How To Claim Your Role in Your Healing
Medicine is a tool. You are your own answer.
“Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
What a powerful statement.
When it comes to healing and medicine, there are a lot of different viewpoints and opinions. So often, I hear people point out their negative opinions- about western and alternative medicine alike.
It’s all too easy to point out what is wrong with each model and focus on those flaws to the point of missing all the benefits that each modality has to offer. Some people even feel that there is some big conspiracy working against them, instead of evaluating the medicine as a whole, its benefits and limitations.
Let’s first examine some of the complaints as western medicine is concerned. As you read through this list, ask yourself if you’ve ever had some of these thoughts.
“All they want to do is prescribe medication.”
“They don’t take time for me, and they tell me what I should be feeling.”
“Their only solution is surgery.”
“They don’t care how long I wait to hear back from them.”
“They keep cutting back my pain meds with no thought to how much pain I’m experiencing. They make me feel like a drug addict because I’m asking for help.”
“I know something is wrong, but they can’t find anything. They keep telling me it’s all in my head.”
“I have gone to every doctor/specialist, and nobody will help me.”
Sound familiar?
Now, let’s take some examples of what people have to say about alternative medicine.
“I can’t afford the out-of-pocket expense to pay for all the supplements and tests.”
“If I don’t have the money, no one will talk to me. At least with western medicine, I can pay a little at a time.”
“I don’t understand how my doctor can say that nothing is wrong while this alternative medicine practitioner tells me there are so many things wrong. I feel confused and scared.”
“I don’t know how to prepare all the recommended foods. I don’t understand the diet changes they are asking me to make.”
“I have done everything I was told to, and I’m still sick.”
Can you relate?
As a practitioner who works for the client, not the medicine, I hear all of this on a daily basis. I don’t take sides, but instead, try to help my clients to navigate all the information and get closer to their own healing.
Instead of throwing blame on medicine or yourself, it’s important to understand the roots of the medicine: where they get their information and why you are treated the way you are treated.
Once you take the time to learn about medicine, its roots, gifts and limitations, the path to healing becomes so much easier.
In each model of medicine, the doctors and practitioners are doing what they are trained to do. They have limited beliefs and understanding of how to broaden their skill sets to include you in their answers. They’re just using their training and theories. There is little room for the person who’s needs may fall outside of their scope of understanding; unfortunately, that includes most of us.
Forgive them for only knowing what they know so that you can move forward and find what you need for your own healing.
The western model is overwhelmed with lack of practitioners and insurance restrictions, not to mention the limited time they have to see each patient. Each doctor is also limited to their own scope of practice.
Before you go to the doctor, it’s your responsibility to know what they can even offer you. So many people are looking for an answer that the doctor has no access to- either because of their training and/or their lack of understanding.
The main weakness in the western model of medicine, as I see it, is that it understands different parts of the body as independent systems. Remember that song you learned as a kid? “The knee bone’s connected to the hip bone…” Somehow along the way, that understanding seems to have gotten lost.
For example, I had a client that has a cervical fusion but was still having pain. One of his shoulders also had torn ligaments and needed to be replaced.
He was overwhelmed with neck pain, assuming it was coming from his shoulder. After recently undergoing surgery on his neck, he wanted someone to help him understand what was happening to cause the pain.
After two visits with different specialists, they concluded that his shoulder was not influencing his neck. However, they failed to provide another reason for the pain.
This client felt overwhelmed. He knew his shoulder must have been causing the pain, but the doctors, with their training and credentials, convinced him otherwise. He felt like he was going crazy!
I just said, “Next time you see the doctor, pull on his arm to see if it tweaks his neck. Of course it will! Forgive the doctors for how narrow their scope of knowledge is, but you are the one in your body. What do you think?”
Common sense has been largely lost in all medicine, and that is the void we all have to play in to get our answers.
So, how do we do that?
We need to be part of the process.
We need to stop thinking that medicine is the only answer to healing.
We need to think of medicine as a tool to help us help ourselves.
We need to stop using Dr. Google to diagnose and treat, and instead, use the information as a guide to find our answer.
In order to do this, you need to become present in your body and really learn what is happening.
Discover what habits and choices affect your health on a daily basis. Correct the ones that are worsening your pain and then choose the medicine that you need.
So many people go from doctor to naturopath looking for answers when the truth is right in front of them.
One more example: my husband, whom I love dearly, had back issues a few years ago. His lower lumbar arthritis was so bad that medicine could only offer minimal relief, at best. He felt that the medicine was his only option, but he couldn’t have been more wrong!
He eventually realized that core strengthening and stretching actually improved his pain more than any medicine. That realization gave him his life back.
It may have taken a couple of tries, but finally, he had the most important realization of all: he is first and medicine is second in his healing journey.
It’s been four years since then, and he has not needed any of the medicine.
It’s possible for you, too! Look in the mirror and ask yourself:
“What can I do first before seeking out medical intervention?”
“What am I doing that is distracting me from taking time for myself? Am I looking to someone or something else to be my answer?”
Now, forgive yourself because you know not what you do, but you sure can learn.
If you’re ready to take action and heal yourself, try my 3-week, self-study course: Tapping Into the Body Within.