A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra offered this testimony of a recent healing.
A couple of weeks ago I played in a golf competition at a golf course in near home.
It was a team event played in teams of 4 over 18 holes of golf.
My team was finishing up on the 16th hole when I heard a loud shout followed by the sound and impact of a golf ball hitting the back of my hand. Someone from another team had hit a wayward shot.
I jumped around shaking my hand, my team-mates and the guys from the team that hit the wayward shot rushed to see what had happened.
There was concern that my hand might be broken, that I should leave and have my hand looked at, that we should immediately get ice to put on my hand.
While there was pain, I was mainly affected by the shock of the sudden and unexpected impact.
I don’t remember what I was thinking at the time, but I do remember becoming calm and reassuring everyone that I was okay and able to complete the last two holes of the competition.
I had previously been thinking about the reality of harmony and unreality of discord that had been in the weekly Bible Lessons around that time. So, as we continued, I started praying with the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer – “Our Father which art in heaven – Our Father Mother God all harmonious” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p16-17), and tried to hold to the thought that there is only harmony.
While we were sitting having drinks in the club house after the game, I remember being aware that the pain had lessened and only concerned me if the back of my hand came into contact with something, but there was swelling and bruising.
I drove home and continued to pray “Thy kingdom come” – to know that we all live in the kingdom of heaven where all is harmonious and there is no pain or any other discord.
Over the next few days, I prayed with ideas from the weekly Bible Lesson.
Since the incident happened, I have in no way been restricted from using my hand and the swelling, bruising and any pain disappeared over a few days.
I’m very grateful for this proof of the power of prayer to heal and God’s presence and care for me and everyone.
Four ‘trick or treaters’ knocked on our door on Halloween evening. Somewhat unprepared and surprised to experience this novelty in Australia I managed to locate a few sweet treats for each of them, and they left happily bubbling with excitement.
Was I frightened of their costumes or weird masks? Of course not. And I’m sure they didn’t believe for a moment that they’d suddenly morphed into ugly, wicked or ghoulish creatures, either.
Sometimes, though, people do put on an emotionally draining mask as they strive to feel accepted and loved. Over time they may come to accept the charade as part of themselves.
For instance, they may act out the role where they have to be the best … at everything. They can’t abide mistakes and feel it’s a badge of honour to say they’re a perfectionist. Ever in fear of failing, they may be chronic procrastinators. They don’t like themselves very much either, because they rarely live up to their own expectations.
They may be caught up in a warped view of the world that is commonly known as perfectionism.
Like many psychologists, Thomas Greenspon believes that perfectionism is more than pushing yourself to do your best to achieve a goal; it’s a reflection of an inner self mired in anxiety, where you constantly feel like an imposter. “Perfectionist people typically believe that they can never be good enough, that mistakes are signs of personal flaws, and that the only route to acceptability as a person is to be perfect,” he said.
Whatever the reason may be for that belief, at the heart of the often life-long anxiety to appear perfect is our adoption of the general belief that the human mind is full of good and bad emotions and beliefs, some of which are detrimental to mental and physical health.
However, what’s gaining wider acceptance in health research today is the degree to which the body is the servant of the mind.
Sometimes a simple shift in thought enables us to take off the imposter’s mask we may have been wearing and lift the mental weight.
Accepting a less human mind for a diviner nature that is more attuned to understanding, compassion and humility, brings with it greater confidence, better relationships and a selfless desire to contribute to the greater good.
It’s the daily diet of serene, spiritual thoughts that transforms our experience, gives us grace for each day and best feeds our famished affections, Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, explains in a very practical elucidation of the Lord’s Prayer.
It’s interesting that current treatments for perfectionism are also moving to thought-based approaches such as acceptance and commitment therapy, meditation and mindfulness, even in the treatment of serious eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa that develop alongside the obsessive quest for the perfect body.
Reports estimate that 15% of Australian women between 12 and 30 years of age suffer from eating disorders at some stage in their lives. These young women (and men) who are crying out for love, acceptance and a better view of themselves, often cause untold anguish for themselves and their families, and sometimes even end their lives in the quest for the perfect body.
Julie Bell reached the point where hospitalisation for malnutrition seemed the only answer when the application of a distinctive thought-based, prayer-based approach, founded on recognition of her flawless, spiritual nature, proved “a glorious turning point”.
She experienced a shift in thought. She realised that she could take control of her own thinking, that her body was the servant and that “food did not have power to govern (her) life or (her) sense of a physical body”.
Not only healed of the eating disorder, she found that other obsessive habits that she hadn’t realised were abnormal completely fell away, as did her fear of going forward in the world.
If you’re tiring of the relentless obsessive or perfectionistic thinking about your body or successes, you may also be more than ready to focus less attention on what you eat or on your limited achievements and more on thinking outside the sensory box. Instead, pondering ideas that tenderly reassure you of your intrinsic value.
The mask of a limited, biophysical viewpoint can be frightening, but its removal will enable you to replace a daily diet of fear and anxiety with a moment-by-moment health-giving intake of love and respect for your perfect, beautiful, spiritual self. The difference will be remarkable.
This post was written by Kay Stroud who is a freelance writer focussing on the undeniable connection between our thinking and our health. She writes for metropolitan and regional news media throughout Australia and beyond, and is a regular contributor to Australia’s national forum, Online Opinion.
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