“All diseases are rooted in the spirit.”
--Chapter 8, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, Spiritual Pivot, 5th century BCE
This quote forms the foundation of Chinese medicine and how I think about disease and health. Our soul/ling has a curriculum in this life, and the living energy of the spirit/shen is charged with conveying that destiny/ming. In this way, illness can be seen as an opportunity to return to full wellness. The consciousness that contributes to disease is not the same consciousness that supports healing, says my teacher Jeffrey Yuen. Transformation requires a new sensibility, a new awareness, a new state of mind.
Our emotions, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes are essential components of this new state of mind. I support the evolution of your psyche by treating you as a whole person who is dynamically influenced over time by: a lifetime of experiences, your relationship to your self, individual anatomy and physiology, family lineage, society, history, place, environment and your sense of place in the world. This approach is relevant to our emotional state and to the fields of genetics, epigenetics, intergenerational trauma and inherited diseases.
I’ve suffered from migraines for almost 30 years. They are really severe, and usually last for three days. I barely function through them, but being a mom, you can’t really stop, so I push through it. When they are so bad that I’m barely holding on, I really appreciate to be able to come in to see Pamela. It really is pretty instant. I have that magical 20-minute nap, and I wake up and feel the pain leaving me.
