So…. what’s up?
Jan 6th, 2007 by Michael Max
One of my teachers likes to say:
There is what the patient thinks is going on
There is what the doctor thinks is going on
Then there is what is actually going on
This is not to say that patients are enmeshed in a world of subterfuge , or that doctors don’t know what they are doing.
It’s more to say that when entering into a process of healing, a journey of change, an invitation to ourselves and the world to allow a difference. We enter in from where ever we are, the complaint or discontentment of the moment, along with all our ideas about why we are ill.
We enter in from:
I want to lose weight
I want my energy back
I want these allergies to go way
I want cancer to disappear
I want relief from back pain
I want a good night’s sleep without 3 trips to the bathroom every night
We enter in from one place, and often wind up somewhere else. Somewhere unexpected. Perhaps we journey off the edge of our maps of the world, and find a new perspective. Perhaps we find that some our ideas about our so-called problem, are either not right, or lacking vital information that allows us to make positive changes that bring back a healthy state of balance.
Sometimes we learn to identify enemies or bad habits, and in doing so find suddenly our purpose and energy have returned.
.
Sometimes a few needles will remind us of what balance feels like.
Other times we take herbs that call forth a harmony we did not know we had. We forget we that used to get headaches. That our urinary habits have returned to what was always normal for us. That this thing we called anxiety is really a post-it note reminder that there is a dream we did not want to forget.
Healing, may simply melt away the pain and discomfort that sent us seeking help in the first place, or it may land us in a place we might not have expected.