11/1/13—Going Natural

Today's Draw: Tree, Flower, Key from Tierney's Charms. Are you more inclined to use natural remedies or pharmaceutical ones? How do you feel about traditional vs. modern medicine? And what natural practices do you swear by?

Here's something different. I'm going to interpret this threesome as reading "natural health is the key". So let's talk about supplements and other stuff!

First off, despite all my woo-woo beliefs, I'm a supporter of modern medicine and all the miracles it can do. If I were ever seriously ill, I would take the pills they give me and do the procedures they tell me to. And I would supplement with energy medicine, meditation and other natural healing techniques.  

With all the infinite types of plants and animals and minerals out there, I'm pretty sure that the universe provides a treatment for everything. Ancient man discovered many of these things, but I think there are still a lot out there to discover. I'd rather take something natural over something manmade, but more than that, I'd rather take the route most likely to keep me alive. 

Six weeks ago, Kizzie's knee went out (my dog). I know about this injury because the other knee went out last year. Last year I paid for an expensive surgery and it took months to heal. This year the vet suggested I could let him heal on his own and she gave me a drug called Alenza that is a mixture of herbals and vitamins that reduce inflammation and support overall tissue health. She told me to use that and then treat him as if he's recovering from surgery. Within a few days on the Alenza, the results were remarkable. One day he can't put weight on the leg and a few days later (keeping him rested) there's barely a limp. 

Because I had tried to heal his leg on its own last year, I was still skeptical, though. Last year he seemed to heal, but it went out again at the slightest thing. So I figured the test of this would be if I could take him on vacation and return home with his knee in tact. See, we've been going to the same vacation spot for years. Every year Kizzie has to recover from all the activity of playing with other dogs and roaming about. But this year, within a month of being lame, he was very strong on vacation. There was very little difference in that knee between the time we left for vacation and the time returned—nothing to recover from. It takes months for a dog to fully recover from this injury on its own, but he is doing really well. 

Over the years I've tried all sorts of herbal remedies to satisfactory results. Some have worked and some haven't. The same has been true for pharmaceuticals. But then there are some things I just won't go near. On the pharmaceutical end, I've never taken a birth control pill and, now, never will. Something has always told me they would be bad for me. On the natural end, I won't touch anything with soy. I also would not go natural for mood support, because I tried in the past and ended up worse off. 

So I believe there's a mixed bag on either side of the fence. I think it's really important to listen to the wisdom of your body and higher self. If it troubles you to take something, find another way if you can. That's your body trying to tell you something. But more than that, if you "hate it" every time you take a certain pill, you'll be putting that negative energy into your body. 

Beyond all of this, there are natural practices, like meditation, yoga or energy medicine that I use on a regular basis for mental and physical health. To be clear, though, I'm no saint. I don't always eat the healthiest stuff. I do take cholesterol medication. I don't exercise as I should. But I guess I'm just saying is that I won't say "no" to something just because ancient man used it and didn't live a long life. That's one of those excuses I hear and there are a lot of reasons ancient man died sooner than we did. It's not all because he didn't have Tylenol PM. 

I've been open to all of this stuff for decades, but fairly recently the medical community has really embraced things like neti and reiki and meditation, not to mention herbals and neutraceuticals. Neither approach has all the answers and I believe the two should go hand in hand in our health routines. The most important thing, I think, is to tune into what your body and intuition are telling you, because they know what they want you to eat, drink, take and do. 

What's your position on all of this? And what are some of your natural practices?