Why People Don't Heal and How They Can Author:Caroline Myss For more than fifteen years, Caroline Myss has studied why some people heal, while others do not. In her previous book, Anatomy of the Spirit, Dr. Myss illuminated the hidden interactions of belief and body, soul and cell to show how, as she inimitably puts it, "your biography becomes your biology." In this new bo... more »ok, she builds on her earlier teachings of the seven different energy centers of the body to provide a vital self-healing program for physical and spiritual disorders. With her characteristic no-nonsense style and high-voltage storytelling, she exposes and explodes the five myths about healing, explains the cultural and individual contexts in which people become physically and spiritually ill and invested in "woundology," and teaches new methods of working with the challenges that the seven energy centers embody.
Both visionary and practical, Why People Don't Heal and How They Can presents a bold new account of the development of human consciousness and spirituality over the ages, and examines the dynamic global transformation of attitudes about healing. To help you get and stay on the path to wellness, Dr. Myss provides rituals and prayers for gaining a symbolic perspective on your life issues; for bolstering your personal power; and for connecting with a universal divine energy. Dr. Myss's breakthrough views on energy medicine and her active approach to healing life issues and physical illness will help you overcome the mental blocks that keep you from becoming well.
Why People Don't Heal and How They Can shows how choosing to stay stuck in woundology often comes at a terrible price: the loss of health. "We are given a finite amount of energy to run our physical bodies, our minds, and our emotions, as well as to manage our external environments," says Myss. "When we choose to siphon off some of this energy to keep negative events in our histories alive, we are robbing that energy from our cell tissue, making ourselves vulnerable to the development of disease." Once this path is seen as the true energy debt that it is, choosing health means choosing to release the weight of the past. Too often, this is something that people just can't or won't do.
While the practice of woundology is a common source of illness, personal negativity is not always the cause; as contradictory as it seems, sometimes illness can be the answer to prayer. "Our spiritual development is meant to culminate in an ability to see things impersonally, to recognize the greater meaning of life's challenges apart from the literal events," says Myss. "To that end, illness can physically guide us onto a path of insight and learning upon which we would otherwise never have set foot. It is an unparallelled catalyst for expanding personal consciousness."
Why People Don't Heal details the intended path of one's spiritual evolution, asserting that it is a microcosm of the spiritual development of humankind over the ages. "With each astrological age (which lasts about 2,000 years), human consciousness develops in new ways," says Myss. "During each age a particular kind of energy dominates, and it affects people's lives, health, and spiritual outlooks, leading to certain perceptions about the nature of reality and the power of the human spirit." Since the ladder of awareness that humankind has climbed over centuries is the same one each of us is meant to ascend in our own individual lifetime, we can then study the spiritual lessons of the ages of Aries (Tribal power), Pisces (Individual), and Aquarius (Symbolic) and apply them to our own human natures; to fail to do so has distinct health consequences.
After describing the reasons why people don't heal, Myss delves into how they can; the first step often consists of calling one's spirit back, retrieving one's energy from the places it has gotten "stuck" in one's past. In practical terms, this means learning to see that difficult experiences are meant to be learned from, and gotten over. Why People Don't Heal and How They Can also details the process of learning to read the body, recognizing that its illnesses are very specific expressions of particular spiritual issues (an idea Myss introduced in her bestselling book Anatomy of The Spirit). In every case, seeing the spiritual lesson that underlies any illness requires a shift in consciousness. "I believe that all illnesses can be thought of as transformation experiences," says Myss. "Looking upon an illness as an opportunity to grow in self-awareness activates the potential for healing that lies dormant when you take a passive position or descend into self-pity. When an illness is a part of your spiritual journey, no medical intervention can heal you until your spirit has begun to make the changes that the illness was designed to inspire."
As easy as it might sound, the prospect of self-awareness is terrifying to most people, because every internal change in perspective or belief activates an external shift, usually destroying the familiar (and therefore comforting) outlines of their lives. Why People Don't Heal and How They Can scrutinizes why many people are so scared of change that they will unconsciously sabotage their own healing process rather than make changes in their emotional and psychological lives to effect a shift in their biology. "I often say that 'your biography becomes your biology,'" says Myss. "If you are sick, you must recognize that living life as you always have seemingly brought you to illness. Although there are no guarantees about healing, if you are able to enter into a process of change, then you maximize your chances of getting well if not on the physical plane, then more importantly in a spiritual sense."
Finally, Why People Don't Heal explains why an intellectual understanding of what you need to do to heal is not enough; to ignite the healing fire, you must believe it with your heart. "The greatest illusion of the New Age is that awareness alone heals," says Myss. "Believe me, awareness by itself does nothing! Putting the healing process in motion requires a regular spiritual practice and discipline, not just exercise and clean living."« less