In honor of May being National Mental Health Month it seems a good idea to present some ayurvedic insights and healing options for mental health disorders.

Mental health is one of the areas in nursing and medicine that has always brought anguish to my heart.  What I witnessed in my psychiatric rotation in nursing school was that many are often traveling a very fine line in our society, and the western medical offerings seem to only hold symptoms at bay with pharmaceutical drugs that carry numerous unwanted and undesirable side effects.

What seems to be most the three most common and prevalent imbalances I see today in my private practice are bi-polar disorder, depression, and anxiety.

When approached from an ayurvedic perspective, I have hopes of seeing relief of symptoms for the millions of people who suffer with these disorders.    It is truly an imbalance that creates the symptoms of these mental health illnesses.   A restoration and balancing of the doshas and the overall energy field and centers can bring tremendous success towards healing.

Unfortunately, western medicine doesn’t address these imbalances with prescription drugs.

In Ayurveda, bi-polar disorder is a “battle” between the vata and kapha doshas.

It usually starts out as a vata imbalance, that is to say that, vata rises out of it’s home (the colon, another reason to make seasonal detox and cleansing part of your preventative self care), and usually a tremendous amount of energy rises up into the head. Vata is a combination of air and wind element so it is quite easily spread in the body, especially during Fall and Winter.

Our bodies are incredibly intelligent.   They preceive this imbalance and tries to correct it with the opposite qualities, Kapha, the qualities of heaviness, water, and earth….and the downward trend of the bi-polar disorder then occurs, depression.

From an energetic perspective, we see the energy rising up and out of the first and second chakras during the initial stages, and eventually the sixth and seventh chakras become over active during manic period.    Addressing root chakra issues and bring the energy back down and grounded will help to restore balance.

Opening and connecting the chakras on a regular basis, with energy healing treatment sessions, in addition to having the client do grounding exercises and breathing techniques on a regular basis will help to restore balance to vata dosha, as will following a vata pacifying diet.

When the vata dosha is restored to balance, Kapha will not need to lay such a heavy influence on the body and the mood swings will lessen.

I don’t claim to be a specialist in mental health nursing, and I never recommend that clients stop taking any medications that their doctor has prescribed to them.  But I do recommend that their doctor contact me so that he can be educated in the Ayurvedic perspective and the herbal remedies that I recommend to clients.

There are several ayurvedic herbs that help to pacify vata and restore balance to the body mind. These are quite different from western prescription drugs which work against the body healing itself. In western medicine once you start taking drugs like Lithium, Xanax, and Prozac, your body forgets how to make it’s own “feel good” mood stabilizers for  itself and the original cause is never addressed…why did the body stop making them? Or, what events occurred to make the body and mind unable to maintain appropriate levels for daily functioning and well-being ?

Some of the ayurvedic herbs I recommend for balancing mental health imbalances are listed below.

To restore balance to vata means bringing  energy back down: ashwhaganda, brahmi. shank pushpi, ginger, tranquil mind, mental clarity, and,triphala are all good for this

To relieve the heaviness of  kapha imbalance, emotions, and depression I recommend pippali, ginger, triphala

By treating these mental health issues and imbalances from an ayurvedic perspective, the body has a chance to actually heal itself. I will say this…..western medicine was actually on to something when they treated patients with electric shock therapy.  Not that I believe that this is a humane and effective treatment the way it was administered, but they were correct in their premise that these disorders originated in an energy imbalance.

Now a days we have so many alternatives for non-invasive energy healing and balancing, mental health patients would benefit greatly from regular treatment sessions over the long term. These imbalances don’t come on over night, treatment takes some time, diligence, and patience.

Note: As always you should check with your healthcare professional before changing or adding any medications or supplements to your daily self care routine.

This has been a saying that I adotped many years ago.  I can’t honestly remember when or where I first heard it.  When a colleague sent me this article by one of the leading experts in the field of clinical aromatherapy  I felt it an important reminder for any one wishing to heal illness with a bodymind approach.

Release the Emotion and the Disease Disappears
~~ by David Stewart

There are many books that connect physical diseases, illnesses, and conditions with unresolved emotions buried in our body and psyche. These books include “Feelings Buried Alive Never Die,” by Karol Truman, “A More Excellent Way,” by Henry Wright, “Heal Your Body,” by Louise Hay, and “Releasing Emotional Patterns with Essential Oils,” by Carolyn Mein. There is also a DVD entitled, “Emotional Releasing With Oils,” by David Stewart.

The idea is this. When we face a stressful emotional issue that we are unable to handle, our mind saves the memory for us to access at a later time when we will be more mature and better able to deal with it. Experiences that result in buried feelings tend to happen more often in our childhoods when we are less able to cope. They may be forgotten, consciously, but they are not lost. Instead they lodge as cellular memories, lurking in our bodies, only to come back to us as teenagers or adults resurrected, but disguised, as physical maladies. How does this happen?

Your Body as a Digital Library

Each cell of our body has 6 gigabytes of memory and we have an estimated 100 trillion cells. This provides each and every one of us an almost unlimited capability to store memories of forgotten traumas in our cells. When we face a situation we can’t handle, we don’t get to avoid it. We can postpone it, but we can’t avoid it. Stressful situations are opportunities to learn spiritual lessons we need to learn. So if we don’t handle the situation and resolve the feelings now, in present time, our minds do not forget and erase. They just postpone us having to deal with the crisis until we are more ready at some future time.

At the instant of the unbearable experience, your emotional (limbic) brain acts as a librarian with your body as the library. Your mind will choose a place to store that memory for future reference. If, say, the chosen place in your bodily library is your pancreas, then that tramatic memory will lodge there and you won’t even know such a memory is there, perhaps, for years. Eventually you develop hypoglycemia or a pain in your left side, which is your Pancreas’ way of tapping you on the shoulder to say, “There is an issue here you need to deal with.” If we don’t understand that the pancreas is attempting to communicate a message to us and we keep misunderstanding and postponing the taking of appropriate action, the hypoglycemia develops into diabetes or the pain just gets more severe. If we still don’t understand the message and respond, the condition can get worse and worse until we die.

Diseases as Coded Messages

Most bodily diseases are coded messages from our subconscious minds to remind us that unresolved issues, stored in our tissues, are seeking to be resolved. They are saying, “Now is the time. Fix it now.” You don’t need to wonder if you are ready and able to deal with the buried issues at this time or not. Your body’s wisdom knows when you are ready and chooses the right time for you. So any time you suffer from any physical condition, chronic or acute, ask yourself what happened in the past, perhaps even the distant past, that is the root cause this condition and then attempt to decode the message and take action to resolve it.

It takes a lot of honest introspection, prayer, and inner spiritual effort to succeed, but it is what we have to do. An emotional issue resolved is a spiritual lesson learned. When the emotional root of a physical condition has been resolved, the physical condition will disappear because it was only a message, a message no longer needed. It may not disappear overnight, it may take time, but it will disappear and, sometimes, literally overnight.

The rewards for engaging in dialy efforts to clear our emotional baggage are many. Our physical disabilities can disappear. Our happiness level increases and a sense of peace comes over us. We feel closer to God and a greater sense of security. We become more stable, more focused, and a more pleasant person to be around. Working on ourselves to throw out our emotional hitchhikders is one of the most rewarding things we can do for ourselves and for everyone around us.

A Case in Point

I recently was witness to a near-instant healing from an emotional release that dramatically demonstrated that “When the underlying emotion is cleared, the overlying malady disappears.”

I was doing a free public program on emotional releasing. 40-50 people had come. Before the meeting began I noticed a lady seated beyond the back row with her legs proped on a chair. I went back to tell her that she wouldn’t be able to see or hear as well back there and there were plenty of seats closer to the front. She replied that her legs and feet were severaly swollen and she had to keep them up on a chair in order to sit through the program without too much discomfort. She said that she did not know anything about essential oils and had come out of curiosity.

I returned to the front of the room and began the program. About an hour into the program I was talking about how certain physical conditions correspond to certain emotions. I asked the audience to name me some physical problems and I would look the roots in one of the books I had on hand. The lady in the back raised her hand and asked me to look up “edema or swelling in the lower limbs.” I did, and the answer was this is symbolic of “hanging onto things you need to let go of.” She nodded in agreement with that finding.

Later, during the last 45 minutes of the program, I called for a volunteer to be the receiver of a facilitated emotional release to be done on a massage table a the front of the room. Since many raised their hands as willing volunteers, we took names and drew one from a hat. The person with edema in the back of the room was the one drawn.

We went through the emotional releasing protocol, using a number of oils, as a teaching demonstration for the audience. Oils were applied to her feet, neck, and head while she was given oils to apply to her abdomen and heart at certain times during the demonstration. After the preparatory stage, releasing stage, and concluding grounding stage, all of which took only about 30 minutes, she was ready to sit up. She commented that she had let go of a lot of “stuff.” But that was all she said. She was given a bottle of water to drink and the program was concluded. That was in the afternoon.

“My Edema is No More!”

That evening I was giving a public program on “Healing Oils of the Bible” at the same community hall. An even larger group showed up for that when in walked the lady who had had the swollen legs and feet.

“Dr. Stewart,” she said, “Look at my shoes. They are brand new but I have not been able to wear them for months because of the swelling. But look! My edema is no more!” she exclaimed. “Today, within an hour after the program, my edema completely and totally disappeared and I can wear my new shoes again.”

It was quite visible that her extremities were no longer swollen. She was very happy and her face appeared to be years younger. That afternoon she had not been planning to return that evening for the Scriptural Oils program, but she did. And she was able to sit comfortably in a chair for a program lasting two-and-a-half hours without needing to prop her legs up, as had been necessary just a few hours earlier.

This is a good illustration of the dictum: “When emotions are resolved, the corresponding body condition disappears, because it was only a message which is now understood, acted upon, and no longer necessary.”

So many times people assume that using “holistic” medicine means they  have to spend a lot of money on all sorts of supplements and organic foods, and in these “lean” times they see it as an added expense with little long term benefits.  Not True.  Using an truly INtegrative approach to health can save you money.

Let me give a recent real life example on how holistic medicine saved about $900.

I broke a tooth.  There was no pain, and it was not sensitive to hot or cold.  I did not go running to the dentist.  For a few weeks I brushed and flossed diligently and put a dab of lavender essential oil on it 3 times a day.

Forward two weeks, listening to my intuition it was time to get the tooth fixed. the dentist took an x ray, patched the tooth and sent me on my way.  Three days later I had a toothache and abscess.  The dentist was convinced the tooth was “dying”, and assumed it was time for a root canal.  Yet, when he took another x ray he said he could not do a root canal based on the results.  He sent me home on an antibiotic.

I was happy to take the antibiotic if it meant no root canal, I know plenty of things to do and take to counter the damage the antibiotic would do to my intestinal flora and immune system.  I loaded up on omega oils, beneficial bacteria, and smoothies with lots of enzyme rich fruits, and vitamin C. 

After two weeks, all fixed, all better, all healed…..I’m a happy camper.  Still financially way ahead of the game versus a root canal, and saved several hours of my time not sitting in the dentist chair….not to mention pain.

I continued using Lavender essential oil but also added Thieves Oil,  Thieves mouthwash, and Thieves toothpaste.  (for more info on Thieves www.MarthaGesegnet.com )

Fast forward three weeks, I woke up with an abscess in the same area, now it’s painful.  Off I go to the dentist.  Now he is REALLY pushing for a root canal.  He states that this is an indicator, the repeated abscesses.  He takes yet another x ray, but doesn’t charge me for it.

He is puzzled, he doesn’t see what he expects to see. This is when it pays to really tune in to your intuition.   My experience as a nurse and holistic practitioner, for 20 years, has shown me that when modern medicine can’t find a reason for your symptoms, this is the best time to emply principles and techniques from energy medicine.  Your body-mind has not “cemented” the physical symptoms into your energy field yet!

This is when you have the best chance of changing the “vibration” of the illness, and preventing it from becoming permanent.  ( that’s also why energy medicine is for preventing illness, it can break up congested areas before it turns into a serious illness).

I resisted my dentist’s urgings for a root canal.  We scheduled an in depth cleaning on that side of my mouth for two days later.  I continued with the essential oils and increased their use to every 2 hours.  I also got out my Louise Hay book, “Heal Your Body”.  I looked up abscess, gum disease, and teeth.  The metaphysicalal suggestions were very close to what I was currently experinceing on an EMOTIONAL level in my life.

I began repeating the corresponding affirmations every hour and continued with the essential oils.  I returned to the dentist for the cleaning.  He again urged that despite the “inconclusive” x ray, the tooth was mostly likely dying and I needed a root canal.

Being aware of your own health and body is very important.  I was very aware that this second abscess was not located around the original broken tooth, but rather the one next to it.  This would again lead me to believe that from an energetic perspective, the infection/ abscess was mobile, not locked in to the same tooth.  When I questioned the dentist he had no real explanation.  I inquired, “then are both teeth dying?  Which tooth needs a root canal? “ 

Trust yourself. Listen to your intuition. If you don’t know what that sounds like, learn. Find a holisitc practitioner that can help to reconnect you to your own inner healer.  Find a team of practitioners that can reconnect you to the language of your higher self and your body.

Until the dentist could show me definitive proof, or I was in constant excruciating misery, I was not willing to let him do a root canal.  Let’s remember , that is how he supports his family and life style.  He was very familiar with Thieves products, some of his hygenists use them at home.  He said he could not consciously recommend them to his patients because there are no proven clinical trials.

It is prudent to remind everyone reading, Aspirin was never approved by the FDA in clinical trials, no one really knows how it works, yet it is taken by millions every day.

Fast forward 3 months my tooth is fine, no more problems.  By combining good dental cleaning,  xrays, antibiotic therapy, essential oil therapy, energy medicine, and mind/spirit affirmations I was able to heal two dental abscesses and avoid a root canal.

A savings of about $900.  I already had all those oils on hand, but they cost about $75.  The antibiotic, x rays, cleaning, and office visits were about $215.  Had I let him do the root canal, $1200.  Cost of trusting yourself and working with your own inner healer? PRICELESS.

Sometimes I get a little frustrated. I have, “been around” as they say, when it comes to our western “mainstream” medical system.   As a registerd nurse for the last 19 years, I’ve worked in  just about EVERY facet of our healthcare system, (both as a provider and consumer).  It is because of what I have “seen” that I chose to be a provider of natural health services,  a holistic practitioner and educator.

At times I can tend to have a rather harsh take on the medical community, and it can almost be seen as a negative, “alarmist” point of view.  My intention is to let you know that YOU are your own best “specialist”. I have personally healed from many chronic and acute health issues over the last 18 years…….because I was educated and listened to my self and my body, (and also because I had the insider’s scoop).

You can do the same…..you should do the same. No one knows your body, mind, and spirit better than you. Be willing to take responsibility for your self and your own needs.   Be willing to educate yourself about all the options available to you…the western mainstream choices, and the complementary/alternative ones.

Before I knew better, I had 3 surgeries on my low back…..an injury resulting from lifting a patient.  But years later I had the right tools and information so that I could avoid the surgery that 3 doctors said I needed for the herniated discs in my neck.

Let’s get real…they are surgeons, that’s how they make a living, what else would they say?   It’s also what they’ve  studied and what they are fluent in……it is their language.   But are they able to learn another language?  Some are.   We are beginning to see an emergence of doctors that are willing to learn new ideas about medicine and healing.  I believe it is because enough patients have defied the previous “laws” of science and medicine……healed through  universal laws that apply to body, mind, and spirit……and the results are large enough that they can’t be ignored any longer.

At one point I had a fierce conversation with a worker’s compensation attorney until he represented MY interests and requested acupuncture visits from the worker’s compensation board.  Acupuncture treatment was not part of their language for health and wellness.  After 10 visits, (and some other care that I bartered for), I completely recoverd without surgery.   It was a much better deal for their pocket books. 

Listen to your inner self, your inner healer. More people die from hospital acquired infections than the medical condition they originally went in for!

In all cases, whether holistic medicine or allopathic medicine, the practitoner is seeking to facilitate a healing; to alter the current state of dis-ease in the body.  It is up to you how that occurs.   I urge you to take pause from the “norm” and consider what all your options might be, working most closely with the innate healing wisdom of nature and your body, rather than relinquishing control of the circumstances and outcome to  a mechanical system.

Learn to shift your focus and ask questions that are in your best interest.   Become willing to entertain the notion that every imbalance in the body can present the opportunity for growth and change.  Rather than lamenting, “Why is this happeneing to me ? ” ponder the thought, “What can I learn about my body and my self from this experience ? “  In that surrender is the potential for great healing, sometimes almost spontaneous.

This is where your inner healer comes to life, when you ask a different question and listen patiently for a reply from within, you have accessed your inner healer.