Physical, Emotional & Spiritual Illness As A Symbol: Part 02

I look at illnesses, health concerns and physical injuries in two distinct metaphysical ways.

The first classification I consider as “life path choices” or “karmic” ailments. I believe we have multiple lives in this world—past, present and future—and I believe we sometimes choose to come into this world to experience certain events as a way to evolve & grow & learn. As I stated in an earlier blog, I do not consider reincarnational karma a form of punishment for past life misdeeds. I consider karma to be a series of learning choices we make, much as a person chooses classes when attending university. And just as some people take a heavy course load at college, some people might choose an accelerated learning experience in a particular life. Perhaps they come in as a quadriplegic. Perhaps they choose to cope with some other physical limitation, such as blindness or epilepsy. Perhaps they choose to end a particular life earlier than the average life span by experiencing fatal illness. And when I say they choose, I am referring to the choices made by our “souls” (for want of a better term with less baggage). I do not think we are always capable of understanding these “soul” choices with the rather limited perceptions of our current physical bodies. But let me make one thing clear: I do not believe that suffering for the sake of suffering is good for the soul. I believe there are far more interesting, complex and life-affirming reasons for the type of chosen learning I am describing in this paragraph.

But the second classification I recognize I consider far more commonly manifested. These are the illnesses, health concerns and accidents we create for ourselves because we ignore, or refuse to cope with, various emotional and metaphysical life lessons.

I consider every life choice we make valid. I try to resist judging people for not choosing what appears to me as a better or easier path. We cannot know exactly what anyone else is working out, but I see many of our illnesses as so unnecessary. Our bodies are wonderful instruments, and they respond to our emotions and beliefs. They can heal themselves. They can also let an illness occur. We are at any given moment chock-full of all kinds of bacteria and viruses that could do us harm if allowed to run free, but our bodies keep them all in balance… until… well, until what? Scientists and doctors claim our resistance is lowered. OK. That’s a little vague, but examine the word “resistance.” Resistance can be defined as fighting back, or taking a stand & defending yourself. Now… what if there are things in your life you are avoiding? Things you don’t want to accept? That’s when we are giving up. We are no longer resisting, and we choose to express the feelings or lessons we are ignoring by manifesting them physically.

Sometimes the metaphorical poetry of an illness can be startlingly obvious, if we want to see it. Using myself as an example, a few years ago when I was resisting making necessary changes in my life, I tore the meniscus in my right knee. I literally opted to physically manifest my difficulty in moving forward. I decided not to have an operation, but instead let time heal and correct the situation. It gradually took nearly 18 months until I was back to normal, but I learned to treasure every forward step I took.

So when you injure yourself, or develop any illness or health issue, look at the metaphor of your illness as it applies to your life. By all means, go to a doctor for help, but do the emotional & spiritual homework too.