Mastering The Healing Journey

MASTERING THE HEALING JOURNEY

I thought it appropriate in this premier issue of Healing Garden Journal to draw some distinctions around the concepts of health, healing and curing.

One reference in Webster's dictionary defines health as "A condition of wholeness in which all organs are functioning 100% all of the time. Other sources relate to states of optimum physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Others bring in the concept of balance within the mind, body, spirit relationships.

Health is our natural state. It is not something that we magically have or not. It's not that you are lucky or unlucky. It is a dynamic process that is continually influenced by genetic potential and a multitude of daily life choices and practices that effect your body's adaptative capability, resistence to sickness and disease, and your general state of wellbeing.

Just as the artist utilizes colors, shapes, and patterns to create a picture, your innate intelligence utilizes the factors in your life to strive to generate a state of optimal health. These factors include positive and negative influences of proper nerve function, posture, nutrition, belief systems, emotions, toxins, electromagnetic influences, etc. These effect how well your body's systems communicate with each other and whether there can be a free flow within the energetic systems. The "picture" of your health or quality of your life is, therefore, dependent on how you configure these elements and how they interact. 

Looking at the word health we see that the first four letters are heal. Healing is not what we do just when we're sick or injured. It is a process that is done "by" you every day of your life through conscious choice and by your unconscious innate intelligence. It strives to create and maintain a state of balance, regeneration, and optimal genetic expression.

A cut forms a scab and then it lifts off as new cell growth replaces the damaged cells. But, this doesn't occur only with injuries. Scientists now say that your body replaces itself on a cellular level almost entirely within nine months to a year. Therefore, there is a constant replenishment of cells in almost all organs and tissues. In a state of optimum health, the body is programmed to regenerate these cells in a constructive, healthy manner throughout life and then flicker out when your genetic clock runs out. Degenerative states, disease, illness, and early death occur when there is interference to the natural regenerative process. 

This daily cellular regenerative capability forms a matrix within which constructive forces (proper spinal alignment, effecient nerve function, good nutrition, positive mental attitudes, positive emotional balance, healthy immune and endocrine function, etc.) can operate to positively regenerate the body toward a healthy state. Conversely, if negative, destructive influences outweigh the positive, the body creates new cell growth and tissues in old patterns of imbalance and the body cannot generate health and has a hard time healing itself of sickness and disease.

The essence of healing involves removing the interferences to this natural state and bringing individuals into alignment with themselves and their world. Free of obstructions, an individual's innate intelligence and self regulating capabilities will guide him/her toward a state of health and well being. 

Ill health and illness are the result of imbalance within the body's systems leading to an inability to adapt to the potentially destructive influences. It is a negative feedback system indicating that something is wrong. It should be viewed not as bad or evil but respected for what it is - a wakeup call.

Unfortunately, we have grown up to view illness as something to be eradicated at all costs. "Curing" is a process that is done "to" you and follows the allopathic or medical model of patient care: Wait till something breaks down, then utilize something from outside the body to try to fix it. A particular aspect of body dysfunction may be chemically or surgically changed, but, this may have been accomplished at the expense of something else. Curing often does not result in true healing of the underlying cause of the problem with improvement in the overall health of the person. The net result is a shifting of the imbalance to manifest somewhere else in the body at a future time. 

Are drugs and surgury necessary? Absolutely - for crisis care or when an individual has let their health deteriorate to a point that the body's resources are not capable of generating a healing response. This is a reactionary response. The point is is that we need to be proactive with our health and not let it get to that point.

As we have seen above, true health comes from within. This follows the basic premise of chiropractic philosophy which has been tought for the last 105 years: The body is a self-regulating, self-healing organism and health manifests from within by your innate intelligence expressing itself free of interference in every cell, tissue, and organ.

In the same way that life is not a destination but rather a journey, health is not a goal, but, rather a lifestyle. Mastering the journey of physical, mental, emotional , and spiritual wellbeing involves becoming aware of the influences, finding a healthcare coach to help you explore options and walk the path, and taking action. YOU are the master of your ship. YOU are your own healer as long as you are free of interference. You can take back control of your own health and help it eminate from within by maximizing the quality of your healing process giving you the edge toward creating optimal health, performance, and wellbeing.
Dr. Greg and Lyn Chappell