Mana for the Doctor's Soul

This weekend I'm enjoying an annual conference with my colleagues from the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine in Tucson, Arizona. It's a wonderful group of people, graduates of Dr. Andrew Weil's fellowship in Integrative Medicine . Integrative Medicine is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person, including aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative. Physicians come to the 2-year fellowship for all kinds of reasons. Some want to bring additional modalities such as nutrition or botanical medicine into their existing practices. Others want help shifting their entire practices in more healing, prevention-oriented directions. Still others are developing Integrative Medicine clinics and departments in their own medical centers. Perhaps some of us seek healing ourselves. All fellows come out valuing our fellow humans' natural healing capacities, e...

Yesterday I shared some thoughts about Ho'oponopono and the United States' financial crisis. The most salient aspect of this is our personal, individual, 100% responsibility for what we're experiencing -- always. Rather than feeling burdened by guilt and shame, though, I feel hopeful with this. It means we can choose how we'll respond. Will we point fingers and scream that the government did it to us? That we have been tricked by "bad", money-grubbing financial advisors? This would be engaging in the chaos, leading nowhere but into more misery. Or will we find another way? As a step-by-step problem solving process, Ho'oponopono does offer another way -- and excludes no one. People from all traditions and religions may find solace in it. It also allows a larger universal view than what's on our individual screens right now. It acknowledges that whatever we see on the "outside" is also in us. Further, it acknowledges that we as humans cannot kn...

Many people are worried about money these days. With stock market cataclysms , venerable companies going bankrupt, home foreclosures, job loss, plus rising costs for groceries and gas, some have called this the worst financial crisis since the Depression . President Bush and the federal government are working out a $700 billion financial rescue package , in hopes of shoring things up. But hammering out details isn't easy. The whole thing summons fear -- some kinds crashing through our lives like King Kong, while others linger like twining tendrils of unease the morning after a very bad dream. Depending on our need for financial security, we are vulnerable to all of this. Doubt that money and security are linked in any formal way? Consider the name of the organization in charge of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation: the United States Securities and Exchange Commission . hmmmmm . . . . Does Ho'oponopono off...

What would you do in a storm? Would you be willing to lay down with a lion? Hurricane Ike recently slammed into Texas -- and stories of survival are surfacing from the flood. One in particular has amazed me: that of a lioness named Shackle and her owner taking shelter in church. It seems Shackle lived in a zoo on Bolivar Peninsula, which was flattened by the hurricane. Michael Ray Kujawa was driving to safety with her, but saw stranded cars and trucks ahead. He knew they were in deep trouble. Heading for the church, he was met by residents who helped the lion wade inside. Though water crept up to people's waists, and two-by-fours came floating through broken windows, Shackle stayed calm as a kitten. The people locked her in the sanctuary overnight, where she took reign on the altar. And when morning came, everyone was still alive. They fed Shackle pork roast for breakfast . . . but when she roared, the National Guard stood at attention. "They worked pretty well together, actu...

Certain words -- or lack of them -- can profoundly affect our lives. Three in particular, "I am sorry", are huge even though very short. T hey can make the difference between estrangement and healing in relationships. And yet many people resist saying these words, which are part of the Ho'oponopono process. Some say they fear opening the door to undeserved guilt and recriminations, or resent the implication that they could have made an error. Maybe in the given circumstance they are "right", but there is always a cost. There are many other reasons these three words are difficult for many. This week's issue of Newsweek magazine carries a wonderful "My Turn" story by Janice Wilberg, showing the results of "I am sorry" in her life. The Power Of ‘I Am Sorry’ by Janice Wilberg After years of silence between my parents and me, my father reached out with a few simple words. When I was growing up, my family had its own way of dealing with disa...

"What is done by what is called myself is, I feel, done by something greater than myself in me." ~James Clerk Maxwell, physicist, on his deathbed in 1879 The artwork above is a painting by Navajo artist David K. John , and hangs in my office. Titled "Rain Chanters," it depicts beings that are sacred to the Dine (the Navajo people), and which can offer healing assistance. It blesses the space where I see my patients. I am grateful for any feeling of help when working with my patients. To me this is a huge responsibility, and doctors, nurses, therapists, and other caregivers can easily feel overwhelmed. We're all the time trying to understand and solve others' problems. It sometimes amounts to what Dr. David Reilly of Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital in Scotland calls " fixitology ". We act as if we think the patient is broken , needing to be "fixed" -- as quickly as possible (" quickfixitology "). Further, we reduce the person to b...

Ever wonder how chronic stress affects you and your body? There are many ways to notice this personally, if we can self-observe. But researchers at Emory University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Yerkes Primate Research Center have developed an animal model that illustrates how stress affects physiology, behavior, and even reproduction. Anxiety, depression, and infertility are a few of the known results of chronic stress. Typical of many in contemporary biomedicine, these researchers describe effects in terms of neurohormones -- in this case, corticotropin releasing factor (CRF). In response to stress, the hypothalmus (a part of the brain) secretes CRF; this stimulates the pituitary gland to make hormones that go on to stimulate the adrenal glands (ACTH). In acute stress, CRF levels rise, leading to a complete hormonal fight-or-flight cascade. Once the stressor passes, CRF levels fall. This process in our bodies helps us respond to immediate dangers such as flood...