Category Archives: Health

The plastic brain

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I woke up yesterday considering a series of photos I saw on Facebook the day before.  They were shots of the brain from “normal” people compared to people with diagnoses of ADHD, bipolar, depression and PTSD.  Those pictures got me wondering about what my brain looked like – a mosaic of all four, perhaps.

How plastic, or malleable,  is the brain?  How often does a normal person have a scan that looks like bipolar or depression?  The brains of people having their Bars run change dramatically. What else changes brains?  And how are brain changes reflected in the body?

There is a tendency to think that the biochemistry of the brain is what creates the disease.  This is old school thought, based on Newtonian physics.  In that old model we treat mental illness with drugs.  This is standard procedure in allopathic medicine,  the treatment of symptoms in a complex disease without addressing the underlying cause.

What is the underlying cause?  Well, we know that everything we see and experience is created by our minds (not brain).  So all apparently physical illness is mental in origin.  Sure we can address the issues with physical substances, since such material always works within the constructs of the mind, but causes are always a result of the movement of the mind.

I could easily qualify for at least two or three serious mental illnesses, yet I consider myself free of any major disease.  I consider these “diseases” (addiction, dissociation, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and depression) merely predictable manifestations of living a spirit driven path and having a goal of enlightenment.  Indeed, I don’t know anyone that is free of what might be labeled dysfunctional habits or mental processes.

Still, I would not consider these manifestations permanent.  Nor would I consider them caused solely by biology.  Anything that has a beginning has an end.  All created things change.  This is true by definition.  How plastic is the brain?

 

Contracture

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I have been wrestling with the best way to describe my current experiences.  For instance, when I am walking the nine palaces and I focus on the bubbling spring point at the bottom of my foot I have the immediate experience of something within the core of my being that is hard to describe.  Is it pain?  If so then what is hurting?  Is it an intense feeling of energy?  Yes and no.  It is both painful and intense, yet neither of these words describes it perfectly.

Kidney 1 point at sole of foot

Kidney 1 point at sole of foot. Also known as bubbling spring. This is where earth’s energy enters and flows up the central column.

I spent some time yesterday playing with the experience.  When I stop for a moment and drop my awareness into my body I feel constriction that slowly releases.  The process feels painful/intense.  After the release, what remains feels painful and it takes my complete awareness to stay with it and keep open.  As I observe it, I realize my initial definition of pain is not quite right.  However, when I label it intense, that doesn’t seem quite right either.

I’ve decided the best way to describe my internal experience is using the term contracture.  Contracture, technically, is the shortening of muscles and tendons, after being held in a shortened position for long periods of time.  I have experienced temporary contracture for years.  When I squat down and bend over to weed a section of garden, I find my muscles get stuck in that position and it takes a few seconds for them to release when I return to a standing position.  At first I can only hunch over when I stand up, but slowly I am able to straighten up.  There is some pain/discomfort associated with the release, but the feelings are only temporary. (This is no longer as much of an issue since I started using an infared heating pad.)

A simple way of thinking about contracture is that it is getting stuck in a certain position because of prolonged holding.  I use this term here to refer to our habitual ways of thinking and living.  Releasing a contracture results in short-term discomfort followed by greater freedom, choice and possibility,  This best describes my internal experience as well.  When I bring my attention back to my body, the constriction, that I have been unconsciously doing, releases with a moment of discomfort.  However, the “pain” or “intensity” that led to my contraction still remains and it takes conscious effort not to clamp down again.

Anyone that has been in intense pain or chronic pain realizes that just maintaining normalcy can take a great deal of energy.  In addition, there is a tendency to want to escape from the pain or create distractions to diminish the experience of pain.  Given the level of “pain” my body is in, I am predictably more and more compulsive around food.  Food is my drug of choice and despite of how ineffective it is, I am drawn to it in an attempt to relieve my pain and discomfort.

My experience has been going on for a over a month now.  At first, I figured the underlying pain would pass in a few days and I would be restored to more inner peace.  Instead, the turmoil continues to rage within.  This inner turmoil has no face and seems to be beyond words.  Every time I try to go back to my normal activities it reasserts its demand on my attention by triggering my food addiction.  Still, it will not tell me its name, nor let me evict it from my being.

 

 

Health Care

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I have had a number of interactions recently that have prompted me to view the differences in how I approach health and how other people approach health.  I am curious about what motivates us to choose our way of caring for our health.  Consider these four interactions that occurred yesterday.

  • I started the day meeting with the founder of an intensive counseling program.  We were discussing the possibility of me offering services (Access Consciousness Bars and/or ThetaHealing) as part of their program.  Although it did not come up in the short conversation, I was acutely aware that their website claims their program is “evidence-based” and if you read my earlier post, you know that I believe the best therapy may not be the one with scientific validation.
  • After my meeting I headed to the bunny rescue to help clean cages.  I had a nice conversation with the caretaker.  She fosters/owns 21 bunnies, many of them with health issues raging from broken legs to abscesses.  She talked about treating a rabbit with an antibiotic resistant staph infection, another with paresis and how she was treating “head tilt” successfully with antibiotics.
  • Later at home I had a client that mentioned having an emergency appendectomy after a urgent care scan revealed a swollen appendix.  We also talked about a surgery in a friend that resulted in pain so severe it couldn’t be controlled by morphine.

It wasn’t until the final conversation that I got how different I am.  First, given the symptoms my client mentioned I would not even thought about going to urgent care.  I would have started treating the symptoms at home.  Further, if I did find out my appendix was swollen, I would not have automatically opted for an appendectomy.  I would have looked for the cause of that and treated the physical aspects with herbal medicines and the non-physical with intuitive insight and energy.  I don’t rule out mainstream medicine, but it usually is not the best choice for me.

I was also surprised about the friend with the severe post-op pain.  I wondered, “Why didn’t he call?”  Energy work is quite effective at relieving pain and, if that doesn’t do it, ThetaHealing or acupuncture are also good options.  Of course, I probably would have tried other alternatives before the surgery he chose as well.

All this got me thinking about the bunnies and the choices the bunny rescue makes in regards to the health care of their animals.

I have been thinking about adopting a rabbit.  However, the contract is too restrictive.  The line, “You should take your rabbit to the veterinarian for a yearly check-up” clearly makes me a “bad” pet owner if I do not take my pet to a veterinarian.  It also suggests that there is only one good way to care for pets.

I am reminded of a time when Chispa, my chihuahua mix, was attacked by a larger dog in a trail head parking lot.  The other dog had taken her by surprise when he jumped out of the window of his car to get what Chispa Sittingmight have looked like a squirrel to him.  Upon inspection she was free of open wounds and I thought she would recover from the fright.  However, she began to limp soon afterwards.  I thought she might have bruised her hind quarters and it would resolve.  A few days later, she was still holding her rear leg up when she walked.  A thorough inspection of the leg led me to conclude that there was no injury.  She felt no pain when I palpated it and she had full, pain-free range of motion.  I suspected some sort of pinched nerve.

I never thought to take her to the veterinarian.  When it did not resolve within the week, I called a friend of a friend who is a pet whisperer.  At first Glen Philips could not find the problem.  All he “saw” was an old injury on the other leg that she had when I let her move in with me.  When I told him I thought the issue was located nearer the spine he was able to “see” the pinched nerve.

What happened next blew me away.  Now, keep in mind, Glen is at home and we are talking on the phone.  Glen tells me he is moving the nerve from where it is being pinched.  In the next moment, Chispa gets up on her back legs and puts her front paws on my lap.  This is the first time she has put weight on the leg in a week.  Amazing!  Where do I send the check?!

Why would I take her to the vet?  I do not think mainstream medicine is necessarily the highest form of care.  I also know that the results we get with whatever form of medicine we chose are not based on the medicine.  Medicine has no self-existent power.  The results are based on our own beliefs, subconscious programs and what we are thinking.  Hence, I would not say my way is best.  I just know it is best for me.  I also know that each person knows within themselves what is best for them.

So, I’ll bite my tongue and allow people to choose surgery or pain or pharmaceuticals.  I will continue to choose magic and natural products.  Sure, I am crazy.  It is nice having the freedom to be so.