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.
Attitudinal Healing
- Believes that the essence of all of our beings is love.
- Defines health as inner peace and 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 or offer unsolicited advice.
- Honors the power of each person’s choices, challenges, and changes over the lifespan.
- Views the purpose of all communication as joining.
- Holds the belief that everyone deserves the right to be happy.
- Recognizes that peace of mind is our goal and forgiveness our function.
- Practices listening with empathy and without judgment or advice.
- Sets the goal of living a life focused on unconditional love.
- Emphasizes equality in every aspect of our lives and affirms that we are all students and teachers to each other.
Attitudinal Healing acknowledges that forgiveness is the key to happiness and that 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 - A Practical Spirituality
"Attitudinal Healing is based on the principle that it is not other people or situations that cause us to be upset. Rather, it is our own thoughts and attitudes about those things that are responsible for our distress. 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." Love Is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald Jampolsky, M.D.
Attitudinal Healing is not just adjusting or adapting our attitudes; rather, it is consciously choosing to recognize and let go of our fearful ones. 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 love of self and others as well as 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 prestigious American Medical Association's Excellence in Medicine Award - Pride in the Profession Award for this groundbreaking work’s contribution to the field of mental health.
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 evolving consciousness in addition to our bodies in terms of a compassionate nature that is inherent in all of us. We recognize the exploration of the mind as separate from the brain. Attitudinal Healing is neither religious nor dogmatic, and it does not conflict with any spiritual or religious orientation, but instead oftentimes enhances them.
Attitudinal Healing is learning to be consciously aware of all fear based thoughts and choices and replacing them with love as we make all decisions based on love or based on fear. It is correcting the misperception that we are separate from each other and that rather than seeing others as attacking us, see them as fearful instead. 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 others, including ourselves, as innocent. Attitudinal Healing occurs when we make the decision to teach only love for that is what we are.
The Benefits of Attitudinal Healing
The Twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing are spiritual principles that lead us to love and away from fear. We 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.
- Believing we deserve happiness and inner peace.
- Becoming a love finder rather than a fault finder.
- Having an attitude of gratitude and always counting our blessings.
- Focusing on the essence of others rather than on their appearances.
- Walking through life more lightly.
- Laughing more through judging less.
- 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.
"As we learn to change our attitudes and change our minds, we change our lives."
Questions to ask ourselves
Is there another way of looking at the world that changes my experience of life?
Is it possible to actually choose to let go of fear and conflict at any given moment?
Is it possible to heal our painful thoughts and attitudes about the past?
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 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.
