The first step to healing is your awareness that you CAN heal.

Many of us have been brought up to believe ourselves to be inadequate and imperfect beings. That’s how most of us have been programmed ever since we were young, and we continue to operate on that basis, even when our subconscious mind is no longer in a constant hypnotic state like it was when were very young. Whenever we were sick, or anyone else was sick, we were taught as little children, that we have to go to the doctor or to the hospital to make us better. Not that there is anything wrong with that, because the medical profession do help us – A LOT!

There is inherent danger when we continue to believe that we REQUIRE someone or something ELSE to help us heal because our bodies are incapable of doing so. As Anita Moorjani saw through her NDE (and as purported by modern spiritual teachings), we were all born perfect, but over time, we have forgotten the perfect essence of who we are. With that belief comes the issue of us being imperfect, inadequate and insufficient – the belief that we NEED something else to complete and fulfil us.

Let’s take a look at some of the basic fundamentals of what we are made of. We are made up of 50 trillion cells… which are made up of atoms… which are made up of 99.9997% “empty space” or energy. E=mc² is the best example of how everything is energy and everything that has is energy vibrates at particular frequencies. In simplistic terms, we are made of energy, just like everything around us that is physical, that also vibrates at its own frequency.

The other important thing to remember is that we think in pictures. Think about it. We think in pictures. Whenever we run through a scenario in our head of what we do want, we think in pictures, and the picture creates the emotions we associate with the picture in mind.  Bob Proctor explains that emotions are our conscious awareness of our vibration, and it is our vibration that controls our body.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is the study of the relationship between psychology, the neuroendocrine and the immune systems in the body. Psychology is the science of behavior and mind, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. Neuroendocrinology is the study of interactions between hormones and the brain, primarily how hormones affect behavior (hormones are essentially chemical messengers that transport signals from one cell to another in the body). The immune system is a host defense system comprising many biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease. In other words, PNI is the study of how our mind controls our body.

Looking at the stickperson diagram that Dr Thurman Fleet introduced back in 1934, we see that the body is an instrument of the mind. More specifically, the body is an instrument of the subconscious mind because it operates based on emotions. Our physical awareness of our vibration (ie. our feelings and/or emotions) triggers the release of hormones which correspond with our feelings. Stress hormones like cortisol are released when we perceive ourselves to be in stressful conditions (inhibiting growth) whilst growth hormones release endorphins are released to help support our immune system.

Going back to the root of the question…because of the way that we have been programmed in our subconscious mind, and when we feel that we are NOT in control of a situation, such as a disease or an illness, we inadvertently trigger the release of stress hormones into our bodies. These hormones continue to build up until the time when we decide to release them. However, if we don’t realise that we have control over our body (due to our conditioning over the years), the stress hormones cannot be released from the body.

That is why the first step to healing yourself is your awareness that you can heal. It is crucial to understand how your body works and to respect your body’s own innate healing ability.

Let’s take a look at some of the work done by Dr Kelly Turner and Dr Lissa Rankin and investigate the importance of the mind-body relationship.

Dr Kelly Turner interviewed 100 cancer patients survivors and found 9 common threads that run through all of them:

• Radically changing your diet
• Taking control of your health
• Following your intuition
• Using herbs and supplements
• Releasing suppressed emotions
• Increasing positive emotions
• Embracing social support
• Deepening your spiritual connection
• Having strong reasons for living

Dr Lissa Rankin lists her 6 steps towards self-healing:

1. Believe that it’s possible
2. Finding the right support
3. Listening to your intuition
4. Diagnosing the root causes of your illness
5. Writing your own prescription
6. Spiritual awakening.

Looking at Dr Turner’s work, only 2 out of the 9 common threads relate to physical changes. And I would even argue, that for them to make those physical changes, they need to first be aware that they can take control of their own lives and heal themselves. Dr Rankin’s methods are also related to mind-body work, which, when you really understand how the stickperson diagram works, gives you a picture of how you can heal your body by using your mind.

It can be difficult when you’ve been diagnosed with an illness with no understanding of how it happened and no cure, only remission. You tend to become so engrossed, so focused on the cause of your illness that you see no way out. I felt exactly that when my son was diagnosed with Juvenile Dermatomyositis. In finding out that there is no cure, only a hope for remission, I continued down the path of finding the physical root cause of his illness. Just like everyone else, I believed that we are all purely physical, biochemical beings. I had no “we” consciousness at the time. And the end result was me feeling worse than his initial diagnosis because my search came from a fear based motivation: I was looking for someone or something to blame for his condition.

It took me some years before I realised that a continual search into a problem will only yield more problems. The moment that I decided to take the first step in accepting his condition was the moment I became aware that we are in control of our body and that we can work with our body for optimal healing.

Through acceptance, I am able to see the problem from other angles, which enables me to see that there is always a solution to a problem. We are never given a “challenge” in life that we cannot overcome ourselves. A challenge always comes with solutions, but we can never find the solution to our problem if we don’t know that there is one in the first place! To look for the solution, we first need to be aware that there is a solution.

Now that you understand that you hold the key to your own healing, I challenge you to take a different stance on your illness. There are numerous materials that you can find and implement to start taking control of your illness, rather than let the illness control you. The examples above by Drs Turner and Rankin are just 2 ways which you can use to start taking charge of your illness.

What is equally important is your attitude in life. As Bob Proctor says, “Your attitude is the composite of your thoughts, your feelings and your actions.” To be successful in anything that you do, you need to have a good attitude. And one of the key ways of doing this is to always look for the good in everything, even if it’s an illness. There is good in everything, just as there is the solution to every problem. Question is, are you willing to look for the good in any situation?

Imagine what it would be like if you took control of your life, your body, because in essence, you do! Imagine the things that you would do if you were healed. What would you be doing? I want you to really get into the vibration of what it would be like if you had perfect health. See yourself already there. Notice what you see, smell, hear, taste and touch. Pay attention to how you’re feeling good about the situation and how it lifts your mood almost instantaneously. You see, the second key to healing is to feel good about yourself because it’s in feeling good that your body begins to heal itself. PNI shows that. This is no longer pure spiritual teaching: the mind-body relationship is now a new stream of science.

Remember: you have the freewill to choose what and how you want to feel in any situation. An illness can be devastating, but it is up to you to be aware of your own ability to heal and then make the decision to start looking for the good in what seems to be a bad situation. When you have a good attitude in life, it comes with a positive “side effect,” which, when combined with whatever treatment you choose to take, will help you greatly in your healing journey.