WORKING IN CONCERT WITH YOUR HEALING TEAM
Rev. Chara Hermann 2006

It is the first day of Spring in Berkeley, California. I am sitting in a modern cancer treatment facility, which is oh, so, California. You can get a free ten minute massage while you wait, and a cup of herbal tea. Flowers are being given to every patient to welcome spring and the acupuncturists office is down the hall from the chiropractor and aroma-therapist. The colors of the decor are soft and muted and there are live plants everywhere. The music is soft and healing and the care-givers are...care givers. They sing while they work and they look like people who care. More than that they behave like people who are there to support the process of transforming the chemical imbalance in the body that would cause such extreme dis-ease. There is technology everywhere, yet it is the human interaction that has me paying attention. The gift shop has healing stones, fairies and fun clothing to wear in the hospital. The cafeteria has health food. Even the parking guards have a kind attitude of compassion.

It is like an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. There are several pregnant nurses. They are planning a baby shower for each other and swapping lists of needs. There are two cranky doctors who are over stressed and throwing our commands that require the ladies to jump through hoops. They smile and skip on to the task they know is the one that will keep the schedule flowing. They wait till they get around the corner to bitch a bit about the doctors clueless demands. There are doctors who are having to deal with the first acknowledgment of having to be the bearer of bad news. There are others who are coming to give a friendly pat of remission and a pass out of this disease which has been packaged to look better than it feels.

The doctors walk in circles from room to room reviewing charts and asking all of the questions about how everyone should have been managing the protocols. Requesting new tests; many of which resemble some form of ancient torture, others being deemed a simple needle stick and tube involved. Everyone is waiting to hear words like ‘good blood count or t-cell numbers’. Everyone is waiting to find out when this work of healing will be complete. Some have been at it for so long that every nurse knows the family and patient on a first name basis as well as who is on the soccer team and who is soon to make a career change. Then there are the new folks. You can tell who they are. They came dressed in clothes that were hard to remove and uncomfortable for a day of sitting with tubes in your arm. They came with a concerned son or daughter to help them, or a scared mom and dad. They have a look of terror as they enter this matrix of healing. They have the lists of instructions in hand that are wet from the sweat of fearing the unknown. They actually read all of the papers that are being handed to them to ensure some privacy that will protect the world from knowing that they are sick. As if no one would notice the new turban that covers the patches of hair falling out, or the sallow skin that say chemo is kicking my ass. The new ones make sideways glances at the old ones to see what is being offered as a cure for their pain. Everyone has a story. Some tell it over and over. Yet, some close up in silence and grit their teeth to offer the acknowledgment of this is not how they planned to spend this year. I try to remember to smile at everyone as I pass them and offer a silent prayer of compassion. Hoping a moment of my energetic work will make a difference for them, if only for a moment. It is a quiet offering with a gentle knowing in my heart of seeing a face relax for a second or two.

* Dress for the occasion. Wear soft, comfortable clothes in bright colors and and engage the healing process.

* Know your medical history, have bottles of all meds with you and know what tests or treatments you are going to participate in, be clear with your allergies and your needs.

* Ask lots of questions and LISTEN to the answers, then ask more questions.

* Watch what is happening around you. Ask about the equipment being used and how it works and why, if for no other reason than to engage the technician in something that is of their interest and knowing. You will get better attention that way.

* When in pain , indicate it, but don’t blame the nurse for the torture of the test. He or She did not invent it, but DO let them know of your own discomfort level, so they can do something to assist.

* When in fear of the tests, the bills, the results; the long list of things that are filled with fear. Honor that fear, acknowledge it and move through it. Fear cannot be a guide through the healing matrix. Make choices out of solution NOT FEAR BASED RESPONSE. For instance....taking a treatment out of fear of getting a disease is a waste of healing time. Just because your Grandma had it, does not mean you have even lived the same lifestyle. What is does mean is that you need to live a lifestyle that is mindful of the potential that all substance, anger, shame, guilt, fear and negative charges have an effect on your body as much as Grandma’s DNA. Then make educated choices. With the internet there is information about every disease and potential healing available with an afternoon of research.

Many years ago a wise Doctor assisted me with a piece of healing information that saved my life: He said; “Chara, what are you going to do if I recommend these tests and they come back positive? Are you going to do the entire AMA protocol or are you going to deal with your disease in a Holistic manner? Of course, my response was to the later. So he told me to stop wasting money on the tests and get myself into the healing/ cure mode. At that time it involved acupuncture, prayer, herbs, chiropractic, massage, more prayer, the lodge and dance and more prayer. He was right, I immediately went from what was wrong with me to what good cells I had to work from to regenerate and heal. The process went much faster and stays with me today as I maintain a vigilant maintenance program of my wholeness. STUDIES SHOW THAT A PERSON BECOMES MORE ILL AT THE TIME THEY HAVE CONVINCED THEMSELVES THAT THEY AREA REALLY GOING TO DIE FROM THIS NEWLY NAMED DIS-EASE. The cure to that healing crisis ALWAYS requires for the patient to become an active part of the healing team.

The bottom line is that we as a species have developed more disease than solutions. YET there are plenty solutions available and many opportunities to honor those solutions as a healing option. Healing requires a team effort, which mean that you are the captain who is deciding who will be on your team and who is playing the same game that you are. You simply cannot win at a game that you do not choose to play and remember YOU CANNOT FIGHT FOR PEACE....so fighting a disease or addressing it as a battle give it a negative charge. For myself I found that embracing the disease as a part of me was a big help. When I talked to it with compassion and not anger and asked it to live with me in harmony was a much better response than going it to kill some part of myself in order to live. The main thing was that I had to make choices and then honor them and become one with the healing solution.

There have been many wonderful rituals of healing shared with me through the years. All of them have involved forgiveness of others and myself and all of them have involved lots of gratitude for the support systems around me. I take a gift to my healing team on a regular basis. It might be something as simple as a jar of jam that I made, but it is always something beyond the money that is required to acknowledge the service given and the healing received. The bottom line, is that we can and should include ritual in our healing. We can and should be mindful of all of the process that is happening in the healing process being offered to us by professionals of all protocol in order to honor that protocol and to enhance it healing journey through our own body, mind and Spirit.

Private Holistic healing sessions are available at Hawkwind on a prearranged basis. Please feel free to call us for details.

( 256) 635-6304 8:30 - 9:30 am & pm CENTRAL time.