Thought this was interesting...


"Like many of my colleagues, I "knew" at an early age, in my case age four, that I wanted to be a physician. At age sixteen, having read Magnificent Obsession, I knew that I wanted to be a neurosurgeon and I thought being Academic Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery was where I should be. I went to college at age sixteen, to medical school at age nineteen, and took a long neurosurgical residency which I completed at age thirty. Academic neurosurgery, despite the fact that I loved research, did not satisfy my inner drive. Just at the point when I was being invited to interview for a major department chair position, I decided that my neurosurgical colleagues were not my peers. They were great surgeons, they were interested in the anatomy and physiology of the brain and the spine, but they had no "heart."

My desire to help people led me into the field of chronic pain management. I was looking for safe and nondestructive ways to control intractable pain. Very quickly, however, two patients helped me understand the roots of most illness.

In 1974, a fifty-year old woman came to me dying of metastatic breast cancer. On the seventeenth day of working with her, after a twenty minute exercise on forgiveness, she rose from the floor free of pain and within three months, her cancer was gone, never to return.

In 1975, another fifty-year old woman with a five year history of rheumatoid arthritis unsuccessfully treated with cortisone and gold shots, got well in seven days when she realized that her anger at her husband was the cause of her rheumatoid arthritis. She got in touch with her spiritual roots.

Dealing with some twenty-five thousand chronically distressed and ill individuals, I have come to the conclusion that most illness is virtually totally caused by, or certainly significantly aggravated by, failing to live one's life in harmony with one's spiritual ideals. The single most common problem is holding a grudge, which one of my students says is "like taking poison and expecting it to kill the other person." We now know that unresolved anger is the leading cause of atherosclerotic heart disease and that seventy-five per cent of patients who die of heart disease have long-standing unresolved anger.

We also know that seventy-five per cent of people who die of cancer have a life-long feeling of deep depression or hopelessness. As the first patient that I mentioned above once said, "I now realize that I cannot afford the luxury of depression." Basically, what I have found is that one cannot afford the luxury of anger, guilt, anxiety or depression.

It has now been shown beyond any reasonable question that a positive attitude and prayer are the most important keys to healing. Carl Jung, almost sixty years ago, did a worldwide survey of people from all levels of society and he found three common belief systems:

Belief in life after death.
Belief in God.
Belief in the Golden Rule.
Individuals who do not share these "primordial beliefs" don't thrive.

Let's examine these beliefs more closely, because they are so important to healing. This is the way that I look at them:

Belief in life after death: As early as age four, when my Grandmother was remonstrating me one day for some antic which she considered risky, I said: "Ah Grandma, don't worry. If you are going to die, you are going to die." She replied, "That may be true son, but you can certainly shorten your life." Even at that age, I had no fear of death for I KNEW that physical death was not the end of consciousness. I have known all my life that there is a soul that survives physical life.
Belief in God: The magnificent integrated universe, the human body and the human mind have always fascinated me. There has never been a question to me that there is a powerful integrative force which we call God behind the elegance of creation.
The Golden Rule: There are two key aspects of the Golden Rule and, for me, the most important of these is loving yourself. Without an appreciation of your own inner being, or soul, you really do not have the essence of love to share with others. One of my favorite affirmations, which I use in many of my exercises with patients, is "I know at my Inner Most Being that I am magnificent, wise and loving." For many years I have strived to express the most basic spiritual principles and, although there are many words that might be used, these are the ones that I like the best. >From my perspective, each of them is an aspect of love: Forgiveness, Tolerance, Serenity, Compassion, Confidence, Motivation, Joy, Courage, Charity, Hope, Faith, Will, Wisdom, Reason, Love.
My favorite Christian mystic, Evelyn Underhill, wrote in her marvelous book, The Spiritual Life, "Living the spiritual life is not living in a monastery or nunnery. Living the spiritual life is the attitude you hold in your mind when you are down on your knees scrubbing the steps." That is the attitude that I strive to hold in my mind when I am on my knees scrubbing the toilet, or dealing with the great conflicts in my life.

Whatever conflicts a patient may have, I suggest some basic principles that are necessary in order to become nurturing, or loving, and that, therefore, are necessary to healing:

When there is a conflict, assert yourself -- try -- to bring about change.
When a situation is intolerable, divorce that situation with joy.
Accept and forgive.
Never go to bed with a grudge.

And the ultimate one that includes all of the others, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

To contact Dr. Shealy:

Tel: 417 267 2900
Email: [email protected]
Postal Address:
5607 S. 222nd Road
Fair Grove MO 65648
USA"

I can buy that. I've been having a mild pain in my side for the past two years and I've gone to the doctor many times. He can't seem to find a problem. The last time I went they did a CT scan and saw nothing out of the ordinary. I now believe that it is a psychological thing. I can go ride my 4-wheeler (or anything else that I enjoy) and when I get done I don't notice the pain. It seems that doing something enjoyable like that is relaxing to me. When I notice that I don't feel the pain anymore, it starts up again. I am a worrier and a pessimist and I think that is the root of my problem.

Endorphins are a good thing!