Sometimes it takes a profound illness to upset the apple cart enough that a thorough re-examination of your life takes place. If that re-examination focuses deep enough, profound realizations may result and awareness can greatly expand. If this does occur, I can tell you this… there is no going back, because the old pieces will never fit into the context of the new awareness. You are forever changed. In this case, the old saying, what doesn’t kill you makes you grow, can be seen as true.
An illness of great magnitude can be the catalyst that shatters your old story of who you were and what meaning you gave your life and your context within the greater whole. It is my belief, in fact, that the illness is way of pointing out the incoherencies of your life and it can be the portal into a journey of balance and wholeness. A disease or dis’ease, is really a fracturing of self due to incoherency. In the case of many diseases, it is our choices that lead us there. If these choices are incongruent with other belief systems we may have or if it is part of an incongruent collective conscious (society’s shared views) then we will experience a disharmony which will be projected as physical symptoms. Often these physical symptoms will be symbolic or metaphoric in nature depending on the code behind the projector, namely our thought forms. Many gifted psychologists have made careful observations into this phenomenon. Carl Jung was one such person who mapped out some of the symbols and their meanings as it related to unbalanced minds and the realities which they project. His work still stands today and can be helpful when exploring deep, lasting healing work.
Look at your illness as a chance not only to heal physical symptoms but as a great opportunity to heal yourself at the level of your thought forms, your emotional health and your spiritual connectedness. Then as you gain insight as to why you became fractured, you can aim to heal the larger macrocosm of society and beyond. Remember healing is an inner job. Start there and work outwards, one thought and action at a time.