PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR OVERCOMING ILLNESS

Caroline Myss on Why People Don't Heal & How They Can:

Why does a "clean-living" person get sick, while a more obvious candidate stays healthy? Why does someone with a fatal illness suddenly become well, while another with a more benign condition dies? In "Anatomy of the Spirit" and now "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can," (Harmony Books), Caroline Myss explores the deep-seated, spiritual causes of illness.

In the 1980s, when the New Age movement was growing like crazy, people began to express a willingness to take responsibility for their illness," say Myss. "We were all convinced that complete recovery of health was just one psychological insight away. Yet after a few years of trying every available healing regimen and publicly sharing the inner wounds of their psyches, people still didn't get well.

As frustrated and puzzled as everyone else, Myss privately began to wonder if somehow they were all on the wrong track. Then in 1988 Myss had an experience that made her realize the power that lies in being wounded.

One day, in passing, I introduced a friend of mine to two gentlemen I was talking with. Within two minutes, my friend managed to let these men know that she was an incest survivor. her admission had nothing whatsoever to do with the conversation we'd been having, and in a flash I realized that she was using her wounds as leverage. She had gotten to the point that she defined herself by a negative experience.

Once Myss became attuned to the phenomenon, which she quickly dubbed "woundology", she saw it everywhere.

In workshops and in daily life I saw that, rather than working to get beyond their wounds, people were using them as social currency. They were confusing the therapeutic value of self- expression with permission to manipulate others with their wounds. Who would want to leave that behind? Health never commands so much clout!

It was then that Myss began to challenge the assumption that people always want to heal.

We are given a finite amount of energy to run our physical bodies, our minds, and our emotions, as well as to manage our external environments. When we choose to siphon off some of this energy to keep negative events in our histories alive, we are robbing that energy from our cell tissue, making ourselves vulnerable to the development of disease.

While the practice of woundology is a common source of illness, personal negativity is not always the cause; as contradictory as it seems, sometimes illness can be the answer to prayer.

Our spiritual development is meant to culminate in an ability to see things impersonally, to recognize the greater meaning of life's challenges apart from the literal events. To that end, illness can physically guide us onto a path of insight and learning upon which we would otherwise never have set foot. It is an unparalleled catalyst for expanding personal consciousness.

After describing the reasons why people don't heal, Myss delves into how they can. The first step often consists of calling one's spirit back, retrieving one's energy from the places it has gotten "stuck" in one's past. In practical terms, this means learning to see that difficult experiences are meant to be learned from, and gotten over. She also details the process of learning to read the body, recognizing that its illnesses are very specific expressions of particular spiritual issues - an idea Myss introduced in her bestselling book "Anatomy of the Spirit." In every case, seeing the spiritual lesson that underlies any illness requires a shift in consciousness.

I believe that all illnesses can be thought of as transformational experiences. Looking upon an illness as an opportunity to grow in self-awareness activates the potential for healing that lies dormant when you take a passive position or descend into self-pity. When an illness is part of your spiritual journey, no medical intervention can heal you until your spirit has begun to make the changes that the illness was designed to inspire.

As easy as it might sound, the prospect of self-awareness is terrifying to most people, because any internal change in perspective or belief activates an external shift, usually destroying the familiar, comforting outlines of their lives. Myss scrutinizes why people are so scared of change that they will unconsciously sabotage their won healing process rather than make the necessary changes.

I often say that "your biography becomes your biology." If you are sick, you must recognize that living life as you always have seemingly brought you to illness. Although there are no guarantees about healing, if you are able to enter into a process of change, then you maximize your chances of getting well - if not on the physical plane, then more importantly in a spiritual sense.

Copyright © 1996. The Light Party.