By Stephanie Ortiz
Mahatma Gandhi knew the key to healing.
You get an illness. Maybe you’re still going through one. Perhaps you’re in the aftermath and feel like Humpty Dumpty putting yourself back together again.
And by the way, what ails you doesn’t have to be physical. It can be emotional, mental, or spiritual. Whatever it is, we’ve all been there or will be there.
We’re here to learn, and illnesses teach us. It’s about as fun as a bad breakup to go through these lessons, but we go through them, and at some point, we realize the key to all of it.
But first, it goes something like this: you go to the doctor expecting a solution to some symptoms. And you get unsuspectingly smacked in the head with what you need to do.
Change my lifestyle? Destress? Exercise? Drink more water?
You name it. Sometimes the list of what we need to do can be easier said than done.
Regardless, that’s not why we went to the doctor. Secretly, we wanted confirmation we were fine the way we were.
We hear the litany of need-to-do’s–and they don’t go down smoothly.
Some people will die rather than make a change. It’s painful for the rest of us to watch.
A loved one started smoking again after double bypass heart surgery.
Four weeks later, the doctor cleared him to drive.
He died that same day in his friend’s driveway.
If only I could turn back the clock and steal all his cigarettes!
If we don’t outright disobey the doctors, we can get belligerent. Argue our way out of what’s best for us.
My daughter is so good at arguing my husband finally told her,
“Promise me if your plans don’t work out, you’ll be a lawyer.”
We can be just as argumentative.
Seriously, I had cancer, and now you’re telling me everything I still need to do?
Or we’ll bargain. “I’ll exercise, but I won’t change my diet.” Like we’re ordering from a menu, we can choose what we want to do.
Let’s blame it on the Jekyll and Hyde in us. They won’t stand anyone telling them what to do. They’ve got life all figured out, and they demand us to get with the program–the way they’ve always run things.
It’s time to tell Jeckyl and Hyde where to go!
Finally. A little peace around here. Now you’re free to do the one thing you need to do to heal:
Get involved with the healing process.
Lay down the fight and give healing all your might.
All right, that’s a corny way of saying if you fight the healing process, you won’t be able to heal.
Don’t let Jekyll and Hyde stand in your way. Get involved in your healing. As Gandhi said,
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
And that quote applies to our health. We don’t have to lay down our lives and die rather than make that change. We are the critical ingredient- the change we need for our bodies to heal.
