Focus
on
Healing
Holistic
self-help for
medical illness
Jennifer Barraclough
Copyright
2009–2012 Jennifer Barraclough
Smashwords Edition
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All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the author.
Copyright © 2009–2012 Jennifer Barraclough.
Print version published in 2009 by Papawai Press, Auckland.
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
Cover: Designed by Jennifer Barraclough.
Contents
Part I: Introducing the approach
Why this book? – My story: from doctor to healer – What is holistic healing? – The nature of the healing journey – The benefits of a positive focus – Balance – Self-responsibility and its limits
Part II: Theoretical background
Mind-body-spirit connections – The vibrational model of the self – The multifactorial causes of disease – The concept of stress – The emotions – Attitudes and beliefs – Personality, health and disease – The spiritual dimension – Understanding deeper meanings – The body remembers – Persons not diseases
Part III: Practical self-healing
Guiding principles – Interpreting medical information – Hope, intentions and goals – Affirmation and visualisation – Forgiveness, acceptance and appreciation – Attitudes to the body – Diet – Exercise, sleep, relaxation and breathing – The physical environment – Reducing psychosocial stress – Processing negative emotions – Joy, happiness and humour – Love, tolerance and patience – Spiritual approaches to healing – Creativity – Authenticity and the life path
Part IV: Professional treatment and care
Orthodox medicine and/or natural therapies? – Unwanted effects of treatments – Selecting a therapist – Researching natural therapies – Choosing and using natural therapies – Stopping treatments
Bach Flower Remedies as a complementary therapy for medical illness
Disclaimer: The suggestions about self-help for medical illness given in this book are general ones which may not apply to every case. They are not intended to replace diagnosis and treatment from a qualified healthcare professional. Readers who put them into practice must do so on the understanding that the author or publisher cannot take responsibility for the results.
Introducing the approach
Why this book?
Modern medicine and surgery have achieved many wonderful advances in the prevention and treatment of disease. All the same, a great many people today are living with long-term health problems, and some of them are choosing to look beyond the orthodox medical model and explore a more holistic approach.
Important elements of the holistic approach include:
• considering each person as a unique individual – not just as a ‘case’ of a certain disease;
• considering the whole person – emotions, mind and spirit as well as physical body;
• believing that everyone is to some degree responsible for their own well-being;
• having a sense of choice, control and active participation in treatment, whether with self-help methods and/or professional care;
• favouring therapies which are safe, natural, and preferably low-cost, in preference to high-tech interventions;
• realising that the illness experience can carry a personal meaning and bring opportunities for positive change.
So much information – and misinformation – on holistic healthcare is available today that newcomers to the field often feel confused and do not know where to start. This book aims to give a balanced introduction. Whether your intention is to relieve the symptoms of your illness, to come to terms with it in a more positive way, improve the medical prognosis or achieve a full recovery, I hope you will find something of value here.
I believe that many aspects of sickness and healing remain a mystery, and make no claim that the book contains a magic formula for the cure of all diseases. Nor is it designed to promote any one particular technique; not all of the suggestions given will be suitable for every case, because there are many different paths to healing, and no set formula for coping and recovery. The contents are more like a buffet of information, giving a taste of the various approaches from which you can select the ingredients of your own self-healing programme.
This is a sensitive and controversial field in which differences of expert opinion abound. Some of the approaches to be mentioned here are supported by firm research evidence and used in mainstream healthcare circles. Others are more ‘way out’ and grounded in faith rather than fact. Not all of these theories and therapies are ones which I would personally endorse, but I have chosen to include them because I know that many people accept their validity and have found them helpful.
Although I will have a few critical comments to make about the orthodox healthcare system, I do believe that the medical diagnostic model, and treatments with drugs and surgery and radiation, can have tremendous benefits when skillfully used. My intention is not to discredit orthodox medicine, but to show that illness can also be considered from other perspectives, and that there are many natural approaches which can promote adjustment and healing whether orthodox treatment is being given or not.
The main emphasis will be on self-help approaches with psychological and spiritual elements. Though biological aspects of illness are also very important, I have included only brief information about these. And I have made no attempt to cover ‘alternative’ technologies and treatments which act at the physical level, because these lie outside the scope of the book and beyond my own expertise.
Every book reflects the character and background of its author, and this one has been shaped by my long and winding progression from orthodox doctor to natural therapist, interwoven with some experience of personal illness. It is my attempt to integrate what I have learned so far from my studies, from my patients and clients, and from my own healing journey.
My Story: from doctor to healer
When I was a little girl growing up in post-war Britain, my favourite activity was writing stories. It was assumed that I would take a university degree in English Literature and then pursue some bookish career. Then in my teens I felt a ‘calling’ to become a doctor, somewhat to the surprise and dismay of my teachers and family. After I graduated from medical school in 1970, my work experience included the contrasting fields of radiotherapy, family medicine and general psychiatry. For reasons I cannot explain I was always drawn to cancer care, and my knowledge of these different specialties eventually came together when I found my niche as a hospital consultant in psychological medicine with special interests in palliative care and oncology. Being in the medical profession brought me many rewards: the clinical work dealing directly with patients, the challenges of teaching and research, channeling my love of writing into publishing academic books and papers, professional relationships with skilled and dedicated colleagues which have led to some lasting friendships – and last but not least, a steady income.
But as the years went by I became aware that the ‘Western medical model’ had serious limitations. Despite all the impressive technological advances, demand for healthcare services seemed to be rising insatiably. Hospitals were high-stress environments overflowing with acute cases, the prevalence of chronic disorders in the population remained high, and serious adverse reactions to treatment were commonplace. I also began to doubt some of the beliefs and practices which my conditioning had previously led me to accept without question. Were physicians and surgeons too ready to intervene with powerful tools which sometimes harmed rather than healed, so that the treatment proved worse than the disease? Was medical authority and knowledge being over-used to control and interfere with people’s lives?
During the 1990s the UK government introduced major changes to the public healthcare system, making it more tightly managed and regulated, and more commercially driven. The advent of ‘evidence-based medicine’ and clinical audit was good in that it made us look more objectively at what we were doing – but it also encouraged thinking purely in terms of material factors which were easy to measure numerically, while not allowing for the more intangible subjective ones which could be equally relevant. To maximise cost-effectiveness, set protocols for the management of particular conditions were introduced, leaving less scope for practising the ‘art’ of medicine and for applying professional judgment to the individual case. Attending meetings, filling in forms and working on computers sometimes took priority over basic humane and common-sense aspects of clinical care. There was also a growing blame culture, with increased likelihood of being sued by a patient or taken to task by a manager.
Though many doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals continued to provide an excellent service and maintain enthusiasm for their vocation, idealism was waning. A medical career is highly demanding and can take a heavy toll on personal well-being, family and social life. For years, most of us had readily accepted these hardships as a necessary price to pay for being part of such an important, respected and well-paid profession, but they were being seriously questioned as a sense of discontent with the new culture became widespread. It has been known for a long time that doctors themselves have high rates of alcoholism, drug addiction, depression and suicide. Several of my own colleagues died young as a result of such conditions, and many others became ‘burnt out’ – frustrated, demoralised and exhausted, with a cynical attitude towards the patients in their care. Though it was good to see the medical establishment acknowledging these problems more openly, and providing more help for doctors who were not coping well, what was wrong with a healthcare system in which so many of the staff became sick or miserable themselves?
My own health was going downhill around this time: I had frozen shoulders, fibroids, a suspicious mammogram, borderline hypothyroidism and worsening of my long-standing migraine headaches. I often felt so tired that getting up in the morning, going to work and dealing with the responsibilities of the day demanded a major effort of will. I had a number of unpleasant medical investigations. My encounters with specialists varied a great deal in quality and brought home to me the huge importance of empathy and communication in healthcare relationships. Although professionals do need a certain detachment to prevent them finding their work too distressing to tolerate, many of them could benefit from direct experience of how it feels to be a patient.
While growing disenchanted with certain aspects of the orthodox medical system, I was becoming interested in natural healing. My experience of working in a hospice, where complementary and creative therapies were provided and the spiritual aspects of life were discussed, had shown me glimpses of a very different world. I saw how gentle interventions such as music and art therapy, acupuncture and aromatherapy could help to control bodily symptoms and improve mental adjustment to being seriously ill. It seemed a shame that such therapies were not being offered to patients in the early stages of illness, as well as to those nearing the end of life. I felt guided, again for reasons I cannot explain, to take a residential course about spiritual healing and this proved a turning point, introducing me to the concept of ‘subtle energies’ and the field of ‘vibrational medicine’. Up till then, everything I had been taught rested on the assumption that all illness – physical or mental – could be explained in terms of something wrong with the anatomy, physiology or biochemistry of the body, and was best treated by drugs or surgery. The idea that such material pathology could be a reflection of imbalance in the person’s spiritual and mental energy system was one that I had never seen seriously considered in all my extensive medical studies.
The healing course emphasised the importance of self-care for healers themselves. Most of the natural therapy practitioners I met seemed far more enthusiastic about their work than their counterparts in orthodox medicine – though it is fair to add that most of them were dealing with a smaller caseload and less severe illnesses, therefore were not working under so much pressure. I met some inspirational people and heard stories of remarkable recoveries achieved without surgery or drugs. Conversely, I also saw conditions which had failed to respond to months or years of natural therapy but were quite easily cleared up when the sufferer finally accepted conventional treatment.
These experiences led me to approach my life and work differently and embark on a search for a ‘middle way’, integrating the best of the orthodox and alternative systems of healthcare. I cautiously introduced some changes into my hospital practice, and many patients seemed to appreciate these. I found myself relating to them on a more equal personal level, and not prescribing so many drugs. My medical colleagues were surprisingly tolerant, and I discovered that quite a few were privately using such approaches themselves. Many other people around this time were exploring similar ideas – and even the ultra-conservative medical establishment was beginning to take a serious look at unorthodox therapies because so many patients were using them. I was asked to develop an introductory seminar for medical students about complementary medicine, and another on ‘personal support’. Some of the students welcomed these innovations – others already held a fixed belief that such topics were a complete waste of time.
My husband Brian was born and brought up in New Zealand. After spending many happy holidays in his family home on Auckland’s North Shore, we decided to emigrate permanently in the year 2000. By then I felt ready to give up conventional medical practice and focus on other approaches to healing, personal development and spirituality. Coming to this beautiful sunny country with its friendly people proved a good choice for us both. My new life brought me all the good things I hoped for, and many others I had never imagined. As well as enjoying new interests ranging from choral singing to walking dogs, I continued medical writing and editing, took a life coaching course, and explored many natural therapies. Another intuitive impulse led me to study the Bach flower remedies, and the simple but profound writings of Dr Edward Bach. For a while, the logical analytical side of my personality questioned the sense of getting involved with a therapy which, according to conventional scientific wisdom, could be no more than placebo. The rewarding results I observed with my first few clients persuaded me to continue, and I am still amazed by the benefits which this simple gentle form of vibrational medicine can achieve. Emotional energies become balanced and focused and, in many cases, physical symptoms fade away.
My own vitality, well-being and sense of fulfillment improved enormously after my move to Auckland, but I continued to get occasional attacks of migraine. Migraine disease has an inherited component and, it seems, its own intrinsic rhythm so that attacks can strike without warning and cannot always be explained by obvious triggers such as rich foods or mental stress. Like any other illness it has its own particular challenges and compensations. Considering that there is complete recovery in between attacks, and some hope of lasting improvement in later life, I would say there are many worse things to suffer from. But the attacks themselves are agonising beyond words, and like many sufferers I have often felt my life overshadowed by dread of the next one, being reluctant to arrange work or leisure commitments for fear of having to let people down, the embarrassment of vomiting in social settings, and negative judgments due to others’ lack of understanding.
Migraine has caused me a great deal of misery and, remembering the Biblical saying ‘Physician heal thyself’, I have sometimes felt uncomfortable about practising in the healing field when my own recovery was not complete. But many of the world’s most powerful healers have been ‘wounded healers’ who had chronic disabilities, or else only discovered their vocation after coming through an experience of serious illness themselves. Migraine has been a powerful motivator in my on-going quest to understand sickness and health from a broader perspective, explore many different therapies, recognise my own strengths and weaknesses, and become more able to empathise and assist with others’ health problems. I may never be completely cured of this condition but, with severe attacks now down from once a week to only a few times per year, its hold over me is waning.
I still use both orthodox and natural treatments for myself occasionally. Both systems contain much of value, but both have their limitations, and I believe the most powerful healing comes from within the self. I also believe that the illness experience can have positive aspects, and promote a more loving, joyful, authentic and fulfilling way of life. These are the principles which underpin this book.
What is holistic healing?
Healing means ‘to make sound or healthy’ and is a very broad concept. The word is also used as a shorthand description for the specific therapies known as spiritual, or energy, healing.
Health is not just the freedom from disease, but a positive state of balance and well-being in body, emotions, mind and spirit. All living things – humans, animals and plants – naturally aspire to this state.
Holistic means ‘considering something as a whole, and more than just the sum of its parts’.
Holistic healing involves all aspects of the person – body, emotions, mind and spirit, considered within the wider setting of their social relationships and physical environment – in the quest for better health. People who can benefit from the holistic approach include:
• those who are already in good health and want to continue that way – prevention is better than cure;
• those suffering from serious physical or mental disease;
• those with chronic symptoms which are causing distress, even if they are not life-threatening or do not fit in to any known medical diagnostic category.
I believe that the holistic philosophy can and should be part of any self-healing endeavor and of any professional treatment, whether in orthodox healthcare (also called conventional, allopathic or mainstream medicine) or in natural therapy (also called complementary and alternative medicine, abbreviated to CAM). It cannot be assumed that natural therapy practitioners are always ‘holistic’ and that conventionally-trained doctors and nurses are not – sometimes it is the other way round! The benefits of the holistic approach are now being acknowledged in many areas of mainstream medical practice.
All the methods to be described in this book can be combined with orthodox care. When wisely used, the orthodox and holistic approaches have a lot in common. But there are also important differences. The orthodox approach is chiefly focused on material things which can be observed and measured, whereas the holistic one puts more weight on the intangible psycho-spiritual realm. And whereas by definition the holistic approach is about seeing things as a whole, the orthodox one tends to divide things up. Much of orthodox medicine is based on the classification of cases into specific disease states each with their characteristic causes, symptoms, clinical signs, laboratory findings, natural history and response to treatment. There are healthcare professionals specialising in different diseases, disorders of different body parts, or disorders of different physiological systems, often working in separate departments or even separate hospitals and not always communicating with each other very much. Given the vast and complex knowledge base of modern medicine, such compartmentalisation is probably unavoidable, for it would be impossible for any one person to keep pace with advances in all branches of the profession.
For many patients with well-defined disorders the orthodox healthcare setup does work very well. But for symptoms which cannot be explained by the disease model, conditions which involve more than one body system, or when several different disorders are present at the same time, it can lead to unsatisfactory fragmentation. Different parts of the body are interconnected in ways which are not always obvious. For example, gum disease is linked with heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers; and many headaches are due at least in part to dysfunction of the gastrointestinal system. Narrow specialisation within medicine can hinder the recognition of such links.
Not only are there many subdivisions within medicine itself, but in most clinical settings there is a huge gulf between medicine and psychiatry – even though psychological and physical problems are often closely intertwined. Body and mind form an integrated unit, connected by two-way feedback systems. The ‘mind-on-body’ direction of these circuits involves the effects of emotions, thoughts and beliefs on physical health. The ‘body-on-mind’ direction involves the effects of biological factors on mental health.
The wish to be considered as a whole person, not as a collection of isolated parts, is therefore one of the main factors driving the growth of interest in the holistic approach. Another is a wish for safer, more natural treatments. Pharmaceutical drugs and surgery can have tremendous benefits. They are life-saving in many acute conditions, and an essential mainstay of management for many chronic ones. Even so, advocates of holistic healing prefer to avoid these high-tech interventions if at all possible. Though they may be powerfully effective in suppressing symptoms or attacking disease, they do not always deal with the root causes of illness, and they almost invariably have unwanted effects as well as therapeutic ones. Natural therapies, generally speaking, are gentler and safer and act by stimulating the person’s own capacity for recovery. Because this is primarily a self-help book I have made no attempt to cover the full range of these therapies, though a few specific approaches will be mentioned to illustrate various points, and I have included an Appendix outlining the system of Bach flower remedies which I use in my own practice.
Self-help is an essential part of holistic healing. Whatever other treatment is used, the sick person’s own desire and intention to get well are essential to the process.
Those exploring holistic healing must be prepared to some extent to make their own judgments and choices. Although there is a growing volume of research about mind-body medicine and natural therapies, and it is encouraging to see so many formal academic studies being done, there are still many controversies and unanswered questions. The ancient philosophical principles which underpin holistic healing cannot always be validated with ‘scientific’ methods. Some of the natural therapies which have been observed to benefit thousands of individuals do not stand up so well when tested in formal clinical trials. So although I would have liked to be able to back up all the suggestions in this book with sound published evidence, this has not always been possible and it will often be up to you, the reader, to decide what holds true for you personally.
The nature of the healing journey
It is said that all healing is self-healing. Not even the best of professional treatment can succeed unless a person’s natural life force and restorative capacities are still present. Many illnesses recover without treatment – even sometimes despite treatment.
The body is continually striving towards good health as its natural state of being, and has an innate intelligence which often enables it to recover if allowed to do so by being provided with the right physical conditions, and the right messages from the mind. This means removing the various toxins which have contributed to development of the illness, or are preventing its recovery. Both material toxins such as infections or poisons, and psychological toxins such as negative beliefs, thoughts and emotions, difficult relationships, and sources of external stress are included here. If further interventions are needed, the best ones to choose are those which stimulate the person’s own powers of self-healing.
Some healers say that anything can be healed. Since beginning to explore the holistic approach I have heard many stories of apparently complete cure from conditions which had been labeled as hopeless by the medical profession. Some detailed accounts of such cases can be found in Remarkable Recovery by Caryle Hirshberg and Marc Ian Barasch (Riverhead Books). Sometimes the explanation seems to be biological – for example advanced cancers can go into remission after the patient undertakes a radical change of diet, or suffers a high fever due to infection. Sometimes the turnaround follows a psychological shift, usually including the following features:
• a strong desire to recover;
• a strong belief that recovery is possible;
• a major change in attitudes and way of living;
• a resolution to do something worthwhile with the new lease of life.
While it may be true in theory that (almost) anything can be healed, it must be acknowledged that in practice not all illness will recover. Healing is not always curing; sometimes it is more about coming to terms with the situation so that quality of life is restored, perhaps even enriched, in creative new ways. When this happens, physical improvement may well follow. But even when a disease is so advanced and severe that a cure is highly unlikely, there is always scope for relief of symptoms, improved emotional adjustment, a sense of peace and a heightened awareness of the spiritual dimension of life. Maintaining optimism that healing in this wider sense of the word is always possible is always important, however dire the situation may seem.
Rapid and apparently miraculous recoveries do happen sometimes, though by definition they are rare. Gradual improvement is more common, equally valid, and often easier to cope with. One meaning of the axiom healing is a process not an event is that natural healing often proceeds slowly. The body has the wisdom to prioritise the process so that the most serious problems are tackled first. There may be apparent setbacks which are due to ‘healing reactions’ (also called healing responses, or aggravations) as physical or mental toxins are cleared from the system. A more profound meaning of this axiom is that a life well-lived is more about the journey than the final destination. The journey of healing can be long but rewarding, ‘peeling the layers of the onion’ to reveal the good nature of the true essential self.
Anyone who embarks on a serious exploration of the holistic approach will want to look more deeply into the significance of their illness on levels besides the physical. The saying form follows thought implies that many physical health problems have a psychological or spiritual basis, though material disease-causing agents are usually involved as well. Therefore, there may be a meaning in a person’s symptoms and, if and when this is recognised, the illness may even come to be seen as a ‘gift’.
The benefits of a positive focus
Orthodox medical practice is mostly concerned with pathology – diagnosing what is wrong with a person already, and searching for indicators of what else might go wrong in the future. But according to the teachings of many noted healers, energy is better directed to promoting health than to fighting illness. Edward Bach, for example, claimed that his flower essences worked by ‘flooding our bodies with the beautiful vibrations of our Higher Nature, in the presence of which disease melts away like snow in the sun’. Cultivation of positive thoughts and mental qualities, love and harmony in personal relationships, and a life path which brings meaning and joy, are all powerfully conducive to self-healing. One of the major changes in my own approach has been to focus on the potential for positive personal growth instead of just exploring the problems.
But this introduces a paradox. On the one hand your illness may be dominating your life, so that your healing journey is the most significant venture you will ever undertake. On the other hand it can be unwise to let yourself become too identified with your bodily condition or make it your one and only focus. This is why the ‘fighting spirit’ attitude, though often advocated, does not always help. When you direct your personal energy towards something, whatever it may be, you tend to magnify its significance and continue to attract it into your experience. In other words you are likely to get more of whatever you think about, or feel strongly about – whether you want it or not. It is now well established that our feelings, thoughts, beliefs and mental images can impact on our biochemistry, and even on the expression of our genes and on the structure of our brains. And as well as having these internal effects there is evidence that they can radiate outwards to resonate with similar vibrations in the wider universe, so that we act as both transmitters and receivers at an energetic level. This is consistent with many spiritual teachings and is the essence of the Law of Attraction (http://www.abraham-hicks.com) which can be summed up in the saying ‘like attracts like’. Making use of the Law of Attraction to create the conditions you desire, including better health, means taking your mental focus away from your illness and towards the things you want instead.
Anecdotally, observation suggests that people who are preoccupied with a specific medical condition could be at increased risk of developing it themselves. One young man who was serving in the navy had to assist in the amputation of another sailor’s injured leg, and became haunted by the persistent fear that he might suffer the same fate himself. He became a heavy drinker and eventually did lose a leg, not in an accident but because of circulatory problems probably related to alcoholism. The match between what is feared and what physically manifests is not always as precise as this true story would suggest. But over the years I have observed a number of doctors and nurses developing the very same disease to which they had dedicated their careers, even when there was no ‘rational’ explanation such as an infective cause. This may have been just striking coincidence. Other possibilities are that they had some premonition of their vulnerability to the disease in question, or that their longstanding focus upon it actually helped to create it in themselves.
If giving too much attention to a problem does make it worse, we must question the wisdom of modern society’s emphasis on illness-related topics – the proliferation of warnings about the dangers lurking in common foods and drinks, of medical dramas on TV, of advice to have frequent check-ups and screening tests to detect early signs of disease. To some extent this increased awareness forms a welcome contrast to the ignorance and secrecy of the past. But it may have gone too far, fuelling health-related anxiety on a large scale, and even perhaps increasing the prevalence of the very problems it claims to prevent. Could this be one of the reasons why, despite all the wonderful modern advances in medicine and surgery, so many people today are in poor health and hospital services are increasingly overstretched?
Mindful of all this, I have tried to make this book about healing and happiness as much as about sickness and suffering. While coping with any serious medical condition is bound to absorb a great deal of time and energy, it is desirable to keep the positive in mind:
• looking for good reasons for wanting to recover rather than treating recovery as an end in itself;
• aspiring to enjoy life in all its aspects by developing fulfilling interests, relationships and activities;
• taking a relaxed approach rather than trying too hard to achieve perfect results.
I have called the book Focus on Healing, not Focus on Illness, and I cannot emphasis too strongly that the aim is not just to get rid of disease – it is to create wellbeing and good health so that you can make the most of your time on this Earth.
For many years, research in orthodox medicine and psychology focused largely on the negative aspects of illness and stress. More recently, with the growth of the ‘positive psychology’ movement, there has been a welcome surge of academic interest in the other side of the coin, the factors which promote happiness and health.
There is no doubt that cultivating positive emotions and virtues – qualities such as joy, love, peace, hope, patience, forgiveness, tolerance, self-confidence and many more – will bring benefits as regards the mental and spiritual domains of life. Results in terms of physical healing cannot be guaranteed, and research studies about the relationship between psychological factors and disease outcomes have yielded mixed results. However it is certainly true to say that a harmonious state of mind promotes healthy physical function, and is therefore bound to help the body’s efforts towards recovery from illness of any kind.
‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ and sometimes an illness can have compensations, or even prove to be a blessing in disguise. Some instances of this effect operate at the biological level. The presence of some medical conditions is associated with protection against others, for example, people who carry the gene for sickle cell anemia are resistant to the malaria parasite, probably because of the shape of their red blood cells. If one physical function is impaired, others can become highly developed to help make up for it; for example, many blind people have unusually sensitive hearing and touch. Another interesting observation is that certain disorders which involve the brain confer an enhanced potential for creativity. Bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, is associated with originality in music, writing and the performing arts. Remarkable cases have been reported in which new talents in painting, music or languages have emerged following a head injury or stroke. Young people with autistic spectrum disorders, though handicapped in some respects, may be capable of outstanding performance in another field such as music, art, mathematics or memory – the ‘savant syndrome’. The mechanisms underlying these rare phenomena are not well understood – maybe some of the inhibitory neurological mechanisms which operate in the ‘normal’ brain are absent in such people, so that they have freer access to universal fields of energy and information?
This raises the question of what ‘normal’ means and it has sometimes been proposed that many conditions, ranging from deafness to schizophrenia, are best regarded as different ways of being in the world rather than as disorders needing medical treatment.
Returning to psychological aspects of the illness experience, it is not at all unusual for positive aspects to emerge. I was still working in the cancer clinic when I began to broaden my own inquiries in this way. I found that many of the patients attending for follow-up, despite the hardship and loss they had suffered, reported benefits such as the following:
• gratitude for blessings, large or small, and enhanced appreciation of ordinary things;
• better self-care, especially among those who had previously been over-involved with looking after others;
• a more balanced approach to life – the ambitious workaholic coming to realise the value of being as well as doing, and the ‘couch potato’ starting to focus on achieving something worthwhile;
• a clearer set of priorities and values, so that trivial issues no longer caused distress;
• being able to ‘go with the flow’ and to ‘live in the present’ rather than worrying about things and striving too hard to control them;
• stronger and closer relationships;
• courage to leave an unfulfilling marriage or work situation;
• an awareness of spirituality;
• a flowering of creative activity.
Though the impact of the illness experience had usually seemed very negative in the short term, and did lead to long-term psychological problems in some cases, positive consequences often emerged over the following few months. Occasionally these amounted to a veritable transformation. This shows how life’s most painful experiences can turn out to bring the most valuable gifts, though it often takes the passage of time for the ‘big picture’ to become clear.
If there has been an acute life-threatening illness or accident, more sudden psychological changes can occur. Again, some survivors suffer lasting adverse effects, typically developing the signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But others report a heightened appreciation of life. The most striking examples, though again relatively rare, involve the ‘near-death experience’ (NDE). This usually begins with a sense of leaving the physical body, and travelling through a dark tunnel towards a light, sometimes pure white, blue or gold, and always extremely beautiful. There may be a perception of water, flowers or trees, music or fragrant scents, and a great sense of love and peace. In this heavenly place there may be reunions with deceased relatives or friends, and meetings with higher beings identified as angels or as God. Survivors of such experiences often say their subsequent lives have become more rich and meaningful, and that they no longer fear death.
Positive changes can occur even if the illness does not recover in physical terms. Not all disease processes can be reversed, and complete permanent cure can never be guaranteed. But even if full recovery is beyond reach, there is always scope for improvement in some sense – gaining a better quality of life through relief of symptoms, a more positive outlook, a stronger sense of choice and control, and discovery of meanings or messages implicit in the illness itself. Even – or perhaps especially – if the medical condition is far advanced, it can serve to focus attention on what is important and bring a vivid sense of clarity so that new wisdom, peacefulness and dignity emerge towards the end of life.
While we cannot expect to feel 100% positive 100% of the time, there are great benefits in maintaining a largely positive focus.
Balance
The concept of balance is central to healing in a number of ways. Many forms of natural therapy are said to act by helping to restore balance to the body, emotions, mind and spirit.
Dealing with illness, as with any other aspect of life in this world of dualities, calls for a sense of balance as we seek to make choices or compromises between two or more options which may not be fully compatible with each other. For example:
• deciding whether to use orthodox medicine, natural therapies and/or self-healing approaches;
• deciding whether the benefits of a certain treatment are likely to outweigh any unwanted effects;
• maintaining hope and optimism for recovery, while making plans for how to cope if things do not go so well;
• giving due attention to health-related topics while also staying actively engaged with other aspects of life;
• resolving any conflicts which may exist between your own needs and desires and those of other people.
A balance between ‘head’ and ‘heart’ – between logic and intuition – is helpful in making such choices. It is also helpful to remember that very few decisions turn out absolutely ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. There are often two or more valid options, each with their pros and cons, and it may not matter too much which one you choose so long as, having come to a decision, you move forward with the sincere intention of giving it a fair trial. After all, it is often possible to change tack later on.
As regards more general aspects of daily life, attention to balance can help to maintain or recover good health in both body and mind. This includes a balance between ‘being’ and ‘doing’ – between the passive state of receiving energy, and the active one of giving it out. It is wise to have a certain amount of routine to provide a secure framework, while allowing some scope for being spontaneous and flexible, and choosing activities, social contacts, food and clothing which provide plenty of variety.
Personal coaches often advise seeking a good balance between the various domains of life such as relationships, work, home, finances, health and fitness, fun and leisure, and spirituality. Few of us want or need to devote exactly equal amounts of time and energy to each of these domains, because we all have different interests and abilities, and priorities often vary between the different stages of life. But a prolonged emphasis on any one aspect, with neglect of the others, is likely to have adverse effects. Consider the workaholic who achieves highly in the professional sphere but has no time for personal relationships, leisure interests or taking exercise, and keeps going on coffee, alcohol and cigarettes rather than regular meals. He (or sometimes she) may well eventually fall ill with heart disease or some other serious condition, and if this does happen may find himself without family and friends to provide support. Exclusive devotion to any one activity, even if it is something ‘good’ such as excelling in a sport or creating a great work of art, may be a valid life choice but usually carries some degree of risk to health.
Balance is also very important for healthcare professionals, for example in finding their best ‘middle way’ between compassion and detachment towards those in their care.
Self-responsibility and its limits
Characteristic of most people who have made remarkable recoveries from serious illness is a strong commitment to being responsible for their own health. The concept of ‘self-responsibility’ in healing is very important, but does have its limits, and needs to be presented in a sensitive way if it is not to be misinterpreted and add to the sick person’s problems.
According to Dr Edward Bach, one of the great 20th century pioneers of the holistic approach, ‘All healing must come from within ourselves’. He spoke from personal experience, for at the age of 31 Bach had been diagnosed with an abdominal cancer and was expected to die within a few months. Determined to make a worthwhile contribution to medicine in the time which remained to him, he devoted himself to his work even more whole-heartedly than before. He survived until the age of 50, having written his influential books on self-healing and discovered the system of flower essences which bear his name, and announced that his life’s work was complete.
No system of professional healthcare, however excellent it may be, can prevent or cure all disease. If we wish to maintain or recover good health we need to accept our own rightful share of responsibility and control, and not be entirely dependent on doctors or therapists. Certain trends in modern society discourage this vital sense of self-responsibility. Many aspects of ordinary life have been medicalised so that people are conditioned to want ‘a pill for every ill’, and those going through natural processes such as childbirth and the menopause are often treated as patients.
The word ‘doctor’ originally meant ‘teacher’ (from the Latin verb docere, to teach), but instead of building on this aspect of their role, many healthcare professionals have been trained to adopt positions of authority and take over the power of choice which should rightfully belong to their patients or clients. This may be done with the best will in the world, out of a sincere desire to help and care for the sick, but it is often carried too far and, except for the minority who are incapable of making their own decisions, it is not desirable on either side. I believe this trend is a major cause of malaise among staff in healthcare settings. It leads some professionals to become arrogant, egoistic and dominating, and others to feel so heavily weighed down with responsibility that they find their work an intolerable burden. It encourages the development of ‘difficult’ patients, including some who are unduly passive, dependent and helpless, and others who aggressively demand attention or make complaints. It may also be one of the reasons that, despite all the impressive modern advances in medical technology, our hospitals are so overcrowded and so many people have problems with their health – they have given away their personal responsibility for looking after it. Though it is always worth taking advantage of information and advice from the experts, it can be dangerous to hand over complete control to them, especially if their prescriptions do not feel right to you. There are times when it pays to ‘be your own authority’ and recognise that the most important answers may lie within yourself.
We cannot and should not try to do without professional healthcare entirely. There are situations in which we do want or need to be looked after, and to be advised what is best for us. Some wonderful medical and surgical interventions are available, and there are gifted healers able to refresh and rebalance our energies when we cannot do it ourselves. Self-responsibility does not mean that you can be expected to heal yourself without making use of expert information and treatment, or without practical and emotional support from family and friends.
One aspect of self-responsibility which is widely misunderstood is the idea that all illness is self-created at some level. This often contains a good deal of truth, for there is now strong evidence that both unwise lifestyle choices and longstanding patterns of negative thought and emotion are major risk factors for many diseases – and that reversing such factors can promote healing. But it is very rare for anyone to bring an illness on themselves deliberately. Hearing crude statements about having ‘chosen’ or ‘attracted’ their own condition has left many people feeling guilty, angry or confused, for they would most certainly not have made such a choice on purpose. ‘Blaming the victim’ for sickness, or any other misfortune, which did not arise from their conscious intent, is both unfair and unkind. What the concept of self-responsibility does involve is increasing your self-understanding, and your sense of personal choice and control over your future health.
The following story was contributed by a friend whom I shall call Joan, and illustrates a holistic approach including both orthodox and natural treatments, and a strong commitment to self-healing of both body and mind.
‘My encounter with cancer happened when I was aged 58, barely one year after I had packed up my few worthwhile possessions and moved a long way from my home city to try to create a happier life in the country. The sale of my small home had made sufficient funds available to purchase a 10 acre block of low grade farmland in a remote area of New Zealand and have a basic, somewhat unfinished, house built on it.
‘My intention had been to develop a citrus orchard but the house construction went over budget and I was forced to look for work to pay off my small mortgage. Luckily avocado pickers were needed for an orchard nearby and I was putting in as many hours as possible when I started getting severe pains in my abdomen.
‘At the time I had been hoping a new friendship with a local man would grow into a replacement for the marriage I had lost by divorce. My sadness was that he was a long-time cigarette smoker and I was not confident I could learn to truly accept that aspect of him, or that he was motivated to change, but he was a good friend (and still is) and he gave me the support I needed – particularly on the day I had to seek medical help because the pain was so severe.
‘The emergency doctor prescribed pain killers and said he would organise an ultrasound examination for me to hopefully determine the cause of the pain. Unfortunately I was apparently allergic to the pain killers and I spent a very distressing night at my friend’s home before asking a homoeopath chemist if he could give me something to help.
‘I was in considerable pain when I arrived at his shop but he asked me to sit quietly and put a few drops of his preparation on my tongue. Ten minutes later a miracle happened – the pain that had dogged me on and off for a month or so almost vanished! I continued to take this remedy for the following ten days and had no recurrence of the pain during the three months I had to wait for an appointment for an ultrasound examination.
‘This revealed a large ovarian cyst and I was told a hysterectomy was needed. The cyst was so large the surgeon had to use obstetric forceps to lift it out and he later told me the pathologist had found two different cancers in it.
‘I was devastated.
‘I had become much more aware of my diet some 20 years earlier when my very young second son had been sick and a natural health healer had, using diet, helped me get him back to good health. I had continued to practise the principles she had taught me, so what had I done to attract this disorder?
‘When I saw an oncologist he told me he had checked the material removed during my operation and had found one of the cancers was contained but the other was not. I explained that I thought I had been taking good care of my body for at least 20 years and would prefer to wait and see what happened now without further treatment. He agreed to let me ‘wait and see’. I was very grateful for this and resolved to give my immune system all the help I could to prevent it breaking down again.
‘I learned that stress can impair our immune systems so I set about removing as much stress as possible from my life. I meditated regularly using Louise Hay’s affirmation for cancer which is:
‘I lovingly forgive and release all of the past.
I choose to fill my world with joy.
I love and approve of myself’.
‘As my body healed I gently set about forgiving my ex-husband for what I saw as breaking up our family, and forgiving my new friend for not fulfilling my desire for a healthy (nonsmoker) partner.
‘Loving and approving of myself has been an on-going challenge as my conditioning from childhood, and from society, made a divorced woman seem a less-than-worthwhile person. I think I have successfully changed that now and recognise that if we truly love ourselves we create a happier more free flowing energy system in our bodies which enhances our immune system.
‘Now, 18 years later, I have no sign of the return of cancer.’
Theoretical Background
Mind-body-spirit connections
One of the basic tenets of the holistic approach is that the state of the physical body often reflects the state of the mind and spirit. But what is meant by these concepts, and how do they fit together?
Questions about the nature of ‘mind’ and how it relates to the body and brain, and to the even less tangible concept of spirit, are very complex and have been debated by philosophers down the centuries. ‘Mind’ is defined in the New Oxford Dictionary of English as follows:
‘The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought.’
In orthodox medicine and neuroscience the mind is usually considered to be a physical function of the brain. Most holistic healers see it the other way round, believing that the mind consists of an energy field which is expressed through other parts of the body as well as the brain, and is also linked with the wider world, being able to transmit, receive and store information across time and space.
The idea of a mind-body-spirit connection goes back for thousands of years, and can be found in the writings of healers and spiritual teachers from many different traditions. But it has not always been considered a respectable topic for research in orthodox medicine, in which there is an ingrained tendency to regard body and mind as separate entities, a ‘dualism’ usually attributed to the enduring influence of the 16th century French philosopher Rene Descartes. With the rise of interest in psychosomatic and mind-body medicine, attitudes are gradually changing. If we can accept the view that mind and body are different levels of expression of a self which is unified and animated by the spirit, it opens up new and more promising ways of looking at things – ways which offer each individual increased choice and empowerment.
Whatever its nature, the mind is a powerful thing. In a happy and healthy person, the mechanisms which connect mental state with the functions of the various body systems are so well co-ordinated that they are taken for granted and seldom enter conscious awareness. But this balance is easily disturbed and unfortunately a great many people, rather than harnessing their mental functions to further their true values and desires, are enslaved by the unhealthy beliefs and automatic negative thoughts which they have developed over the course of a lifetime, often without really knowing it. This often leads to emotional imbalance, and the continual perception of being under stress, with consequent ill-effects on physical health.
For one clear-cut and well-studied illustration of the mind-body connection, consider the physical symptoms which arise in acutely upsetting or anxiety-provoking situations such as taking an exam, receiving bad news or being in an accident. These symptoms can include dry mouth, nausea, diarrhoea, chest discomfort, palpitations, urinary frequency, sweating, and flushing of the skin, among others. They are part of the well-known ‘fight or flight’ response to acute threat, which is designed to equip the body for rapid action and protection against attack, and involves the secretion of stress hormones and altered activity of the autonomic nervous system. It is important to note that this response can be evoked just as strongly by imaginary threats as by objective external ones.
Other familiar examples of how mental states can impact directly on physiology include watering of the mouth in response to the thought of certain foods, such as lemons; and uncontrollable laughter, blushing or tears when faced with something very funny, embarrassing or sad.
All the above are examples of acute effects which are obvious in the short-term, but are easily reversed and seldom have any lasting impact on the body. Equivalent effects operating in the longer term may be more subtle but, depending on their nature, can either promote good health or predispose to disease.
Other important pathways mediating the mind-body connection involve lifestyle and behaviour. People whose mental state is out of balance, for example with anxious or depressed moods, disturbed sleep, worrying thoughts or smouldering resentments, often turn to drink, drugs or comfort eating and do not bother to look after themselves well.
Mental factors such as thoughts, beliefs and emotions therefore impact both directly and indirectly on many physical functions. If these influences are of a negative kind they cause the body to work less efficiently so that it becomes more vulnerable to external threats such as infective organisms, and more likely to succumb to degenerative disease. Conversely, the power of the mind can be used in positive ways to help the body resist disease-causing agents and to promote better health. A readable overview of this field referenced by up-to-date research studies can be found in David Hamilton’s book It’s The Thought That Counts (Hay House).