Guest Writer for Wake Up World
We
all know what it’s like to fill out detailed forms about our medical history at
the doctor’s office. But is your doctor asking you the questions he or
she really needs in order to get a good read on your health?
At
the Whole Health
Medicine Institute, the training program my team runs for doctors,
nurses, acupuncturists, energy healers and other health care providers, we
teach healers how to ask patients the right questions. But in case your doctor
isn’t asking you the questions that might illuminate potential root causes of
your illness, try asking yourself these questions…
1. What is your body saying no
to?
What
is really true for us — wholly, deeply, undeniably
true at a soul level — often appears as flashes of
intuition. We encounter it in dark nights of the soul. We see it reflected
back to us through the mirrors of other people. We feel it in our bones. But we
often deny what is true for us. If we ignore the truth when it visits us from
the subtle realms, it tends to out-picture via the body.The body speaks to us
in whispers, but if we fail to pay attention to the whispers, the body starts
to yell. Discomfort in the body may start as tightness in the solar plexus, or
it shows up as back pain or headaches.
If we still ignore the messages our bodies are sending us about what is
true for us, the body breaks down in more life-threatening ways. If your doctor
asked you “What is your body saying ‘No’ to?” would you be brave enough to tell
yourself the truth?
2. What does your body need in
order to heal?
As
doctors, we go to medical school, ostensibly so we know your body better than
you do. While it may be true that we know your anatomy better than you, your
intuition knows what is in your body’s best interest better than any doctor
possibly could.
When
you’re asked, “What does your body need in order to heal?” you may be surprised
at what comes up. You might answer “I need to eat a raw foods diet” or “I need
to do yoga every night” or “I have to make sure I get eight hours of
sleep.” Or you might be surprised to find yourself saying
things like “I need to quit my job” or “I need to break up with my boyfriend”
or “I need to set boundaries with my mother.” There are no guarantees that
you’ll be cured if you actually do what you think might support your healing.
But you never know. There might be a miracle right around the corner if
you’re willing to trust yourself.
3. What’s out of balance in
your life?
In
my book Mind Over
Medicine, I share a wellness model that I call “The Whole Health
Cairn”, which acknowledges that “whole health” depends not just on
what you eat, how much you sleep, and how much exercise you get, but on the
health of your relationships, your work and sense of life purpose, your
creativity, your spirituality, your sexuality, your finances, your environment,
and your mental health.
Many
of us devote all of our bandwidth to one or two aspects of our lives, at the
expense of the others. We throw ourselves into our work but neglect our
creative side. Or we deplete ourselves by caretaking those we love at the cost
of our sense of life purpose. A wholly healthy life requires feeding all of
what nourishes us. This isn’t just some New Age concept. It’s scientifically
proven, with all the data to support these claims published in Mind
Over Medicine (in case you’re a science nerd like me!)
4. Do you feel like you’re in
touch with your life’s purpose?
People
who are living in alignment with their life purpose tend to be healthier than
those who feel out of touch with their mission or calling. In fact, some even
experience “spontaneous” remissions from seemingly “incurable”
illnesses when they finally do whatever it takes to live out their calling. Yet
too many of us choose comfort and certainty as our primary values, even if it
means violating how the soul yearns to contribute in this world.
5. Are you lonely?
Lonely
people are three times more likely to die young than people who feel like they
belong to part of a tribe,
and those who feel supported by their community have half the risk of heart
disease compared to those who feel socially isolated. In fact, researchers posit
that loneliness may be a greater risk factor for your health than an unhealthy
diet, not exercising, or smoking. But when was the last time your doctor
screened you for loneliness?
6. Do you feel sexually
satisfied?
Scientific
data proves that sex increases your
longevity, lowers your risk of heart disease and stroke, reduces your risk of
breast cancer, bolsters your immune system, helps you sleep, relieves chronic
pain, and reduces the risk of depression, and lowers stress levels. You may not
think your sex life and your health are related, but studies suggest that they
are. In fact, a study of Ikarian men (who are known to live to be well over a
hundred), found that among men aged 65–100, 80% of them claimed to have sex
regularly, and a quarter of that self-reported group said they were doing so
with “good duration” and “achievement.” Go dudes.
7. Do you feel depressed,
anxious, or frequently afraid?
Happy
people live 7–10 years longer than depressed people, and as is well documented
scientifically in my book The Fear Cure,
fear and anxiety have been shown to predispose you to heart disease, cancer,
and even the common cold.
8. Are you an optimist or a
pessimist?
Your
attitude affects your health. Happy people live, and optimists are 77% less
likely to die from heart disease than pessimists.
9. Do you often feel helpless?
As
has been demonstrated in many scientific studies, when we feel empowered to
change the things that get us down, we boost our body’s ability to fight
disease, whereas when we feel helpless, at the mercy of life, our immune
systems weaken, and we are prone to illness. In fact, the phenomena
psychologist Martin Seligman calls “learned
helplessness” has been shown to reduce a rat’s ability to fight off
cancer. Empowered rats injected with cancer died of cancer 30% of the time,
while the helpless rats died 73% of the time.
10. Do you believe in a Higher
Power?
Your
spiritual life has been scientifically shown to protect your health. In fact,
people who attend religious services live up to 14 years longer than those who
don’t. You don’t have to go to the church, synagogue, or mosque to experience
the health benefits of a rich spiritual life.
People
who are “spiritual but
not religious” also experience health benefits, most likely because
trust in a Higher Power reduces stress responses in the nervous system, thereby
activating the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms and helping the body heal
itself.
Do
you wish your health care provider asked you questions like these? If
you’re a health care provider interested in enrolling in the 2015 Class of the
Whole Health Medicine Institute, we’re accepting new students until the program
begins with a live event in the San Francisco Bay area on June 5. You can register here. Along
with me, guest teachers include mind body medicine pioneers like Rachel Naomi
Remen, Larry Dossey, Bernie Siegel, Bruce Lipton, Kelly Turner, and more.
If
you’re interested in finding a health care provider who has been trained to ask
these questions, you can find a list of
certified practitioners here.
This
is how we heal our broken health care system—one doctor-patient relationship at
a time. When we remember what it means to attend to someone’s whole health, we
make the body ripe for miracles.
Love,
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