Curing Chronic Illness

by Christopher Gibney, LAc, DHom

Understanding the causes.

On the surface, the range of chronic illnesses is extremely varied; fibromyalgia, asthma, colitis, eczema, food allergies, headaches, panic attacks, depression, insomnia, back pain, arthritis, high blood pressure, and on and on.  They can involve any system in the body; immune, circulatory, hormonal, neurological, gastrointestinal, respiratory, genitourinary, skeletal, etc.  But under the surface, all chronic illness shares very similar roots.

 

It’s not just about fighting diseases.

Conventional medicine focuses almost entirely upon the study of disease.  There is no clear, functional definition of health; it is vaguely understood to be the absence of disease. Its entire frame of reference is anatomy and biochemistry, so all explanations for the “cause” of illness are sought only within these limitations.  The mind-body connection is just beginning to be explored.  The patient is not seen primarily as an individual, but as a diagnosis that is the same for everyone within that disease category.  The operative equation is:  physical functions + disease entities = diagnosis.  Removing the physical disease entity is seen as the “cure”.  The whole calculation is fragmented by considering different illnesses within the same person as somehow separate.  There is no understanding of how everything in a person is actually inextricably inter-related.  Human beings are, of course, far more than machine-like composites of anatomical parts, biochemistry and genetics.  To understand the true origins of disease, we must expand the cause-effect equation of health to reflect actual human reality and how it expresses uniquely in each individual.

 

It’s about promoting individual health on all levels.

Before we can accurately and effectively diagnose and cure illness, we must rework the equation and include several crucial missing factors.  The focus needs to be on fostering health in the individual, rather than fighting diseases.  This requires having a comprehensive, integrated definition of health.  To be scientifically accurate, this concept must encompass all the contributing factors operating within each person, and how they inter-relate.  A more realistic equation is:  spiritual state ↔ mental/emotional state ↔ energy state ↔ physical state = state of health.  And we do not have to reinvent this wheel.  The science of whole health is already precisely codified in the healing systems of ancient India and China, which give us specific techniques for addressing the subtler aspects of our make-up.  It is not necessary to understand everything about how they work to apply them and get repeatable results.

 

What causes your illness?

Why you have a particular illness will partly be due to your DNA, but mostly due to the stresses exerted upon it.  Genetic inheritance creates tendencies for your innate strengths and weaknesses, but how you live your life determines to what degree they manifest or remain latent.  It is your stress quotient, the cumulative pressures of unbalanced living, which causes your weak links to repeatedly break down.  Maybe you have an iron stomach and can eat everything, but your respiratory tract is vulnerable, so you get frequent lingering colds and struggle with asthma.  Your spouse, who lives in the same house and is exposed to the same bugs, may rarely get a cold, but has food sensitivities and an irritable bowel. For someone else, it may be their hormones, or nervous system, or whatever.  To cure your illness, it is far less important to know the physical disease mechanisms, than it is to understand the stresses under which your system labors.  Your medical diagnosis is just a description of the bad fruits at the end of the branches of your life.  You cannot forever keep pruning diseased branches with drugs and surgeries. If you want your tree to bear a better harvest, you must work your soil.

 

What about relieving  immediate symptoms?

This is not to say that your medical diagnosis is irrelevant or that you should not treat the symptoms of your disease.  Sometimes you need to stop dangerous symptoms in their tracks with harsh measures like antibiotics, cortisone, or surgery to avoid further serious damage to your body.  It may be necessary to break a pain cycle with analgesics, or to avoid an asthma crisis with occasional use of inhalers.  The main point to remember is that suppressing symptoms or removing diseased tissue never cures the problem.  It just puts off the day of reckoning, creates another set of problems with side-effects, and weakens your system a bit more each time. It is always better to use treatment methods that simultaneously relieve symptoms and reinforce the deeper healing process of “working the soil.”

 

Symptoms do a job for you.

It is also important to remember that symptoms are not the enemy.  They are necessary, not just as messengers letting you know a change is needed, but as integral parts of the healing process.  Your body never wastes energy, nor will it do anything without good reason.  It automatically moves towards re-establishing functional equilibrium when it has been thrown off balance by stress and disease. If it is rousing up a fever, creating an eruption, or producing extra phlegm, you can be sure it is responding appropriately.  Your responsibility is to help it finish the job, so that the symptoms are no longer necessary.  There must be some tolerance for the discomfort of symptoms, as the body does its healing work.  Some amount of suppression may be necessary with strong symptoms, especially in the early stages of turning around a long-entrenched disease, but remember that suppression always slows down the healing process, so it should be done reluctantly and sparingly.

 

Being realistic.

You are a spiritual being who inhabits a body that is animated by regulating energies, which are directed by patterns of thought and feeling.  All the functions of your body depend on the integrity of your energy system, which in turn depends upon your states of consciousness.   Any imbalance on any level disrupts the other levels in both directions, but the hierarchy of influence is much more powerful downstream, from the super-subtle forces of thought and feeling, through the subtle energy, to the grosser physical vehicle.  Healing always happens from the inside out.

 

Putting physical illness into perspective.

Influence is also communicated upstream, from the physical to the consciousness.  Obviously your mind and your energy can be disrupted when your body is in pain, poorly fed, or in any way diseased.  But such physical influences are weak compared to the power of the mind.  It is possible for a strong mind to be immune to even severe physical imbalances, as evidenced by certain concentration camp inmates who maintained remarkable health despite being subject to the harshest deprivations.  But the body is never immune to the influence of the mind; it invariably takes the brunt of your every thought and feeling, whether conscious or subconscious.  If you are chronically discontent, frustrated, lonely, or anxious, whether or not you are aware of it or admit to it, these negative states of mind send a cascade of disease-causing disruption through your energy patterns to your physical functions.  Your immune system, nervous system, and organs cannot hold out indefinitely under such a siege.  Your body is equipped to maintain itself and easily handle day to day outer physical stresses, like fighting bacteria or digesting food, but it doesn’t stand a chance against the relentless attack of inner stress, no matter how many medicines and treatments you try.

 

The good news.

Your mind can be just as powerful a positive influence as a negative.  Positive states of consciousness also automatically send a corresponding cascade of health-inducing influence into your whole body, which balances your biochemistry and strengthens all your physical functions.  Your body knows how to direct this flow to the areas of most need, to where it is most vulnerable.  By applying specific techniques that keep your energy strong and balanced, and your consciousness calm and centered, you can heal your body from chronic illness, become much less affected by physical stresses, and compensate for even strong genetic tendencies.  Your body automatically repairs and maintains itself when it is not constrained, drained, and distracted by disruptive patterns of thought, feeling, and energy.  And when your immune system and organs are supported and energized from the influence of positive mental and emotional messages, they can much more effectively perform the routine physical work they are designed to do; neutralizing viruses, eliminating cancer cells, repairing injuries, circulating blood, breathing, digesting, and so forth.  Your body knows its job; your job is to stop over-loading it and start properly supporting it.

 

Remove stress + strengthen your system = net gain in health.

Whatever ails you, the optimum formula for cure is always basically the same.  You can reduce the symptoms of any disease just by strengthening your innate healing capacities with exercise, nutrition, herbs, homeopathy, and acupuncture, etc.  But resolution of disease will not be complete or sustainable without addressing the stress factor.  For full, lasting wellness, you must free-up your stress-bound energy and reduce the on-going wear and tear it causes.  Otherwise the same equation of stress build-up continues to operate, which puts pressure on the same weak links, and re-creates the same kinds of illnesses.  You are doomed to relapse repeatedly.  True cure requires that you “work your soil”:  replace the disease causing patterns in your consciousness, in your behaviors, and in your energy fields with balanced, harmonious patterns.  You can do this by methodically applying specific techniques that address all 4 levels of your needs; spiritual, mental/ emotional, energetic, and physical.  The first step is identifying the main stresses in each of these areas of your life.

 

Your stress quotient.

We all have stress, of course; the universal challenges of living in an uncertain world, of too much to do, of making ends meet, of our roles, relationships and duties.  It is those burdens that create the deepest disharmony, are most persistent, and are most obstructive to your happiness, which put the greatest pressure on your health.  Some of these involve obviously stressful circumstances; work demands leave no time for friends and fun; an addicted family member is draining you emotionally and financially; your child is troubled and doing very poorly in school; your marriage has never been harmonious; your job has never been fulfilling.  But the most destructive disease-inducing stresses lurk hidden in the self-doubts of the subconscious mind; you must constantly prove yourself, no matter how well you do; you don’t have what it takes to succeed; no one really loves you, because you are not loveable; you cannot trust anyone, least of all yourself; you deserve the abuse you have so often received; security is impossible in a treacherous world; you have failed to live up to your dreams and now it is too late; you have no purpose and life is meaningless.  The call of these inner needs for security, meaning, purpose, self worth, fulfillment, and love must be answered for health to exist.  Your version of these fundamental issues must be addressed to cure your illness.

 

What to do about it.

Identify the most crucial unmet needs in your life, so you can take the appropriate steps to fulfill them, and work the basic equation on all levels:  reduce stress + support your system = improved health.  Change stressful circumstances where you can, but more importantly, strengthen your ability to handle the stresses you cannot change, which make up the majority of your burden.  Learning to be less stressed by these unavoidable stresses is the most effective way to reduce your stress quotient.

 

Begin with the obvious do’s and don’ts.  Stop doing what harms you, like eating too much sugar, or dwelling on old resentments.  Start doing the basics that have been missing, like exercising regularly, or getting enough rest.  In every case, it means moving towards more balance and attending to essential unmet needs.  Progress on any one level reinforces progress on all the other levels.  By making key changes on all four levels in an integrated way, you create a positive feedback loop that brings the quickest and most enduring results.

  • Physical support:  diet, exercise, rest/sleep, postural/structural alignment, ergonomics, movement therapy, massage therapy, stretching, acupuncture, hatha yoga, etc.
  • Energetic support:  acupuncture, homeopathy, Reiki, Tai Chi, Chi Cong, pranayama, hatha yoga, cranio-sacral therapy, etc.
  • Mental/emotional suppot:  relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, biofeedback, affirmations, visualizations, releasing emotional wounds, changing negative attitudes, EMDR, EFT, overcoming bad habits, Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, non-defensive communication, conflict resolution skills, time management, goal-setting, hobbies and recreation, etc.
  • Spiritual support:  developing your inner life, freeing your concentration from distractions, calming restlessness, deepening your capacity for love, cultivating your intuition, exercising your creativity, learning to enjoy simple pleasures, introspection/self awareness, developing deeper faith, balancing effort with surrender, practicing the presence of peace, living in the moment, attuning to the healing power of Spirit, meditation, retreats, prayer, etc.

 

Ultimately it is about unconditional happiness.

The most powerful healing influence comes from realizing that your happiness is not ultimately dependent on any external conditions; the state of your diet, the state of your family, the state of your career, or the state of the union.  To be deeply and lastingly happy, you do not have to have a perfectly healthy body, to have all your ducks in a row, to live in prosperous times, or to find your soul-mate.  You do need to plumb your own spiritual depths.  You must be willing to take practical steps to develop your inner life, so that you can know from direct personal experience that the love, peace of mind, joy, power, and fulfillment you crave is always within you.  Indeed, it is your essential nature, which will never let you rest, until you give it expression. It could be said that being disconnected from this truth is the deepest root of all disease.  As you learn to attune the receiver of your consciousness to your soul-channel, you enjoy the multi-leveled benefits of that stress-immune state, and you have access to the tremendous healing power of Spirit.  Developing this innate ability is the most important component of realizing complete health.