Integration

I very much enjoy the synchronicities in life. For example, the day after I decided to post on this blog some earlier essays of mine, one of my favorite NPR shows, On Being with Krista Tippett, broadcast an episode titled The Evolution of Medicine. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen, or, if short on time, scan the transcript!

Below are a few snippets to wet your appetite.

Dr. Hyman points out, from his own early experiential shift:

"So I literally had to understand my body from the inside out, and through the lens of functional medicine, which is really a systems view of health. It’s based on dealing with the causes and not just the symptoms, dealing with the body as ecosystem, or looking at the whole organism, not just the organs. And it’s as big of a paradigm shift as the Earth is not flat, Earth is not the center of the universe. It’s huge. And it’s basically dismantling our concepts of disease as we speak, and yet it’s completely absent from most medical institutions and thinking in medical schools."

Dr. Gordon says:

"I think what’s important also is that we’re really going back to what’s basic to all the great, ancient systems of healing. Now we have the modern science so that we can test more accurately for these imbalances, but understanding exactly what Mark is talking about, about the basic functions, this takes us back to Hippocratic medicine...Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, it’s all there. And I think one of the things that’s crucial in this transformation, though, is the transformation in consciousness. That without that, the danger that we face is of lapsing into the same kind of mechanistic treatment, and that’s the part that I’m most interested in. And, with that change in consciousness, then it becomes possible to use all the modalities, to be open to all these ways of working with people."

How are you integrating facets of lifestyle and medicine to optimize your healing and wellness?