This book was created as an aid in awareness to self-healing. It was designed to create an opportunity to discover that there are many aspects to healing oneself other than the traditional means. You will embark on a journey of understanding that Disease is a state that can be transformed, once you have the tools required.

Strength of Purpose Energy of Will Universal Healing

By Barbara Knapp

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Barbara Knapp
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-0574-4

Chapter One

"I BELIEVE in the healing powers of the Universe and its ability to restore HEALTH. May these powers guide us ALL to a state of complete well-"Being." As we will it so shall it "BE"

Keeping Our Minds Open

You are about to Embark on a journey of discovery.

A willingness to question everything, even things we are sure we know about can shake us all to the core. Our mind challenges our complacency and reinvigorates us, opening us up to understanding ourselves as well as other people. In the Zen tradition, this willingness to question everything is known as "Beginners Mind". In this state of "Being" we can generate new possibilities we could never have seen before. From this point of view we are humble enough to acknowledge how little we actually know about ourselves and the mysterious Universe we call home. Some people may feel threatened or some people may be a little skeptical when they feel they are being asked to question their "beliefs" or their perception of reality. Yet questioning is what keeps our minds strong. During the early years of our lives we are taught by others to think a certain way which forms our "beliefs". They are shaped and influenced by family, peers, society, media which you may not be conscious of. From the time you are born you are just like a sponge. You absorb and accept the information around you without question at an unconscious level. Patterns of behavior are created and programs are formed. We all function by sets of programs, which we may or may not be conscious of. In order to run any of our programs we have to activate our energy currents. The challenge before us is to identify our negative programs and rewrite them all while continuing to live our lives; we have to reset our programs, replace negative feelings, negative thoughts, and false beliefs from our lives; this is the task of healing. We sometimes are directed away from new forms of thought because it may not fit in with others "beliefs". Yet if we keep running the same programs we will continue to see the same results.

Simply settling on seeing things through someone else's eyes is refusing to be open to other possibilities. New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. When we understand that there are many different aspects to everything, we learn to question everything. We are all born with three eyes, two on the outside and one on the inside, the two on the outside are there for inspection, and the one on the inside is for introspection. We also know that no two people will see things the same way. This is what makes life so interesting.

Being open minded means that we are willing to question everything, including those things we take for granted. Nearly everything in our history of human evolution came from the courage of someone who questioned some "belief" or tradition and in doing so has revealed a new truth a new way of doing things. The key to healing lies in remembering that it is our birthright to feel good and that feeling good is the essence of our true nature. When we are healthy and happy we are receiving and sending out good vibrations, we are "in the flow". When we are ill or stressed out we may not realize it but we are sending out low vibrations as well as receiving these same lower energies. We attract to us or create in one way or another everything we experience. This concept is based on the fact we're much more than our conscious minds, the part that we usually identify with and consider to be who we are. There is also the subconscious part of the mind which we may be unaware of and within this part of our mind is where many of our personality aspects reside. We may not understand that some of our subconscious aspects may not be in agreement with what we want to do or be on a conscious level. The subconscious mind in directly connected to our energy field and it is through this field that we directly interact with the higher creative and healthy aspects of our lives. Developing ways to understand and interact with one's subconscious mind is an important part of gaining more control over our lives. The human mind is the biggest factor in the healing arts. It is more powerful than medicine. "What the mind can conceive it will achieve".

When the mind is relaxed the answers will come to the question we ask.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important that what you have been taught to believe you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without".

A Dis-ease is defined as an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as auto-immune diseases. In human beings, "Dis-ease" is often referred to as any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, or social problems. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, or deviant behaviors. With all of the medical advancements and technology today why is it that we see more and more new disease developing.

Stress is the main cause of thousands of diseases and disorders affecting many people today. When we place too much stress on ourselves we are bound to breakdown. Our bodies give us feedback that something is out of balance in your life when you are not feeling well. Yet the most stressful thing anyone could possibility deal with is illness. A person going through any illness and those around them may not truly understand what is actually going on inside of themselves, which can cause more stress and sometimes slows down the healing process. If the thought of disease lingers in the mind the person believes that this is a part of who they are. Without the thought that the disease will be cured, the illness remains. We learn to believe everything we are told even thou we sometimes feel that somehow we know better. We have been programmed to believe that somehow we are destined to carry disease with us. The fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) that we feel at the time of diagnose causes again more stress. This in turn becomes a cycle. This cycle can go on for years without true healing because we have now developed the "belief" that we "Have Something" (illness).

We may continue on this cycle if we choose or you can break the pattern (thought) and see that there is another approach. When we start asking the question- How can we get out of this illness cycle? This gives us the understanding that there is a way out. We open our minds and find ourselves on a new path, the path of recovery!

We all come equipped with our own healing system which we call our immune system. Disorders in the immune system can result in disease. Immunodeficiency occurs when the immune system is less active than normal, resulting in recurring and life-threatening infections. In contrast, autoimmune diseases result from a hyperactive immune system attacking normal tissues as if they were foreign organisms. This built in system was designed to repair our bodies. Its job is to create new healthy cells every day. If our bodies are constantly making new cells why is it that so many people have disease living inside of them for years? Disease can't live in a healthy emotional state of "Being". This indicates that unless we are looking at all levels of disease, the symptoms of the disease may show up as healed for a period of time but may return time and again unless the root of the problem is healed first.

When a scientific study is performed to test a medicine there is always a group of people who receive the actual medicine and a group who receive a placebo. So a percentage of the people in the placebo group will improve even though they have not been given "real" medicine. This is called the placebo effect. Scientists are not sure why the placebo effect works. Is it the power of belief? Is it because of the medical attention the patient receives when they partake in a study? We can explain this as belief in the placebo helped the individual engaged with their own power to heal. In other words the patient recovers on the placebo because she/he is connected with her/ his own power of self healing. Why do we find some people in good health and others are not? Optimistic thoughts energize people, giving them hope and inspiring them to work diligently on behalf of what they believe in. Healing creates a positive shift in the Universe, which means that neither you nor those who share your vision of healing will have any trouble believing that transformation is indeed possible. Your willingness to stand up and believe in your own healing powers instead of accepting disease can turn the tides of fate. The thoughts you project when you choose to adopt a positive perspective will provide you with a means to actively promote your healing and, eventually, foster lasting change.

Holistic Healing

Healing is the act or process of curing and restoring ones health. Holistic medicine is the term used to describe therapies that attempt to treat the patient as a whole person. The techniques that a holistic practitioner uses are non-invasive, so instead of treating an illness with medication or invasive methods, as in traditional medicine, holistic medicine looks at an individual's over-all physical, mental, Spiritual, and emotional well-being before recommending treatment. A practitioner with a holistic approach attempts to treat the symptoms of illness as well as look for the underlying cause of the illness. Holistic medicine also attempts to prevent illness by placing a greater emphasis on optimizing health. The body's systems are seen as interdependent parts of the person's whole being, its natural state is one of health, and an illness or disease is an imbalance in the body's systems. Traditional medicine attempts to treat the patient symptoms with medications, holistic medicine can assist the patients healing through meditations.

There are no limits to the range of diseases and disorders that can be treated in a holistic way; the principle of holistic healing is to balance the body, mind, Spirit, and emotions so that the person's whole being functions smoothly. When an individual seeks holistic treatment for a particular illness or condition, other health problems improve without direct treatment, due to improvement in the performance of the immune system, which is one of the goals of holistic medicine. When the mind believes it is healing, it then triggers the body's immune system to produce healthy cells. There are a number of therapies that come under the umbrella of "holistic medicine." They all use basically the same principles, promoting not only physical health, but also mental, emotional, and Spiritual health.

The aim of holistic medicine is to bring all areas of an individual's life, back into harmony. Ultimately, of course, only the patient can be responsible for their healing, because the holistic practitioner cannot make the necessary adjustments to the mind, diet and lifestyle to achieve health. The practice of holistic medicine does not rule out the practice of traditional medicine; so the two can complement each other. Other therapies most used for healing are meditation, guided imagery, spiritual healing, hypnosis, and herbal cures.

A properly balanced holistic health regimen, which takes into consideration all aspects of human health and includes noninvasive and non-pharmaceutical healing methods, can often completely eradicate even acute health conditions safely. If a patient is being treated with traditional medicine, holistic therapies may at least support the body during treatment, and alleviate the symptoms that often come with drug treatments or surgery. In addition, holistic therapies aim at the underlying source of the illness, to prevent recurrence. Because holistic medicine aims to treat the whole person, holistic practitioners sometimes may advise treatment from more than one therapy. This is to ensure that all aspects of health are addressed. In conventional medicine, often called "Western Medicine", the doctor tends to treat the outward appearing issue as the problem rather than attempting to find the underlying or root cause. This sometimes requires a patient to be placed on medication that may cause ill side effects, causing more problems without any solutions. "Eastern medicine" looks at the whole person, treating the mind, body and soul as a unit. In this philosophy, the issue is a symptom rather than the problem. The question that the whole body practitioner will ask is "What is out of balance to cause this issue?", or "What's really going on in your life". Practitioners focus on balancing their patients, treating the whole person rather than just one symptom. The idea that this can be done today has lost its connection by some. We are in deep need now to begin treating patience's using this philosophy and to help reclaim our rights to heal ourselves using the most natural methods known. It's your body, give it what it needs! You need the proper awareness to open the channels towards a healthy state of "Being". We need to use our minds as well as our body to heal disease which will bring back the harmony of the Mind, Body, and Soul.

In 1928, Dr. Edward Bach a Physician, Bacteriologist, Homeopath and Researcher, believed that the attitude of the mind played a vital role in maintaining health and recovering from illness. It was his belief that the cause of every Dis-ease and Dis-order stemmed from the mental and emotional aspects of ones being. This means that there is an imbalance between the soul and the body therefore leading to negative moods and energy blockages in the body, resulting in a lack of harmony, leading to physically manifested "Dis-ease". Dr. Bach considered illness the result of "a contradiction between the purposes of the soul and the personality's point of view." "He found that certain flower essences stimulated self-healing in his patients by clearing the negative emotional factors that affected their state of health. He developed the first three flower remedies which he called The Bach Flower Remedies. As a result, Dr. Bach started prescribing the essences of certain flowers based on the emotional characteristics of his patients. Using this method, he was able to get results he had never seen before, results which showed that the whole person was being brought into a greater sense of health.

For example, In his paper titled "Heal Thyself" he wrote: "Disease will never be cured or eradicated by present materialistic methods, for the simple reason that disease in its origin is not material, Disease is in essence the result of conflict between the Soul and Mind and will never be eradicated except by Spiritual and mental effort."

In the early days we thought everything it took to make a person healthy could be defined within the realms of physics, chemistry, and biology. What we soon found, however, was that there were several other spheres outside of the hard sciences that served just as important a role, if not more so. How can one be healthy if not allowed the proper state of mind required to be healthy? How can a healthy person exist in an unhealthy environment?

Addictions, Depression, Fears/Phobias, Learning Difficulties, Self-Esteem Issues, ADHD, Allergies, Arthritis , Irritability , Menopause, Stress, any "Dis-ease" or "Dis-order" can be treated using these as well as many other methods, holistically. Here are a few of the major holistic therapies that you can begin with: herbal medicine, homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, nutritional therapies, Ayurvedic Medicine, Acupuncture, Acupressure, stress reduction, psychotherapy, massage therapy, Reiki, reflexology, meditation etc.

In an attempt to begin your own healing you must remember that there are always different methods you can use to heal. Opening yourself to these possibilities will enhance your treatment and restore your mind, body and soul back to health. The World Health Organization understood that health was a full spectrum of factors when it gave its definition of the term in 1948, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

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Excerpted from Strength of Purpose Energy of Will Universal Healingby Barbara Knapp Copyright © 2010 by Barbara Knapp. Excerpted by permission.
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