Creative Ways to Transform Challenges:
Listening to the stirrings of your heart/Asking for heart wisdom

Positive Visions of the Heart for Healing   David Hiller, M.Ed
 
How many of you are going though some kind some kind of an emotional, physical, mental or psychological shift at this present time? Is something happening in your life that is shifting your viewpoint, your outlook?

It's really important to know now, that there are a lot of shifts going on in the planet. Fortunately, one of the major shifts that are going on, thanks to Harvard Medical School's Conferences, Spirituality and Healing in Medicine, is that we are really looking at spirituality and psychology in medical practices. I think this is profound. In the last several years, we have gone from three medical schools in the country teaching spirituality in their curriculum to thirty-three. There's a quantum shift that's happening today. Why is that? Because more and more people want spiritual practices. They want their whole being treated in their medical outcome and it's important that we look at that.

HeartMath

There is a place in Boulder Creek, California called HeartMath. One of the things they do there is teach the importance of love energy and heart energy in medical outcomes. Margaret Hiller, my life partner, and I have traveled all over the country in our psychology and healing practices, and we have also found that the heart is extremely important in its ability to create healing. Why? Because the energy of the heart is love, and to us, that's the healer. Medical doctors and researchers at HeartMath are actually proving that.

We also talk about the importance of being aware of our words, our thoughts and our actions, and how they affect our health. There is a lot going on in the planet. There is a lot of fear. We really are seeing it being played out now. It's easy to get caught up in the fear that's being played out on the planet now, and doing so can really affect our health-mentally, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically. The more we pay attention to the virtues of the heart: loving thoughts, kind words, healing prayers, healing visions, the more we can create healing, first within us and then on the planet.

Constrictive Thinking vs. An Expanded View

One of our goals is to bring more and more prayer and healing touch into medical practices, including hospitals, clinics and psychological agencies. This would really enforce the idea that prayer and healing is of vital importance in our medical outcomes. What happens when we have a constricted limited view? What happens to our energy? We believe that it stops our energy from flowing. One of the most important things in medical outcome is to have our energy flowing. It must flow to be in a state of wellness, just like a river must flow to be alive and well. As soon as it stops flowing, it begins to stagnate and die. The same thing happens with us: if our energy is not flowing, we move out of a state of wellness. Constricted energy produces a limited prospective.

What if we got that energy flowing again? What if we moved that energy into our heart and looked at our life though a higher viewpoint, a more expanded view?

We need to create a perspective of moving from a view of fear and constricted thinking to a more expanded view. So what if today, we begin to look at our lives and those that we're holding in our hearts through this viewpoint of expanded possibilities? Almost all of us know someone who has a medical concern or have one ourselves. Our visions, what hold in our heart for ourselves or our friend is of vital importance. How we see ourselves and how we see our friends makes a difference. The visions of our heart are extremely important.

Visions of the Heart

For those of you that doubt the visions you hold in your heart can make a significant difference in medical outcomes, I'm going to tell you a story. This absolutely happened. Margaret and I did a workshop called Visions of the Heart in Idlewild, California. People from all over the country came, many of whom were experiencing different medical problems, and some of whom had friends experiencing medical problems. The idea was to bring this group of people together to discuss what was happening in our lives, what our heart visions were, and how we could bring our heart visions into reality with the loving support of that group as our vision holders.

One of the women that came to the workshop was having a really hard time. She was very distraught and unable to get involved in the workshop as a result. We asked her what was going on. She said she came into the workshop with a lot of fear because her friend, from another state was going to be taken into surgery the Monday after our workshop. The medical doctors said that her friend had terminal cancer, and she was really afraid that she was going to loose her on the operating table, that her friend was going to die. She was holding a vision of fear, and it was really affecting her.

We asked her, "If you were to make a shift in the way you are holding that vision, if you are to bring this vision into your heart and hold the highest, most positive powerful vision for your friend, what would that look like?"

She took a deep breath, reached into her heart, thought for a few moments and said, "The truth is, what I would really like to believe is possible is that my friend would be completely, 100% healed on Monday and walk out of that hospital on her own."

That's a pretty powerful vision.

We asked, "Do you believe that that's possible? In your heart of hearts, in your expanded vision do you believe that is possible?"

She thought for a moment, and said, "Yes I do believe in my heart it's possible."

So we asked every member of the group, "In your heart, do you believe that's possible?"

Every single person in their heart said yes, that it is possible, because they believed in miracles. Together, as a group, we did a prayer and we all held the vision for healing for her friend.

Monday morning, the workshop ended and we went home. The woman that was holding the vision in the workshop called us Monday night. She said that she got a call from her friend that evening. Her friend said that she was literally being prepared for surgery on Monday morning and her medical doctor, who was a female doctor had a thought, an insight, an inner voice. Something spoke to her and said, "Stop the process and do another biopsy. Check this woman out again before she has surgery."

The doctor said later that she did something that she had never done before in her medical practice. She stopped the process and she checked her patient out before proceeding. She found that the cancer was gone. It was gone. The woman, who was expecting to have surgery for cancer, walked out of the hospital, on her own, healed on Monday.

This is a true story. That's how powerful we all are as visionaries. That's what is possible, what can be created.

The Power of Prayer

Larry Dossey, a medical doctor, wrote a wonderful book called Healing Words. He talks about how powerful our thoughts, our words, our actions, and our prayers are in our healing process. He talks about the power of prayer and how it affects medical outcomes. He has been involved with a number of studies, one of which concerned a number of heart patients throughout the country. There were two groups: a control group where no one prayed for the people that were having heart problems and then another group of heart patients, where people in different parts of the country actively, consistently prayed for each patient in that group for healing of the heart.

The research revealed a significant difference in the healing process for those who received prayers and those who did not. After their cardiac surgery, the prayed-for group had fewer deaths, needed fewer medical interventions, developed fewer complications, needed less incubation, mechanical ventilation, or antibiotics. There were fewer cardiopulmonary arrests, fewer developed pneumonia and they required less diuretics.

So, what can we do about the anxiety and depression on this planet that affect us medically? We can create a vision team to hold a high vision of healing for us. We can pray more. We can meditate more. We can exercise. We can look at our nutrition. We can talk to our medical team and ask them to hold a vision and to pray for us also. Most importantly, we can begin to believe that anything is possible. The more we believe is possible, the more we create as possible.

Adapted from a talk given by Margaret and David Hiller at Providence Hospital, Medford, OR. To see more of this talk, go to this article by Margaret Hiller.

David Hiller, M.Ed. is an ordained interfaith minister, author, spiritual counselor and personal empowerment coach and has a Masters degree in counseling. He has traveled extensively in the U.S. conducting healing, meditation and fear release seminars. For more information about the Hillers and how to obtain any of their inspirational cassettes, booklets, or art work visit their Web site at www.sb.net/miracles or e-mail them at miracles@sb.net.