There is an angry storm brewing. Flooding in the south, fires blazing in the west, earthquakes in Mexico, people fighting people over color of their skin, religion, ethnicity and political alliance. In health care, the movement towards holistic health care is now strongly being opposed by conventional, allopathic medicine and the line has been drawn in the sand. Reactionary emotions, angry thoughts and beliefs and actions that perpetuate more of the same. What is a person to do? How in the world can this stop?
The enlightened ones tell us that if you want to fix the world, you start by fixing yourself. Clever people. But, what does this mean, how can we do this and what can we expect if we make the effort? Remember the last time you were on an airline. The flight attendant told you that in the event of a loss in cabin pressure the face mask for air would drop from above. Then, you were told to put the mask on yourself first and then do it for your child. You can’t help the world if you don’t help yourself.
Some of you might be thinking, “I don’t need to be fixed. They need to be fixed.” Sorry, but that is not quite true. The fact that you will react emotionally to an opinion tells you that you still might need a bit of tweaking. So, let’s start at the beginning, and maybe you will find out what in the world does this have to do with your pet’s health.
The first truth is that you were put here to enjoy life, not to suffer. The second truth is that life happens for you and not to you. The third truth is that the reason that you have chosen not to enjoy life is because of a misinterpretation of the second truth. Whew, this is complicated. Maybe a story might help.
Several years ago I had a wonderful lady bring her dog into my office. Her little Doxy was paralyzed in the hindquarter. She could not walk or do her normal functions. She had ruptured a disc in her back and the disc had damaged her spinal cord. The caretaker did all she could for her pet. She took her to the vet then to the specialist and even though she was willing to do anything possible to help her dog, she was told that there was no hope. The MRI on her spine and the neurological evaluation revealed that the spinal cord had been damaged beyond repair and that the little dog would never walk again.
The caretaker was obviously distraught. “Why is this happening she asked herself?”
Fortunately, the caretaker decided to search outside the box and came into my office hoping that some alternative treatment might help. I told her that I had had pretty good success using acupuncture with paralyzed dogs and she agreed to give it a try.
We started some acupuncture treatments, some herbs and some water therapy on the little Doxy and in a couple of months she was up and walking again. All of her functions had returned to normal. But, the story doesn’t end here.
I have always had this annoying habit of looking deeper into the “why did this happen” thing. Dachshunds are notorious for having back problems but this was different. This little Doxy was only 10 months old. Most of the time, back problems happen to older dogs who have had time to develop some predisposing problems. It was after the final treatment that I found out why.
When the caretaker picked up her little dog after the last treatment, she was obviously happy and grateful. Then she told me her story. She said that recently she had been ill. She went to the doctor and they ran a bunch of tests and then told her that she had cancer in her ovary. She had surgery to remove her reproductive tract.
She said that she continue to feel poorly and returned to the doctor. More tests were done and then she received a phone call from her doctor. She was told that they had forgotten to contact her with the pathology report from the tissues that were sent in following her surgery. Apparently, the tissue came back normal, no cancer. Then she was informed that during the follow-up tests, they found out that the cancer was actually in her kidneys and not in her ovaries. She was then given a course of chemotherapy. The chemotherapy was not successful and she was informed that there was no hope for a cure and for her to prepare for her death.
I was shocked to hear her story. Then, she told me that she realized that the veterinary specialist had told her there was no hope for her dog to ever walk again. Yet, she was now walking. She looked at me and said, “I now have hope again. I know there is an answer out there for me, and I am going to find it.”
I wish I could tell you about a remarkable cure for her but I can’t. I don’t know what happened to this lady but I do know that life gave her the opportunity to empower herself instead of being a victim. This is what life can do for us if we are open for the lessons.
So, let’s get back to healing the world. We start by remembering the truth that we are meant to love life and not fix it. Second, we must trust life. Then, how did we get off track? Good question. Let’s look back at your life. When you were a child, you lived life with joyful enthusiasm. Each moment was full of life, from the joy of flying a kite to the pain of a scrape on the knee. Then, when you reached about four or five years of age, something changed.
You began to question things. Your intellectual forebrain developed and it started talking to you. You became eager to learn. You listened to parents, siblings, friends and society itself. You created beliefs and perspectives from the input that you were given. The beliefs and perspectives reflected in your experiences which reenforced your beliefs and perspectives and a strong ego-driven personality developed. Then, the suffering started. You started to listen to the ego-mind instead of trusting life. As Oprah would say, “This is an aha moment.”
The mind has convinced you that there is a you and there is an “out there” that is separate and that your life out there is what makes you happy or not. It not only makes you think this but it uses the body’s senses to reenforce that belief. Pretty hard to deny that. So, if you want to be happy, change your life “out there” and you will find happiness.
Remember your childhood? Did you need something “out there” to make you happy. No. You were happy and it expressed itself “out there.” The truth is that your life “out there” is nothing more than a reflection of your life “inside.” It is a blessing given to you to help you view yourself so that you can make changes to find the truth. When you find the truth, you find joy and the suffering ends.
We are so busy trying to fix our lives “out there” in order to be happy that we miss the truth of why we are given this life. Do you see that the ego-mind that you created that loves the struggle, loves the opinions, loves the emotional ups and downs is depriving you of your inherent right, to be joyful. Instead of fighting life and trying to fix it, we should be allowing life to guide us in making the changes inside that will align ourself with our true self, one of love and joy. The spark of life that entered you and gave you breath, gave you love and joy and it has never left.
In the next blog, I will tell you how to correct this distorted perception and return to the life that you were meant to have……….
How about you? Have you ever tried to fix the “out there” part of your life, without dealing with the truth of why we are given this life? Leave a comment and let me know, I would love to hear from you!
