Spiritual meaning behind health anxiety

[LadyMay]

Originally Posted by SlayerOfLight

And as well the most sensible answer from my perspective. If a higher force is pulling the strings of our lives then this thing is pretty messed up in the head.

Real/sensible/practical, yes. We may or may not have past lives, but using that idea to bully ourselves into thinking we're bad people who need punishment for something we did in the past (what happened to fair justice and healthy rehabilitation of the personality/soul??) is messed up. People might think it helps them make sense of their bad circumstances but as you said life isn't fair and that's just reality. But we as people are prone to distorted thinking and delusions... the truth is far removed from that and that's why it's so hard to understand, despite funnily enough being the simplest answer.

Second point I'll add is that no benevolent deity would cause a system like that. If such a system exists, it's not benevolent.

[LadyMay]

Originally Posted by lemex

This thought really stood out to me. Very insightful. Fear also results of a withdrawal of external conditions. I know I'm aware of that. When one understands fear one creates (their) reality. Fear creates fear. With our fear we create our reality without it we create that reality. I think we even fear what we can call the condition of what is external. This is an example of the spiritual principle said many times here, we create our own reality. We also can change our reality.

Love this part! When we understand fear we can work with it and create the reality we know we need to create its opposite - love

[Altair]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Past Lives are an easy explanation when there's no other sensible answer from a Spiritual perspective. Anxiety is about psychology but nobody wants to hear that, it's caused either by emotional trauma or chemical imbalances in the brain. My step-daughter's anxiety was caused by the emotional trauma of seeing her father die rather horribly and had nothing to do with Past Lives. Sometimes genetics mean that a chemical imbalance is passed on, or in epigenetics where the genes are methylated by the parents, behaviour patterns can be passed on also.

If there is a meaning behind health anxiety it's Life's Purpose/Karmic Obligations if they are in play, or how an individual's experiential existence is affected by physical factors. It's about how they deal with their ailment and how they perceive themselves because of it - or Love themselves or not.

Thanks for the reply Greenslade. I don't claim to have the answer, though I do get that who we are is shaped by things we can understand.

If past lives are (always?) the answer than why do most babies and women survive now whereas throughout history many did not? If looking for a spiritual reason and say the past 'karma' of going dead on your early days on earth has 'gone away' (mostly) and today 'most survive' because the ''karma vibes are better'' but it just doesn't explain anything. It's about health care improvements. If anyone has a 'spiritual explanation' than I'm all ears.

Concerning anxieties I see no reason to think it's about past lives (Not saying it can't be). If I look at my own issues I can understand how they were developed and there's no need to invoke a past life. Our environment (social, physical), our genes, our development in the womb, how we were raised, experiences we've had.. all of this forms us. If we reincarnate than they're separate 'entities' or 'jobs' that we're having, definitely not any theme of 'development' towards a certain state. Looking at the history of life on earth that just doesn't make any sense. Micro-organisms are still around and many clever species have gone extinct. There just ain't any objective 'ladder' of progress. I see no reason to view it any differently for a single human soul.

[lemex]

Originally Posted by LadyMay

When a lion roars in front of you are you going to tell me your fear is an internal response from the limbic system and that you need to change it or are you gonna run for the nearest tree? Yes it may be so, but what's causing it? And what needs changing for it to stop?

Yes science says the limbic system is the first to act after seeing anything and responds bio chemically. The lion is a threat or anything that is part of a program in both of us. The limbic is only a part of the process and this is important to. It needs inclusion. The limbic system works with the (higher) frontal lobe moments later, the time lag between them is not even noticed. The limbic system does not decide, it is obvious it always sees everything as a threat, that's just its job, whether to run or fight is the higher function that decides what to do. One cannot change it but can become aware of it. I'm saying there is part that must be recognized. Fear is realized moments later.

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by LadyMay

Actually I would say it's the other way round, usually we experience fear as a result of an external condition in our life which isn't being met. When you figure out what that is then you can meet it, make the changes and then there is nothing to fear.

I see where you're coming from. I believe that thoughts create matter, and not the other way. It means that you perceive what you think.

It is like in your dreams:

you walk in a street, you see a dog, a thought crosses your mind "what if the dog attacks me?", then the dog attacks you, you run, and your fear makes you wonder "what if the dog runs faster?", and you feel that you barely can move your feet", ...

You might even wake up and realize that you're pressed to go the bathroom. Then think that your nightmare was caused by that need ...

The point I make here is that the fear, that you experience as a dream character, wasn't caused by the dog, and the difficulty of running wasn't caused by your dream character's abilities, but were caused on a "higher level".

The same happens with our ailments and difficulties in this "physical" reality. Their cause is on even a "higher level".

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by lemex

This thought really stood out to me. Very insightful. Fear also results of a withdrawal of external conditions. I know I'm aware of that. When one understands fear one creates (their) reality. Fear creates fear. With our fear we create our reality without it we create that reality. I think we even fear what we can call the condition of what is external. This is an example of the spiritual principle said many times here, we create our own reality. We also can change our reality.

What I'd add to that is that we'll be able to change reality, as we consciously want, when our beliefs will be that we can do that, when we'll realize what we are in the wider reality.

Originally Posted by LadyMay

When a lion roars in front of you are you going to tell me your fear is an internal response from the limbic system and that you need to change it or are you gonna run for the nearest tree? Yes it may be so, but what's causing it? And what needs changing for it to stop?

That's what it's for, it kept us alive when we first came down from the trees and we still have it today, so when you see a lion in front of you you'll know you still have something that evolution thought was a good idea. Those sabretooth tigers had better eyes and night vision than we had at the time. It also kicks in when someone attacks your beliefs, depending on the reaction you have. If you want to punch someone on the nose because they tell you you're talking out of your backside, you know your limbic system is working the way it has done since even the pre-caveman days. Or if you want to hide away somewhere. It's a reminder that evolution is more powerful than Spirituality. The Limbic System kicks in and pumps out adrenaline, that's what causes it - it's a physical part of your brain.


If you want to stop it, being self-aware enough to realise that you have one in the first place and what reaction it's causing helps. Then you can become responsive rather than reactive. And less of a hominid.

Originally Posted by LadyMay

Second point I'll add is that no benevolent deity would cause a system like that. If such a system exists, it's not benevolent.

We don't need a deity to cause a system like that when we're doing a grand enough job ourselves.

Originally Posted by Altair

Thanks for the reply Greenslade. I don't claim to have the answer, though I do get that who we are is shaped by things we can understand.

If past lives are (always?) the answer than why do most babies and women survive now whereas throughout history many did not? If looking for a spiritual reason and say the past 'karma' of going dead on your early days on earth has 'gone away' (mostly) and today 'most survive' because the ''karma vibes are better'' but it just doesn't explain anything. It's about health care improvements. If anyone has a 'spiritual explanation' than I'm all ears.

Concerning anxieties I see no reason to think it's about past lives (Not saying it can't be). If I look at my own issues I can understand how they were developed and there's no need to invoke a past life. Our environment (social, physical), our genes, our development in the womb, how we were raised, experiences we've had.. all of this forms us. If we reincarnate than they're separate 'entities' or 'jobs' that we're having, definitely not any theme of 'development' towards a certain state. Looking at the history of life on earth that just doesn't make any sense. Micro-organisms are still around and many clever species have gone extinct. There just ain't any objective 'ladder' of progress. I see no reason to view it any differently for a single human soul.

Perception is reality, so how we perceive what happens to us decides if we have a 'good' or 'bad' experience. Like anxiety, if you had it then it's you that makes it either a 'lesson' or a chip on your shoulder.

I don't think the 'Spiritual explanation' is the answer, the answer is the question of what are the reasons we attach Spiritual meanings to something so mundane as health anxiety?

Science says that all of time is happening all of the time, and all of time affects all of time all of the time. Now we're talking about effect preceding cause. In Spirituality there i no time. The question is, how does karma and Past Lives sit in that context?

If health anxiety is caused by karma and Past Lives we're talking about superstition, not Spirituality.

Originally Posted by inavalan

It means that you perceive what you think.

Your reality is defined by your perceptions, your perceptions are defined by your beliefs and your beliefs are defined by your definitions. If you define what is Spiritual that is what creates your reality, and by defining what is Spiritual by extention you define what is not Spiritual. If you define yourself as being Spiritual then you are Spiritual within your own perceptual reality according to your definitions. As for an 'objective reality'....... In a nutshell.

Originally Posted by inavalan

The point I make here is that the fear, that you experience as a dream character, wasn't caused by the dog, and the difficulty of running wasn't caused by your dream character's abilities, but were caused on a "higher level".

The same happens with our ailments and difficulties in this "physical" reality. Their cause is on even a "higher level".

Fear is caused by imagination 'filling in the blanks' of our knowledge. The thought that the dog will attack you comes from your past experience with dogs and that is lodged deep in your unconscious mind - and your pre-caveman Limbic System. You don't know if it's going to attack you or want to play until it does - or it may be more afraid of you. It doesn't get any more primal than that, it's a basic survival instinct. Difficulties and ailments don't come from a 'higher level', they have physical or mental causes depending on what they are. Health anxiety is caused by the brain and Spirituality comes from the same area of the brain as schizophrenia. Similarly with every other ailment or difficulty.

Ascribing the cause of fear to a 'higher level' is simply looking for agency or external causes that don't exist. Spirit, God or anything else didn't cause the health anxiety, that was the brain. The 'higher level' is not the cause but the response.