Chapter 1
I firmly and deeply believe that the body knows how to maintain good health. The body knows what to do to heal itself when it is damaged, and how to repair itself daily to be strong and well. Right now, as you are reading these words, you’re not thinking about the enzymes your body is producing to digest your lunch or dinner. Your body is doing that all by itself. Similarly, you’re surely not thinking about healing that scratch on your hand or the bruise on your knee. Your body is doing its job faithfully and silently.
Think about the phenomenon of pregnancy and birth. The body, from the moment of conception, takes over and literally creates this baby, cell by cell, in perfect knowing. The pregnant woman certainly doesn’t wake up on the morning of her third trimester and say, “ah, it’s time to make eyelashes and toenails today.” The body intuitively and intrinsically just knows what to do.
The body knows how to heal itself, if we will just get out of our own way. Easy to say, however, this sometimes is hard to do. Think about all the negative beliefs and words we speak, the thoughts to our body every day which impede this marvelous process of health. What we think, our attitudes, our optimism, and often our pessimism, has a powerful connection to our physicality. The body, a good and faithful servant, listens to all these thoughts, these feelings, and obediently holds this input as truth.
As a child growing up in Chicago, I remember in the autumn we all started stocking the medicine cabinets with cold pills and aspirin. The flu season would soon be upon us. Alas, self-fulfilling prophecy, our body obeyed, and sure enough, we would bout with a round or two of the flu. The body was indeed providing what we asked for or expected.
Similarly, as we indulge in a marvelous hot fudge sundae, we often say, “I’m going to gain ten pounds!” and maybe we do. The body is always listening. Think about all the negative and often erroneous information we feed our bodies on a daily basis. Review your belief systems for the truth you tell your body.
Truth according to me about menopause was that a woman experiences hot flashes and weight gain. Almost on cue, my body started to gain weight, oh boy, did it ever, when I embarked on my journey with this rite of passage. Diet was no different for me, exercise had not changed, but suddenly I started to gain weight. Over a two-year period, I piled on forty pounds. Was this my body proudly fulfilling my belief that had been ingrained in me for years and years?
Think about the dialogue, the positive as well as the negative things we convey to ourselves, especially our bodies. What is your belief about your health? What do you tell yourself about diet? “I know I shouldn’t be eating this Big Mac, but….!”
We have the power to control out thoughts, adjust our attitudes, our outlook, and slowly, I believe the body is given permission to heal. We can gradually give the body freedom to mend and perform all the functions of health in perfection. This, indeed is a continual process of our own self talk……and the body IS listening. By affirmation, whether it is by our thoughts or the scribing of optimism, slowly the body will obey these HEALING WORDS…..
Each day, the body is healing. Whether we are recovering from a cold or just maintaining health, the body is healing. Each day, the body is regenerating new cells. In a year’s time, the body has completely regenerated a whole new you. Each month, the body has created a whole new suit of skin. Each day, we literally sluff off three percent of our skin, building new cells.
Every three days, we create a new stomach lining, every ninety days we regenerate a whole new set of lungs. On and on, the body repairs and restores. The body that may be reading these words a year from now will be comprised of entirely all new cells, a whole new YOU. With the positive affirmations, we literally give the body permission to regenerate healthfully.
Each and every day we need to feed this marvelous body of ours the positive affirmations and permission to seek optimal health. As the body continually builds and repairs, our positive, optimistic thoughts nurture every molecule, every cell within us. In essence, I believe through this process we are giving our body the freedom to regenerate in perfection. These declarations of health are FROM THE OUTSIDE IN. From our outside environment, by the words we speak or think, by our actions and deeds, we direct this energy inside, altering our very biology.
In the body’s tremendous ability to sustain life, it does, however, require our assistance. When the body is fatigued and needs rest to heal, it will give us a cue. Alas, we are tired. Listening to the needs of the body, we honor or gift ourselves sleep. Similarly, when the body needs fuel, we are given the message of hunger, and again, we respond by feeding the body the food that it needs.
As we become more in tune with our physicality, we can listen with different ears, to hear what is necessary and needed in order to maintain our health. In my private practice, I would guess that forty percent of my clients are dealing with a catastrophic disease such as ALS, cancer, or AIDS. Every single one of them will admit and honor the fact that throughout their healing journey, listening to the body is the first step in repairing and restoring health.
When they feel tired, they rest, pampering themselves with a nap. Also, diets slowly change to create a far better quality of food to nurture themselves. This doesn’t have to be a radical shift to tofu and wheat grass, but a gradual refinement in a more balanced diet, rich in fresh fruits and vegetables.
We are able to pay attention and understand what the body needs. Possibly an urge for a banana really is the body in need of potassium. If we are craving a hot fudge sundae, do we hear the body in need of food, or the body in need of comfort and a big hug? Just paying attention is the first step.
FROM THE OUTSIDE IN, therefore, means positive affirmations to the body, whether they are thoughts, attitudes or beliefs, as well as actual food we thus feed our body. We do have the control as to what we put into this sacred anatomy.
Taking this to a much deeper level, there are belief systems that are far beyond our conscious level. These are also FROM THE OUTSIDE IN; truths according to our community, or family, that we automatically inherit just by being born. As Caroline Myss describes in her book, The Anatomy of the Spirit, we are tied to the beliefs of our tribe.
What does our community believe about cancer, about AIDS? If you go through chemotherapy, the general public believes you will lose your hair. Curiously, when I received chemotherapy over twelve years ago, the general public knew very little about the side effects. Was it ignorance on my part that accounted for the fact that I did not lose my hair, not having that preconceived notion of telling my body that my hair would fall out, or was this just luck? Today, when a woman is told she must undergo chemotherapy, one of the first things she does is buy a wig. What message is she giving her body? On some level, the body is responding and obeying. The body, a faithful servant, unable to discern right from wrong, truth from fear, listens to these beliefs as fact.
What are the beliefs about the aging process? Recently, I read a magazine article about the myths of growing old. They are (1) you lose your smarts as you age. (2) There’s a flabby physique in your future. (3) Sexual interest plummets. (4) Women are fated to get brittle bones. Even though the article went on to explain how we can prevent these situations from occurring, what are the primary beliefs that the body constantly hears from ourselves and the society in which we live? On a deep, unconscious level, our body has been programmed by these myths for as long as we have been alive on this earth.
Think about some of these global truths you have inherited through your family, your community, your church. Many refer to this energy of information as the collective unconscious, or as Carl Jung refers to it as morphic resonance. Whether we consciously believe these truths or not, there is a strong unconscious connection, and the body is listening!
Being raised a Catholic, I held many beliefs according to the doctrine of the church. Through my own journey of spirituality, I was forced to look at some of these beliefs and re-evaluate the truth according to me. Do I still believe I won’t go to heaven if I’m not a Catholic? Do I personally believe in the concept of heaven and hell?
Growing up in a very traditional home, do I still believe in the stereotypical roles of men and women? Intellectually, on a conscious level, I may reject these truths. For example, there’s no reason why a woman can’t be a high-powered executive, but is the unconscious still holding a different belief? If it is, I dare say, the perfect environment for self-sabotage is created.
Here’s where the process of guided imagery can be a powerful tool. By using imagery, which is basically tapping into our unconscious through a light dream state, we can bring into our awareness information that was previously buried and unavailable.
I find this process extremely dynamic in healing the physical body. The body knows how to heal, how to be perfectly healthy. We may believe this truth on a conscious level, however, if there is still an unconscious belief tied to a particular illness or disease, our body is literally getting double messages. Usually, it will respond to the stronger signal, which unfortunately in most cases, is the unconscious belief.
I have many clients dealing with cancer. On a conscious level, they strongly believe in their treatment for healing, whether it is allopathic or holistic. Sometimes, however, their symptoms rapidly accelerate in spite of their efforts, usually according to what they have been told about the progression of their disease. Their unconscious, I believe, is tied to the belief that cancer will kill them.
When I was going through my own battle with cancer, the medical community was still telling patients, “You have six months to live; you have one year to live.” The body is hearing this statement and accepting it as truth. Even though, on a conscious level, this remark may be denied; “I’m going to fight this disease and win.” On the unconscious level, however, the body may respond to the statement as truth. So many of my fellow chemotherapy partners died within days of their prescribed death sentences.
Using imagery, we can literally visualize and unplug from many of the self-fulfilling prophesies of a disease, a condition, and allow the body to recover. Research is proving that through imagery, we can literally accelerate our rate of healing; we can increase the red blood count, the white blood count, for example, just by telling the body to do it. Healing words FROM THE OUTSIDE IN.
While in the guided imagery state, we can untie ourselves from the belief that a particular disease will kill us or a particular situation will occur. Think about the statement, “breast cancer runs in my family.” There may be some genetic truth to this, however, the message is going directly to the body, where the information is being stored for possible future reference. Again, is this a self-fulfilling prophesy? In confusion, I read about women having healthy breasts removed because of their high risk to the disease, or taking Tomoxifin, a drug designed for combating breast cancer, as a preventative measure.
A few years ago, I received a call from Elizabeth, who lived in Maryland. She had heard about my work with imagery as a healing tool through my affiliation with the American Holistic Health Association. A young woman in her mid-thirties, she and her husband had been trying with no success to get pregnant for almost eleven years. She explained to me that because of a thickening of her uterus, and severe bouts with endometriosis, her gynecologist was not very encouraging about her ability to conceive. Elizabeth further shared that her sister and aunt also had this same problem, neither of them ever-bearing children. “I guess it’s an inherited thing.”
I created and recorded a guided imagery personalized for Elizabeth. I envisioned her in a sacred healing temple. I asked her body what it needed to heal. I talked to her uterus, giving it permission to regain its normal viscosity, and gave Elizabeth a magic salve to smooth on the uterine walls, softening them, visualizing the area supple and healthy.
In sheer ecstasy, Elizabeth called me about seven months later and announced that she was pregnant. Her doctor was shocked, and almost one year to the date of our first telephone conversation, Michael Brian entered the world, an eight pound, nine ounce miracle.
I had another client, Casey, who was only fifteen years old. Her mother was extremely concerned that her daughter had not started menstruating yet. After extensive testing, it was discovered that Casey had a tumor on her pituitary gland. Was the body listening to some belief system about not wanting to grow up, and was it possibly creating the tumor to prevent her body from maturing? I find it fascinating to witness what the human body can do, and how it responds to our thoughts and beliefs.
Through imagery, Casey acknowledged her fear of being a grown up and almost comically Peter Pan appeared and told her it was OK to grow and become an adult. A faulty belief system was discovered and reviewed which resulted in Casey giving herself permission to unplug from this misconception.
The surgery was scheduled, and with HEALING WORDS FROM THE OUTSIDE IN, positive affirmations were given to Casey through imagery. “The procedure would be successful, the tumor would be quickly and easily removed, and there would be just enough bleeding to cleanse the wound.”
Excitedly, after the procedure, Casey’s mom called me. Laughing through tears of joy, she told me that the doctor had come into the room after the surgery to tell them everything went extremely well, the tumor just popped out. He admitted that he had been concerned about excessive bleeding since Casey’s blood pressure was slightly elevated. However, during the procedure, he was astonished that, contrary to his fear, there was just enough bleeding to cleanse the wound. Amazing that the doctor used the exact words we spoke to Casey’s body. The body was truly listening to our healing affirmations!
Through positive affirmations given to the body on this unconscious level of imagery, and by releasing the energy of negative belief systems, we can allow the body to heal. I often say, “The body knows how to heal, if we will just get out of our own way.”
I met Anne at a cancer support group. As the guest speaker, I did an actual imagery with the group. I instructed everyone to visualize a magic solution, telling them to see a mystical fluid flushing all the cancer cells from their bodies. I told them to feel this fluid literally washing away all the poison, the toxins, the tumors. This imagery is indeed WORDS FROM THE OUTSIDE IN. By giving our bodies these positive affirmations of cleansing away all the imperfections, we are giving our bodies permission to heal.
After the experience, many of the participants shared their imageries. Anne was extremely intrigued by the process and asked if I would create and record a Magic Solution imagery just for her. She told me about her malignancy, explaining that cancer had been diagnosed in the pleural space around the outside of the lung, which was inoperable. She had completed radiation and chemotherapy, and was currently in that place of what do I do now?
Faithfully, Anne listened to the tape. She imagined a beautiful blue fluid filling her body. She visualized all her cancer cells being flushed out of her body. She described the toxins as a tar-like substance which she envisioned spewing out her two big toes. Week after week, Anne talked to her body, flushing the cancer out her feet. Miraculously, at a six-month visit with her oncologist and reviewing a current CT scan, it was discovered that the cancerous lesions were shrinking and that surgery was now a real and optimistic possibility.
The procedure was long and tedious, literally peeling away an almost plastic film-like growth off Anne’s lungs. I was there after the surgery, when an extremely excited surgeon shared that he was confident that he had removed all the cancer. He told Anne that she was very lucky, because for whatever reason, the tumor had started to shrink and pull away from the membrane all by itself. Was Anne lucky? You bet! Just as the doctor started to leave, he turned and remembered, “during pre-op, the nurses noticed some infections on your big toes, let’s take a look at them.” Anne just smiled.
An antibiotic ointment for the toes lasted three days, rest and recuperation in the hospital another five days, and today, over five years later, Anne is cancer free.
HEALING WORDS FROM THE OUTSIDE IN, whether on a conscious level of positive words or an unconscious review of faulty beliefs, creates that place of miracles. And, miracles happen everyday.
I first met Rafael, a very handsome Colombian gentleman, about six months ago. He has a rare, irreversible eye disorder, presumed ocular histoplasmosis, which has rendered him legally blind. Being diagnosed only a few short years ago, his sight left him quite suddenly and his journey has been overwhelming, to say the least, in adjusting to his new world. We came together to see (intentional play on words) if imagery could improve or, at minimal, retain the limited peripheral sight he still had left.
I recorded an imagery using the magic solution, instructing Rafael to visualize a spray bottle containing all the chemicals form his own body to repair the nerves, to flush away the fungus around the eyes, and slowly mend the optic nerve. Promising to listen, Rafael scheduled our next appointment.
An almost angry Rafael returned to my office in two weeks, complaining that after using the imagery everyday, he now was experiencing little sparkles of light in the dark field of his forward vision. This was very distracting to him. He continued to experiment with the imagery, however, and to his amazement, after four or five more weeks, a few of the sparkles started to become larger, as if they were opening up.
Slowly Rafael began watching these little specks starting to grow as if windows. One of these portals is large enough now that he can see through it. The view through this window is phenomenal. He tells me it’s a bubble that literally magnifies things, and he can read through it. Rafael is a healing in progress. Miracles are happening.
For Elizabeth, Casey, Anne and Rafael, I believe the miracles began with the telling of their individual stories. When two people come together to share their emotions, their experiences and they feel safe, something happens physiologically. Hormones are secreted that strengthen the immune system and promote health. The body literally shifts into a place of peace and calm. Adding the process of guided imagery and positive affirmations, the healing journey can create such miracles, indeed.
The preceding poem, THE ESSENCE, as well as the following three were written during my own journey with cancer. With words from the outside in, I wanted to make a statement to my body, to give my body permission to heal, to tell my body that I was perfect, that I was loved. I wanted to affirm to my body that I was loved, not for what I did or didn’t do, but for just my being, unconditionally. This, I believe is our birthright. I wanted to remind my body of when it was healthy and strong, and celebrate the journey back to that place.