Discover the Methods for True, Wholeistic, Healing
How are you doing? If you are not feeling 100 percent, you are not alone!
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 50 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with some sort of mental health problem or disorder during their lifetime; worldwide, 280 million people suffer from depression, while 264 million suffer with anxiety disorder. There's no question we are hurting.
Just this past summer, the United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country.
Have you ever had thoughts like...
I hate myself;
I am broken inside;
I am not living my best life;
I just do not know what is wrong with me;
I can't function well on many days;
Why can't I find my true love? Any love?
I have unexplainable chronic pain;
I don't know why I am so hard to love;
I am tired of battling depression, anxiety;
I engage in risky behavior to prove I'm alive;
I wear too many masks to hide my true self;
I am hurting and just not sure how much more I can take.
I think many of us have been there... and if no one has told you this recently, please repeat this phrase to yourself: I deserve a life of meaning and purpose, filled with love, happiness, and good health.
What stops you from accomplishing living this life, loving this life... is trauma.
Researchers suggest that the vast majority of most chronic physical, mental, and emotional illnesses are the result of uncleared/unprocessed traumas.
You are what you are because of what happened to YOU; there is nothing inherently wrong with you, but you are BROKEN on the inside because of the trauma.
If we are going to live our true, authentic, mission-filled life... we HAVE to HEAL.
The ONLY thing stopping us from true healing is ourselves -- and the trauma we have faced/endured.
I am a big believer in holistic and wholeistic healing -- meaning I support natural ways to heal the whole person. I am talking WHOLE-self healing, including the mental, physical, and spiritual -- as they are so intrinsically connected that we must address the whole system... the whole person.
You cannot have true healing, true health and wellness, true authenticity, without healing your entire whole!
True healing, freeing yourself of old trauma and pain, requires a multidimensional approach -- partly because not all therapies work for all people. The key is finding the therapies that resonate with you.
We Are All Broken. We All Have Trauma
Many of us struggle with mental wellness. But it's not just about our thoughts and feelings, as many of us also do not eat well, do not spend time in nature, do not exercise consistently. Instead, we suffer or wallow, unsure how to regain control in a world that almost seems to want us sick and hurting.
A world that wants us sick?
Sounds a bit sinister, but look at the pharmaceutical industry where mental health treatments simply deal with symptoms, not healing... and we are forced to take those pills daily for the rest of our lives, generating massive profits for the drug companies. Then there's the food industry, often using questionable/cheap sources, chemicals, herbicides, and pesticides in an already-depleted soil.
Finally, I am not discounting talk therapy in this model, but in my discussions with people, the talk therapy was generally NOT effective on its own. Furthermore, there is MUCH less talk therapy these days and much more prescribing of antidepressants (for depression; think Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa) and anxiolytics (for anxiety; think Xanax, Valium) than EVER before. According to one author, most psychiatrists see "drugs as the only treatments worth using."
Over the last two decades, we have seen a massive increase in the long-term use of anxiolytics and antidepressant medications in the United States. Worldwide, the global antidepressant market was valued at $15.6 billion in 2020... and is expected to reach $21 billion by 2030. In the U.S., about 1 in 5 people are on at least one antidepressant medication.
But... WE CAN HEAL... and here's how. The program is designed for you to heal the WHOLE you -- body, mind, and spirit -- using one or more of these critical healing modalities. To optimize and maintain healing, we must do everything we can for our health... our physical health, mental health, and spiritual health -- wholeistic health!
The Six Elements of Wholeistic Healing
1. Psychedelics. Perhaps the greatest advancement in healing in modern times, though indigenous and native cultures have been using psychedelic plants and fungi for thousands of years. While you may be vaguely aware of psychedelics (and especially LSD) from the War on Drugs and the incredible amount of lies and propaganda, I can assure these substances are indeed medicines for TRUE healing.
As I discussed in detail in my book, Triumph Over Trauma, these psychedelic medicines are being labeled a "breakthrough" medicine, even though they have been around for centuries. In fact, psychedelics were being researched and touted as miracle drugs back in the 1960s -- when many therapists used psychedelics as a tool in therapy.
2. Spirituality: Prayer/Meditation/Mindfulness. Without question, "we are spiritual beings -- having a human experience," per the powerful words from the French philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Deep in our hearts, we know there is something more to us, to the world, to the universe than just our physical bodies. (And if you ever do a psychedelic experience, you'll understand this concept even more.)
Spirituality and its related practices can be quite a positive force for healing, especially at a time when so many of us feel disconnected from the people and world around us. More than 3,000 studies indicate that religion and spirituality have a potentially beneficial effect on health, and health is a vital part of healing.
3. Somatic/Body. There are two key elements within this healing element -- specific body movements to help promote healing and the daily exercise that is important to maintaining good health and to stimulate healing.
The term somatic comes from the Greek word soma, which means "body."
Many experts theorize that trauma affects our whole body, not just our mind. Thus, this area of healing operates on the concept that what happens to you in your life is stored not only in your mind, but also in your body -- and so you need to clear the trauma from your whole system.
4. Nature. Without question, spending time in nature is healing. In fact, the Japanese have a term for relaxing in nature -- shinrin-yoku -- which means "forest bathing." It involves opening the senses to the woody aroma of the trees and other plants, the green scenery, and the soothing sounds of streams and waterfalls... because all of these elements play a part in promoting better health and healing.
Simply being in nature induces a state of physiologic relaxation, a true stress-reducer.
Furthermore, a large body of scientific evidence shows that spending time in nature is responsible for many measurable beneficial changes in the body. One of the reasons for these changes are chemicals produced by trees and plants.
5. Breathwork. There's transformative power in performing various breathing exercises, including the ability to alter your consciousness for healing. People often perform breathwork to improve mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.
Many people find the idea of breathwork as odd since breathing is one of those automatic functions (along with our heartbeat and digestion). Breathing is handled by a subconscious part of the brain called the medulla, which automatically controls our breathing as well as our heart rate and blood pressure.
At its core, breathwork is about taking control of our breathing, and is designed to bring a focus to our breathing, helping to calm our stress levels, lower blood pressure, and bring balance to our bodies.
6. Nutrition. Whether you believe your body is a temple or simply that we only have one body so we should treat it as best as we can, the result should be the same: a focus on eating healthy, nutrient-dense foods.
Instead, the diets for many of us involve too many meals consisting of low-quality fast-foods or ultra-processed foods from the local grocery store or Walmart.
Many of us are literally eating ourselves to death... it's so bad, we even have an acronym for it, SAD: Standard American Diet, which consists of ultra-processed foods, added sugars and salts, artificial flavors and colorings, refined/bleached grains, as well as toxic fats and oils. About 50 percent of the calories in SAD come from simple carbohydrates!
Final Thoughts About Wholeistic Healing
Our conventional model is NOT healing. We are not getting healed. The system is broken. We have to reprogram ourselves from going down the conventional route.
Healing comes from doing the inner work; healing comes from uncovering and clearing past traumas; healing comes from finding a supportive community; healing comes from within -- we just need to find the tools necessary so that we can do that work of healing.
Are you ready for TRUE healing? For discovering your TRUE self? The TRUE you?
What if you could heal completely -- physically, mentally, spiritually? What if you could heal and grow into your true and authentic self?
My book -- HEAL! Wholeistic Practices to Help Clear Your Trauma, Heal Yourself, and Live Your Best Life -- goes into great details about each method of holistic healing -- as well as sharing inspiring stories from people living their healing journeys.
Dr. Randall Hansen is an advocate, educator, mentor, ethicist, and thought-leader... helping the world heal from past trauma. He is founder and CEO of EmpoweringSites.com, a network of empowering and transformative Websites, including EmpoweringAdvice.com.
He is the author of the groundbreaking Triumph Over Trauma: Psychedelic Medicines are Helping People Heal Their Trauma, Change Their Lives, and Grow Their Spirituality and the well-received HEAL! Wholeistic Practices to Help Clear Your Trauma, Heal Yourself, and Live Your Best Life.
Dr. Hansen's focus and advocacy center around true healing ... healing that results in being able to live an authentic life filled with peace, joy, love. Learn more by visiting his personal Website, RandallSHansen.com. You can also check out Dr. Randall Hansen on LinkedIn.