Nature as Healing

If you had told me last week I would be studying a chipmunk, it's movements and apparent hygiene habits for over an hour on a given day this week, I probably would have said you were crazy.  But it happened.  Who has the time (besides a rodent-ologist) to do that?  Anyone who spends a prolonged period of time out doors is subject to nature's spell.

"Nature's spell" being, a much slower vibration than the modern, technology-fraught one most of us are subject to all the time. We are subject to nature's energies when we are among trees, plants, water, wild animals, air currents and the stars for lengthy periods.  They impact us.  Their vibration is much slower.  Nature's energy is a-buzz with constant activity.  But its layered and varied and harmonious with that which is around it.  Most of all, it is related.

From the decaying matter at the forest's sub-terrain with it's trillions of microbes, bacteria and insects relating to its matter and each other to the wild animals that navigate it and interface with it's layers.  Woodpeckers impact a tree's life by it's constant hammering, drilling holes, releasing from layers of bark the life working in the tree. Wind and storms topple weakened trees providing homes to live in, mulch for the ground below, fertile foundations for moss and fungi to thrive.

From a human perspective, nature can be violent and apparently ruthless. But somehow it is always related.  The great black bear of Alaska in salmon season can be seen grabbing flying fish in mid-air, taking down it's prey in a gory spectacle.  But it never takes more than it needs.  No wild thing acts outside of it's nature, because it is living it's nature.

I think we become more sensitized to outside nature's vibrations just because its mass is so immense (compared to our own relatively puny mass); our internal senses are trumped by the shear mass of nature's relating vibration surrounding us.  Our own nature's vibration is Us.  You'd think it would be hard to miss, this nature running through us. But much of our internal workings are automatic (thankfully).  We don't have to think or have an awareness of our respiratory, endocrine or cardiac systems for them to function.  Whereas that is very convenient on most days, the other side of the coin is that we take our functions for granted and usually have forgotten they are doing a massive job without any of our (gross) attention. This lack of awareness in a way desensitizes us to the more opaque layers of our energetic self.

What could be the importance of having an awareness of one's own nature?  The awareness of having a more sensitized connection to external nature is a clue.  We "See" as we become more sensitive to nature's vibration, we begin to experience the layers of relationship. We naturally start to develop an appreciation for that and a more acute energetic listening capacity.  The same is true when the nature springs from within. Becoming more aware and connected to this deeper vibrational aspect of nature and myself can only support our health, function and sensitivity to same.  This relatedness we bring to the world and our relationships is our human inheritance, a gift from the natural world.

photo courtesy:  Mie Sato

Place, Space, Materiality and Health

Everything is material.  Everything is energy.  Everything has Qi. A closet, a room, a house are layers of embedded self.  Our "stuff" is charged with energy.  Likewise, most of our other stuff crammed into closets, buried in corners never to see the light of day, are energetically static, becoming a drain on our personal energy, and the collective energy of the space. A room, a house, objects are living, breathing things.  They bring life or they don't.  What animates them is my relationship to them.

Besides for hygiene purposes, we regularly bathe to clear our inner and outter energy fields.  Usually, we relax in a bath or shower, breathe deeper (moving the internal energies) and cleanse that which has energetically stuck to us on a given day.  Why would it be any different in a world where there is Oneness, even in regards to inanimate objects?  That which we surround ourselves and live with needs to be cared for in a similar way in which we care for our bodies.

Our materiality needs to be met, attended to.  Things that remain broken and uncared for reflect our own defunct state.  Things that are in order support a life, allowing it to work well.

What makes us so attached to the things we own, the things we don't really want or need?  Why don't we want to take care of what we have, what possessions we surround ourselves with?  What makes us hold onto more than we can handle, more than what we can attend to?

What does it mean to attend to an object, to exchange energy with something that is material (usually inanimate)?  Giving attention to an object is an exchange of energy; it acknowledges the space it takes up and therefore the space at large.  We create a place with our attention to that which we live with.  Looking at a picture, admiring it or disliking it, moving one's memory in regards to it is "owning" it and reaffirming one's relationship to it. Running a cloth or duster over objects is recognizing them, recognizing their need to have attention.  In the act of care, we acknowledge our relationship to it.  Similarly, our act of neglect recognizes our lack of relationship to the object.

What is the first thing I wake up to?  An altar created with prized objects that affirm their worth, my worth, that changes periodically depending on where I am in myself?  Or do I wake to a pile of dusty books? unfolded laundry? spent flowers in a tired vase? Papers stacked on a side table I don't want to deal with? Is the first thing I see upon waking energizing, hopeful, an impression that beckons my life to this new day ---or is it another  unattended "thing" to be ignored for the millionth time, unseen, unloved, uncared for?  This connection to inanimate objects are real and vibrant relationships that manifest all types of energy through my life and effect me and my health every day and every night.

How do I take care?  Where don't I?  How is that related to my present day reality? Does the pattern of attention (or in-attention) follow me from room to room?  Where is the place of choice?  Having choice as to what is in my life and what is not in my life. Is the collection of objects or clothes or shoes a decision not to make a choice?  Accruing materiality.  Crowding inner and outter space.  Denying Place. Not facing the energy gotten and given by such things, not acknowledging the depletion, sometimes depression these things (by no fault of their own) exert.  A type of negativity is rendered  because of my refusal to validate the relationship I have with them. How many decades has it been since I pulled that book off the shelf?  How many years ago did I last wear that dress?

Forget the psychology of objects, and "owning".  Remember the energetic dynamics that play on and impact one's life with these things and the subsequent layers of memory, influence and connection created. Engage with the concept of being a "good householder".  One's health depends upon it.

Humor and Health

Humor is an under rated aspect in the healing experience.  Who hasn't had a thigh-slapping laugh fest, or a few minutes when the laughing was so deep in oneself, the body just shook with no sound coming out?  How does one feel after?  Like all of one's "pipes" have been cleared, a sense of release, often followed by the arrival of a deeply satisfying containment.  Humor is healing; it lightens the load, shows us the other side of the tragic, breaks up the held tensions and provides the body with vibrational ease.

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.  Yiddish proverb

In Healing and the Mind by Bill Moyers on Audio Download, Audio ..., Candace Pert (The Research of Candace Pert, PhD | Healing Cancer) said the emotions are registered and stored in the body in the form of chemical messages (known as neuropeptides, or amino acids, the building blocks of protein) which is the healing connection between the mind and the body. These neuropeptides is the way all cells in the body communicate with each other, including brain-to-brain messages and brain-to-body messages. One's emotional state effects whether we get sick from a virus or not depending on the kind and number of emotion-linked neuropeptides available at receptor sites that a virus' might visit.  The more humor and laughter in your life, the more chemical messages are working for you and your health.

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.  Abraham Lincoln

Robert releasing

An increased positive attitude reduces pain levels as well.  Hope and optimism clinically increases your chances to survive catastrophic illness, heal wounds and have an overall better health picture than those who choose fear, anger, resentment and negativity as a general approach to life.  Our immune systems, T-cell mobility are all enhanced by a lighter attitude, due to lymphocyte activity and the increased production of antibodies.  Negativity disrupts production of neurotransmitters and only increase cortisol and other hormone production which inhibits healing.


It's a bit ludicrous that humor would be a help when in ill health or spirit.  When you are not feeling great, laughing is seemingly the last thing at one's disposal.  However, if humor is cultivated in one's life as a matter of routine prior to illness, it is a resource to draw upon when illness arrives.  A sense of humor is not a silver bullet, which will cure disease and illness.  Rather, it creates internal conditions, which support the body's basic healing and health-maintaining mechanisms.

The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused while nature heals the disease.  Voltaire

If you are a serious type, the question is how to bring more belly laughing, lightness and play into one's life; to rediscover what we knew as young children-- simple humor.  Many of the stress management, humor related materials suggest 60 minutes a week of comedic entertainment (funny movies, videos, etc).  Collecting cartoons and keeping a book of them is a helpful reference.  It also is an exercise in finding out what is really funny for you.  Humor is different for everyone.  The Marx Brothers send some into fits of guffaws, whereas Stephen Colbert's ludicrous irony leaves others smiling for hours.  It is interesting to locate your specific funny bone and then feed it.  Maintaining relationships with those you laugh with a lot is smart.  There is a QiGong exercise of healing sounds that ends in a belly laugh.  Three full breaths of "Ho Ho Ho" in a deep register while shaking your dantien, hand over hand.  When done in a group especially, there are generally peels of "real" laughter that follow.  It's hilarious, ridiculous and effective.

I wish my identity weren't so wrapped up with who I am.

Amazon.com: Healing and the Mind (9780385476874): Bill Moyers ...
Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers 1 - The Mystery of Chi - Part 6 ...
"Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine"

Sustainability and Health

Health and nutrition are inextricably linked.  What we eat impacts how we feel and how we function.  So we do our best to eat "clean" and navigate carbs, calories, sugar and gluten intake, protein sources and resources judiciously.  Some of us take an occasional sideways glance at the concept of the local food and sustainable agriculture movement.

Unbelievably, food (I would think, an unalienable right) is politics.  A larger percentage of Americans are hungry in 2012 than they were back in the 1960's.*  There are families and communities that are considered "food insecure", that can't afford enough food, and remain uneducated to the impact of poor food choices on their health.*  Twenty percent of children in this country live in such homes. The widespread use of non-organic, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in our industrial agriculture system makes our food sources unsafe, less nutritious and compromises the farming industry (farm bankruptcy is currently at an alarming rate).*  Political Public Policy needs to evolve to address these issues as well as the rampant obesity rate and the disease care approach to health.

How do we change public policy? Public figures do what they do. Michelle Obama maintains an organic kitchen garden at the White House and has addressed childhood obesity as her major First Lady "project". She has written a book on food gardening toward this end.  Is she any closer to changing public policy?  Michael Bloomberg, the multi-millionaire business man-mayor of NYC has eradicated trans fats from fast food restaurants in the city (Denmark has done the same) and now wants to controversially obliterate the ability to purchase large sugary drinks from food stands and restaurants.  Is this strong-arming helpful, a step in the right direction? Little by little there is a bigger, more public presence around these issues.  The increments of change however, are excruciatingly slow, almost like throwing a few crumbs to a beggar.

For non-public people like the rest of us, our efforts have been to frequent local farmstands, food co-ops, Community Sustainable Agriculture vendors (CSAs) and grow our own food. Local food has grown from $4 billion to $11 billion in 10 years and organic food is now a $30 billion "industry". John Ikerd* On Defining Sustainable Agriculture by John Ikerd says together, this is about 7-10% of all food sold in this country today.  Not a high percentage; about the same stats as those who contribute and support public radio (out of those who listen to it).  Ikerd says it's not an option for our ecosystem or public health not to move toward sustainable agriculture as our primary food source.

The sideways glance to sustainable agriculture is usually possible because of its relationship to health.  If the environment and the way food is grown did not impact our health, would we care about the stress our planet is suffering with unsustainable ecological practices? Why is our sense of Oneness in relation to the environment not present?

The question around public policy in relation to sustainable food sources is a parallel question I've had around traditional, complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM) interfacing with conventional medicine.  With all the statistics, information and common knowledge about the benefits and need to fully employ CAM in mainstream healthcare, and in the case of sustainable agriculture, food sources, why hasn't public norms and policies changed (significantly) to reflect the evidence?  Is it the grip of Big-Pharm, the insurance industry, and AMA in the case of healthcare?  Is it the power strangle-hold of mega pesticide/food corporations like Monsanto, or industrial farm subsidies (especially in corn crops)?  Why does big money always seem to prevail?  Especially, when it is pretty clear that when there are large inequities in a culture (be they health-related or financial ), all sides of the aisle suffer.

When is what each of us has enough (money, power, time,"stuff", food, well being, health)? Where is the satisfaction and gratitude for that which is simple, present, graceful?  When do we get tired of the inequities, entitlement-itis and polarization (within and without)? How do we re-find our own and collective layered state of sustainability and wellness?  Does the "house-of-cards" have to fall down first before there is a public policy recognizing, implementing and affirming the value of sustainable agricultural practices and CAM?

...for my CJ: donkeys and burros we be

Bodywork, Energy Medicine: Whole Healing

Bodywork constitutes a myriad of modalities when one is actively working with a skilled practitioner.  The practitioner has cultivated a "knowing" and skilled intelligence in their hands (as well as in his/her larger self) and is able to help or lead the client to a healing direction through touch, adjustment or manipulation.  Several (touch) bodywork modalities have been mentioned in this blog (Energy Field Surveillance,  Use: The Alexander Technique ,  Reflexology as Informant , Somatic Healing , MYSTERY: The Practices of QiGong and Authentic Mov... , QiGong: Following in a Purpose-Prone World).

Although not usually hands-on, there are many energy-based modalities I consider bodywork, because they open the body to a fuller intelligence, thus have a capacity for healing not only one's physiology, but subsequent layered energy fields.  Movement practices like Contemplative Dance/Authentic Movement, Core-Shamanism practices, Gabrielle Roth's Five Rhythms, Qigong, Tai Chi Chuan, Yoga-- all seek to balance the body and energy fields through movement and breath.  Many of them are somewhat dependent on sensitizing the self to an altered state, allowing the body's fuller intelligence to manifest, influence and impact one's entirety with a cell-effecting healing.  This type of bodywork (although initially facilitated) is largely self-regulated.  They are self-empowering and wisdom-instilling practices primarily because it is one's self that is generating, moderating and witnessing the energetic experience.

To me, the essence of bodywork includes both that which impacts the energy fields of one's being as well as the physicality of one's body.  Bodywork is a Whole practice encompassing all of me.  It impacts my many layers whether they be psychological, emotional, spiritual or physical.  This affirms the concept of Oneness in myself.  This often aids in closing the often divided, fragmented way I look at myself, my relation to outside myself and the healing experience.

As mentioned in a few other earlier posts (see above links), bodywork is often the best way to approach a necessary healing (ie: PTSD, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, TMJ to name a few). But for many people beginning to open to the concept of bodywork's potential healing power can be daunting.  There are so many different type of bodywork modalities and so many varying types of practitioners even within one milieu.  How do you know which modality to try, what will be the most useful?  How do you know if a practitioner will be a good fit with you and your needs?

One of the most interesting things about good bodywork is that it rarely can be mechanical.  Whereas, there is a standardized practice in forms like chiropractic adjustment, cranial sacral work and Alexander, if a practitioner were to strictly only follow the structure of tenets of the practice it wouldn't always be following the client's more whole healing (in a given session) because energy is not always predictable, nor able to follow a conscripted pattern that is its own.  Whereas a standardized practice is often a start in waking up the healing potential in the body, it can be sometimes somewhat limited unto itself.  Good bodywork depends upon good, deep listening and an expanded awareness from both client and practitioner.


A bodywork practice finds you.  So doing too much thinking about the right or appropriate one for you is probably unnecessary.  One usually is drawn to a modality or meets/hear of a practitioner very serendipitously.  A musician with a specific malady in their neck say, due to wrong use, would do well to start with an Alexander Technique teacher or cranio sacral therapist.  That bodywork might lead to a "hybrid" version of either or another depending on how the healing unwinds itself.  The more one "knows thyself" (which can be an expansive learning process as one experiences different techniques), the more the right attraction to a modality will present itself.


The earlier post, Finding A Healthcare Partner in a Practitioner, applies here. The conversation one has with a practitioner prior to a session will resonate or not with one's own healing affinities. You may be quite certain a "purist", unadulterated modality practitioner will serve your purposes entirely, or you may be intrigued with the hybrid version another may offer, an attitude, an approach, an energy the practitioner represents.  Whereas, experience speaks for itself, the open approach a new practitioner offers, the willingness to explore and engage themselves is a wonderful ingredient shared in bodywork.  It depends on where you are in your healing process as far as a "fit" goes with a practitioner.  Likewise, it is the same for practitioners.  Where they are in the evolution of their work, dictates a type of client required in a moment.