Healing is a Process

Healing the Emotions
by Barry S. Weinberg

If there's ever gonna be healing,
there has to be remembering and feeling,
so that there can be forgiving,
there has to be knowledge and understanding.

-- Sinead O'Connor

Healing is a process. It is a path that bestows great benefit merely by walking upon its soil. Often, we enter this process with the hope of reaching a certain destination, achieving a certain goal, or reaping a certain reward, only to discover that when we arrive, the path continues into the horizon offering greater rewards and larger goals. With this realization, we learn that healing is not about the outcome, but who we become in the process.

As you continue to journey on a clear path to healing, it is very common for different feelings and emotions to arise. Old guilt, anger, and doubt may enter your mind and heart from out of nowhere. Likewise, new fear, anxiety, and sadness may develop if you see no end to the path before you. Although all these feelings are shared by all of us on our healing path, when you are experiencing them yourself, you may feel that you are alone in the process. The world may suddenly seem like a very big place, and that you are the only one on the face of the Earth.

During the healing process, these feelings are normal. Every human being walks the same path and feels the same feelings. If you experience such feelings, know that you are not alone. Recognize these uncomfortable and frightening feelings for what they are -- signs and signals that you are healing and that you are on the right track.

In walking the clear path to healing myself and assisting hundreds of people to do the same, I realized that there are seven emotions common to all of us, and seven Processes of the Heart that move us through each of these emotions. As you read this, remember two things:

"The only way out is through," and "You have got to feel it, to heal it."

EMOTION #1: Doubt

I place doubt at the top of the list, because I feel that this is the greatest obstacle on a clear path to healing. When doubt is present, nothing is possible. We learned that what we think creates a vibration that attracts to it whatever was imaged by the thought. When experiencing doubt, we send out a vibration that states that what we wish to manifest in our life is not possible, therefore the impossibility is attracted into our life.

Doubt is like a tiny bead of black ink dropped into a glass of clear water. The water is forever tainted, forever clouded. If you focus on your vision, speak positive affirmations, and live in gratitude, you have no doubts. However, as soon as you allow the tiniest seed of doubt to enter your mind, your mind becomes tainted, clouding your vision and hindering the process of healing.

The doubt we experience may be directed towards our health practitioner or whatever procedure or protocol we may be utilizing. It may be directed towards the universal principles that govern the universe or towards the healing process itself. Whereas all doubt will slow down the healing process, the doubt that will bring the healing process to a complete stand still and very often send it into a tail spin, initiating a dis-ease process, is doubt in ourself.

When we doubt ourself, our talents, and our abilities, specifically our ability to heal, it creates changes in our body both energetically and biochemically that make it impossible to heal and often cause our bodies to create dis-ease. In Candice Pert's book, Molecules of Emotion, she describes a study that was conducted to determine the effect of thought on our immune system.

In this study, they asked for the assistance of people who had contracted AIDS. They divided the subjects into two groups. One group was instructed to look in the mirror each day and affirm positive statements such as, "I can heal myself. I am a wonderful, strong, and a powerful person. Everyday I am becoming healthier and healthier. My life is worth living." The second group was also asked to look in the mirror, but instead to affirm negative statements, such as, "I am worthless. I could never possibly heal this disease that has no cure. Death is certain."

What they found is that in the first group, the T-Cell count rose steadily, whereas in the second group the T -Cell count plummeted and the subject's condition began to deteriorate. To confirm their findings, they then reversed the groups, having the first group do the negative affirmations and the second group affirm the positive.

Immediately the T -Cell counts started to shift, and the condition of the subjects reversed in both groups! Realizing the powerful effect of the experiment, they brought the study to an abrupt halt and had both groups begin positive affirmations. As you can imagine, as soon as they started declaring life-affirming statements, their T -Cell counts immediately began to rise and their condition dramatically improved.

What this study shows us is when we experience the certainty and unwavering faith that we can achieve, all doubt is removed from our mind, everything becomes possible, including the healing of a seemingly "incurable" disease. As soon as doubt again enters the mind, the healing process is halted and our quality of life begins to deteriorate.

In his book, Anatomy of an Illness, Norman Cousins describes how he healed himself of an "incurable" disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.). A.S. is a chronic inflammation of the spinal joints in which over time the spinal bones, or vertebrae, begin to fuse together. It is very painful and can often lead to organ dysfunction. According to the diagnosis, there is no cure, and the prognosis is death.

Mr. Cousins disagreed. He believed that although the disease had no "cure", the body and mind were capable of "healing" anything including A.S. So how did Mr. Cousins heal this incurable disease? He took very large doses of Vitamin C and watched funny movies all day. He proved that "laughter is the best medicine". Watching "Marx Brothers", "Three Stooges", and other early comedy teams, he caused himself to laugh all day. Over the course of a few years, Mr. Cousins treatment worked and he healed himself of A.S.

Had Mr. Cousins believed the doctor's prognosis and doubted his own ability to heal, he would have succumbed to the deadliness of this disease. Instead, he believed in himself and he healed.

By becoming aware -- the first process of the heart -- that doubt inhibits healing, replace it with certainty and belief and accelerate the healing process.

EMOTION #2: Apathy

If you continue to live in doubt, and fail to reach the certainty and faith in your ability to heal yourself or in a healing facilitator who will help you, you may enter a period in which you feel apathy. In this state we no longer care whether we get better or worse. We may become lethargic and enter a state of hibernation in which we do nothing, say nothing, and want nothing. What's the use? We're not going to get better anyway, so why even try? If doubt doesn't taint the water, apathy surely will.

In my healing practice, it has been my experience that at this point the condition of most people begins to deteriorate. I often offer a few words of encouragement and tell an inspirational story to lift them out of doubt, however, once they reached the point where they had given up and didn't care whether they got better or worse, there was generally nothing I could do to help them. It was up to them. If there is no desire or intention to heal, healing can not take place.

Should you be in a state of apathy, and have a desire to move on, the only way to replace it is with care. The only way to replace apathy with care is through acknowledgment, the second process of the heart. When you begin to acknowledge the wonderful healing power within you, all feelings of apathy fall away, and you begin to participate more in your healing process, igniting a spark under the flame of health.

EMOTION #3: Anxiety

Quite often, we have complete certainty and faith that our body can and will heal itself, yet we begin to feel impatient in regards to when. We may have certain discomforts or symptoms that we understand serve an important purpose, yet they are very uncomfortable and inconvenient and we wish that they would serve their purpose already. This anticipation can often cause another emotion to arise in the form of anxiety. Anxiety is the experience of wanting something now, while understanding that it may not happen for quite some time.

Healing is a process and processes take time. Just as it takes time for dis-ease to develop, it takes time for healing to occur.

Comedian George Carlin eloquently said, "Time is something we made up so that everything doesn't happen at once." And that is exactly right. The only place the future and the past exist is in our minds, specifically in our memories and imagination. The only time that truly exists at any moment is the present moment -- now. Likewise, at any one time, we are nowhere... that is, now - here.

Imagine you are in a boat floating on a river. As you careen around the curves, flowing with the current downstream, you can only be at one place at any one time -- exactly where you are. Where you have been represents the past, and the river before you represents the future, yet your boat can only exist here and now. When you leave that here and now, you find yourself in a new here and now, with the old here and now becoming a there and then. (Whew!)

Now imagine yourself floating in a hot air balloon. Soaring in the blue sky amongst the beautiful clouds, you look down to see the entire river from beginning to end. From this vantage point, you realize that there is no past, present, or future. There is only one river. So it is with time. In our finite existence on the physical earth, we can only experience the now moment, just as we can only be one place on the river. Just as we can see the river in its entirety from above, when we increase our awareness and level of consciousness, we can begin to realize that there really is only one time and one place -- here and now.

Another result of anxiety is worry. Worry is the anticipation of something terrible happening in the future. If you focus on your vision of health and stay focused in the here and now, all worry, like anxiety, falls to the wayside. By placing your attention upon where you are at the present moment you can begin to accept -- the third process of the heart -- your current state and relieve yourself of anxiety and worry and begin to feel secure and calm.

EMOTION #4: Helplessness

If we never become aware of our ability to heal ourself and acknowledge the power we all possess, and continue to live in doubt and apathy, we will reach a point in life where we give up. In this state of mind, we begin to believe there is no hope and that our condition or situation that we are living in is permanent. We forget that everything is in a constant state of change, and we lose sight of our bodies' innate intelligence and infinite healing capacity. We despair that all possibility of recovery and an improved quality of life is lost.

In this state of helplessness, healing is impossible, and unless we replace it with confidence, strength, and inner power, our condition may begin to deteriorate. When we begin to appreciate -- the fourth process of the heart -- the power of the healer within all of us and the gifts and strengths we all possess, the helplessness is replaced with power, and the healing process takes a quantum leap forward.

EMOTION #5: Sadness

When we experience pain, dis-ease, and other forms of suffering, it is difficult not to focus on the suffering. We know that in order to create health, we must focus on healing. When we want to be strong and vibrant, we must see ourselves as such. Yet, when we are constantly reminded of our dis-ease by our limitations and discomforts, it is a challenge to keep our mind focused on health. This challenge can often cause us to lose sight of our vision. With the overwhelming constant reminder of our condition, our thoughts may begin to focus on our suffering, our disease, and everything that we may be lacking. Unfortunately, by focusing on images of misery, it only creates more of the same -- misery loves company. When all we see is our suffering, and we lose sight of our healing vision, what remains is sadness.

From sadness comes grief. Grief is the feeling we experience when we focus on what we have lost or are lacking. Again, by focusing on what we lack we only create more lack. Yes, I agree that a certain period of grieving is necessary in healing, especially when we have lost a loved one. However, when we can begin to focus on the joy we experienced with that person and the wonderful life they lived, the grief turns to joy and the spirit of their memory continues to live with us through the rest of our lives.

If you are feeling sadness or grief during your healing process, focus on what you wish to create and affirm it -- the fifth process of the heart -- everyday. By doing this, not only does your sadness turn to joy, but the image in your vision begins to manifest in your life.

EMOTION #6: Anger

When we overcome our helplessness, sadness, or other emotions during our healing process, we may begin to feel angry. We may think, "Why did this happen to me?" We may have lived a life of virtue and responsibility and still entered some form of dis-ease process. When this occurs, we may feel angry that such a thing could happen.

In order to feel angry we must blame someone or something. We choose something outside of ourselves and make it the culprit. By blaming the culprit, we make ourselves the victim. As the victim, we become angry that the culprit has done something to interfere with our lives. In this state of anger, we no longer need to accept responsibility for what is happening, because it is their fault.

From anger comes guilt. Guilt is the experience of blaming ourselves for some past thought, word, or action we committed that resulted in our dis-ease. Even though long-term guilt can be very devastating to the healing process, it can actually be the first step towards accepting responsibility. By removing the fault from someone else and putting it on ourselves, it begins our liberation.

To free ourself of anger and guilt we must be open to forgive, specifically in the form of atonement or at-one-ment -- the sixth process of the heart. When we realize that we are not separate from our dis-ease, we accept what is occurring and accept full responsibility for what has occurred, without the need to find blame or fault in another or within ourselves. True forgiveness occurs when we understand that what is happening is actually in our best interest for our fullest healing and we become one with the process.

EMOTION #7: Fear

I left this emotion for last because it encompasses all the others. In order for there to be doubt, helplessness, apathy, anxiety, sadness, or anger, there must be some degree of fear. We experience fear when we are uncertain of our future and we envision in our mind only the worst. When we see no hope of recovery and no end to our suffering, we feel fear. When it seems that our end is near and nothing can help us, we experience fear. Fear is at the heart of all the other emotions discussed. As said in the book, Dune, by Frank Herbert, "Fear is the mind-killer." By removing fear all together, we can eradicate all emotions that interfere with healing.

In its truest essence, fear is the absence of love. When we are in love, there are no limits to what we can accomplish. When we are in awe -- the seventh process of the heart -- nothing is impossible and healing becomes something that always amazes us, but never surprises us.

This article is excerpted from A Clear Path to Healing, © 2001, by Dr. Barry
S. Weinberg.