feeling rotten. What kind of help, though?
The medical profession has been the traditional answer, yet you have to wonder if that 10 minute encounter with your doctor is going to help you overcome your tunnel vision, or simply perpetuate it. Perhaps your answer is to keep your doctor, but find another sort of mentor or therapist. Let’s say you do this. Recognizing your troublesome relationship patterns, you find a therapist and do some work. You make some definite progress. Your relationships are better, but you still feel lousy. What next?
A reasonable next step is to find a mentor that deals with both the emotional and the physical. For women, a favorite of mine in this category is Laughing Sage. Check them out at Laughing Sage's website. . Formed by Alisa Vitta, Laughing Sage offers counseling for women that includes body, mind, and spirit. The accumulated knowledge at Laughing Sage in the realm of women’s health impresses me. In particular, if you have hormonal issues, Laughing Sage is a good place to seek understanding, knowledge, and recommendations.
What if, however, you have tried such holistic mentors, and you still are not well? Your level of stuckness requires a healer and mentor that works a level deeper. You may choose to enter the realm of high-level homeopathic casetaking and begin the search for the pattern in your deep consciousness that expresses itself through chronic mental or physical disease. You may also seek out other sources of deep knowledge, perhaps with eastern roots.
If you send your intention out to the universe to move through your blockages, then believe it will come to you. Open your mind. Take a seminar. Do something different. You will meet new people with new perspectives. New insights will come. These necessarily must lead you a step closer to feeling well. Health, ultimately, is freedom--and, above all, that includes freedom from your own restricting beliefs.
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