invites spiritual growth and inspiration, exercise, relate to nature, maintain deep connections with loved ones, and participate meaningfully in our communities. When one thing is forgotten, we become out of balance.
The Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona defines integrative medicine (IM) as “healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.”
They define the principles of integrative medicine as:
•Patient and practitioner are partners in the healing process.
•All factors that influence health, wellness, and disease are taken into consideration, including mind, spirit, and community, as well as the body.
•Appropriate use of both conventional and alternative methods facilitates the body's innate healing response.
•Effective interventions that are natural and less invasive should be used whenever possible.
•Integrative medicine neither rejects conventional medicine nor accepts alternative therapies uncritically.
•Good medicine is based in good science. It is inquiry-driven and open to new paradigms.
•Alongside the concept of treatment, the broader concepts of health promotion and the prevention of illness are paramount.
•Practitioners of integrative medicine should exemplify its principles and commit themselves to self-exploration and self-development.
But, when we approach the spiritual side of health, do we know what we are trying to accomplish?
When someone does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
--Seneca
Today there are many many options open as far as where to pursue spirituality--maybe too many. Do we go to church? Attend spiritual retreats? Be in nature or our garden as our place of communion with the sacred? Attend a twelve-step program? Meditate and pray by ourselves? Get a Reiki treatment from a practitioner who can channel the energy of the Divine to us for healing and balancing? Seek a spiritual healer? Visit a psychic who can help us contact loved ones who have died? Drink in Chicken Soup for the Soul? Do we get overwhelmed and just forget it because we don’t easily recognize our path? Is our path not yet created? Questions, questions, questions.
Gerry (from the Introduction) came to me after her parents asked if I could help their daughter with what appeared to be a “spiritual emergency.” Although her psychiatrists labeled her “psychotic,” there was room to believe Gerry was highly sensitive and in need of one or more teachers to harness her abilities as a healer. Gerry immediately was drawn to an acupuncturist, who modeled how to be a healer and maintain balance within. Gerry learned from her when she received acupuncture. Gerry also took part in training seminars with other teachers.
It is up to each person to sort through the options and find their own path, but find it one must. We each are a spirit and hold a spark of Divine light within us; and we must attend to this side of ourselves or suffer the consequences. These usually turn up as a lack of meaning in life, or lack of an anchor point when the seas become turbulent or a tsunami approaches.
That said, this book you hold in your hands is not meant to indoctrinate you into the path or the destination that is right for you. My intention is only to introduce you to some ideas you may not have been aware of--new viewpoints that may facilitate you finding your own way.
I like to keep in mind a dear friend, Gerald Magnan, whom I met when traveling in Brazil. He is a Frenchman who lives in Brazil. He has been the supervisor of more than 100 healers who work in the community of Porto Alegre, Brazil. In that role, he paid attention to and gave advice about the ways the healers maintained a state of balance in order to help others. He always made it clear that our meditation and prayer life, as well as practicing healing for others, must be balanced with eating well, getting enough rest, enjoying our family, and having time in nature. He would, at times, send the healers to the beach to make sure they got enough direct sunshine, exercise, and communion with nature.
Recovering Mental Health
Selene Almeida, a pediatrician who is also a medium and healer in Brazil, was inspired by her spiritual guidance to define mental health and the way we achieve it. It is deeply spiritual but should not be confused with the accepted philosophy of Spiritism, as written in Spiritist books. What follows below in italics is a transcribed quote from Dr. Almeida—the rest is paraphrased (as the original is quite long):
There are spiritual guides to give us direction if we just listen to them in prayer and meditation. With their guidance we become inspired to become more knowledgeable, aware, and loving.
On this journey, we must learn to confront and overcome our shadows. Our current preoccupation with science and technology also provides countless mental and emotional challenges to our spiritual evolution.
Spiritual evolution is accelerated as more people become aware of the information that lies in subtle energies. The individual practitioner of energy medicine needs to maintain inner harmony. This state of balance is ideal for encountering the Real Self and being connected to the Divine. Without this encounter with the Real Self, we do not truly find mental health. When we have mental health, we feel reverence for life, and we can perceive beauty in all things at all times. Immaturity is reflected in those who do not have this kind of connection.
The more expanded our consciousness is, the more mature we are. The more we mature, the more we realize we eternally continue to grow, and our growth is enhanced if we are deliberate in focusing on spiritual matters. Spirit is everywhere, all the time, as the Source of all Creation.
What we focus on and think about becomes more real to us. When our minds are clear and connected to the Divine, we are the most powerful. This power stems from aligning with Love. We are given many opportunities in many lives to get to know ourselves better and become one with all of life. We may get caught in our shadow side at times, but the more awakened we become, the easier it is to return to clarity and love.
Mental disease is like a parallel reality built upon the foundations of pain, guilt, sadness, anger and fear. Thus, this state indicates a profound alienation with oneself, causing lack of belief in life and in the beauty that is present inside oneself. It is a mental construct separate from beauty and harmony. Each painful thought or emotion is like a brick that blocks us from our true Self. Each brick represents illusion, but the truth that feeds our dreams and nascent hope remains stored in the memory impregnated in its structure.
When we are able to drop the illusions perpetuated by pain, pride, anger and doubt, we see again and can feel our innocence. From that vantage point, we recognize each one of us is like a child of God, with a direct relationship to the Divine. This is the turning point in which true healing begins to occur.
Once one is in touch with the Divine self within, healing then progresses, inspiring images become more accessible, and one can feel again the purity of happiness one first experienced as a child. From this point, firmly connected to the Divine, one truly knows what
