~Cosmic-Visions Blog~: What Does Holistic Mean? =By Therese J. Borchard

http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue/2008/01/what-does-holistic-mean.html

I loved this comment by Beyond Blue reader Leslie because she views "holistic health" as a system using any and all tools that can facilitate growth, recovery, and health of the body, mind, and spirit.

Compassionate people like Leslie also remind me that I shouldn't lump all "New-Agers" or even all Scientologists into one category, as I'm sometimes tempted to do. There are those, like Leslie, that are very committed to alternative therapies, but do not shun a person for taking medication. And then there are those, who I won't name, that are anti-medication.

New-Age, and New Thought (as my friend Jim is helping me to understand) doesn't come with one creed. There are as many philosophies found in those groups as there are in the Catholic faith, or the Christian faith. So, thank you, Leslie, for that lesson. And thank you for being a very compassionate new-ager (if I can use that term).

I work in the holistic health field, and there is an interesting dichotomy. Most of us (I'll say acupuncturists,herbalists, chiropractors, the like) will say to try some of these visualization and positive energy methods, they may help. Just as Therese has found, Medicine is not one one side, and postive thinking and energy and prayer is not on the other. We all have to find a combination that works, and bring it all together. Most of the "get off all meds" messages are coming from people who are not trained in any way to give advice on this issue (yes, I mean you, TC!).
I walk, pray, meditate, do Reiki on myself and others, read inspirational
writing such as this, and boy howdy, pop my Paxil every day! It is like my daily pharmy communion wafer! I recently ran out (accidentally), and that was a great test for me to see how much I need it. I need all that help. I wouldn't tell my diabetic grandma to visualize that her body has all the insulin she needs. My brain just doesn't produce the seratonin it needs.
I'm a new agey person, and would love to be able to say my powerful prayer life cured me of this disease. I've seen it work in other people who are much less spiritual than I am ;). I would never advise you to take my approach, because you need to walk your own path. Let us walk ours.

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Filed Under: alternative medicine, antidepressants, Beyond Blue, depression, depression blog, holistic health, medication, medicine, mind-body, Therese Borchard

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About Beliefnet: Beyond Blue

Therese J. Borchard is the best-selling editor (with Michael Leach) of I Like Being Catholic, I Like Being Married, and I Love Being a Mom. After her Prozac pooped out, she didn't like much of anything, so she compiled The Imperfect Mom: Candid Confessions of Mothers Living in the Real World, which was featured in Real Simple, Parenting, More, Working Mother, Psychology Today, Fit Pregnancy, the Chicago Tribune, and on Salon.com and Beliefnet.com. Her syndicated column on young-adult spirituality is distributed by Catholic News Service, and her work has appeared in Ladies^TM Home Journal, Parenting, American Baby, Working Mother, Publishers Weekly, the Washington Post and on Beliefnet.com. She lives with her husband, Eric, and their two "spirited" preschoolers in Annapolis, Maryland.