The power of mind over the body in illness and healing is now recognized in the new thinking on health. A major attitudinal obstacle to healing is the subconscious clinging to illness which has to be neutralized by positive attitudes like peace and faith. The external medicines cannot lead to lasting cure if the inner attitudes of the mind are negative. On the other hand if the inner attitudes are positive and healthy it can accelerate the healing process and the heavy dose of chemicals, which does more harm than good, can be reduced to the minimum.

Good health is the exterior expression of an inner harmony.

* * *

An illness of the body is always the outer expression and translation of a disorder, a disharmony in the inner being; unless this inner disorder is healed, the outer cure cannot be total and permanent.

* * *

Disease is needlessly prolonged and ends in death oftener than is inevitable, because the mind of the patient supports and dwells upon the disease of the body.

* * *

If you are ill, your illness is looked after with so much anxiety and fear, you are given so much care that you forget to take help from the One who can help you and you fall into a vicious circle and take a morbid interest in your illness.

* * *

Do not love your ill-health and the ill-health will leave you.

* * *

The body is cured if it has decided to be cured.

* * *

Physical troubles always come as lessons to teach equality and to reveal what in us is pure and luminous enough to remain unaffected. It is in equality that one finds the remedy.

* * *

Your illness gave you an opportunity to open your eyes towards the need for an inner change. You must take advantage of this and progress.

My advice is not to worry. The more you think of it, the more you concentrate upon it and, above all, the more you fear, the more you give a chance for the thing to grow. If, on the contrary, you turn your attention and your interest elsewhere you increase the possibilities of cure.

* * *

When I was twenty, a doctor told me that in cases of troubles of the stomach or intestines, the best thing is to continue eating as usual and not to bother about the trouble. He said, “If you have acidity, it will come from whatever food you take and the more you bother about it, the more it will increase. If you go on changing your food, in the end you will find that you cannot even drink a drop of water without getting into trouble. But if you remain normal and don’t worry, you will become all right.” And I have found this advice to be quite true.

* * *

Wake up in yourself a will to conquer. Not a mere will in the mind but a will in the very cells of your body. Without that you can’t do anything; you may take a hundred medicines but they won’t cure you unless you have a will to overcome the physical illness.

* * *

You must put a strong will for getting rid of your illness and you must remain quiet and unperturbed by the results. The two are not contradictory. One should accompany the other.

* * *

Establish a greater peace and quietness in your body, that will give you the strength to resist attacks of illness.

* * *

The body must do exercise, have an active and regular life, work physically, eat well, and sleep well.

You must not fear. Most of your troubles come from fear. In fact, ninety per cent of illnesses are the result of the subconscient fear of the body. In the ordinary consciousness of the body there is a more or less hidden anxiety about the consequences of the slightest physical disturbance. It can be translated by these words of doubt about the future: “And what will happen?” It is this anxiety that must be checked. Indeed this anxiety is a lack of confidence in the Divine’s Grace, the unmistakable sign that the consecration is not complete and perfect.

As a practical means of overcoming this subconscient fear each time that something of it comes to the surface, the more enlightened part of the being must impress on the body the necessity of an entire trust in the Divine’s Grace, the certitude that this Grace is always working for the best in our self as well as in all, and the determination to submit entirely and unreservedly to the Divine’s Will.

The body must know and be convinced that its essence is divine and that if no obstacle is put in the way of the Divine’s working, nothing can harm us. This process must be steadily repeated until all recurrence of fear is stopped. And then even if the illness succeeds in making its appearance, its strength and duration will be considerably diminished until it is definitively conquered.

* * *

A broad mind, a generous heart, an unflinching will, a quiet steady determination, an inexhaustible energy and a total trust in one’s mission – this makes a perfect doctor.

Sri Aurobindo & the Mother