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A spiritual life coach offers an alternate perspective.
By Patricia Bonnard — Written on Jan 18, 2023
As a spiritual life coach and alternative healer, I've seen firsthand how thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and habits can get in the way of healing and full recovery.
For example, have you noticed how stress, overwork, and/or worry can exacerbate a digestive or back condition or prolong a cold or flu?
Although the medical and scientific literature can teach you a lot about the many factors that contribute to the rate and quality of healing and recovery, they often neglect or downplay the importance of your mental and emotional status — and the role you play in your healing.
What do I mean by healing and spirituality?
Unfortunately, what you don't know about healing can lead to suboptimal care as well as delayed or incomplete recovery. It's a scenario few people want to experience for themselves, but so many do.
But you can remedy this. Untangling this misconception is an integral part of your successful healing journey.
So, for a better grasp of the implications of this knowledge gap, let's take a closer look at the things people get wrong about what helps them heal.
Hopefully, you'll broaden your perspective and both secure better care and more successful outcomes.
Before diving into the popular misconceptions, let's clarify how I, as a spiritual life coach, view healing and spirituality.
What is healing?
Healing is simply the process of becoming sound, healthy, and well again. Alternatively, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, healing is the restoration of original purity or integrity.
What holistic healing?
Holistic healing can have two distinct but related meanings.
First, it addresses all aspects of well-being as they relate to a particular complaint. In other words, it includes any and all relevant physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and energetic aspects.
Second, holistic can mean combining various complementary healing modalities and approaches to enhance and facilitate the healing process and outcomes.
When conventional medical practitioners focus on the physical, holistic healing can provide important complementary services.
What is spirituality?
Some people think “spiritual” or “spirituality” implies religion. But this isn’t true for everyone.
Here, the term spiritual relates to that which affects the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
Through the eyes of a spiritual life coach or energy healer, everyone has a spiritual side and every action has a spiritual dimension. This is true whether you're conscious of it or not.
Therefore, you can be spiritual without the orientation of organized religion.
In ordinary everyday terms, spirituality is about your relationship with the divine, universal, and all that there is. It also relates to how you interact with humankind and other living beings.
Finally, spirituality is central to your search for meaning, purpose, or your right path as well as your yearning for more of what’s missing.
With this in mind, it's easy to see how spirituality is germane to healing intentions and the overall process.
7 misconceptions about what makes people heal
It's important to note right up front that this discussion of misconceptions and the role of the self in the healing process does not intend to denounce, belittle, or disrespect conventional medicine.
Instead, it emphasizes the significance of your role and responsibility toward your own healing. It aims to encourage you to embrace that responsibility and thrive.
1. Healing is only about the body
Conventional medicine hyper focuses on the body, bodily systems, and what's physically wrong. In this way, this Cartesian approach is similar to auto mechanics.
In contrast, a spiritual life coach practicing holistic and alternative healing modalities addresses all aspects of healing such as emotional, mental, spiritual, and energetic in addition to the physical.
This means your emotional state and your beliefs about your ability to heal are significant. These are all part of healing, rebalancing, and moving your life forward.
2. The doctor always knows best
Most definitely, conventional medical professionals are highly skilled at what they do.
The problem is the medical field doesn't sufficiently recognize and account for what patients know about themselves.
Standard, super-quick consultations ignore or downplay significant parts of their patients' stories that reveal exactly what makes them unique — as well as how equipped they are to shepherd their own healing process.
In addition, most doctors don't embrace the centrality and competencies of alternative and complementary healers. They simply don't design their practice around the notion that you're a complex integrated whole.
Nor do they effectively collaborate with these practitioners to devise an optimal and complete plan for your healing journey.
So, you have to do this for yourself.
3. Somebody else will cure me
The truth is only you can heal yourself. Health and wellness practitioners can facilitate, but not cure. Even doctors don't cure.
A surgeon can cut you open and successfully remove a tumor, but you heal your wound.
4. There's a magic bullet
Actually, there are no magic bullets. Healing is a journey to reestablish balance.
While you may submit to a specific treatment to introduce change (e.g., undergo surgery or chemotherapy), your system will still be tasked to bring about significant change in order to rebalance and heal.
And you have to support that process yourself.
5. Healing doesn't require behavior change
In most instances, recovery without relapse necessitates some form of behavior change.
A simple example is if you want to avoid a second bout of food poisoning, don't eat again at that restaurant where you got it.
But, more seriously, cancer remissions seem to endure in those patients who change causal behaviors such as smoking, an unhealthy diet, unsafe sex, and chronic stress.
6. Good health is about fixing what goes wrong
On the contrary, good health is associated with healthy lifestyles and good health maintenance. Mostly, it's about prevention and mitigation rather than interventions and emergency treatment.
It's well known that being in good health is a key factor in what helps people heal.
7. Healing is something you can do alone
You might be thinking that it's rude, embarrassing, or shameful to express your pain and suffering. And, it's true, no one appreciates a persistent complainer.
However, loved ones genuinely want to help you even when you're not at your best.
Plus, when you accept others' support, you can relax, rest, and restore your health.
In addition, your mental and emotional health support team can share your burden, ensure you adhere to your treatment protocols, conduct research and advocate on your behalf, and uplift your spirits.
Patricia Bonnard, Ph.D., ACC is a certified International Coaching Federation (ICF) leadership coach, certified Martha Beck life coach, and Master/Instructor Energy Healer.
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