Does the Concept of Self-Healing Feel Like a Slap in the Face?

With all the talk these days about light, Love (always capital L in my book!), and positive thinking, I worry that “Self-Healing” can feel like a slap in the face: like someone saying…

“You’re just not trying hard enough.”

“Your faith is just not that strong.”

“You’ve just gotten lost in the minutia.”

Anyone who’s faced or supported someone facing serious illness knows it’s not that easy. I can’t even imagine trying to find the right doctor, juggling meds, adjusting diets, holding down work, caring for kids or aging parents — it’s an exhausting maze.

I feel deeply for my friends who are going through this! And SO wish I could help! I would never suggest that they aren’t doing enough, only that maybe one more thing could be the answer they’re hoping for.

So what could that “one more thing” be? You may have heard me mention Dr. Joe Dispenza & his book “You Are the Placebo”. But what you may not know is the story that inspired it all. He was run over by an SUV during a bike race in 1986 and told he would probably never walk again. He decided he didn’t want the suggested surgery and to live with chronic pain for the rest of his life. Instead, he embarked on the idea of connecting with the Universe, Higher Self, God, whatever you choose to call it, in an effort to heal himself.

“Maybe I was just young and bold at that time in my life [23 years old], but I decided against the medical model and the expert recommendations. I believe that there’s an intelligence, an invisible consciousness, within each of us that’s the giver of life. It supports, maintains, protects, and heals us every moment. It creates almost 100 trillion specialized cells (starting from only 2), it keeps our hearts beating hundreds of thousands of times per day, and it can organize hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions in a single cell in every second — among many other amazing functions. I reasoned at the time that if this intelligence was real and if it willfully, mindfully, and lovingly demonstrated such amazing abilities, maybe I could take my attention off my external world and begin to go within and connect with it — developing a relationship with it.

But while I intellectually understood that the body often has the capacity to heal itself, now I had to apply every bit of philosophy that I knew in order to take that knowledge to the next level and beyond, to create a true experience with healing.”

Dispenza, Joe. You Are the Placebo.

Needless to say, I wouldn’t be telling you the story if it hadn’t worked. He healed his six broken vertebrae: compression fractures in thoracic 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 and lumbar 1 (ranging from his shoulder blades to his kidneys).

He’s gone on to research the idea of putting the well-known placebo effect into intentional practice with great success.

I would never suggest walking away from standard medical practice, but adding spiritual practice as well could never hurt.

Sending Love to those struggling, dear friends, you know who you are 😉

If you’re curious about this idea or just want to share your own thoughts, come join the conversation in our community. I’d love to hear from you.