All Is Well: Heal Your Body With Medicine, Affirmations, and Intuition (24 page)

approve of myself. I am safe); general inflammation (My thinking

is peaceful, calm, and centered); health conditions that include

the suffix -itis (I am willing to change all patterns of criticism.

I love and approve of myself); general bone health (I am well

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structured and balanced); bone deformity (I breathe in life fully. I

relax and trust the flow and the process of life), cavities (I fill my

decisions with love and compassion. My new decisions support

me and strengthen me. I have new ideas and put them into action.

I am safe in my new decisions); and osteomyelitis (I am peaceful

with and trust the process of life. I am safe and secure).

Sierra’s new eating habits, medicine, behavioral modifications,

and affirmations helped her overcome the pain and inflammation

that were affecting her mouth—and in the meantime, she was

also creating some healthy, lasting relationships.

Neck Problems

Neck pain, arthritis, and stiffness often come to those peo-

ple who have amazing communication skills—both listening

and speaking. Trying to see both sides of almost any story, they

often become ill when their ability to clearly communicate things

doesn’t work as they expect it to. When an argument can’t be

settled by talking or when something in their lives goes wrong

and they can’t control it, they often become aggravated and stub-

born, sticking to their opinion and refusing to consider other

viewpoints. The frustration that leads to the breakdown in com-

munication often creates illness in the neck.

If you are one of the millions of people who suffer pain, stiff-

ness, arthritis, whiplash, slipped disks, and other neck problems,

you have probably tried the gamut of treatments, including sur-

gery, chiropractic, acupuncture, traction, yoga, or medications for

pain. Any or all of these may offer temporary relief but probably

won’t provide a permanent cure. So what is the prescription for

better and more balanced communication and lasting relief from

painful neck problems?

In addition to medicine and behavioral changes, you must

identify and change the negative thoughts that are triggering

your health problems. In Louise’s affirmation theory, the healthy

neck and cervical spine represents flexibility and the ability to see

both sides of a conversation. But turn this concept on its head by

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introducing an unbending mind-set or bullheadedness and health

turns to illness and disease—in this case, a stiff or painful neck.

People with neck problems, in general, tend to not be as good at

the listening aspect of communication because they cling to set

opinions and block out new ideas. They tend to be stubborn and

inflexible and unable to see or understand other people’s points of

view. A good affirmation to counter inflexibility and the closed-

mindedness associated with general neck problems is “I welcome

new ideas and new concepts and prepare them for digestion and

assimilation. I am peaceful with life.” Although the general theme

is communication, your affirmation will vary depending on the

source of the pain and the underlying emotion. For example, a

slipped disk in the neck is associated with feeling unsupported by

life and also with being indecisive and not able to communicate

your thoughts or needs clearly. So to heal, meditate on the words

“Life supports all of my thoughts; therefore, I love and approve of

myself and all is well.”

As you incorporate affirmations into your everyday life, you

should begin to notice a shift in the way you think.

Once your neck is healthier, some fundamental changes must

occur to maintain equilibrium while moving forward. Learning

to accept your emotional limitations in the middle of a discus-

sion is one key to improving your neck problems. You do have

an amazing skill for intuitively listening, understanding, and

making logical arguments. However, you must accept where your

intellectual power to reason and communicate ends. When you

encounter conflicts that you can’t resolve, don’t push your opin-

ion stubbornly, adding to the frustration of the situation. Instead

remind yourself that there are multiple answers to every problem.

Realize that your role is only one part of the solution. Finding bal-

ance between what you can control and what you can’t and know-

ing when it is time to walk away from conflict will lead to better

health in the fifth emotional center.

Important practices for those who might have neck problems

are meditation and mindfulness. Meditation can help you become

more in touch with your emotions, and living mindfully will help

you understand how these emotions affect you in the moment.

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Once you are able to identify the sensations and emotions that

indicate a shift in your communication style from diplomat to

dictator, you can consciously make the choice to listen even more

closely. You can work harder to keep an open mind. So when you

experience a difficult conflict, you will be able to come to it with a

new perspective and a sense of peace. It’s important to realize that

people can disagree on a point of view and still be in harmony,

peace, and love with one another. What a concept.

We can create so many problems for ourselves by our attitudes.

Stubbornness, inflexibility, and trying to fix other people against

their will can all contribute to neck problems.

From the Clinic Files: Neck Problems Case Study

Raelynn, age 52, was famous in her family for her ability to

settle a disagreement, often to the satisfaction of all parties. Every

time there was a major legal dispute in the news, her family would

joke that Raelynn could win it, no problem. Whether it was a fam-

ily quarrel or a disagreement at work, Raelynn was truly a master

negotiator—able to see both sides of the argument. But she could

also be stubborn and willful, like a dog with a bone, not giving up

but not listening either. On these occasions she became aggressive

and angry and turned people off.

Raelynn mostly led by enthusiastic example throughout her

life, raising her two children alone while working as a nurse prac-

titioner. She believed in the power of positive thinking and taught

her children as well as her patients that anything is possible if you

set your mind to it. Raelynn’s children, however, failed to thrive.

Both ended up in trouble with the law at very young ages, and

Raelynn worked tirelessly to help them.

As her adult-age children continued to struggle, Raelynn

began to feel a sharp, shooting pain in her neck along with weak-

ness, numbness, and tingling in some of her fingers.

To help Raelynn create a healthier neck, we needed her to know

what a healthy neck would look like. Our spines are composed of

a series of bones—vertebrae—stacked on top of one another and

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separated with puffy, shock-absorbing pillows called disks. The

vertebrae and disks are critical in that they protect the spinal cord

and its nerves, which run from the brain to every movable limb

in the body.

The sudden onset of Raelynn’s symptoms was scary to her,

and even her doctors were quite concerned. When neck problems

get worse quickly, as Raelynn’s had, neurologists often suspect

that a disk or something even more serious may be compressing

nerves or the spinal cord. Even though Raelynn wanted to go out

and “walk off the pain,” we suggested she follow her neurologist’s

suggestion to get an MRI to better understand what was happen-

ing in her neck.

There were two possibilities for Raelynn. She could have a disk

bulge, in which the shock-absorbing disk is slightly misshapen but

there is still room for the spinal cord to move. This less-severe in-

jury could be treated with over-the-counter pain medication such

as aspirin or Advil. She could also implement acupuncture,
qigong,

and Yamuna body rolling to strengthen her muscles above and

below the neck to prevent symptoms.

The other possibility was a slipped disk, and this ended up

being Raelynn’s problem. The MRI verified that she had a cervical

disk prolapse in the C7 vertebrae of her neck. It also showed that

the disk was compressing the spinal cord and pushing it against

the vertebrae. Raelynn’s doctors were concerned about this esca-

lating into a neurological injury.

Given the rapid progression of Raelynn’s symptoms and the

fact that the disk was compressing her spinal cord, her medical

team decided that surgery was her best option. Raelynn picked a

neurosurgical team that she trusted and we made sure she met and

liked her anesthesiologist before the surgery.

To prepare for her surgery, we suggested that Raelynn use im-

agery practices. Visualizations and imagery work have been shown

to calm and relax patients and promote tissue healing during and

after surgery. We helped Raelynn visualize exactly what the sur-

geon would be doing in her neck in the operating room, so she

could “assist” with her own surgery even though she was anes-

thetized. Before she lay down on the pre-op table, Raelynn knew

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that the neurosurgeons were going to go in through the front of

her neck, “decompress,” or remove, some of her vertebral bone,

remove the disk, and replace it with a metal prosthetic “cage” to

make her neck more sturdy.

After the surgery, Raelynn was amazed; she was 100 percent

pain free. But she wanted to keep her neck healthy. Exercise is a

very important part of rehabilitation, but she wouldn’t be able to

work out for a few months following her surgery. We suggested

that when she finally got back to the gym, she give up running

and use an elliptical trainer instead. The Cybex arc trainer is spe-

cifically designed to prevent the neck-injuring lean-forward posi-

tion. We also recommended that she buy high-quality shoes with

great shock resistance. Nike Shox, Asics Gel-Kinsei shoes, or others

with similar support would help put padding under her feet and

thus under her spine.

Even though she didn’t have a personality disorder, Raelynn

bought the book
Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Person-

ality Disorder
by Marsha Linehan and learned the communication

skill exercise called DEAR MAN. This mindfulness-assertiveness

exercise teaches you how to say something at the right volume and

with the right words and inflections to maximize positive results.

Through this, she would learn when and how to say something

to her children, patients, or loved ones and when to let things go.

She also tried to meditate daily to become more in tune with her

feelings. With these skills she would be able to identify the frustra-

tion she felt in the heat of an argument and perhaps step back and

not become so stubborn. Finally, Raelynn worked to learn
qigong

to ease her stress.

Raelynn also started working with the affirmations for general

neck health (I am peaceful with life); neck problems (It is with

flexibility and ease that I see all sides of an issue. There are endless

ways of doing things and seeing things. I am safe); degenerative

disks (I am willing to learn to love myself. I allow my love to sup-

port me. I am learning to trust life and accept its abundance. It is

safe for me to trust); general pain (I lovingly release the past. They

are free and I am free. All is well in my heart now); and general

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joint health (I easily flow with change. My life is Divinely guided,

and I am always going in the best direction).

As with everything else in her life, Raelynn kept a positive

outlook and worked to overcome her thought patterns and behav-

iors that led to her neck problems. She was soon back in the game,

with a better perspective on life and communication.

Thyroid Problems

People who have thyroid problems are often so porous and

intuitive that they can see what needs to happen in other people’s

lives to make them better. Unfortunately, their solutions are often

unpopular, and these people frequently don’t know how to give

voice to what they know in a way that would be socially accept-

able. They often try to express themselves indirectly, hinting at

what they want or being very tentative—all in an effort to avoid

conflict. However, if a situation gets too bad or their frustration