Notes

Healing Fear When IDENTIFIED AS HAVING Illness
Receiving a sickness diagnosis is probably the most dreaded events that you experienced. It arrives uninvited, unwelcomed & most of the time unexpected. When receiving the news from your doctor apart from the phrase, "I'm sorry to inform you...", you often notice a shift in the clinician's energy, darkening the area such as a cloud passing over the meeting. Shock may be the most prevalent experience following a diagnosis, but after the shock melts away the most common experience is fear.

What is it that people fear? A lot of people when receiving a chronic or life-threatening illness diagnosis fear dying. The truth is that people all fear dying. You probably don't believe me but stop and think for a moment about your death anxiety prior to the diagnosis. Do you have a will? Are you experiencing life insurance? Are you experiencing a healthcare proxy? This is about preparation which his great, but it's predicated on fear that we will die. The truth is that we are going to die; the hope is that it's not very soon. If you can see that most of us have death anxiety it creates battling fear easier.

Fear is rooted in the unknown. Although you may have friends or family who has experienced a health challenge; it's very different experimentally when it's you who is the patient. The fact of the matter is that people don't don't stop talking about our mortality until someone dies. The idea that death exists is kept at arms length as if it were contagious. It's natural to want to retreat following your diagnosis, however the easiest way to combat fear is by experiencing it and putting fear in its place.

Education may be the primary component in the process of eradicating fear. The underpinnings of fear are based on lack of knowledge. Your first reaction to your diagnosis was probably in line with the stories you've heard from others and even though some of them may be true, we all have created urban legends about our experiences, even though it involves illness. Get educated! Don't rely solely on the pamphlets in your doctor's office or the advertisements found in most major magazines, depend on the community at this point you belong to predicated on your diagnosis. Discover the national advocacy/education/support organization that serves your specific diagnosis. (Remember that some organizations are umbrella organizations encompassing a vast continuum of illnesses)

What stories do you have in your mind that correlate to illness? You already have meaning attached to illness before you've received your diagnosis. It is now time to throw the baby out with the bath water because there isn't a template for illness. The stories you've been told or tell yourself feed the fire of fear. As time progresses so does technology, pharmaceutical research and increased efficacy of allied health professions. Your story doesn't have to become a copy of those who've come before you. That is your journey to wellness and you also end up being the author, editor and publisher. Utilize the information you acquire to enhance your story of health insurance and healing. Use your education to edit out the horror stories and replace them with possible options and alternatives.

We're a culture that's afraid of illness and yet overwhelmingly we don't take precautions to ward of disease. Is it really a surprise at the amount of people in Western culture that are diagnosed with a sickness? The surprise is that it's you and like the majority of folks you thought you're immune to the diagnosis. Fear impedes your curiosity short circuiting your quest for possible solutions to your health challenge. Don't allow fear detour you away from your destination...health!

Beat the fear of illness. Get your FREE copy of the special report "The 5 Pillars of Health and Healing". As an additional benefit I'd like to give you the multimedia program "Instilling Hope for Health". Want to benefit from my experience with illness and twenty years of working with clients who've been diagnosed? Get your FREE report and multimedia program at [http://www.survivingstrong.com] Check out the new health videos at [http://www.survivingstrongtv.com]
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