I’ve always been interested in different religions and philosophies. Growing up with a Jewish mother and an Italian father who educated me on their belief systems without pressuring me to choose, I found principles that spoke to me from both. I loved the ceremony of listening to my grandparents sing beautiful prayers as they lit the candles on the menorah and the perfect latkes my Bubby made. I also enjoyed going to church on Easter with my family and hunting for Easter eggs with my cousins. Being born in the 70’s to hippie parents, I was also exposed to the principles of meditation. Autobiography of a Yogi was my Father’s all-time favorite read. It’s not surprising I was taken with the power of thought, and feeling my emotions. For periods of my life, we lived off the land with no electricity, in Humbolt County. My father built our home himself and we grew our own food while raising chickens, goats, sheep and a donkey. These periods of living in nature and witnessing the natural cycles were an important part of my life.

After being in practice for nine years and treating thousands of people, I have come to see firsthand how our bodies and minds are interconnected and how our state of mind, stress levels, and beliefs affect our health. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, our organs are connected to certain emotions so unexpressed emotions or thought patterns can create an imbalance in our physical bodies. Over-thinking or worrying can deplete our spleen energy creating fatigue, bloating, and brain fog. Unexpressed anger or high stress relates to the liver and can cause depression, frequent sighing, PMS, irritability, and headaches. Grief and sadness affect the lungs and cause asthma, cough or fatigue when we don’t let ourselves feel the grief and process our emotion.

With this information, I try to educate my patients on how expressing emotions in a healthy way can support having a healthy and well-functioning physical body and mind. Breaking the cycles of unhealthy thought patterns is important for vibrant health. If we are constantly thinking we are unhealthy or imbalanced, this promotes an imbalanced body. Many times, when someone has a chronic disease or lives with pain, it's easy to get into negative thought patterns. In these situations, guided imagery can be useful. The Medical Illness Counseling Center in Maryland used guided imagery with chemotherapy treatment. The results, published by Will Stapp in Medical Self-Care in 1988, indicated that guided imagery stimulated white blood cells to multiply to fight cancer cells. Using affirmations and imagery can help support a healthy body mind and spirit. Try this: remind yourself daily you are vibrantly healthy, you are perfect, you only attract love and loving relationships and expect the best and see what happens. When you are saying these affirmations, aim to really feel the emotion behind them.

In body symbology, certain parts of our body can be related to certain patterns as well.  For example, low back pain is related to feeling a lack of support in one’s life or fear. I can’t tell you how many times I have treated someone for low back pain and gently suggested breathing into this area and taking stock of any lack of support in their life, then letting it go. Sometimes just having that “a-ha!” moment and creating awareness can change something in a moment.