The quotes are intended to be opportunities for reflection about what health and healing mean to you, what hope you can have, and what wisdom you may already bring to addressing your own condition. So often, we're quick to forget that we have any wisdom at all about ourselves as individuals, and yet, typically we know -- or ought to know -- ourselves better than anyone else can or would.
As Harvard-trained physician and integrative medicine pioneer Andrew Weil, M.D., tellingly writes in "Health and Healing," "...My training and background as a physician have made me reluctant to go to doctors or hospitals except for real emergencies. I have practiced paying attention to my body, diagnosing my own problems, and treating them myself whenever I can. As a result of this practice, I have become a sharp observer of changes in my body, usually detecting illnesses at very early stages and having a good sense of their nature."
While his method might not work for everyone -- since laypeople are probably less aware of the risks they might be overlooking than a trained physician might be -- still, it points out that quintessential "theme" of the Tao of healing...to observe one's self in sickness and in health, and figure out if there are any life lessons encoded in the experience, or wisdom to be gained from the observation of same. Not always, but sometimes, or frequently enough if you practice it, there's quite a lot to be gained from looking within and contemplating what the message of illness and difficulty is -- while not ignoring the outward signs that may need treatment.
The concept many of us have grown up with, of there being a distinct "Mind-Body" split, is actually one that only goes back to the 17th century, and mathematician/philosopher Rene Descartes. Both earlier and later, this "split" or "dualism" between the body and the mind has been rejected as "artificial." Whether or not you want to get into this abstract philosophical detour, it's interesting to contemplate that if there is no split, the body and the mind work in concert to share their sometimes quite enlightening wisdom with us, if we're open to hearing it.
