Please remember that these tips are only for educational purposes. They are not intended to substitute for or provide you with personalized medical advice. Consult your own doctor or health care individuals for specific personal advice.



The concept of the whole person parlays into understanding that when most people talk about "holistic health," they usually mean that body, mind, and spirit are involved in health and healing. Caring for yourself at all of those levels will insure a healthful life and develop an immune system which will assist you in your healthful pursuits.

That's a good basic idea. But unfortunately most people lapse into Western medical thinking - not true holistic thinking - in applying the mind-body-spirit idea. Western medical thinking is that when ill you are like a wagon with a broken wheel. Fix the broken wheel, and your wagon pulls along nicely.

There is a problem with the broken wheel analogy. Or at least, there's something missing from it.

That is, you are actually an integrated whole being; today we understand that the function of DNA is based on communication and not just independent action of isolated genes. Your parts cannot be "fixed" in isolation, separate from the rest of you. In fact, the traditional, older systems of complementary and alternative medicine all believe, in one way or another, that your parts are all together in an interrelated, inter-dependent single being (you).

If you are out of harmony within yourself then you have the disease within your environment. Your environment is your interaction with social relationships and the rest of your surroundings. You are your own network of communication and healing.

Most all symptoms can be traced to a specific area of your system

What that means is that trying to force a body part to work or to stop malfunctioning (as with western medicine) is going to have effects on all of the rest of your body parts, your mind, and your spirit. There is a price to pay for ignoring the inter-dependence of your parts. That is, the "disease" needs to go somewhere else within you - block it from showing up in one place, and it will show up in another. Most likely, the new place will be one that is more closely inter-connected at a functional level with the one that Western medicine blocked from misbehaving.

How does the holistic healing or the interacting of wholes work differently? When a therapy is used holistically, it should re-balance you as an intact being, a whole network or system at once. Then the parts that seemed to be misbehaving, that is to be "diseased", will start functioning more normally in their proper role within your being as a whole.

On a grand scale, it means that you should judge the long-term value of a treatment not simply in terms of short-term relief. You must also consider whether or not you will have residual side-effects or malfunction in other parts of your body - or will you feel better as a whole, overall as a person, in your well-being, your energy levels, and all of your inter-connected parts. That is the gold standard that you as an active participant need to consider when you choose to have or not have a particular treatment, be it mainstream Western medical or an alternative method in origin.

Take some time to ponder these thoughts with a touch of soothing comfort, a cup of tea to start your holistic healing

Take a sip:

21st Century Tea There are so many ways that our immune systems can be overwhelmed ... it's in our air, our water, our food, our workplace, our stress. This blend of organic and wild herbs is not only helpful but comforting, strengthening and tasty. 1 part red clover blossoms 1 part nettle leaves 1 part pau d'Arco 1 part alfalfa & sage leaves 1 part St.Johns wort tops 1 part ginger root Place all herbs in a tea ball or bag, put in your nicest or most favorite cup or mug, and cover with boiling water. Steep for 10 minutes. Remove tea ball or bag, and add sugar, honey, sweetener, milk, cream or whatever, to taste.

"Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot."