A Different Viewpoint for Arthritis

So far, I’ve looked at my arthritis primarily from a physical viewpoint: talking about what happens in the body and ways to help either heal the body or alleviate the arthritis symptoms. Reading a recent post by Dr. Christiane Northrup on 12 Ways to Release Fear and Anger To Heal Arthritis reminded me that there are other ways of looking at a disease process in the body. She suggests that pain within the body has emotional roots. In the case of arthritis, the emotions are anger, resentment, criticism or fear. Or a combination of these.

Louise Hay, in her book You Can Heal Your Life , breaks this down even further. Suggesting that pain or arthritis in the knees or hips could be a fear of moving forward. If this interests you, I encourage you to read more from Louis Hay. Much of her ideas can be found online, or you could buy her book.

There was a time when I would not have given these ideas much thought. I am first a scientist and I thought mostly from a scientific standpoint for most of my life. I say mostly because I also have a deep belief in God. And I know that things happen which have no scientific explanation.

I recently watched Anita Moorjani’s TedX talk. She has a story of her near-death experience (NDE) and her inexplicable healing from terminal cancer. If you haven’t watched it, it is worth all of the 18 or so minutes it takes. In the talk, Anita attributes her disease to fear and a lack of self-love. She also believes that we all have the ability to heal ourselves.

It isn’t just Anita’s story though. There are many stories of people who healed without the benefit of traditional allopathic medicine. Norm Cousins cured his cancer with laughter therapy. You can watch his story in the movie Anatomy of an Illness.

I personally know someone who was diagnosed with terminal, incurable cancer in 1998 or 1999 and is a picture of health today.

Someday I would like to create a collection of all of these stories.

There are other stories as well. Some are stories of people who healed from other diseases. Often the healing results, at least in part, because of lifestyle changes. But they all seem to come from a positive attitude. A believe in your own abilities. And a strong will to live.

Osteoarthritis is certainly not considered life-threatening. But it can definitely interfere with the quality of life. I’m interested in looking at arthritis from different viewpoints. Because my plan is to be rid of it. Without surgery.

What do you think? Is there something to this? Or is it all poppycock to you?