You needn’t feel guilty about your ailments, since guilt will only immobilize your immune system and help to shut down your ability to achieve a higher state of health. Instead of feeling guilt, try asking the questions, “What do I have to learn from this disease, or this lack of health? What is the lesson here?” Then begin to apply your new awareness about the power of your mind to alter that debilitating state you have previously accepted as your destiny.
Dr. Abraham Maslow devoted a large portion of his life to the study of what he called self-actualizers. In The Sky’s the Limit I wrote at length about the qualities of such people. One characteristic that stood out in looking at the lives of these very special people was that when faced with seemingly insurmountable problems they always looked inward for a solution. Those who lived at the peak of health and well-being found the answers to life’s problems within their minds. They refused to look outside of themselves either for blame or the magic elixir of healing.
In Creating Health, Deepak Chopra writes, “The possibility of stepping onto a higher plane is quite real for everyone. It requires no force or effort or sacrifice. It involves little more than changing our ideas about what is normal.”
I have chosen not to include a long series of case studies of people who have overcome incurable illnesses because that is not my purpose in writing this book. I am writing to you, to that invisible intelligence that permeates your body. If you are not a believer that you can create a miracle in your physical health, then a million such stories will not convince you. If you are a believer then you need no further reminders of others who have preceded you on this path.
For now, keep alive the vision of what it is that would constitute your own personal health miracle, as you explore the realm of miracles in your physical abilities. At the end of this chapter I will provide you with a review of how to set your mind for miracles in your body.
CREATING MIRACLES IN YOUR PHYSICAL ABILITIES
What are the things that you have always dreamt about accomplishing, but know would take a miracle to make happen? Once again you must shift your inner consciousness to a place of limitless possibility. And as before, a miracle is awaiting you in this realm of your life. I promise!
When I was twenty-eight years old, the idea of running a marathon, twenty-six miles, was simply unheard of. It would have taken a miracle for me, at that time of my life, to be able to run for almost four hours without stopping. Since then, however, I have run seven marathons, and have passed the fifteen-year mark of running for a minimum of eight miles per day without ever missing a day. Yesterday’s miracle is today’s reality. Today’s miracle will be tomorrow’s reality.
So how did I run for twenty-six miles without stopping? By having the thought in my mind that I could do it, and then refusing to doubt it or be afraid of it. The rest was a piece of cake. I didn’t need to go out and get instructions, or have someone else show me the way. Once I had the idea in my mind, it was simply a matter of aligning myself so as to keep the vision. The body will do what it is willed to do with that ever-present gardener Shakespeare was talking about.
It is also significant to point out that you have created whatever reality your physical body is capable of accomplishing on this date as you sit and read these words. All that you are capable or incapable of achieving flows from what you have decided within that invisible sphere called your mind, where all of your thoughts originate, and where your physical reality ultimately originates as well.
This story appeared in the Maui News on Sunday, June 23, 1991, in the sports section. It was written by Hal Bock, an Associated Press sportswriter.
The statement deserves at least a drumroll, but Jim Law doesn’t say it in any dramatic way, just rather matter-of-factly, really.
“I’m not sure I’d be alive today if it were not for the Senior Games.”
Just like that. A simple matter of life and death. Law is a professor of psychology at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C. Five years ago, when he was 60, he got involved in the Senior Games—nothing terribly strenuous, just table tennis—and went to his doctor for a routine checkup. It was then that he learned that his cholesterol count was 322.
Three hundred, twenty-two.
Normal is under 200. Borderline is 200–239. High risk is over 240.
Jim Law was at 322 and he knew why. “Ice cream, fast foods, red meat, smoking,” he said. “All the tasty things. And a sedentary lifestyle.”
Sounds like your average American diet.
Suitably alarmed, Law started exercising and eating right. He began running and switched from fats to fruits, from red meat to green vegetables. He quickly lost 20 pounds and his cholesterol tumbled to an entirely acceptable 188. But he wasn’t through. “In four months, it was down to 127,” he said.
“I began to feel better as I lost weight. If I didn’t exercise, I felt bad. I made the time because it was for a good cause—me!”
Law’s wife, Aurelia, is 63 and she runs with him. “One time she was huffing and puffing in a race,” he said. “A man, I think he was 73, took her by the arm and said, ‘Don’t worry. As long as we get in by sundown, it’ll be all right.’”
Law gets in well before that. Running the 100, 200 and 400 in the 1989 Senior Games, he won three golds and set three records for his age group. His best times outdoors are 12.71, 26.10 and 59.39—the first two American records, the third a world record.
How strong is his zest for this competition? Well, senior runners are divided by five-year age groups. The day after he turned 65, Law couldn’t wait to take a shot at the next category and drove 700 miles so that he could run in an event.
Imagine that. A man in his sixties totally transforming his life. From the perspective of being overweight with a cholesterol reading of “panic,” he went to work in his mind and created a life that he once knew was impossible. When he knew it was impossible he acted on his thoughts by eating ice cream and watching television. When he knew something else was possible in his mind, he acted on those new thoughts and a miracle occurred in his life.
You have the inner capacity to imagine for yourself anything that is in the realm of real magic. Anything! Once you have that vision, you will be able to use the steps provided throughout this book to make that miracle your reality. And, you will receive all of the divine guidance that you need in the process. This goes for virtually anything you can visualize for yourself as an accomplishment that now seems impossible. The same strategy for manifesting miracles in your physical accomplishments applies to all other areas of your life. Real magic can be accessed only if you shed the doubt and fear, and convert yourself to a spiritual being.
Let me tell you about one experience I had in this area of getting to a level I had never before experienced, one that I thought was impossible to achieve for myself until I became an authentic spiritual being having a human experience.
I was playing a tennis match against a very fine tennis player and we had been battling each other in the hot sun for over three hours. I had won the first set and Tom had won the second set, and then something very strange began to happen. I sensed there was a presence with me on the tennis court telling me something. I had been meditating for several years at the time, and I was completely convinced that one could access divine guidance, or what we tend to call intuition. Of course no one can explicitly define inner knowing or intuition, but we all know whereof we speak when it is mentioned.
The strangest thing began to happen. I could not score one single point, yet I was playing outstanding tennis. Tom seemed to be in what experienced tennis players call a zone and what others call “flow,” as discussed in chapter 5 (others call it being unconscious). He could not miss a shot and even balls that I hit directly at him at a high rate of speed when he was retreating to protect himself would somehow bounce off of his racket and land in my court for his winner. It was as if my invisible guide were somehow laughing at me, and soon I began to laugh out loud at what was happening.
At one poi
nt Tom hit a high lob over my head that was heading for the fence. I looked up and knew it was going out of bounds by six feet at least. Suddenly, out of a stillness, a wind that wasn’t there a moment earlier picked the ball up way above my head and literally blew it back and it landed smack on the back baseline for a winner. I was dumbfounded. This kind of miracle making had gone on for game after game, and an inner voice was saying, “Lighten up Wayne. Don’t take this so seriously. Don’t want it so much. Relax, have fun, and everything will work out exactly as it should.”
I began to know I wasn’t alone out there and that I was being taught a valuable lesson. I lost five consecutive games at the beginning of the third set, yet somehow knew if I kept my poise, stopped fighting and being frustrated and sent love and congratulations to Tom it would be fine. I was behind 0-5, and yet I had been playing excellent tennis.
As we changed courts to play out the match, I was literally told, “Meditate your way through the rest of the match. Let go, and treat this game as a meditation.” I could not believe the transformation that took place.
I let go of everything in my physical world, I mean everything. The surroundings, the sun, the people gathered around watching the match, the court, my racket, everything. I went totally into my mind and began repeating my mantra. My brain went to alpha immediately and I felt that incredible lightness of being I described earlier when writing about meditating. I could not even see my opponent. I actually became one with the ball. Everything turned around. I could not miss a shot. I felt as if I could fly even though we had been playing in the hot sun for hours. My legs felt strong and I had the internal knowing that I could get to any ball.
When we changed courts I simply repeated my mantra over and over silently and felt a wonderful, euphoric high. I won seven straight games without losing more than a few points.
Tom said to me at the conclusion of the match, “What happened to you out there? You even looked different. I’ve never seen you concentrate like that, you seemed so confident and so peaceful. I don’t even feel bad losing after being ahead 5-0 because I played great but you somehow transcended yourself for seven straight games.”
That experience happened a few years ago. I was not alone, and I knew something magical was taking place. It was the same lesson I had to learn while meditating under the tree trying to remove that flower from the branch. “Don’t demand anything, loosen up and be willing to allow a miracle to happen without any insistence and then everything will come to you that you need.” The flower landed in my hand and gave me the message I needed, when I let go.
I believe this is true for all that you want to accomplish in your life. Send out love and harmony, put your mind and body in a peaceful place, and then allow the universe to work in the perfect way it knows how to. My body was in total harmony with my mind during those seven games. I substituted doubt and fear with knowing and trust and allowed myself to perform at a higher level than I had ever achieved before by seeing that tennis match as a meditation rather than a contest.
Those miraculous moments some call zoning or being unconscious can be accessed in any area of your life and are part of an ageless philosophy, as the words of Lao-tzu, written more than two thousand years ago, attest:
Even the best will in the world, when forced,
achieves nothing.
The best righteousness, when forced,
achieves nothing.
The best good-form, when forced,
does not come out right….
Your great physical accomplishments that are yet to come are indeed miracles for you as you contemplate them today. Go within to the peaceful solitude of your mind. Access the higher part of yourself and know you are not alone. Stop competing with others and use your mind to allow your physical self to go to its highest level. Follow the guidelines for creating a miracle mind-set that I have presented at the end of this chapter.
A WORD ABOUT ADDICTIONS AND MIRACLES
If you have spent a portion of your life addicted to something that is toxic to your body, I am sure that, in your mind, freedom from that substance or activity would constitute a miracle. If you have been a victim of an eating disorder, or spent time in which you knew your body was out of shape because of some behavior on your part, a miracle for you would be to be free from that condition. If you have found yourself addicted to nicotine, caffeine, marijuana, cocaine, alcohol or even harder drugs, and simply have been unable to shake your reliance on these substances, then being clean and physically free from these substances would indeed constitute your miracle in the physical realm.
Most people have built up a defense system for their particular addictions, and they argue for and defend their habits. They find themselves trying to convince others that their addiction is not really a problem, that they could quit if they wanted to, or that they could transform their lives if they so chose. “What’s the point in living if you can’t enjoy yourself?” is their defensive credo. Addicts (which includes almost everyone on some level) really want others to believe they do not have a problem.
Inside, in that invisible place where truth keeps smacking one in the face despite external denials, all addicts know they have a problem, and that they would rather not be poisoning themselves. They believe they just need more courage or strength or will to change.
You can get all of the help that is available to you, join the right support groups, get the best medical and psychological attention available in the world, and still, when you change your old habit and experience the miracle of ridding yourself of an addiction, you must do it alone. You must make that decision with your mind, and then carry it out in the physical material world. No one else can do it for you. And neither will you if you see yourself as only a physical being. It has to come from that invisible place, from within.
It is important to remind you, once again, that the universal law that has allowed anyone to ever overcome a serious addiction has not been repealed. It does not matter how far down you have gone. You have within you the ability to make a miracle of your life and rid yourself of addiction.
Here is one letter, written to me a while back, from a woman who put her life back on “health” and created a miracle. When the student was ready, truly ready, the teacher appeared. This is not a fictional story. I have met Kathy and appeared with her on national television where she had the courage to tell her story to millions.
Dear Wayne:
After reading your books, listening to your tapes, (ALL OF THEM at least a thousand times!), and finally getting the opportunity to see you speak in person last May here in Seattle I am ready to write to you. Ready I say because when I first heard a tape of yours years ago I gathered everything I could find on you to feed my painful “crush” on you, the crush that turned into awe, the awe that turned into admiration, and the admiration that turned into an understanding that for whatever reason you have become a mentor in my life. I do not want to bore you with the detailed story of how you literally saved my life, I’m sure you get letters like this by the hundreds … but I want you to know where I came from to understand how far I have come and the impact you have had on my life.
In 1982 I was just finishing a year in my life that had thrown me into the utter depths of my own reality. A prostitute with a thirst for vodka and cocaine, I had been married at 17, divorced at 22, had four abortions, and attempted suicide twice. I met my present husband, who had a strong attraction for prostitutes and a serious cocaine habit, just about this time. We began feeding each other’s nightmares and our despair doubled. Our lives began a fast track of staying “up” for days on end drinking and doing drugs. I remember waking up one morning and thinking to myself, “I won’t live to see 30 years old. I’m going to die.”
One day I was in a bookstore purchasing a book for my sister’s birthday when I noticed some cassette tapes on a stand. For some reason I was intrigued by these cassette tapes on “how to change your life.” I saw your face on the front of one of these cassette boxes
and moved toward it. I know how strange this sounds, but from that moment on my life totally changed. I bought every tape the bookstore had available by you and purchased all your books. I asked my husband to listen to them and together we listened to tapes day in and day out. Somehow, I found the Nightingale/Conant series and ordered all of those! Slowly our lives began to change. Without going to one rehabilitation center, AA, or one support group we have been drug and alcohol free for over five years now.
We are living a life we thought would be beyond our wildest dreams! We have a beautiful home, we own a corporation and two separate companies, and we are in the process of starting our family. We are in total control of our lives and feel limitless! I have longed to see you in person, which I did last May. Then I wanted to thank you. It’s impossible to explain why someone I have never met became such a strong force in my life, but it really does not matter. The point is, our lives are changed forever and the one thing I have learned is that there is nothing more flexible than the human spirit and we may never know what moves us toward any direction. (Good or bad.) I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for just doing what you’re doing! Putting information “out there” that is more needed than you could ever imagine. You are changing lives, Wayne, by the thousands! Thank you for listening to your higher self and sharing with us.
Warmest personal regards, Kathy
For Kathy—who now is a proud and beautiful mother, a happy, successful businesswoman, and in a very spiritual marriage and partnership—her life is a miracle. Who could have thought back in 1982 such an outcome was a possibility?
Miracles in your physical world, whether they be healing yourself or achieving maximum physical health, ridding yourself of an addiction or accomplishing a longed-for achievement, all depend on how you as a spiritual being choose to use your invisible mind and the guidance that is available to you.
Here are some specific suggestions to make this your own personal reality in a brief review of the miracle mind-set necessary for creating miracles.
Real Magic Page 27