I took time out this week to attend an event at RAW (Real Art Ways) called A Triumvirate of Healing. Three authors, Lissa Rankin, MD, Nancie Aroni and Jeffrey Rediger, MD came together to explore the mysteries of healing. It was an evening well spent, enjoying the stories and energy of the authors, and deeply confirming the work I’ve been passionate about for more than 20 years.
I’ve been acquainted with Lissa Rankin since 2013, when she published her first book, Mind Over Medicine. Her personal story of leaving her OB/GYN practice after 12 years of medical school and 8 years of practice, to focus on her own health and research into the health care system, is quite compelling.
In her exploration of peer-reviewed medical literature, she found evidence that the medical establishment had been proving that the body can heal itself for over 50 years. Using extraordinary cases of spontaneous healing, Dr. Rankin shows how thoughts, feelings, and beliefs can alter the body’s physiology. She lays out the scientific data proving that loneliness, pessimism, depression, fear, and anxiety damage the body, while intimate relationships, gratitude, meditation, sex, and authentic self-expression flip on the body’s self-healing processes.
This all aligns with what I have witnessed in my alternative, transformational therapy practice over the last 27 years, as I began to understand and include the use of energy, mindset, hands on healing and ancient spiritual practices in my work.
Dr. Rankin has gone on to write 6 more books, the most recent being Sacred Medicine, in which she details her travels around the world exploring all kinds of alternative healing modalities.
Jeffrey Rediger, M.D., author of Cured, The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing, is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and is the Medical Director of McLean SE Adult Psychiatry and of Community Affairs at McLean Hospital, one of the country’s top psychiatric institutes and a leader in groundbreaking neuroscience research. A licensed physician and board-certified psychiatrist, he is also the Chief of Behavioral Medicine at Good Samaritan Medical Center and has a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Extremely well qualified and credentialed, Dr. Rediger has spent over 15 years studying spontaneous healing, pioneering the use of scientific tools to investigate recoveries from incurable illnesses. Dr. Rediger’s research has taken him from America’s top hospitals to healing centers around the world.
In Cured, Dr. Rediger digs down to the root causes of illness, showing how to create an environment that sets the stage for healing. He writes that we need to physically heal both our diet and our immune systems AND we need to mentally heal our stress response and our identities. We MUST learn to regulate our nervous systems and to shift out of the “fight or flight” response that most of us habitually default into.
Through rigorous and thorough research, Dr. Rediger shows that much of our physical reality is created in our minds. Our perception changes our experience, even to the point of changing our physical bodies—and thus the healing of our identity may be our greatest tool to recovery.
In other words, we need to heal the underlying trauma and wounding held in the mind and body, along with the stories we have taken on about ourselves, our experiences, our limitations and our ability to heal in order to create a space for that very healing.
This is no longer new information. It is being taught by the best known trauma informed therapists of the day. Revealing and healing our unhealed emotional wounds is the key to regaining the well-being of our minds, bodies and spirits.
Nancy Slonim Aronie is the founder of the Chilmark Writing Workshop on Martha’s Vineyard and has been a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered as well as a columnist for multiple newspapers. A native of West Hartford, CT, I became acquainted with her writing through her columns in The Hartford Courant, many years ago! She has taught writing at such venues as Kripalu, Omega, Esalen, and Harvard.
Recently turned 81, she has just released her latest book, Memoir as Medicine, The Healing Power of Writing Your Mess, Imperfect, Unruly (but Gorgeously Yours) Life Story. She is still teaching and encouraging others to write their stories, and then to “let the magic happen.”
Nancy’s memoir includes her own story of grief, loss and recovery surrounding the death of her son, Dan, at 38. As a writer and teacher, Ms. Aronie believes that everyone has a story to tell and that telling it is not only important, but deeply healing. Sharing “this is who I am, these are the things that shaped me, this is where I am now” with others who will witness and celebrate your journey, is a powerful, sacred healing experience.
The Universe brought Lissa and Nancy together over 10 years ago, when Lissa attended Nancy’s writing workshop at Esalen. Lissa credits Nancy with changing her life at that workshop, where she shifted her sense of herself from doctor to writer.
Whether coming from the perspective of a medical doctor, psychiatrist, theologian, grieving mother, or the longitudinal studies of the effects of childhood trauma on adult health conditions (Kaiser Permanente, ACE Study), the information clearly points out that stress and an unregulated nervous system contribute to over 85% of all health conditions. The proliferation of auto-immune disease on the last 20 years is further evidence of the mind/body/spirit connection.
In my own work with clients over the last 27 years I have also witnessed what might be “spontaneous” or “miraculous” recovery/healing from mental and physical disease when we begin to address the underlying, unhealed effects of early life trauma.
I continue to remind my clients and readers of 4 basic truths, as I believe them:
1. You are not crazy, but you may have developed some unhealthy patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving as a result of early life experiences.
2. You are not your story. Historical events and the interpretations and beliefs of other people in your life, each with their own pain and stories, have nothing to do with the truth of who you are as a Divine expression of the energy that created you.
3. You did not create the situations or circumstances that caused you mental, emotional, physical or spiritual pain and left you believing that you are unlovable, undeserving, shameful or insignificant. You are not responsible for the things that happened to you or in your family.
4. You can heal the wounded parts of yourself, break free from the inner critic and self-saboteur and create an authentic, purposeful and joyful life.
If you’re ready to take a deeper look into what may be causing your mental, emotional or physical pain or discomfort, let’s talk. You can schedule a complimentary 20 minute call here: https://bit.ly/3c6P0Oe.
Whether or not you’re ready to chat I still want to give you something to jumpstart your practice of self-care. I hope you’ll accept it and find some practices that feel nurturing to you! Please accept this gift of my ebook, 125 Ways To Heal and Create The Life You Truly Deserve! https://sacredheartalchemy.com/125-ways-heal-ebook/thank-you/
From my Sacred Heart to yours,
Catherine