After all, we have literally thousands upon thousands of research articles about illness, disease, therapy, medication, surgery, and other treatments that can relieve symptoms, restore functioning, and sometimes save lives.
And yet, there is another side of healing that has always fascinated me.
How many illnesses do we have that are considered chronic, progressive, or even incurable—and yet there are documented cases of unexpected or spontaneous remission?
Why?
Why does one person recover against all expectations while another person with seemingly similar circumstances does not?
I don’t know. I really don’t and I also do not try to answer that question and I think it is important to say that.
I don’t know the answer to that question, and I don’t believe anyone should be told that they failed to heal because they didn’t think positively enough, meditate enough, forgive enough, or somehow want healing enough. Illness is far more complicated than that.
But I am curious!
I have followed the stories and teachings of people such as Louise Hay and Mary Morrissey, who have spoken publicly about profound healing experiences. On a much more personal level, I have watched a friend go through aggressive breast cancer and experience a remarkable recovery. I also have experienced devastating illness and healing, but also illness with long-term effects.
And as I am thinking about my own experiences and listen to these stories, something always catches my attention.
The people whose experiences I encountered developed an incredible level of self-awareness. From what I understand they did not start with that self-awareness: They developed it.
Almost as if was part of the disease. Disease…Dis-ease…Dis-ease – the opposite of ease. Ease for what? Ease in what?
And as people start paying attention to their dis-ease they start communicating with their bodies, and many times they start listening to them, sometimes for the first time.
They become curious about their thoughts, their emotions, their relationships, their stress, their beliefs, and the ways they were living their lives. I did too. So many times I suffered from dis-ease and became very ill. I experienced several illnesses that brought me to my knees, my bed, and even my death bed. And then I had that time to reflect, to slow down, to listen, and to take time for myself, for my body.
In the stories of spontaneous healing or self-healing I read that other people had similar experiences and they started to engaged in tremendous inner work. Many examined old resentments, others questioned long-held beliefs, again others changed patterns of thought and they became more intentional about what they allowed themselves to continually rehearse in their minds. They rested, maybe changed relationships or changed priorities. Many, like me, learned to listen when their bodies whispered instead of waiting until their bodies screamed.
Does that mean those things cured their illnesses?
I cannot make that claim, not even for my own life. But one thing I know, the moment I was stopped due to my illness and I started to listen my body started to heal.
Don’t think I am saying that we don’t need medicine, or can let go of all doctors, we don’t need surgeries and no more hospitals. No absolutely not! that would be extremely foolish because in my opinion every thing has its place in our self-healing including medicine, herbs, prayer, rest and much much more.
But all the reports and my own experience with self-healing and with dis-ease leaves me with a burning question:
What role does the person experiencing the illness play in the process of healing?
And that brings me back to the statement that started all of this:
Because we do know that the human body is constantly working toward regulation, repair, balance, and survival. I think that is why we see many times improvement when we allow time, peace and quiet, because we allow for our body to do its work.
Just think about it:
A physician can clean and close a wound, but the physician does not command the cells to knit the tissue back together. A cast can stabilize a broken bone. but the cast does not grow a new bone.
Therapy can create safety, insight, and new ways of responding, but the therapist cannot enter another person’s nervous system and do the healing for them. Treatment can support healing and people can support healing. Medicine can create conditions that make healing possible but something within the person must respond.
Our body is incredibly intelligent and eager to repair what is wounded. I think it is our part to listen and find out where we have the dis-in the ease. What in our life needs examining so we can allow more ease?
And this is where emotional intelligence plays it’s part. That self-awareness that leads us to mke decisions that bring peace and harmony even if it is hard. That self-confidence that leads us to maintain our boundaries even if that means we have to say “no”. That self-regulation that allows for us to assign just enough importance to an event, or sometimes no importance, so we can rest well.
Emotional Intelligence isn’t simply knowing whether we are angry, sad, anxious, or overwhelmed.
It is developing a relationship with ourselves strong enough that we can hear what is happening inside of us—and be courageous enough to place ourself first, listen and follow our intuition, which will lead to emotional alignment.
Our body has an extraordinary capacity to seek balance and repair, and so does our mind. We can apply our intelligence to our emotions to support the self-healing process.
Emotional intelligence is a necessity. In our time I belief it must be part of our every day life.