When I was small I used to sit in a shopping cart, eating almonds off of the pile in the grocery store, while Nonna shopped for food. She would hand me shelled almonds to snack on, but she would buy them in bulk, with their shells, and we’d crack them at home.
One of the realities of human suffering is the sensation of time passing us by. It is one of the pains of being alive and aware of it. Oftentimes we live on autopilot, bored with our present circumstances and rushing through life to the next good thing we have scheduled. When times are good we can experience the anxious feeling of attachment, knowing that, like all good things, it can’t possibly last forever.
As mentioned before, naturopaths are not necessarily defined by our toolbox of modalities. What, then, does define us as a profession? As we witness a rise in the demand for complementary and alternative medicine, and with it, the rise in something called the “Holistic Medical Doctor”, what sets naturopathic doctors apart?
I love guacamole. The smooth, slightly bitter taste of fresh avocado, cut with the sour, clean taste of lemon, the pure pungency of raw garlic (I love garlic, especially raw), the sweetness of tomato, all rounded out with a hint of salt.
Guacamole, combined with some rice crackers, carrot sticks or healthy whole grain chips, is the perfect snack to lubricate a humorous, hand-waving, mid-afternoon conversation around the kitchen table. It combines the 6 Ayurvedic tastes, making a balanced, nurturing snack to help foster communication and familial bonding.
Guacamole marks the beginnings of my dabbling in “Whole Foodism”, which began sluggishly before starting naturopathic school. In guac, each ingredient is whole, fresh and eaten raw, their ripe flavours mingling in the perfect taste bud-stimulating combination. I remember a stiflingly hot afternoon, too hot to cook, sitting on the front veranda of my Cartagena, Colombia apartment, eating a cooling, soothingly filling guacamole snack. It sure beat rice and beans…
This snack represents what health food should be: fresh, simple and a natural mingle of flavours. Nature’s chemistry comes together to entertain, nurture and fuel. Ingredients are measured imprecisely, variably, depending on the size of the fruits in season, leaving each batch with a subtly different blend of flavours. What could be more perfect than that?
The shear simplistic beauty of this snack became an inspiration for a quick, loosely painted rendition using acrylic, thickly and freely applied, on canvass board, created in my aunt’s Calgary home.
Perfect Guacamole:
2 ripe avocados: peel, mush and leave in one of the pits
juice from one fresh lemon
2 cloves of minced, raw garlic
1 tomato, cut into small pieces
1 pinch of salt
Mix well, dip rice crackers, chips or raw vegetables
Even Nonna loves it!
Another naturopathic exam session has come and gone. The end of our last midterm week tucked an uncomfortable 49 exams (in less than two years) under our already stuffed belts. Despite the over-stuffing of knowledge (taxing our Spleens, according to TCM, which is the equivalent of overeating at a buffet), I can’t help but feel empty at the end of these week-long ordeals.
This morning I dropped J off at the airport as he caught the 8am flight back to Bogotá, Colombia. These past two weeks, where I showed him a bit of my world, after sharing his for two years, in both Bogotá and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, were a whirlwind of activity. He met all of my family and enjoyed all the great things that Toronto has to offer.
I don’t really have an excuse as to why, having been born and raised in Toronto and having studied in Kingston, Ontario, a stone’s throw from Montreal, I’d never visited this vibrant city.
There’s always been something about the idea of Art Therapy that drew me in. I’ve always had a passion for creative expression and believe, based on my own personal experience, that the very nature of creating a work of art carries with it rich therapeutic value. While in Colombia this past summer when I had the opportunity to organize a series of weekend activities with the foundation I was volunteering with, Fundamor, a home for children with HIV/AIDS, I knew that an art therapy activity would have to have a central role in my plans.
The Vis Medicatrix Naturae, or the healing power of nature, is at the core of naturopathic philosophy. This power, present in all living things, is the blueprint for optimal health and well-being.
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.
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.