I have 18 years of experience in medical practice and I can tell you that not all patients heal according to the textbooks. What has become a fascination for me is the psychological component to how humans heal. I have discovered that healing is dependent on a combination of factors. Those factors include physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual elements.
All of these factors play a role in healing. The most important in my experience is the mental factor. In the book “A Course in Miracles” it says that you are subject only to what you hold in mind. One of my favorite quotations from the book is, “The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause.”
Wow. Perception is a result. Think about that for a moment. Most of us think that it is what happens outside of us that affects us. What this quotation is suggesting is that it is what happens inside our minds that produces how we perceive the world. Interestingly, this idea is supported by the science of quantum physics.
According to quantum physics, the result of an experiment is dependent on the consciousness of the observer of the experiment. In quantum physics, if no one is looking, there is nothing to see. To stretch your imagination further, according to quantum physics, the universe does not exist without human consciousness. It is created via the mind.
So what does this have to do with healing? Well in my own life I have had two significant medical problems related to mental stress. One was infertility and the other was insomnia. My own mental stress was a major reason why my wife and I could not get pregnant.
To clarify, think about animals in captivity. We have all heard about how hard it is to breed an animal in a zoo. Why is that? The reason is because animals in captivity are caged. Essentially they are imprisoned. Because of the stress of captivity, they are infertile and can”t breed.
As a surgeon, I like to have control over situations. Infertility is not something that can be controlled. This led to a mental imprisonment. The less control over infertility that I had, the worse the stress became. As the stress mounted, the more infertile I became. It was a vicious cycle. Thankfully, through stress reduction techniques and prayer, I am now a father. I am a parent now because I took action to change my mind.
After my son was born I went through a business crisis that contributed to a new episode of stress. This led to terrible insomnia. I had difficulty sleeping for about two years and it was brutal. It negatively impacted every aspect of my life.
The resolution to insomnia is to learn how to relax the mind. Only after doing that, will the physical body respond. How did I handle insomnia? I would get up and meditate. Ironically, some of the deepest meditative experiences occur in the middle of the night. Even if I could not fall asleep after meditation, my mind and body were more relaxed and this got me through the day.
Now I am much better and insomnia is no longer a struggle. A quote to help with insomnia is, “Fear knocked at the door. Love answered, and no one was there.”
Matthew McQuaid, DPM is a board certified foot surgeon practicing in Lakeport. He has a particular interest in Mind/Body medicine and its impact on healing. He is an award winning author and teacher. For more information call 263-3727 and visit www.drmcquaid.com.
