Mind Controls the Body
The purpose of forgiveness is to heal the mind, not the body. Once we have totally forgiven the other person, and ourselves, and are therefore able to let go of our attack thoughts and guilt, the mind returns to its natural, loving state. The need to suffer is then removed, and the body following in harmony with the mind, may allow pain and sickness to disappear.
When we are experiencing pain, one of the hardest lessons to learn is that it is not the body that controls the mind, but the mind that controls the body. This lesson is particularly difficult to accept when we have a legitimate organic illness that justifies the reality of our pain.
Mildred's decision
I had accepted an invitation to give a lecture as part of a two-day conference in another state. The conference director, a woman I shall call Mildred, was scheduled to meet my plane and drive me to the meeting hall-Some two hours away from the airport.
When I arrived at the airport, however, Mildred was nowhere in sight. As I stood there looking about, a man waked up and said he was Mildred's husband. He explained that Mildred had asked him to meet me because she was suffering from a gallbladder attack that had started a couple of days before. In fact, she was planning to go to the hospital that very afternoon for surgery.
Since it was several hours before my presentation, I asked if it would be possible for me to see Mildred. When we walked in, Mildred greeted us in a weak voice and said she was waiting for a call from her doctor about the availability of a hospital bed. It was obvious she was in severe pain; she appeared pale and greatly distressed.
We talked briefly, and I suggested that she could help herself relax by choosing to put only positive thought in her mind and by saying, "I am," whenever she breathed in, and, "relaxed," when she exhaled. After doing this little meditation together for a few minutes, she was able to let go of some of the tension in her body.
I then asked Mildred if she had noticed any unusual stress in her life before the attack started. She responded that, in fact, she had been quite upset with her employer, a physician with whom she had worked as a receptionist for the past fifteen years.
She went on to explain that he had recently given her permission to redecorate the office- an assignment that gave her great pleasure. She added that she was especially pleased to have the opportunity to take down the "awful" pictures that the physician's sister had put up several years before.
Both Mildred and her employer were happy with their newly decorated space. Shortly after the renovation, however, the physician's sister visited the office and saw that her paintings were no longer on the walls. A confrontation ensued, and, as you may have guessed, the physician sided with his sister and told Mildred that the paintings had to go back on the wall. Mildred interpreted her boss's reaction as rejection and promptly quit her job.
However, Mildred did not associate this stressful experience with the onset of her gallbladder attack. She saw them as two distinctly separate events. She had denied the guilt she felt about her rage and was unaware that guilt could play a part in the need she felt to punish and attack herself. Instead, she believed her current upset was due to the painful gallbladder attack that prevented her from her participating in the conference she had worked so hard on and wanted so much to attend.
I suggested to Mildred that it was possible to change her belief system. Rather than seeing her former employer as rejecting and attacking, she could, if she chose, see him as fearful and asking for her help. I also reminded her that she didn't have to forgive-she only needed to be willing to forgive-and then her inner teacher, the voice of love, would do the rest.
I took her hands and we prayed together, I did not ask God to remove Mildred's pain. Rather, my prayer was one of gratitude for His presence and the joining that Mildred and I was experiencing with Him. After about twenty minutes of silence, Mildred opened her eyes and said she felt "such peace," and that her pain had totally disappeared.
Shortly thereafter, the phone rang, and Mildred answered. It was the doctor asking to speak to Mildred. At first, he did not recognize her voice, which was no longer weak and filled with pain, but full of energy and vitality. He was calling to say that a bed was now available for her at the hospital. When Mildred reported that she no longer had any pain and, in fact, felt so well that she did not plan to be hospitalized, he was greatly surprised. However, he agreed with her decision and told her to let him know if the pain recurred.
Indeed, Mildred felt well enough to attend the entire two-day conference, and she became a teacher to all of us about the power of the mind over the body. Since that time, we have continued to correspond with each other, and, to date, Mildred has not had a recurrence of her gallbladder problem.
I found this very interesting. I hope that you will gain some insight as I have, with the power of guilt and its destructive nature within the body. I was in dire need of seeing this lesson for myself and thought that perhaps someone else might benefit from this passage as well. :)
We aren't taught in life to understand that we cause illness within our bodies. We believe that it is from outside ourselves rather than from within (something catchy perhaps?). The feelings of guilt we have are directly correlated with our self esteem and what we have been led to believe about ourselves based on what outside influences say about who we are. But we must remember that we are nothing but loving spirit. Each and every one of us. If we can look to another and see their own fears and pain, it might be easier for us to forgive them their missteps and not have a need to punish them or ourselves with words, or by withholding our love and forgiveness. This is such a trial sometimes I know believe me. If we are withholding forgiveness we are hurting ourselves, and allowing many illnesses to manifest if we continue with our non-forgiveness. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but who knows what lies ahead for ourselves if we believe that not forgiving someone is not hurting ourselves most of all? When we do not forgive another, who are we truly not forgiving anyway?
Mitakwye Oyrsin
All my love,
Jahnavi
Goodbye to guilt,
Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D.
