Yum.
One of my favorite novelists, Tom Robbins, mentions in one of his books that there are two mantras we can choose from: Yuck or Yum.
Through which lens do you peer?
I’ve been musing on this topic the last few weeks. Not which mantra to choose, but what complimentary and alternative healing really looks like.
I have been weighing my experiences of healing after birthing a baby, and my clients experiences when they come for appointments, and hearing about what some friends have been struggling with in the ‘regular’ health care system.
I am going to share three examples.
A friend of mine was treated for Dengue Fever a couple of months ago, which she caught while visiting Mexico. She was treated in that country, and sent home to the US. Her major symptoms were gone, cleared up, but she is still experiencing discomfort and complications. She has the most basic healthcare plan through the state, which is $250 per month. Her insurance plan does not cover pre-existing conditions. Even though she has latent TB. And even though the recent infection could cause flare ups. Even though that could be a national health concern. Since insurance doesn’t cover it, no one will see her. Well, not no one. Her acupuncturist got her right in. And she came to me with only a days notice for massage to help with painful joints.
A new client came to me for Maya Abdominal Therapy for help with painful periods. Her periods had been getting more and more painful – to the point of leaving her writhing on the bathroom floor, near to vomiting each month. Her mother was concerned and encouraged her to make the appointment (she is 23.) Her gynecologist would only prescribe pain meds or birth control. She thought there must be another option, rather than just masking the underlying problem. So we have begun to work together.
I have experienced anxiety during pregnancy and post partum. This is something completely new for me. I am not at all interested in taking prescription medications, which may be the only option I am presented with if I go the Western medical route. With my training, and support of other practitioners (important!) I feel confident in using CAM to facilitate my healing.
So, where do we go from here? The actual path is going to look different for everyone, but there are three things I have found are congruent in all plans: Support, maintenance, and what I want to emphasize here, pleasure.
It takes some support
We’re usually looking for a quick fix. And this is understandable – when we feel bad, we want to stop suffering. Nowadays, most of us also prefer a more natural approach as well, though quick and natural don’t always go together.
For small discomforts, say indigestion of some sort, CAM can work really well, and pretty immediately. And those affects can be long lasting, too. For chronic illness, or deep seated issues like reproductive imbalances, etc, it often takes time to bring balance to the system.
Years ago, I started going to an Arvigo practitioner for Maya Abdominal Therapy to help with my painful periods. She recommended trying at least 3 sessions to see results. I still see her almost monthly, even though I know how to do my own self care just fine.
The same thing happens for my Maya clients – they ask if they can keep coming after 3 sessions. Their periods may be better, but if they skip a month the pain comes back. Or they just like to keep having a reminder to bring more focus, care and love to their health, and a monthly meeting with me helps them do that.
This is not a trick. I believe it’s one benefit of the treatments – the returning, I mean.
This is why I rarely offer one-off consultations anymore, There is too much pressure. Too much on me, to give you everything I’ve got, and too much on the client, because it takes context to want to integrate many of the changes. It takes time to learn the context. And again, it’s part of the process to have someone to come to regularly to get care, to feel vulnerable, to let go of the world outside for a moment. Usually it takes time, takes relationship, to build up trust in the space to do so.
It takes some effort
My son was born 5 months ago at the time of this writing. It has offered me another opportunity to do some healing myself. There are times of emotional upheaval, and physical pain, which I do not normally experience.
I have been desiring some huge explosion of healing, some large shift I’d feel immediately…some ‘big bang’ in the right herb, panchakarma, or perhaps a pouring fountain of grace from the divine.
What I have found to be true, even to my chagrin, is that it takes daily input to actually heal, rather than just continue to competently cope with the problems.
It matters if I drink coffee or not. Every day. It matters if I get to bed early enough. Every day. It matters if I actually, finally, do 15 minutes of alternate nostril breathing. Every day. It matters if I do abhyanga. Every day. The days I do not, I feel off my center, The days I do, I can feel myself coming back toward a new normal.
This is what alternative healing looks like. Repeated action. Reaffirming experiences. Returning to that healing space.
It should feel good | Follow your bliss
When you have the experience of feeling good in your body, a lot can shift. Coming in for a massage starts to encourage you to really look at what else you’re putting in your body. How you’re living your day to day, where you are putting your energy. It might encourage a little more self love, knowing pleasure can come from this vessel.
Honestly, I think this is the most important coming in for me and my right now.
A massage may act as a catalyst, or inception of the idea to take better care of yourself. Doing it regularly keeps the momentum going, keeps you moving in the direction you want to go. If you stop, or go once a year, or twice, it’s hard to expound on the benefits.
I may not have solved my friend’s underlying problem in one massage, but she felt really good afterward. Her joint pain subsided for a while, and she felt taken care of when she was feeling pretty lost and scared. Relaxation, affirming touch and some oil brought her into the healing response in her body and mind, even if just for a hour or so.
When I joined my first Yoga Teacher Training, I remember that it seemed like a lot of the students were quitting their jobs. Learning more about yoga, and starting to feel good in their bodies, they wanted to align their life with how they were feeling. And that took some courageous steps.
How do you think you’d feel if you got a monthly, or even bi-monthly massage? Don’t let your mind immediately go into how much that would cost…think about how it might change your life. What if you had two hours per month where you met and talked with someone, and dedicated that time totally to you, and to improving your self and your health? Someone encouraging you to cook for yourself, sharing new recipes with you, talking about how to make life more satisfying?
How would your body feel? How would that affect your every day life?
Zen and the Art of Regular Maintenance
Ayurveda emphasizes the power of regular maintenance. Daily self care practices, and connection to daily and seasonal rhythms are the crux of healing in this way. Seasonal cleansing is part of the larger cycle of rest and repair, a reminder to come back to good habits, the junction of the seasons.
In Maya Abdominal Therapy, one of the most important and affective parts of the modality is the self care massage the client is taught to do between sessions. In my own personal experience, as well as with my clients – when the self care is done, the healing happens much more quickly and the benefits are maintained.
As I mentioned, I now work with my clients of Ayurveda for a commitment of 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year. I totally get it that you’ve got to trust, got to jive with a practitioner before diving in. Most of my long distance clients read my blog, and know what ( who 🙂 ) they are getting into, and I offer all of my clients a free 20 minute consultation before deciding.
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I might go on to say that there is another ‘perk’ to these practices. There is really no going back to the way it was before. I see this with my cleanse clients. With the clients undergoing Panchakarma where I work as a therapist. With my Healing Diet students, too. And this is another reasons it’s so important to have support, or a community, like a yoga studio you feel at home in. These changes hit at the core cause of the problems, which are often at the core of who we’ve been for a while, who we think we are. Support will help you realize this is not a step backwards, but an evolution. An evolving into a more subtle being. So perhaps we can become more aligned with our purpose here, because we can now read the signs. Evolving into our true selves, for living a more authentic life.