Healing is not just something that "happens" and now you are well. It is very often, perhaps usually, a journey, a process. Just as Dis-ease is a process, a result, an effect of some cause, not usually just something that "happens." Both Healing and Dis-ease really reflect Life, which is also a process, a Journey, a Learning.
Of the two, Healing and Dis-ease, it seems that Dis-ease is the "default" mode, that which comes most easily and is most likely to occur. I am sure there are lots of reasons: sin, the Creation groaning until the Son of Man is revealed (Romans, in the Bible), selfishness, self-seeking of pleasure at multiple levels (another cookie, anyone?), genetics, toxins, trauma, etc.
Healing is, by definition, the "Recovery" Mode, usually arrived at via a reactionary process to the Dis-ease state when it is recognized.
Both Healing and Dis-ease have Acute (sudden, unexpected) phases, times when they do just seem to show up or "happen" without any obvious cause. On the Dis-ease side maybe it is the allergic response to the cat that you never knew about, or the broken arm from playing pickup football on an afternoon. On the Healing side we would call the sudden episode a "Miracle" or "spontaneous remission". When thinking about Healing, this latter is perhaps what is most often hoped for, aimed at, defined as "Healing."
However, it is the Chronic aspect of both Dis-ease and Healing that offer the most interesting points of discussion, and growth. Chronicity implies continued, regular activity or behavior over an extended time, producing a particular result. Again, we are familiar with the concept when it comes to Dis-ease. Things like Diabetes, Arthritis, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Heart disease and a host of other dis-eases all fit into this category. Interestingly, the response is to learn to "deal with it" with various medications and supports, but not to attempt to really "fix" it.
Perhaps the reason for that is because this is where the concept of what I will call "Chronic Healing" comes in. It is not a concept that has entered our awareness as a people or as a culture, to my knowledge. Basically, it is the same idea, but applied to Healing, that we have just pointed out when applied to Dis-ease. That is, Chronic Healing is continued, regular activity or behavior over an extended time, producing a particular result.
The next question is to ask, "What kind of behavior(s)?"
Here are some, for starters:
Pray. Ask the Healer for His presence and Touch. Stories abound in Scripture, and since, of just exactly this.
Look for things, attitudes, thoughts in us that need to change, and change them.
Visualize ourselves (believe) as healed. "As a man thinketh so is he." The body is but the reflection of spirit and emotion.
Open ourselves up. Let go the pride, shame, guilt, fear, pain, and all the protective walls with which we cover ourselves and wtih which we hold bound so much toxic "stuff." Just as abscesses and boils need to be drained to heal, the dis-ease bound up in us needs also to be opened up and "drained" at every level, spiritually, emotionally and physically.
Find modalities that nurture and heal on some level in and of themselves. Examples include proper diet, exercise, regular therapeutic massage, meditation, effective supplements, etc. (This is where most of us do well, but is the point where we tend to get stuck along this Journey of Healing.)
It is in this process of praying, changing, visualizing and opening up that Chronic Healing takes form as the Journey, the process, that mirrors the rest of life. We will see this Journey itself constantly change, grow and expand. We will learn more and more of things in us that need to change, we will learn better how to pray and what to pray for, we will get to new levels of openness spiritually, emotionally, physically. Eventually we will get to the place where there is nothing more to hide; the "abscess" will be cleaned out.
The result of these continued, regular behaviors is that Healing WILL come!
Blessings,
Dr Jon
Sunday, May 06, 2007
The Healing Journey
Healing is not just something that "happens" and now you are well. It is very often, perhaps usually, a journey, a process. Just as Dis-ease is a process, a result, an effect of some cause, not usually just something that "happens." Both Healing and Dis-ease really reflect Life, which is also a process, a Journey, a Learning.
Of the two, Healing and Dis-ease, it seems that Dis-ease is the "default" mode, that which comes most easily and is most likely to occur. I am sure there are lots of reasons: sin, the Creation groaning until the Son of Man is revealed (Romans, in the Bible), selfishness, self-seeking of pleasure at multiple levels (another cookie, anyone?), genetics, toxins, trauma, etc.
Healing is, by definition, the "Recovery" Mode, usually arrived at via a reactionary process to the Dis-ease state when it is recognized.
Both Healing and Dis-ease have Acute (sudden, unexpected) phases, times when they do just seem to show up or "happen" without any obvious cause. On the Dis-ease side maybe it is the allergic response to the cat that you never knew about, or the broken arm from playing pickup football on an afternoon. On the Healing side we would call the sudden episode a "Miracle" or "spontaneous remission". When thinking about Healing, this latter is perhaps what is most often hoped for, aimed at, defined as "Healing."
However, it is the Chronic aspect of both Dis-ease and Healing that offer the most interesting points of discussion, and growth. Chronicity implies continued, regular activity or behavior over an extended time, producing a particular result. Again, we are familiar with the concept when it comes to Dis-ease. Things like Diabetes, Arthritis, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Heart disease and a host of other dis-eases all fit into this category. Interestingly, the response is to learn to "deal with it" with various medications and supports, but not to attempt to really "fix" it.
Perhaps the reason for that is because this is where the concept of what I will call "Chronic Healing" comes in. It is not a concept that has entered our awareness as a people or as a culture, to my knowledge. Basically, it is the same idea, but applied to Healing, that we have just pointed out when applied to Dis-ease. That is, Chronic Healing is continued, regular activity or behavior over an extended time, producing a particular result.
The next question is to ask, "What kind of behavior(s)?"
Here are some, for starters:
Pray. Ask the Healer for His presence and Touch. Stories abound in Scripture, and since, of just exactly this.
Look for things, attitudes, thoughts in us that need to change, and change them.
Visualize ourselves (believe) as healed. "As a man thinketh so is he." The body is but the reflection of spirit and emotion.
Open ourselves up. Let go the pride, shame, guilt, fear, pain, and all the protective walls with which we cover ourselves and wtih which we hold bound so much toxic "stuff." Just as abscesses and boils need to be drained to heal, the dis-ease bound up in us needs also to be opened up and "drained" at every level, spiritually, emotionally and physically.
Find modalities that nurture and heal on some level in and of themselves. Examples include proper diet, exercise, regular therapeutic massage, meditation, effective supplements, etc. (This is where most of us do well, but is the point where we tend to get stuck along this Journey of Healing.)
It is in this process of praying, changing, visualizing and opening up that Chronic Healing takes form as the Journey, the process, that mirrors the rest of life. We will see this Journey itself constantly change, grow and expand. We will learn more and more of things in us that need to change, we will learn better how to pray and what to pray for, we will get to new levels of openness spiritually, emotionally, physically. Eventually we will get to the place where there is nothing more to hide; the "abscess" will be cleaned out.
The result of these continued, regular behaviors is that Healing WILL come!
Blessings,
Dr Jon
Of the two, Healing and Dis-ease, it seems that Dis-ease is the "default" mode, that which comes most easily and is most likely to occur. I am sure there are lots of reasons: sin, the Creation groaning until the Son of Man is revealed (Romans, in the Bible), selfishness, self-seeking of pleasure at multiple levels (another cookie, anyone?), genetics, toxins, trauma, etc.
Healing is, by definition, the "Recovery" Mode, usually arrived at via a reactionary process to the Dis-ease state when it is recognized.
Both Healing and Dis-ease have Acute (sudden, unexpected) phases, times when they do just seem to show up or "happen" without any obvious cause. On the Dis-ease side maybe it is the allergic response to the cat that you never knew about, or the broken arm from playing pickup football on an afternoon. On the Healing side we would call the sudden episode a "Miracle" or "spontaneous remission". When thinking about Healing, this latter is perhaps what is most often hoped for, aimed at, defined as "Healing."
However, it is the Chronic aspect of both Dis-ease and Healing that offer the most interesting points of discussion, and growth. Chronicity implies continued, regular activity or behavior over an extended time, producing a particular result. Again, we are familiar with the concept when it comes to Dis-ease. Things like Diabetes, Arthritis, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Heart disease and a host of other dis-eases all fit into this category. Interestingly, the response is to learn to "deal with it" with various medications and supports, but not to attempt to really "fix" it.
Perhaps the reason for that is because this is where the concept of what I will call "Chronic Healing" comes in. It is not a concept that has entered our awareness as a people or as a culture, to my knowledge. Basically, it is the same idea, but applied to Healing, that we have just pointed out when applied to Dis-ease. That is, Chronic Healing is continued, regular activity or behavior over an extended time, producing a particular result.
The next question is to ask, "What kind of behavior(s)?"
Here are some, for starters:
Pray. Ask the Healer for His presence and Touch. Stories abound in Scripture, and since, of just exactly this.
Look for things, attitudes, thoughts in us that need to change, and change them.
Visualize ourselves (believe) as healed. "As a man thinketh so is he." The body is but the reflection of spirit and emotion.
Open ourselves up. Let go the pride, shame, guilt, fear, pain, and all the protective walls with which we cover ourselves and wtih which we hold bound so much toxic "stuff." Just as abscesses and boils need to be drained to heal, the dis-ease bound up in us needs also to be opened up and "drained" at every level, spiritually, emotionally and physically.
Find modalities that nurture and heal on some level in and of themselves. Examples include proper diet, exercise, regular therapeutic massage, meditation, effective supplements, etc. (This is where most of us do well, but is the point where we tend to get stuck along this Journey of Healing.)
It is in this process of praying, changing, visualizing and opening up that Chronic Healing takes form as the Journey, the process, that mirrors the rest of life. We will see this Journey itself constantly change, grow and expand. We will learn more and more of things in us that need to change, we will learn better how to pray and what to pray for, we will get to new levels of openness spiritually, emotionally, physically. Eventually we will get to the place where there is nothing more to hide; the "abscess" will be cleaned out.
The result of these continued, regular behaviors is that Healing WILL come!
Blessings,
Dr Jon
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