Christina Richmond, CHom

Today I begin again to blog. I haven’t felt genuine in my blog, Twitter or Facebook communication. I was learning the tools and compelled to say something but it wasn’t the real and full story… yet. So now I begin again.

I live my life by four basic principles set forth by the cultural anthropologist, Angeles Arrien:

1. Show up, or choose to be present.

2. Pay attention to what has heart and meaning.

3. Tell the truth without blame or judgment.

4. Be open to outcome, not attached to outcome.

Why is this important to bring up? Because I am becoming the healer I desire to be. I am finding the people I wish to emulate and I am showing up, paying attention, telling the truth and detaching from outcome over and over.

I believe homeopathy should be practiced using The Four Fold Way as a guide. When a homeopath takes a case s/he must be fully present and pay attention to everything the client says, but most importantly s/he must pay attention to what the client intimates has heart and meaning to them. It is even more important to reserve judgment on what constitution the person is or what remedy they need. It is critical for the homeopath to hear the full story and write it down in the words of the client. Next the homeopath must try to see what is at the core of that story without judgment and then analyze all the data in the case without attachment to what the remedy might be. Often a homeopath thinks s/he knows the remedy and so very often they are wrong.  And often this is because they have made a “knee-jerk” prescription without fulling understanding the case.

Being a homeopath is an incredible spiritual journey when one allows it to be. It’s possible to consider homeopathy a lucrative business or to think oneself a do-gooder for selfless reasons. Both can be true. But I also think we teach what we need to learn in life. Practicing homeopathy offers an opportunity to show up for oneself in addition to one’s patients, to pay attention to what is really important in one’s life and speak the truth about it without judgment.  And what an intense spiritual lesson it is to detach from outcome. None of us ultimately controls anything in this life. Yes, the little things perhaps: where to buy our coffee, which socks to wear, etc.  But do we have any control over life and death? We like to think we can influence our kids’ choices and our spouse’s beliefs. But at the end of the day how successful are we really?

Regardless of the effectiveness of our efforts to assist our patients’ movement in the direction of cure as a homeopath, we disrespect the human body if we do it in a way that the does not include the Vital Force (“the spirit-like life force… that enlivens the material organism … and governs without restriction and keeps all parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards to both feelings and functions…” per the founder of homeopathy Dr. Samuel Hahnemann). At the end of the day, the Vital Force is each patient’s own inner guide to health and we are not in charge of the outcome.

It is an honor to work with my patients and to hear their stories. I am committed to paying attention to what has heart and meaning for them. I so appreciate their truths and I strive to detach from the outcome while working tirelessly to assist them towards cure.

No Comments

We are all bombarded with information on a daily basis, sometimes nearly second-by-second. We receive it in our emails, our Twitter and Facebook accounts, from the newspaper, the radio and friends. There’s a lot of misinformation out there but there is also a lot of very good information. I thought I would share a couple of sites and blogs I have found to be very good on health, nutrition and homeopathy. These are my go-to sites and I have subscribed to their newsletters:

No Comments

I’ve been seeing some folks with grief lately, including myself. Grief from a loss of a loved one is a very intangible. And as my son says, “Grief sucks.” When we encounter a loss we are told “time will heal your heart” and that “the pain will diminish over time.” This can be true but grief can also get stuck in us for too long. We need something to help us move forward and process the grief. Regular medicine can sedate us or give us anti-depressants which numb the grief. Therapy is an important tool with grief and one I believe in whole-heartedly, but what if you can’t allow yourself to feel the grief? What if you are unable to cry and release the grief? What if you are so riddled with guilt that all you can think of are the “what-ifs”? What if you cry incessantly making talk-therapy impossible? These are all aspects of grief that I’ve seen in my practice over the last several months.

I personally lost my 21-year-old cat, Suki, on March 19th. For the week leading up to her death my husband and I ceased all normal activity. We stayed home and nursed her night and day, barely sleeping. She had been our first “child” before our two-legged was born. And then the day came when we had to put her down. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made and I felt horribly guilt-ridden afterward. We buried her in the back yard and I couldn’t even look out the back windows. I avoided the walking path behind our house so as not to see her burial place. I cried non-stop. My heart felt like it was physically breaking in half and I thought I would go crazy with sadness and guilt. And then I took a well-known homeopathic grief remedy called Ignatia Amara.

I had studied the indications for Ignatia in cases; I had seen it prescribed in clinic. I knew what to look for and what it might do for me, but I had never experienced it personally. What I felt was unexpected: I felt as though a container had been given to me to hold my grief and guilt. I felt as though I was contained in a way that was not suppressive; I still felt deep sadness, but it was bearable. I could feel the sadness but not bawl incessantly. I could feel that a horrible loss had occurred and go and embrace the rock where Suki is buried without falling on my knees in prostration. I grieve even now as I write this, but it is not overwhelming. Ignatia isn’t suppressing my feelings; it is supporting them.

There are other grief remedies in the Homeopathic Materia Medica for old grief, silent grief and grief that causes immobility and paralysis to name just a few. It is not always a straight line to find the perfect remedy but when you do it is a miraculous support during a very difficult time.

No Comments

This is a wonderful article on homeopathy complete with links to clinical studies…

http://tinyurl.com/ykhg2su

No Comments