To Deal with a Symptom

Dr. Brian Weiss suggests an exercise to help you understand how you can heal.
Pick one and only one symptom, mental or physical, that you would like to understand and, by understanding heal. It could be the arthritis in your joints, your fear of heights, or your shyness when you meet a stranger. Notice the first thoughts or feelings or impressions that come into your mind. Do this spontaneously, without editing; these should be your first thoughts, no matter how silly or trivial they might seem. Get in touch with that part of your body or mind that is troubling you. Try to make the symptom worse at first, experiencing it as fully as you can, and observe how you did that. Then switch places with the symptom; you are the symptom, the symptom is you. This is so you can be most fully aware of the symptom. It knows where it is located and how it affects the body or mind. Next, have the you that is outside the symptom ask the symptom a series of questions.
o How have you affected my life?
o What are you going to do with my body/mind now that you are in it?
o How have you affected my relationships?
o Do you help convey something I can't convey without you, some message or some information?
o Do you protect me from anyone or anything?

The last is the key question, for people often use illnesses to avoid confronting the issues that lie behind them - a form of denial.

This exercise is not a panacea; a cancer won't disappear, nor will a mother-in-law. But often the exercise will alleviate symptoms, and occasionally a miracle occurs and a cure is effected.