The Magic Pill Within
by Alex Howard BSc(Hons) Dip.Clin.Hyp.NLP.Coach


"There is no cure", said the doctor, "there are
no pills we can give you, you will just have to wait and
see what happens". To my 16 year old brain this didn't
compute. "What do you mean there are no pills?", I
questioned. How am I to get better then I wondered, did
this mean I had to have surgery? However, the situation
was even worse than this, there was nothing even to
operate on.
 

I couldn't understand how the doctor could do absolutely
nothing for me. He didn't even know why I felt so ill. I
was soon told that I had ME, that they did not know what
caused it, and that there was nothing they could do for
me, I would just have to be a spectator in my life and see
what happened. I lived 2 years of my life at this point,
basically, in total confusion. There was no pill, there
was no cure, there was nothing to change my internal
world. I was soon sleeping most of the day feeling like a
zombie, I had no friends, no active hobbies, no support ,
no hope and no future. As I reached the bottom of this
slippery slope, something interesting happened, I found
there was a magic pill. However, it wasn't like I
expected.

I believe that the same answer that totally transformed my
entire life, is an answer that can do the same for every
single person alive, for every community, for every
country, and ultimately for the human race. A pretty bold
statement, I hear you cry. I agree it is, but as you hear
what it is and let it sink into your own heart, you can be
surprised at just how true it is.

The answer is this, if we want our experience of the world
to be different, the solution does not come from the
outside, it comes from within. We don't have to look very
far to see how almost every person alive is trying to
solve their internal challenges with quick fixes from the
outside world. Be it by numbing our brains with alcohol,
TV, drugs, cigarettes, making up our for internal
insecurities by belittling others, changing our mood with
chocolate, trying to feel confident by always having to
wear the latest trends. The quick fixes are almost the
foundation of our culture. We only have to turn on the TV
to see how advertisers exploit this.

This mentality is all too apparent in "modern" medicine,
our looking to the latest ~magic pill~ to help us to lose
weight, to get rid of our spots, to give us more energy.
These are all attempts to try and fix problems that are
usually lifestyle created anyway. They are more of the
same, "quick fixes" to mend the damage by previous "quick
fixes".

There is a telling story about a man who goes to the
doctor with a headache caused by stress. The doctor gives
him a "magic pill" to take away the pain, however, it
upsets his stomach, so he gets another pill for this.
This makes him constipated, but of course there is a
treatment for this too. Twenty years later after popping
half a dozen "magic pills" everyday since the initial cry
for help, he dies of a heart attack caused by guess what?
You got it, stress! The headache was "treated" with
a "quick fix" which, apart from creating many problems on
the way, ultimately killed him. It killed him because it
masked his body's natural warning system.

In my work as hypnotherapist/NLP practitioner and life
coach, I so often hear people saying, well, if only my
partner/mother/son/daughter/etc would change, then I would
be happy, if only I had more money, if only I was more
intelligent, then my life would be better. Almost
everyone thinks they want either for the world to change,
or for it to give a "magic pill" to change them.

How does this apply to your life? How are you attempting
to fill your inner challenges with the outside world? How
is it working for you in the long term? How much are you
losing by masking the voice of your own heart? How much
is the world losing by you suppressing the essence of who
you really are? I believe that there is only one desire
that human beings truly have, it is the desire to know
themselves and to express this to the world. However, as
children we learnt that we are not OK as we are, that we
had to become someone else to survive in the world, to
meet the desires of the masters of the universe, those
that we depended upon.

However, by living this way we run away from ourselves,
when we run away from ourselves, we feel pain, and we
learn to fill this pain from the outside. The question is
not whether we do this. The question is how much longer
we want to continue running from ourselves? How much
longer do we want to make ourselves suffer in this way? I
believe that the most empowering decision that a human
being can make is the decision to learn to know
themselves, to look to the inside for our solutions,
rather than for more ~quick fixes~ from the outside world.

After taking two years to deal with the fact that there
was/is no magic pill someone can take to cure ME, I
eventually discovered what I am sharing with you now, that
there is a magic pill of a different sort. It is a magic
pill inside of us. When you know who you truly are is
love, power, everything that is good, everything that is
pure, how could you ever need the outside world to fill
you up? When you don't constantly need the outside world
to meet your needs, a pretty amazing thing happens, it
becomes a rather extraordinary place. It is suddenly a
world full of joy and mystery and wonders beyond our
dreams. So how then do we learn to know ourselves?

The answer to this question lies in the answers that up
until now you were seeking. If you were numbing your
brain using various stimulants, what does this tell you?
It tells you that there is something in your life that
needs to be changed. It tells you that there is a large
part of you that is not happy and that needs to be
experienced. If you were having to buy the latest clothes
to feel confident, what does this tell you? It tells you
that something happened in the past that made you believe
that you were not good enough. Again, you need to make
contact with your true personal power, rather than trying
to fill yourself up from the outside.

When we consider our lives in this light, it is amazing
how simple we really are as human beings. Working with
people to guide them in transforming their lives has
taught me many things, however, perhaps the most valuable
is this, when we truly understand how we create the
problems in our lives, finding solutions is amazingly
simple. When we understand what up until now we were
doing, how much pain it has been causing, then we can
decide now it is time to stop. It is time to say no to
those old ~quick fixes~ and yes to who we are. If
everyone on earth had the courage to take this decision,
how different would the world around us be?

If people chose to deal with their own pain and behavioral
patterns, rather than get angry at each other, if all
companies were run based on integrity rather than on the
CEO~s lack of internal fulfillment, if countries were led
by people that had the good of the universe as a whole in
mind, rather than their own personal "needs", can you even
imagine how different our world could be?

As Gandhi one said, "Be the change you want to see in the
world". If you want the world to be different, once
again, it is not something that happens on the outside, it
is something that you start here, now, today with you and
me. As you make that decision, the decision to look
within, you can be amazed at how many others can follow
you. For our world to be a better place, we need to treat
ourselves and those around us better. It could all start
with you and me. This stuff is contagious, the more we
change for the better, the more the world around us will
change for the better. We are part of the world, if we
don't like the way the world is we now know where to start
making changes!

Alex Howard holds a 1st class degree in psychology from
the University of Wales, and upon graduation the British
Psychological Society (BPS) awarded him the Best Student
Award for his contributions to the field. He also holds
awards in Economics and Business Studies and is a
certified Trainers Trainer.

He has also trained personally with Phil Parker, principal
of the London College of Holistic Medicine, in
hypnotherapy, NLP and life coaching to advanced diploma
level. He is a member of the British Institute of
Hypnosis and the Institute of Professional Therapists
International.

Along with his academic achievements, Alex's 6 year
debilitation by a severe chronic illness led him to seek
out the best in change work at all levels; mind, body and
soul. He has personally trained with many leaders in the
field, including Anthony Robbins, the world's foremost
authority on peak performance.

Whilst practicing at his London hypnotherapy, NLP and life
coaching clinic, he also researches and writes in the
field of health psychology. His latest book, the much
anticipated "The Magic Pill Within", is due to be
published in the Autumn.

This article courtesy of http://www.health-resources.co.uk.