Taking it on Faith

by Elana Zaiman

Liv Fun: Vol 5 – Issue 1

Do you trust your doctors? Do you believe in your body’s ability to heal? Does prayer play a part in your healing process?

Dr. Larry Dossey, internationally known in the field of spirituality and medicine, has been gathering research in these areas for years, and he has discovered that an affirmative answer to these questions is essential to the healing process. He is not alone.

In his book Healing Words (Dossey, 1993), Dr. Dossey writes that we must choose our doctors with care. He suggests that we find doctors whose belief structure is similar to our own. By this, he does not mean that we must choose doctors whose religion matches ours. Rather, he means that we must choose doctors who are on the same wavelength as us in regard to the healing process so we can trust them to help us. Yes, credentials matter, but credentials should not trump trust.

As an example of a wrong fit in belief structure between doctor and patient, Dr. Dossey cites a letter he received from a woman living with AIDS who wrote, “I began to realize my doctor doesn’t believe I’m going to live … It takes me two weeks to recover from a visit to him. He leaves me depressed and feeling sick … Why do I feel like my own physician is killing me?”

Clearly, this match between doctor and patient was far from ideal. Worse, it was destructive. Unfortunately, this kind of mismatch happens every day when patients feel their beliefs are at odds with their physicians or other medical providers.

Trusting our doctors is important, but it’s not enough. Our thoughts and beliefs about our body’s ability to heal also affect our healing in powerful ways. In his book Be Careful What You Pray For … (Dossey, 1997), Dr. Dossey illustrates the power of mind over body in citing a study about retinal detachment. He relates how eye surgeon Dr. Graham Clark discovered a 400% difference in healing time after surgery between his most and his least successful healers. Why the difference?

Read Entire Article

Liv Fun

by Leisure Care
Winter 2016
View Table of Contents

Unfaithful
by Deborah Grassman

“Oh, wow!” According to his sister, and reported in The New York Times, those were the words Steve Jobs exclaimed just before he died. Is it possible to discover that “Wow!” earlier in life? Could aging connect to that “Wow!”, offering something we need? Have we gotten too arrogant or controlling to realize that aging has something to teach us?

Read More

The Sky Is Falling

by Brad Jensen

Do you remember the children’s story about Chicken Little and Foxy Loxy? The Brothers Grimm tale starts when an acorn inexplicably falls and hits Chicken Little on the head. Panicking and believing the “sky is falling,” she sets out to tell all her friends. We’re then led on a madcap tour as Chicken Little and her friends scurry around telling everyone near and far that the sky is falling.