Are we ‘limited’ when it comes to our health? An increasing number of health experts say we are not. Dr. Kim D’Eramo talks to us about surrendering to what lies beneath the surface of our understanding of health, and about not getting in the way of the body’s healing ability.
Image courtesy of Pexels, Cottonbro Studio
Dr. Kim D’Eramo is one of the increasing experts who believe that our thoughts do not only affect our daily reality, but also our health. That our bodies are vibrational energy and can heal from within. And that the mind body connection is vital. However, it can be a long journey before we get to realise any of this, as it did for Dr. D’Eramo herself.
Dr. D’Eramo was already aware at a young age how her thoughts affected her life. But it was only later on, after she became chronically ill, that she saw how they play a role in our health. It was a story many of us recognise all too well. We get chronically sick, and we get stuck into a ‘I must-get-better’ mode. We spend hour after hour researching our health issues, and visit one medical professionals after another. In addition we take tests, we take supplements. We change our diet and our lifestyle. But often….nothing seems to work. Or, things improve, but not for long.
The big fight for health
Around the time that Dr. D’Eramo was pursuing her professional health training, she began to realise something herself. Something that was completely new to her. That everything she did to combat this ill health, was making her life worse than the chronic illness itself. “Nothing I had done made a difference. It seemed the “disease” was bigger than me and would take over my life,” she writes on her site. She also describes there were moments when she saw that holding this perspective, about having to fight against ill-health, was helping her keep things the way there were.
Some things are bigger than us
It was from then on that she started to wonder something else. Whether the answer to all of it was something bigger than her. Something she herself had not opened up to yet. So, she shifted her perspective from constant battle mode to being open to receive. And to accept that she had no idea how to approach any of this. Not even as a medically-trained person herself.
Surrender: it is a new perspective for most of us when it comes to health. “The nervous system is constantly sending messages to every cell in the body,” Dr. D’Eramo explained. “Do we clamp down into fear when we feel pain or fatigue? Or do we relax and allow the body’s healing response to take over? Do we soften, go within and listen, so that we become aware of how we can support the body’s healing mechanism?”
“This does require our participation, however,” she added. “When we resist the process, this [nervous] system is interrupted and suppressed. How can we assist our innate healing? We must surrender and listen, rather than react and resist.”
Returning to Dr. D’Eramo’s own health story: it was after she has shifted her focus from ‘doing’ to ‘surrender’ and ‘receiving’, that her body began to heal. It was about learning to connect with the body, she explained. It was also about realising that our inner battle with being sick can make things worse. The result in Dr. D’Eramo’s case? No more pain, no more fever, no more need for medicine, no more chronically tired, no more autoimmune disease.
“How can we assist our innate healing? We must surrender and listen, rather than react and resist.”
Too good to be true?
It may sound like something that’s too good to be true (an old perspective that many of us have?). But, says Dr. D’Eramo, surrender can be effective when it comes to our health. “Our relationship with our body and its symptoms is the greatest determinant of whether we live in health or dis-ease. Our inner communication system of thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives has been shown to have a powerful effect on our body’s chemistry,” she explained.
“So, when we have a symptom,” she continued, “we can either react with fear and tension, clamping down into fight-or-flight. Or we can relax to let the body’s intelligence process the information so that we respond from wisdom.”
“It is our inner wisdom that has the capacity to rebalance the body back to health. This is the body’s innate healing in action,” she continued. “You are primarily a vibrational being, not a physical one. So you can let go of the idea that you are limited.”
When we go against that, say experts such as Dr. D’Eramo; everything loses: Our body, our mind, our health.
Editorial note: Please note this article does not serve as medical advice, nor as an alternative to seeking medical support. It is aimed as a perspective to be pondered on.
Health: I saw it on a monitor
One day, Dr. Kim D’Eramo was able to witness the mind-body connection on monitor in a hospital emergency room where she was as a physician. It was after Dr. D’Eramo used a session of energy tapping on a client with chest pains.
“What we did was to release the physical, mental, and emotional energies associated with the patient’s symptoms,” Dr. D’Eramo told us. “We tuned into her chest pain and tapped. Then tears flowed. We tapped on the emotions arising of fear and abandonment, then more tears came, and breathing improved.
Then a final round to welcome all of these suppressed emotions and awareness. By now her chest pain was completely resolved, and she was well.”
Energy tapping (when we use our fingers to tap on parts of the body related to energy pathways while verbalising certain emotions and issues) is a mind-body connection method and after the process, blood pressure and oxygen levels had all returned to normal.
About our interviewee
Dr. Kim D’Eramo is a physician, author of MindBody Toolkit and founder of the American Institute of MindBody Medicine. She has been trained at the Osteopathic Medical school and has also worked for years as a Board-Certified Emergency Medicine Physician. As a physician, she has found that her empathetic skills and her energy sensitivity have helped her attune to the health of her patients. These skills have also helped her identify what might be perpetuating her patients’ ill-health.
Watch Dr Kim D’Eramo here about MindBody Medicine.
One of her quotes is:
“Miraculous healing doesn’t go against science. It just goes beyond science as we have understood it.”