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Photo by fady habib on Flickr.com |
The Importance of Dropping the Old Story
The stories we tell ourselves affect our bodies. Change your story and you can change your life. Last December I had my left ear to the phone during a three way phone conversion when some ugly things were said between the other two people. I clearly remember saying to myself, 'I don't want to hear any more of this.' By the next day, I had an ear infection and could not hear anything out of that ear.
I eventually went to the doctor who prescribed a 10 day course of antibiotics. They didn't help. The pain, pressure, and hearing loss continued.
Finally, more than two weeks later I was recounting the event to one of my teachers and realized what I had done. As a remedy I choose to go home and immediately put myself into a forgiveness ceremony. As I forgave myself for having made that choice not to hear, I felt an immediate shift within the blocked ear. Within ½ hour it had drained and I could hear again.
Forgiveness
What stories do you tell yourself that might be contributing to your arthritis? In a difficult moment, perhaps you told yourself something like 'I can't stand this' or 'I quit.'
The problem comes from the body taking things literally. If it hears 'I can't stand' it may take you literally and make it difficult to stand. If it hears 'I quit' it may create a condition that will force you to quit. The more emotionally charged the situation, the more drastically the body responds.
To heal from arthritis, you need to release the emotional charge holding the old story in place and drop the old limiting story.
How do you do that? Go back in your mind to the moments in which you made the problematic declarations. Be particularly sensitive to the time periods immediately before, during or after you developed arthritis and to any periods when your arthritis suddenly became worse. What was going on then? What stories were you telling yourself? What declarations did you make?
If the declaration was 'I can't stand this,' then imagine yourself standing up, standing strong, standing tall. Don't worry about changing anyone else. Just concentrate on how to hold your space or, if necessary, how to walk away from an unacceptable situation still firmly in possession of yourself and your ability to stand.
Then forgive yourself for dealing with the situation by abandoning yourself, instead of standing firmly within your own power. Allow yourself to feel any emotions that come up. Allow yourself to cry if you need to. Allow yourself to make a new, more empowering choice now. Lock this new choice in by imaging yourself in the old situation, but this time in your power.
This article is third in the Who Gets Well series. In the next article I will talk about making and sticking to new choices.
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