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Health & Fitness

WHAT TO BELIEVE (OR NOT) ABOUT OUR HEALTH by Kim Wiklund

I welcome this blog by a member of my team, Kim Wiklund, a spiritual thinker and seeker.

 

Coca-Cola can cure morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia (nerve weakness), headache and impotence!  That was the claim made in 1886 by the manufacturers of this new patent “medicine” that was being sold at soda fountains for 5 cents a glass.  What is well known today (but wasn’t then) is that the main ingredients of Coca-Cola were significant doses of cocaine and caffeine.  And if you think that first recipe would have raised some eyebrows, you should know that Parke Davis began marketing various legal cocaine products in 1885, stating that they would “supply the place of food, make the coward brave, the silent eloquent and render the sufferer insensitive to pain.” [1]

 

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Today, we probably would think such claims to be ill informed and naïve.  But it wasn’t so long ago that it was commonly believed that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was good for menopausal women, until a study came out in 2002 that said HRT could increase the incidence of breast cancer.  And how about taking multivitamins?  From the time I was a child we were assured that taking one a day was beneficial.  Recent studies now say that you are better off just eating a well-rounded diet. [2]

 

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We are bombarded by health advice from the moment we turn on our television sets.  There is no end to theories and suggested treatments regarding how to remain healthy from pharmaceutical ads to Dr. Oz.  I ask myself, will all of that good advice we are getting today still be as good tomorrow?  Who or what should I believe?

 

In her book “Mind Over Medicine” Dr. Lissa Rankin says this: “As doctors, we like to believe we know your body better than you do. The whole medical establishment is based on such a notion. Most people are happy to function within this paradigm. The alternative—that you have more power to heal your own body than you’ve ever imagined—lobs the responsibility for health back into your court, and many people feel like that’s just too much responsibility. It’s much easier to hand over your power and hope someone smarter, wiser, and more experienced can “fix” you.

But what if we’ve got it all wrong? What if, by denying the fact that the body is naturally wired to heal itself and the mind operates this self- healing system, we’re actually sabotaging ourselves?”

 

There’s a lot written today about mind over matter and the power of positive thinking.  But what is this “mind?” In much of what is written “mind” is equated with human thinking. But, in a recent interview, Dr. Eben Alexander, the author of “Proof of Heaven”, asserts that consciousness is not brain but rather:  “Consciousness is the        thing that exists.  It is the support, the basis on which all of the universe is based.  Consciousness is our oneness with the Divine.  It is pure God-given love and power.” [3]

 

Mary Baker Eddy, a nineteenth century health seeker and Christian healer puts it quite nicely:  “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, - neither in nor of matter, - and the body will then utter no complaints.  If suffering from a belief in sickness you will find yourself suddenly well.” [4]

 

In her book, “Dying to Be Me”, Anita Moorjani tells us:  “Since I now see myself as an infinite being, the physical takes care of itself because it’s only a reflection of what’s going on within my soul.”

 

So, as infinite and spiritual beings, we have a consciousness that is irrevocably attached to a Divine source, one that provides us with an unending supply of what is needed for good mental and physical health.  All that we have to do is to acknowledge and tap into it. That’s something I can believe in.

 

1.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cocaine

2.      Annals of Internal Medicine, December 16, 2013

3.      The Christian Science Journal: Vol. 132, Issue 02

4.      Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, Prayer: Page 14:12.

 

Kim Wiklund, the newest member of Kate’s blog team, is a life-long spiritual seeker who began her study of Christian Science relatively recently.  As such, she looks forward to exploring more about spirituality and the important part it plays in our overall health through her blogs.  She is a classically trained guitarist and recently took up the banjo as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 





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