Wisdom Week Wrap-Up October 20

Quotes that are food for thought

So many great quotes come out of my conversations with my guests! This is a weekly piece with some words that might just get you thinking about your own life.

This week healing and personal growth is on my mind. Here are some stories and thoughts on healing our bodies, minds and souls.

“We need a bigger toolbox.” -Delia Chiaramonte, MD

Delia had practiced allopathic medicine for years. But when her daughter fell from a horse and experienced severe head trauma and a seemingly incurable set of life changing issues, she was forced to look at a wider range of therapies, well outside the standard medical tool box.

This meant researching, trial and error and even using intuition for guidance. It meant perseverance and a suspension of belief in traditional medical modalities. It meant being open to possibility.

Where does routine or belief limit your sense of possibility? What might you find if you dared to test those limits?

“Thoughts are chemical. They can either kill us or cure us.” -Bernie Siegel, MD

Bernie’s beliefs about healing and health were far ahead of his time. He believed in the power of the mind, to influence the body’s ability to heal. I first heard Bernie speak at Yale, to a room full of surgeons who readily dismissed his “woo” notions.

But his observations about his patients and their ability to impact their medical outcome based, at least in part, by their mind set and belief systems turned out to be more than “woo”. Bernie was right.

This week, think about your thoughts. Catch yourself when you go down that negative rabbit hole. Instead, consciously guide your thoughts to a place of positivity, possibility and gratitude. Can you keep them there? How does it influence your behavior towards yourself and others?

“I bought into the concept that you had to choose between science or spirituality because the two could not co-exist.”-Mary Neal, MD

Mary Neal’s story stays with me always. She is a retired spine surgeon. She lives in medical a world you can touch, measure and weigh everything, and logically evaluate it all. But when she went over a waterfall on the Fuy Rive in Chile and died, her life view changed.

NDE’s (Near Death Experiences) are often pivot points in people’s lives. In Mary’s case, she spent a year trying to disprove the reality of her experience. She marshaled all her tools of intellect and inquiry, but she couldn’t disprove her near death experience. Mary, a nominal Christian, says she went “from hope to trust” regarding her personal spirituality.

How would greater trust change your life view? How might it influence your body, mind and soul?