Physical Symptoms and New Thought Patterns
by Louise Hay (www.geocities.com/aurasomaga/Physical.htm):
Adrenal symptom: Defeatism. No longer caring for the self.I love and approve
of myself. It is safe for me to care for myself.
Allergy symptom: Denying your own power. The world is safe and friendly.
I am safe. I am at peace with life.
Alzheimer’s : Refusal to deal with the world as it is. Hopelessness and helplessness.
Anger: There is always a new and better way for me to experience life. I
forgive and release the past. I move into joy.
Anorexia, Bulimia : Denying the self life. Extreme fear, self-hatred and rejection.It
is safe to be me. I am wonderful just as I am. I choose to live. I choose joy and self-acceptance.
Anxiety: Not trusting the flow and the process of life. I love and approve
of myself and I trust the process of life. I am safe.
Arthritis : Feeling unloved. Criticism, resentment. I am love. I now choose
to love and approve of myself. I see others with love.
Asthma: Smother love. Inability to breathe for one’s self. Feeling stifled. Suppressed crying.
Fear of life. Not wanting to be here. It is safe now for me to take charge of my own life. I choose to be free.
Bronchitis: Inflamed family environment. Arguments and yelling. Sometimes silent. I
declare peace and harmony within me and around me. All is well.
Burns: Repressed anger. Burning up. Incensed. I create only peace and harmony
within myself and in my environment. I deserve to feel good.
Candida: Feeling very scattered. Lots of frustration and anger. Demanding and untrusting in relationships.
I give myself permission to be all that I can be and I deserve the very best in life. I love and
appreciate others and myself.
Diabetes: Longing for what might have been. A great need to control deep sorrow. No sweetness left.
This moment is filled with joy. I now choose to experience the sweetness of today.
Digestive problems, Ulcers: Dread. Fear of the new. Inability to assimilate the new. Life
agrees with me. I assimilate the new every moment of every day.
Ears: Represents the capacity to hear. I hear with love.
Eczema: Breath-taking antagonism. Mental eruptions. Harmony and peace, love
and joy surround me and indwell me. I am safe and secure.
Eyes: Represents the capacity to see clearly past, present and future. I
see with love and joy.
Fatigue: Resistance, boredom. Lack of love for what one does.I am enthusiastic
about life and filled with energy and enthusiasm.
Fever: Anger. Burning up. I am the cool, calm expression of peace and love.
Fungus: Stagnating beliefs. Refusing to release the past.I live in the present
moment, joyous and free.
Headache: Invalidating the self. Self-criticism. Fear. I love and approve
of myself. I see my-self, and what I do with eyes of love.
Heart : Represents the center of love and security. Longstanding emotional problems. Lack of joy. Hardening
of the heart. Belief in strain and stress. I bring joy back to the center of my heart. I express love to all. heart beats
to the rhythm of love. I lovingly allow joy to flow through my mind, body & experience.
Heart Giving up. Resistance. "Rather die than change." Rejection of life. Life
is change, and I adapt easily to the new. I accept life-past, present and future.
Hypoglycemia: See diabetes.
Infection: Irritation, anger, annoyance. I choose to be peaceful and harmonious.
Inflammation: Fear. Seeing red. Inflamed thinking. My thinking is peaceful,
clam and centered.
Insomnia: Fear. Not trusting the process of life. Guilt. I lovingly release
the day and slip into peaceful sleep, knowing tomorrow will take care of itself.
Kidneys: Criticism, disappointment, failure. Shame. Reacting like a little kid. Divine
right action is always taking place in my life. Only good comes from each experience. It is safe to grow up.
Liver: Chronic complaining. Justifying faultfinding to deceive yourself. Feeling bad. I choose to lice through the open space in my heart. I look for love and find it everywhere.
Menstruation: Denial of the self. Rejecting femininity, of the feminine principle. I
rejoice in my femaleness. I love being a woman. I love my body.
Menopause: Fear of no longer being wanted. Fear of aging. Self-rejection. Not feeling good enough.
I am balanced and peaceful in all changes of cycles, and I bless my body with love.
MS, Parkinson’s: Mental hardness, hard-heartedness, iron will, inflexibility. Fear. Intense desire
to control everything, everyone. By choosing loving, joyous thoughts, I create a joyous world. I am safe and free.
Nausea: Fear. Rejecting an idea or experience. I am safe. I trust the process
of life to bring only good to me.
Pain: Guilt. Guilt always seeks punishment. I lovingly release the past.
They are free and I am free. All is well in my heart now.
Pregnancy/Birth/Uterus: Represents the home of creativity. I am at home in my body. Rashes
(chest): Irritation over delays. To get attention. I love and approve of myself. I am at peace
with the process of life.
Sinus: Irritation to one person someone close. I declare peace and harmony
indwell mw and surround me at all times. All is well.
Skin: Protects our individuality. Anxiety, fear. Old, buried guck. I am being threatened. I feel safe to be me. I lovingly protect myself with thoughts of joy and peace. The past is forgiven and forgotten.
I am free in this moment.
Sore throat: Holding in angry words. Feeling unable to express the self. I
release all restrictions and I am free to be me.
Speech: Insecurity. Lack of self-expression. Not being allowed to cry. I
am free to speak up for myself. I am now secure in my own expression. I communicate only with love.
Thymus: Master gland of the immune system. Feeling attacked by Life. They are out to get me. My loving thoughts keep my immune system strong. I am safe inside and out. I hear myself with love.
Thyroid: Humiliation. "I never get to do what I want to do. When is it going to be my turn?" I move beyond old limitations and now allow myself to express freely and creatively.
Thorwald Dethklefsen, Ph.D. and Rudiger Dahlke, M.D. in The Healing Power of Illness offer
us the following symptomatic meanings to our physical symptoms, suggesting that illness is a path to healing and perfection.
Their theory is that human consciousness is bipolar; that illness is in our nature; that human illness
embodies itself in symptoms; that each of us is a microcosm that includes within itself the macrocosm, including the conscious
and the shadow; that in our symptoms we are forced to live out what we don’t want; that symptoms make us honest; that
in our symptoms we have what our consciousness lacks; that healing is made possible only by integrating the shadow; that healing
is wholeness and oneness with all that is; that illness prevents us from straying from the road that leads to oneness.
Every infection is an inner conflict that has taken on physical form.
When we are unwilling to open ourselves to conflicts that might irritate us, we are forced to open
our bodies to irritations instead.
Fever is healthy, and grappling with our inner conflicts is even healthier.
Avoiding awareness of the natural polar conflicts within leads to compromise, stagnation, and chronic
discord in the body. 103 Infections reveal psychic discord
Pain occurs exclusively in the mind, not in the thumb hit with a hammer.
Resistance is to not let in what is perceived as not-I; the opposite of resistance is love. Love is
opening up to whatever we have called "you" or "not I" Every resistance is the act of saying Not I, of setting up boundaries.
Every "yes, but" is resistance to becoming one.
Allergies are our resistance and aggression toward our outward enemies such as flower pollen, cat fur,
horsehair, dust, smoke, strawberries, dogs or tomatoes. All such aggression is based upon the fear of softness, love, sexuality,
instinct. We fear to let in what is out there. Allergy is aggression made flesh.
Breathing problems signify relationship fears. Breathing means we breathe in and breathe out
the same air our enemies do. Breath binds everything together. Like skin eruptions, asthma is a fear of contact, relationship,
love, letting go. Asthmatics are trying to take too much and to hang on to everything, in fear that there is not enough. Asthmatics
consider many things to be life-threatening and try to shut themselves off, in fear and resistance. Asthma is a lust for power
and control of the outer world. Asthma is a longing for love, a constant breathing in.
Colds, flu, chills and headaches result from stress that we are prone to deny is overwhelming. We keep
people away from us, we can’t swallow things any more.
Hunger is a desire to take in, a desire for love.
Bad or decaying teeth signifies a problem with our aggressiveness.
Bleeding gums indicate that we lack confidence due to demands upon us.
We drink liquor because there are too many things in life we can’t swallow.
Nausea and vomiting is our way of throwing up things we can’t integrate. Vomiting is a refusal
to accept.
Stomach problems mean there is something we can’t stomach.
Ulcer patients eat themselves alive, need to admit the desire for love, security and dependence that
is hiding behind an outward independence, competence and pride.
Diahrrea is learning to let go of things.
Constipation shows that we are hanging on to physical things too much.
Diabetics have an unsatisfied desire for love which is expressed in the desire for sweets.
Liver problems show that we cannot distinguish between what is poisonous and healthy in our excess
consumption. We are out of balance and are more connected to our illusions than to our source.
Gallstones are fossilized bits of aggression.
Anorexics pretend not to eat and then gorge. Anorexics are greedy and guilty.
These authors emphasize how language betrays the meaning of symptoms: here is someone whose eyes
are so bad that he can't make it all out; someone else has a cold and it gets up her nose; another can't bend over because
he is so rigid; a fourth can't swallow it any longer; a fifth with diahrea can't hang in there any longer; a sixth keeps turning
a deaf ear; a seventh itches because she is breaking out in a rash. Not much is left to interpret. Just listen,
nod and admit that "illness makes us honest."
Critique of The Healing Power of Illness
Dethlefsen and Dahlke have made an enormous contribution to our understanding of symptomatology.
However, their approach tends to remain confined to the physical and psychological level, unless you read carefully between
the lines.
The precise place that I wish to critique their very valuable synthesis of Freud, Jung and medical
psychology is in their discussion of causality. They maintain that the greatest cul-de-sac facing psychology and
medicine is the quest for causes. The belief in causality prevents those concerned from seeing that such causes are the product
of their own expectations. The authors then go on to say that symptoms are rooted in the past and in intentionality (the future).
They say that if you look for the cause of an infection in germs, then why doesn't everyone who has germs get the same infection,
and then the cause is assumed to be the weakness of the immune system, and then what caused the weakness of the immune system.
Causality they say can be traced all the way back to the Big Bang, and then what caused the Big Bang. What they didn't say
was that if you trace the cause to goals and intentionality, that causality stretches into the indefinite future as well as
to the total past. But this is precisely the point we are making in Infinity Theory. You cannot find true causality in time
and space. The root cause of symptoms is the awareness of infinity, whether it seems to be arising from the past or
the future. We cannot resolve symptoms or their cause without infinity awareness. Symptoms mean that we have boxed
in our identity, and we are being pushed from within to expand our identity awareness beyond the ego box in which
we live. This boxing ourselves into the finite is the "cause" of our symptoms.
To break this spell, this impasse, I sometimes assign clients to write two pages of a sentence
completion homework assignment: If I had unlimited courage, I would_____________. (Or, if I had unlimited
peace, unlimited love, unlimited power, unlimited freedom, etc)
