What turns a person into a patient?
Have a think about it.
Is it a choice that turns a person into a patient? The choice to hand over power for one's own health to someone else. The handing over of power seems mutually beneficial. It maintains the doctor's status, it means the doctor's customer can abdicate responsibility for healing.
I'd like you to play with this thought for a moment. When you visit a doctor you are a customer rather than a patient.
How does that feel? What do customers do? They go into a shop, have a look round, if they need some advice they ask for it and an expert, or someone who thinks they're an expert, happily gives it. If the salesman is experienced the customer will probably make a purchase. If the salesman is ethical then the customer will be pleased with the purchase and feel they have received value for money. But if they are ignored, or made to wait an unreasonable amount of time, or treated rudely, the customer simply takes their business elsewhere.
What do patents do? They arrive five minutes before the agreed appointment time. They go into the reception. They give their name. They are told to sit in the waiting room. Anything from 20 minutes to two hours later they hear their name called. They try as best they can to describe the problem they want taken away. They are given a piece of paper, which they then have to take to a pharmacy to exchange for drugs, and that's the end of it. The whole process generally lasts less than 5 minutes. If/when the drugs don't produce the desired effect the whole process is gone through again. This is all endured stoically, or stressfully, by the patient who feels powerless to bring about the outcome they desire.
And what exactly is this outcome?
The desired outcome is healing. The desired outcome is freedom from the pain, freedom from the discomfort, freedom from the stress, unhappiness or anxiety; freedom from concern that this is something life threatening.
Although the last time I visited a doctor was around 5 years ago, in my life I've spent many, many hours in doctor's and hospital waiting rooms. In all that time I have never once heard a doctor mention the word 'healing'. I've heard about symptoms and diagnoses; I've taken the latest wonder drug on several occasions filled with hope that this was the miracle I've been waiting for only to have that hope dashed as the miracle made me feel worse than I already did.
The miracle that I'd been waiting for was the realisation that I was responsible for my own health and well-being. Only when this happened did I start to heal.
Now I need to make myself clear. Being responsible for your own health does not mean doing your own surgery. It does not mean, selecting the drugs you think you need and buying them from an internet pharmacy. Doctors have valuable knowledge. When I broke my wrist I was very grateful for the knowledge and skills they used to assist my healing. I used their x-ray machines to find out what the damage was. I used their plaster to support my wrist. I used their skills and knowledge and listened to their advice on exercise. But I didn't use their drugs for the pain. I used my own mind to deal with that. And having made that choice the pain was never intolerable and was a useful feedback mechanism to let me know if I was pushing my wrist too fast.
Being responsible for your own health means:
1. Acknowledging there is a physical or psychological problem that you'd like to change.
2. Getting advice from several expert sources, such as... Doctors, Other health practitioners like... Herbalists, Nutritionists, Psychotherapists, Hypnotherapists, Counsellors, Healers, Chiropractors, Past-life regressionists, or Books and of course the internet.
3. Making a choice
Making a choice means going with what feels best to you, and trusting your decision despite pressure from vested interests to follow their particular healing system. I know people who when they have a problem are quite happy to have surgery as soon as possible to get it sorted. I know others who are happy to live with the problem while they explore mind-oriented techniques to see if they can find the emotional cause and release it, thereby healing the problem.
You can even make a different choice every time. There are no rules here, other than to go with what feels right or comfortable to you. Doctors and hospitals are brilliant in emergency situations, but if it isn't an emergency then you probably have some time to consider options. The moment you open your mind up to a different approach to healing you will find that the information you need comes to you in an almost magical way. Coincidences are an indication that you are making the right choices for you.
A selection of self-help books are available on my web site. I particularly recommend The Journey by Brandon Bays.
Michael J. Hadfield MBSCH is a registered clinical hypnotherapist. You can experience his unique style on a popular range of hypnosis CD's and tapes at http://www.hypnosisiseasy.com Here you can also obtain treatment for a variety of problems and explore his approach to health, healing, and hypnosis.
No comments:
Post a Comment