by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 14, 2012 | Art, Exercise, Love, Meditation, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Psychology, Spirituality, Stress
Last semester I took the Ayurvedic Lifestyle course at CCNM, taught by Matthew Remski. In this course, one of the ideas that most resonated with me was the concept of “I Am” Moments. These are moments where the past and future fall away and we become ingrained in the present moment. Some of you might refer to them as moments of pure passion or exhilaration.
The best examples of I Am Moments are seen in animals. When I take my dog to High Park, the moment I reach down to unclasp his leash and set him free, he enters his state of “I Am.” Ears flying back, fur plastered against his face as he tears through the inner city forest, he loses all sense of past, present and future and becomes the being he was born to be. You can almost hear him exclaiming “I am I am I Am a DOG!”
He’s not self-conscious about the fact that his legs are flopping awkwardly behind him, that his body is too long or too low to the ground or that his fur is too shaggy. As he pauses for a second to turn to me with his mouth open in what can only be described as a “doggy smile”, I can almost hear him say, “thank you thank you thank you for not stuffing me into a purse and taking me to the mall. Thank you for letting me race, chase and roll in poop! Thank you for letting me be the way that nature designed me, thank you for letting me be a DOG!”
So, there you have it, an example of an “I Am” Moment.
I can perfectly identify my own I Am Moments, which I’ve experienced since childhood. I’m in a large, open space, full of art materials, where I am free to make a mess, get dirty and move freely, I have paints, canvasses, paper, pictures and glue. Whether I decide to paint a landscape or construct a giant papier maché bird mask, I am free to sculpt, to paint and to CREATE.
When I enter this state, time no longer seems to matter and I just melt into the moment. I feel that I am doing something perfectly natural for me and, in honouring nature, it is as if I enter into a state of Wholeness; I become a part of everything and everything becomes a part of me.
Your own I Am Moments may be stimulated by different things. You may have them when you run, dance, horseback ride or mountain climb. Perhaps you enter your I Am Moment when you take a patient history, solve a mathematical equation, buy and sell stocks, prepare a nutritious meal, teach a class, drive your car or relax with an inspiring book and a cup of steaming tea.
Just as the dog in High Park becomes wholly himself in the wild ecstasy of movement, and just as I find my own essence in the freedom of creating with paints and glue, horses too live out their I Am Moments in motion, instinct, and connection. Watching a horse gallop across an open field—muscles rippling beneath a sun-dappled coat, mane flying, nostrils flaring—you witness a living embodiment of presence. There is no striving or self-consciousness, just the pure expression of being.
During these moments you lose a sense of the details of your life and of your problems, which no longer seem important or relevant. You cease to care about how your butt looks in your jeans, if you’re wearing the right shoes, if your hair is too frizzy or the fight you had with your mother. Your mind is absolutely clear of thoughts and you feel a sense of connection with the (excuse me) Divine. You feel as if you’re flowing with everything, as if you are part of the whole.
The point of this post is to get you to think about and honour these I Am Moments in your life. If you can’t put your finger on a specific time that you had a sense of I Am, I encourage you to think back to your childhood. Children continually operate out of “I Am” because they are naturally unself-conscious. That is, until they become corrupted with our adult insecurities and “lessons” about the importance of what others think. As a kid you operated from an uninhibited place, where you were stimulated by an awe of life and lived in the novelty of the present.
When you discover what triggers these moments in your life, make an effort to create time for them and use them as inspiration for the rest of your life. I Am Moments are the key to getting us back to our natural state; a state that is free of disease, in which the energy of our own vitality can flow freely.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 13, 2012 | Uncategorized
- There are some people that buy into that old phrase “a jack of all trades is a master of none”, which is why my classmates and I were disheartened one day when we realized, in a Naturopathic Principles class, that naturopathic doctors really don’t shine in any one modality.
For example, we are trained to give massages but not like Registered Massage Therapists who study massage exclusively for 2 years. We don’t receive 4 straight years of acupuncture training as a doctor of Chinese Medicine does. We don’t have as many in-class live homeopathy cases as Homeopaths do, we don’t know as much about nutrition as a Registered Dietitian or Registered Holistic Nutritionist, we don’t have as much training in botanical therapies as an Herbalist, aren’t as seasoned in lifestyle counselling as a trained psychotherapist and we only really get a taste of manipulation, which is nothing compared to how extensively a chiropractor is trained.
So, while I should probably be shutting my big mouth about all this, considering the fact I am training to become a naturopathic doctor and should really be blogging about how great NDs are, I have to admit that my classmates and I asked ourselves, “why see an ND?” Surely if what you are seeking is acupuncture, homeopathy, advice on botanical tinctures and supplements, counselling, nutritional advice or massage you can open up your Yellow Pages and find a practitioner that specializes in any one of those modalities. You shouldn’t have to bother with seeing an ND at all, right?
Great God, why am I shelling out $20,000 a year in tuition??!
After careful thought we came up with this: a naturopathic doctor works as a Primary Care provider. We are the “GP”s of natural, alternative medicine and serve as the gateway to a patient’s health. If you are experiencing shortness of breath and fatigue, what do you do? Do you visit a cardiologist? Maybe you have anemia. Or maybe it’s a fungus? Sweet Buddha, maybe it’s LUNG CANCER, better head straight to an oncologist! (You also wonder if you’re simply out of shape. Maybe deciding to train for a marathon in under a month was a little too ambitious of you). How do you decide where to go when experiencing a symptom that could indicate a problem with any number of bodily systems?
Easy, you go to your GP, or your primary care provider, to be evaluated.
He or she is trained to do the following:
- Provide you with preventive care and teach you healthy lifestyle choices
- Identify and treat your condition
- Assess the urgency of your medical problem and direct you to the best place for that care, if necessary
- Make referrals to specialists when necessary
As naturopaths, we are trained to identify the cause of the symptoms our patient experiences (through history taking, physical exam, diagnostic testing, and generating a list of differential diagnoses) and, because we are trained in the medical sciences, we are also able to understand the process of the disease a patient presents with. We know what is going on in the body and where we need to intervene. We create an individualized treatment plan by following a hierarchy of treatment options that interfere as little as possible with the body’s natural healing abilities.
Because we are extensively trained in our modalities we are able to administer treatment to our patients ourselves as well as take part in every step of the patient’s healing process. However, if necessary, we are also trained to recognize when the patient will fare better under the care of a more specialized practitioner (or even medical doctor) and are able to recommend a referral.
There is another saying: “everything looks like a nail to a hammer”, which means that every healthcare practitioner is under the bias that your condition can only be treated using their own treatment methods. For example, to an acupuncturist, your condition can only be treated by acupuncture, to a chiropractor, you are in need of spinal adjustment and a nutritionist will most likely see your problems as dietary. NDs can diagnose your condition taking into account your unique combination of symptoms, treating your whole person, and focussing on eliminating the cause of disease, using the least invasive therapies available.
Go NDs!
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 12, 2012 | Homeopathy
Homeopathy is probably one of naturopathic medicine’s most controversial modalities.
Although it goes against virtually everything we are taught about medicine in our Western society, it can be a powerful healing tool. Our wonderful second year professor, Dr. Nadia Bakir, regales our homeopathy class with amazing stories about miraculous cures she achieved using homeopathy. Here are some of the key characteristics about this healing modality.
Homeopathy is an Energetic medicine. It follows the premise that, as living beings on this earth, we’re all connected to a larger energy field. This field dictates how we feel and how our bodies respond to outside stressors. The energy of the homeopathic remedy sends a message to the cells of our body and stimulates them to respond to the disease that is present. Mental symptoms are always given priority when choosing the correct remedy; the patient’s attitude and outlook towards their condition are more important in choosing a remedy than the actual condition itself, making homeopathy a highly individualized therapy.
During a homeopathic intake, the homeopathic or naturopathic doctor gathers detailed information about the energetic state of the patient and then matches that information with a remedy based on the Law of Similars: “like cures like”. For example, a patient with hay fever, characterized by watery eyes and a runny nose, may be given a remedy made from onion. When you cut into an onion your eyes water and your nose begins to run. The Law of Similars indicates that the remedy be given based on the symptoms it creates in a healthy individual. In a diseased individual, the remedy mimics the disease symptoms, providing the body with information about the patient’s disease state. This alerts the body to the presence of the disease and stimulates vitality, making the organism stronger and enabling it to fight the pathology.
Remedies are safe and gentle. Any noted side effects are healing responses as the body begins to respond to the disease that is affecting it. The symptoms are not toxic or dangerous (many manifest on the skin as the disease begins to clear, for example, a skin rash) and are only temporary. A homeopathic remedy can be given in the same dose to an infant as to an adult. Pregnant women can also safely take a homeopathic remedy.
Remedies can be made from anything; plant parts, animal parts, such as snake venom, minerals and “imponderables” (such as a remedy made from the energy of the North Star). The substances used to make a remedy are highly diluted to create a solution that some argue doesn’t actually contain any molecules of the original substance at all. This is probably the most controversial aspect of homeopathy because it goes against our medical notions about how pharmacology works. We are used to the understanding that a certain concentration of a medicine enters the body and activates cell receptors, creating a physiological response. In homeopathy, however, the diluted remedy carries the “information” from the substance used to create it and imparts that information to our body on an energetic level. Therefore, in homeopathy, the amount of substance present in the remedy is not pharmacologically relevant.
In homeopathy, a cure means that the body is removed from all susceptibility of recurrence of disease. To better understand this, let’s look at a common problem in our society: obesity.
Typically, when a patient is overweight, a naturopathic doctor (or any other doctor for that matter) will prescribe a change in diet and an exercise program. This all makes sense if we consider the cause of obesity to be an excess of calories. Based on this assumption, reducing caloric intake, improving nutrition and increasing caloric expenditure (through exercise) are all sensible recommendations and should be followed.
However, in homeopathy, even if the patient loses weight, we would not consider this to be “curing” them of their disease state (consider a yo-yo dieter who puts the weight back on right after losing it).
In order to fully cure the person, a detailed homeopathic interview or intake, which includes very personal, in-depth questions about physical symptoms, dreams, emotions and the mental state of the patient, as well as what their condition/symptoms means to them (do they feel protected by their weight? Does it make them feel heavy or lethargic? Do they feel the need to take up more space in the world? Etc.) is essential.
According to homeopathy, obesity is only a symptom of the person’s diseased state, which is an outer expression of an inner energetic state. In order to fully remove the disease, not just address the symptoms, the patient must be given a remedy that matches the specific manifestations of all aspects of their energetic state, especially their mental and emotional condition.
Having a homeopathic intake done at the Robert Schad Naturopathic Clinic (RSNC, the teaching clinic at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine) was a very interesting experience for me. My intern asked me probing questions concerning aspects of my life and personality that I hadn’t even considered before. I realized where my thought processes stopped regarding certain areas of my life. When I began to answer my intern’s questions, things came out of my mouth that sounded foreign to me at first. However, I knew that, because they had come out of my mouth, they must be true on some level.
It’s not possible for patients to simply Google the symptoms that they want to address and take a remedy based on only treating those symptoms. In order for homeopathy to properly “cure” the individual, one must go to a practiced homeopathic or naturopathic doctor, receive a full intake and take the remedy prescribed, based on the overall energetic state that they present with.
*This article is not meant to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Please consult a naturopathic or homeopathic doctor for a complete assessment and treatment plan.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jul 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
In my second year of naturopathic medical school it has become apparent that the primary reason most of my classmates and I gravitated towards the pursuit of a career in health is to heal ourselves.
“Physician heal thyself” is a Biblical verse that is meant to remind us of the importance of examining our biases, judgments and motivations before we impose and project them onto other people or things in our lives.
Struggling through four years of naturopathic education can be a rigorous, character-testing process, in which we are forced to reflect on our own perceptions and confront our deepest fears and insecurities.
In learning to care for other people (our patients) I believe that we must first learn to care for and heal ourselves. It is only through self-healing that we can serve as a true inspiration for the people who come under our care and help nudge them on their own healing paths.
Join me as I embark on my own healing journey, in which I reflect on and share the lessons I learn both inside and outside of my classes, concerning art, health, healing and life in general.
