Whenever there’s something infectious “going around,”
it seems many of us find ourselves fearful of
“catching” it, and all too often are ready to blame
those who exposed us to it.
You’ve probably found yourself at one time or another
blaming a co-worker for coming to work with a drippy,
sneezy cold, or a parent for allowing an infectious
child to attend school, church, or a public event.
With the uncontained Ebola epidemic blazing in parts of
Africa, there are those who now fear any place where
those with undiagnosed infection may be spreading
it–and feel fear and anger toward those who “should”
remain someplace else.
Avoiding exposure is smart, but this attitude focuses
only on part of the equation. It misses the other
essential component to the spread of illness to you.
That essential component is susceptibility.
Most people think of susceptibility as a weak immune
system. But the primary component is actually your
energetic/vibrational predisposition–which, by the
way, determines the strength of your immune system.
This is where the Science of Being Well, and the law of
attraction, come in.
It’s where you have the ultimate power to create your
own reality–one of happy, vibrant health, or one of
fear, blame, and sickness.
In order for infectious illness of any sort to take
hold in your body, there must exist an
energetic/vibrational gap between your joyful,
expanded, confident true self and the self you’re being
during the period of exposure.
By “the self you’re being,” I mean the worried,
fearful, irritated, angry, conflicted, overwhelmed, or
stressed self that all of us slip into being from time
to time.
If you’re in one of those states when you encounter
germs, your likelihood of becoming ill are much higher
than when you’re peaceful, blissful, happy.
Of course, you can’t stop being that stressed self by
rejecting it or by rejecting the thoughts or feelings
that are part of it. Anything you put your attention on
just grows stronger in your experience.
You’ve got to put your attention on its opposite, and
something that to you has even more power than what you
want to reject.
Probably the easiest metaphor I can use is the image of
darkness as representing fear and negativity, and light
as the opposite. So the way to protect yourself from
everything from germs to poverty to whatever upsets you
is to turn your attention from those topics and toward
light.
In this example, light represents not only a visual
image, but whatever to you represents the highest, most
loving, most beautiful, most fulfilling feeling you’ve
ever experienced.
Imagining filling yourself with this light, and doing
everything and anything to elevate yourself to this
feeling is the best defense against whatever you
perceive as unwanted.
That includes Ebola.
Your thoughts?
Hello there!
I’m Edwin and I am a sailor. I work all over the world (including West Africa) and often reach foreign places with unknown health risks. A possible threat includes Malaria. With the outbreak of Ebola I have been rather skeptical as to how great the risk of exposure is in my line of work. I figured If I remain aboard in places such as West Africa the odds of contracting such disease is less right? I mean port facilities and customs would ensure the safety and well being of foreign ships entering their ports. On the other hand being a realist I figured one can not be ignorant. The threat still exists. So correct me if I’m wrong but the next best form of defense (e.g. besides anti-malaria tablets) would be to align my thought process?
Kind regards
Edwin
Hi Edwin,
According to conventional thinking, you’re in a riskier situation than most people because you have the potential to be exposed to more things. I agree with you that it’s wise to have the relevant immunizations and tablets.
Being human, in your situation I’d probably be aware of the route of transmission of the illnesses, and take obvious measures to protect myself. For example, I spend a lot of time in the wilderness. When I’m in areas where there are lots of mosquitos, and a mosquito-borne illness, I do what I can to keep from getting bitten. Some illnesses, like colds, flu, measles are transmitted by respiratory droplets, so when I feel susceptible–like I’m on an airplane, tired, I’ll wash my hands more often, avoid people coughing and sneezing. Ebola is transmitted by body fluids that you come into direct contact with, not through the air. So, you’d want to be careful around the other sailors who did go ashore, until it’s been long enough to be sure no one is infected. All that is about limiting your exposure and doing the standard stuff to manage your immune system.
But where I think you should focus your thinking is on what you LOVE about sailing. Anything that makes you feel really happy, brings a big smile to your face. For me it would be the feeling of freedom, the excitement of seeing new places, the wind on my face, the birds flying around.
Every day you would spend some time with whatever focus brings you the highest, most incredible feeling of goodness and bliss you can reach. If you find yourself upset or irritated about something, acknowledge that you’re being the self that has those concerns, and surround that self with love. This is important, because it’s so tempting to want to reject yourself when you’re thinking negative thoughts, or to try to push them away.
It’s really important to think in terms of what you want to experience, instead of defending yourself from what you don’t want to experience.
For those of us with TV and internet access, it’s really important to remember to find other ways to entertain ourselves than to check on the news or the latest stories that feed our fears. The whole point of the news is to feed some fear, because it’s exciting. Really ask yourself how much of what you’re doing is necessary information for your happiness, and how much is just entertaining your fears.
What do you think?
With appreciation,
Alexandra
Thank you… It IS all about our state of mind. We have accepted separation of mind from body from spirit from heart… for so long that to find it again, to reconnect, to remember — seems almost impossible. It isn’t. And it doesn’t require a botanical helper except when it does.
Our journeys back to our original selves are exceptionally personal… the consumption of ayawasca or iboga is also a personal thing..as is any psychotropic/hallucinogen… including pharmaceuticals.
All the “drugs we need” are already available (with the exception of vitamin C)… in our body… we’re simply not accessing them…. because we either don’t know they are there or believe we don’t know how to or that we even can… access them.
Know that the Bubonic plague went through Europe five times and had an interlude with a “sweating sickness” that killed even faster… And yet the population of Europe rebounded and spread around the globe… How was that possible with out the drugs of today?
There are no incurable disease’s… there are people who are in such a demeaning mental state that they cannot see the forest for the trees. It is not their fault. We have all been raised in a society that does not honor the heart… We have been raised in a society that puts divinity outside… instead of in our individual hearts. Where, by the way… it has always been… and is waiting still. It matters not what this is called… all the names are all of the same divinity. AND this does not mean one cannot be an agnostic or atheist to heal… labels do not heal… labels constrict and cause more separation. Realize that most of the people who died in the horrible plagues of Europe were “god fearing”.
In the book ‘Illusions’ by Richard Bach is a wonderful quote… “Argue for your limitations and they are yours”. We have only the limitations we believe we are. Be willing to step outside of your box of limitations… Be willing to stop beating up on your heart and hold it lovingly. Be willing to acknowledge that most of what we have been taught about ourselves and the world around us… is not necessarily true. Be willing to accept your authentic self…. keep it and share it when appropriate. There is an interesting computer saying here… junk in, junk out… love in, love out. It is always a choice. Which do you choose? And remember there is a difference between being tough… and tough love.
Thank you for taking the moment to read these ramblings… each of our journeys are equally important.
Thanks for your thoughts, Kelley! I especially agree that the healing process is all individual, even though there are some physical similarities between humans that make certain herbs and other medicines helpful for people with similar conditions when they are ready to heal.
With appreciation,
Alexandra
In your last post you mentioned…
” By “the self you’re being,” I mean the worried,
fearful, irritated, angry, conflicted, overwhelmed, or
stressed self that all of us slip into being from time
to time.”
It seems I always bump into that same issue (“slip into being”) with which inner-identity I am being…
There’s my most-of-the-time self.. Some (+ -) version of what you describe above,
And there’s the during-meditation-self…who is at ease, happy, connected, present, and grinning madly.
The issue is something like this… How to increase the time spent in my at-ease self, esp. during the course of the ” normal” day.
My at-ease self lasts somewhere between an instant and a 1/2 hour during and after meditation, then for the rest of the day it’s self-as-usual, unless I pop into awareness of my inner state, stop my inner process, and re-center( which usually lasts a few minutes, though when I Smile it can last a bit longer.
Is it really possible to maintain that state most of the time? I suspect a few have figured out how to do that…
Rumi, for example: “Ours is not a journey of despair…”
So I do believe it’s possible….which drives me crazy with an itching mind ( meaning it itches like mad and I don’t know how to scratch it …YET! ) … if some humans have done it, maybe the rest of us can also.
And learning to do that seems to come down to how do we spend more time in the at-ease-self….
Hi Bob,
What I find most helpful is the idea that who I really am isn’t defined by any identity, and that I can choose from the allness what I experience by what I’m doing with my attention. For me, the trick is to view the most-of-the-time self as just as dear and precious as the at-ease self. It’s not an inferior self. When my attention is on loving whatever self is showing up in the moment, those selves become much more fluid, and I’m likely to find myself more often relaxed and present.
The fear and frustration comes from the thought that I’m stuck or trapped in some particular self that I’m not enjoying. Then I get all into pushing on it to change. This of course only makes things worse, because the identity is what it is, complete with all its familiar thoughts and feelings. The most helpful realization I’ve had is that it’s not going to change! I’m always going to have that identity available to me.
Similarly, if I focus on wanting to be a self I’m not being, or trying to stay in one I like, what I’m actually experiencing is lack and scarcity. I find it a lot easier to just remember that it will always be available to me. The key is to remember that my job is just to love all my identities, and not get too attached to any particular one.
Something else I sometimes find helpful is to remember what it feels like to fall in love. You know that feeling of excitement and anticipation of seeing your beloved, how you organize your life to make time for him or her, love the time you spend together, remember fondly the previous times, and look forward to the next time? Sometimes I think about my own happy self like that. I can hardly wait until I feel that way again. I remember happily other times I’ve felt that way. I look around myself in the present moment, and notice more beauty and joy because of what I’m thinking about. It changes the lens, so to speak, through which I see the world.
What works for you?
With appreciation,
Alexandra
Please let us not miss that the light and protection and the bible and Dr Wattles is referring to is Jesus.
HELLO – it’s been a while since my days over at The Science Of Being Well Discussion Forums.
Just to put in my “two cents” – If I recall correctly, a similar scenario occurred when the so-called “bird flu” (I forget its scientific name) was the disease of the day and most people were all up in arms over how to protect one’s self. right now in my part of the world, there is a similar anxious mind-set over Ebola as well as another virus (its abbreviated name is Chik-V) that is (supposedly) transmitted via mosquito bites.
To make a long story short, despite regular use of insecticides, mosquito coils and other such things, I more often than not wake up from the previous night’s rest with one or more mosquito bites on my body. However, I can state categorically that I don’t have any mosquito-borne disease, nor do I expect to contract any of them. And that for me is the key – I don’t expect to contract any such ailments – rather, my habitual thought is that I am well and I stay well – even in the face of news reports that people in my country of residence are either admitted to hospitals or even succumb to those diseases. And I got there by supplanting the belief in disease for the belief in health – and so long as I maintain that belief in health, I simply cannot be subject to disease.
Of course, operating with such a belief is not a one-time thing – it must be habitual and sustained. In the words of Mr. Wattles from one of his other books: “It is the habitual thought, and not the periodic one, that decides your destiny.”
“… and it is so with you, and with all of us.”
Hi Wayne,
Great to have you back! Thanks for your comments, and I’m glad you are staying well! Yup, this sort of panic happens every time the media (or our friends) tell us something is “going around.” Thinking of yourself as healthy and strong is key.
For those who haven’t read SOBW for a while, I’d add that actively rejecting disease by telling ourselves we aren’t susceptible to it, aren’t going to get it, are free of it, etc, still puts our attention on the disease. The key is to put our attention on things we enjoy that make us feel good, and not entertain ourselves with ANY attention or thoughts on what we don’t want.
with appreciation,
Alexandra