Using guided imagery as a way to heal your body - Part 1

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Using guided imagery as a way to heal your body - Part 1

Listening to your Symptoms

Your inner advisor may have told you what you need to know about your

symptoms or illness and how to go about resolving the problem. If so,

you may not need to use the technique in this chapter, which begins a

dialogue with an image that represents your symptom. If you need to

know more, however, or if you are for any reason uncomfortable with

the idea of an inner advisor, this exploration will be worthwhile. In

a sense, you will be "eliminating the middle man," and attending

directly to the source of the problem. You can use receptive imagery

to help you understand the purpose of the symptom and what it will

take to allow healing to proceed.

In this article, I will expand on the idea of a symptom as feedback,

describe the most common meanings and functions of symptoms, discuss

some concerns and precautions about using imagery to explore your

symptoms, and give you a script that will lead you through an

imaginary dialogue with your symptoms.

While symptoms are usually unpleasant, they are not the "enemy." In

fact, they serve as a natural warning system that, seen in the right

perspective, can help keep you in the best possible health. Symptoms

are like warning lights or gauges in your car. When the oil light

goes on in your car, would you take it to the closest gas station and

ask the mechanic to rip out the light? Or tape over it so you can go

about your business? Then why go to the doctor looking only for

relief of symptoms? You may miss a warning that can prevent a future

catastrophe.

Careful histories of people who come down with serious illnesses

almost always reveal earlier warning signs that were ignored or

treated superficially. Doctors commonly see patients who have treated

their stomach pain for years with medications--palliating,

tolerating, or ignoring the signal that something is out of balance

until something more serious, like a heart attack, brings the message

home.

Unfortunately, we are not usually taught that our bodies are

intelligent and can communicate with us. We are disconnected from our

body language, as we are from our emotions. We have somehow given

away our birthright in the area of health and healing. We have come

to assume that, yes, a symptom is a message--but all it says is "Go

see your doctor"!

What would it be like if you were able to under-stand your symptoms

and use the self-healing intelligence of your body, your feelings,

and your spirit? Why not ask yourself what you need and be receptive

to the answers that come from deep within? Is it so strange, after

all, to think that the intelligence that created your body in the

first place would be able to let you know what it needed in order to

be healthy? Whatever created your body--whether you call it God,

nature, life, genes, or DNA--was smart enough to make your head. If

it can make your head, why not a headache? And if it can make a

headache, why not a thought that can tell you what the headache

means?

© Martin L. Rossman M.D., Martin L. Rossman M.D.

(Excerpted from Guided Imagery for Self-Healing: An Essential

Resource for Anyone Seeking Wellness, New World Library, 2000)

 

 

 

 

The coward believes he will live forever If he holds back in the battle, But in old age he shall have no peaceThough spears have spared his limbs Stanza 16 of the Havamal (the Sayings of Har) from the Poetic Edda

 

 

 

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