If Not Now, When?
by Alan Cohen • Haiku, HI

The secret of healing is the same as the secret of all success: What you think is what you get. If you expect that healing will be long, difficult, or impossible, it will be. If you expect it to be quick, easy, and available, it will be. As Henry Ford noted, “Think you can, or think you can’t, and either way you’ll be correct.”

Healing doesn’t ask whether you have been in pain for 30 minutes or 30 years. It is always available in the now moment. Consider two rocks that have sat underwater in a streambed; one has been submerged for 10,000 years and other for 10 days. If you place both rocks in the sun, they will take the same amount of time to dry off. Likewise, if you turn on a light in a dark room, it matters not whether the room has been dark for five minutes or five years; the room is just as light the moment you flip the switch.

Well-being is our natural state, and life is always seeking to return us to it. What hampers well-being is not some external factor, but internal resistance. All pain, physical, emotional, or spiritual, begins and is maintained by a factor of “pushing against.” When you release your resistance, healing rushes in. Life wants us to be healed and constantly moves to accomplish that; it simply awaits our cooperation. To be healed physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, you don’t have to make anything happen. Just let go of what you are resisting.

Our culture has instilled within us many beliefs about who and what can be healed, and how long it takes. Many of these beliefs are based on limiting thoughts to which other people have subscribed. If you do not think the same thoughts, you are not subject to the same results. When doctors or psychologists cite statistics of what happens to people who exhibit the same symptoms as you, they are simply noting how other people have dealt with this issue. What you do with it may be entirely different, and you are not bound to land on the same square. The only thing that determines where you land is the train of thought you take to get there. Step onto a different train, and you will arrive at a different station.

A true healer holds more of an investment in wellness than illness. He or she rejoices in getting you out of therapy rather than keeping you in it. Some people in the healing professions depend on continued visits from their patients, so they may unconsciously influence the patient to stay ill for the doctor’s or therapist’s own purposes. While it is rare that a healing professional would consciously or purposely keep a patient longer than he or she needs to stay, many do so without recognizing the underlying dynamic.

Years ago a woman at a seminar reported that she had been doing primal scream therapy for seven years. Finally she felt healthy enough to tell her therapist she was ready to leave therapy. To her surprise, the therapist told her, “You can’t leave now --you’re just getting started.” Inferior “healers” will tell you that you will never get well. Better healers will tell you that you can or will get better over time. True healers will tell you that the healing you seek is available to you now. What a healer tells you is a reflection of the beliefs and expectations you hold. Change your attitude and you will change your prognosis. Who is the real doctor? The mind of the patient.

Examine your beliefs about how long you think healing should take. How long have you been putting up with pain or a situation that is not working? How long have you not had use of a part of your life that you would rather enjoy? What do you think needs to happen before you can feel good? If you answer with any factor outside yourself, you only delay your release. Answer with “My thoughts create my life” and you are very close to the health you seek and deserve.
Simply love yourself, forgive yourself and life, and know that the universe wants for you what you want for yourself. As much as you desire well-being for your child or the people you love, that’s how much life wants well-being for you -- even more. What you have done or what has been matters not. What you think and do today matters much. The now moment is your point of power.

In the Talmud, a wise rabbi posed three questions we should all ask ourselves constantly:
If I am not for myself,
who will be for me?
If I am only for myself,
what good am I?
If not now, when?

Alan Cohen is the author of many popular inspirational books, including The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Why Your Life Sucks and What You Can Do About It and his new bestseller Don’t Get Lucky_ Get Smart. Join Alan for his life-changing Life Mastery Training in Hawaii, February 10-16, 2008. For information on this program or others, or to receive Alan’s free daily inspirational quote and monthly newsletter, visit www.alancohen.com, email: info@alancohen.com, or phone 1-800-568-3079.