Vibrant health is one of life’s greatest gifts. Many strive towards this state of high-level wellness. This is where our whole being of body, mind and spirit is in balance and harmony. Energy, peace and gratitude flow as we feel connected to the present moment. Many consumers are seeking ways to achieve this level of health with the use of integrative medicine, a melding of holistic and prevention modalities along with the crisis care of allopathic medicine when appropriate, in order to reach their vision of high level wellness. They are interested in anti-aging approaches for full vibrant health now and as they age.
A friend of mine, Rev. Barbara Pescan of Evanston, IL once wrote:
We are more than our ailments, more than the sum of our addictions, co-dependencies, operations, scars and lapses. We are whole. It is an interesting conundrum that when we pay more attention to the health in our lives and less attention to the illness, that is where the healing begins – in refusing to let the illness determine the value of our lives. Find a way to act subversively today on the side of health. And may you find blessing.
Imagine individuals and our nation paying more attention to true health, rather than disease. Allow yourself to be a bit of a rebel and act subversively today on the side of your health, and the health care in our country. How can you do that? Embrace the new science that is based on an energy paradigm. When you see your body, your thoughts, your prayers, your world as energy, it opens up many new choices for health and healing. Within this new energy paradigm, the complementary, preventive and alternative modalities make sense for effective healing as well as for cost-effectiveness. It’s time for a health revolution.
Our current allopathic medical system based on Newtonian physics and reductionism (the science of breaking things down into mechanical parts, often into the smallest parts possible) is outdated. Yet it has been very beneficial for isolating factors which cause disease, and has created some pharmaceutical drugs and surgeries which border on the miraculous; but it is an ineffective match for chronic diseases. Drugs and surgery should rarely be used as the first choice in that physicians take the oath of Hippocrates: “Primum, non nocere (First, do no harm).”
Allopathic medical treatment, which is expensive and focuses on disease rather than health, also is often unsuccessful in healing the leading causes of death, especially chronic conditions which compose the majority of health complaints. In fact, failures and mistakes in our current allopathic medical system are now leading causes of death in the U.S.
The proposed plans to insure all Americans fail to recognize that they are still linking up a very broken and ineffective profit-based medical system to a broken and inefficient government that can easily be [and is] bought by special interest groups. The time is now to create a cost-effective integrative medical system that allows access to true health care. This new medical system would keep in balance the health of the whole person and the health of the system with reasonable profit. It’s time to be that rebel and act subversively on the side of health!
We are in a major paradigm shift that extends across the sciences. The new science of energy physics, a la Albert Einstein, proposes an energetic paradigm for the universe. The New Energy Physics give scientific credence to a new way of thinking and being in the universe: one that honors science and spirit, energy and matter, mind and body, emotions and spirit as part of the energetic, mysterious, ever-changing, dynamic, participatory whole.
The energy of thought/prayer/intention comes into this system. Matter changes in this participatory universe. The mind-body connection makes scientific and spiritual sense in this system. What opens up is a vision for a medical system based on the new science, incorporating the concept of each person as an ever-changing energetic whole of body-mind-spirit, moving towards greater health and wellness. Health is portrayed as a process moving towards balance, vibrancy and wholeness by way of awareness, seeking education, holistic modalities and growth for the whole person. Health and wellness can begin from the place where the signs and symptoms of disease have manifested—or before any signs of disease have manifested, thus preventing much dis-ease. The old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” rings even more true now.
Larry Dossey, M.D. has done a lot of work and research on the role of prayer and healing. He sounds the clarion call for a marriage of science and spirit. He teaches that in modern medical education, there has been a clear bias toward the logical, analytical, rational approaches to disease; and bias against any other approach deemed “right-brained,” irrational, religious or unscientific. But now the choice between science and spirituality appears increasingly artificial, even from a scientific perspective.
Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., spoke in Chicago on the topic of spirituality and healing. She has done decades of work and research in the mind-body-spirit field. Many researchers who initially were intrigued by the mind-body connection, have been drawn more deeply into exploring the role of spirituality in health. Take notice of this trend of moving from body to energy to spirit in some of our popular physicians and researchers such as Candace Pert, Ph.D., Herbert Benson, M.D., Christiane Northrup, M.D., Bernie Siegel, M.D., Andrew Weil, M.D, and others. I have also noticed this trend in my own personal and professional process and practice.
The National Wellness Association reports that doctors are finding some surprising evidence that spirituality can promote health. And the shift to the wellness model has been supported by research in chemistry, psychology, neurophysiology, psychoneuroimmunology and quantum physics. So, let’s “act subversively today on the side of health.” And may you find blessing.
Gina Orlando, MA, CH is a health coach, prevention specialist, anti-aging consultant and certified hypnotherapist with 29 years in the holistic health field.
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