Sickness is not what the body is for (A Course in Miracles)
As holistic medicine with its alternative techniques of healing body, mind and spirit became increasingly popular in our modern world, understanding of health and illness had be to redefined as well. Conventional medicine in its fairly narrow and vague approach considers health mainly as lack of illness. We may not feel very well but as long as our blood and other diagnostic tests are within the normal range, it keeps most doctors happy and they will try and convince us that it’s all in our mind.
However, it’s far more complicated than this. If we look at ourselves from the holistic point of view and consider for a moment that we are a very complex system comprising of other complex systems such as physical elements and an energy field, we begin to understand that health is not something that is achieved once and for all but is constantly changing as our body, mind and energy are changing in response to our environment.
In reality, we tend to either move towards health which means wholeness and integration of all physical and energetic body systems or towards illness which is separation and the systems’ disintegration. Knowing what represents health and illness helps us distinguish what is right to feel and what is not. That gut feeling that something is not quite right is usually correct which ca guide us to make more informed choices about our health and how to maintain it. In general, when we are healthy we feel good in ourselves and hopeful about the future and when we are ill, we feel bad and hopeless. We need to learn to trust our body’s inner compass and its infinite wisdom.
Anne Marie Colbin in her book Food and Healing highlights what holistic medicine practitioners have been saying for centuries that health and illness are multifaceted and manifest in our life on many different levels such as physical, psychological, social and spiritual.
When we enjoy good physical health, we are full of energy and openly accept life challenges that lie ahead. There should be no fatigue or exhaustion. Good health also means a good appetite for life, food and sex. When we are healthy, we are eager to learn new things and explore the world around us. And after a day full of activities and work we should be able to relax, have a good rest and enjoy a good night sleep which helps us recharge our batteries ready for the next day and new challenges.
On the psychological level good, sound health means good memory and precise mental processing which is indispensible to help us problem solve, make correct decisions and subsequently execute them. Forgetting things, saying wrong words, dropping or knocking things over is an indication that we are out of balance and our health is less than it could be. Good sense of humour, balanced emotions and a positive outlook on life are also vital parts of health. When we experience extreme negative emotions it’s a clear sign that we’ve lost our emotional balance for example anger bursts, impatience or crankiness may indicate an imbalanced liver. Perhaps, some emotions have not yet been acknowledged and processed.
From the social point of view good health goes hand in hand with taking responsibility for yourself and your own health choices without unnecessary guilt and criticism when things go wrong and our health starts declining. It’s about taking a positive and flexible approach to empower ourselves to correct our choices. Since we are the creators of our life, we are fully responsible for the mess we’ve made. Listening to our inner voice and understanding that our health is in our hands and not trusting blindly health practitioners is the first step towards healing.
A healthy body and mind are closely connected with a healthy spirit as they affect each other. We may change our lifestyle and detox our bodies but diseases of the spirit such as arrogance, dishonesty and a lack of love for self and others move us away from health. Colbin stresses that “health is but an ego trip, vanity, and a striving after wind if we don’t unconditionally accept life, ourselves and our fellow humans as they are- that is love them.” Our inner integrity teamed up with love, honour, gratitude and humility support us in good health.
Knowing what constitutes health helps us recognise signs and symptoms of moving away from it. If you’re constantly feeling tired and unable to fully participate in your everyday activities, it should alert you that there is something not quite right there, even if your doctor cannot find any medical reason for it. There must be some sort of imbalance in your system since a constant lack of energy is not normal. It’s important to listen to your inner voice and investigate into it. If your doctor can’t provide a satisfactory answer to questions, you may need to start exploring other options and seek assistance of alternative medicine practitioners to regain health and balance.
Current medical model focuses on physical causes of disease such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, genes or nutritional deficiencies. Holistic medicine goes beyond the purely physical component of illness and includes other aspects of human reality which Colbin nicely groups into 5 main categories such as:
- External and environmental factors- weather (heat, cold, wind, rain), trauma, microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and so on).
- Toxins and poisons- bad or wrong diet, chemical substances, poisons, medicines and herbs which cause undesirable effects.
- Genetic and hereditary factors- long standing genetic conditions, unhealthy diet, alcohol, medication, malnutrition in parents before conception or during pregnancy. It is also important to mention family traumas passed down to future generations.
- Psychological issues- emotional conditions, stress, grief, emotional traumas, anxiety and hysteria.
- Spiritual factors- spiritual crisis, karma (injuries or wrongdoing in past lives may affect us in current incarnation; it often happens when a disease comes on out of the blue or cannot be explained).
When our health starts declining, our organism tries to get our attention by sending specific signs to alert us to the arising problem. All symptoms we experience are warning lights to indicate that we are out of balance at one or more levels. These alerts tend to be quite subtle at the beginning but will get stronger and more frequent if we continue to ignore them. And if we remain oblivious to our body’s messages, serious trouble are bound to occur. Only when we acknowledge our problems and start co-operating with our organism’s innate self- organizing and self-healing abilities we can commence the healing process.
References: Food and Healing, Annemarie Colbin.