Medicine of the Future...

I am in no way making claims or suggesting medical advice.  I am just speaking from my own experience and my husband and little ones. :)

When I was a little girl I remember asking my mom how my body moved.  She told me that it's like a hand in a glove.  Our spirit creates the movement and just like when we take our hand out of the glove, the body can no longer be animated.  That was a great answer for a small child; however, it was too surface level-y for what I was seeking to understand, but my small vocabulary couldn't bring into words.  I held that question for years and posed it to Primary teachers, Seminary teachers...but I still couldn't bring the words to adequately express what I was asking.  From what I recall, they all brought out the good old hand and glove analogy.  (Hey, it's a good one!)

Now as I am nearly pressing into my thirties, life experience over the past few years has brought the understanding I craved decades ago.  How does our spirit interact with our body on a cellular level?  I understood the Ant & Phys... physically interactions nearly half my life ago.  I am talking mind, body, spirit connection here.  Not just brain to the physical body.

The medicine of the future will not come in the form of a pill. 

The medicine to heal relationships will not come from an outside source.  We won't necessarily find serenity as a loved one "finally overcame their bad habit" and magically "I can now be happy."

We need to stop looking outside ourselves for the solutions to our problems. 

Consider this example.  Maybe a person is over-weight.  He/she could attempt to tackle it from the outside in diet, exercise (important considerations that I highly endorse), maybe even diet pills.  And like many, maybe the weight just slides off for a time, but creeps back on.  Or maybe that person can only drop so much, but despite drastic measures, the weight just plateaus.

What if that person looks inside?  What if through prayerful discovery that person finds that the true source of weight retention (plug in physical ailment here)  is from beliefs, thoughts, or emotions?   Our bodies are only servant to our minds.  As a mommy to many little ones, I completely understand the thought of "there isn't enough of me to go around."  Hmmm...well mind, that become interesting as the body obeys.  Or maybe a person is torn between feeling like they are living two lives, so they literally become the size of two people.  Maybe it's from a painful experience in earlier years that taught the belief of "I'm safer from unwanted affection if I hide behind extra weight."  I don't know what the answer would be.  But God does.

You see, when we are too hurt to hurt any more, we can shut off the feeling.  In this numbed and foggy haze we seem safe.  We experience a small spectrum of emotions.  There isn't much up or down.  With the feelings shut off, we no longer feel the intensity of pain or fear or hate.  It gives the illusion of control.  It is a way of survival---to push through the ugly and damaging.  Survival has it's time.  Surviving isn't the same as thriving though.  At some point, to move forward and out, we have to become willing to let The Light in. In this place of little highs and lows, we equally have shut off the highest of highs.  We have allowed ourselves to be robbed of joy, love, peace, courage...  We flex that faint, stupidly pasted smile because we have deceived ourselves that we can create "happiness" rather than God filling us with true joy.  To love and be loved is vulnerable.

Our emotions are there to alert us.  Negative emotion can be a guide.  When we feel icky, we can choose to walk it back and discover what happened.  What were we thinking that lead to the bells and whistles going off?  It may be surprising that it isn't even about what just happened, but what happened to us as the little girl or little boy decades ago.  But if we are in the feeling-less state of "safety," it's difficult or impossible to do this.

In an attempt to bring our attention to it, our body begins screaming at us.  HELLO!  This feeling, emotion, or belief is here!  So ready for you to take a look at this please!  I was guilty of this for decades.  In our numbed out apathy, we take a pill or search outside ourselves for the answer.  Boom...band-aid applied and we pat ourselves on the back.  Maybe it blocks that from coming through for a time, but our body will continue to bring it to be released.  Whether we voluntarily release the emotion or not, the emotion will come to the surface at some point.  If not released at will, it may be a big blow up or coming out side ways or stuffing it in our body and doing it's acidic work in some unfortunate organ.  The emotion will be released at some point.  Our emotions and feelings attempt to scream out too, but maybe we aren't listening.  Maybe we can't right now.  We are too busy searching for "the answer" outside ourselves.

I alluded to relationships.  Equally applicable.  You will just have to take the Relations in Harmony Yoga series to get the fine print. :)  Rather than continuing to search for the solution outside ourselves, we need to focus on our own relationship with God.  We can step into the mirror our loved one is holding for us.  We can take the opportunity to recognize dark corners to shine our flashlight into rather than attempting to throw it back in their face.

Grab it by the roots.  Not just the symptoms.

Jesus Christ has promised us that He can be IN US.  May we partner with God in clearing out the old ways of thinking and perceiving to allow His personal entrance. You are love.  You were made perfect.  Allow Him room in your life for lasting healing.  Grant Him your will.  He is YOUR Master Physician.