Every time I hear or see an ad touting a new diet pill or aid with lightning-fast results, I cringe. Once upon a time, I was one of the people who wanted that type of quick fix.I thought, "I'll take those pills, and my excess weight will disappear. I'll be thin. I'll be pretty. I'll be happy. Everyone will want to be with me. Everyone will want to be me."I equated success with being thin, and I equated being thin with being attractive. A lot of people do. I get that. I also equated being attractive with being happy and successful, and with being deserving of attention and admiration.I'd allowed myself to be brainwashed into believing those things. And I believed I could get all that, and more, from a little pill, or a meal-replacement shake. Cringe.Enlightenment, still blooming and born of a whole lot of hard work, helped me to see that those beliefs were false.I learned and accepted that there was no magic pill - or magic anything else, for that matter - that could siphon a couple hundred extra pounds off my frame in six! short! weeks! Or even one year.
Complementary alternative medicines and therapies - Reiki, energy healing, massage, psychotherapy, etc. - aren't magic, either.While they can all bring healing, and while sometimes that healing can seem, and may even be, accelerated, there is no magic involved.While a practitioner may place her hands passively, or knead sore muscles, or guide conversation to reveal the source of disquiet, action is required of the client.When the healing service is complete, it is for the client to treat herself gently afterward, to drink plenty of water, to think of herself with kindness and compassion.Without doing the work - without tending to her aftercare - the desired results will most likely not be reached or maintained. The pain will return to her body, and mind, and heart. The dis-ease will continue.Healing, in all its many guises, on all its many levels, requires action on the part of the one who wishes to be healed. For many of us, that isn't a popular notion. It wasn't for me. Sometimes, in moments of impatience, it still isn't.And yet, I've come to recognize how much deeper the healing can be when I put in the work. And I've come to appreciate the awesome ripple effect that is set in motion when I put in the effort.When action is taken, and work is done, and results are experienced, healing is laden with potent meaning and the sweet promise of long-term benefits.The magic, then, lies in the effort. There is no magic pill.
