Victim of My Own Mind

I haven't written more this week because I have been ill. It is the first time I have been "sick" since I healed myself of chronic pain. I have all the symptoms back I used to have daily which is flu-like (aches, dizziness, nauseousness, loss of appetite, general lack of energy). It has been a real "wake-up" call to me.

While better for the last 10 months I have been putting enormous amounts of pressure on myself to "make up for lost time" and to be the superwoman I always have striven to be. I have wanted to succeed in all areas of my life and have been putting an enormous amount of pressure on myself to do it all NOW. I have been slacking on meditation and some of the tools I used that helped me the most due to "no time". What could be more important than time for my mind to clear and focus?

I read Steve Pavlina's latest post and that was another wake-up. He has been ill as well and has been using the time to assess. I will do that as well. This is obviously a call from my body for help and I intend to listen. I will reapply my methods adopted the first time I healed myself and make more of a conscious effort to keep those practices daily in my life. I will attempt to "let myself off the hook" of all my to-do's and concentrate on my top 3.

Even when you think you have it all figured out there are times needed to reassess. I was not stopping to listen to my mind because I was too bogged down in the day to day challenges life has been throwing at me -- and my body reacted to get my attention. I have faced some serious challenges in my personal life this week and have not taken the mental time to figure out ways I can deal with them constructively and what I can learn from them. Instead I have felt sad, preoccupied, a bit lost and disconnected. I will take this weekend to relax, think, meditate and look forward to coming back to my blog next week with peace and determination and I will try and leave the perfectionism behind! : )

"Study Shows Chronic Back Pain can be Healed by Natural Means"

I am so happy to see studies are finally being done and made public that PROVE natural means can heal chronic pain. I have healed myself of HORRIBLE lower back pain and as well as constant "all over pain" through all natural methods and am trying to empower people to do the same. It is refreshing seeing research being done in this field instead of JUST to approve the latest and greatest pain killer.

RESEARCH STUDY BY A LOS ANGELES PHYSICIAN SUGGESTS IT CAN BE DONE.

WEST LOS ANGELES, CA -- September 10, 2007 -- According to researchers with the California-based Seligman Medical Institute (SMI), it may be possible to relieve chronic back pain by simply reeducating sufferers about the physical and emotional origins of their pain. The SMI study, which was just published in the Sept/Oct 2007 issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine (www.alternative-therapies.com ), suggests that chronic back pain patients can often be effectively treated without surgery, medication or even physical therapy. Using a program consisting solely of office visits, reading assignments, a structured workbook (guided journal), educational audio-CDs, and, in some cases, individual psychotherapy, the study's Principal Investigator David Schechter, MD was able to reduce pain levels of 51 chronic back pain patients (average nine years of pain before treatment) by over 50%.

Commenting on the phenomena of the incidence of back pain in America, Dr. Schechter noted that chronic, nonspecific back pain is a ubiquitous problem that has frustrated both physicians and patients for quite some time. It is also one of the most expensive, costing the U.S economy alone over $100 Billion annually. Dr. Schechter stated that, "The treatment program we used was completely non-invasive and non-pharmacological — and very inexpensive to administer. While educational approaches have always played a prominent role in the prevention of illness, we think they can also play an important role in their treatment, especially conditions such as chronic pain, where most conventional and treatments don’t seem to work that well." He further stated that, "This should be of interest to health-care entities, employers, HMOs, insurers, and anyone else who is adversely affected by the spiraling cost of treating chronic pain." The mind-body approach Dr. Schechter used was originally developed by John Sarno, MD, a rehabilitation specialist at NYU’s The Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. To learn more about this study please click here . To read the article in its entirety please pick it up at your local newstand (Sept/Oct 2007 issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine) or subscribe to the magazine at: (www.alternative-therapies.com ). There are countless wonderful articles in this magazine to look at if you are interested in alternative health.

Wouldn't it be great if all doctors were required to be educated in this matter and suggest this approach to patients before automatically putting them on painkillers for life? The majority of the arguments I get when I tell people they can heal themselves is that "their pain is real" and "no studies have shown your mind can heal your body". Well -- my pain was as real as it comes too. I lived with it (as did my friends and family) for over 6 years. I am not saying anyone is making up their pain or illness. The point is JUST how powerful the mind is and that the subconscious can internalize things physically. If you don't look deeper than the surface and try to heal what is wrong inside you subconsciously -- the physical can't heal. I don't even mean major issues -- perhaps a friend that drains you but you feel responsible for, perhaps an old accident or even an argument or fear you never came to terms with. Many things in life cause stress and if they are not dealt with at the emotional level at the time they will manifest into dis-ease. As for the second argument about no proof -- I am SO thankful to see studies being done like this one to validate what I know is true because I LIVED it.

Pharmaceuticals have their place in the medical world. But I truly believe if all people spent the time and energy on themselves and on their emotional healing rather than reaching for pills to mask symptoms -- they would be surprised at how much control their mind had over their body and how much they could actually heal themselves and limit pills.

If you want to learn more about me and the methods I used to self-heal, please visit me at http://healpain.weebly.com, or http://www.thankfulformyhealing.com.

"Heal Pain with the Wellness Industry not the Sickness Industry"

I was fortunate in a strange way being raised in NYC. I was surrounded by people with substance abuse problems which helped me to form an early phobia of addiction. An example is my next door neighbors (in a NYC tenement building this means literally 1 step out your door with your apartments connected throughout) would come asking us for Orange Juice in the morning so they could have their morning screwdrivers (vodka and OJ). I was constantly hearing of someones mother, brother, sister, father who was sent to rehab for pills, heroine, cocaine, etc. This caused me to be scared silly of ever becoming addicted to ANYTHING and allowed me not to follow along the road so many people go down.

This country has gotten very used to pills to cure all. Nowadays you can't even watch a TV program without an ad for some pill that is new and the pharmaceutical markets are trying to push. Now with pills being recalled and us not knowing what harm the prescriptions will cause to our bodies in 10 years we are starting to see a shift. Natural healing alternatives are being sought out and the wellness industry stands to grow tremendously as this article points out taken from Natural Healing Magazine:

"Wellness - The Biggest Opportunity of the 21st Century"

“We are now at the very beginning of the next trillion dollar industry – an industry that will impact almost every aspect of our lives and achieve $1 trillion in sales within 10 years, but one that is as unknown today as the automobile industry was in 1908 or the personal computer industry was in 1981.

“In order to define the wellness industry and identify its opportunities, we must first distinguish it from a related industry based on some of the same technology – the current $1.5 trillion (U.S.) health-care industry.

“Approximately one seventh of the U.S. economy, about $1.5 trillion, is devoted to what is erroneously called the ‘health-care’ business. Health-care is a misnomer, as this one seventh of the economy is really devoted to the sickness business – defined in the dictionary as ‘ill health, illness, a disordered, weakened, or unsound condition, or a specific disease.’ “The sickness business is reactive. Despite its enormous size, people become customers only when they are stricken by and react to a specific condition or ailment. No one really wants to be a customer.

“In the next 10 years, an additional $1 trillion of the U.S. economy will be devoted to the yet-unnamed wellness business – defined in the dictionary as ‘the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal.

Which side do you want to be on: Wellness or sickness? The time has come to make that choice. We all have a purpose to serve on this beautiful planet. You can either choose to actively seek out solutions, continually nourishing your body and reviving your spirit – or you can remain passive about the potential perils lurking around us, gradually losing your life energy until sickness finally catches up with you. If you don’t make a decision, the choice will be made for you by the financially motivated food, chemical and drug companies, the profit-driven medical establishment, or the media addicted to advertisement dollars. But will that serve your benefit? To read the rest of this article please visit: http://www.naturalhealingtoday.com

I personally am already on the wellness side having cured myself of several chronic illnesses and chronic pain JUST by using my thoughts/actions. I have written an e-book on all the methods I used to accomplish this. Come visit my website to learn more about me: www.thankfulformyhealing I hope you choose wellness!