Episode Transcript
We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships, we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Ann O'Hare, and this is The Spiritual American. Hello everyone, and welcome to the spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare and I'm your host today. We will be talking about facing illness, physical illness specifically, and hopefully we'll give some little tips. to help us through the different levels of experiencing that we have with physical illness. But before we get started, please consider like sharing and subscribing. As you know, that helps get this content out to many more people. And also please consider sharing with your friends and relatives so they can benefit as well. So we're going to be talking about facing illness. There's many, many different aspects of this, but I'm going to focus on how to internally be able to deal with whatever's going on with the body in a way that makes us feel empowered and peaceful. So first of all, I was thinking about the different types of illness and this goes under like the understanding part. We would like to have an idea of what's going on in the body. And there's different types of illnesses that we might have. One I wrote down is an unexpected illness, like that could be severe or not severe, like a cold or I got the flu. Other things that might happen might be an injury. Right? So that could be considered an illness of the body, but it's temporary, but it was due to some kind of a trauma. Maybe there was a car accident or something and now the body is injured. So that's also a part of a illness. Another thing could be family related. Like it could be disease processes that have come down through your family, like diabetes or hypertension or something like that. The other one is illnesses caused by use and abuse of our body. Maybe our lifestyle choices. Maybe I didn't exercise enough. Maybe I drank a lot of alcohol and maybe I took drugs. Maybe I didn't eat well. Maybe I have malnutrition, maybe I, went through a period of real hardship or something. There could be all different things that we could go through and that could affect our body and the body could be ill because of that. One other example, I was thinking like, let's say I smoked for 15 years, but I quit, but the body may still have an effect of that. So whatever I did, the body definitely records or has an effect. It has an effect. overall on the body's health. And finally, chronic illnesses. So chronic illnesses or autoimmune diseases, things like that, like ALS or multiple sclerosis or diabetes. Again, I'm back to diabetes. Chronic kidney disease. high blood pressure. There's all kinds of diseases. Even people who have had a stroke or something, and then I have now I have a chronic problem because I have mobility problems or something like that. So there's all different kinds of things that could go on with the body. But I wanted to go through the different levels that we're dealing with. the illness, whatever the illness is. And for instance let's say if it's a family thing, if I understand that it runs in my family. Hopefully that's going to give me a little bit of peace in my heart. Like, okay, well I didn't cause it. Maybe it's in my family. I, it's definitely something I have to deal with. These are ways that psychologically we can help ourselves. But first let's start off with the physical level. So the physical level of any disease or injury or, unexpected illness or is to go to the doctor, right? To go to someone who can help you or help me figure out what's going on with my body. Now, some people say, Oh, I don't believe in doctors or some people want to go to holistic or something like that. That's fine. Whatever You feel comfortable with, but I would say that one of the most responsible things that we can do, especially in this scientific age and the science of healthcare is really a reductionistic in detail understanding of how the body works. So we shouldn't dismiss that fully. It doesn't mean it's the whole picture. Maybe I'll find out something and I don't believe it, or I want to go to get a second opinion or I want to abandon traditional medicine altogether. Maybe I want to try different things. But I don't think that it should be dismissed. I think we should find out. I think the science is developed enough that we can find out what's going on. I actually had a situation where one of my classmates in, uh, I went to a holistic nursing school. I was a holistic nurse also for a while, and we learned oriental body work therapy. We had, I had a student in my class who had a lump in her breast and. The master who was teaching us the therapy. So she was body work therapy, oriental body work therapy said to this student, go to the doctor and get it removed and then we will deal with it. So there was an acknowledgement of. If something is, it was so severe that she should go get it taken out. You'd go to the doctor for that, right? I used to joke around. If my arm is falling off, I want a surgeon to put it back on. So we should use common sense with this. I know some of you listening might be like distrustful or maybe in denial or I don't want to deal with it. better to go and find out that it's nothing. And then at least we know, so the first step is to go to the doctor or go to your healthcare professional and find out what exactly physically is going on. Second level is the emotional level. And in this case, I feel like the best way to handle with illness at the emotional level is to educate myself. What is diabetes? How does it work? What's going on with the body? Educate myself. I had a stroke. What is a stroke? What happens now? What's the recovery? Ask a lot of questions. Get myself educated. I find that if I don't understand, I'm much more likely to be in, emotional distress about something. I'll give another quick example. As a nurse, I find myself very grateful to be a nurse many times, but one time my son as a baby was having a seizure from having a fever. And I remember he was having a seizure and we were calling 9 1 1 and I remember thanking God. I was so grateful to be a nurse because I knew what was happening. I wasn't afraid. I mean,. My adrenaline was going, it was my child, but I knew what was happening. I knew what to do. And I knew it was going to be okay. That was the greatest blessing. So that's why I say for the emotional level, we have to educate ourselves, get as much information as you can about the situation that the body is in. So at least I know what's happening. It's very important. The next level is the psychological level. Now this to me is the hardest because this is where expectations come in. Impatience comes in, feelings of loss. I have an example for this one too. We had a, in nursing school, I had a, another fellow student. Who was very type a, that means that she was very results oriented. She was very motivated. She was very active and she slipped on her front step and broke her leg in three places. She told me that she had to spend months, like two months or something in traction in the bed. She couldn't do anything. She couldn't move. And she had to spend two months in traction. She said at that time that she had thoughts of suicide at that time because she was so used to being so self sufficient So outgoing and so results oriented and action oriented that when this stopped her psychologically, she had so much psychological pain from that change or that loss, that perceived loss that she actually was thinking about killing herself at one point of the process. She didn't obviously, but she didn't have a knowledge deficit. She knew what happened, but this was psychological. So, one thing I would say at the psychological level, is that we have to learn how to tolerate. And I'm going to give. a spiritual definition of the word tolerate. So tolerate means like in the old way, we would think tolerate means, well, I don't really like you, but I'm going to tolerate you. Like tolerate means I really don't like you, but I'm dealing with it. In spirituality, tolerate means that I accept Everything that's happening, I can stop right there, right? Accept everything that's happening as it is fully 100 percent accept it. It's happening. So I'm not fighting within myself. See my problem with the student who broke her leg was that she kept fighting the reality of what happened. She didn't want it to be that way. So she kept fighting. So tolerate means I accept. Everything that's happening exactly the way it is. It's almost like you're facing reality. I'm facing it. It's happening. Okay. Behind that is an attitude of understanding and generosity. So I'm having this generous attitude towards myself. I have an understanding attitude towards the situation. So in the case of my friend who broke her leg. She eventually, you know, got better and calmed down psychologically, but she could have learned how to tolerate like, okay, I may be upset. I may be frustrated. I may be feeling really a feeling of loss, but I'm facing it. It's happening. It's okay. Give it permission to be inside my own head. I know that sounds weird, but don't we reject things in our mind? Like psychologically, we make it worse. We create a fight inside. I don't want diabetes. I don't want to have this. I don't want cancer. I don't want whatever it is. Saying I don't want it doesn't make it stop, does it? What I'm trying to do right now is I'm trying to give tips on how to attain a mature, realistic, emotionally stable stage of experience when your body is going through something. So first we said be responsible, go to the doctor or your healthcare professional. Second thing, educate yourself. Don't remain ignorant. or without knowledge. Make sure you understand exactly what's going on. Third, tolerate, learn how to be okay with exactly what it is. It's tolerate, and it's also learning how to face it, right? I'm facing it, facing it means I'm being with it exactly the way it is. And I'm accepting, tolerating is accepting. And also I have a understanding, loving or generous attitude. Patience is also part of this, right? To have patience. Part of the information that we're going to get about the illness is part of the treatment plan. What happens? Is it forever? Is it going to, how long is it going to last? That should help us psychologically. Oh, it's usually for about two weeks or whatever. Get yourself a timeframe. Is this something I have to deal with the rest of my life? Any information that you can get is going to help reduce the feeling of upset. Now, I think there is, depending on what the illness is, there's going to be some kind of process that we go through, emotional process. It doesn't like, I just say, oh, I accept, well, maybe I don't accept right now, but I'm working towards accepting. I want to accept what's going on because I want to be powerful and I want to be able to help my body and help myself get through it. So, that's tolerating, that's the psychological aspect. I believe that's the hardest part, actually, because that's where all our expectations come in, all our feelings of loss, like I'm getting into this like stages of grief is coming to my mind, anger, denial, bargaining, you know. Finally accepting, I forget what the fourth one is, oh, depression. Anger, denial, bargaining, depression, acceptance. So finally we accept. So from a spiritual standpoint, maybe I can help get to the acceptance part with the power to face, the power to tolerate. And finally, the spiritual, effort that we can do, the spiritual thing that we can practice is what we call bodiless stage. And what that is, is you give your body a break. In other words, whatever the body's going through, I am going to close my eyes or keep them open, But I'm going to use my mind to experience myself as an incorporeal soul. I don't have a body. I am the soul. I am the being. I am the point, like that point of light back there. I am the point of light. I am the point of living consciousness. My nature is peace. I am in silence. I am completely still. If I can bring my attention there and hold it there even for a minute or two, I'm giving my body a break. That helps the body heal by the way. And you're giving Neutral, positive vibrations by doing that also, because if I say my nature is peace, if I'm not thinking about anything else and I'm experienced myself as a soul, the living consciousness and my nature is peace and I'm experiencing that, then peace is going through the body. That helps with circulation. That helps with the chemicals and hormones that get released, we understand that the, the negative side, the fear and everything also releases chemicals and hormones, but we want to go to the positive, the more healing ones. So. Those are some ways to break down the way we can work on this. Now, each person is different, right? Each situation is different. Maybe it's a cold. You know, some people would react the same to a cold as to, a really bad, really chronic illness diagnosis. Some person might get a diagnosis and be like, oh, it's okay. Another person might get a, a sinus infection and feel like it's the end of the world. So what is it that, that makes the difference? It's not the illness. The body does what the body does, but we can do something inside to help myself take care, get educated, understand, tolerate, accept, face, And then every once in a while, go into that bodiless stage and give the body a break and some peaceful vibrations. Also have a little gratitude for the body the body's going through something. That's okay. Why is it that we have such a negative attitude about about everything? Maybe it doesn't have to be negative. So think about that for next time. Maybe for your homework, those four levels, think about that next time you have, something happens and you. sprain your ankle or something like, can I go through those steps? Can I, can I help myself and educate myself and get myself stable and then use that bodiless stage to give my body a break? So I'll leave it there. I hope that gave you some new things to think about in terms of how to deal with when the body is ill or when the body's going through something. So remember that our slogan is heal, empower, and serve. And. Healing. It's not just physical healing, emotional. We have a lot of things to heal, right? We get empowered and as we get better, everyone around us gets better too. So until next time, take care. You
