A Time of Healing

"Jesus, A Great Healer"

The last couple of weeks I have been recovering from surgery. As a result, I have a lot of quiet time. Going through surgery has never been a fun adventure, but it is often a necessary one for many of us. This has given me the opportunity to focus on the theme of healing.

What does healing mean to you? Is healing the removal of discomforting symptoms? Is it merely physical or is there a greater level of healing and perhaps awareness that is available to us? A good definition for me at this point is that healing is coming into a greater state of health.

When I think of health, several different types of wellness come to mind. There is physical health, emotional health, mental health, and spiritual health. You could almost think of this as having different types of bodies—a physical body, an emotional body, a mental body, and a spiritual body, (sometimes called soul).

So, what type of condition are all of your different bodies in and where does disease come from? Very often, disease in the physical body begins in one of the other bodies. Think of times when you have experienced long bouts of emotional stress in your life. I recall at times in my life thinking that if the stress didn’t let up, I was going to develop some type of disease. Indeed, there are many who believe that cancer is strongly correlated to the high stress levels that we currently live with.

Our thoughts and beliefs sometimes cause disorder and distress that eventually wind up affecting our physical body. This is kind of like a trickle down effect. What happens in one body affects every other body. So, it is a good idea to pay attention to what kind of health we are experiencing on every level.

If our emotions are a wreck, you can be certain your health will be affected. If you don’t have peace of mind, a good night’s sleep is pretty hard to come by! If you are disconnected from a spiritual connection to God, you will not experience the vitality that you might otherwise enjoy.

Many factors come into play regarding our health—genetics, past choices, and current life style. Usually by the time disease descends into the physical body, we are left with making choices to help mitigate the results.

The good news, however, is that it is never too late to come into a greater state of well-being. Even if we find that our physical body is not going to last for much longer, we can strengthen our connection with our Creator and find a greater sense of joy and wholeness. Sometimes it is only after we have lost our health that we will open our hearts to a sense of God’s love and wisdom.

For me, all types of healing begin with surrendering to a sense of higher purpose in my life. When I don’t fight against my illness, but rather use it as a teacher to help me learn to come into greater harmony with my life and God, then the disease or physical, emotional, or mental stress helps to give me clarity on where my life may be out of balance and where I need to make needed corrections to make my life more symmetrical and harmonious.

Sometimes the chickens don’t come home to roost for many years. When they do we can get caught up in the drama of wishing that life could be easier. By learning to be in relationship with ourselves and our health in a less combative way we can learn how to cooperate with the laws of good health and help mitigate some of the genetic and lifestyle choices that have descended on us.