The Forgotten Element in Healing
By Marc Lerner

We have been conditioned to look to doctors when we are sick. In modern medicine, the medical expert is a trusted resource to rely on. I recently had an out-patient brain surgery to deal with tri-geminal nerve pain. I went home hours after the surgery without the tri-geminal pain.
The next element required in healing is the amazing science of medicine. Through this incredible art, I was put to sleep for the surgery, awakened so I could guide the surgeon to the right nerve and then put to sleep for the nerve to be numbed to control the pain. Then after the surgery, pain medication was a tremendous help. The pharmaceutical world is an amazing tool in modern medicine.
The third important element in the healing process is how the costs of these treatments get paid for. Insurance companies definitely play a significant role in healing today, because if the patients had to worry about covering these significant expenses, their healing process would be compromised.
These three elements of healing are totally intertwined and depend on each other, but when we limit our focus to these external resources, we tend to ignore the powerful inner resources of the patient and the significant influence they plays in healing.
The patient’s role in healing brings qualities like a positive self image, confidence and self trust to the healing process. Those qualities help make the medical treatments more effective as they reduce stress and anxious thinking. Basically, the patient has the potential to make the other elements of healing work better and more efficiently.
The amazing thing is these qualities are not external resources; they exist within the patient and every one has the potential to develop them. Unfortunately, even though this is an important quality to develop, it is often overlooked because of our tendency to have an external focus as we concentrate on thinking and rely on external authorities.
A patient can develop these qualities by creating conscious habits that influence the subconscious mind. This development utilizes external resources from the best part of the patient. This is how a patient becomes an active partner in the healing process. When the other three elements respect and expect the patient as a partner, the healing process will work much more efficiently.

A valuable tool in developing the patient’s role in healing is found in the e-book Marc Lerner wrote, A Healthy Way to be Sick, which can be downloaded at http://ahealthywaytobesick.org . When patients utilize inner resources to make external parts of healing more effective, we cannot ignore the significant the patient plays.

© Marc Lerner and Life Skills 2010