It is a sad fact but true: the medical profession is trained to treat the physical body but not the person who inhabits that body. My training in medical school, forty-five years ago, is still typical of the training today. It is focused on the anatomy, physiology, chemistry and pathology of health and illness. The mind is said to reside in the brain, the sum product of electrochemical impulses in several billions of nerve cell connections that is more intricate and complex than the most advanced computers in existence today.
The short version is that conventional medicine believes only in what it can measure and quantify. Sorry to say, you and I and all the other unique and interesting people populating this earth do not measure up (quite literally) to their standards of what is real and what is imaginary. In other words, we don’t really exist.
Over the years, I have come more and more to appreciate the observation of Hippocrates, “It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.” We can guess from this quote that he observed the same tendencies in the physicians of his day that we sense in today’s doctors.
Each of us is absolutely unique in our genetic makeup and how our genes have interacted with our environment over out lifetime. Our body provides the basis for our interactions in the physical world, but it is not the be-all and end-all of who we are. We also have emotions, mind, relationships (with other people and the environment) and a spiritual connection that contribute to our individuality.
From this wholistic perspective, our body participates in a symphony of interactions between the various aspects that comprise who we are. To a great extent, our body is a reflection of the rest of us, and not the sole basis and determinant of who and what we are. In fact, from the perspective of Spirit, “Our body is a biofeedback mechanism for our soul,” as Dr. Len Wisneski observed.
The conventional doctor has vast expertise in diagnosing the condition of the physical body and in prescribing chemicals and other interventions to alter its functions when we present ourselves with symptoms and illnesses. Western medicine has dominated health care, actively discouraging and excluding other approaches to health and healing. We have been conditioned over many decades to present ourselves passively and patiently for the doctor’s assessments and ministrations.
We don’t have to discount and discredit our own vast self-healing capacities like that. We can take an active role in all aspects of our health, even when symptoms and illnesses present themselves.
Once we accept that our body is, in part, an expression of who we are as people, then any changes in our body can be perceived and explored as statements from some part of ourselves about our lives. For instance, a pain, a viral respiratory infection or an injury can invite us to understand something about our place in the world at the time that they appear.
Example 1. Sally was a bank clerk who was well respected and appreciated by her supervisors as a hard working, reliable employee. She found herself frustrated because of a series of minor injuries to her fingers that impaired her abilities to work as efficiently as usual. Over a four month period, these included slicing a finger severely while preparing dinner; crushing and fracturing another finger in her car door when she slipped on an icy roadway; and spraining a finger in slipping and falling on her front steps.
Sally was surprised to have a friend Betty confront her, during a friendly conversation, about Betty’s “rule of 3s: When something happens 3 times, it’s time to ask what the universe is telling you!” Sally might have felt blamed with anyone else, but she respected Betty and gave this some hard thought. Upon introspection she realized that her bank job was unlikely to lead to a satisfying or secure career. Her body had been a messenger from her unconscious mind, alerting her to a truth she had overlooked because her work situation was a comfortable and supportive one.
Example 2. George had been a hard working cab driver for 15 years, enjoying excellent health. His back started to hurt towards the middle of his work shift. He had no history of injury or strain to his back and his doctor could find nothing wrong with his back. Using WHEE, a self-healing method that offers “Whole Health – Easily and Effectively”, George got in touch with what his back was wanting to tell him about his life. His pain was saying, “You are working long hours to support your family and your wife is not pulling a fair share of the load. Now that the children are older, she could be working more than her part time job so that you wouldn’t have to work such long hours.” George had been a bit on the henpecked side, and it was not till he “got his back up about this issue” that he got up the courage to confront his wife and sort out a fairer distribution of responsibilities in the family.
I have been disappointed with my medical colleagues, and with other therapists as well, for treating the body as though it existed without a person attached to it. People who have started talking with their bodies to ask what their symptoms were saying have been astounded at how readily their bodies will reply, and how profoundly helpful these messages often are. These people are also disappointed that they had to suffer, often for years or even decades, before someone invited them to ask what their body was wanting them to know.
So if you have any symptoms, set aside some quiet time to speak with them. This ‘bodytalk’ is often amazingly quick and productive in providing answers to your questions. If you find they are not replying, a therapist might help you find and open these doors of communications.
see more on whee and on talking with your symptoms in my new book, http://www.paintap.com7 minutes to natural pain release and http://wholistichealingresearch.commore by and about daniel benor, md
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