Working with my ideas is not the only way to change. There are many other methods that work quite well. In You Can Heal Your Life, I have included a list of many of the ways you could approach your own growth process.
The Spiritual Approach To Change
Just think of a few now. There is the spiritual approach, there is the mental approach, and there is the physical approach. Holistic healing includes body, mind, and spirit. You can begin in any one of these areas as long as you eventually include all the areas. Some begin with the mental approach and do workshops or therapy. Some begin in the spiritual area with meditation or prayer.
When you begin to clean your house, it really doesn’t matter which room you start in. Just begin in the area that appeals to you most. The others will happen almost by themselves.
The Importance Of Nutrition
Junk food eaters who begin on the spiritual level often find that they are drawn to nutrition. They meet a friend or find a book or go to a class that brings them to an understanding that what they put into their bodies will have a lot to do with how they feel and look. One level will always lead to another as long as there is the willingness to grow and change.
I give very little nutritional advice because I have discovered that all systems work for some people. I do have a local network of good practitioners in the holistic field, and I refer clients to them when I see the necessity for nutritional knowledge. This is an area where you must find your own way or go to a specialist who can test you.
Many of the books on nutrition have been written by persons who were very ill and worked out a system for their own healing. Then they wrote a book to tell everyone else the methods they used. However, everyone is not alike.
For instance, the macrobiotic and the natural raw food diets are two totally different approaches. The raw food people never cook anything, seldom eat bread or grains, and are very careful not to eat fruits and vegetables at the same meal. And they never use salt. The macrobiotic people cook almost all of their food, have a different system of food combining, and use a lot of salt. Both systems work. Both systems have healed bodies. But neither system is good for everybody’s body.
My personal nutritional approach is simple. If it grows, eat it. If it doesn’t grow, don’t eat it.
Be conscious of your eating. It’s like paying attention to our thoughts. We also can learn to pay attention to our bodies and the signals we get when we eat in different ways.
Cleaning the mental house after a lifetime of indulging in negative mental thoughts is a bit like going on a good nutritional program after a lifetime of indulging in junk foods. They both can often create healing challenges. As you begin to change your physical diet, the body begins to throw off the accumulation of toxic residue, and as this happens, you can feel rather rotten for a day or two. So it is when you make a decision to change the mental thought patterns – your circumstances can begin to seem worse for a while.
Recall for a moment the end of a Thanksgiving dinner. The food is eaten, and it’s time to clean the turkey pan. The pan is all burnt and crusty, so you put in hot water and soap and let it soak for a while. Then you begin to scrape the pan. Now you really have a mess; it looks worse than ever. But, if you just keep scrubbing away, soon you will have a pan as good as new.
It’s the same thing with cleaning up a dried-on crusty mental pattern. When we soak it with new ideas, all the gook comes to the surface to look at. Just keep doing the new affirmations, and soon you will have totally cleared an old limitation.
