The Seven Tools of Healing

Are you ready to take your healing to the next level? Do you want to find and treat the real root causes of whatever problems you are facing? So much of what we do in medicine, both conventional and natural, to work on our healing, is aimed at changing what is already present in our life, in other words, what has already been created. The next level, then, is aimed at working to change what brought that problem or issue into our life in the first place. The current level treats symptoms; the next level treats causes. When you do both, you have a complete system of healing that you can apply to any and all problems you are facing…and get good results. This book will show you how to add the next level to whatever you are doing now to help yourself. The world we live in can be divided into two aspects: the tangible and the intangible. The tangible is everything that can be weighed and measured. I think of the tangible as those aspects of creation that are governed by the laws of nature: matter, energy, and information. The intangible are things like your hopes and dreams, your inspirations, meaning, fulfillment, love, symbolism, the spiritual. I think of the intangible as those aspects of creation that are governed by the laws of consciousness. All of science is devoted to discovering and exploring the laws of nature. Not much is said in our culture of the laws of consciousness. In this book, we’ll explore some of those laws as they relate to healing. Consciousness is creative, so every aspect of creation, both the tangible and intangible, embodies or reflects some aspect of consciousness. Even the laws of nature are created by consciousness. So, if you want to work on the root causes of anything, including your health issues, or any other problem in your life, you have to work with consciousness; specifically, whatever determines the particular aspects of consciousness that come forth and express themselves as your life. What are those determinants of conscious expression? Which ones do you have any say over? How do you find and change them? You will find the answers to these questions in this book. There are no reasons why you can’t treat symptoms and find and treat root causes at the same time. I was recently talking to a friend, another functional medicine doctor, who has been going through a very difficult divorce. He took some supplements to support his adrenal glands and energy and felt much more able to stay active and productive in the face of the stress. But he didn’t stop there. He was also learning a tremendous amount about himself. What was going on inside of him when he married her…why he put up with the abuse and put-downs for so long…the affects his upbringing had on his self-esteem and how to correct it…it was a long list. He was emerging from this very difficult experience with a much deeper understanding of who he really is in his heart of hearts, beneath many of the limiting beliefs he’d been operating with his whole adulthood. He has extensive functional medicine knowledge that he used to support his body/mind/energy but he also recognized that this major life transition was a wake-up call to the need to make some deep and lasting inner changes. In this book, you will learn how to put the two approaches together like he is doing. Like him, your life is giving you a constant flow of invitations to answer the question, “Who am I?” One problem with really effective symptomatic treatments is that, once the symptoms are gone, you may lose your motivation to keep looking and learning. If you do, you will actually slow your healing and prolong your suffering. But once you’ve been chasing symptoms long enough to come to realize that, from the perspective of the bigger picture of your life, you have just been treading water, you are less likely to fall into that complacency trap. This book will give you the tools and techniques you can use to really dig deep and get the full breadth and depth of what your life is offing you. The motivation to do so must come from you. Who are you, in your heart of hearts? Get curious. Take a moment and imagine the life that you could create if you could really live the freedom that is your birthright. Imagine freeing yourself from limiting beliefs, from false or warped perceptions, from that harsh, nagging inner critic. Imagine being able to listen to your body and correct imbalances so that your physiology is able to work correctly. Imagine being able to listen to your feelings and receive all the information that your life is feeding to you and then make good decisions in response. All these things I’ve witnessed in my patients as they’ve worked to heal their lives. This book will give you all the information you need to start healing your own life. But even the best information, even the deepest truths, by themselves, are not enough: only you can put the information into practice for yourself; no one else can do that for you. But how do you know that what you are practicing will give you the skills you need? Toward that end, there are practical exercises, gleaned from years of clinical experience, sprinkled throughout the book to help you develop the skills you need to put this information to the best use for you. The good news: if you run into resistance, procrastination, or the trap of life getting too busy, you can use the tools in this book to overcome any blocks you may have to your growth. All excuses have now been erased: nothing can stop you from growing.