by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 19, 2016 | Acupuncture, Addiction, Balance, Depression, Diet, Digestion, Emotions, Health, Meditation, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Narrative Therapy, Nutrition, Psychology, Stress
According to Statistics Canada, 1 in 4 people suffer from a mental health condition in Canada. Most of these individuals will fall between the cracks of a medical system that is not equipped to deal with the rise of stress and mood disorders, such as depression.
Naturopathic doctors understand that the mind and body are connected. Science has long established the relationship between the digestive system and mood, often termed the “Gut-Brain Connection” and the connection between the mind, mental health and the immune system, even establishing an entire field termed “psychoneuroimmunology”, linking depression to inflammation in the brain and body. However when it comes to our conventional healthcare model, mental health conditions are treated as separate from the rest of the body. In mainstream medicine, depression is largely treated as a brain chemical imbalance. It is thought that deficiency in the “happy” chemicals in the brain, like serotonin and dopamine, influence mood and must be “corrected” with anti-depressants. Despite emerging science about the brain, emotions, and mood, mental health conditions are commonly viewed as something that has “gone wrong” in the brain.
This reductionist approach to mental health often overlooks the intricate interplay between various physiological systems and their collective impact on mental well-being. For instance, conditions like ADHD are frequently discussed in terms of specific symptoms and brain function, yet they also involve broader aspects of cognitive and emotional regulation. One notable challenge associated with ADHD is time blindness, where individuals struggle to perceive and manage time effectively. This symptom highlights the complexity of ADHD and underscores the need for a more holistic view of mental health, recognizing that these conditions cannot be fully understood by focusing solely on brain chemistry.
Integrating a more comprehensive approach to mental health, such as the one advocated by Healing Psychiatry of Florida, can offer significant benefits. By addressing ADHD time blindness alongside traditional treatments, this approach acknowledges the multifaceted nature of mental health issues and emphasizes the importance of considering how various factors—both physiological and psychological—interact. This broader perspective not only enhances treatment effectiveness but also supports individuals in managing their conditions in a more integrated and compassionate manner.
As awareness grows regarding the interconnectedness of mental and physical well-being, there’s an increasing demand for holistic approaches to health and wellness. Online certification programs in holistic health and wellness, such as those offered by https://it.scholistico.com, play a pivotal role in equipping individuals with the knowledge and skills to address the multifaceted nature of human health. These courses delve into various modalities and disciplines, including naturopathy, nutrition, mindfulness, and integrative medicine, providing a comprehensive understanding of how different aspects of life impact overall wellness.
By embracing a holistic perspective, these certification programs empower students to adopt a more holistic approach to health care, recognizing the intricate interplay between physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. With a curriculum grounded in evidence-based practices and emerging research, students gain insights into alternative therapies and lifestyle interventions that complement conventional medical treatments. As society increasingly acknowledges the limitations of the traditional medical model in addressing mental health concerns, the availability of online certification courses in holistic health and wellness serves as a beacon of hope, fostering a new generation of practitioners committed to holistic healing and compassionate care.
Most treatments for depression and anxiety are based on the low-serotonin theory of depression, which roughly states that depression is due to decreased production of certain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, in the brain. Following this model, drugs are prescribed to artificially change neurotransmitter levels. While we understand that anti-depressant medications such as selective serotonin and selective serotonin and norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs and SNRIs) work better than placebo (in about 40-60% of cases), scientists don’t know for certain why they have an affect. When starting SSRI and SNRI drugs, patients experience an immediate increase in neurotransmitter levels in the brain, however, it takes 2-4 weeks before there are noticeable changes to mood. This points to the fact that the proposed mechanism (increasing neurotransmitter levels) may not in fact be how these drugs work. However, it is in the interest of the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing such drugs to perpetuate the idea that anti-depressant medications are “restoring” the natural chemical balance in the brain, despite lack of evidence that this is the case.
This is furthered by a paper published by the Neuroscience and Behavioural Reviews last year that challenges the low-serotonin theory of depression, stating that improvement on SSRI medication might be the body overcoming the effects of the drug, rather than the drug assisting patients in feeling better (1). This may explain why patients feel worse in the first few weeks of starting anti-depressant medication. The authors venture to say that anti-depressant medication may in fact be creating an obstacle to cure in patients with depression, making it harder for patients to recover in the short-term. The authors of the study argue that most forms of depression provide an evolutionary advantage by providing the body with natural and beneficial adaptations to stress (1).
Since we understand that our digestive system and immune system are linked to our mood and overall functioning, it becomes imperative that we learn how to fuel our brains, improve digestion, balance inflammation and take proactive measures against our increasing levels of stress.
Getting help for a mental health disorder first involves removing the stigma and discrimination around mental health—depression, anxiety and other mood disorders are not signs of weakness, they are common conditions that a large portion of the population is dealing with daily. Next, it is important to seek help from a trusted practitioner who will take the time to listen to your case, treat your body as a whole entity, not just a collection of organs, and connect with you as a person, not just your symptoms or diagnosis. The following are some proposed and effective methods of working with depression and mental health conditions.
1. Healing the gut.
Science has largely started referring to the digestive system as the “second brain”, due to its possession of something called the Enteric Nervous System, a collection of millions of nerve cells that control digestive function and communicate directly with the brain. Because of this intricate connection, research has shown that irritation to the digestive system, through bacterial overgrowth, gut inflammation and a variety of other mechanisms, can trigger significant changes to mood (2,3). Since 30-40% of the population suffers from digestive symptoms such as bloating, flatulence, GERD, IBS, constipation, diarrhea and IBD, this connection is important. Additionally, emerging research is showing the link between beneficial gut bacteria and mood, establishing the fact that certain probiotics are capable of producing neurotransmitters and thereby contributing to mood and mental functioning (2,3).
Naturopathic medicine has long established a connection between the gut and brain when it comes to health, recognizing that conditions such as IBS are aggravated by stress, depression and anxiety and treating the digestive concerns with patients with depression by prescribing quality probiotics and identifying and removing food sensitivities among other things. In addition, not only is gut function important for regulation of the nervous system and, in turn mood, a healthy digestive system is required for proper absorption of the amino acids and micronutrients necessary for synthesizing neurotransmitters.
2. Essential nutrients and adequate nutrition.
If the body doesn’t possess the building blocks for building hormones and neurotransmitters, it won’t make them. While SSRI medication keeps brain serotonin levels elevated, it also depletes the vitamins and minerals responsible for producing serotonin. Supplementing with quality brands and correct doses of vitamins B6, folate and B12, as well as magnesium and zinc and ensuring adequate protein intake, is essential to treating mental health conditions and mood. Some sources state that 70-80% of the population is deficient in magnesium. Since magnesium is needed for production of a variety of hormones and neurotransmitters, a deficiency can cause an array of symptoms from low mood and muscle pain, to insomnia and fatigue. Getting put on high-quality, professional grade vitamins and minerals at therapeutic doses should be done under the care of a licensed professional, such as a naturopathic doctor.
3. Fish oil.
A meta-analysis in 2014 concluded that fish oils are effective at treating low mood and even patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (4). Since the brain requires the fatty acids EPA and DHA found in fish to function, ensuring adequate intake of fatty fish or using a high-EPA supplement at an effective dose is a cornerstone of natural treatment for depression. The ratio of EPA:DHA is important, however, so ensure you’re receiving a prescription from a licensed naturopathic doctor (not all brands on the market are created equally and some products may even negatively impact mood). Another proposed mechanism of action for fish oil benefitting mood is in its anti-inflammatory properties. Emerging research has suggested that depression may be correlated with low-levels of brain inflammation.
4. Healing the adrenals.
According to evolutionary biology, depression may be a necessary adaptation to stress that promoted our survival and ability to pass on our genes. Since about 70% of the population identifies as being significantly stressed, it is no wonder that the number of mental health conditions is also rising. Naturopathic medicine and other alternative health fields recognize a collection of symptoms caused by prolonged, chronic stress that they term “adrenal fatigue”. Adrenal fatigue is characterized by high levels of prolonged mental, emotional and physical stress, low energy, insomnia, food cravings, and depressive symptoms such as low mood, apathy and lack of enjoyment in previously enjoyed activities, changes to sleep, weight, appetite and energy levels. Whether symptoms of chronic stress are misdiagnosed as mild to moderate depression in people, or whether lifestyle stress is the cause of physiological depression, there is often a significant stressor that complicates symptoms of low mood in most people. Using herbs, nutrition and stress-reduction techniques is important for improving resilience, as is taking steps to decrease the amount of stress present in one’s life. Researching and experimenting with various self-care practices is also important for managing low mood and promoting mental health.
5. Mind-body medicine.
Mind body medicine involves working with the body’s energetic healing forces to remove obstacles to cure and ensure the smooth flow of energy throughout the body. The main modalities that naturopathic medicine uses for these purposes are acupuncture, homeopathy and working with meditation and visualizations. While some reject these streams of healing as being pseudoscientific, there is a growing body of research to back them up. A study by the Journal of Alternative and Complementary medicine showed that acupuncture was as effective as medication at reducing depression after six weeks (5). Mind-body medicine works by integrating our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations to give us more awareness about the body as well as provides us with powerful tools for managing stress.
6. Counselling.
We know that counselling is a preferred first-line treatment for depression and other mood disorders and that counselling and medication in combination is far better than medication alone. While there are a variety of psychotherapeutic models and styles, research suggests that the therapeutic relationship is one of the most powerful determinants of positive health outcomes (6). Therefore working with a clinician that you trust, connect and resonate with is the first step to finding effective therapy. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), a style of therapy based on changing ingrained and habitual thoughts, beliefs and behaviours that may be contributing to low mood, is one of the main therapeutic modalities for depression and is supported by a number of studies. Motivational Interviewing is another counselling model that helps patients work through and change addictive behaviours and has substantial evidence behind it.
In addition to established therapeutic approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Interviewing, there’s growing recognition of the importance of specialized interventions tailored to specific mental health challenges. For individuals grappling with complex issues such as trauma or relationship difficulties, psychosexual therapy can offer a targeted and effective means of support. This form of therapy delves into the intricate interplay between psychological and sexual health, addressing concerns that may have profound impacts on overall well-being. Moreover, it’s crucial to acknowledge the role of holistic approaches in promoting mental wellness. In essence, the landscape of mental health treatment is diverse and evolving, offering a spectrum of options to meet the unique needs and preferences of each individual on their path to healing and growth.
When seeking therapy, it’s essential to consider not only the specific therapeutic model but also the fit between the therapist and the individual seeking help. For instance, someone in New York City might specifically search for cbt therapy nyc to find therapists trained in this evidence-based approach within their local area. However, beyond geographical considerations, finding a therapist with whom one feels a genuine connection and trust is crucial for therapy to be effective. This connection forms the foundation of a therapeutic relationship that can support individuals in navigating their mental health challenges and achieving meaningful change.
7. Mindfulness.
More and more research is coming out about the Buddhist practice of mindfulness meditation for preventing depression, managing stress, working with mood disorders and preventing relapse in major depressive disorder. Recent evidence published in JAMA has shown that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), a form of secular mindfulness meditation was just as effective as medication for treating mild to moderate depression (7). Mindfulness involves looking inward, without judgment at the thoughts, feelings and physical sensations produced by the body. Practicing it cultivates the skills of awareness, attention and presence. According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the founders of MBCT, “Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally. It’s about knowing what is on your mind.” Mindfulness improves mood by allowing participants to better understand their own emotional states without getting caught up in identifying with negative emotions and belief systems.
If you or a friend or family member is suffering from a mental health condition, it is important to be educated about options. Naturopathic medicine is a great first-line option for those who have been newly diagnosed with a mood disorder, as well as a preventive measure for those simply dealing with stress, and a great complement to those who have been living with a mental health condition for some time and are already on medication. I work with children, adolescents, adults, pregnant patients, postpartum women and patients dealing with addictions. I have additional training in motivational interviewing, mindfulness-based stress reduction, narrative therapy and CBT and structure my visits to allow for more time for counselling. Contact me for more information on how to work with me.
References:
- Andrews, PW, Bharwani, A, Lee, K.R., Fox, M, Thomsom, JA. Is serotonin an upper or a downer? The evolution of the serotonergic system and its role in depression and the antidepressant response. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2015; 51: 164
- Dinan, T, Cryan, J. Regulation of the stress response by the gut microbiota: Implications for psychoneuroimmunology. Psychoneuroimmunology (2012) 37, 1369-1378
- Wang, Y. Kasper, LH. The role of micro biome in central nervous system disorders. Brain Behav. Immun. (2014).
- Grosso G, Pajak A, Marventano S, et al. Role of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in the Treatment of Depressive Disorders: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. Malaga G, ed. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(5):e96905. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096905.
- Sun, H, Zhao, H, Ma, C, Bao, F, Zhang, J, Wang, D, Zhang, Y. and He, W. Effects of Electroacupuncture on Depression and the Production of Glial Cell Line–Derived Neurotrophic Factor Compared with Fluoxetine: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. September 2013, 19(9): 733-739.
- Siegel, D. The Mindful Therapist. Mind You Brain, Inc. New York: 2010.
- Goyal, M, Singh, S, Sibinga, ES, et al. Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med.2014;174(3):357-368. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 29, 2016 | Healing Stories, Health, Medicine, Meditation, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Naturopathic Philosophy, Naturopathic Principles, Philosophy, Self-care, Self-reflection, Stress
I’ve come to see my migraines as an internal measuring device for wellness, or rather, lack of wellness—kind of like a very painful meat thermometer. From time to time I get bouts of low energy compelling me to spend more time doing low-key activities. However, quick browses through Facebook show me busy colleagues achieving great things and I feel guilty about my relative inaction. A little voice pipes up. “Your body is telling you to rest”, it says. “But if you just started doing things, you’d probably feel more motivation”, voices another, its opponent, the devil on my shoulder. A war ensues and then a headache settles it all. I take it easy for a while, while I’m literally knocked out of commission, in the dark, on the couch with an icepack on my head. 
L came to me for fertility, which is another litmus test for good health. When the body is struggling against some sort of imbalance or obstacle to wellness, it will not spend its resources readying eggs, ovulating and ripening uteruses. Our bodies protect us from the metabolic demands of having a pregnancy, which in our current stressed-out, unwell states we probably wouldn’t be able to handle, by simply not getting pregnant in the first place. And so, infertility is a nice entry-way to healing—patients are motivated to examine the effect of their lifestyles on their wellbeing.
The problem was, however, that L barely had time to make and attend her appointments. When she did manage to come in, she was in a rush. She’d often cancel follow-ups because she hadn’t followed through with the previous visit’s plan, even though it had been weeks before. She also reported working 50-hour weeks and staying up early into the morning to work on projects. I wondered, if she couldn’t even make an hour-long appointment with her naturopathic doctor, how would she manage growing and then giving birth to and then raising a brand new human? L simply might have not been ready to heal. Something in me fought to give her my professional assessment; in order to have the baby she wanted, she might have to give up, or significantly let up on, the demands of her job. However, how could I have made such a statement? I held my tongue and tried my best with the modalities at my disposal. We did acupuncture, CoQ10, PQQ and herbal remedies. We worked on sleep and did stress management with adaptogens. In a few months, despite the high demands of her lifestyle, L was pregnant. She still has trouble keeping her appointments with me. L’s body may now be functioning fine, but is it thriving?
Workplace wellness programs teach employees how to survive the 60+ hour workweeks in the office by doing yoga at lunch and eating healthier cafeteria food. They’re taught about stress management and, in the best of cases, given adaptogens and B-vitamins to help their bodies’ sails weather the stress-intensive storms of office life. It’s a great investment, these programs proclaim, because employees are happier, more efficient at their work and take less sick days. Workplace wellness programs keep their employees functional but, I wonder, can anyone really be well working that many hours a week?
When it comes to the health strategies we promote as a profession, how many of them are geared towards healing and how many of them are really just there to help us function?
At this stage in my career, I often have to gauge what my patients want. There are some people who come in ready to heal. They want to search for and address the real root cause of disease, no matter how elusive it may be. They are also willing to do what it takes to get better, even if it means a significant lifestyle shift. Sometimes these patients are at a point where things have gotten so bad that they have no other choice, however some of them simply intuit that the symptoms arising may be conveying a greater message; in order to be truly healthy, things might have to change. Most patients, however, come in looking to “feel better”—they simply want their symptoms to go away so they can get back to their daily lives, lives that might have made them sick in the first place. In our pharmaceutical-based Therapeutics and Prescribing exam, the goal of therapy in the oral cases was always to “restore functioning”, as if our patients were simply pieces of machinery; our parts are worn, maybe broken and we’ve gone decades without a decent oil change, but the factory declares we must get back to work as soon as possible and so we break out the duct tape. With this mindset, however, are we simply placating our bodies long enough to keep working until we eventually succumb to the next thing, a debilitating headache instead of mild fatigue, or something even worse? How long can we go suppressing symptoms or getting our bodies into decent enough shape before we realize that what we really need is some honest-to-goodness authentic healing?
Jiddu Krishnamurti, Hindu philosopher and teacher once said, “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” How much of our health marketing and wellness efforts are aimed at cleaning out the cogs in a jammed up machine so that they can go on turning smoothly again? The thought that real healing might mean dismantling the entire machine might be too radical for our society to handle. How can we address the problem of making a living if we acknowledge the fact that our lifestyle, or job, might be making us sick?
A therapist I work with (doctors need healing too!) once told me that mild to moderate depression is a sign that something in your life needs changing. “Look at the symptoms of depression,” She told me one afternoon in her office, “You lose the energy and motivation to keep going with your routine. You stop being social; all of your energy turns inwards. You focus your attention on your self and your life so that you can examine what about it is making you unhappy. Then you change it.” Then you change it, a scary thought. No wonder a tenth of the population opts for anti-depressant medication, which in some cases might be the medical equivalent of dusting oneself off and heading back to work. And, while they seem like more benign options, St. John’s Wort, B12 injections and 5HTP may not be that different.
A friend and I were talking about this very topic. He remarked that at a fitness retail store he worked at he’d often ask his female customers, “What will you be needing these yoga pants for today: form or function?” When I laughed at the shallowness of it all, he protested, “Well, some people are just going to use them to sit in coffee shops while others want to actually work out. What’s going to make your butt look great won’t necessarily be the best choice at the gym. I had to know their motivations.” Are most of our wellness efforts aimed at making our butts look great or are they filling a functional purpose?
I wonder if I should follow my friend’s lead and outright ask my patients, maybe on their intake forms, “Are you looking to truly heal today or do you just want to feel better and get back to work?”—form or function? Being candid with them, might help me decide when to schedule follow-up appointments. At any rate, it would definitely open up a conversation about expectations surrounding decent time-frames for seeing “results” and what true healing might look like for them. The trouble is, restoring functioning, if not easier, is more straight-forward. You make some tweaks to diet, correct some nutritional deficiencies and boost the adrenals or liver. It’s the medical equivalent of filling in potholes with cheap cement—it might not look pretty, but now you can drive on it. Healing, however, is more complex. It’s more convoluted, hard to define and get a firm grasp on. It is also highly individual. It might mean ripping up the entire road, plumbing and all, and building a new one or, even better, planting grass and flowers in the road’s place and nurturing that grass on a daily basis. Healing might be creating something entirely new, something that no one has ever heard of or seen before. Creating is scary. Creativity takes courage, and so does healing.
No matter what it might look like, I believe healing begins with a conversation and a willingness to look inwards, without judgement. Healing also requires an acceptance of what is, even if the individual doesn’t feel ready to take actions to heal just yet. Healing deserves us acknowledging that something is a band-aid solution. Healing definitely demands listening, especially to the body. Therefore, healing might begin in meditation. It might start with a mind-searing migraine that lands you on the couch and the thought, “What if, instead of reaching for the Advil, I just rested a little bit today?” Healing might just start there and it might never end. But, if it does, who knows where it might end up?
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jul 20, 2015 | Art Therapy, Community, Creativity, Docere, Education, Emotions, Empathy, Finding yourself, Healing Stories, Health, Medicine, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Narrative Therapy, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Relationships, Self-reflection, Treating the Cause, Volunteering
As a child, I was obsessed with stories. I wrote and digested stories from various genres and mediums. I created characters, illustrating them, giving them clothes and names and friends and lives. I threw them into narratives: long stories, short stories, hypothetical stories that never got written. Stories are about selecting certain events and connecting them in time and sequence to create meaning. In naturopathic medicine I found a career in which I could bear witness to people’s stories. In narrative therapy I have found a way to heal people through helping them write their life stories.
We humans create stories by editing. We edit out events that seem insignificant to the formation of our identity. We emphasize certain events or thoughts that seem more meaningful. Sometimes our stories have happy endings. Sometimes our stories form tragedies. The stories we create shape how we see ourselves and what we imagine to be our possibilities for the future. They influence the decisions we make and the actions we take.
We use stories to understand other people, to feel empathy for ourselves and for others. Is there empathy outside of stories?
I was seeing R, a patient of mine at the Yonge Street Mission. Like my other patients at the mission health clinic, R was a young male who was street involved. He had come to see me for acupuncture, to help him relax. When I asked him what brought him in to see me on this particular day, his answer surprised me in its clarity and self-reflection. “I have a lot of anger,” He said, keeping his sunglasses on in the visit, something I didn’t bother to challenge.
R spoke of an unstoppable rage that would appear in his interactions with other people. Very often it would result in him taking violent action. A lot of the time that action was against others. This anger, according to him, got him in trouble with the law. He was scared by it—he didn’t really want to hurt others, but this anger felt like something that was escaping his control.
We chatted for a bit and I put in some acupuncture needles to “calm the mind” (because, by implication, his mind was not currently calm). After the treatment, R left a little lighter with a mind that was supposedly a little calmer. The treatment worked. I attributed this to the fact that he’d been able to get some things off his chest and relax in a safe space free of judgment. I congratulated myself while at the same time lamented the sad fact that R was leaving my safe space and re-entering the street, where he’d no doubt go back to floundering in a sea of crime, poverty and social injustice. I sighed and shrugged, feeling powerless—this was a fact beyond my control, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
The clinic manager, a nurse practitioner, once told me, “Of course they’re angry. These kids have a lot to be angry at.” I understood theoretically that social context mattered, but only in the sense that it posed an obstacle to proper healing. It is hard to treat stress, diabetes, anxiety and depression when the root causes or complicating factors are joblessness, homelessness and various traumatic experiences. A lot of the time I feel like I’m bailing water with a teaspoon to save a sinking ship; my efforts to help are fruitless. This is unfortunate because I believe in empowering my patients. How can I empower others if I myself feel powerless?
I took a Narrative Therapy intensive workshop last week. In this workshop we learn many techniques for empowering people and healing them via the formation of new identities through storytelling. In order to do this, narrative therapy extricates the problem from the person: the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem. Through separating problems from people, we are giving our patients the freedom to respond to or resolve their problems in ways that are empowering.
Naturopathic doctors approach conditions like diabetes from a life-style perspective; change your lifestyle and you can change your health! However, when we fail to separate the patient from the diabetes, we fail to examine the greater societal context that diabetes exists in. For one thing, our culture emphasizes stress, overwork and inactivity. The majority of food options we are given don’t nourish our health. Healthy foods cost more; we need to work more and experience more stress in order to afford them. We are often lied to when it comes to what is healthy and what is not—food marketing “healthwashes” the food choices we make. We do have some agency over our health in preventing conditions like diabetes, it’s true, but our health problems are often created within the context in which we live. Once we externalize diabetes from the person who experiences it, we can begin to distance our identities from the problem and work on it in creative and self-affirming ways.
Michael White, one of the founders of Narrative Therapy says,
If the person is the problem there is very little that can be done outside of taking action that is self-destructive.
Many people who seek healthcare believe that their health problems are a failure of their bodies to be healthy—they are in fact the problem. Naturopathic medicine, which aims to empower people by pointing out they can take action over their health, can further disempower people when we emphasize action and solutions that aim at treating the problems within our patients—we unwittingly perpetuate the idea that our solutions are fixing a “broken” person and, even worse, that we hold the answer to that fix. If we fail to separate our patients from their health conditions, our patients come to believe that their problems are internal to the self—that they or others are in fact, the problem. Failure to follow their doctor’s advice and heal then becomes a failure of the self. This belief only further buries them in the problems they are attempting to resolve. However, when health conditions are externalized, the condition ceases to represent the truth about the patient’s identity and options for healing suddenly show themselves.
While R got benefit from our visit, the benefit was temporary—R was still his problem. He left the visit still feeling like an angry and violent person. If I had succeeded in temporarily relieving R of his problem, it was only because I had acted. At best, R was dependent on me. At worst, I’d done nothing, or, even worse, had perpetuated the idea that there was something wrong with him and that he needed fixing.
These kids have a lot to be angry at,
my supervisor had said.
R was angry. But what was he angry at? Since I hadn’t really asked him, at this time I can only guess. The possibilities for imagining answers, however, are plentiful. R and his family had recently immigrated from Palestine, a land ravaged by war, occupation and racial tension. R was street-involved, living in poverty in an otherwise affluent country like Canada. I wasn’t sure of his specific relationship to poverty, because I hadn’t inquired, but throughout my time at the mission I’d been exposed to other narratives that may have intertwined with R’s personal storyline. These narratives included themes of addiction, abortion, hunger, violence, trauma and abandonment, among other tragic experiences. If his story in any way resembled those of the other youth who I see at the mission, it is fair to say that R had probably experienced a fair amount of injustice in his young life—he certainly had things to be angry at. I wonder if R’s anger wasn’t simply anger, but an act of resistance against injustice against him and others in his life: an act of protest.
“Why are you angry?” I could have asked him. Or, even better, “What are you protesting?”
That simple question might have opened our conversation up to stories of empowerment, personal agency, skills and knowledge. I might have learned of the things he held precious. We might have discussed themes of family, community and cultural narratives that could have developed into beautiful story-lines that were otherwise existing unnoticed.
Because our lives consist of an infinite number of events happening moment to moment, the potential for story creation is endless. However, it is an unfortunate reality that many of us tell the same single story of our lives. Oftentimes the dominant stories we make of our lives represent a problem we have. In my practice I hear many problem stories: stories of anxiety, depression, infertility, diabetes, weight gain, fatigue and so on. However, within these stories there exist clues to undeveloped stories, or subordinate stories, that can alter the way we see ourselves. The subordinate stories of our lives consist of values, skills, knowledge, strength and the things that we hold dear. When we thicken these stories, we can change how we see ourselves and others. We can open ourselves up to greater possibilities, greater personal agency and a preferred future in which we embrace preferred ways of being in the world.
I never asked R why the anger scared him, but asking might have provided clues to subordinate stories about what he held precious. Why did he not want to hurt others? What was important about keeping others safe? What other things was he living for? What things did he hope for in his own life and the lives of others? Enriching those stories might have changed the way he was currently seeing himself—an angry, violent youth with a temper problem—to a loving, caring individual who was protesting societal injustice. We might have talked about the times he’d felt anger but not acted violently (he’d briefly mentioned turning to soccer instead) or what his dreams were for the future. We might have talked about the values he’d been taught—why did he think that violence was wrong? Who taught him that? What would that person say to him right now, or during the times when his anger was threatening to take hold?
Our visit might have been powerful. It might have opened R up to a future of behaving in the way he preferred. It might have been life-changing.
It definitely would have been life-affirming.
Very often in the work we do, we unintentionally affirm people’s problems, rather than their lives.
One of the course participants during my week-long workshop summed up the definition of narrative therapy in one sentence,
Narrative therapy is therapy that is life-affirming.
And there is something very healing in a life affirmed.
More:
The Narrative Therapy Centre: http://www.narrativetherapycentre.com/
The Dulwich Centre: http://dulwichcentre.com.au/
Book: Maps of Narrative Practice by Michael White
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | May 24, 2015 | Art, Balance, Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Creativity, Education, Exercise, Family, Finding yourself, Happiness, Healing Stories, Health, Ideal You, Letting Go, Listening, Medicine, Meditation, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Motivation, Patience, Personal, Psychology, Relationships, Self-care, Self-reflection, Stress
According to James Altucher, author and entrepreneur, it is possible to reinvent yourself in 5 years. In his book, The Power of No, he tells us how to reinvent our lives by first saying a big, fat No to all the things that don’t serve us—toxic friendships and relationships, stagnant 9-5’s, harmful behaviours, negative thought patterns and, well, just things we simply don’t want to do—in order to free up our lives for greater happiness, abundance and creativity.
It is now the end of May. For me, May has been a month of reinvention. For the past 10 years it has been the month of closing and good-byes, specifically the end of the school year. The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine class of 2015 has graduated, as I did last year. Last week my Facebook feed was infiltrated with pictures of flowers, long black gowns and tearfully heartfelt thank-yous to the friends and family that got my colleagues through their gruelling 4 years of naturopathic medical education. Last year that was me—I remember the black gowns, the face-ache from smiling, drinking a little too much at grad formal and winning an award (“Most Likely to Write a Best Seller”—complete with misspelling of “bestseller”) while eating Portuguese chicken at my house afterwards with my friend F and his family. This year, one year later, I watch these events from afar. May 2014 offered new beginnings and chance for reinvention. I was dating, enjoying the sunshine, looking forward to a trip to India, looking forward to beginning a practice as a naturopathic doctor. Mostly, last May was about the death of one life—that of a naturopathic student—and the birth of a new one: a complete reinvention.
This year the rest of my life stretches before me like one long expansive road. My career is underway. My dating life is stagnant. The next steps are more like small evolutions rather than massive, monumental milestones. I most likely will not don a black gown again, but I can reinvent myself by following the 20 steps below. I can always check back into these practices when I’m feeling stuck, alone or afraid. When life is not going my way, there is always a chance to begin a reinvention of some sort. And, I remind myself, my current reinvention is likely well underway. Since I graduated last May, I have been in the process of reinventing: just 4 more years left until I complete my obligatory 5. While 4 years sounds like a long time, I know from experience that 4-year cycles turn over within the blink of an eye.
What stage are you on in your own personal reinvention? Wherever you are, follow these steps to reinvent yourself:
1) Say no. Say no to all the things that you don’t want to do. Say no to things that cause you harm: emotional harm, mental harm, physical harm, loss of time, loss of money, loss of sleep. We need to say no first before we can free up the time and energy to say yes to the things that we actually want. In fact, say “no” to all the things you aren’t saying “F#$% YES!” to. Read this article for more information.
2) Re-examine your relationships. Who doesn’t make you feel good? Who makes you doubt yourself? Who do you feel will reject you if you act like your true self around them? Gracefully begin to distance yourself from these relationships. You might feel lonely for some time, but loneliness is sometimes a good thing.
3) Clear out your junk. Get rid of everything you don’t use, don’t like and don’t need. Marie Kondo, in the Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, tells us to donate, trade, sell or dispose of everything we own that doesn’t bring us joy. I think that that is a wonderful litmus test to decide what we should be holding on to. Personally, one thing that did not bring me joy was an awful old desk in my room. It was uncomfortable and ugly. I replaced it with a free desk someone I knew was throwing away. I also donated 7 garbage bags of things: books, clothes and keepsakes from when I was a child. Since then, I feel like my room has been infused with a little bit more joy. Remove all your joyless items from your life and observe how your energy changes.
4) Sit in silence. This could be meditation, staring at the wall, chanting or simply breathing. Do it with eyes closed or open. I start at 20 minutes of meditation—a meditation teacher I had told me to always use a timer to increase self-discipline—and work up to 30 some days and an hour on really good days. Start with 5 minutes. Sitting in silence helps to quiet the mind and bring us back to the present. You’ll be amazed at what you discover when you sit in silence. Read some books on meditation or take a meditation course for specific techniques, but simply sitting in silence can offer amazing benefits as well.
5) Explore the topics that interested you as a child. When I got back into painting in 2008, after getting a science degree when I’d always been interested in the art, my life changed a little bit. I started a blog in 2011; it happens to be the one you’re reading now. Get back into whatever you were passionate about as a child, even if it’s just a cartoon you used to watch.
6) Start a gratitude jar. Once a day write down something that you are grateful for—use as much detail as possible—and toss it in a jar or shoebox. When you’re feeling low, open up the jar and read the messages you’ve left yourself. I also tried a similar exercise with things I wanted to manifest or achieve. A few months later I read my entries and realized I’d achieved every single one. It’s amazing what kind of energy glass jars can attract.
7) Read. According to James Altucher, you need to read 500 books on a given topic in order to become an expert on something. You have 5 years to reinvent yourself, so start your reading now. Read one book and then, from that book, read another. It’s interesting where reading trails can lead us. I read one book, which mentions another book, read that book and then end up in a new world I never knew existed. I personally feel a little anxious when I don’t have a book beside my bed, but if you’re new to reading, start small. There are two books that I’ve already mentioned in this blog post; start from either of them and then go from there. The next on my list is The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, which was mentioned in The Power of No. Who knows where that one will lead me.
8) Get 8-9 hours of sleep a night.
9) Eat your vegetables, especially leafy greens. Avoid sugar, moderate alcohol and caffeine. Eat healthy protein and healthy fats (if you don’t know what those are, welcome to my blog! browse more of my articles on healthy eating or book an appointment with a naturopathic doctor like me!—shameless self promo).
10) Exercise. Enjoy some movement every day.
11) Exercise your idea muscle. According to James Altucher, creativity is a muscle that we need to exercise lest it atrophies, like any other muscle. He recommends getting a journal and writing 10-20 ideas in it every day. They don’t have to be good ideas, just any ideas. Removing the filter of self-judgement is important for allowing creativity to flourish. We need to strengthen that muscle.
12) Get some psychotherapy. Start dealing with childhood wounds and meeting your inner critic. Address your erroneous beliefs about yourself, the world and the past. Contact me to learn where to get quality psychotherapy in Toronto at an affordable price.
13) Expand your social circle. If you find that after following step 2 your social circle has gotten smaller, start to find ways to expand it. My favourite way to reinvent my social interactions, and thus begin to reinvent my life, is to look up a meetup.com group and start attending. If you’re not sure about a meet-up group you’ve attended, give it 2 more tries before deciding not to go back. In 3 tries, you’ve either made new friends and connections or decided that the energies of the group aren’t right for you. Online dating is another cool place to start meeting people outside your social sphere and getting over social anxieties.
14) Establish a self-care routine. What would someone who loved themselves do every day? Try to do at least some of those things every day. It could be going for a 15-minute walk before doing the dishes. It could be doing the dishes rather than leaving a messy kitchen for your more tired future self. Think about what things will make you feel good and then do them. Most of the time this involves bubble baths—light some candles while you’re at it. Read this article on self-care to learn more.
15) Write a Have-Done List. Instead of writing a list of things you have to do today—your standard To-Do List—write a list of things you’ve done at the end of every day. This fills people with a sense of accomplishment from looking at everything they’ve done. It definitely beats the stress and anxiety of looking at the list of things that must get done looming before them.
16) Treat other people as if it were their last days on earth. We’ve all been told to “live each day on Earth as if it were your last.” But what if you lived as if each day on Earth were everyone else’s last? You’d probably treat them a little more nicely, be open with them, be honest with them and not gossip or speak badly about them. You might appreciate them more. The idea is James’, not mine, but I like it. I think it’s a good rule for how to treat people.
17) Pay attention to what you’re jealous of and what you despise in others. The things we are jealous of in others are often our disowned selves. If I’m jealous of my friend’s Broadway debut I’m probably disowning a creative, eccentric and artistic side of myself that it’s time I give love and attention to. The things we’re bothered by in others often represent our shadow sides, the negative things we disown in ourselves. I used to tell myself the story that my ex-boyfriend was selfish; he took care of his needs first. However, maybe I just needed to start taking care of my own needs or come to terms with my own tendencies towards selfishness. Our negative emotions in relation to others can provide us with amazing tools of enlightenment and prime us well for our own personal reinventions.
18) Let go of the things that were not meant for you. Past relationships, missed opportunities, potential patients that never call back, “perfect” apartments, etc. Say good-bye to the things you don’t get. They’re for somebody else. These things are on their own journeys, as you are on yours. If you miss one taxi, know that there are other, probably better, ones following it. So, rather than wasting time chasing after the missed taxi, meditate on the street corner until the next one comes along.
19) Listen. Ask questions. Show curiosity. When someone finishes speaking to you, take a breath and count to 2 before responding. It’s amazing how your relationships change when engaging in the simple act of listening. I love the Motivational Interviewing technique of reflective listening. In reflective listening, we repeat back the other’s words while adding something new that we think they might have meant, looking for the meaning between the person’s—your friend’s, patient’s or client’s—words. I find that this has helped the person I’m speaking with feel truly listened to. If I get the meaning wrong, it gives the other person a chance to correct me and thereby ensure that we’re really communicating and understanding each other. This one simple tool—reflective listening—has transformed my naturopathic practice and interviewing skills.
20) Be patient. Personally, I’m terrible at this. But, like you, I’ll try working on the other 19 steps while I wait for the next stage of reinvention to take hold. I’ve ordered my next book from the library. See you all in 4 years.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 16, 2015 | Culture, Emotions, Empathy, Gratitude, Love, Meditation, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Philosophy, Relationships, Self-care
I was in an emotional crisis. My partner and I were fighting. It was my fault and the anxiety I endured from the confrontation was compounded by a deep sense of guilt and shame. I felt powerless as I waited for him to reach out to me so we could fix the problem while at the same time dreading the future confrontation we’d have. I felt isolated. My nerves were shot.
I texted the problem to my friend, A, the psychotherapist, while sitting on the couch in my pyjamas. At the time I remember wanting to include others in my misery, so that people would ask me about it and tell me everything would be alright, that it happens to all of us—it wasn’t that bad—and that I’d get through this thing.
A tells me, “There is nothing you can do now but wait. Waiting takes courage. So, while you’re waiting, don’t forget to self care.”
Self-care: the illusive term we’d often hear tossed around in naturopathic medical school. The hyphenated compound noun referred to anything from applying castor oil packs to getting enough sleep. In my mind, it brings up images of spa-like indulgences: bubble baths, candles, a junky novel—guilty pleasures. True self-care, however, is far from simple self-indulgences. Audre Lorde owns the most powerful definition of self-care I’ve heard, which is this:
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation. And that is an act of political warfare.”
Rather than being a commercial phenomenon—involving trips to the spa, chocolate binge-eating and shopping sprees—self-care is political. Self-care challenges the inequality and oppression of race, gender, class and sexual orientation in society, by providing us with a means to improve our strength and ensure our survival.
When I read Lorde’s quote, I think of my Italian grandmother Nonna. Barely sitting down to enjoy the dinner she had prepared, she dedicated herself to the service of her family’s well-being. Like many other women, especially Italian Catholic women from her generation, she had been taught that any care for herself was selfishness—a symbol of the highest level of vanity and self-obsession. Nonna, like other women of various colours, religions and socioeconomic statuses, was taught to live a life of self-sacrifice. Any attention paid to her own well-being was regarded as an indulgent after-thought. Women are denied a societal sense of self-worth, which is then paradoxically medicated by advertisers telling us to “treat ourselves” to expensive perks because we’ve “earned it”. We are taught not to love ourselves and then instructed how to remedy this lack of self-love with expensive gifts.
Self-care is about finding ways to cultivate and feel deserving of self-love.
True self-care is essential for moving us forward. Because it prioritizes the health and well-being of a person, it affirms self-worth. This has the power to challenge the oppressive forces of racism, misogyny, classism, homophobia and other prejudices. Self-care helps with trauma recovery. It helps heal.
Self-care builds resilience.
We commonly fall into the thought-trap of regarding self-care inaccessible to certain populations; we assume it requires time, money and energy that not all of us have. Katherine from “I Am Begging My Mother Not to Read This Blog” accurately expresses the sentiment with an ironic twist:
“Make time for yourself. After you’ve run that 5K, started a load of laundry, harvested your organic vegetable garden, run to the bank, paid the bills, dazzled everyone with recipes that are cost-effective, healthy, and delicious, thought of something witty and clever to share with your social networking site, caught up on current events and politics, and cleaned all of the house, that special hour set aside just for you is so critical to your well-being.”
While she certainly has a point, something essential is missed in the definition of self-care. Self-care isn’t about shutting out the sound of your screaming children while you pour yourself a martini and fill the tub with hot water. Self-care is about intention, balance, mindfulness, self-awareness and, above all self-love. It is about taking responsibility for one’s own health and well-being. It is about recognizing your physical, mental and emotional needs and ensuring that those needs are met. Self-care is about reducing stress levels. If a pile of dirty laundry is stressing you out, then mindfully washing those clothes while watching the stress leave your body is self-care.
Self-care is an attitude. You can wash your dirty laundry with the frenzy of a thousand cortisol molecules and your mind on the massive list of other things yet to get done, or you can savour the positive feelings of achievement that comes from checking an item off the to-do list. You can breathe the scent of fabric softener, feel the warmth of the clothes that are coming out of the dryer and acknowledge that you are caring for yourself by ensuring you have clean clothes to wear the next day. It’s perspective and intention that creates self-care. That being said, laundry doesn’t necessarily have to be your thing either.
I have a patient who works 6-day weeks. When I asked her what she does for self-care, she looked at me, puzzled. “You know, self-care—how do you take care of yourself?” I tried to clarify. There was still no dawning of realization on her face. I silently chided myself for asking such an insensitive question.
And yet, my patient was taking care of herself. She was drinking more water, eating more vegetables and exercising. She was coming to see a naturopathic doctor and investing in her health. She was doing plenty of self-care; she just didn’t know it.
The SCaR Foundation outlines the BACE method of self-care, which helps us draw awareness to the simple acts we can engage in to care for ourselves.
Body Care involves exercising regularly, eating healthy food, taking medications and herbal supplements as prescribed. It also encompasses getting up to stretch while sitting at a desk, drinking water, getting enough sleep.
Achievement consists of finishing the daily tasks you have on your to-do list, laundry among them. It also includes working towards goals, like studying for a test or doing your work.
Connecting with Others includes spending time with friends, family, or a pet. Social connection is one of the reasons why we’re alive. Being able to reach out to others for help is one of the strongest manifestations of courage and resilience.
Enjoyment encompasses hobbies, favourite pass-times and indulgences. What activities bring joy and happiness to your life?
Self-care should not be pre-determined. When it becomes someone else’s prescription, it is no longer self-care.
Self-care is not always pleasurable. Sometimes it can be quite uncomfortable, such as making the decision to change careers, end a relationship or get in shape. It can be transformative, such as standing up for yourself. Self-love is a revolutionary act and revolutions aren’t always won peacefully. However, learning to listen to the body allows us to determine which decisions are coming from a place of self-love and not anger, hatred or fear.
My particular self-care story ended well. The very act of reaching out to a friend had already begun the process of self-caring (connection). After talking to A, I got up, changed out of my bathrobe, exercised, showered, and put on a homemade face mask of yogurt, honey and avocado (body care). I read fiction on the couch with a hot mug of cinnamon tea (enjoyment). I did yoga, meditated (body care) and went to a friend’s house for lunch, then another friend’s for dinner (connection). I took a course on a subject I love and met other healthcare practitioners while developing a new counselling skill (achievement). A part of me craved isolation, but I intuited that wouldn’t be a restorative act for me at that time and so I forced myself to move on with my activities, knowing that they would improve my positivity and resilience. In the end, because I took care of myself, I was able to face the situation from a place of strength and compassion for both me and my partner. Self-care helped me move past the shame and connect to the most powerful and loving version of myself.
That was my approach to self-care, because it was what I needed. At that time, I needed to feel healthy, strong and social. I needed to be reminded of who I was. Others in similar situations may decide that they need to grieve alone while watching When Harry Met Sally and devouring wine and popcorn, their faces stained with tears. Self-care is about knowing yourself and recognizing and honouring your needs.
Contrary to what we’ve been told, self-care isn’t selfish. It is the highest expression of connectedness. We can’t take care of others if we are not healthy. And we can’t be healthy without taking care of ourselves.
Self-Care Resources:
Methods-of-Self-Care : Free Ebook
Caring About Self-care : Article
Also, check out this Self-Care Journal, by Rachelle Abellar. It has sections for personal affirmations and action plans for when you’re feeling low. You can buy a copy at lulu.com.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 12, 2015 | Family, Finding yourself, Healing Stories, Health, Letting Go, Love, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Philosophy, Poetry, Relationships, Self-care, Self-esteem, Self-reflection
I’m grateful for endings
that merge into new beginnings,
karmic cycles and their painful lessons
and excruciating yearly rituals that often end
in transformations.
I’m grateful for long late-night horizontal conversations
tiny loving gestures
unity
and the Universe announcing her timing
loud and clear.
For experience.
For strength and resilience
reflected
in the mirror.
For friends and family who linger
around the corner
ready to reemerge
when you call them.
For cold winter winds that bring loss
and change
and propel us on.
For memories that needn’t be analyzed;
they’re simply gifts to cherish and remember.
The winter winds push us
on through the frigid night
into spring.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 3, 2015 | Gratitude, Health, Holidays, Medicine, Mindfulness, NPLEX, Professional Development, Relationships, Volunteering
2014 has been a year of beginnings and endings. I ended two major relationships: one with the school I went to for 4 years and another with a long-term boyfriend, and began two new ones: I embarked on my own career as a naturopathic doctor and started a new relationship. The past year for me represents the tail end of several important life-cycles and the promise of exciting new beginnings.
It was the year I turned 28, starting a new 7-year karmic cycle. I broke up with my now ex-boyfriend of 5 years and finished my studies at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. I dedicated a large portion of my time to social activities, self-expansion and personal growth. I got out into the world and made new friends while strengthening old friendships. I became a little more daring and a lot more open. These changes helped groom me into a better doctor.
I spent the summer working, dating and studying for NPLEX II. I embraced new opportunities and made many new friends with co-workers, ex-classmates and complete strangers. I became more artistic.
I went to India in August and September after finishing NPLEX II. After 4 years of constantly doing, it felt wonderful to relax into the chaos of India and become an observer for a month. Simply being felt foreign and very uncomfortable at times, but also balancing. I relished the long train rides, the heat and the variety of cultures, smells and colours – especially the food. India contains a furious energy about it. It was a wonderful experience and a brilliant way to open myself up further to new experiences while exploring a different corner of the world.
When I arrived home from India I was ecstatic to find that I had passed NPLEX II and my Ontario board exams. I applied for my naturopathic licence and began looking for clinic spaces. When I met Heather Osler at the Bloor West Homeopathic & Wellness Clinic, I immediately knew that the space was an excellent fit. So far, I’ve been right. The calming, healing energy of the space and the wonderful staff have been amazing. I have been blessed with a practice that has been slowly and steadily building from my first week. I am grateful for the wonderful patients that have booked with me in 2014. I have learned a lot from them and have had the opportunity to help them feel better, something that I love to do.
2015 brings with it the promise of more successes in private practice as I grow my existing patient base and eventually add more practice days to my week. I look forward to connecting with my ex-classmates and new colleagues, to giving talks and writing blogs and connecting with the community. I will be taking a course in Motivational Interviewing (MI) at OISE at the University of Toronto this January and February. I also hope to take more courses in psychological methods to strengthen my ability to treat mental health conditions; I plan to find ways to bring my love for art and writing to the therapeutic experience.
I have the opportunity to volunteer 1-2 days a month at the Yonge Street Mission health clinic and am looking forward to spreading naturopathic medicine to the community, a passion of mine. Between my private practice and volunteer work, I hope to quickly expand the number of people I help with naturopathic medicine.
2015 will bring with it creativity, in the form of exciting new writing projects and an effort on my part to make time for painting and consuming art.
I hope 2015 will be a year of love, bringing with it more fulfilling relationships and the opportunity to strengthen my existing ones with friends, my significant other, my family and, of course, my Colombian yorkie, Coco. I learn so much from my relationships and they remain the most important part of my life. They encourage me to grow and continue to challenge me to become a better person, writer and doctor. I hope to find mentors both inside and outside my profession that challenge me to continue to grow and provide me with needed guidance on my journey.
I plan to travel in 2015, to Puerto Rico, to visit the home of a dear friend and his growing family and back to Guatemala, to see my best friend in her tiny, bohemian village. I would also love to do a silent meditation retreat this year, finding more centring and balance.
I also know that 2015 will be about my own personal health. I have resolved to cut out sugar, drink more water and dedicate myself to becoming physically fitter by engaging in more yoga and strength training. I also resolve to strengthen my mindfulness practice and meditate more regularly, which I believe will help me become more conscious and present, both as a human and as a healthcare practitioner.
Most of all, I hope that 2015 will be about gratitude. As I become older, time seems to pass all the more quickly and I find this to be an alarmingly unpleasant realization. As a lifelong student and now a professional running her own business, I often find myself consumed by future goals, wants and needs, which interferes with my ability to live in the present moment, be reflective of and grateful for all the blessings I have been given in my life and currently enjoy. Dedicating myself to counting these blessings helps to anchor me to the present moment and feel happier with the wonderful life I’ve been given and the wonderful people who surround me.
2014 was an amazing year of transformation and growth. While Back to the Future II promised us a 2015 of flying cars and 80’s-style sneakers that automatically lace themselves, I believe the real 2015 will be an even better year filled with strength, opportunities for further growth and development and love. I hope to build more confidence and wisdom this year, develop more confidence in myself and add more stability to my life. 2015 will be about building strength and foundation.
I wish all of you the best this 2015. What are your reflections, hopes and resolutions for the coming year?
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Nov 20, 2014 | Acupuncture, Balance, Beauty, Book, Chronic pain, Healing Stories, Listening, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Preventive Medicine, Psychology, Self-care, Self-esteem, Self-reflection, Weight Loss, Women's health
I am in my grade 12 photography class. I am 17 years old. I have my head on the desk in abject despair, as I succumb to the intense stress that was my last year of high school, where every academic move I made would dictate my future. I remember catching sight of my thighs nestled on the hard-backed plastic chair beneath the desk. And, although my struggles in that moment were seemingly unrelated to my body, I remember feeling a sense of satisfaction as I made a mental note of how the once-curvy lines of my thighs were straightening themselves out, flattening and loosening some of the fat that cushioned my thigh bones. From this satisfaction, I drew a sense of calm; I was losing weight, therefore things would be all right. The notion sounds ridiculous now but, at the time, I associated thinness with all the things I valued: friendship, love and even success. These things could only take place in someone inhabiting a thin body. I would, naturally have to complete the prerequisite of achieving “thinness” before I could have any of those things. This belief, rather than creating a connection between the rest of my life and my experience in my body, only served to fragment my bodily experience, as I tried to form my shape into the mould I thought it should inhabit.
Fast-forward more than 10 years later. There is a sale at a store I used to frequent as a teenager. Since all my jeans have the coordinated foresight to spring holes at the same time (between the thighs, naturally), I decide to go in and try on some pants. When I realize that I take a full two sizes smaller than the last time I ever slid this brand of jeans over my hips, my chest is filled with the same contented bubbling I experienced that afternoon in photography. The anxiety of my future – my career, my empty wallet and my relationship -relaxes. I walk out with two pairs.
I am wearing the jeans on the subway when I run into my former boss. She and I chat about the weather and the school and she tells me that her young daughters refuse to wear pants because “they encumber their knees at circle time.” We chuckle at the humor of the situation and my mind travels to my closely wrapped thighs, feels the snugness of denim surrounding them. For me, pants serve as a container for the flesh that threatens to spill out of them. I remember wondering when my definition of “comfort” evolved from the freedom of the body to expand, move and breathe to this feeling of secure confinement I experience inside my jeans. I doubt these pants would allow my knees to properly stretch themselves out and bend at circle time. Luckily, when you’re pushing 30, you get to sit in chairs while people tell you stories.
As a naturopathic doctor, I preoccupy myself with the relationship our bodies have with our environment and lifestyles: how do the products we use affect our hormones? How does the food we eat and the movement we engage in affect our internal terrain? How does our mindset prevent disease? What I often don’t ask is how the learned relationship one has with their body affects health. Does the way I view my lower body cause me to engage in behaviours that affect my health? How are my tight jeans impeding lymphatic flow? How do they affect my digestion? Does my sense of self-worth affect my blood sugar? The answer is it absolutely can, if my sense of self-worth causes me to ignore my body’s food cravings and hunger signals. The way we treat ourselves and imagine our own health stems from our relationships with our bodies, which in turn dictates our future health states.
Susie Orbach, a feminist psychotherapist and author, once wrote that female babies are breastfed for less time, and picked up and cuddled less than male babies. She goes on to describe how this early treatment of women, “characterized by emotional deprivation and feelings of unentitlement”, secures the female’s place as a second-class citizen in society. More than that it teaches women to disconnect with our bodies. If our needs are not met at an early age, we are led to believe that these needs are wrong. We are taught to ignore the smelling, farting, bleeding, overflowing, curving bodies we are born with and try to recreate a “false body” that is perfect and that begins to believe it is “comfortable” being squeezed and starved and stuffed into pointy-toed shoes. Or we simply develop the ability to de-identify with the discomfort. This mechanism can lead to injury or disease if we fail to truly listen to what our bodies are trying to alert us to. (Matthew Remski writes about this extensively in his amazing research project on yoga injuries called What Are We Actually Doing in Asana (WAWADIA). I’ve been devouring his articles this week).
Orbach goes on to theorize that the symptoms the body produces in a disease state just might be a cry for help; the body is attempting to insist on its existence, to demand to be heard. So what then are menstrual cramps? Are they simply a result of inflammation or a hormonal imbalance caused by lifestyle or are they attempts made by the body to cry out, “I am female! I am menstruating! I am in need of attention!”
I remember a patient I had who would deny herself life pleasures. Convinced she needed to lose weight, she would ignore her hunger signals, even proudly telling me that she would turn to her stomach and tell it to “shut up” when the grumbling became too loud. Her chief complaint was chronic pain. I wonder if her body’s pain was simply its way of telling her it existed. I wonder if she’d have found a way to sufficiently answer her stomach’s calling, the pain would have subsided. Perhaps by listening to the experience of our bodies we can start to properly take care of our health. We can start by wearing comfortable pants that don’t “encumber the knees”, moving naturally, embracing our sexual appetites, feeding ourselves the food we truly crave and answering the need for physical touch and rest.
In a society that tends to view the body as an object, a machine that sometimes gets jammed with inconveniences such as pain, menstrual issues and eczema, I wonder how our collective health would change if we began to experience the body as a tool for healing and self-growth – something inherently wise.
To share one last story, I remember sitting across from Teresa, our school counsellor, while I was still a naturopathic student. At the time I was deciding to break up with my then-boyfriend thereby ending a 5-year relationship. I told her I had never been clear on the difference between the fear and apprehension that came with seizing something good and the repulsed feeling of avoiding something bad. This has led me to make decisions in my life that weren’t necessarily right for me. She asked me to cultivate the two feelings and locate their positions in my body. “See if there is any difference,” She told me. As I tuned in I immediately noticed that fear was closer to my heart. It was higher up and it bore the faint pleasant glow of excitement behind its initial anxiety. Disgust was located lower down. It felt like a stomach ache, a sense of doom, of indigestion: a hard-to-digest truth. It was in this moment that I fully appreciated the body’s wisdom. The old adage “listen to your gut” began to ring true to me. My gut was sending me a message that was loud and clear, but it was up to me to listen to it.
So what are some exercises we can do to cultivate body awareness and re-inhabit our bodies?
– Practice regular body scan mediations, such as those prescribed by the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) model taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
– Try Susie Orbach’s “Mirror Exercise” in her book Fat is a Feminist Issue or spend 3 minutes a day for 21 days staring at a body part that you have a hard time identifying with. By staring at the nose you’ve always felt was too big on a regular basis, you are able to incorporate it into your sense of self and accept it as something beautiful, in the way you would come to love the same nose on your grandfather, daughter or dear friend.
– Set a timer every hour while at work to remind yourself to tune in to your body and your breath. Notice your feet planted on the floor and move your awareness up through your feet to the top of your head. Ask yourself if there’s anything your body needs: are you thirsty, hungry, bored or lonely? Do you need to stand up and stretch? Do you need a hug?
– Get regular acupuncture or constitutional hydrotherapy to help the flow of Qi through the body.
– Finally, touch yourself. Practice ayurvedic self-massages or apply a natural moisturising lotion or oil before bed. Practice self-care in the form of hydrotherapy. Even placing the hands over the heart and breathing into that area will help to release oxytocin, a hormone responsible for love and bonding, creating feelings of calmness and attachment to the physical body.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Oct 21, 2014 | Meditation, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Stress
Deadlines, electronic medical records, parking tickets, paper grading and the cost of rent in Toronto. What do these seemingly varied delights all have in common? They all contribute to complicating our lives and do nothing more than turn the drip-rate up on our cortisol lines. When we think of healthy living, our minds frequently turn to proper diet and exercise. We often forget that while our bodies are undergoing the latest juice cleanse and sweating away impurities, our poor brains may be stuck masticating super-sized portions of the same soggy, deep-fried thoughts.
Modern society always takes the blame for today’s health complaints but, after all, we wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for the constant barrage of comparisons and to-do lists that haunt our daily realities. So, because I care deeply about the mental health of society, I have compiled an easy list of ways to simplify your life. Pour that carrot beet juice into your cerebral spinal fluid and give your brain a nice, cleansing wash.
1. Food and Drink
a. Turn off your TV. b. head to the grocery store. c. Once there, pick up a cart or basket, depending on your food volume needs. d. Sticking to the edges of the store, add in the vegetables and fruit you think: i. look tasty ii. are in season and iii. fit your budget. e. Next, hit the meat section. Buy some. (Legumes if you’re vegetarian) f. Buy eggs. g. In the middle of the store, pick up some herbs and spices, brown rice, quinoa, coconut milk, coconut oil and olive oil. h. Once you get home, look up the names of the things you bought on the internet. Google something like “recipe + beef + rice + spinach + tomato”. i. See what comes up. j. Consider purchasing a slow cooker or Dutch oven and let your food cook itself while you turn your TV back on. k. Ignore all TV commercials pertaining to food. j. Wine and water (tap).
2. Appearance
a. Find a pair of pants that fit you like a dream and allow you to sit, walk and ride a bicycle with ease. b. Buy a pair in every colour. c. Purchase the rest of your wardrobe at second-hand stores. d. Pair down your hair products to two things. e. Try to encompass your footwear needs with 3-5 pairs of shoes and boots. f. Use a BB cream – one with sunscreen. g. Use oil to wash it off your face at night. h. begin to learn to accept the nose/chin/butt/hair you were born with and find them beautiful in their own way.
3. Transportation
a. Walk everywhere. b. If you can’t walk, bike. c. If it’s too cold to walk/bike, take the subway/bus. d. If you live too far away to take public transport, walk or bike, then it’s time to move. e. Or buy a private helicopter.
4. Relationships
a. Choose a handful of people that mean a lot to you. b. Make an effort to see them and spend quality time with them. c. Tell them you love them often. d. Try to manage your expectations. e. Journal a list of the things you need from relationships. f. Try to use self-love to meet those needs. Meditation and journalling help with this. g. Online dating.
5. Social media
a. Determine how social media serves your life: Business promotion? Keeping in touch with your high school friends? Comparing children? Broadcasting your running routes? b. Log on, engage in these activities and then log off. c. Know when you’ve had enough.
6. Money
a. Find out how much money you make. b. Create a budget of how much your spend. c. Attempt to make a bigger than b. e. If b is bigger than a, try to make b smaller or a bigger. f. To make b smaller, see sections 1, 2 and 3. g. Consider that fact that making b as small as comfort allows could be the secret to simplicity and saving the world. h. Smile while paying taxes. i. If you have the means, donate time and/or money.
7. Breathing
a. Don’t forget to.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Oct 13, 2014 | Balance, Finding yourself, Mindfulness, Naturopathic Philosophy, Philosophy, Psychology
Image source: nohone.net
From the Art & Practice draft archives.
Things aren’t always what they seem. So goes the old adage.
The smiling mother chasing her kids in the park may be battling an ugly divorce or struggling with the guilt of a turbid affair. The white picket fence may not display the undercurrent story of addiction that runs through her life’s narrative. The beautiful home across the street provides a shiny façade that hides the modern-day enslavement to an unpleasant job that pays the mortgage.
I’ve come to understand that as a society we value the appearance of things rather than their actual value. We display to the world the happy side of life. We portray to others a sense of perfection and cover up the less-than-desirable aspects of our lives, creating the illusion that our lives are perfect and successful, free of suffering and pain.
(more…)
