Choosing to Heal

Part 1 (A 3-part series)

– Wanda Buckner

Sally was sure she couldn’t be helped. She came to my Healing Energy Services office because a friend suggested it, not because she thought anything could be done. She matter-of-factly told me about her on-the-job injury and the resulting pains and limitations. She recounted the doctors she’d seen and the therapies she’d tried. She was on Workers’ Compensation and planned to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance.

I asked Sally if she liked her job. “No.” Was it stressful? “Yes.” Did she want to work again? Sally paused…For a long time. If Sally did not want to return to work, she would not recover. Her body would support her desire and remain compromised.

When Sally weighed the pros and cons of recovering and returning to work against being painful and limited in her activities for the rest of her life, she chose to recover. Sally healed physically, mentally, and emotionally and returned to her job. She finished thirty years with the company and retired with a healthy body and full benefits.

When life isn’t worth living…

At sixty-four, my mother experienced debilitating angina. The pain was excruciating. It doubled her over and took her breath away. Mom’s primary physician sent her to a specialist. However, he could not find a cause for her intense, seemingly random, gut wrenching pain. Mom would have to live with it. She gave up driving; she was afraid she would be gripped with pain, have an accident and kill herself, or worse yet, someone else. She quit going shopping, eating out, and visiting friends. She refused to leave the house for fear of suddenly convulsing in agony. I bought Mom stamps and stationery, accepting that she would be a shut-in for the remainder of her life.

Between the pain and the isolation, Mom felt life wasn’t worth living. She decided she’d either find the answer or she’d die. Mom made an appointment at an out-of-state, highly respected, heart diagnostic center. A cardiac catheterization showed a small anomaly on her heart, a protrusion that sometimes occurred on the hearts of alcoholics. However, this anomaly was not enough to explain her pain and Mom had no history of drinking. Despite her effort, time, and expense, nothing was solved.

Assured by the cardiologist that the pain was not about her heart, Mom looked for other causes. The pain was slowly killing her—it robbed her of her appetite, her energy, her zest for life. Could it really be heartburn as others had suggested? Mom systematically eliminated foods from her diet. Within a month, she had her answer. The culprit was tea! The health questionnaires Mom filled out asked how many cups of coffee did she drink a day, how many cigarettes did she smoke, how many alcoholic drinks did she have? The answer to these was none. No one asked about tea.

Mom found out she was so sensitive to caffeine that even the smallest amount triggered severe angina. Her discovery also explained her sensitivity to many prescriptions and over-the counter medications—the often unlisted ingredient, caffeine. After Mom gave up tea and everything else that might have caffeine in it, she lived angina free another thirty years.

Giving Away or Keeping our Power

Too often we give our power to a doctor, a naturopath, a shaman, a healer, a guru. The power to heal lies within ourselves. This is well illustrated in a reading I did for Leona about other lives she and her cat, Princess Daisy, shared. I will share this reading in Part 2 of Choosing to Heal.

Part 3 of Choosing to Heal – Heal or Cured or Both

****”Choosing to Heal” by Wanda Buckner, was originally published in Heal Thy Self: Tapping Your Innate Wisdom to Heal Your Mind, Body, and Spirit, compiled by Sue Urda and Kathy Flyer, published by Powerful You! Publishing, 2017, available through Amazon.