I have long known and experienced the power of gratitude, and of focusing on what we want, rather than what we don’t want.  But I had never realized the full impact of these energies on healing until I saw Alan Cohen and Gregg Braden share their powerful experiences with cancer patients.   And like them, I had to realign my belief system.

In the Introduction to “Enough Already: The Power of Radical Contentment,” Cohen tells of Shin-ichiro Terayama, a Japanese sold-state electrical physicist, who in 1983, at the age of 47, developed cancer in his right kidney.  Surgery, chemo, and radiation all failed, and faced with death, Shin turned to naturopathy, a therapy that relies on natural remedies, such as sunlight, diet and massage.  But he also turned to playing the cello, something he had set aside in his busy life 25 years before, and he credits this with the disappearance of his cancer three and a half years later.  As Cohen explains, “He went to a Japanese garden and considered what would make his life meaningful, whether he lived one more day or another 40 years. His answer was: to be grateful for everyone and everything—including his cancer, as a wake-up call. From that day on, Shin said, ‘Thank you’ for every event and experience that showed up in and around him.”  Today Shin conducts “Smile Workshops,” designed to “discover small uplifting feelings,” “experience and fully taste uplifting emotion through workshop activities,” and to “be filled with gratitude.  Andrew Weil, M.D., also tells Shin’s story in his book, “Spontaneous Healing:  How to Discover and Embrace Your Body’s Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself.”

But really?  Spontaneously healing?

Braden shares a film of a Chinese woman with a 3 inch tumor in her bladder treated in a “medicine-less hospital” treated by three doctors trained to create the feeling that she is already healed.  As they perform this, we watch a sonogram showing the tumor shrink to nothing–in just three minutes:

What can we make of this?  Sure, our own limiting beliefs hold us back in many areas of our lives, but this evidence suggests our societal assumptions are keeping us separate from massively effective treatment for conditions we cannot currently treat well–or so we think.  Only “think”–and we can learn to think and feel differently, with different results.  As Deepak Chopra asks in “Quantum Healing,” why is watching the body heal a broken arm normal, but healing cancer a miracle?  As Braden explains, this is not an isolated occurrence in China at all.  The problem is that we cling to our notions of how physics works, ignoring the evidence showing where our model is falling short.

I had my own experience in spontaneous healing when I first had my Reconnection and was unexpectedly healed from degenerative disc disease.  Just as Braden mentions, the Zero Point Field of energy in not only demonstrable, but also practical, superseding in my case my limiting beliefs.  These higher frequencies act as a spiritual DNA, repairing damage, real or perceived, in ways that seem amazing to us.   Yet the evidence is here.

We are vibration, energy, and frequency.  Just as we “lift” our mood, our spirits, thoughts that feel good are higher than ones that “bring us down.”  I’ve noticed that virtually all my healing clients report feeling calm, peaceful, and positive after their session.  I don’t think this is coincidence–I think it’s the prerequisite for healing, so naturally the first thing that happens when healing.  First, feel good.  Then heal.

Yes, that’s backwards from what we might think–feel good after we heal.  But evidence suggests we’ve got a lot of approaches backwards from the start.  We need to rethink not only healing, but when to heal–if we’re not feeling happy, it’s time to reassess, and either rethink, redirect, or get outside help with that healing.

Happiness is our natural state.  So is health.  Let’s start there with that belief, and accept it with gratitude.