Sometimes I feel stuck between the things I learned as a nurse and the things I’ve learned in the past several years. Even labels are hard.
Conventional. Western. Real.
Alternative. Eastern. Fringe.
For my purposes at the moment, let’s go with conventional and wholistic.
Whatever the labels, each has to do with balance. Conventional medicine looks primarily to numbers. Sodium and potassium levels. Oxygen and carbon dioxide. Intake and output. Wholistic medicine, on the other hand, thinks in terms of energy. Exercise and rest. Activity and meditation. Blocked and unblocked.
As explanations go, that’s pretty simplistic. And that’s at least partially because I’m pretty far out of balance at the moment. The Conventional medicine part of me says bronchitis. The wholistic part isn’t so keen about labels but is quite emphatic about needing more balance pretty quickly.
Either way, I can’t breathe well enough. And coughing does not begin to describe.
So, I needed a plan. A couple of prescription drugs, though not so many as the Urgent Care folks would like. Gallons of organic tea. Breathing treatments. Meditation music with healing vibrational tones. Lots and lots of bone broth. Some Qigong detox tricks.
I’ve done this before. Many times. And that, by itself, is probably several more issues! For now, though, I’m trying to listen to what my body is telling me. And that feels pretty different than just trying to shut it up.
As my Qigong guru would say, “Yes! Yes! More news about what you need!”
It’s a pretty amazing approach to this thing I learned to call disease. Unless you look carefully at the word and discover dis-ease hiding in there. Which is pretty close to lack of balance, but not so close to the way we usually think about it!
So, it’s back to tea and naptime for me. And, should you find the picture of the vintage balance to be calling to you just a bit, it might be worth a little time to ponder where you could use a bit of balance.
I’m just guessing!