HOW WE ASSIST EACH OTHER’S HEALING

I have mused recently how over the past twenty years as a gynecologist I have impacted on my patients’ ability to improve the quality of their lives. And what has become glaringly apparent are the following acknowledgments:
• We do not heal until we are ready
• After making course corrections on the way we manage our physical body, we need to concede that EVERYTHING that happens to our physical body bubbles up from our soul
• This simply means that our behavior, our words, our very thoughts—that which we continue to tell ourselves about who we are-- impacts our health.

Esoteric? Too general, not applicable to Me?

Stories are always best to illustrate this:
• One of my patients, new to my practice, came and explained that two doctors, her dentist, and her cardiologist, delivered diagnoses that could give her no explanation, thus no solution. (ever been told you have some strange condition, but there is no known cause, thus no ‘cure?’) Well, in my Mary Poppins way of encouraging my patients to make simple, small changes in their lives, I suggested, as I regularly do, that this patient remember to drink her 4 oz water hourly, hydrating her beautiful body, as ALL metabolic processes in our bodies take place in solution (and that does not mean coffee, or beer, though that is not to say these liquids do not have a pleasing place in our lives, just IN ADDITION TO the water); She was told that her gums were suffering mightily and she risked losing her teeth. From her cardiologist, she was given the diagnosis ‘cardiomyopathy’ (sick heart muscle). After humoring my prattling about increasing her daily water consumption, she arrived the following visit to excitedly announce that both her dentist and her cardiologist rescinded their diagnoses, marveling at how her gums were healed, and the strange condition in her heart had mysteriously disappeared. Are you surprised? Water. Try it. Not diet soda, Snapple, Arizona Iced Tea with Ginseng, or all the sweetened juices: WATER.

• My other patient that comes to mind related a most heart opening story: Young in her forties, she nonetheless had years of heart disease, restricting the joy and activity of her life. She had resigned to be a cardiac cripple, taking her medications and essentially being homebound because of her physical limitations. As we sat and shared her story, she related that as a child she received very little nurturing from her mother, recalling her home did not provide her with the cheery, clean environment and lovingly prepared meals she felt so vital. She was very sad as a young woman, and when she became old enough, left home, married to get away from the sadness. Every year on her birthday, her mother would call, but she would refuse the calls, and kept her heart hardened. After our visit, where I spoke of forgiveness, reminding her that this is more for our health than other, she went home and had a major transformation. She realized that her mother had done the best she knew for her within her own limitations, and on this most recent birthday, she accepted her mother’s call, told her she loved her and forgave her for her childhood. I expect you know what I am about to tell you: when she opened her heart to forgive her mother, she opened it to healing, and she is now free of her heart condition, and is beginning to live her life joyfully and with hope.

These are but two of the thousands of stories I could share, but are you starting to get the picture? Doctors do not heal their patients: we are merely catalysts, cheerleaders, who take the time to listen. The doctor within is finally being awakened….

Helene B. Leonetti, MD