About thirty years ago I was told I might have lymph cancer. My mother had lymph cancer so I already owned a most unpleasant knowledge of the disease. I sat on top of a small mountain near my home and considered my choices. I was not afraid of dying, but I decided I was not going to die that way.

The next decision was to abandon the standard medical route. In the past I recovered best when I ignored or did the opposite of doctors’ advice. This was strictly my personal experience and certainly not a universal truth for all.

Take Personal Responsibility

It is essential that we take responsibility for our own healing. Fear motivates giving our decision making to an authority figure such as a doctor, alternative practitioner, or even a quack. Too many people quickly surrender a proactive role in their own care, failing to fully utilize their own powerful creative healing processes.

Seeking possible options, I referred to my favorite herbal book, “Indian Herbalogy of North America” by Alma R. Hutchens.

Without testing to confirm lymph cancer, I already knew eating food, any food, immediately made me ill. My lymphatic system was overloaded with toxins and the act of eating added to the burden on my system. I was so weak my young daughter had to help me open and close the sleeper sofa I used for a bed in our little studio house.

For those reasons I was attracted to chaparral, which had been used in Russia as an anti-cancer treatment. Chaparral forces the release of toxins, which seemed like the perfect place to start my healing process.

However, chaparral is also called creosote bush, and the tea is appallingly similar to boiled railroad ties. I made another decision. I frankly would rather die than drink that tea.

Follow Clear Intuition

Chaparral bushes were plentiful around my home. Twice a day I picked the tiny sticky green leaves and swallowed them whole with water. I intuitively chose differing amounts each time.

This horrified my herbalist friend who said I must boil the leaves to release the oils and the dosage was wrong, etc. I told her I would be just fine and continued taking my leaves.

I got a lot sicker. When so many toxins head for the nearest exits, the process can be miserable indeed. Some ten day periods of time I could only eat one meal. Not per day, one meal during the entire ten days.

That slowly began to improve. Massive fevers accompanied deep aches in my lymph nodes. I was encouraged as it felt like I was getting to the core of the problem.

Progress continued to be gradual. I was surprised one day when I cut myself and the wound oozed clear fluid, something that had not happened in a long time.

After six months I could eat normally so I quit the chaparral. I gained weight and my friends stopped having conniptions about my choices.

The Path to Creative Healing

I found a viable healing path for myself because I discerned and honored my own authentic intuitions. The major hazards when choosing an alternative, or even a conventional, healing path are self deception and lack of clear inner knowing.

Bad decisions result from those forms of illusion. Mistaking emotionally loaded internal pressures for intuition is a common phenomenon and truly dangerous in a crisis. Spiritual egotism masquerading as intuition is equally risky. Anyone taking such a major gamble with their life had best be well practiced at discerning and following their own intuitions.

However, we constantly gamble with our lives, whether we notice or not. A health crisis simply makes it obvious. It is wise to constantly cultivate the awareness and use of clear intuition, a skill that offers personal healing in many ways.

Hmmm, it appears I gave the wrong description when I submitted this to the Carnival of Metaphysics. My apologies for that error, shades of my Struggling Bumbling Newbies post! On the plus side, I found some interesting articles in the Carnival, have a look and see what you think. And you are still welcome to read the Road Reiki for Travelers article!

This post also appears in the Carnival of Natural Health, which has another highly useful collection of articles.

 

 

Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2007. All Rights Reserved.