If you were to look at your body and how it performs thousands of functions without you having to think about it, you would begin to appreciate what I call the Wisdom of the Body.
On one level those functions keep us alive by breathing or digesting our food, but that wisdom can be a part of our everyday life if we became aware of more than our conditioned way of thinking. Healing requires more than our thinking mind offers, but we tend to be so conditioned, it is hard to go beyond focusing on our thoughts.
One of the beauties of a health crisis is how it frees us from our mental limitations and connects us to the Wisdom of the Body.
Many people spin their wheels in this way for years, leapfrogging from habit to habit, or from self-help book to self-help book, trying on techniques which may have worked for others. Yet there is another, deeper place to go for advice: your own body and its instinctual guidance, which I call the Wisdom of the Body. The Wisdom of the Body knows exactly what we want and need, it is inexhaustibly adaptive, and it offers each of us personalized and unique direction in how to reorganize our lives.
If you could utilize that wisdom in a partnership with your doctor and medical treatments; you will respond to your treatment utilizing powerful inner resources instead of the frustration and anxiety your situation creates. This inner resource plays a significant role in healing, so it is important to develop.
Tapping inner wisdom requires a journey to reach, and as with all journeys, the first step is often the hardest: you have to value your survival more than anything else. When my situation led me down a path that I needed answers for, but the doctors I turned to and the knowledge I searched for offered no solutions; I searched deeper within. That inner wisdom connected me to my life and gave me access to inner resources needed to deal with that problem.
Combat veterans, people recovering from life-threatening illnesses and world explorers have all come face to face with their own survival, when they let the Wisdom of the Body take over. They were operating on that instinct for survival more than their thinking mind. Now you have the need for that inner wisdom, so how can you tap it?
The good news for the rest of us is that you don't need to be hanging from the edge of an actual cliff to have this experience. A metaphorical cliff will suffice! If your desire to survive outstrips your desire to “get it right,” then you have taken the first step towards the world of new possibilities that is the Wisdom of the Body.
I believe every person in a Health crisis has one very significant decision; what part of you is going to deal with this challenge? Will it be your past conditioning or will it be the Wisdom of your Body. This is not just answered as a statement; you have to re-program your mind to consciously meet your health challenge from wisdom.
Marc Lerner has studied the Wisdom of his Body for over 25 years as he struggled with MS. He is an author and gives seminars that help people use their inner wisdom to meet their challenges. Go to www.lifeskillsinc.com for a free e-book and more info.
© 2006 Marc A. Lerner
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