Some people who hear me talk about healing naturally from chronic illnesses (like endometriosis) through looking after yourself in every way possible - physically, psychologically, spiritually - understandably show a certain reserve if not total mistrust towards the methods I advocate. I understand it and let me tell you, when I started this journey, I also had a certain amount of reserve, but had exhausted all other avenues and was willing to try anything. I felt I had nothing to loose.
The human body as a “whole”
Looking at a holistic approach to health means not separating us into parts, but looking at us as one system, as one whole entity where everything is interlinked and everything influences each other. Deep down, we all know this is the way to approach health. Our ancestors knew and so do we. Why would we drink hot lemon and honey when we have a cold otherwise? If we actually believed in the mechanical, parts approach to health that our current medical system advocates, surely we should be putting the lemon into our sinuses, which obviously nobody does (although getting a Neti pot and putting a saline solution through your sinuses really does help, try it ;-).
Our immune system sits in our gut. An excellent book I’d recommend you read is “Gut: The inside story of our most underrated organ” by Giulia Enders. (Or watch some YouTube videos, if reading is not your thing, you can start here: https://youtu.be/HNMQ_w7hXTA). Our body is a delicate plant that will only grow and thrive if you nurture it, feed it the right nutrients, give it energy through sunlight, food and happy thoughts and the gut is where it all happens.
Let me ask you some questions. Do you believe the food in our supermarkets has the nutritional value is should have? Do you believe it has been produced sustainably with the interest of the earth, the plants, the farmers in mind? Do you really believe killing the insects that are part of this intricate network of nature by poisoning them and then eating what has grown on that poisoned soil has no effect on our body, on our gut, where this food ends up? Do you really believe we’re better than the natural world we are just one tiny little puzzle piece of? Do you really think we will get away with killing the rainforest, killing the Great Barrier Reef, killing the Victoria Falls, driving millions of species to extinction, killing the very foundation of our existence, the very soil our little delicate body plant grows on?
According to research, our current soil - the bit that all life depends on - is so depleted, that if we carry on as we are doing right now, we have only 60 years worth of soil left. Already the nutrient levels in our soil are so low, that the fruit that grow on it, have nowhere near the same nutrient content the same fruit would have had just 100 years ago. To get the same benefit your grandfather got from eating one orange, you would have to eat eight oranges today.
When researchers tested the microbiome in the gut, they found that indigenous tribes in the Amazon rainforest had 60% more microbes in their gut than Western people on a normal diet, and 40% more than those who ate an organic healthy diet in the Western world. That is how depleted the soil in our mono-agricultural systems has become. And most of us are not even aware of this!
Please don’t get me wrong, under no circumstances will panicking help us in any way, but I do think unless we finally open our eyes to what is happening every day to the Mother Earth that provides for our existence, the current Corona Virus Epidemic will not be the last message our planet will use to finally awaken us to the fact we’re not better than the flea, the bee, the penguin, the amoeba or any little particle of star dust. Unless we pull that emergency break, we may well discover that we have become just another species humans have managed to annihilate. At least we have only got ourselves to blame rather than all those innocent species that have already gone through no fault of their own.
Having said all that, I am an unwavering optimist and I really truly do believe that as humankind we will turn this around. Our ingenuity and the capability to love has set us apart from any other species and ensured our survival so far. If we look at history, any crises and conflicts have always been resolved in the end through compromise, love, understanding and the putting down of weapons. Look at what good we are capable of creating, how many acts of kindness each and every one of us witnesses every day. How little does the world portrayed to us in the news actually reflect the world most of us live in? I bet the majority of us, especially in the Western world, have not once had to truly fear for their life. It’s time to recognize the smoke screen of fear and break through it, see our true potential to do good, let everyone benefit equally from the wealth this beautiful planet has to offer. We have created what we currently see, so we can create something better.
Everything in the universe that’s matter, including us, is made of of the same elements (found in the periodic table) and - taken further - everything is energy. Our scientific evolution has propelled us forward like an atomic rocket into a whole new understanding of the quantum world that lies behind everything we perceive as our reality. We know extremely little about this world, but what we do know contradicts everything we see in the Newtonian model of life. What it made most scientist realize is how little we know.
Cells are energy
What has this got to do with our gut, our body, our planet? Everything is energy and Dr. Johanna Budwig, the bio chemist and cancer researcher whose protocol I use to heal the cells of the body based her research life on this understanding. At the time - in the 1950s, 60s - she was well ahead many of her peers. Do you have to follow Budwig? No. Follow any healthy, balanced, organic diet; avoid as many known toxins in your life as you can and don’t forget that the biggest toxin of all to our human body is stress. If you eat all the right things, but don’t take “time out” while you’re eating so your gut is actually in the digestive mode, food will go in at the top, come out at the bottom but your cells will not get the energy stored in the food you eat.
The whole idea of our flight & fight stress response is that everything shuts down that is not needed for immediate survival of the perceived threat - at the time of evolution this response was added to us, that threat was most likely a predator that tried to kill and eat us. Is it important to digest your tea cake at such a moment? No. All available energy in your body is sent to your muscles, so you can run away and outrun your opponent or fight and be the one that kills or at least immobilizes the threat. Sounds reasonable? I think it does.
How we eat is more important than what we eat
So what happens when we eat a sandwich on the run, while waiting in a post office queue, while typing that all important email, while on the phone to our spouses, while following that US conference call, while watching TV, while driving? Our stress response is switched on and our digestive processes that allow the body to convert food into energy and make that energy available to the cells so they in turn can do their jobs is switched off. Nothing is being absorbed properly. You may as well not bother wasting your money on the food. Well, our body is quite a power machine and it takes years of abuse to put it into an actual disease state (which is why many illnesses develop later in life). It runs on a half empty battery, making do with what energy it has, supplying the vital organs, then prioritizing from there onward where energy is sent. At some point, you will feel the consequences, it can take years though. (Having said that, rising allergy states in children suggest we’re on a trend that is shortening the time we have before we develop a perceivable imbalance.)
What’s the answer?
Balance in everything we do. True, honest, no bullshit balance. We will not be able to cheat our way out of this. Try and lie to yourself or others, the lies will catch up with us. Yin and Yang, the black and white that are so different but together form a harmonic whole should become the basis of everything we do. Recognize that it is our differences that make us strong as a whole, that complement each other, that allow us to be something none of us would be able to be by ourselves.
Whether is is how you shop, how you think, how you communicate, what you do every second of every day of your life from now on: create balance. And do this with love and gratitude in your heart. This won't always be easy, but you will see the more you practice this, the happier you will be. The happier you are, the happier your surroundings will be, as you will feed your positive vibes into the energy field around you, influencing anyone you share this field with. They in turn will feed into their fields (which is all just one big universal field anyway) and the ripples will literally be felt throughout the planet and the universe.
To nurture the universe, we have to nurture our planet.
Nurturing our planet starts with each one of us, for we are the planet. We need to nurture ourselves, in ways that support the balance of the intricate eco-system we are part of. What can we do? Everything! You decide what you buy with the money you earn. Do you buy cheap clothing you don’t need and replace way too often or do you give quality clothes a new lease of life by buying in charity shops? What if we started every buying choice with “do I really need this for my survival”? What if we started questioning who is behind the porridge we have for breakfast and if it has been produced sustainably, making everyone in the supply chain an equal winner, changing to a different brand if that balance is not guaranteed. Asking if that porridge actually supplies us with the nutritional energy our body needs. What if we used our surplus energy to help people less fortunate than us. What if each of us just helped one other person with a skill they lacked and learned to gratefully accept help from others, creating an environment of mutual support, fueled by love and compassion for everything that exists.
Just take a minute to imagine such a world. Close your eyes, go on! See that world. Would you like to live in it? What would it feel like to be part of such a world?
This brings us to creating the vision in our minds that we want to create in our life. For how will you ever create that life if you can’t imagine it? How would we have ever created airplanes, if some crazy people hadn’t imagined flying like a bird? Would we have ever reached the moon, if some crazy person hadn’t thought, what if it was possible?
Where do we create those visions? In our head, with our imagination. Let it fly! There are no limits! Meditate, dream, create the best reality you can possibly imagine for yourself, everyone around you and the planet you call home. Meditation, mindfulness, shamanic dreaming - pick your tool and use it to start imagining this world. Start forgiving yourself and anyone that ever hurt you. True forgiveness will guide you to true love and gratitude, the essence of all life, of all there is.
If you need help starting this journey, just ask, but do start it sooner rather than than later. I promise you with all my heart that it’ll be the best thing you ever do, that you will not look back and that life as part of this breathtaking universe truly is a miracle.