“Each patient carries his own doctor inside him.” …
As I often do, I’m going to state right up front that my posts are not meant to sway, convince, persuade or teach anyone but myself. They’re simply my own perspectives – my own thoughts expressed in my own way. You’re free to take whatever may resonate with you and leave the rest. My only purpose in writing these posts is to find my own way back to my “true Self.” The “Self” that God created, and by doing so, let go of the one I made.
I’ve really had a difficult time beginning this post. I think that’s because there are so many different beliefs about what constitutes happiness and health in this world. But that being said, I believe happiness, which is the whole purpose of life, cannot be experienced without health. I think the healthier a person is the happier they are. And vice versa is just as true. The happier they are the healthier they are.
I’m going to write this post from a different perspective than that which most people perceive things. For I believe that health and happiness are already part of what we are. And only those who believe they’re physical beings do everything within their power to find it outside of themselves, where it can never be found.
“The body, then, is not the source of its own health” …ACIM
I think most of us can accept the above quote as being true. For we believe that in order to keep, or make, the body healthy we must look somewhere else for the means to do so.
We look to doctors, pharmaceuticals, health food stores, exercise, fad diets; the list is long on choices. But the thing is, none of these things work unless we place our faith and belief in them. And even then they seem to be temporary solutions at best.
During most of my younger years, I believed that a healthy diet was the most important component in creating and maintaining good health. I added a huge regimen of supplements because I believed the soil to be overused and saturated with chemicals to the point where even so-called health food was devoid of the proper nutrients.
I also firmly believed in exercise, especially walking and hiking. And because of my belief in what I was doing I have always been relatively healthy. I have reached the age of seventy-seven years and am gliding along happily toward seventy-eight next July. Therefore, from personal experience, I can state unequivocally that aging does not necessarily mean getting old, weak or sick.
Learning Some Lessons
After we retired, my wife and I bought a RV and spent eleven years travelling around North America. I simply loved that lifestyle, and didn’t give it up because of age-related health issues. We gave it up because in the eyes of insurance companies everyone fits in the same box, so to speak.
When certain ages are reached, 65 for example, it matters not how healthy a person is, medical insurance gets expensive. And at 70 it jumps exponentially even though there has been no prior claims. That fact coupled with the high exchange rate between American and Canadian currencies caused us to give it up.
But during our travels I learned some very important lessons. One thing I learned is, people are all basically the same. It matters not whether it’s on the east coast of our home country, which is Canada, or 6,000 kilometers away on the west coast or somewhere in between, people are the same. Oh there’s many different dialects, accents, customs, etc., but inside people are pretty well the same.
Questioning My Beliefs
It’s important to realize the similarities amoung people for then we’re recognizing that which the ego can’t gain control over. This is the Spirit through which we’re all connected to our Source. That which the ego promotes is the false beliefs we hold about the body and this physical environment it teaches we live in.
As we traveled around North America meeting all different types of people there was one thing in particular that kept drawing my attention. There were the similarities mentioned above, but there was something else that kept gnawing at my belief concerning diet.
As I mentioned above, I believed that a healthy diet was the most important component in creating and maintaining good health. But that belief was beginning to lose some of its certainty as we met and took notice of different people and their lifestyles. It seemed that there were some that adhered to a completely so-called healthy diet, but weren’t as healthy as they should be.
Then there were others who ate to satisfy their taste buds and desires. They weren’t concerned in the least as to whether it was healthy or not. And some of them were extremely healthy people.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that all who ate healthy were sick, and I’m sure not implying that all who ate unhealthy were healthy. But there were enough to raise questions such as: Why doesn’t eating a healthy diet apply the same to everyone? Why can some eat whatever they want and still be relatively healthy, while others can eat a so-called healthy diet and don’t seem to be that healthy? In other words, I had seen enough to cause me to question my own beliefs.
The Answers Begin To Arrive
The answers to these questions were slow to arrive. It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of time to let go of an established belief and let a new one take its place.
They began to arrive via the power of observation. There was one person in particular whom we became life-long friends with, and I was inclined to observe carefully. I was so inclined because of her age, relatively good health and indifference toward her diet.
As I have already mentioned, during my earlier years I was convinced that good health depended entirely on eating healthy and getting lots of exercise. Well this lady was, and still is, an avid hiker so she verified the exercise part. But when it comes to eating she breaks every rule in the book, so to speak. She eats to please her taste buds, and is completely unconcerned as to whether it’s healthy or not.
She’s the same friend I mentioned in my last post, whom, in reply to my question, what she did when she had an ailment or something bothering her, replied, I take my mind off it and it goes away. Observing and listening to her was the beginning of a belief change for me.
The Unlimited Power of the Mind
I don’t think she was telling me anything but what she had learned through experience. She’s not a religious or spiritual person in any sense of the words, or so she believes and says. But whether she’s conscious of it or not, she practices a spiritual belief that has been public knowledge, at least, since the days of Solomon, which is: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
As the Course tells us: “Very few people appreciate the real power of the mind.” As I continued my quest for answers to the questions I mentioned earlier, the light continued to grow brighter and brighter until it finally exploded in a flash of brilliant understanding. Which is this: It matters not what we do it will not have the desired affect unless it’s accompanied by faith and belief.
That’s why eating a so-called healthy diet along with a regimen of supplements will work for some but not for others. For those who believe it will work it works. But for those who don’t believe or have faith in it, it won’t.
That’s the reason our friend could eat what she wanted and still live happy and healthy. Somewhere, somehow, even though she was adamant in her denial of any religious or spiritual beliefs she had learned the greatest secret of them all. She revealed that secret to me when she answered my question concerning ailments: I take my mind off it and it goes away.
Without being aware of it, she taught me more with that one answer than I had learned during my whole physical experience prior to then. She fulfilled the Buddhist Proverb, When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, perfectly. For I was completely ready to learn, and she, albeit unknowingly, was ready to teach.
The Doctor Within
I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to tell anyone they should not be concerned with their diet nor with supplements. What I am saying is this: It matters not what you eat or which supplements you take unless you believe it does. If you believe it’s good for you, then it is. If you believe it won’t help, then it won’t.
That’s what constitutes the idea that “Each patient carries his own doctor inside him,” as pointed out in my opening quote. The doctor within resides in our thoughts and beliefs.
I’m going to close this post with some words of wisdom from the Greek physician, “When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.”
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LOVE IS ALL THERE IS – ALL THERE EVER WAS – AND ALL THERE EVER WILL BE
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LOVE IS THE ONLY HEALER 