No matter your medicine or treatment, this can make it work better

There is almost nothing more hurtful to recovery from illness than a closed mind. Just like polarized political views I find most people have strong polarized beliefs when it comes to health and healing. They are either “for” scientific medicine and “against” holistic practices as being bogus and hokey; or they are “for” natural healing and rail “against” chemical medicine and modern methods.

But don’t we just want to improve our lives by healing our ills? If this truly is the goal, then a combined outlook — an open mind — is the strongest way forward.

Why I keep an open mind

Like many, I’ve suffered chronic pain my entire life. I grew up with constant, chronic headaches, shoulder pain and back pain. When it was overcast and humid, I felt sick and tired. When it rained, the headaches were a compounded trifecta: sinus, migraine and tension.

I was lucky enough to have parents in the health field who cared enough to not just ignore my constant nagging, but did their best to provide me the best possible medical care. My father, an osteopath, and my mother, a neuro psychologist, did their best introducing me to biofeedback, chiropractic, juicing, counseling, prescription drugs and injections, even surgery. Everything in their respective toolkits.

This varied and wide approach to treatment forged my open mind about health and healing. And I realized, for me, something more was needed than the therapies I had received.

In search of a cure

In my late teens I took it upon myself to seek out the magical healers of alternative medicine I had been reading about. Those masters of energy medicine, faith healing, bone setting, herbal medicine and acupuncture that resided in U.S. Chinatowns and in mountains in Asia. I spent decades traveling to meet them in person and to receive treatments at their hands.

And it was hit or miss with those treatments, too.

Learning more

My pain and suffering led me to become a healer myself. I immersed myself in the study of traditional Chinese medicine (acupuncture, bone setting, bodywork, herbology, energy medicine), spiritual healing arts of Malaysia and the Philippines, and the latest in Western understandings of nutritional supplements, alternative medicine and consciousness studies.

What I came to understand

The advantage I had in all this was that I was a chronic pain sufferer. I was not just someone interested in medicine, but what anthropologists call a “participant observer.” While in the medical offices of Western doctors and in the clinics or rooms of traditional healers, I was both patient, observer and student.

I didn’t want to give away my powers to understand myself, my conditions, and my innate healing ability. On the contrary, I wanted to heal myself because no one else could. While I trusted the work of all the doctors and healers I encountered, I came to understand each was limited to their own, often very narrow, view of healing. And yet at the same time, I knew each held an important key in a larger key ring.

An open mind is the best medicine

No singular healing system holds all the answers. For humans, there is always a physical component, a mental/psychological component, a philosophical component and a spiritual component to our health.

The placebo effect is so strong. In fact it is the strongest medicine we have for the simple reason that we are a product of our belief systems. We entrust our health to the person in the white lab coat, and treatment works. If we disbelieve them or are put off by their attitude, studies show treatment often fails.

We have different beliefs about the role of diet, exercise, meditation, religion, faith, supplements and so on in our daily lives. It makes sense that all these components be addressed in our healing as well. Does it not make sense that a person with deep faith in God should also not require a spiritual aspect to their healing? At the same time, a person who is health conscious about their food choices need also include herbs as part of their healing.

For the best overall effect I believe, and have found, that when multiple approaches to wellness are embraced the chances for faster recovery are had. We don’t get an ulcer in a vacuum, and so taking a pill to manage it will not do the trick. There is an overt mind/body relationship that includes mental and emotional states, beliefs, stress and these all lead to a physical problem. And so the symptom of the ulcer cannot be cured by a pill alone. Nor by biofeedback alone.

The wellness continuum

I am often asked why I sometimes take medication when I am a so-called natural practitioner. The answer is that I see health and wellness as a continuum. On the one side is striving for optimal wellness as a means of preventing illness. Here, natural foods and supplements and meditation, and the like, are most useful.

At the other extreme is serious injury or illness, like from a car accident or late-stage cancer, where only the best in high-tech treatment and medicine can relieve pain and begin the healing process.

In the middle of this continuum, which is where most of us live, is the space where one can use both alternative and mainstream medicine as well as spiritual practices to maintain a balance in their health.

Why should anyone be so headstrong toward one side or the other? Why limit your choices when it comes to feeling better and healing? Why not remain open minded and accept all methods — weighing options and embracing the safest and most effective you can, given time and circumstance?

A closed mind does nothing but hurt you and dampen your chances of wellness success.