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Anglo-Saxon Ancient Healing Practices

The Anglo-Saxons are German tribes that emigrated from northern Europe in the Middle Ages for the island of Great Britain. Their history spans seven, culture-rich centuries from the fifth century to the 12th century. During the reign of King Alfred in the latter half of the eighth century, he inspires learning and literacy like no other king before him. With this proliferation of learning births the Anglo-Saxon ancient healing practices known to us today, including antiseptic treatments, salves for skin irritations, and even contributions to healing from surgery.

Antiseptic Turned Potent(ial) Antibiotic | Anglo-Saxon Ancient Healing Practices

Today, we see antibiotic-resistant strains of bacterial and viral infections for many reasons; the most common problems are the over- and misuse of antibiotic drugs. The most prevalent of these is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hospital settings, a type of established “biofilm” bacterial colony that can be dangerous to patients recovering from illness or surgery, and as its name implies is resistant to some of the most powerful forms of antibiotics we have synthesized today.

That didn’t stop The University of Nottingham from an interdisciplinary project (involving linguistics, history, and biology experts), aptly named Ancientbiotics, that took ethnopharmacology to a new level. (Ethnopharmacology is dedicated to the scientific study of substances used medicinally, especially folk remedies and ancient healing approaches by different ethnic groups.) Using a thousand-year-old, Anglo-Saxon ancient healing recipe, Bald’s eye salve (from Bald’s Leechbook), the Ancientbiotics team found that it was highly effective at killing these biofilm colonies in clinically significant quantities. Not only does Bald’s eye salve go beyond its stated use as an antiseptic, it has more varied demonstrated abilities that begs further studies.

Exhibiting a strong refrigerated shelf-life, the eye salve and its related recipes are a source of ample future research for the Ancientbiotics team.

Ancient Salve for Modern Skin Relief | Anglo-Saxon Ancient Healing Practices

What could sound like a witch’s brew to some, is a viable skin salve. In Lacnunga, an ancient medical text dating back to the 10th or 11th century, it speaks of a salve for flying venom. What is flying venom, you ask? Well, we aren’t quite sure. But, from context, it is commonly interpreted as highly-contagious skin infections that spread through unknown means in ancient Anglo-Saxon towns and villages.

To cure these infections, using the Anglo-Saxon herbalism traditions, a salve of hammer wort, maythe (chamomile), waybroad (plantain), and the root of water dock are prepared. As it turns out, each of these has anti-inflammatory properties for handling such skin irritations. “The four herbs in combination, therefore, are effective in relieving swelling and inflammation of rashes, sores, and ulcers while also relieving the pain of the patient, certainly making them a valuable cure for a variety of skin issues,” according to Indiana University researcher, Shirley Kinney, in her paper, “Anglo-Saxon Medicine: Cures or Catastrophe?”

Civilized Bloodletting for a Modern Era | Anglo-Saxon Ancient Healing Practices

Used since the age of the Ancient Greek healer, Hippocrates, bloodletting was a practice of calming the four humors (i.e., blood, black and yellow biles, and phlegm). Reducing the excess blood meant the body could regain equilibrium and heal. While this was a brutal practice and lead to a fair amount of unnecessary deaths, the practice refined over the ages, namely as an Anglo-Saxon ancient healing practice with leeches.

Leeches might be related to earthworms but differ in their thirst for blood. With the inclusion of leeches in Anglo-Saxon medicine, this meant that patients were drained of blood in a much safer and sterile fashion. Bloodletting with leeches during medieval times is a precursor to the mid-19th century advances in the practices throughout France and Europe.

In the last few years, bloodletting with leeches is being considered for its use in hospital recovery practices. The former practice has potential to aid patients healing from surgery. Leeches produce an anticoagulant that helps fine blood vessels repair faster after microsurgery. And, hirulin, the peptide in the leeches’ saliva, is being used as a treatment for those with blood-clotting disorders. The practice itself of use of leeches is still be reviewed but a modern twist includes the potential for electronics to assume the role of the actual leech.

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Ethnopharmacology, this new and burgeoning study of ancient healing practices, especially in Anglo-Saxon texts, looks as those the future of medicine is going to include much research into the wisdom of these medieval healing practices to complement our modern medicine.

Native American Healing Ceremonies

Thank you, Giver of Life, for all the life that was brought here before we arrived in this world. I thank Grandfather Sun for giving us our shadows because our shadows are direct representations of our ancestors who have gone before us. And, they follow us everywhere we go. They protect us. They guide us. So we thank Grandfather Sun in our hearts, in our shadows. And, then I look down to Mother Earth. And thank Mother Earth for providing us with all necessities of life, from the plants, the birds, the fish, and the animals. …that we obtain our food, our medicine, our clothing, our shelter, our tools of survival. …and how we travel about on the snow, on the ice, on the water, and on the earth. We are grateful being able to negotiate our survival on Mother Earth. So we are grateful for Mother Earth. I ask the spirits from those entities–the Giver of Life, Grandfather Sun and Mother Earth–to come here, to help us, to guide us in what we are doing.

Stephen Augustine, Dean of Cape Breton University’s Unama’ki College

Chanting ritual prayers during Native American ceremonies is a common aspect of their healing traditions. Traditionally, as Dean Augustine demonstrates in his 2016 speech in his ancestral tongue, these ceremonies are conducted by a tribal elder and opens, speaking on behalf of the collective. Native American healing ceremonies, along with tools and plant-based medicines (i.e., herbalism), are incorporated into the Native Americans’ whole being health and wellness system. There is much we can learn from this combined system of mind, body, emotion and spirit in the modern healthcare system.

Native American Healing Ceremonies

As researchers, Tarrell A. A. Portman and Michael T. Garrett, note in their paper entitled, “Native American Healing Traditions,” published in the International Journal of Disability, Development and Education (December 2006),

Indigenous healing practices among Native Americans have been documented in the United States since colonisation. Cultural encapsulation has deterred the acknowledgement of Native American medicinal practices as a precursor to folk medicine and many herbal remedies, which have greatly influenced modern medicine. Understanding Native American healing practices requires helping professionals to have knowledge of Native American cultural belief systems about health and wellness, with the many influences that create change in the mind, body, spirit, and natural environment. Native Americans believe their healing practices and traditions operate in the context of relationship to four constructs—namely, spirituality (Creator, Mother Earth, Great Father); community (family, clan, tribe/nation); environment (daily life, nature, balance); and self (inner passions and peace, thoughts, and values).

It is with this in mind, that it’s important for today’s integrative, complementary medicine practices to become the norm as opposed to the exception.

Chief among the ceremonies of Native Americans is the smudging ceremony. Smudging uses the smoking of a variety of herbs and foliage, namely sage and wheatgrass, to be wafted onto the person, belongings, sacred and non-sacred spaces alike. Native Americans differ in their frequency of smudging, but some perform it daily to stay healthy while others only at major life events and when feeling unwell.

While Native American healers’ reasonings can vary for why they smudge, from reading many accounts, one of the common reasons is to help others find respect for one another, their environment, and to spend moments in quiet, positive contemplation while practicing this ancient ceremony. In psychology, some of the same tenets of reappraisal and introspection recommended by mental healthcare professionals for greater emotional regulation are given. Here, Native Americans have connected this to their cultural heritage in a way that speaks very meaningfully to the participants.

Other ceremonies include death ceremonies to help one’s spirit pass on to the Spirit World, peyote worship and peace pipe smoking ceremonies, group healing ceremonies, and sweat lodge ceremonies (which is very similar to the Mexican temazcales written about before, and likely culturally associated). I touch on some of these ceremonies below, as I delve into the tools of the Native American healing ceremonies and practices further.

Tools Used in Native American Healing Ceremonies

Well you are likely to see a modern doctor with a stethoscope hanging on her neck today, the healing implements of the Native American persuasion are equally distinct. Native American healers can be seen with ceremonial headdresses on and necklaces of their own making. For healing ceremonies such as those described above, you will find in use a variety of tools from animal totems to peace pipes, prayer ties and more.

Animal Totems

Since Native American cultures are strongly animistic in nature, animals hold special places in the Native American healing ceremonies and traditions. You can see small animal totems given and used throughout these healing practices, especially during group healing ceremonies, for guidance from their animal spirits.

Dreamcatchers

One of the most iconic Native American healing tools is the dreamcatcher. Representing the Medicine Wheel, or Sacred Hoop, these woven healing instruments are used to help children sleep better, protecting warriors and others traveling away from the tribe, and warding off illness by restoring balance of mind, emotion, body and spirit to the person afflicted.

Feather Fetishes

Not what it sounds like, feather fetishes are fans made out of bird feathers, bones, leathered skins of various animals, even seashells, that are used in rituals for prayer and healing. In smudging ceremonies, feather fetishes are used to fan the smoke onto the person being blessed or healed.

Peace Pipes

Peace pipes are a ceremonial tool used usually by elders of a village for major events, but they are also used to smoke a variety of different plants. These peace pipes are long-stemmed and typically made of wood or bone, and can be smoked throughout the evening until dawn in healing rituals.

Prayer Ties

Next, prayer ties–small, bound cloth flags–are used as offerings to the Spirit World entities. These colorful little items are laid out to pay homage and thanks to the spirits needed to heal a person.

Smudge Sticks

Finally, but most often used in Native American healing ceremonies, smudge sticks are ribbon-bound herbs used to handily carry and purpose in the smudging ceremonies wherever one might be. Smudge sticks are disassembled to take what herbs are needed for a specific healing ceremony, then the remaining is rebound for later use. Herbs used vary based on the available plant life indigenous to the various Native American nations’ regions.

Herbalism in Native American Healing Ceremonies

In addition to the tools mentioned above healers of every Native American tribe extend their toolkit to the knowledge of plant-based medicine. Herbalists didn’t simply use smudge sticks to heal afflicted individuals. They had an arsenal of remedies cultivated over generations to handle a variety of ailments that became the source of many modern medicines.

If you would like to gain greater insights into Native American herbalism, in Sacred Plant Medicine: The Wisdom in Native American Herbalism by Stephen Harrod Buhner, he reveals that the Native American cultures not only had spiritual and religious beliefs connected to their herbalism, but an in-depth method for planting, gathering and harvesting, storing, converting plants to medicine, and uses.

You can find many herbs, such as milkweed, echinacea, wild ginger, and elder in various forms in your local natural foods stores in the supplements section. And, you can thank Native Americans mostly for that!

These herbs are used in many rituals and ceremonies as teas and other concoctions that not only the afflicted person would drink, but many times the family and other members of the tribe, as a means to bond the healing process to the community. Healing is culturally a communal practice and use of herbs together reinforces that premise.

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Native American healing ceremonies are part of the larger patchwork quilt of human experiences. In Native American tradition, one’s life experiences are medicine, as Portman and Garrett (2016) described. Your memories, as well as the herbs and teas and poultices used in healing rituals, are medicine. Even trees and plants and animals and people hold their own kind of medicines. It’s with this whole being perspective that our modern medical world can most benefit from a truly integrative, complementary medical culture that heals more with greater positive health outcomes.

Seven Key Principles of Ancient Hawaiian Healing

Every culture has its own approach to living and healing. No matter your culture or ethnic background, you too will discover that your family genealogy had ancient techniques to support the whole of the person – body, mind and spirit. Before there were physicians, hospitals and healthcare professionals, there were healers.

You can journey back to Before Common Era (B.C.E.) to find many ancient healing principles and techniques that supported the whole of the person. Great examples with significant wisdom include China’s Qigong, India’s Chakras, and the West Africa’s Ashanti tradition, to name only a few.

The ancient Hawaiians are another excellent example. Their techniques date back to at least 325 A.D. but are thought to have originated in B.C.E. Similar to the Chinese, Indians and West Africans, there principles of living were focused on the interconnectedness between the body, mind and soul and its interconnectedness to the rest of the Earth, its inhabitants and nature.

Hawaiian Ceremony

Huna, Explained!

The Ancient Hawaiians describe “Huna” as learning to work with your personal life force energy. It was originally called Ho’omana with “mana” referring to life force energy and “Ho’o” meaning “to make.” Ho’omana then was empowering the person to feel, explore and use his or her energy. Students were encouraged to study Ho’omana to increase the energy, to create with the energy and to balance the internal and external aspects of his or her physical body.

The Essential Huna Principles:

In Huna. the seven key principles were practiced daily to help the individual live life more fully. Take a moment now to explore each of the principles, reflect on the larger concepts and see what, if any, resonate with you.

1. The World is What You Think It Is. (Ike) You create your own reality. As you see the world around, so then is the world.

In Serge Kahili King’s book, Huna: Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living, King provides definitions around each of the Hawaiian terminology. For Ike, it means “to see, know, feel, perceive, be aware, understand.”

2. There are no Limits. (Kala) Energy is not trapped by the physical body and all is interconnected. Separation is an illusion. Through the use of our own creativity, we are unlimited.

Kala means “to loosen, untie, free, release and forgive.”

3. Energy Flows Where Attention Goes. (Makia) Humans have between 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts every day. Your thoughts and feelings form the blueprint for what will enter into your life. Be very aware of your thoughts!

Makia means “aim, purpose, to aim or strive for, to concentrate on.”

4. Now is the Moment of Power. (Manawa) There is no past nor is there a future. There is only the now, the present moment. You have the power in the present moment to change limiting beliefs and to offer forgiveness.

Manawa means “time, season, affections, feelings.”

Aloha – One of the Seven Huna Principles

5. To Love is to be Happy With. (Aloha) Love and happiness go hand-in-hand. Be open-hearted and loving and your happiness will be there too.Aloha means “love, affection, compassion, sympathy, kindness, charity and so much more.”

6. All Power Comes for Within. (Mana) We are responsible for our experience and have the chose to determine a new direction if we wish.

Mana means “supernatural or divine power, miraculous power, authority power.”

7. Effectiveness is the Measure of Truth. (Pono) All systems and organizations are arbitrary, so determine what truly works. We must look at the effectiveness through the lens of its personal, social, environmental aspects – the whole of something not just one part.

Pono means “goodness, moral qualities, correct and proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, success, assets, use, purpose.”

In King’s book, he simplifies the seven principles even further for his readers.

Be Awarethat the world is what you think it is. Decide you have the power to succeed.
Be Free because there are no limits. Give yourself the right to succeed.
Be Focusedbecause energy flows where attention goes. Increase your desire to succeed.
Be Herebecause now is the moment of power. Start right now with a will to succeed.
Be Happybecause love is the source of power. Enjoy and acknowledge the good that is.
Be Confidentbecause all power comes from within. Always trust yourself.
Be Positivebecause effectiveness is the measure of success. Always expect the best.

Many of these concepts are reflected in other ancient traditions. What are your thoughts on the above principles? Which would you like to incorporate or practice in your life? Let us know and enjoy.

Native American Healing

As Arizona Public Media (APM) reported in 2015, Native American healing traditions are embraced by treatment facilities of a wide variety–drug rehabilitation, domestic violence, abuse and trauma centers, and more. As the APM “Native Healing” video describes, “[m]ore and more mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities are turning to traditional American Indian ceremonies and practices, yet researchers are still trying to figure out why they help people heal.” And, yet, it is working.

You can find people of Native American heritage inhabiting every corner of the North American continent today. And, their history of Native American healing traditions reach back as early as the migration of Native peoples’ ancestors from Eurasia to the Americas approximately 60,000 to 25,000 years ago.

These Native American healing traditions include a far-ranging group of spiritual healing practices, some of which I’ll go into here, but foremost, we all must reflect on the profound effect culture-based healing has on our understanding and relationship of modern medical science.

Integrating Spiritual Healing and Western Medicine

A complication with the spiritual healing practices of the indigenous American peoples is that no two tribes or practices are the same. Small differences in rituals abound among the various nations. These healing traditions pass down orally throughout the generations, so it’s natural that minor changes occur. Notwithstanding, they have a common thread that weaves them together across these tribes. And, the veracity of these healing practices continue to prove useful in traditional healthcare environments. So much so, that last year, Melissa Lewis, PhD, at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus, as reported by the Association of American Medical Colleges, led the first required medical school curriculum on Native American healing customs.

It’s also worth noting that while these are spiritual practices, they are not specifically religious doctrines. You can embrace these Native cultural healing practices without changing belief systems. It’s about embracing your connection to your own spiritual being.

As an example, a research study out of Montclair University, entitled “An Exploration of Physiological Responses to the Native American Flute,” concluded that, “the Native American flute may merit a more prominent role in music therapy and that a study of the effects of flute playing on clinical conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hypertension, anxiety, and major depressive disorder, is warranted.” In connecting with the music and your own spirit, as is customary in these healing rituals, this Native American music therapy has shown great promise in helping with these illnesses and disorders.

In the 2011 National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine study, “Indigenous Native American Healing Traditions,” modern “Native Americans frequently combine traditional healing practices with allopathic medicine to promote health and wellbeing. Ceremony, native herbal remedies, and allopathic medications are used side by side. Spiritual treatments are thus an integral part of health promotion and healing in Native American culture.” Without the discomfort of connecting spirit and body, mind and emotions, allopathic healthcare providers can provide greater care to patients, as is evidenced by the work of Native American healers.

Four Directions and the Medicine Wheel

Four Directions Wellness is founded on the conceptual framework of the body, emotion, mind and spirit. And, it’s not by coincidence that the Native American culture is also based on these four fundamental elements. They are not simply these four components, as they can be looked at in many ways; the four seasons (i.e., summer, winter, spring and autumn), elements (air, earth, fire and water), stages of life (birth, youth, adulthood and death), and so on.

This multifaceted view of the way in which all things are connected, Native American culture and its health are uniquely intertwined. This is also sometimes called the Medicine Wheel, or Sacred Hoop, and is a way of viewing the world that is different from the more limited scope of traditional medicine.

In a future article, I will explore the Native American ceremonies, tools, and plant-based medicines that are incorporated into the Medicine Wheel and the Native Americans’ views of whole being health and wellness.

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Americans tend to be rapt in the narrative about the devastation inflicted upon the indigenous peoples of our continent. The robbery of language, culture and land. However, it is just as important to attend to the positive and radical acceptance of Native American healers. They are accepting of healthcare practitioners learning from Native American healing traditions and helping others with their ancient wisdom. We cannot rewrite history for the better, but we can write new chapters for the mind, body, emotion and spirit connected by many cultures to heal, together.

If we can continue to study the effects of Native American healing practices in complement with allopathic medicine, this integrative, complementary medicine approach will allow for a culture affected so greatly to flourish again in new and exciting ways.

Curanderismo, the Traditional Healing of Mexican Culture

Nearly a millennium-and-a-half after the cultivation of corn in Mesoamerica, around 1,200 BCE, the Olmec civilization is founded. This thriving society gives rise to the first cities and evidence shows advanced surgical procedures such as trephination (to treat a wide range of ills such as epileptic seizure, brain swelling and blunt trauma to the head). The fall of Olmec leads to the Zapotec, then Maya, and then Toltec civilizations. It’s not until 1521 that Mesoamerica’s Archaic Period ends with the Aztec Empire, when Spain’s conquistador Hernán Cortés overtakes the empire’s capital city, Tenochtitlan.

In all this time, a rich cultural tapestry becomes Mexico’s (and the broader Latin America’s) ancestral claim to a “diverse folk healing system,” as outlined by Renaldo Maduro, PhD, in his paper published in The Western Journal of Medicine entitled, “Curanderismo and Latino Views of Disease and Curing.” He notes that there are eight components from their worldview, that disease and/or illness are rooted in emotion, environmental imbalance or disharmony, “malevolent forces,” spiritual disconnection or “loss of soul,” sometimes bringing the family together as a unit, among others.

He goes on to explain that Mexican culture’s healing traditions, known as curanderismo (with healers known as curanderos), demonstrate a strong relationship between the healer and the patient. In looking at the Mexican ancient healing practices in this article, we can see how integrative medical perspective can be seen today, blending curanderismo and modern, allopathic medicine.

Rituals of Curanderismo

There are many rituals associated with curanderismo, all with the intent on bringing back the balance to the individual or family that Dr. Maduro described in his research.

As one example, the use of temazcal, or sweat lodge, for psychological, physiological and spiritual healing, is a curanderismo practice trending currently with Westerners today. In essence, a shaman-lead ritual in a hut that is heated and steamed through tossing water onto hot stones. A reporter, Susannah Rigg, from the Independent, detailed recently her experience in an Oaxacan temazcal. She describes individuals’ reasons for attending these ancient Mexican healing rituals in temazcales, noting that “[s]ome are regulars, there for the health benefits, hoping to clear their pores, raise their heart rate and cleanse their lungs. Some are quietly focused, there for spiritual purification.”

There are smaller, more personal rituals one can perform to heal oneself. In my research, I see several examples of the power of laughter therapy in use by curanderos. By laughing we release a wide array of endorphins that act as buffering agents to stressors.

As well, there is a ritual of burying bad emotional and spiritual components of one’s life. Curanderos guide those afflicted with emotional trauma to dig a hole, and speak their negative emotions or feelings or traumatic experiences into the hole and then covering it up as a way to release it from your body, mind and spirit. There is more research being done on the use of curanderismo with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with a combination of stronger health interventions than burying, literally, your feelings. (Is that where that phrase originated, perhaps?)

Curanderismo’s Herbalism

Curanderismo encourages the use of plant-based medicines to intervene in all varieties of disease and illness, most to do with issues relating to the digestive tract. Mexican ancient culture is onto something as current research shows how important our gut-brain connection is to our physical and emotional health.

In curanderismo, aloe vera exists prominently as a curative for skin burns, cuts and more. It’s also used as a drink to aid digestion. Now we know that aloe vera has anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties when applied topically or ingested. In ancient Mexico, an aloe vera plant would be placed at the entrance of a home where an individual was having negative spiritual experiences.

From juice therapy–papaya fruit is widely used as another digestive remedy for indigestion–to tinctures and other forms of herbalism, as explains Stanford School of Medicine, curanderismo herbalistic healing is still widely used and practiced.

Curanderos in Training in Mexico Today

In Dr. Cheo Torres’s TEDxABQ, “Connecting Modern Medicine to Traditional Healing: Dr. Cheo Torres at TEDxABQ,” he reminisces about his mother’s home remedies that stemmed from curanderismo. But more powerfully, he goes on to explain the power of curanderismo when combined with the understanding of modern medicine today. In this integrative medicine approach, a new generation of curanderos are being trained at community centers in Mexico to help tackle the difficult issues of providing quality, affordable healthcare.

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Have you ever experienced any ancient healing practices within Latin American, especially Mexican, culture? What was it like? Let us know in the comments.

Chakras: Yoga Wisdom for Managing Energy Centers

In the yoga tradition, your body bases its fulfilling your healing and wellness maintenance needs on the use of a conceptual framework called chakras. Chakras have a long history within Hinduism and Buddhism with varying degrees of similarity to what is commonly understood of chakras in modernity. Chakras can be understood today in integrative medicine as metaphors for the energetic centers of the healthy body that can flow through well-regulated human systems as pathways.

The human body includes the nervous, lymphatic, muscular, skeletal, circulatory, respiratory, endocrine, and integumentary (i.e., skin, hair, nails, etc.) systems. Unfortunately, when chakras are out of balance we get emotionally and physically unwell. On the other hand, we can focus on each of these areas through a variety of behavioral interventions to restore order to the energetic centers.

Since chakras manage and maintain the energetic systems of the body, their alignment (and misalignment) has a cascading effect. In a healthy body, chakras start at the top and energy flows down from the crown of the head to the base of the spine. If part of that flow is disrupted negatively, chakra-based philosophy tells us that disease and illness follow.

There are seven major chakras of the body. In this installment of the blog, we detail the seven chakras and simple ways through yoga poses and other simple interventions, so you can manage your wellness.

“I know…” | Crown (Sahasrara) Chakra

The Crown (Sahasrara) Chakra is, as you might guess, located at the top of the head and is known for containing the energy of divine knowledge, inspiration, and spiritual understanding. You may think of this chakra as responsible for, on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid, connecting your Esteem and Self-Actualization, the highest two tiers. When you need to focus on your crown chakra, you can do the asana (yoga pose) headstand. Each chakra is associated with a color(s), and the crown chakra is paired with white and violet, so anything with those two colors is helpful in restoring it. If you are so inclined, you can use:

essential oils, such as lavender, jasmine, and cedarwood to help; and
stones/crystals: amethyst, lavender, clear quartz, herkimer diamond, and diamonds.

Unique from the rest of the chakras, the crown chakra is not associated with a specific food(s), but is the chakra that requires fasting when it is in need of care.

“I see…” | Third eye (Ajna) Chakra

Next, we come to the Third Eye (Ajna) Chakra situated usually above, inside and between the two eyes. The ajna chakra is the ruler of intuition and self-awareness. If you need to focus on the third eye chakra, do the following asanas: fish pose, shoulder stand, and child pose. This chakra’s color is indigo, so anything with that deep coloring can be helpful here. If you are interested, you can source:

essential oils: frankincense, sandalwood, patchouli, and rosemary;
crystals/stones: lapis lazuli, and celestite; and,
foods: blueberries, eggplant, purple grapes, purple potatoes and sweet potatoes.

“I speak…” | Throat (Vishuddha) Chakra

Below the ajna chakra, we find the Throat (Vishuddha) Chakra which includes the throat and sinus areas of the body. The vishuddha chakra manages your communication, so when you feel that you’re having troubles with communicating with others, you want to try some of these interventions to remedy that. First, you can try the asanas, lion pose, shoulder stand, plow, fish pose, to move your body to balance your throat chakra. Further, its color is blue and so all things blue are also very healing to the throat chakra. You can use:

essential oils: basil, cypress, peppermint, and spearmint; and,
stone: labradorite stone.

If you want to eat to regain strength in your communications, a wonderful supplement is blue green algae (cyanobacteria), which can be found at local health food stores.

“I love…” | Heart (Anahata) Chakra

Following the vishuddha chakra is the Heart (Anahata) Chakra, located in the heart area of the body. This chakra is associated with love, trust and compassion, naturally, and its colors are green and pink. The asanas to perform for all things related to the anahata chakra are bow pose and camel pose. Use these in your spaces or apply/wear for the heart chakra:

Essential oils: bergamot, jasmine, geranium, and cypress; and,
stones/crystals: aventurine, green jade, emerald, and malachite.

Eat greens (e.g., kale, broccoli, and other chlorophyll-based foods) to excite the heart chakra.

“I can…” | Solar Plexus (Manipura) Chakra

Continuing down the chakras is the Solar Plexus (Manipura) Chakra. In charge of stomach issues and upper digestive area, the manipura chakra is the holder of personality, identity, and ego. It responds well to the asanas: boat pose, bow pose, lion pose, and seated spinal twist. Seek out all things colored yellow, and these items to balance out your solar plexus chakra:

essential oils: cedarwood, lavender, rosemary, and clary sage; and,
stone/crystals: citrine point and sulfur crystal.

Eat yellow foods (such as yellow zucchini, lemons and yellow curries), and starches, for your manipura chakra.

“I feel…” | Sacral (Swadhisthana) Chakra

The penultimate Sacral (Swadhisthana) Chakra is your “social” chakra, involved in emotions, reproduction and pleasure-seeking. Swadhisthana chakra is the fluid area of the body and encompasses the lower back, groin, and the area of your trunk below your waist. To enhance your sacral chakra look to these asanas: warrior II, goddess pose, and pigeon pose. You can use these essential oils and crystals/stones for assistance:

essential oils: sandalwood, orange, rose and ylang ylang; and,
crystals/stones: citrine and amber.

As you can tell, orange is the color of the swadhisthana chakra so eating orange-colored foods help here.

“I have…” | Root (Muladhara) Chakra

Last but certainly not least is Root (Muladhara) Chakra located at the base of the spine, handling the important basic survival instincts. Some asanas that help with your muladhara chakra are lotus, child pose, triangle pose and garland pose. As red is the color of the root chakra, all things red help you with feeling grounded and self-preservation, including:

essential oils: patchouli, frankincense and cedarwood; and,
crystals/stones: garnet, ruby and red stone.

Find red foods, including red meat, onions, radishes, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, and beans, for the root chakra to build up strength.

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There are matching chakra chants for meditating to resonate each chakra, if you would like to explore using chanting meditation for balancing your chakras.

Understanding and using these methods for bringing your chakras into balance with your unique doshas, which we discussed in the last article about Ayurveda, as well. Do you tend toward an imbalance in a specific chakra, similar to your doshas? Let us know in the comments!

Ayurveda, or Yogic Science: The Ancient Wellbeing Practices of India

In Western medicine, we consider the human body an open system, says Dr. B. M. Hegde, Indian medical scientist, educationist, and author, and Editor-in-Chief of the medical journal, Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes. But, he tells the audience in his 2016 TEDx MITE talk, “Ayurveda Over Western Medicines,” that the human body is a closed system. All it needs to heal itself is within itself. And, if Western and Eastern medicines can complement one another, 2% of emergency “quick fixes” for broken bones and life-saving traumatic circumstances, Ayurveda can help fix the other 98%. The future of medicine is the combination of all scientifically-validated healing practices, according to Dr. Hegde, Ayurveda among them.

Ayurveda, Explained

Ayurveda is the ancient, alternative medicine system from India that’s intent on preserving and maintaining health and wellbeing through diet. You will sometimes hear, Ayurveda called “yogic science” because it is the other side of yoga’s physical practices for building strength, resilience and maintaining the body through physical and mental practices.

Ayurvedic science promotes the inner workings of your spiritual and internal organs, which is why nutrition is so well-developed within Ayurveda. Its history dates back, by account of some scholars, to prehistoric times of the Indus Valley Civilization and even earlier. So, to call Ayurveda ancient is shortchanging how truly ancient a healing practice it is. Remarkably, after more than 7,000 years of accumulated wisdom passed on through the generations, about 80% of Indians on the Asian continent practice some mixture of traditional and modern medicines that includes Ayurveda, according to the National Institutes of Health.

To understand Ayurveda, one must understand the doshas. Doshas are the three types of energies–vata, pitta and kapha–that make up every person. These doshas in balance, and you maintain the body’s ability to work, compassion and other virtues for life. Doshas that are out of balance lead to fear, insecurity, and ultimately disease of the body.

Each person has usually one or two doshas that present themselves more often. For the Vata Dosha person, your energetic physiology and personality, when in balance, produce abundant creativity and vitality. For the Pitta Dosha individual, your energies come from the metabolism and foster contentment and your intellectual capabilities. And, last, for those with a dominant Kapha Dosha, your body’s growth and immunity are central to you and provide love and forgiveness. Again, everyone has all three of these doshas in them, but those fluctuate from person to person, and this in Ayurveda is where individuality and dispositions originate.

Do you want to know what main dosha you tend toward? Check out this dosha quiz from Yoga International.

Further, Ayurveda is divided into eight complementary parts, as explained in Planet Ayurveda’s “Eight Branches of Ayurveda”:

– “Kaaya Chikitsa (Internal medicine),
– Baala Chikitsa (Pediatrics treatment),
– Graha Chikitsa or Bhoot Vidya (Psychiatry),
– Urdhyaanga Chikitsa (treatment of eyes, nose, throat, head related disease),
– Shalyaroga Chikitsa (Surgery),
– Damstra Chikitsa – Agad Tantra (toxicology),
– Jara Chikitsa – Rasayana (Geriatrics), and
– Vrishya Chikitsa or Vajjikarana (Aphrodisiac therapy).”

Ayurveda, Meet Quantum Physics

To understand how Ayurveda works, we turn back to Western sciences, specifically and most peculiarly quantum physics, thanks to Dr. Hegde. He mentions in his TEDx talk mentioned above the book, The Quantum Doctor: A Quantum Physicist Explains the Healing Power of Integral Medicine by Amit Goswami, PhD. In it, Dr. Goswami reinterprets many ancient healing practices, from Traditional Chinese Medicine, including acupuncture/acupressure, homeopathy, and Ayurveda, for modern medicine through the lens of consciousness and our understanding of quantum physics today.

It’s simplest explanation is in the understanding that energy and mass are two sides of the same coin, as Albert Einstein once stated. In this sense, your mind and your body are two sides of the same coin. And, through your greater conscious self-awareness you will be able to heal your body.

Dr. Goswami goes into detail in The Quantum Doctor how an integrative medicine approach to whole-being wellness is the future of medicine, about which Dr. Hegde is speaking.

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While with yoga, “showing up to the mat” every day is the mantra of most yogis, ayurvedic doctors approach every day something more akin to the question, what are you putting in your body? When impurities breach your lips, your health and vitality escape.

To practice Ayurveda well then, you simply need to eat less impurities, like processed or “junk” foods, and eat more plant-based, quality whole foods. It’s a simple, but difficult change in the way you live, but good health and longevity are the byproduct offered through the Ayurvedic lifestyle.

Healing Before the American Revolution

If you have a chance to step back in time, one of the best places in the United States is located in Williamsburg, Virginia. Williamsburg offers a glimpse of the early start to colonization and of how we provided healing and healthcare before the American Revolution.

If you visited the apothecary, you would have a chance to comprehend life before doctors and physicians were the norm. Apothecaries in Williamsburg provided medical treatments; prescribed medicine; trained apprentices; performed surgery and served as man-midwives. The cost though of receiving care was expensive and therefore individuals often chose to not seek treatment as it could cost as much as a person’s monthly take-home pay or more.Home remedies were preferred. One such home remedy offered in Williamsburg was for headaches. The known healing used vinegar of roses applied directly to the forehead. This is one example but the norm at that time was to use remedies that included herbs and natural substances to relieve, sooth and cure maladies.

Physician Apprenticeships:

If you wanted to be a physician in Williamsburg, you would first do an apprenticeship with the local doctors. Many Williamsburg residents were not able to travel back to England to study at the universities and therefore the apprenticeship was the most practical way to offer on-the-job training in healthcare.

While Williamsburg was thriving, John Morgan and William Shippen began the f irst medical school in the country. The medical school was founded in 1765. The school is now known as the University of Pennsylvania. Just three years later, the second medical school was formed at Kings College, known today as Columbia University. And another fifteen years later, another school would be formed at Harvard. Thus began formal physician training in the United States.

Before the United States had Physicians for Healing:

Prior to Williamsburg or the Jamestown settlement, there were five or more Native American tribes living in the Virginia region. The tribes consisted of: Algonquian-speaking people; Nottoway and Meherrin tribes near the Tidewater, and Siouan and Iroquoian-speaking people in the interior of Virginia.

The Virginia Native Americans as well as those throughout the United States had various approaches to healing. Yet, all tribes had a key philosophy – our inner connectedness. That connection includes not only other humans but also the Earth, the animals, the birds and the vegetation. Since we are all connected, community played a critical role in helping a person to heal. Family, friends and the tribe came together to support and help that individual with their illness.

Native American Ceremonies

The Native Americans lived with the Earth. Each season was recognized for the fruits, vegetables and herbs available at that time. Eating was therefore driven by the seasons and its offerings. Native Americans used ceremonies, native herbal medicines and allopathic medications together to help an individual. The Native Americans also recognized that the body, mind and spirit were interconnected and therefore, healing required the inclusion of spiritual treatments as well. For ceremonial healings, they had the person suffering with symptoms but also included the family and community. It was a joint effort and it is recognized that “what is in the one is in the whole and vice versa.”The Native Americans had a holistic approach to caring for another person. That holistic approach is seeing a return in our modern medical world as integrative approaches are being incorporated. Integrative approaches include: herbal medicines, naturopathic and integrative doctors, holistic nursing, massage, chiropractic services, acupuncture, Reiki, reflexology, Shamanic healing, yoga, Qigong, energy healing and more. If you are interested, learn more by visiting Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine or Four Directions Wellness.

Reiki and Its Martial Arts Roots

In the 1984 hit film, The Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (played by Ralph Macchio) is injured in his fight against Johnny Lawrence (played by William Zabka). He’s brought back to the locker room and he’s lying supine in pain with the sage Karate master, Mr. Miyagi (played by Pat Morita and gaining him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), standing by his pupil. As an aside to the enduring popularity of this saga, there is now a television series, Cobra Kai, that brings back the original actors, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, in their roles as Daniel and Johnny as adults to duke it out all over again for another generation.

Back to the locker room in the original film, Daniel wants to win the fight but his leg is in excruciating pain. Mr. Miyagi claps his hands together and begins to heal Daniel so that he can get back in the fight. Did you know about reiki and its martial arts roots?

Well, we don’t know if Mr. Miyagi’s healing hands technique is reiki, but it shows the connection between ancient healing practices and martial artists’ roles in the healing traditions of ancient history.

Reiki, the Japanese ancient healing practice, is inspired by the need for warriors on the battlefield to be able to heal their comrades-in-arms once off the battlefield. In this article, I discuss the history of reiki and its martial arts roots, as an analogy to how interdisciplinary fields (like integrative, complementary medicines) are better than the alternative.

Mikao Usui, Founder of Reiki and His Martial Arts Roots

Reiki is developed by Mikao Usui around the 1920s. What is known about Master Usui (or Usui Sensei) is that his famous and influential ancestors were from the Chiba clan and Hatamoto samurai, a warrior class of ancient Japan whose duties were to defend royalty and other nobility.

As part of a samurai lineage, Usui is trained in the martial arts customs of his family and this opens him to his understandings of reiki. While other styles of “reiki ryoho” are in practice contemporaneously with Usui’s epiphany of the Usui Reiki Ryoho style, his would be the style that endured while the other styles lost popularity and floated into obscurity.

Master Usui uses the teaching style of martial arts, teaching in lineages and tiers of small batches of students, that then in turn teach a small batch of students, to grow his Usui Reiki style to more than 2,000 students throughout Japan in his lifetime. This martial arts-style approach of concentrating on developing a small group of strong practitioners of reiki set it up for the healing modalities nuances to be retained and passed along to future generations.

Qi binds Reiki and Its Martial Arts Roots

Qi (or Chi), the life force energy that flows through every living thing, is the basis from which both reiki and many Chinese and other Eastern martial arts source their abilities. Coming from the ancient spiritual philosophies, qi serves the purpose in reiki of describing the energetic properties that keep a human in homeostasis, or all the regulating functions that maintain life in balance.

Martial artists talk of harnessing qi in many different ways. The qi can be used for internal purposes to benefit your own health and well-being, as is the case with Qigong. Where Qigong is used for healing purposes, you can put this to use in combat as Tai Chi Chuan.

As stated before, on the battlefield in ancient feuds, warriors had accompanying healers to help with incised wounds (from sword or arrow cuts deep into the skin, which would generally be a death sentence in those days). While the battlefield medical practices are little known and sometimes stodgy quality of ancient China and Japan, it can be presumed that at some point and perhaps enduring throughout advancements in traditional medical techniques, martial artists use energy healing as part of their healing practices during wartime. Now in modern times, the US Army is looking at ways to use reiki, yoga, and other natural healing practices for our military servicemembers again.

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This brings us all full circle to the nature of martial arts and reiki. All reputable martial arts impress upon their students the importance of moral virtues and living one’s life in balance. You cannot fight to defend yourself, your family and your country well if you are not honorable and virtuous. If you compare martial arts with reiki, which speaks to healing and defending the body through balancing physical and emotional well-being, do you hear the similarities?

What are your thoughts on reiki and its martial arts roots? Let me know in the comments!

Jin Shin Jyutsu: The Japanese Art of Releasing Tension

Harmony and balance are the hallmarks of health and wellness of our biological systems. The ancient Japanese understood this and developed healing practices that attempted to bring order when disharmony and imbalance, in the manifestations of stress, anxiety, and disease, affected people. One such ancient healing practice out of Japan is Jin Shin Jyutsu, an art designed to help release tension, stress, fatigue and a host of other mental and emotional ailments.

As with many other traditional Asian medical arts in ancient history, Jin Shin Jyutsu prescribes pathways of energy flowing through the body as the mediator of harmony and balance. When these pathways, primarily through the manipulation of the fingers and palm of the hands, are diminished or blocked, sickness or other illness arises. Through Jin Shin Jyutsu, practitioners promise health, wellness and vitality if you receive this type of massage, or practice this self-massage, regularly.

Let’s distill the history of, outlines the parts of the hands relating to, and how to practice Jin Shin Jyutsu for greater stress reduction and tension.

History of Jin Shin Jyutsu

According to the Japanese imperial castle’s records, known as the Kojiki (or in English, “Records of Ancient Matters”), created at the request of Empress Genmei. Along with moving the seat of government to Nara during her reign (and for the succeeding seven reigns of Japanese monarchs), Genmei would be remembered not only as one of four empresses of Japan, but the reason for the Kojiki being created. (She also abdicated to her daughter in 715 CE, the only time an empress would succeed another empress in Japan, in the era known as Reiki.)

In the Kojiki, Jin Shin Jyutsu was described in writing for the first time from the ancient healing practices collected and passed down verbally over the preceding 2,000 years. Subsequently, it would take another 1,200 years for Jin Shin Jyutsu, long forgotten by the world at-large in Japan, to rise back to common use. Jiro Murai, who became terminally ill according to medical doctors at the time, studied the Kojiki in hopes of finding a way back to health. He came across what is now known as Jin Shin Jyutsu in the Kojiki and after his experience, he decided to bring this ancient healing practice to the rest of Japan.

In the 1940s, Master Murai passed his knowledge on to Mary Burmeister, a Japanese-American English teacher living in Japan, who then brought Jin Shin Jyutsu to the United States. A small group of practitioners continue to teach the original practices from Masters Murai and Burmeister at the Jin Shin Jyutsu Institute in New York City.

Hands and Releasing Tension Using Jin Shin Jyutsu

The way that Jin Shin Jyutsu sees the hand and body connection is by diagramming the parts of the hand and where in the body and the accompanying tensions live. By working around the fingers, each digit represents a type of tension. The thumb covers worry (stomach and spleen), the forefinger represents fear (kidneys and bladder), anger resides in the middle finger (liver and gallbladder), the ring finger holds sadness (lungs and colon), and the pinky finger is where nervousness lays (heart and small intestines). The palm holds a special position in the hand as the place that balances out these negative emotions, being the happiness area (belly button).

The exercise of Jin Shin Jyutsu combines breathing and holding individual fingers on either hand in succession. So, to start, wrap your left hand (overhanded) around your right thumb. Then, you take three deep breaths while holding that right thumb.

Next, you wrap your left thumb with your right hand and repeat the three inhalations and exhalations. Now, your right index finger is next. You will continue alternating fingers with the breathing until you’ve done so with all your fingers.

Finally, you will press your left thumb into your right palm while using the left fingers to press against the back of your right hand. Again, breathe in and out deeply three times. Switch hands and repeat the same palm press.

By the time you’ve completed this Jin Shin Jyutsu routine, you should feel the relaxed and refreshed nature that is promised by this ancient Japanese healing practice.

Let us know how you feel after performing Jin Shin Jyutsu in the comments!

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