It’s true that without “knowing,” no quest of self-healing can begin. No one can start to heal their trauma without realizing that they might have some. Nobody can start to heal their fibromyalgia without knowing they have it. And no one can start to transform their stressed out lifestyle until they realize it’s making them sick. But that’s about the extent of the usefulness of knowing.
In addition to the extremely limited value of “knowing,” it is often very unhelpful to self-healing because in our culture almost every diagnosis is “pathologized.” So, when someone does get a label of anxiety, depression, CRPS or IBS they identify very negatively with XYZ disorder. You know like, “I am an anxious person,” “I have a bad back,” or “the doctors say I have to live with it…”
Once that happens, our mind (and our neuroplasticity) starts to shape itself into that negative identification and perpetuate it. Furthermore, because most diagnosis make us feel unsafe. They create fear in us which makes our symptoms worse, creating a terrible feedback loop. This then reinforces our “knowing” that we’re sick, crazy, f*cked up, etc. Therefore, at its best, “knowing” is the first shot in the battle. It’s a starting point. However, at its worst (and most commonly), it’s the beginning and end of the battle because we end up shooting ourselves in the head with the diagnostic label. We doom ourselves to the fate we have identified with.
The Breakthrough
Massive breakthroughs happen when a person can dis-identify from what they “know,” i.e, from their diagnosis and pathological beliefs about themselves. They can instead begin to powerfully know that they are, in fact, a highly resilient, plastic and remarkable self-healing organism. It’s this kind of knowing that underlies seemingly “miraculous” stories of healing and recovery.
And for the haters out there, this is not to be confused with wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is both fantasy and the absence of execution. Pivoting one’s “knowing” from one of pathology to health requires both belief and a lot of work. We need to remodel our mind and body into a new way of being. As they say in business, “ideas are cheap, execution is everything.”
With the right “”knowing” (aka mindset) + consistent practice and application of a range of practices that transform our brains, bodies and lifestyles we can achieve the healing we are striving for.
Want to find out more about stress and how it can affect our health? Check out my Youtube channel here.
