Attitudinal Healing is a cross-cultural method of healing that helps remove self-imposed blocks such as judgment, blame, shame and self-condemnation that are in the way of experiencing lasting love, peace, and happiness. It is based on the belief that it is not people or experiences outside of ourselves that cause us to be upset. Rather, it is our thoughts, attitudes, and judgments about them that cause us distress.
Health is defined as inner peace and healing as the letting go of fear. These are guiding principles in this groundbreaking work in personal, collective, and global transformation.
The approach and philosophy is based on universal principles and forgiveness. People of all ages, beliefs, walks of life, and cultures volunteer, support, and benefit from the practice of Attitudinal Healing.
- Defines health as inner peace.
- Defines healing as letting go of fear.
- Regards our primary identity as spiritual and affirms that each individual possesses a quality of being or an inner nature that is essentially loving and that this loving nature is shared by all human beings.
- States that love is the most important healing force in the world.
- Does not tell other people what to do but offers them choices.
- Emphasizes equality in every aspect of our lives and affirms that we are all student and teacher to each other.
- Recognizes that peace is our only goal.
- Emphasizes listening with empathy and without judgment or advice.
- Sets the goal of living a life focused on unconditional love.
Attitudinal Healing views the purpose of all communication as joining and regards happiness as a choice. It acknowledges that forgiveness is the key to happiness, and recognizes that we are all worthy of love and that happiness is our own responsibility as well as our natural state of being. Every day we are making choices that are either based on love or based on fear. Which one we decide to use determines what we experience in our lives.
"Attitudinal Healing is based on the principle that it is not other people or situations that cause us distress. Rather, it is our own thoughts and attitudes that are responsible for our distress, and the actions we take as a result of those thoughts and attitudes can hurt us. Healing results when we concentrate on changing our own attitudes rather than trying to change the attitudes of others. Thus, the goal of Attitudinal Healing is self-healing in the face of each life challenge. Attitudinal Healing is not a religion, nor is it religious. People from many cultures, faiths, and denominations, as well as those who follow no faith at all are welcome to participate." - from Love Is Letting Go Of Fear by Gerald Jampolsky, M.D., 2005 edition.
Attitudinal Healing is not just adjusting or adapting our attitudes; rather, it is consciously choosing to let go of our fearful attitudes. The goal is not to change behavior, but to retrain the most powerful instrument of change we possess, our own mind. Our approach is based on Twelve Principles, which are offered as suggestions or an invitation, not as rules. These Principles introduce the dynamic of choice, and acknowledge our own inner wisdom. It is up to us to choose whether we wish to move through the fear, conflict or separation we are feeling and experience peace of mind. Attitudinal Healing is highly regarded by the academic and professional community as an effective therapeutic approach for individuals, groups, and organizations. In 2005 founder Dr. Gerald Jampolsky was awarded the American Medical Association's Excellence in Medicine Award for this groundbreaking work.
Attitudinal Healing is referred to as a "Psycho-Social-Spiritual Approach” within the field of psychology. We define it as spiritual because we refer to ourselves as larger than our bodies in terms of a compassionate nature that is inherent in all of us. It is neither religious nor dogmatic, and it does not conflict with any spiritual or religious orientation, but instead oftentimes enhances them.
The essence of Attitudinal Healing is learning to release all thoughts from our minds except love thoughts. It is correcting the misperception that we are separate from each other and that others are attacking us. It is relinquishing the need to analyze, interpret, and evaluate our relationships. Attitudinal Healing is simply seeing others as extending love or as being fearful and asking for love. It is letting go of fear and guilt and choosing to see everyone, including ourselves, as innocent. Attitudinal Healing occurs when we make the decision to teach only love.
The Benefits of Attitudinal Healing
The Twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing are spiritual principles that lead us to love and away from fear. I think of the application of these principles as “practical spirituality” that can be used in every aspect of our lives. There is not one area where they do not apply. As we learn to change our attitudes and change our minds, we change our lives.
Some of the possible benefits of Attitudinal Healing include:
- Experiencing ourselves as love.
- Finding happiness and inner peace.
- Becoming a love finder.
- Counting our blessings.
- Focusing on love rather than on appearances.
- Walking through life more lightly.
- Laughing more.
- Living in a consciousness of giving rather than getting.
- Recognizing that there is something greater than ourselves.
- Successfully letting go of fear, judgments, guilt, being a victim, fear of death, unforgiving thoughts, pain, blame, fear of the past and future, being a fault finder, withholding love from anyone including ourselves, our need to assign guilt or innocence, complaining and listing our hurts, fear of intimacy, and especially the need to suffer.
Questions to ask ourselves
Is there another way of looking at the world that changes our experience of life?
Is it possible to choose to let go of fear and conflict completely?
Is it possible to heal our painful thoughts and attitudes about the past and to bring peace to ourselves and others?
Is it possible to forgive everyone who we think has hurt us, and to forgive ourselves for our mistakes and for the shame we feel about the past?
Can we truly know peace and happiness while living in a world that seems so chaotic and crazy?
Can we remove all our self-imposed blocks to love and come to know and trust in who we really are?
Can we simplify our lives by recognizing that there are only two emotions - love and fear?
Attitudinal Healing answers all these questions with an unqualified and enthusiastic Yes.
For more on Attitudinal Healing, please refer to The Definition of The Principles of Attitudinal Healing by Patsy Robinson, available as a PDF in the Downloads section.