Holistic medicine is only an authentic expression of its definitive meaning when it is treating the whole.
What is the whole?
Well, the whole is the sum of all parts. The entire being from the grossest to the most subtle. From the finite to the infinite, outer to inner, visible to invisible. It is soul rich medicine. It also includes inter relationship to nature, environment, the social realm.
One can experience holistic medicine in a multitude of differing ways. All kinds of health professionals and healers integrate all manner of healing modalities striving for holistic therapy. Some drawing on ancient modalities and others newly emerging.
How do you know if a modality is healing? Well, it’s mostly subjective and individual. Healing resonates with me, when it is authentic, steeped and practiced in a holistic context by the healer. To me it resonates so intimately as an elixir of truth that I recognize in the core of my very being as healing.
Originally I studied naturopathic medicine because at that time it was accessible and I was not drawn to any one particular modality – whether it be homeopathy, herbalism, nutritional medicine, energetic medicine, counseling, acupressure and body work.
This path of study took me to rich places of knowledge, enquiry and danced among physical and esoteric sciences. While in theory it is from a holistic perspective, it was not steeped in lineage or tradition that took me as deep as I yearned for and was called to go.
Life is full of mystery.
There are great healing mysteries that I wished to understand and dance with. This is what I hungered for and felt compelled to experience and know more intimately.
When Ayurvedic medicine came into my life, I felt inwardly illumined and enlivened. I simultaneously had my own healing experience, met my teacher and an ancient healing philosophy that went deep into the mystery of life and healing.
Apprenticing to a world renowned master pulse reader and Ayurvedic physician, I trained for years, focused and worked hard to develop the sensitivity and insight needed to understand and recognise the individual soul and what medicinal substance or gesture, was needed for the person.
Ayurveda is more than 5,000 years old and as relevant for living well in the modern world today as it was when gifted from the ancient Sages and Rishis all those years ago. How is this so? We are human beings and our essential nature has not changed over the millennia.
A complete science of life Ayurveda is a kind, loving, nourishing way to live a life aligned to one’s purpose and connected to both self and source. A life of wellness.
Yet, I still had so many unanswered questions and a yearning to continue the deepening of healing mysteries. Particularly, of the invisible subtle, cosmic realms.
This calling saw me mentored by wise international Anthroposophical Medical practitioners and pedagogical physicians in the spiritual science of medicine and healing. I am humbled and have immense gratitude and reverence for the teachings of holistic medicine and curative education given by Dr Rudolf Steiner and Dr Ita Wegman.
In anthroposophical medicine I really did experience a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms which has become fundamental in my relationship to becoming more fully human and the healing gesture.
Ever refined by my training and experience of the nāda, the yoga of sound, I’ve come to a place of wondrous refinement and contentment with holistic medicine.
More than 25 years along the rich journey of practitioner, educator, mentor, I still love the ongoing learning, unfolding and understanding of these great healing mysteries. It is my purpose and pathway which reveals ever more fully the meaning of holistic and wholeness.
Healing can be in the gesture, the listening, the story, the sound, the touch, the resonance, the smell, the taste, the sight. It is a natural occurrence.
Just as we are spiritual nature beings, true medicinal substance cannot be sourced from synthetic substance. It is my belief that this can be used as a management tool temporarily, if necessary, but not as a healing solution. To use any other way as true healing substance is not in the laws of nature and lacking integrity to create true wellness.
Holistic is neither just you or me. It is each of us together as a whole.
When you are ill, part of me is ill. When you are well, part of me can be well.
We must understand and embrace the holistic paradigm of healing for ourselves, our children, our earth. It is our task, challenge and duty. I do not believe it is greater than us, nor is it less than us but we need courage and love to follow this path.
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