The last post covered the seven steps you can take to healing. The first and most important step is to learn to love yourself unconditionally. This is not an instant fix; it requires solid work over a period of time. However, loving yourself unconditionally is the most important thing you can do to create health and healing.

What does it mean to love yourself unconditionally? It means placing no conditions on yourself or on your love. We often expect that we have to behave in a certain way to be acceptable – we always must do the right thing or say the right thing in order to be lovable. But we are lovable whatever we do or say. That does not mean that it is right to treat or speak to people harshly, but the irony is that the people that do these things, do so because they do not love themselves. It is only when we love ourselves, that we can love others.

Accept Yourself

The first, and often the most difficult, step in loving yourself is to accept yourself as you are, warts and all.You know that when others do not accept you, you can feel alienated and alone and your self-esteem drops.  It is the same when you do not accept yourself.  Without acceptance there is no love.  Not loving, or even hating, oneself is very painful. If you cannot love yourself, them you cannot fully allow yourself to be loved by others.

However, once you can accept yourself, you can also accept that you are human, and will make mistakes and do things at times that are unwise  or unkind.  You are then more able to look at yourself and your behavior objectively. Once you can do this, you can choose to behave in a way that is respectful to both yourself and others.

Stop Self-Critcism And Harsh Self-Talk

Start to think about yourself, and speak to yourself as if you were your best frend.  Listen to your self-talk, and notice your thoughts, and ask yourself if you would allow your best friend to treat you this way.  If not, then stop doing it to yourself.  You are putting yourself into the fight or flight response when you speak or think harsh things about yourself, and that causes strss and contributes to your illness.

Forgive Yourself

Often the most  difficult person to forgive is yourself, but whatever you have done, left undone, or  had done to you, it is time to let go of self-blame and see yourself as doing the best you could at the time.  Everyone does things they are ashamed of, but blaming does not change the past. Instead it contributes to stress and illness.  Acknowledge youn part in what happened, and give yourself the gift of forgiveness.

Love Your Body

Are you focusing on the things you dislike about your body and not noticing the myriad things your body is doing for you every minute of every day.   Go to the library and take out a book of physiology and see how complicated each body system is.  It’s a wonder any of us are healthy when you think about all the things that could go wrong.  Maybe your body is not running perfectly in one area, but there are many areas where it is healthy.  Start to acknowledge your body for all it does – be grateful to it.  Gratitude creates a loving vibration that is healing for the cells.

Set a time each day when you acknowledge and thank your body for everything it does for you.  See it for the amazing creation that it is.  This will help you accept your body as it is now,  while trying to bring about some changes in it.  Acceptance is the key.  What we resist persists, because we are focusing on the thing we are resisting.  Instead accept where you,  and focus on whare you want to be – healthy.

When you love yourself, you are more likely to heal physically.  But loving yourself will also make whatever happens OK. Loving yourself leads to loving what is in every moment, so that  you come through any circumstance with ease and grace.  When you can do that, you are healed, whatever is going on in your body.

Seven steps to healing anything is a reminder to my readers that we are all healers, though most of us have forgotten that we are.  Healing may not mean cure – though it may lead to cure.  Health, healing and wholeness all come from the same Germanic word, halen, which means to be whole.  So when we heal we become whole, and we can be whole even when we have a disease.  When we heal, the suffering goes away even if the disease is still there.

In becoming whole we also acknowledge our wholeness as body, mind and spirit,  and the power we have to influence our bodies.  Too often we give that power away to others, especially to doctors, and assume that they are the only ones who can save us.  We are more than a body, though I think it is not necessary to acknowledge that right away for those whom this does not appear to be true.  Start to take back your power to heal yourself, and as you start to see results you will begin to appreciate the power that you have.

The following seven steps to healing anything are not sequential. They are seven things that you will need to do in order to learn how to heal. In this post I’m just presenting the list with a short description and  I will enlarge upon each step in later posts.

Love Yourself

The most important thing in healing is to learn to love yourself. Loving yourself includes seeing yourself as a worthwhile person, treating yourself as your own best friend and talking to yourself in a loving manner.

Learn to Relax

Relaxation does not mean just lying on the couch and watching TV or reading a book. To help your body heal, you will need to learn a form of deep relaxation that will act to remove any stress you have accumulated, and also help you to withstand stress better.

Be Aware

Become aware of your thoughts and emotions. It is especially important to be aware of these at times when your symptoms are troublesome. If you get a symptom ask yourself, “What am I thinking?What am I  feeling? What just happened that may have caused me think or feel this?

Become Assertive

The first step in becoming assertive is to know what you want in any situation. The next step is to ask for what you want or to state what you want when somebody is asking you to do something that you don’t want to do.

Get Enough Sleep

Whenever your body is under stress, it is especially important to get adequate amounts of sleep. An adequate amount for most people is between seven and eight hours a night. Some people will need more than this.

Exercise

Exercise is extremely important for everyone whatever their physical condition. It is important to start slowly and gently to allow your body and muscles time to become accustomed to it. If you have been sedentary for a long time, your muscles will have shortened and become weaker than normal, and that will contribute to your symptoms.

Get Good Nutrition

When you are sick, it is vital to provide your body with the nutrients it needs to heal. This requires eating real food and possibly taking supplements. Some conditions also require avoidance of certain foods.

Watch this site over the next few weeks for more information in each of these seven steps to healing anything.