Mind, Body & Soul
Health and Healing for the Whole Person
Issue #19 © 3/05 Neil F. Neimark, M.D.
www.TheBodySoulConnection.com
Hi Everyone!
I hope that all is well with you.
I really need your help.
I'm still having trouble getting all of you who have subscribed to my newsletter over to my new newsletter provider, so I know that many of you are not receiving this letter.
If you already received this newsletter, please accept my apologies.
If this is the first time you have seen this newsletter, please do me a favor and kindly click on the following link to sign up again under my new service, so you don't lose access to the newsletter.. Thanks so much.
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Anyways on with the newsletter!
Spring is almost upon us and I hope everyone is doing well. It is a time of awakening and growth on all levels.
As a family physician with a busy practice, I continue to be amazed at the number of physical problems that develop as a result of difficulties in our emotional and/or spiritual life.
Every day patients come to my office with health problems stemming from exuberant stresses, the inability to set boundaries, unresolved feelings and spiritual emptiness. These stresses create a burden too heavy for the physical body to carry—and so it breaks down—resulting in physical illness and emotional pain, ranging from recurrent colds to chemical depression.
We all have different thresholds for stress. Our body is made up of many different systems—musculoskeletal, respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, nervous, immune and more—each linked, one to the other, like a chain. When there is too much stress on our system—whether emotional stress, physical stress or spiritual stress—it is like an overpowering force pulling on both ends of the chain. Something has to give, something has to break. We all have a weak link, a weak system, which breaks under stress.
For some of us, it is a break in the immune system—causing recurrent colds, allergic reactions, susceptibility to infection, exacerbation of autoimmune disease or even an increased risk for certain cancers. For others, it is a break in the nervous system—causing anxiety, chemical depression, migraine headaches, twitching eyelids or insomnia. A break in the cardiovascular system may lead to palpitations, shortness of breath, or even precipitate congestive heart failure or a heart attack. A break in the musculoskeletal system may lead to recurrent back aches, sciatica, tendinitis or muscle weakness. A break in the gastrointestinal system may lead to worsening of irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, maldigestion, constipation or diarrhea.
Many times, we are unaware that our emotional and spiritual stresses are connected to our physical health.
It is vital that we learn ways to process our physical, emotional and spiritual stress before it creates illness and to do so in a way which leads to greater health, healing and balance.
For those of you already suffering from illness, you can learn to use your illness as a springboard for understanding how your heart, mind and soul are deeply intertwined in the workings of your physical body. You can learn a variety of self-help techniques with which you can begin your own unique healing process. This healing process will lead you into an examination of your emotional pain and spiritual stress so that you may find ways out of your pain and begin to heal your hurts, forgive your inadequacies and rekindle the love and essential worthiness that lie within you.
A wonderful story!
The Master taught: 'When a sleeping prince is dreaming that he is a beggar and cries out in anguish at his poverty and hunger, you do not say to him, ‘Beggar, wake up!’ You say ‘Prince, wake up! You have fallen asleep and dreamt you were a beggar!’'
We are all princes and princesses who have—in some way—fallen asleep and forgotten the royalty of our soul. We are made in the image of the Divine creator and, as such, our very essence is love and our very birthright is worthiness. We must only awaken to it in order to heal.
(This story adapted from Journey to Self-Realization by Paramahansa Yogananda, Self-Realization Publishers, 1998; the Master in this story is Paramahansa Yogananda.)
A part of our awakening to our essential worthiness is the acceptance that—in this world—we are all wounded in some way—whether by genetics, family circumstance, illness or misfortune.
Likewise, in some way, we all intuitively crave—and deserve—to be whole, to be healed. Awakening from the dream means that we feel our emptiness, the voids in our life, our 'not-enough' places, and seek to fill them with meaning, worthiness and a measure of fullness.
This is the healing process: the drive to mend our broken places and become whole again. In seeking to become whole, you will inevitably embark on a journey that leads you into your own sense of utter uniqueness, into your own adventure of self-discovery.
Before I let you go, I want to tell you about my completely new and revised 3rd edition of The Handbook of Journaling: Writing Tools & Inspirational Stories for Hope, Healing and Personal Growth. In this new edition, you will find hundreds of inspirational stories, motivational quotes and powerful guided journaling techniques to help you process your negative emotions before they make you ill. You will also find powerful guided journaling techniques to help you correct your irrational thoughts and fears in a way that brings you greater equanimity, peace of mind and fulfillment in life.
Guided journaling exercises make writing about your stresses easy. They give you powerful questions and prompts to guide you swiftly towards a greater understanding of where your pain comes from and how to find a source of hope and strength to overcome whatever difficulties you may be facing.
Whether you are dealing with depression, loss, anger, anxiety, chronic pain or cancer, these writing tools and inspirational stories will help you find the hope, healing and sense of personal fulfillment you are looking for.
May you and all your loved ones be blessed with health, happiness and prosperity. Sincerely,
Neil F. Neimark, M.D.
Dr. Neimark,
You are a remarkable physician, and your attitude exemplified on this website says it all. I thank God, truly I do, that you are a doctor - you are gifted and talented at this work - keep up the great service, positive attitude and wonderful spirit of support you bring to patients. You're excellent at what you do sir.
Louis
Posted by: Louis Columbus | September 02, 2005 at 09:41 AM