medical empowerment - connecting to yourself

One day Joe Bloe goes and sees the doctor. "Your cholesterol is too high, you need to do this and that and take these pills. Oh and you should cut down on stress, smoking and relax more."
"Your blood pressure is too high.... .... take these pills..."
"Your blood sugar levels are outside the normal range, better take this ...."

Mrauk U Myanmar July2010

At this point Joe has a choice.
He can view his body as a kind of machine and the doctor as a mechanic who 'tries to fix it'. 
OR
He can view the diagnosis as a sign that something in his lifestyle, body, consciousness, emotions is out of balance. 


If  Joe sees himself as a machine then he will remain reliant on outside intervention and specialized equipment to give him feedback how his body-machine is doing. (Note: there is nothing wrong with this view). 


If Joe works out what aspect his body, lifestyle,  consciousness, emotions, is out of balance then he can start to make changes. He can use the external specialized equipment to give him feedback about how well his changes are going. 
The required changes may be simple, such as  cutting back on whatever he is eating, drinking, or doing too much of - or the changes could be deeper, connecting to his emotions and feelings and underlying attitudes. 


Lets say that at some point as Joe looks at his deeper feelings and makes changes. 
His readings come back into the normal range. 
Eventually he will find that he works out the connection between his lifestyle, attitude, consciousness and intent and the blood pressure, and cholesterol readings. 
He finds a connection that is intuitive,  feeling and practical. He will start to know when he is going outside the limits of what is good for him. 


This same principle is used in biofeedback devices, i.e. giving the person a way of connecting to an aspect of their being they were not able to connect to otherwise. 


There is no point blaming the medical establishment, in the final analysis it is Joe's choice in how he reacts. There is a lot of pressure to view things in ONE particular way, sure, but isn't there in every aspect of life ?  :-) 


Even more importantly: there is a temptation for Joe to blame himself for being sick, for not getting better. 

        Lets say Joe Bloe does find the imbalance in himself, his furious temper gets better, he genuinely relaxes, and yet his cholesterol and blood pressure don't change. 

This really frustrates him. 
Then he suddenly realizes: There is another level of awareness he needs to look at: how he treats himself. 
Can he forgive himself for being what is he is NOW ? for being sick ? 
Can he accept himself for being ill ?
Sometimes this acceptance can be the greatest healer of all... 


Authors note: That is one of the biggest lessons of all.... at least I have found it so. Not sure I've got anywhere near mastering it yet... :-P 


Acknowledgements: 
Thanks to many many friends, long conversations over the years, and people I can't all name,.... Vilayphone, Phoenix, Nok, Emmanuel, my father Fritz  Rudolph for being sounding boards for these ideas.

Myanmar 2010