The other day I listened to @seminaradave on @ricksteveseurope discussing traditional medicine and stories from Dave’s book “Breakfast with Polygamists”. I was excited about his experience and his shares from the worlds of indigenous and native tribes and people. He talked about how the Navajo medicine men on the reservation charge a fee, as they should. Rick asked if it  was “hocus pocus” and though this particular experience did not feel like it was, others did. Of course they’re both entitled to their opinions. I also feel like their discussion demands more respect and sensitivity to cultures around the world that do not follow conventional allopathic Euro-Western ideals.

Healthcare in the US and western world is predominately based on a subordinate paradigm, because we’ve let it. I’ve been in healthcare for 20 years professionally and personally. I’ve been the authority and have told people how to live their lives, what meds, surgeries, treatments to take. I’ve told people that I know best what is best for them. I’ve also been ‘sick’ and treated with drugs and surgeries since 13, my first endoscopy at age 15, 6 colonoscopies by age 29 to finally have ‘experts’ say they had misdiagnosed UC and the years of immune-suppressing meds were now my problem to unravel. Fifteen years of Alzheimer’s with my pops and the cancers with my sister and dad treated by a man who neglected true healing because he couldn’t think or deliver outside of the allopathic, patriarchal box, as he called nutrition and natural remedies ‘hocus pocus’.

Hearing “I don’t know what else there is for me to do other than chemo” from so many. A sentiment that breaks my heart over and over again because the entire system failed them and so many as healthcare believed it knows what is best for them within a very narrow- minded paradigm. 

I’ve been connecting with medicine women in the US and Mexico throughout 2020. They’ve seen, treated, healed and saved countless lives with their traditional, ancestral, native approaches and treatments. They continue to treat in groups, at temazcals and rituals and close proximity sharing air, sweat and breath. They’ve gone beyond the C-19 and into treating the greater unintended consequences and ailments like depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and autoimmune disease (when you go against your truth, AI disease emerges).

I’m exhausted by the mainstream narrative and autopilot reactions to anything outside of what is being shoved down our throats at every turn. It’s insulting, its disrespectful, its divisive and just plain ignorant. I invite you to be mindful and aware of what comes out of your mouth and make sure it is true to you, not just lip service from the same story that we’re told. Do you know that 80% of our thoughts are recycled and the exact same as the days before?

Busting out of the colonialist, patriarchal, racist, sexist, toxic capitalist paradigm of healthcare (and any institution) requires awareness and conscious discernment. I’m here, lots of resources are here, to bring light, to inform and to be the change we all wish to see in healthcare and the world.