On the Smallest Shifts

This is what a patient shared with me this week during her follow-up. We had her off her food intolerance, on a homeopathic remedy, and on some supportive measures in regards to her chronic complaints.

"It was the smallest shift but at the deepest level."

It was something that caused me to pause as I had never heard a patient describe their experience that way and it took me by surprise. And by 'it' I mean joy.

Over these years of clinical practice I've realized that the majority of real shifts (in chronic cases) are not the dramatic ones- not the shifts that seem to move mountains or transform a terrain overnight- but rather: the real shifts, from my observation, are the gentle, subtle changes that happen from our most interior zones.

Nowadays (again, in chronic cases) I do not become excited when symptoms radically change in a matter of hours/days. Pharmaceutical suppression can do that, and we all know now that suppression is harmful and disruptive in the long run to the organism.

But no, when the shift comes from the most interior parts people can report things like, "my bloating decreased from 8/10 to 6/10 but my energy and mood went up from 4/10 to 8/10. I feel my depression has lifted a bit and I've been able to get out of bed and outside nearly every day this week, which I haven't done since before the lockdowns."

Our psycho-spiritual and emotional zones are 'deeper' and more interior than the physical, so when the appropriate cure is applied the shifts are catalyzed from within because the immaterial aspects of our beings are those closest and most directly affected by the vital force.

And most of you folks who have been following this page for a while know that it is the vital force that mediates the healing, by the Grace of Allah, of all our conditions and afflictions.

So in conclusion: in this work we do not look for the big fireworks display. I do not effort with my patients to procure these effects nor do I encourage my patients to seek them.

Rather I invite them to a journey of inquiry, self-discovery, and intention. It may take a lifetime to do this work- which is expected because this work is part of the reason of our existence… to know and cultivate the self. So we do not seek the shifts, just like we do not seek 'states' on the spiritual path, but we seek change and transformation.

We ask Allah for guidance and facilitation!