I have always loved, and been fascinated by, magic. There is something about having your mind blown by the unexplained. To see things vanish in thin air… or simply appear out of nowhere… captures our attention and intrigues us like nothing else.
Watching a magician at work is great entertainment. Deep down, we know we are being fooled. We know that there is slight of hand, misdirection, or some type of deceit at work, yet we allow ourselves to believe that we are watching something truly magical.
This intrigue we have with magic trickles into everyday life. When struggling with physical pain, wanting to eliminate a health condition, longing for a better relationship, wanting to improve your financial situation, or needing to get into better shape, we all wish we could just snap our fingers and have what we want. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
We can get out of pain. We can often eliminate a health condition. We can have storybook relationships. We can go from rags to riches. And we can radically change our bodies. We can wave a magic wand and say abracadabra, but in order to get the change we desire, we must add effort and time.
Let’s take healing for example. A sprained ankle takes 6-12 weeks to fully heal. A broken bone takes 6-8 weeks to heal. A gash to the skin will bleed, then scab over, and eventually finish the healing process with a scar, a process that takes approximately 4-6 weeks. All healing takes time. There are things to speed that process, but it will not happen in a moment.
There are two things at work when you are healing… what you feel… and what’s actually happening. What you feel is what we call subjective. Subjective involves personal feelings, opinions, and tastes. What is actually happening is objective. These are the factual components of something, not involving opinion or feelings. When a doctor asks you to explain your problem, what you give is subjective information, what you think and feel. When the doctor does a physical exam, they are gathering objective information, which is what is actually happening. The subjective and objective data often does not line up. You may have minimal symptoms (which are subjective), yet be suffering from a life-threatening condition (objective). Someone may have mild chest pains (how they feel, which is subjective), but tests may show that there is 90% blockage in three major arteries to the heart (what is actually happening, which is objective). On the flipside of that, someone may have massive pain and throbbing in their finger (subjective), yet be struggling with a simple splinter (objective).
I try to make it very clear to my patients that how they feel and how they are actually doing may not go at the same rate. They monitor and share the subjective information throughout their care… how they are feeling, and I monitor and share how the condition is progressing throughout their care… how they are actually doing. A patient may feel 75% better, but only be 45% better. And they may only feel 10% better, but may be 50% better.
It’s important to note both the subjective and objective data when it comes to all areas in life. It’s not uncommon for a person to feel that their marriage is good, yet their spouse walks out on the relationship. Or for someone to think they are doing a good job at work, yet get let go without warning. Relying on just the subjective can be risky. Think of how often you have heard about someone that appeared to be perfectly healthy, yet suffered a heart attack or stroke. They appeared healthy… but were definitely NOT healthy.
Patients will sometimes say, “I didn’t expect a miracle.” My response to that is that I always expect miracles, I just don’t get crushed if they don’t happen. There is something called spontaneous healing, where, almost like magic, a condition just disappears without any known medical explanation. We know that can happen. Unfortunately, more healing processes (as well as most other life-improving changes) take time. We don’t have a magic wand, or magic fairy dust, and the words abracadabra usually will produce no results. The fact that we have the capacity to heal, change, and grow in all areas of life is truly magical, but most change requires putting in the work and waiting on Father Time. So don’t give up on the magic and the miracles, go on and get to work. And be patient!
