Although illness is one of the biggest causes of suffering, it can motivate us to face ourselves, reexamine our own lives, and embark on a search for its meaning. Many people have been prompted by serious illnesses to change their lives and feel more alive than ever before. Why? Because they have decided to see illness not as a cursed fate, but as what it truly is – an opportunity for change.
More and more modern experts, as well as traditional medicine, emphasize the transformative role of illness. Dr. Petar J. Stanković, in his book Divine Medicine, says: Pain, sadness, poverty, material scarcity, and misfortune are actually positive factors necessary for the development of the human personality. In material abundance, peace, and prosperity, you can never create strong characters. On the contrary, in adversity, trouble, and danger, there is unlimited potential for our “self” to come into full expression.
If we look at the legacy of numerous ancient Philosophers who perceived life as a school in which we learn to express the best of ourselves, see that difficult situations are actually good opportunities for such breakthroughs. Any kind of pain suggests the need for some kind of change. In the case of a health problem, advice for changing diet, exercise, and such will often be found among medical instructions. However, besides focusing on changing various external factors, it would be good to also delve into the internal changes that this pain requires of us. What is pain telling us? Because, regardless of the inevitable impact of many external factors on us, Dr. Stanković reminds us: The worst hygiene conditions can never have such fatal consequences as a depressive and desperate mood, especially if combined with other negative thoughts such as envy, malice, and hatred.
A human being is a complex being, caring about food and hygiene on a physical level should not come at the expense of caring for psychological hygiene and soul food. Dr. Stanković adds: All of our psychological Escalation essentially stems from our self-love, vanity, and greed, and manifests itself as fear, malice, hatred, jealousy, envy, discord, unrest, and even joy. Yes, even joy falls into that category if it is joy in the current sense of the word, i.e., joy tainted with selfishness… True joy, on the other hand, is something completely different. It is the satisfaction we feel from the success, health, progress, and happiness of our loved ones… And by loved ones, we don’t just mean those who are close to us, but also those who should be. Therefore, the path to harmonization is something that takes time, something that is learned, something that ultimately serves life. Hence, according to Dr. Stanković’s opinion, it cannot be solved, for example, by simply changing our diet. We must enlighten our way of life. What occupies us, what do we desire, what do we hope for, what thoughts and feelings do we associate with throughout the day? Therefore, the main task must consist of acting on our desires, in the sense that they should be natural and normal. The body itself, brought into proper The state, one will feel best which type of food suits him and should only be guided by that. As cravings depend on the state of our mental life, mental food will be the decisive factor in proper regulation of physical nutrition.
This approach distracts us from dealing solely with symptoms and directs our attention to understanding the causes. It turns us inward. According to Dr. Stanković, illness is a result of improper nutrition, improper nutrition is a result of corrupted desires, and corrupted desires are a product of psychological imbalance that arises from a lack of pure love. And love is immaterial, intangible, immeasurable, and inaccessible to experimental scientific investigation, yet real, so real that only those who have not been affected by it or were not aware of it can doubt its existence. Love is the main driving force of life and also an essential ingredient of mental food… And therefore, true happiness can only be created by selfless love, love that gives everything and asks for nothing… The road ahead
No, as long as we think of ourselves as victims of bad luck or unfortunate genes, we will not take responsibility for establishing harmony within ourselves. Psychologist Thorwald Dethlefsen and physician Ruediger Dahlke present in their book “Illness as a Path” the idea of illness as a tool for our inner healing: Illness makes a person curable. Illness is a turning point, where trouble can be transformed into salvation. In order for this to happen, a person must stop fighting and instead learn to listen and see what the illness has to say to them. The patient must listen to their own inner self and engage in communication with their symptoms if they want to discover their true message… Healing is always connected to expanding consciousness and maturing.
And maturing involves taking responsibility for one’s own life. Furthermore, Dethlefsen and Dahlke suggest giving up the hunt for someone to blame because we solve our own responsibility through projecting blame onto the cause… For example, a child for achieving their own problems. and uses parents, siblings, and teachers, an adult uses their partner, children, and colleagues at work. External conditions do not make a person sick, but a person uses all possibilities to serve their illness. Only the sick person will turn things into causes. The sick person is both the perpetrator and the victim in one person, they suffer only from their own unconsciousness. If we remove responsibility from ourselves, it may seem like we have relieved ourselves by taking off the heavy burden. But the key is in perception. We can perceive responsibility as a burden or as the freedom to make our own choice.
Physical changes are the lowest point of this process, which should, through awareness, begin to rise again. Dethlefsen and Dahlke say that, for example, a conflict avoided in the psyche (with all its pains and dangers) forces its justification on a physical level as inflammation, and the problem of infection does not consist – as sterility fanatics believe – in the existence of pathogens, but in the ability to live with them. This statement can already be transmitted literally. Living at the level of consciousness is not important to live in a world free from germs, that is, problems and conflicts, but to be able to live with conflicts. Illness is not punishment, and life is not merciless. It does not want us to drown in suffering; it wants us to grow. By confronting us with certain conflicts, it gives us an opportunity to transcend them. How? By using pain that can help us understand that we cannot establish the desired harmony until we leave behind our weaknesses and take a step towards strengthening our human qualities. The ones that are desperately calling to mature and bear their fruits.