Beyond Western Psychology & How our Mind Creates "Pathology."
Knowledge is power, so here is the empowerment you need to go beyond a diagnosis… May these words soothe your soul & remind you that you are not your symptoms and your symptoms are not your enemy.
(*Note; this is not mental health therapy or treatment. I do not claim to heal you or treat illness. It is for educational purposes.*)
The first shift we take when looking at your mental health holistically is to understand that your “symptoms” are not something going wrong inside your body - but actually; a brilliance of the body telling you there is something amiss in your lifestyle or environment.
Your “symptoms” are beautiful data markers. They are the way that your body is translating information to you in a language that you may not fully grasp yet.
So what would happen if we could orient towards our symptoms with first; appreciation & second; curiosity?
Like this: “Ahhh. Hello there again, old friend. Thanks for coming by today. What is it that you would like me to know?”
And now sit back in silence (with appreciation and curiosity) & listen to the wisdom that arises. What answers come to you?
This is the path of YOUR inner-illumination. You get to tap in & tune in to what your body is communicating to you.
Do not worry about what the voice “should” sound like. Instead, be curious & appreciative. Do not judge it or wish the answer was different. If you don’t like the answers that arose, ask more questions (with curiosity) such as; “Aww. Why is this coming up right now?” or “Are you sure?” with a giggle or “Can you tell me more, I don’t understand.”
This too, takes a simple & easy level of self-compassion. (And you may have just thought that you struggle to have compassion for yourself; however I’m telling you it’s easy & simple to have self-compassion. And if you could just accept it as true - yes right now, then it’ll be easy & simple.) Treat yourself as you would a friend. Respond to yourself as if you were your child you love or your own inner child.
Oh, the tricks of the mind… This is a side note but a worthy one (just like you; worthy). So there’s this Zen Buddhist joke if you will, that if you make something seem very complex then people will believe you (the mentor, monk or whatever) to be a very intelligent being who is truly teaching them something. And on the flip side of this… if a Buddhist monk gives you the simple solutions to self-mastery & happiness then it tends to be that people begin to doubt their teachers’ intelligence.
Why? Because we have convinced ourselves (or our ego has) of such a wide variety of reasons why things won’t work for us, why we are more complex than others or other similar seemingly logical reasons why life is hard or why a “simple” answer wouldn’t work for us.
Many of us have built up an identity around our suffering. We believe it is something that we are doomed with. It becomes our badge of honor in a way. We have merged with it so fully & for so long, that we are trauma bonded to our own trauma. 😅
At least I was! I was having a co-dependent relationship with the different fractured parts of myself… Wishing I was different but also, somehow fighting every which way to stay the same. We do that. We are human. It’s a human thing to do… That’s why we take this slow.
AND PRACTICE SELF-COMPASSION.
Take a moment to close your eyes, put your arms around yourself - and whisper in your mind or aloud; “Thank you body, thank you for taking care of me. Thank you for always being here. I love you. I know you work really hard for me. Thank you.”
The thing is… trauma sounds rational. The voice of trauma sounds like it’s being reasonable, calculating and to be made of good sense. But it's not always… that is just the trauma response of your brain being hyper-focused on avoiding danger in the future when triggered by similarities to a past event. However, (I’m sure you know this) but we cannot think of & therefore, keep ourselves “safe” from any and all scenarios that could, potentially, maybe some day bring us pain…
It was actually in one of these moments that I personally had a breakthrough. It was when I was able to ACCEPT that my fears, anxiety, racing thoughts, serious fight/flight/freeze response & convincingly articulate arguments for whatever I was defending that I believed was “keeping me safe” was actually the thoughts that were creating most of my suffering…
We are complex.
This may be a good time to just pause in your reading and grab a journal. Reflect on how this is landing within your mind & within your heart (separately).
🌹
Another way to say the monk or teacher example that I shared above is seen in a philosophy from Ayurvedic wisdom (ancient knowledge of life from India). In Ayurveda there is a saying; “the more complex the dis-ease/ailment/illness - the more simple the remedy.”
Let it be simple.
I know I’ve been saying “we are complex” to validate where you are on your journey. I say this to normalize how the journey of healing is often a confusing & messy one. It’s okay for that to be true.
AND… (let’s honor the reality of duality; that two things can both be true at the same time.)
Invite simplicity in. We can allow ourselves to surrender to teachings that have been around for thousands of years and get out of our own way. We can begin to accept that our mind plays tricks (thanks primitive brain) and begin to see through the illusions.
You are smart! I know this because you’re still reading this and you have a desire to improve your life, to understand yourself and the world on a deeper level. That takes intelligence.
Just don’t let your intelligence make you skeptical of easy, joy, love and abundance.
Alas… let us get back to the original goal of this publication which is to define holistic mental health.
Now you know that what we identify as thoughts, feelings or sensations in the body are data points telling us about something else we need to address. So we begin to decipher where these messengers are coming from.
In my viewpoint (as a trained mental health therapist and “alternative,” holistic wild woman), we don’t really ever accept what our mind is saying as true. If we have a thought or feeling we do not assume it is fact or correct. Using our newfound curiosity we begin to consider reasons why these thoughts, feelings or sensations are present.
Let me clarify this for you first:
Our body receives energetic or material stimuli from our internal or external environment. This is often a sensation in the body. This is happening on a cellular level, all of the time. This happens with things we can see, such as someone bumping into us and the sensation of their skin on ours and their body weight putting pressure on ours.
Or it can happen in the unseen realms such as someone having an emotional response to you. You then pick up on it in a “psychic” but actually physics proven kinda way because that person's experience is translated through the atoms in the air towards you. Your body takes in the information. It happens with hormones as well, such as women ovulating and becomes very tantalizing and attractive to men.
This is “clairvoyance" or “clairsentience”. A sensing that we often don’t acknowledge as real but is very, very real. I’d argue it’s more real than anything else… Anyways, that’s a tangent! (Join my SubStack if you’re new so we can go down that rabbit hole another time.)
These sensations on a cellular level then travel to the brain which translates them, which we label thoughts. We then interpret these thoughts or data with who we think we are, what we’ve learned in our life, our beliefs, our “knowledge” & much more; which then creates how we feel.
And the study of psychology or philosophy is the estimation, a summary & an attempt to conceptualize patterns of what we think we feel.
You can see how our interpretations can be quite flawed.
Also… Western Psychology has only been around for approximately… 120 years. And that is timed from the very, very beginning with who people consider as the “father of psychology;”Sigmund Freud. The first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) wasn’t published until 1952. Further, it was (& may still be) only authored by white men.
May we always remember to consider the potent influence, and the personal and political bias of those who write history & how they shape the understanding of society.
So we begin asking MORE questions for why we are receiving this data. We can consider any or all of the following areas (& I’m sure there are many I am not noting here.)
Physical - Am I hungry, angry, lonely or tired? (This is the H.A.L.T acronym). It alludes to a myriad of possibilities that we do not feel well because of the way our physical vessel feels. We cannot live an unbalanced lifestyle, consuming unhealthy foods/beverages, avoiding sleep, never exercising or going outside, etc without seeing that this is taking a toll on your mental health. Your body is simply communicating to you that it is not allowed to operate the way it’s been designed to do because we’re not taking care of it.
This is one of the most obvious ways that we can explain mental health symptoms. But it’s also one of the largest ways that we in America tend to ignore! We don’t want to have to live a healthy, active lifestyle. And because of our modern lives (and modern medicine) - we can get away with it. It takes honesty & self-love to admit that you’re not treating yourself well. And then we can ask; “Why not? What’s getting in the way?”
There is SO much out there right now about stored trauma in the body. (Let me know in the comments if you’d like to hear my thoughts on this, it’ll need to be it’s own article!) But it’s so true. My Ayurveda teacher (Katie Silcox from The Shakti School) taught me this one; we are often emotionally constipated! We are often reacting in the moment to what has a long, emotional charge for us. This comes from a history of experiences that we haven’t properly processed or been able to have witnessed by a compassionate individual. 💕
Another of my first teachers (from 10 yrs ago) was Eckhart Tolle and he speaks of this phenomena as the “pain body.”
Here is a great journaling activity; draw a cup & fill it in with words, feelings, experiences or pictures of what you think is still in your cup of you in this life. And when life gets bumpy, what spills out? How can you allow some of that to pour out in a meaningful, productive and non-harmful way?
We can ask ourselves what stories we tell ourselves that keep us attached to these experiences or emotions. (This too is another whole article to write. I’ll be sure it’s my next because it’s reallllllly important!)
Other areas to consider when looking at holistic wellness:
Environmental toxins - fragrances affect our hormones, mold exposure or allergies causes autoimmune responses in the body, a lack of proper nutrition causes anxiety/depression and parasites or leaky gut syndrome cause major neurological issues.
Who we live with/socialize with matters. Everything we do is in relationship. Every feeling and action towards ourselves shows us how we relate to ourselves. Do you honor, respect and love yourself? And again, our trauma was done to us by other human beings (most often). It’s important that we surround ourselves with caring, loving & healthy individuals. This helps us avoid re-traumatization but also, we heal in community.
In the DSM-5 (the manual therapists/doctors will use to diagnose a mental health disorder) the criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is not met until 6 months has passed and the symptoms from the traumatic experience are still present. This means that if we can gather our own personal resources of skill & self-love AND gather the support of loved ones around us that honor and witness the experience we had while supporting us through the difficult experience - then the symptoms mostly resolve and the experience won’t be coded as a trauma in the body because it was properly responded it. (Caution, please note this is a super simplified comment and please do not compare yourself to it in a black/white manner. There are many nuances to consider. And healing while living in our fast paced, demanding and expensive world can be really hard to do.)
This is what most of the somatic work individuals are doing now helps with; to complete the trauma loop. So does EMDR, regression work, family systems, visualization, etc. And so can….
Plant Medicine.
Taking a road-trip.
Reading a book or listening to stories that activates a primordial energy within you & expands your sense of self.
Exercising (ie: learning self-defense so you physically know you can handle yourself if needed, regularly releasing stress, increasing endorphins, experiencing the sensation of strength and resilience in your body, exercising force and exertion against a greater force, etc)
Working with the elementals; wind, water, fire & earth.
Working with or spending time with animals.
Spending mindful, intentional time with Mother Earth (research forest bathing).
Playing with the concept of time.
Meditation.
Daily rituals.
Daily habitual self-care.
Not over working, spending time in silence.
Prioritizing your creative outlets.
QiGong. This is what Traditional Chinese Medicine will suggest. For example; there are certain movements that allow the liver to let go of old grief & anger which would have/could have led to heart disease or cardiovascular issues (esp. for men) and fibromyalgia or autoimmune diseases (esp. for women).
Body work/Somatic Release.
Drumming. Playing an instrument.
Dancing.
Yoga.
Breath-work.
Having a spiritual life, deepening into a relationship with the Divine. Leaning into trust & the Unknown. Acknowledging, honoring and learning to FLOW with Life/Death/Life cycles. The in-and-out breath (both exist).
Exploring other philosophical or traditional methods of healing from other cultures. For example; in Ayurveda (and many other spiritual disciples) there’s a concept that says our blueprint is made from the energies of our parents at the time of our conception. Psst; Ayurvedic wisdom is 5000+ years old. ✨
Or … there is astrology, human design, tarot, runes, etc.
The reason all of these things work? Because we are, at our core - animals!
We are human BEINGS having an EXPERIENCE.
We cannot analyze our way out of trauma, it just doesn’t work like that… Our brain is too well designed to “keep us safe.” Our ego is also designed to protect our mind because if we knew it all, all at once - we would likely collapse.
Remembering who we are is often a coming home to the body.
And it doesn’t have to be you recognizing all the trauma in the body. No. That can be re-traumatizing, scary and requires help, support and skills.
It’s actually… you recognizing the LIGHT that you are.
It is allowing all of the human complexities to wash away for a moment or two so that you can feel GOOD.
It is allowing the LOVE IN.
It’s following your inner guide to know what is nourishing & expansive for you.
It is taking a deep, breath of fresh air and being GRATEFUL to be alive because you are not scared of all the mental constructs that you’ve built up about who you think are and what life might be…
Life is miraculous.
It is Divine.
You are Divine.
🌹
Big Love,
Maeve Lee
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