To Cure or To Heal

How often does society force us to roll the dice between choosing between its demands on our time, energy, and sense of what is valuable and our own well-being? Image courtesy of: Denis via Unsplash

Do you have an idealistic view of health and wellness where disease and life challenges simply don't exist? You're not alone!

What if I told you this was baked into society through the World Health Organization's definition of health?

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease."

The question arises then, what does complete well-being truly mean? And, who gets to decide what constitues physical, mental, and social well-being? Often, we have outsourced this to a societal structure that is excessively focused on productivity, perfectionism, and denial of anything that might challenge our dictated roles in society.

Let's take a deeper look at the idea of curing vs. healing through the lens of a wise nurse.

Barbara Larabee is a nurse case manager for those who are dealing with chronic heart failure. She speaks about the difference between curing and healing in a profound way that helps us see with a holistic perspective.

She says: to cure is to go back to the way things were, as if nothing ever happened, to continue in the same lifestyle we had before. We pretend the challenges of life don't exist, wish them away, or seek the quick fix without ever addressing the underlying challenges that led to dysfunction in the first place.

Let's take a look at a very real example I have experienced in my career: I was seeing patients immediately after having open heart surgery for clogged arteries. Some needed up to 5 arteries in their hearts bypassed through using veins in their legs to reroute blood flow around the calcified and clogged arteries. I was truly amazed by the number of patients who believed the surgery would cure them without them putting in any effort to ensure they kept their hearts healthy from that point forward!

Speaking to them about adopting new habits often landed on deaf ears because the surgery magically took care of it all. And yet, we know that heart disease is directly related to our lifestyles and factors that are within our control to optimize. Most chronic disease develops because of some imbalance that needs to be addressed through lifestyle adjustments beyond whatever pill or surgery Western Medicine may try to offer as that magic bullet.

The patients who elected to continue eating the Western Diet, remained sedentary, and continued in their stressful situations were the ones who returned to have cardiac stents placed in their bypassed arteries. The cure failed because the conditions that led to the vehicle breakdown in the first place were not addressed.

Let's take a look at healing on the other hand. Barbara says that to heal means to bring awareness to our condition and be willing to accept the fact that we will be changed by it. Life will not go back to what it was before. We can use our condition as the check engine light, turn inward, and become curious as to what we need to address from within that can help support our body's natural healing capacity.

"Not everyone can be cured, but everyone can be healed," Barabara says. She spoke of a woman whose mechanical heart was failing. She had months to live. When asked how she was coping, the woman said, "the most important part of my heart is working just fine. I am okay." This woman had found the secret: when we take responsibility for optimizing what we can, adjusting where we need, and accepting what we must, then we come to a place of understanding that disease impacts us all. These bodies are temporary, finite, and they have an expiration date. Our spirits, however, have a capacity to carry us through whatever we may be going through, even when death's door comes knocking, if we are willing to be transformed by our circumstances and reach deep to grasp what is most personal, valuable, and meaningful for us.

This is far from easy, but every step of courage on the path will help us find greater adaptability, which is how the British Medical Journal describes health.

"Health is the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of social, physical, and emotional challenges." This particular Lancet article goes on to state that the role of the "doctor" or healthcare provider is to assist the person in that self-management.

This view puts you in the driver's seat, recognizing and honoring your unique circumstances and personal definition of what health means to you. This personalized approach is largely missing in our current medical and psychological structure.

Diving deep into your functional status and defining for yourself what is meaningful can help you see what is possible. We may have bodies that don't cooperate. We may have temperaments that are less accepted by society. And yet, when we accept what is while recognizing our inherent worth and value, then we open doors to embracing empowered well-being.

When we tap into our unique spirit, recognizing that divine love is our guiding light, then healing and health become possibilities as we take steps towards cultivating a life that is uniquely our own.

A foundation of love, care, and compassion is a critical first step on the journey, and I believe these examples of healing and health are rooted in seeing you and honoring the deep wisdom residing within the core of who you are.

How do these definitions shift your mindset?

What might be possible with this more flexible approach to your life?

I look forward to hearing from you and seeing how this personalized approach will transform your journey!

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In loving service,

Dr. Stephanie Nartaki Heinhold