Can you cure me?
Friday, June 1st, 2007
A therapist cannot legally claim to cure a condition and while I know many people have gained optimum health after using therapies, the reality is that because every person is unique one therapy that may work for one person, may not necessarily work for another. This can sometimes lead to confusion and misunderstanding about the wellness industry.
Marketing campaigns for drug companies add to this confusion claiming that their tablets, gels, sprays and creams will make you feel better. I remember thinking as a child how clever my dad's paracetamol was. For years I thought that these clever little tablets knew precisely where to find his headache! It's not surprising when the adverts use images like a target practise board to communicate their message that the tablets 'target pain.'
In this society of quick fix, when we get a headache we reach for the painkillers. One tablet will numb the pain as well as all the other bits that don't need to be numbed. If we look at the fact that not every headache is caused by the same thing we start to realise that the painkiller didn't actually cure our headache, it suppressed it.
The same goes for most medication. Medication is used to suppress the symptom, which can be a great relief if you are in pain but if you want to actually cure the pain, you need to find the root cause. If we take the example of the headache, how was it caused? Perhaps by a food allergy, dehydration, tension, poor posture, too much heat or eye strain. With so many causes it is now easy to see that deciding on a therapy is not quite such an easy task.
The approach of the doctor is to prescribe medication, which we now know will suppress the illness rather that cure it.
A nutritional therapist would identify food allergies, get you to drink more water, cut out caffeine and offer advice on foods most suited to your requirements.
A massage therapist would work on the knots to get rid of the tension.
A Reiki practitioner would help you relax and would rebalance you energetically.
An osteopath or chiropractor would check and correct your alignment and offer postural advice.
An optician would check for eyestrain.
A life or business coach would help you get the right work/life balance to prevent stress.
Get the picture?
The skill in curing any illness is taking personal responsibility for your illness or condition and taking the time to understand your body, listen to your intuition and give your body and mind what it needs to heal itself.
Most people instinctively know what has made them ill, we just get lazy and expect someone else to offer us that magic cure. Unfortunately there isn't one. There is some good news though. Given the right nutrition, external conditions and a positive mind, it appears that the human body has an amazing ability to heal itself. All you need is time, a greater understanding of yourself and an open mind.
