All Is Well: Heal Your Body With Medicine, Affirmations, and Intuition (26 page)

ance the input of both of these realms when facing life’s ups and

downs will bring health in the sixth emotional center.

Sixth Emotional Center Affirmation Theory and Science

According to the Louise Hay affirmation theory, the health of

the sixth emotional center—the brain, eyes, and ears—involves a

capacity to be receptive to information and a flexibility to think

and reason your way out of situations.

The brain is like a computer, receiving information, process-

ing it, and then carrying out the proper function. Information

travels from every part of our body to the brain and from the

brain to the body; however, the brain can be sidetracked in its job

by its emotional components such as fear, anger, and inflexibility.

For example, a person with Parkinson’s disease may be ruled by

fear and an intense desire to control everything and everyone.

The eyes and ears are the conduit from which you learn about

the outside world, and health in each of these areas has to do with

not liking the information you are taking in. For example, all of

the eye problems have to do with fear or anger about the situation

you’re in. Children with eye problems are perhaps trying to avoid

seeing what’s happening in their families, while older people who

are affected by cataracts are maybe afraid of what the future holds.

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So let’s see what medical science has to say about the mind-

body connection underlying illnesses in the sixth emotional

center.

There is a large body of literature proposing that personality

style may predispose certain people to Ménière’s disease or other

ear disorders. Having a Type A personality gives people increased

risk for this disorder. It has been shown that Type A personalities

tend to hear only 20 percent of what is told to them when they

are having a discussion in a relationship.1 Despite having an ex-

ternal appearance of being calm and in control, Ménière’s patients

tend to have a lifelong problem with the outer world—they tend

to experience anxiety, phobias, depression, and feelings of losing

control.2 In essence, people who develop this condition are more

likely to be unable to handle the uncertainty of change.

Disorders of the eyes such as blepharitis (styes), dry eyes, and

glaucoma have been associated with emotional frustration, anger,

and irritability for thousands of years in the study of Traditional

Chinese Medicine. It’s interesting to note that scientific studies are

now also seeing the psychological aspects of eye disorders. In one

study, people with eye pain said they were actively “blotting out”

feelings that they feared would be too painful to tolerate.3

People with Parkinson’s disease tend to exhibit a lifelong pat-

tern of depression, fear, anxiety, and a tendency to control both

their emotions and environment. Scientific studies suggest that

these patients may have been born with a low dopamine level to

begin with, giving them a personality style that avoids risk and

shies away from change. People with Parkinson’s disease tend to

be stoic and law abiding. They are trustworthy citizens, industri-

ous, and belong to a lot of organizations. They are likely to be in

charge and in control.4

Now that you’ve read the science behind illnesses in this re-

gion, what is the next step in healing your sixth emotional center

problems?

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The Brain

People who have brain-related issues such as migraines or

other types of headaches, insomnia, seizures, memory problems,

stroke, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s disease try

to live with their feet planted firmly on the ground. They want

to be good at activities that use both the creative right side of

their brain and the structured left side. These folks often aim to be

skilled in many areas of life, from geometry to history to painting

or music. Living in this manner for a long time often leads to a

crisis that forces them to start seeing the world from a new point

of view. With a brain disorder, they are no longer able to count on

the learning pathways they have always used and they must turn

toward additional sources of intelligence and faith—information

from a higher power.

If you have any of the brain problems above, see a doctor first,

as there are effective medicines and therapies available. However,

modern medicine and alternative remedies can only go so far.

Once you have gotten the acute symptoms under control, take

the next step in your healing. Your long-term health depends on

changing negative thoughts and behaviors that are affecting how

your brain is working and causing illness—in some cases very seri-

ous disease.

Learning new forms of intelligence and experiencing the

world through the eyes of faith can decrease the chances of devel-

oping brain disorders as well as reduce symptoms that are already

present. Most people who are diagnosed with a brain disorder feel

a lot of fear and anxiety. Affirmations are
so
important because

they help rewire the brain away from those thought patterns that

aggravate your illness, help you acquire new ways of thinking, and

bring you a faith in the universe. They actually do take your heal-

ing to the next level.

Rewiring your brain for new ways of thinking and finding

faith in your experiences can help banish the thoughts that could

be making your ailment worse. For example, in affirmation the-

ory the thought patterns associated with epilepsy are rejecting

life, constant struggle, and a sense of persecution. You can open

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yourself up to life and see the good in it with the affirmation “I

choose to see life as eternal and joyous. I am eternal and joyous

and at peace.” Insomnia is associated with feelings of fear and

guilt and not trusting the process of life. If you have trouble with

insomnia coupled with anxiety, you can calm your nerves and

sleep better with the affirmation “I lovingly release the day and

slip into peaceful sleep, knowing tomorrow will take of itself.” Mi-

graine headaches, similarly, are about resisting life and also about

fear of being pushed or driven. You can get relief from migraines

by letting go and repeating the affirmation “I relax into the flow

of life and let life provide all that I need easily and comfortably.

Life is for me.”

Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are associated with

a refusal to deal with the world as it is, being stuck in old ways of

thinking, fearing new ideas, and feeling helplessness and anger.

If this sounds like you, open your heart and mind to new ways of

approaching life with the affirmation “There is always a new and

better way for me to experience life. I forgive and release the past. I

move into joy.” If you are concerned about aging and memory loss

and you feel like you are in a rut, release this judgmental mind-set

with “I love and accept myself at every age. Every moment in life

is perfect.” With Parkinson’s disease there are fear and an intense

desire to control everything and everyone. Give up some of this

control by meditating on the affirmation “I relax knowing that

I am safe. Life is for me, and I trust the process of life.” Multiple

sclerosis is associated with inflexibility and mental hardness, an

iron will. So we need to soften the rigid mind with “By choosing

loving, joyous thoughts, I create a loving, joyous world. I am safe

and free.”

These are a few of the most common brain-related disorders.

For affirmations that Louise recommends for other disorders of

the brain, look up your specific issue on page 183.

In order to achieve the healthier mind-set required to heal

sixth emotional center brain problems, you must work to bring

other forms of intelligence and spirituality into your life. And when

we say
spirituality,
we don’t mean religion. We’re talking about a

connection to something greater than yourself. These issues will

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not be solved by study or logic; they will be solved through medi-

tation and prayer. It is important that you understand that there

is an indefinable power that connects all things—including you.

You must work to connect with the divine if you want to heal.

How you do this is a very personal matter. You may want to set

aside some time each morning to meditate. Or perhaps you can

create space to walk in nature—not judging, or thinking, or figur-

ing. Simply experience the beauty that exists.

If you are able to balance the input of the divine and a new in-

telligence in the earthly world, you will be able to live with health

in the sixth emotional center.

From the Clinic Files: Brain Case Study

Vanessa, a 27-year-old freelance web designer, has an amazing

memory and incredibly sweeping interests in everything from art

to chemistry. Although she did not have the means to go to college

full time after high school, she was determined to get an educa-

tion, taking night classes at the local community college. Known

for her brilliant mind and never at a loss for conversation, Vanessa

was a popular party and dinner guest and she made friends easily.

Despite her lack of a formal higher education, Vanessa devel-

oped a thriving freelance career. She was making money and felt

challenged creatively. But a few years after she started her busi-

ness, she began feeling a prickling numbness in her arms and

hands, was exhausted all the time, and had pounding headaches.

Thinking it was a neck injury from all her long hours at the com-

puter, she spent hundreds of dollars on ergonomic devices for her

office. Nothing seemed to help. Then one day Vanessa woke up

with blurred vision and found she was also unsteady on her feet.

She made an appointment with her doctor, who referred her to a

neurologist. To her disbelief, the doctor said that Vanessa might

have multiple sclerosis (MS). He described this to her as “a progres-

sive neurological disorder in which nerve fiber pathways in the

brain and spinal cord are damaged.” While he wanted to run more

tests, she was too scared for a return visit.

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When Vanessa came to us, the first thing we did was help her

understand that an MS diagnosis is not the end of the world. With

the correct treatment, many people are able to put themselves into

remission and live productive, happy, comfortable lives. But to

quote Dr. Phil, “If you can’t name it, you can’t fix it,” so we encour-

aged Vanessa to follow up with a neurologist she trusted, to find

out what was going on in her central nervous system, brain, and

spinal cord. Within a month she met her physician and scheduled

an MRI to look for damage to the brain or spinal cord, a lumbar

puncture to test for specific proteins called oligoclonal bands, and

a visual evoked potential (VEP) test to measure electrical activity

in the brain. Vanessa’s MRI and lumbar puncture suggested she

did in fact have MS. Additional blood tests made sure her symp-

toms were not caused by another disorder such as Lyme disease,

stroke, or AIDS.

Vanessa set up a varied medical team to look at her next treat-

ment steps for MS.

To set up Vanessa’s brain health program, we first helped her

create imagery about what a healthy brain and nervous system

look like. Our central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord,

looks like an orange on a stick. Akin to an orange, the brain has an

outer, tough, darker layer of cells that surround an inner, lighter

area of nerve fibers. MS is an autoimmune illness in which the

white blood cells produce antibodies that attack this light inner

area. In MS these nerve fibers within the brain, and also those that

proceed down the spinal cord, become scarred with white plaques

and thus are not able to transmit signals normally between the

brain and the body. With this knowledge, Vanessa could use visu-

alizations to see her nerve fibers becoming healthy and unscarred.

We helped her find audio versions of guided imagery, including a

CD specifically for people with MS. The CD,
A Meditation to Help

You with Multiple Sclerosis,
was created by Belleruth Naparstek, one

of the pioneers of guided imagery who have helped prove the ben-

eficial effects of this type of treatment.

Second, sent Vanessa back to her neurologist who showed

her the drugs that were available to treat her MS. For this disease,

physicians employ drugs for three reasons: to treat the symptoms,