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- a Care2 favorite by Deepak Chopra
- 75 comments
There are always two centers of action within people, the head and the heart. Medical statistics appeal to the head, but the heart keeps its own counsel. In recent years, alternative medicine has won much of its appeal on the basis of bringing back the heart, using love and caring to heal.
The great drawback of proclaiming that we need to bring the heart back into medicine is that it punishes people for their emotional weakness. The heart can be very frail; it can be hardened by suffering, or just by life.
Books on holistic healing like to say that sick people “need” their sickness. Mainstream psychiatry points its own finger when it says that chronic diseases can stand symbolically for self-punishment, revenge, or a deep feeling of worthlessness. I will not argue these insights, except to suggest that they may be harmful to the healing process rather than helpful. It is hard enough for any of us to face up to our emotional fallibility even at the best of times. Can we really be expected to reform when we are ill?
The deeper issue is that anything can function as a nocebo (a placebo inverted into a new term to refer to a dummy drug that the doctor has said isn’t going to work), just as anything can function as a placebo. It is not the dummy drug, the doctor’s bedside manner, or the antiseptic smell of a hospital that does harm or good; it is the patient’s interpretation of it. Therefore, the real war is not between the head and the heart. Something deeper, in the realm of silence, creates our view of reality.
The basic understanding most of us have about ourselves comes from thinking and feeling, which seems only natural. But we know very little about the field of silence and how it exercises control over us. The head and the heart, it seems, are not the whole person.
Adapted from Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine, by Deepak Chopra (Bantam Books, 1990).
Read more: Deepak Chopra's Tips, Spirit, head, heart, silence
Deepak Chopra
Acknowledged as one of the world's greatest leaders in the field of mind body medicine, Deepak Chopra, M.D. continues to transform our understanding of the meaning of health. Chopra is known as a prolific author of over 49 books with 12 best sellers on mind-body health, quantum mechanics, spirituality, and peace. A global force in the field of human empowerment, Dr. Chopra's books have been published in more than 35 languages with more than 20 million copies in print.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
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people are talking
Oh this is just soooooooo great!
thanks for the reminders.
Outstanding thank you!
Cute!
Wish I had thought of these on my recent travels to Italy.
75 comments
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I quote : 'Mainstream psychiatry points its own finger when it says that chronic diseases can stand symbolically for self-punishment, revenge, or a deep feeling of worthlessness.'
When one repeatedly thinks about what one has read and worries about how one has brought problems or sickness onto oneself - it definitely causes extra stress and is certainly "harmful to the healing process." The finding seems to be judgmental. It causes negative thinking and should be dismissed asap. After all those thoughts don't ever resolve problems...
Noted
Balance...
Thank you.
It's our gift of life to pursue as we please, and appreciate it however it suites us. It's wonderful when we respect how each of us finds our personal appreciation for living. Our mindfulness of others is valuable, as well.
noted
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