Whole Medicine Blog
The Things We (Still) Carry
Holidays have come and gone, and perhaps with them the experience of the mixed blessing of family. These are the most important connections for most of us, and if we are honest, often the most triggering of our stress response. How is it that these two things go...
Brave Together – safely connecting in an unsafe world
Our days are full of encounters that our nervous system 'reads' as perilous...even if our thinking minds do not see it that way. Replay your last trip into the supermarket for a moment. You put your mask on as you entered, and once inside you were surrounded by masked...
Befriending
Our chronically stressed nervous system is like a stray hungry dog who's been badly treated. He wants food, he wants affection, but he is fearful and can't trust a friendly outstretched hand. He might even bite it! The action of our nervous system activated into its...
Childhood Trauma Shapes Lifelong Physical and Mental Health
"I would argue," says Dr. Michael Sharp of Plum Spring Clinic, "that the studies on the health impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are the most important epidemiological studies ever done." The research he refers to—known as the ACEs studies—began with...
CLARITY and its Absence
The stress reaction, with its 'soup' of hormones, prepares the body for action. It activates quickly, bringing a burst of adrenaline for a fast response to stressor. The startle response happens in 100 milliseconds! If this quick surge doesn't resolve the stress,...
Cultivating Calm
New science has shown us that the activity of our autonomic nervous system, in any given moment, is the grounding for our lived experience in that moment. The Polyvagal Theory describes the constant scanning for danger and safety that is nervous system's critical role...
Diagnosing Mind-Body Breakdowns
Many individuals who come to me with ill health are caught between two places. The first is: my body is breaking down and no one seems to be able to tell me what the matter is. Symptoms are concrete, frequent, specific, and real. There is something specifically wrong...
Environmental Importance for Mental Health
How does the environment affect our health? Humans have a natural strong need for safety. We look for physical comfort in environments, such as the right temperature. Humans need the right amount of stimulus and familiarity in environments. Comfort, entertainment,...
Benefits of talking to people
Why is talking to people important? We are now in a world of technology and connectivity. All the information we need is practically at our fingertips. If we feel sick, we can search on our phones for answers based on our symptoms. Many treatment solutions can be...
Creating Safety for your Nervous System and Coronavirus Protection
The outbreak and aggressive spread of Coronavirus is stealing our attention these days -- alarming headlines, pictures of crowds in surgical masks, moment-to-moment update of statistics of reported cases, now in 53 countries and more by the time you read this....
The Toxicity of Microplastic
The ubiquitous, frivolous, and irresponsible abuse of plastics in our culture of throw-away consumerism has led to a significant environmental burden of growing concern. We have all probably heard about the huge floating continents of mostly plastic trash in that are...
The Tyranny of GO and Slowing the Flywheel
We hope the holiday season provided you downtime to experience some disengagement from the press and drive of life's demands. We call this slowing the flywheel -- that instrument within that spins and keeps the engine roaring and the wheels turning fast. This is...