QUESTION: Can you talk about dis-ease and how we bring this upon ourselves?

Another great controversial question. Although there is more and more research which points to stress being related to physical disease, to stress lowering the immune system which in turn leads to disease, I think the majority of people believe that disease just happens. We catch germs, viruses or cells go rogue. Disease just happens because of poor life style choices in relation to nutrition, exercise, smoking and alcohol to name just a few.

I am going to suggest that disease can manifest in our ives as the result of dis-ease on levels other than the physical. I think it is easier to explain using examples: a person retires after 30 years of work. This person’s idea of self worth comes from their job and the recognition and satisfaction it has brought. Now they are home, no idea of how to enjoy life, to fill their days, they find no purpose now to being alive. They don’t know how to live other than through their job. They may be angery at having to retire. Soon an illness develops---the dis-ease in their life has found an outlet - the physical body.

Grieving is a good example of dis-ease manifesting. Men in particular have a hard time with this as they have been taught not to show or express their emotions. If those emotions are held in, not even acknowledged, those sorrowful emotions will come out somewhere; in anger, in alcohol, in illness. The dis-ease eventually reaches the physical body.

I’m not saying all illness is the result of dis-ease in the personality or life but I am saying I think it is worth considering that imbalance in our life can lead to physical illness. That illness isn’t all about germs, viruses and cancer cells but the bodies receptivity to their invasion. That our mental and emotional sense of well being has a healing property in itself.

On a personal note I know my body reacts negatively to worry and fear. The times I have been the sickest are the times I had something occur in my life that caused me great concern, dis-ease. Now, when I experience a very unsettling happening I remind myself that nothing can ever happen to me or someone I care about that is worth getting sick over. That thought helps me put life's challenges into perspective.