Before understanding how your personality impacts your health, it is important to understand that regardless of your particular personality style, we all have healthy components to our personality that call us to grow, to expand, and to change, becoming more of who we are meant to be and we all have aspects to our personality that call us to be in defense, to emotionally react rather than respond, and to be filled with fear or sadness rather than healing. Life happens but that is never our issue. It is not what happens in our lives that defines our health but how we react to it. It is our spiritual beliefs, our beliefs of who we are, how we fit in this world, and where and if we belong, that most impact our health.
Although there are many perspectives and approaches to dealing with disease and disorder most focus on the physical symptom of the issue rather than what more and more are beginning to acknowledge, what the initial spiritual cause is. The real challenge in health care as it exists now, is in learning to understand the origin so that it can be dealt with, eliminating or minimizing the opportunistic need for a reoccurrence. Consequently, the important questions to review for all medical personnel, as well as all patients are “What causes disease?” “Is there a spiritual purpose and does it connect to one’s genetics or one’s personality?” “What predisposes one person versus another to be susceptible to a particular disorder?” “Is it simply genetics or is there something much more exciting, much more human, and much more manageable involved?” There is.
Disease begins on the spiritual level, moves to the emotional level and if not dealt with fully on that level, develops symptoms which are finally expressed on the physical level. Looking at spiritual and emotional beliefs allows you to understand how your body is responding to the views, perspectives, and illusions which govern, or at least impact, your life. Self understanding means growing in self-awareness and developing new options of behavior and a new style of responding rather than reacting to your life and all the challenges and opportunities it presents.
In order to heal from physical disease or emotional disease, you need to heal from the patterns of beliefs that prompted reacting in your personality style to make room for beliefs that support responding from your essence, the core of who you truly are. Learning to acknowledge your responses on ALL levels while receiving specifically directed energy medicine can have a huge impact on your life and your health.
Remember, it is important to know that it is not necessarily the experience that correlates or causes any disease that may follow but the individual’s perception of the occurrence. For one person, losing a long-held job can be a relief and permission to quit a secure position and an opportunity to come alive – for another it is a cause of self-hatred, rage and illusions of victimization. Perception defines the energetic response, which defines the physical experience of ease or dis-ease.
The key is to become aware of your reactionary personality style and then recognize that your personality is not you. Personality is only a mask that you developed to be loved or to be safe. Knowing this, you can, without fear of losing you, change those aspects of your personality that most get in the way of who you want to be, and need to be, for your health. Your personality is what you reflect to the public, and unfortunately, for some, it is the only self that they know. The moments of quiet reflection, of self-knowing, of realization that life is a journey to be experienced and not just survived, are the moments when you have the opportunity to experience a you that is real, that is creative and that is passionately and vibrantly alive. Reflecting that out to the world is the task of living.
Discover your essence, the embodied soul that lies far beneath your personality, then change those aspects of your personality that do not reflect who you really are. Even if no one else has ever seen your essence, it is that part of you that allows you to feel at home in your own skin. It is that part of you that causes you to naturally feel alive, unlimited, and at home on this planet. Your essence is the you that has always existed and that always will. It is the real you and the gift you bring to others just as their essence is the gift they bring to you. When you believe that your behavior or good deeds are the most important aspect of you, you can set yourself up for illness without realizing it.
Certainly, we need to be aware of any genetic predispositions but have you ever wondered why it is that only some children of diabetics develop diabetes and others do not. Have you ever wondered why if high blood pressure or heart disease is a family trait not everyone in the family gets it? It is not coincidence or luck of the draw. It is because of the differences in beliefs and behaviors reflected in the personality styles of different family members.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through grant funding for a pilot study to research the W.I.S.E.™ Method, that I developed has supported further understanding of this approach in the study of Fibromyalgia and those who have it. We discovered that these patients shared a spiritual belief that their sole purpose in living is to protect the people they love from pain, sadness, fear, and so forth. It is when their loved ones are out of their reach, moved away, etc. that the fibromyalgia patient began to hurt. The fear of failing to do what they believe they are born to do literally hurt. Yet what if they redefined what it meant to love? When they shifted from a definition of “love means protecting others” to a definition that is a true reflection of their essence, healing began.
Combining energy medicine with belief system and behavioral change supported years of pain to literally go away. Changing their personality style changed their health and yet these women and men were still who they are, even more so. They now had a self as well as others to love. The results were quite exciting with significant long- and short-term changes reported in regard to less pain and increased functionality for those in the treatment group of the research study. Maintaining that change would be their challenge as it is with all of us. As shown, holistic medicine, if it is truly comprehensive, requires awareness of the whole body and healing the disease that exists on all levels.
Understanding how your personality supports or hinders you in your relationships, your dreams, and your health allows you the freedom to remember that it is not the truth of who you are, only your reflection to the world. Changing what needs to be changed to support your health, developing techniques that support peace rather than rage, joy over sadness and freedom versus the illusion of powerlessness benefits you in every way, on every level. You deserve the rewards.
