Mincolla - Whole health : a holistic approach to healing for the 21st century

by Bernie Siegel, M.D.

In Whole Health, Mark Mincolla has put together a book of great value. This book offers us information that can make a difference in our lives and health. I also know, however, that without inspiration, the information will be ignored. Mark and I both want you to know that we care about you, and if you had an abusive past and did not feel loved, you can abandon your past and let us help to re-parent you and to help you to find self-love and the health benefits that come with it.

What Mark shares, he has learned from his experiences and not the preconceived beliefs that would only serve to interfere with the healing process. True healing demands that the face of medicine be changed. Rather than simply be provided a diagnosis and prescription, the patient needs to be empowered with the preventive wisdom to help avoid future illnesses. Medicine also needs to educate its physicians to focus on treating the patients total experience and to not ignore the factors that led to their illness.

We also need to learn, as Mark has, from patients who do well. It drives me crazy when doctors say to patients who are doing well, Youre doing very well. Whatever it is you are doing, keep it up. What they need to say is, You are doing very well. Tell me what you are doing. We can all learn from success by not calling it spontaneous or miraculous but by seeing that healing can be self-induced, and that our lifestyle and nutrition can be our medicine. We all have the potential to heal but have to be willing to do the work to allow it to happen. Our body needs to know we love it; then our entire life will get the message and will do all it can to help us heal and grow in a transformational way. We need to treat the whole picture and be truly holistic.

The word doctor derives its meaning from teacher. We practitioners need to be more like coaches who criticize in a constructive way so that our patients become healthier and better performers, but our players will have to show up for practice if we are going to see any results. We care about you and want you to know that you are worthy of compassion and love no matter how painful your past experience was with the authority figures in your life.

When you lose your health, well be here to help you find it. You must go beyond viewing the process of disease as punishment, or wellness as something you deserve. I want you to take as good care of yourself as you do your beloved pets. When we love our lives and bodies, our internal chemistry helps us to heal and grow in a transformational way. True wellness is not about trying to avoid death but about healing our lives and bodies and benefiting from the health that comes with it.

A study of Harvard students published in Nature in 1998 showed that only one-fourth of those who felt loved by their parents suffered a major illness by midlife, while almost 100 percent of those who did not feel loved by their parents had suffered a major illness in the same time span.

Our lives are stored in our bodies, and if we do not respond to what is within us, someday the body will present us with the bill. Marks work can help you to find self-empowerment and free yourself from unhealthy addictions and behaviors.

Medicine is limited by its beliefs and what it is willing to accept and research. If it cant explain something, it rejects it. We need to open our minds and beliefs, and Mark can help us to find the way to true healing and health. When I first decided to open my mind and my beliefs, I was criticized and rejected because what I wanted to research wasnt believed and accepted by the medical establishment. Decades later, the work is now getting done because beliefs have changed. Mind, body, and spirit are a unit, not separate entities, and they need to be treated as such.