Caroline Myss is a witty and wise woman. She calls a spade a spade. She doesn’t let being PC hold her back from telling the truth as she sees it. In her 20s she was a journalist – and there is still something of those days that lingers in her: in the way she walks, talks, asks questions and dresses. She looks nothing like the typical image people have of a healer, which is wonderful, for I believe it’s time for the world to see that healing is not some magical, mystical, mumbo-jumbo nonsense. Caroline is great role-model for healing – and before those of you who are skeptical roll your eyes – know that Caroline is a highly respected Medical Intuitive who works with hospital doctors and diagnosticians in the USA. Her passion is to teach others what she does. She has an amazing gift, but she believes that most people can learn to do what she does, and so she travels extensively teaching and explaining how to see and feel the energetic information that is to found in each and everyone one of us. I attended her one-day workshop in London last month and I was totally inspired by her message, who she is and how she works. Today then I want to share with you my thoughts on healing.

It’s not the healer who does the healing

My eldest daughter, Tasha, is a doctor. She has 2 more years of working, training and studying to become a GP. By the time she is given this title, it will have been 10 years from the day she began her journey at Uni. Over these years she has become an expert in symptoms, diseases, illnesses and how the body works. We absolutely need wonderful doctors like my daughter to help people. I love her to bits and I am very proud of her. And yet Tasha and I see the issue of healing very differently. For Tasha people come to her because they have a problem with their health. She investigates and diagnoses their symptoms and illnesses and provides people with solutions. Because she is who she is, she does it with care, kindness and love. I see that part of her work, as healing. Tasha sees that’s just the way she is. I digress. What I wanted you to see, was that when you visit a doctor, most of them will have a similar view to Tasha. When most people visit a doctor they ask, “What is wrong with me?” Then expect the doctor to find answers and give solutions to their health.

What is wrong with this? Nothing and everything. We need doctors. We need their knowledge and expertise. Yet for me, there is something missing when we hand over our power to the doctor and expect them to cure us whilst we do nothing to heal ourselves. For many, many reasons, people are reluctant to step into being responsible for their own health. It is so much easier to ignore the repeated messages to eat well, exercise more, stop smoking and stop drinking excessive amounts of alcohol and caffeine. So much easier if a doctor can do all of the hard work and provide a cure whilst you still keep doing all the things that you know are not helping your body be healthy and well.

In Alan Deutschman’s wonderful book, “Change or Die”, he opens by asking whether you would choose to change if you knew that by not doing so, you would die. Deutschman found very few people changed their lifestyle, even when dying early would be the outcome of not doing so. It spurred him on to write this inspiring book. He tells of an elite medical conference he attended in 2004 where Dr. Edward Miller, Dean of the hospital at John Hopkins University, spoke about patients whose arteries are so clogged up, that doing anything is very painful. Before undergoing a bypass graft or angioplasty surgery – a traumatic and very expensive procedure – patients are told that surgery is only a temporary fix. In order for it to be successful, they have to change their lifestyle. In the USA, every year, one-and-a-half million people undergo this surgery which costs a staggering $60 billion. Two years after this surgery, how many patients change their lives so they don’t need further medical help? Less than 3%.

He goes on to show how change can happen when a different approach is taken. In 1993, Dr Dean Ornish, a professor at the University of California, persuaded an large insurance company to pay for an unusual experiment. 194 people, all due to undergo the same heart surgery (with policies held by this insurance company), chose instead to take part in a trial. For 12 months, these people met in small groups twice a week – just to talk. If they were smokers, they were helped to quit. They all took classes in meditation, yoga and aerobic exercise. They adopted a vegetarian diet. Two years after this trial had finished, how many people had maintained their new lifestyle changes to the extent they no longer needed heart surgery? 77%.

What was the difference? The one-and-half million patients who undergo heart surgery every year know they need to change their lifestyle. I suspect most of them genuinely want to change too. So why did the 194 people have so much more success? They weren’t given a magic bullet, instead they were listened too, helped, taught and encouraged over a significant period of time to make the changes they needed. They chose to go through this process – taking responsibility for themselves. When they experienced how much better life was for them following a healthier lifestyle, it was easy for them to maintain it. In doing so, they healed themselves.

I believe healing is about stepping into your own power. It’s about learning, loving yourself and laughing. A healer does not heal you: you heal yourself. The role of a healer is an important one, for they can be your guide, teacher and supporter. A healer can show up in the guise of a coach, counselor, teacher, masseuse, therapist, or even an intuitive. A healer simply shows you what they see, teaches you new ways of being, encourages and supports you through the transitional journey of change from being unwell to being well.

Yes, you can heal your body – if you really want to

At Caroline Myss’s workshop she recounted a story that also appears in her book, “Anatomy of the Spirit: The seven stages of power and healing” about a young man, Peter who consulted her. Peter had AIDS. With her friend Dr Norm Shealy, they created a healing program for him. It included a near vegetarian diet, quitting smoking, aerobic exercise, the use of castor oil packs across his abdomen for 45 minutes a day and psychotherapy. His attitude was: “Is this all I need to do to be well again?” He did the healing without complaint, accepting his personal responsibility for the healing with gratitude. Six weeks later his blood results were HIV negative. He is now an attorney and remains HIV negative to this day.

In her book, Caroline contrasts this with a woman who came to her at a similar time. She was suffering from obesity, diabetes and chronic pain. When told she could improve her condition immediately by changing to a healthy, nutritious diet with moderate exercise, the woman’s response was: “Absolutely not. I could never do those things. I don’t have any willpower. What other suggestions do you have for me?”

See what I mean about choosing to be well? Or choosing to ignore the wisdom, blame your body, want the doctor to give you a magic bullet, and not do your part of the healing?

How to begin?

Caroline has a saying: “Your biography becomes your biology”. In my work, I have found this to be true too. The way you choose to live your life, the way you have handled life’s lessons, the way you deal with your emotions and thoughts impacts on your body’s ability to be well.
I am fully aware that genetics plays a part. I also believe that sometimes your spiritual journey is to experience an illness or disease. But this aside, the vast majority of disease – or dis-ease – comes from the way we have lived and/or are living our lives. In particular, I have come to see that when we don’t resolve emotional conflict in our lives, when we suppress, ignore or allow emotions to run riot in our lives, this impacts massively on our health.

Any emotional trauma we have stored or are storing stays trapped in the body or in the aura (energetic field) around the body and effects the natural flow of our energy systems. Although Western medicine has been slow to accept the energetic side to health, Eastern medicine like acupuncture, yoga and ayurvedic all accept that our health is directly connected to the state of our energy systems. Caroline Myss has the gift of seeing these emotional, energy blocks and see how they relate to illness and disease. Although she has a wonderful gift, I have found in my coaching and healing work, that when asked, from a really sincere place, most people know what is beneath their being unwell. Most of us, and that includes me, have a massive ability to fool ourselves – at least on the surface and what we present to the outside world. Starting to acknowledge ourselves as we truly are – all of the good and all of the not-so-good – is a great place to begin the healing journey back to wellness.

Some books to help you understand healing further

• Anatomy of the Spirit: The seven stages of power and healing by Caroline Myss
• Vibrational Medicine for the 21st Century: A complete guide to energy healing and spiritual
transformation by Richard Gerber MD
• Healing without Freud or Prozac by Dr David Servan-Schreiber
• The Art & Science of Emotional Freedom by Ananga Sivyer
• The book of Tibetan Medicine by Ralph Quinlan Forde
• 8 Weeks to Optimum Health by Andrew Weil MD
• The Journey by Brandon Bays
• Change or Die by Alan Deutschman

…and finally

I hope you have enjoyed reading about healing. If you feel I may be able to help you with EFT, Empathic Healing and/or Life Coaching, please call me on 01305 821799 or 0845 83 86 733 (lo call rate) for a chat, or email jennie@reddandelion.co.uk to find out how I can help you or to book a trial session.