Can You See It?
It seems that everyone can see perfection in a plant. I want you to think about a simple plant that sits on your windowsill.
When you observe a plant that is wilting, what questions automatically come to your mind?
When I ask this question, the answers are always the same: Is it getting enough water? Is it getting enough sunlight? Is it protected from environmental stress – abnormal temperatures or wind? Is the soil healthy?
We all automatically see the perfection in the plant. We know that a plant has the innate ability to bounce back, and that healthy is its normal state. Plants are, in fact, designed to be healthy. Can you see it?
If a plant has wilting leaves, we don’t look for some abstract diagnostic name or label that has nothing to do with the main underlying cause.
Wilty Leaf-itis
We don’t look at a wilting plant and try to figure out if it’s “wilty leaf-itis,” or some other name that merely just describes the symptom. Our thought process goes directly to the fundamental needs, because of our belief that tells us that the plant already has the ability to be perfect. We innately know that LIFE loves LIFE.
So, why don’t we see ourselves in the same way?
Why, when a person is not healthy, do we ask questions such as: What is it? What do we call it? How do I get rid of it?
Many years ago health care stopped being about addressing fundamental needs. Medicine started to address the symptoms instead of the underlying cause. They started to do ‘patch work’ when it came to health. This type of thinking about health has led us on a slippery slope.
People started to take painkillers for headaches, muscle relaxants for spasm, anti-inflammatory pills for almost everything that hurts, and more. And they started doing this not just in crisis, but also to get through each day. Consumption of symptom-reducing medication has risen exponentially over the last 30 years.
Do you believe that the CAUSE of a headache is a deficiency in pain killer medication?
Of course you don’t. So, then you understand that this treatment does not address the fundamental underlying cause of the headache; it just masks it.
Do you believe that the CAUSE of acid reflux is a deficiency in antacid?
Again, the answer seems so simple, yet people nowadays seem satisfied with simply taking something to treat the symptom, without ever addressing the underlying cause. And then they are surprised when all of a sudden their health is in crisis.
The truth is that symptoms are your body’s attempt at communicating with you. They are a gift! They are absolutely not enjoyable, but they are critical. Simply taking away or masking the symptom does not make you healthier; it just makes you feel better, and that is not the same thing.
True health is a restoration of normal function, and in that state the body has less symptoms, and ideally no symptoms at all, simply an expression of human health.
As you may have noticed over the last 30 years, there is a subsequent increase in the number of medications available to treat each condition. I think that some medical breakthroughs are amazing; especially as it pertains to crisis care. But in general, are we getting healthier?
Don’t get me wrong; obviously there is a time and place for acute crisis care. I am clear on that. In fact, I think that it is an amazing gift that so many people have been helped in crisis by medication. Drugs and surgery are second to none in crisis management.
But we need to be clear; that which is good for you in crisis is not the same thing that helps you create health long term. At some point it became ‘normal’ for people to carry pills in their purse or in their car. At some point it became OK to advertise drugs directly to people, encouraging them to “ask your doctor” in the hope that they will sell more product.
Our day-to-day decisions are based on our personal belief system. Read that again.
Made to Heal or Not?
If you believe that the body is inherently weak, that it has little to no ability to heal itself, then it makes perfect sense that you would turn to something from the outside-in, in order to help you get past a symptom.
If you believe that the body is inherently strong, that it has great ability to heal itself, then it makes perfect sense that you would turn to something that helps your body to heal naturally, which, in turn, would lead to normal resolution of the symptom.
Children who grow up believing they are weak, will learn the habit of looking to the outside for answers; in all areas not just health.
Children who grow up believing they are inherently and naturally strong, will learn the habit of looking inward for answers; in all areas. This is what I want for my kids and future generations. How about you?