The Power of Positive Healing:

You’ve heard of the power of positive thinking, mostly in association with business and financial success. Norman Vincent Peale wrote the best seller in 1952. Positive thinking is a concept that still has relevance today.

Many of you know that positive thinking affects your lives financially and in business. You work hard to create certain results. Your attitude toward creating success is very clear. You are able to generate that positive event. You can also use positive thinking to heal your body. I call it “The power of positive healing.”

We tend to think that an illness is a terrible thing.  If you have physical pain, it is hard to believe that anything good can come of it. Usually we feel fear, anger, helplessness, and vulnerability when illness strikes. Illness can be viewed as an opportunity to examine your life and body more closely.

Coming to acceptance that you have an illness is the first step toward healing. This may be a surprise to you. You may be thinking that if you accept your illness it means you won’t want to do anything about it, but that isn’t the case. Acceptance means that you acknowledge and agree that whatever is occurring to you is there for a reason. While you may not know the reason, you accept that your body is wise and trying to lead you to a new place. You will do everything in your power to heal and not let the illness get down even while you have a deep acceptance that this issue is here. Have you ever had a pet get sick? When your pet is sick, it doesn't argue with the fact that it feels ill, it just surrenders to the illness and accepts it. There is only the here and now with your dog or cat. It isn't thinking about how it wants to go back to how it used to feel.

When using positive healing your goal is to get the most from your experience. First decide that healing is your goal. Don’t let the fact that you have an illness get you down or stop you from living your life. Learn what you can about it. Research all the possible treatments that you can find. See what is happening to you as an opportunity to learn something new. As you research treatment options, check in with yourself to see which one will be best for you. If your doctor has a recommendation for treatment that you don’t feel will be good for you, continue to look for other answers.

Many illnesses are connected to deep inner beliefs about life. We all carry hurts and angry thoughts. Those hurts eventually translate into illness if they are not dealt with. By the time they have become physical problems, they are deeply ingrained in our thinking patterns. Changing those thinking patterns requires hard work.

Never give up on finding the answers that work for you. If one treatment doesn’t lead you to the results you want, find another. Maintain a positive attitude toward your search and the healing process as much as possible.  If a treatment didn’t give you the results you wanted, it doesn’t mean that you wasted your time. Everything is important in the process. Put yourself first, illness is often connected to not paying enough attention to your own needs. In spite of whatever you are suffering, try to be thankful for your gifts. Sometimes things are difficult on the healing path. Find the courage to continue.

Find people who support you. Get inspiration from others who have walked this path. Use your healers, counselors, or physicians for guidance when you need them.  No one can do it alone.

Recent studies at several universities have revealed that the placebo effect is actually physical, not just mental. A group of men at the University of Michigan were given a placebo pain reliever and told it was real. Their brains released more endorphins as a result.