“There will only be truly holistic medicine when doctors acquire a better understanding of the deep interrelationships between the body, mind and spirit (…).” – Richard Gerber.
Health, that little 5-letter word that can represent so much joy and happiness, and which we so often only give value to when we find ourselves in a situation of pain, injury or illness.
Health is much more than the absence of disease. Health, according to the World Health Organization, is the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not just the mere absence of disease.
It is common practice to have an annual check-up, where laboratory analyzes are carried out (which generally include fasting blood glucose, blood count, urea, total cholesterol, HDL AND LDL, triglycerides, values related to thyroid, urine, blood test in feces, among others), ultrasounds (upper and lower abdominal, gynecological) and control electrocardiogram. However, considering the WHO postulate, does this biochemical assessment effectively verify the presence of health? Or does it “only” attest to the absence of illness? From my perspective, the positive answer is to the second question: it certifies the absence of disease.
As we have seen, health includes a state of well-being. In the vision we advocate at Soul Bliss, this well-being is dependent on four areas: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The equation below can summarize the concept of health:
Wellbeing
Physical + Mental + Emotional + Spiritual / Energetic = Health
Complementary diagnostic tests can only answer the first part of the equation, the physical part.
To achieve an integrated response regarding the state of health, an integrative and holistic assessment is necessary, based on other specialties in the area of conventional and non-conventional therapies, let’s see how next.
A new paradigm: Prevention
We’ve all been sick, so we’ve all certainly had something to deal with. But let me ask you: how many times have you had consultations or treatments in the true sense of preventing the appearance of injuries or illnesses? You may respond that you have an annual check-up, I understand. But I question: is the annual check-up really a form of prevention, or is it a way of finding the disease before it gets worse? Let me give you some examples of what for us one could consider acting in prevention.
One of the best ways to prevent the development of tension and contractures is to have a massage, a physiotherapy or osteopathy session so that the therapist can help you reduce discomfort even before any pain, injury , contracture or tendinitis bother you in your day-to-day life. You can turn to these professionals to evaluate and treat the physical part, and in the presence of complaints, the physiotherapist and/or osteopath will look for the origin of your complaints based on anamnesis (clinical history), varied, specific and differential physical tests.
For example, a test that is easily applied in the office is the straight leg raise test, which aims to assess the existence of radiated pain originating from lumbar problems (protrusion or disc herniation) and/or muscle shortening in the back of the lower limbs (hamstrings and calves). You may also be asked, from a standing position, to bend forward until you touch your feet with your hands (or try to), to analyze the existence or not of scoliosis with the naked eye (Adams test). Many other tests can be carried out in an office context, depending on the complaints of the person being evaluated.
As we saw before, a massage can promote a feeling of well-being, lightness, contributing to the maintenance of physical and emotional health, as during the massage, through touch, hormones are also released that promote this state. You have many to choose from: relaxation, sports, therapeutic, Ayurvedic, Thai, etc.To analyze and take care of the mental and emotional part, psychology is an excellent way to understand if there is any issue that needs to be addressed: traumas, fears, phobias, stress and anxiety, additions, etc. You can also see on our blog an article about Emotional Intelligence and Illness. Psychology and psychotherapy can, and should, in my opinion, be a resource as a way of promoting mental and emotional health and well-being.
No one is made of iron, we all need everyone. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, on the contrary! It takes a lot of strength to recognize that you need help, to ask for it and to act towards change. So, if you are doing so, congratulations in advance!
Within Psychotherapy there is Body Psychotherapy which is of particular interest as it forms a very direct relationship between body and mind, physical and emotional, evaluating and treating the person as a whole. In fact, body psychotherapists also work through body massage, aimed at treating certain tensions and specific points according to their assessment, and also with other techniques that involve moving the body.
In addition to these aspects, Nutrition is essential to maintain the supply of vitamins, minerals, proteins, hydrates and healthy fats that our physical vehicle needs so much. Functional Nutrition, Naturopathy and Quantum Medicine can provide an analysis of the general condition of all components of the body, ultimately making a recommendation of nutrition and supplementation to promote health or, if necessary, for the clinical condition in question.
The last point of the well-being equation remains to be addressed: spiritual or energetic well-being. Science is little by little proving what spiritualists have been saying for many years: everything it is energy, including us, Human Beings. For this reason, everything that happens is related to the energy field.
“Everything is energy and that is all there is. Tune in to the frequency you want and
inevitably, this is the reality you will have.
It can’t be any different.
This is not philosophy. It’s physics.”
– Albert Einstein –
Several authors within the energy area, such as Cyndi Dale or Richard Gerber (author of the book Medicina Vibracional), citing just 2, present us the Human Being as a Multidimensional Being, made up of 7 bodies, only one of which is the physical one, the one we see and feel. Richard Gerber even says that changes in the etheric body (the second body, closest to the physical body) precede the manifestation of diseases in the physical body. Some authors point out that this energetic “disorganization” precedes the appearance of problems on the physical plane, the body, by months. Most of us are simply not used to paying attention and noticing our energy, our body.
How exactly does this connection happen then? In the East, through the ancient wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine, this answer has been known for years: through the meridians. The energy (Chi) penetrates the body through the acupuncture points and flows to the deepest organs, bringing them vital energy, that subtle “food”. These aspects can be worked on through acupuncture but also through disciplines such as Tai Chi or Chi Kung, or even through Acupuncture with a Medicine professional Traditional Chinese, allowing to balance the energy system.
Another technique that promotes well-being, not only spiritual/energetic, but also physical, mental and emotional, is Meditation. Meditating, in a simple way, can be seen as deliberately focusing your attention on something. It could be breathing, a sound, a plant, sea waves, or even a white wall. Meditation is not stopping thinking, as we often hear. Emily Fletcher, author of “Stress less , Reach More” refers in his book to something very caricatured but very true: asking the mind to stop thinking is like telling the heart to stop beating. It’s not possible, that’s not what they were created for. What we can do is learn to focus our attention.
Meditation is a mental and spiritual discipline that is open to anyone with the availability and openness to try to put it into practice. Meditating, according to some sources linked to spirituality, is a way of putting ourselves in contact with our highest Self, also called the Higher Self, or even the divine consciousness that inhabits us. If you are looking for this spiritual connection, meditating may be the solution you are looking for. But developing this theme would be the topic for another article.
In simple terms, to meditate you can:
- Use symbols that make sense to you: sacred geometry symbols, a Bible, a rosary, a japamala, an image, etc.
- Through sound: Tibetan bowls, gongs, chanting or mantras.
- Guided meditation.
- Freestyle, simply closing your eyes and focusing your attention on your breathing.
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