As you know from my last post, I’ve been sick this week. Well, I just had a revelation while watching my umpteenth episode of Flashpoint that I want to share. Minutes before this insight I had taken a dose of Allium cepa (all-c) for my persisting cold symptoms and started to feel better quickly and I thought, “Wow, I feel a bit better. Huh. Well this is the remedy I started with last Tuesday. Why did I give up on it?”

Wait…

I was reflecting on how I hadn’t been a good patient. I mentioned to my husband, Dennis, that I’ve had great results with my acute patients lately and asked why I couldn’t effectively treat myself.  I had taken all-c earlier in the week and it had helped. Then I got impatient and changed directions. My client notes (on myself) show that I took two other remedies before returning to what had worked initially: all-c. This is exactly what I tell my clients NOT to do. I tell them to be patient, to wait. It’s my job to interpret what a little tiny bit of progress means and whether they should stay the course with their remedy.

The Forest for the Trees…

By Adz at en.wikipedia[see page for license], from Wikimedia Commons

But when treating myself I couldn’t see the case clearly. This is why it is unwise for homeopaths to treat themselves. But unfortunately my homeopath was out of the country when I became sick.This experience has made this rule very clear to me. It has also pointed out why it’s necessary to have someone like me in your corner when you fall sick. I can see the road-signs along the way; whether you are improving or declining, whether to repeat a dosage or not, whether to switch remedies.

I have the opportunity to be sick today. I know, that sounds weird doesn’t it? But for someone in the health field it’s a good thing to experience what others go through. And, you know what? I’m practicing what I preach:

Be Sick!

What I mean by this is don’t fight it, don’t look for the miracle cure, do rest and give in to it. That doesn’t mean you’re letting the sickness win. Heaven’s no! It means that you are willing to take care of yourself. Stay in bed, stay warm, watch TV or read a book. But go slow, take care. The little phrase we say to each other unconsciously  “Take Care” actually means a lot. There’s a lot behind it. Think about it. Do you care for yourself? Do you give yourself time and space to BE? To take time for yourself? Okay, without going all “woo-woo” I think you get my drift.

Be Proactive

I also advise working proactively to rid yourself of your sickness. There are many things you can do to help yourself move towards health. Here are some ideas:

I have a cold…

Snuff and gargle warm salt water.

Take 1000 mg of Vitamin C an hour until a loose stool.

Take extra D3. 4-6000 IU a day.

Take echinacea and goldensea.

Take digestive enzymes on an empty stomach.

Take extra probiotics (not at the same time as the enzymes, as the enzymes will digest them).

Cut out wheat, dairy, sugar and white foods (white rice, potato).

Drink a ton of water.

Drink warm lemon water with agave and cayenne.

Call your homeopath.

I have a stomach bug…

Eat, drink clear liquids.

Take digestive enzymes on an empty stomach.

Take extra probiotics (not at the same time as the enzymes, as the enzymes will digest them).

Call your homeopath.

In the days and weeks ahead I’ll post more about caring for ourselves and how we can be proactive even before a sickness starts, but since I’m suffering a bit today and it’s very much on my mind, I thought I’d write these tidbits down.

Stay well and happy,

Christina

Homeopathy alleviates the symptoms of  stress and helps you achieve:

• more calmness
• less irritability
• fewer headaches and stomachaches
• and fewer of the myriad of stress-related problems listed below.

Stress affects everyone differently. It was thought until recently that the only damage of stress was psychological, but research now shows that constant stress affects the physical body as well, and this can be very serious at times. Call Richmond Homeopathy today for a free 15-minute consultation to discover how homeopathy helps stress and helps you reduce the effects of stress in your life.

According to a 2007 study by the American Psychological Association:

Three quarters of Americans experience symptoms related to stress in a given month:

• 77% experience physical symptoms
• 73% experience psychological symptoms
• One-third of Americans feel they are living with extreme stress
• About half of Americans (48%) feel that their stress has increased over the past five years
• Money and work are the leading causes of stress

Physical symptoms of stress include fatigue, headache, upset stomach muscle tension, change in appetite, teeth grinding, change in sex drive, feeling dizzy. Psychological effects of stress include experiencing irritability or anger, feeling nervous, lack of energy, feeling as though you could cry.

For two centuries homeopaths have believed in the interconnectedness of mind and body. Homeopaths see over and over that fixing an issue on the mental plane helps relieve problems on the physical plane. In an in-depth analysis, constitutional homeopathic treatment combines both the psycho and the physiological profile of the patient, with each given equal weight. This means that homeopathy helps stress and alleviates its symptoms through careful listening, analysis and finding the right remedy.

There are many remedies that help with stress overall.  Nux Vomica and Staphysagria assist the stress that results from anger and impatience and Ignatia and Natrum Mur help when long-standing grief creates a stress response. Argentum Nitricum and Tarentula are very effective in reducing the stress of over-achievers. Kali phos is good for an individual who pushes himself physically and mentally. But there are other remedies that address some of the above symptoms more specifically. For example, someone might have a headache from stress, but is it a right-sided or left-sided headache? Is the pain cutting or throbbing? Does it occur every day or is there a pattern? During constitutional treatment these specifics are taken into account, in addition to the fact that the headache arrives with stress.

“The physician must penetrate into the inner recesses of symptoms; the very life of the patient must be opened and laid bare, Learn the fears, instincts, desires and the aversions of the patient. The remedy often crops out through the affections.” - J.T. Kent

As Kent advises, homeopaths look to understand the rich tapestry of our clients’ lives as we seek to find the cause and cure of their stress complaints.

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.

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.

http://tinyurl.com/ykhg2su

Regular doctors prescribe medicines for a disease. Homeopaths prescribe remedies (for that is what homeopaths call the medicine they have at hand) specific to the individual’s symptoms. For example, you and I might have a cold from the same germ but manifest the cold in different ways. My cold might include a very scratchy raw throat with deep redness at the back of the mouth and a high fever. Your cold might include green mucous, watering eyes that burn and no fever. We both might have a dry cough or yours might produce some expectoration. If you see a regular doctor s/he will probably give you nothing unless the cold has a bacterial source in which case you might receive antibiotics. A homeopath on the other hand will “repertorize” (meaning to seek a remedy by its symptoms that match) our colds and come up with one remedy for you and another for me, very specific to our symptoms. This is why homeopaths ask for so much detail.

Homeopathy works by stimulating the body to fight illnesses naturally. A remedy is selected by repertorizing the symptoms described. To do this a homeopath uses books or a computer program that lists all symptoms available in homeopathy’s “repertory”. One way of understanding homeopathy is to think of how vaccinations are given to stimulate the body to produce antigens to the particular disease for which the vaccination is given. Homeopathy is similar in that the remedies stimulate the body to respond to the remedy’s unique action suited to the symptoms it has been clinically proven to answer. The key difference however is that no one homeopathic remedy is suitable to one disease or to all people as vaccinations are proposed to be suitable to all people for one disease. Homeopaths treat individuals and their symptoms, not diseases. And homeopaths believe that each individual’s manifestation of a disorder or disease is unique to that individual and therefore not treatable with the one and the same remedy for all with that disease.

Does this make sense? Let me know please.

This blog will chronicle my journey personally from Tech Analyst to Homeopath as well as discuss homeopathy in the attempt to demystify it and make it more accessible to a larger audience.

Please pass this on to those you think will find it useful and come visit me at my upcoming website (I’ll let you know the URL when it’s built).

Thanks. Enjoy my blog.

Christina