by Vinod Nigam
It doesn’t diminish my respect for God’s power in the slightest to realize that God primarily works through the mind to summon up resources of healing in a person’s body.
—— Dr. Paul Brand
Study after study has shown that people who worship regularly live longer than those who don’t. They tend to have lower blood pressure, lower death rates from cardiovascular disease, less depression and less early death from various causes. What scientists are discovering is that having faith, of any kind, has a powerful health-protective effect all of its own.
—— Sally Brown (from Live Longer)
Our creator has given us five senses to help us survive threats from the external world and a sixth sense, our healing system, to help us survive internal threats. There is much we can do, as individuals, to activate or impede this healing system.
—— Bernie Siegel
Pathological Anatomy, the medical school text book; says that, the link between development of tumors and the central nervous system has so far been very little studied….. It happens rarely, but there are cases of self-induced healing….. Due to some reason, the tumour starts in the opposite direction, gets smaller, resolves and finally disappears.
—— Aleksander Solzhanitsyn
Healing literally meaning to make whole. Healing is a process of the restoration of health from an unbalanced, diseased or damaged organism. Physical healing is the repair of damaged tissue where as psychological healing involves resolution of psychosis (delusions or hallucinations) or neuroses (functional mental disorders such as distress).
Healing yourself or self healing is the healing by the efforts by oneself. This healing includes both physical and spiritual healing. Self healing also involves psychological approaches. Research confirms that this can be achieved through numerous mechanisms, including relaxations, breathing exercises, fitness exercises, imagery, meditation, yoga, qigong, t’aichi, biofeedback, and various forms of physiotherapy, among other approaches.
We are continuously attached by various predators such as illness, trauma, fear, stress, anxiety, depression, anger, grief, alcohol and drug abuse. These all factors cause trauma to our body both physically as well as mentally or psychologically and therefore, we need physically as well as psychological healing. We posses these powers of healing and so we can heal ourselves and enjoy health and peace or we can leave it as such and suffer. This reminds me how I healed myself completely. Few years back I developed pain and weakness in my right arm, forearm and hand. Gradually weakness increased and pain subsided. In 2 weeks complete paralysis happened in my right upper limb. My neurologist said he can’t do anything and I have to live with it. Depressed but I started talking to myself and analyzing the situation. I have great faith in God and in healing powers of our body. I started doing prayer from core of my heart, intense meditation, visualization and deep abdominal breathing. Few days nothing happened but I did not lose my faith and continued with same sincerity and hope. Few weeks passed and improvement started in my strength, it increased gradually and in three months my arm became absolutely normal as it was earlier. I profusely thanked God and healing power of our body. This is the example of physical and psychological healing. Similar was the experience of Brandon Bays, the author of the best seller, “The Journey”. In 1992, Brandon Bays was diagnosed with a football-sized tumour and found herself catapulted into a remarkable, soul-searching and ultimately freeing healing journey. Only six and a half weeks later, she was pronounced textbook perfect – no drugs, no surgery, no tumour.
Ian Watson, co-founder of The Lakeland College of Homeopathy: author of “A guide to the Methodologies of Homeopathy”, writes about Brandon Bays Journey, ‘The Journey Process developed by Brandon Bays is a deceptively simple technique that facilitates emotional and physical self-healing in the shortest possible time. It can be learned and applied by anyone almost immediately, yet is able to catalyse profound healing results even after other modalities have been tried and failed. I would recommend The Journey Process wholeheartedly to anyone.’
Dr. Duke Johnson, MD, author of the best seller, “The Optimal Health Revolution”, writes in his book, “The eight pillars of Optimal Health” i.e. that “These eight pillars (Reduce your Risk Factors for Chronic Disease, Exercise, Good Macronutrition, Good Micronutrition, Mind, Spirit and Positive Attitude, Adequate Rest, Good Medical Care, Healthy Environment and Good Hygiene) are the fundamentals upon which the Optimal Health Revolution is built. They are absolutely critical for achieving optimal health. That said, I sincerely hope you aren’t feeling intimidated or overwhelmed right now. If you are, take a deep breath and relax. Few people will be able to do everything that I recommend perfectly, but if you do your reasonable best you will significantly increase your chances of living longer and in better health.
Heal by Meditation
Regular practice of meditation can improve the healing power of your body. Meditation is one of the best process of mind to heal body and soul. Madonna Gauding writes in “The Meditation Bible” that, “Meditation is not mystical, otherworldly or inaccessible. It is not reserved for the ‘elite’ nor those steeped in knowledge of Eastern or alternative religions. Meditation is very down-to-earth and practical and it is available to everyone regardless of what religion you currently practice. Although many of the meditations are inspired by ancient and modern spiritual traditions, none requires faith or belief. If you have no spiritual practice, or do not believe in a god or higher power, try these meditations with the motivation of simply creating a happier life for yourself. If you want to speed your recovery, meditate to enhance your therapy. If you have addiction, unresolved grief, childhood neglect or trauma or other psychological issues, meditation is a wonderful way to support yourself during the healing process.
Mind-body masters in India were able to slow their heart rates by way of self-regulating yoga techniques. During the 1960s and 1970s, college students around the world learned a variety of consciousness expanding meditation techniques and began reporting beneficial changes in their minds and bodies. It was discovered through investigations that people have the ability to alter their physiology in ways that had not been believed possible. Through simple shifts in attention and intention, meditators are able to slow their heart rates, reduce their breathing patterns and lower their blood pressure.
Peter Harrison, a teacher and psychotherapeutic counselor, who has been running meditation and sound and voice workshops since 1970, states in his book, “A Complete Guide to Discovering Meditation”, “When the natural composure and rest is lost, it gives rise to discontent, unhappiness and misery. It affects our immune system as it is well connected to our sense of well-being; health begins to suffer. For this, we need meditation”.
The healing power of faith is attracting the attention of scientists in a big way as a link develops between beliefs, faith, spirituality, religion and health. This is a welcome sign, as earlier this bond was disregarded by some researchers, without any study having been conducted. All over the World an increasing number of people are beginning to believe in the association between spirituality and health and its contribution towards enhancing comfort and peace during sickness. I feel that a higher percentage of people are interested in exploring the connection between God and Health. In various studies, more than 75 per cent of people showed that spiritual faith helps in fighting a disease and recovering from it. Many reputed magazines such as Newsweek, Time, USA Today, Prevention, Reader’s Digest, etc., are publishing more and more articles and devoting their editions to faith, power of prayer and spirituality, which shows that people like to read such articles.
Dr. Harold Koenig, Psychiatrist and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health, Duke University, USA, reports in his book “The Healing Power of Faith” that religious people have stronger marriages, healthier lifestyles, Cope better with stress, live longer, may have strong immune systems, use fewer expensive hospital services, remain protected from serious cardiovascular diseases, are less depressed and recover quickly when afflicted.
Visualization Heals
Visualization means “seeing with the mind” or “forming a mental image”. It is basically internal imagery. Visualization has been used for centuries by various religions and cultures to heal the body and mind. It can be practiced anywhere, in any position and any dress. It does not require any special equipment or apparatus.
A mental image generally represents something perceived by the senses. Guided visualization is a therapeutic technique in which patients enter a relaxed state and focus on an image related to the issue being confronted. Through dialogue, the therapist helps the individual resolve the problem. The technique is also used for relaxation and stress management, behavior medication, pain management and the treatment of life-threatening and terminal illnesses.
The book “Spontaneous Regression of Cancer” by the former President of the American College of Surgeons details 176 cases of remission, where the patients have been prayed for. Even so, this is a very small section of people. Medical literature now estimates that perhaps two or three out of every 1,000 people with cancer experience such “cures”, apparently unrelated to treatment. I feel that this incidence can be increased with the help of visualization, meditation, prayer and other relaxation techniques by boosting the immune system of the body.
Visualisation is a way to achieve your goal, fulfill desires and improve self-confidence. For most beginners, visualization usually turns out to be more difficult than meditation but once a level of competence is achieved, the whole process moves along smoothly and without much difficulty. Over time, one can plan his or her own agenda to achieve a given purpose.
Myra Huth, Assistant Vice-President of the Center for Professional Excellence Research at Cincinnati Children Hospital Medical Center, wrote in the Journal of Paediatric Nursing after her study on children, “Guided imagery really works. It should be used in conjunction with pain medication, but it really works. Children using guided imagery felt significantly less pain and anxiety after a surgical procedure than the control group.”
It is our imagination which creates for us our own hell or heaven. Similarly, through visualization, we can achieve success as well as health. Regular practice also gives a sense of happiness. With visualization, you can groom yourself to avoid negative thoughts and become positive in life. You can heal your body and mind by diverting the dormant energy lying within, for useful purpose.
Dr. Dean Ornish experienced the benefits of visualization in heart disease and he wrote about healing heart visualization in his best seller, “Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease”, that we know for example, that emotional stress can cause arteries throughout your body to constrict. When this occurs in the heart, it is known as coronary artery spasm. We also know from research on visualization that having a mental image of blood flow improving to your hands can actually cause blood flow to increase to your hands. An erection is another example of how thoughts can increase blood flow, in this case to the penis. Other studies have demonstrated that visualization can decrease blood flow to your heart if you imagine terrible things happening. So it seems reasonable to assume that visualizing more healing images may improve coronary blood flow by dilating your coronary arteries to some degree.
Healing Diet
Balanced and healthy diet helps human body to heal its wounds, both physical and psychological, fast and fully. In absence of trauma the healing diet functions as antiaging diet also and keeps you younger than your age and also keeps diseases at a distance, the example of such diet is the diet of persons living in blue zone, famous for longevity.
As per Dr. Dean Ornish, Head of Preventive Medicine Research Institute, California, USA, a low fat vegetarian diet rich in fruits and vegetables combined with exercise and stress management can reverse heart disease and may reduce incidence of cancers like breast and prostate. Studies show that 80 – 90% heart diseases are due to unhealthy diet. As per study published in Lancet, a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and legumes can improve your telomerase level, telomerase lengthens telomeres which increases longevity. In our study we found that the telomerase enzyme increased significantly in those who followed our diet program. Go for low fat dairy products, which I mean less than 1% fat such as skimmed milk, cottage cheese, low fat yoghurt and soya milk.
The thought is that if you can slow down this ticking cellular clock, you may be able to slow down the aging process and live longer. So what would you have to do if you wanted to prevent this telomere cap from burning away? Well, smoking cigarettes is associated with triple the rate of telomere loss, so the first step is simple: Stop smoking. But the food you eat every day may also have an impact on how fast you lose your telomere. The consumption of fruits, vegetables, and other antioxidant-rich foods has been associated with longer protective telomeres. In contrast, the consumption of refined grains, fizzy drinks, meat (including fish), and dairy has been linked to shortened telomeres.
Arjun is a 34 years young man weighs 84 kg with 5’4” height. He tried a lifestyle plan to reduce consumption of calorie and do moderately strenuous exercise, to continue, with everybody trying to reduce weight, it was a matter of will power. His weakness was chocolate though dark chocolate in limited amount is good but more will increase risk of ill health. Now he started leading a clean lifestyle except the consumption of chocolates. He was all the time thinking and craving for chocolate, earlier it was not like it but now when he wanted to control, the craving increased. He was following ‘all or none law’ which was difficult for him to maintain so he consulted a psychiatrist who settled his problem by advising a regular meditation and weekly 1/2 bar of chocolate of his choice. This is a real practical problem in following a healthy life style, but there are solutions for every problem. If you can’t succeed take help from doctors and nutritionists.
In Kaiser Premanente’s guide “The Plant’Based Diet: A Healthier Way to Eat,” The authors define a plant-based diet as one that excludes animal products completely, but they make sure to note: “If you find you cannot do a plant-based diet 100 percent of the time, then aim for 80 percent. Any movement toward more plants and fewer animal products can improve your health!”
Micronutrition is the stuff that comes in tiny but critical amounts in our food. This includes not only vitamins and minerals, but also phytonutrients. The prefix “phyto” derives from the Greek word for plant. Phytonutrients are active nutrients found in plants that are not defined as vitamins or mineras – for example, lycopene. As with vitamins and minerals, we can also get phytonutrients from good supplements, though it is best to get as many micronutrients as possible from food; that’s a big part of the definition of a healthy diet. Most of us need supplements to win optimal health. A lot of doctors will tell you otherwise. They are inadequately informed.
The people of the ‘Blue Zone’ cultures live the longest amongst humans. Here commonly people live an active life past the age of 100 years. The world’s longest living people reside in Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan) and Loma Linda (California, USA). Two striking features are noted among them – they follow a plant based diet and lead a stress free life.
Healing with Exercise
The truth about daily effects exercise is that you don’t do exercise and die early and do exercise and live healthier and longer. Regular exercise keep your body and mind healthy and heals trauma to body and soul. Exercise improves body’s blood circulation and healing power of body at cellular levels. Exercise doesn’t only improve the health of your vital organs but also improves your psychological and spiritual health. Regular exercise reduces the inflammation in the body and helps in healing and lowering the risks of developing obesity, diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis.
Regular exercise extends life as per American epidemiologist, Steve Moore, who studied the effects of exercise on more than 65,000 people over the age of 40 years. This study showed that regular exercise increased life by at least 4-5 years. The exercise should be aerobic exercise of moderate or vigourous intensity for 1.25 – 2.5 hours per week. Dr. I Min- Lee, Prof. of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said that even modest amount of exercise can extend years of your life, but more strenuous exercise has approximately double effect. Regular minimum exercise can also help to give longevity to us. Physical activity improves sirtuin production which slows ageing. In their bestseller ‘You Staying Young’, Michael F Roizen and Mehmet C Oz have written ‘we are now starting to see that we can influence telomeres’. Lifestyle can reduce the rate of shortening of telomeres and thus provide longevity.
Lance Edward Armstrong, former American professional road racing cyclist, the world championship holder in 1993, was diagnosed with very advanced cancer of testes which was predicted as fatal by doctors in 1996. It was stage III testicular cancer metastasised to his brain, lungs and abdomen. He fought gallantly and came out victorious in the fight with against cancer. He showed the world that it is possible to fight against cancer and overpower it with your strong will and medical treatment. He said, “I would encourage anyone facing cancer to seek more questions and not be afraid. Especially now, with the increased use of the Web, it is amazing how much information is available to a new patient”.
Age and sex are no bar to do physical exercise. It is a myth that aged and females should not do strenuous and weight lifting exercises, on the other hand if they do regular moderate exercise, they will live healthier and longer as it reduces the mortality and morbidity rate. It is advised to do a regular 30 minutes exercise to live longer and healthier but if someone even does half of that will reap the benefits, even the active family life at home and active office life associated with some recreational activities will help you than being sedentary. Even the recreational activities also help the body by reducing the inflammation. Both types of exercises, cardiovascular and resistance are helpful in keeping you healthy.
Healing with sound sleep
The lack of good quality rest is one of the most common causes of susceptibility to illness, and a good night’s rest is an effective healing technique that will abort many incipient illnesses. Therefore, improving the quality of rest and sleep should be another priority in a programme aimed at enhancing your healing capacity. Other than providing rest to the body and mind sleep helps in repairing and healing of wear and tear caused during wakeful state by releasing growth hormone which also helps in rejuvenating the body and tissue repair. Lack of sleeplessness stimulates aging process and you age faster. Growth hormone released during sleep also strengthens immune system so a sound sleep habit keeps certain sickness especially infection away and you don’t fall sick frequently. The natural antioxidant system of our body gets boosting from a sound sleep which improves our health by removing the damaging free radicals from the body.
Mr. Suresh Kumar, a 48 year old media personality, wakes up in the morning feeling tired, as if he has not slept at all. He tends to nap during meetings and conversations. He feels tired and suffers from headaches throughout the day. Sometimes, he wakes up at midnight and cannot go back to sleep again. He was overweight (100 kg). He started practicing diet and exercise regimen to reduce his weight which he has done and is now sleeping better though his weight is still 96 kg.
Sleep helps in keeping you stress free and makes your memory sharp. It is confirmed by various high level studies that sleep strengthens the immune system and thus prevents infections and may be even certain cancers. Regular and sound sleep reduces inflammation in the body and thus prevents certain chronic diseases and helps to live long. C-Reactive Protein is a marker for inflammation and blood level of C-reactive, protein is directly proportional to the risk of certain diseases and ageing. A regular sound sleep reduces the level of this protein and also the risk of these diseases. During sleep metabolic rate of body reduces and oxidative stress also reduces leading to repair and protection of our brain and body.
Healing by Deep Abdominal Breathing
Some people cry when disturbed and even tears flow constantly. Professor Jonathan Rottenberg, Professor of psychology at the university of South Florida, USA says that crying signifies that there is some important problem that is at least temporarily beyond your ability to cope. Calmer people are happier and sleep well. Whenever you are facing an anger or stress you get in fight or flight reaction which puts aggression in your body, try to relax at this moment, stop the work that you are doing, divert your attention, break this reaction and your brain can develop new and healthier reactions than fight or flight. Start breathing deeply from your diaphragm it helps combat stress and restores oxygen to your body. While doing deep abdominal breathing, keep your concentration on it. When we are in stress we breathe from the chest and it is shallow breathing.
When we are in stress we breathe from the chest and it is shallow breathing. When we breathe from the diaphragm (abdominal), it is deep breathing. Shallow or chest breathing doesn’t utilise 10-15 percent of lung capacity, so there is less oxygen in the blood, and also less vitality and freshness.
•Stand or sit or lie down.
•Inhale deeply from the diaphragm, pushing out the abdomen without moving your chest and count 1, 2, 3, 4 slowly in your mind while inhaling.
•Hold your breath by counting 1 to 16 in your mind.
•Exhale by pushing the abdomen in and not moving the chest and counting from 1 to 8 in your mind.
•Repeat it five times.
But it is possible to retrain your breathing patterns; it will take time to change the habit of a lifetime, so don’t expect instant results. Start by consciously trying to slow your breathing down to a rate of ten or twelve breaths per minute. The effort of breathing should come from your diaphragm not your chest – the chest should hardly move. And watch your posture – it’s hard to breathe deeply if you’re slumped. Standing straight, with your shoulders back, automatically opens up the chest area. On average we breathe 20,000 times a day. It’s thought that as we get older, most of us experience a 20% reduction in blood oxygen levels caused by poor breathing habits. And as every cell in the body depends on oxygen for life, that has a big effect on our health and the rate at which we age.
Source: https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/you-can-heal-yourself-721061
Disclaimer: All information, data and material has been sourced from multiple authors and is for general information and educational purposes only and are not intended to replace the advice of your treating doctor.
The views and nutritional advice expressed are not intended to be a substitute for conventional medical service. If you have a severe medical condition or health concern, see your physician.
