Consciousness & Healing – Marilyn Schlitz

Scientists, healers and contemplative teachers are finally beginning to work together to explore the ways in which people are conditioned by the biological, social and physical world in which they live, and, in so doing, recognize a broader picture of our collective human potential. In this first session, you’ll discover the integral model of healing as a whole-systems approach to health and wellness. You’ll explore the distinction between healing and curing, recognizing healing as dependent upon a nested set of relationships that form connections between body, mind, others, society, ecology and spirituality.

This integral perspective requires a deep examination of our core assumptions about reality and our place in it and includes objective, subjective and intersubjective experiences and ways of knowing.

In this module, you’ll:

• Receive an overview of a whole-systems, relationship-centered approach to promoting optimal health
• Explore what science and spirituality are converging to develop an integral perspective
• Consider the ways in which healing is transformation and transformation can be healing
• Examine your deepest assumptions about yourself and how you can cultivate your own wellbeing in the context of purpose, meaning and connections

This week, you’ll examine conscious awareness and how your mind and body are intimately interconnected. You’ll see how your emotions, feelings and attitudes impact your sense of wellness and guide what you see and feel. Likewise, bodily sensations impact your ability to embrace resilience as you listen for the inner wisdom that defines embodiment.

You’ll see how a placebo works and consider the ways in which your expectations can shape your lived experience. How pain is experienced, for example, is fundamentally connected to what is anticipated.

In this module, you’ll:

• Delve into the nature of mind/body connections to promote optimal health
• Discover how expectancy and intention can enhance resiliency and self-regulation in the face of stress and anxiety to promote a sense of balance and wellbeing
• Consider recent developments in the fields of mind-body medicine and positive psychology to understand how our beliefs and worldviews impact our wellbeing
• Explore the emerging field of epigenetics and learn about the latest science to connect mind and body
• Discover practices that harness intentions, attention, habits, growth mindset and openness to the mystery of life

What does it mean to be part of a greater whole? How does your worldview, or model of reality, impact what you understand about who you are and how you relate to others? And how can you become more aware of all the ways you are part of an interrelated, global community? As you explore these questions, you’ll be invited to consider the health benefits of belonging and social support.

In this module, you’ll:

• Explore the role of personal relationships in your health and healing
• Look at what science tells us about marriage, friendship and love
• Consider recent developments in the field of positive psychology, where mindfulness and compassion offer powerful tools for health and wellbeing
• Heighten your awareness of society and culture’s impact on what and how you feel as well as your health

The great medical deconstructionist, Ivan Illich, talked about how difficult it is to be healthy in a sick society. In this session, you’ll reflect on the myriad challenges we face due to our western worldview. You’ll examine the impact of pace of life and multi-tasking, as well as the challenges of violence, substance abuse and bullying.

In this module, you’ll:

• Examine the ways in which society impacts your health and wellbeing
• Look at how social consciousness can be understood within five levels of awareness (pre-awareness, self-reflexive social consciousness, engaged social consciousness, collaborative social consciousness and resonant consciousness) that impact our engagement with self and others
• Identify communication tools that can help you find meaning and purpose and provide you with resilience amidst our changing times

Finding optimal health and wellness involves many different approaches to health maintenance and treatment. This week, you’ll discover diverse cultural approaches to health and healing, including an understanding of the body, how healing happens, who does the healing, and what it really means to heal.

You’ll also discover how there are ways in which different worldviews or healing traditions complement one another and ways in which they conflict and lead to confusion for people who are on a healing path.

In this module, you’ll:

• Examine diverse cultural approaches to healing
• Look at how different cultures and healing systems view the sources and solutions for illness and dis-ease
• Consider the latest science on complementary and alternative medicine, including the emerging fields of sound healing, biofields and subtle energies research

Our current worldview defines our relationship to the natural world as one of separation. Yet, recognizing our deep embeddedness in nature can help us to heal ourselves and our connections to the Earth.

In this session, you’ll explore evidence that connecting to nature can reduce stress and anxiety — it’s been shown to lower PTSD in veterans as well as at-risk youth. You’ll also learn how simply taking time to reflect on nature can help nurses reduce work pressures and become more effective caregivers. One recent study even shows that merely living around nature can help us live longer.

In this module, you’ll:

• Examine the healing powers of nature in diverse cultures and healing systems
• Explore ways in which science is establishing the therapeutic potentials of spending time in nature
• Discover how connection to the natural environment helps us refocus our attention, reduce stress and enhance our healing response
• Discover how you can connect with nature through art and mental imagery, and how this can make us happier, kinder, more creative — and also support our physiological wellbeing

There’s no question that for a great many people, prayer has tremendous personal value and is a much-needed source of courage and strength. Unfortunately, the spiritual dimensions of healing are largely ignored in conventional medical or surgical treatments.

In this final session, you’ll discover scientific research on spirituality and health. You’ll examine ways in which scientists have attempted to bring an evidence-base approach to issues of prayer and contemplation. As you acknowledge your own spiritual hunger, you’ll consider the roles of aging and dying and what happens next. And, you’ll discover that a s you seek to grow and heal, even in the face of illness or disease, your sense of life’s preciousness expands.

In this module, you’ll:

• Explore the spiritual dimensions of healing, including love, altruism, compassion and forgiveness
• Look at the scientific evidence for spiritual healing
• Discover how our connection to something larger than ourselves speaks to what can truly restore us to wholeness
• Discover some very practical ways you can use prayer and contemplative practices to help reduce stress and anxiety