Have you ever wondered who, why and when someone started calling modern medicine “traditional” medicine? There’s nothing traditional about modern medicine at all. It’s relatively new, around a hundred years old, and is based on using artificial i.e. chemical means to try to cure, but rarely does, a disease. The real “traditional” medicine is based on ancient wisdoms that tell us our bodies were inherently designed to be healthy and that use natural substances to prevent and cure illness.

I also believe we all need an M.D. because the system is the system like it or not. More specifically, what we all need and want is a holistic and integrative internist because you may just need that M.D. to navigate the system with you and for you one day.

I am blessed with the greatest doctor and here are my criteria for you to find one of your own.

Integrative: uses modern medicine when necessary and uses traditional methods and remedies or at least knows who to refer you to (naturopath, acupuncture, homeopathy, etc.).

Holistic: looks at your overall physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health, can treat the symptom but looks for the underlying cause, attempts to prevent illness, understands basic nutrition and nutrient depletion, understands stress and how it can manifest, takes the time to know you.

Interestingly enough, this is what your family doctor was until the beginning of the 20^th century. He was holistic and integrative and didn’t need a label to identify him as such.

Testing: Thorough and detailed blood work. You need it as a baseline if you’re perfectly healthy and you need it to rule out things like food allergies or nutrient depletion. Even if your insurance doesn’t cover all the costs, these tests are vital for accurate diagnosis and treatments. In addition, you meet face to face after the labs have been studied by him/her AND you are always given a copy of your labs for your records. These are your tests and you have paid for them. If you aren’t automatically given your labs or must wait for copies or even charged a fee per page, then it’s time to find another doctor!

Don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.                                                                   They paved over paradise and put up a parking lot.

As I bopped along to the Counting Crows 2002 version of Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell- 1970) this morning in rush hour traffic (much to the horror of my teenagers), I thought this song is about much more than about a lost love or urban sprawl.  Is paradise somewhere outside in the world, a place that we just haven’t traveled to yet or something else? On the physical level could it be about regretting lost health? Most definitely and that’s another story for another post. But on a deeper level, is paradise somewhere inside of us and it’s just been paved over and over and over again so that we just don’t see, hear or feel it anymore.

The definitions for paradise are varied from biblical to sensual. The origins are Greek meaning an enclosed park. I personally like a place that is positive, harmonious, timeless, a state of delight and peace. This is a place I’d definitely like to go, to be in, to stay in.

You don’t have to have had some awful stuff happen to you to pave over your paradise, just the everyday normal stresses/worries and hassles will do it. It is so easy to lose/forget who you really are and what’s important. This is why I think a daily meditation practice of sitting, walking or writing is so important. If you can’t find 30 minutes , what about 15?. The purpose of meditation is to bring you to the present moment without the chatter and distractions from outside or inside the mind. This stillness is when you find clarity or peace or contentment or yes, your paradise.

Hippocrates, the 4^th century BC Greek physician, said in his Regimen in Health, “A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings.” Hippocrates, known to the world as the Father of Medicine was a pretty smart guy. He believed the body must be treated as a whole and not just a series of parts. He believed in the natural healing process of rest, a good diet, fresh air, cleanliness and good water. In his Airs, Waters, and Places, he discussed environmental causes of diseases, in particular, a town’s drinking water. Hippocrates was a prolific writer and a single theme carries throughout his works “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food”. How did we get so off track?

“Your food shall be your remedy” To maintain health and prevent illness we need a balanced combination of amino acids (proteins), lipids (fats), complex carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, enzymes and water and that nourishment must come from whole foods and whole food supplements.

Rather than the Father of Medicine, I’d say Hippocrates was really the “Father of Prevention.”

For some reason this tune from Oliver Twist, the musical, popped in to my head on my morning walk and it made me think about how much I love good, real, glorious food. According to some friends I spend too much money on food but it’s worth every penny. You are what you eat is my mantra. If you put regular gas in a car that requires premium, how well is your car going to perform?

I love $4/doz eggs from cage free/soy free eggs. Yes, I know I could buy 18 at a box store for half the amount but who knows what those chickens were fed or how long ago the eggs were laid. Don’t judge me until you’ve had a farm fresh local egg then you’ll know why I do it. I love “pastured” butter i.e. from cows that eat grass and live outside which is what cloven footed animals are supposed to do. I love red wild salmon (farm raised salmon would be gray if dye wasn’t added to their corn and soy feed, not exactly what I’d call a natural diet). I love the unshiny/uncoated apples from the orchards in Winchester. I love the grass fed meat and cheeses from my Amish friends in PA. I love the ancient grains like quinoa, amaranth and millet that I’ve soaked overnight. I love my farmers markets for whatever they have each season.

If this real/whole food thing has you confused, start with one of my favorite little books, Food Rules by Michael Pollan and enjoy every little bite you put in your mouth.

Although much of what Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now and A New Earth) writes is beyond my grasp and although I often get sleepy reading him which tells me I’m not ready for some of his stuff, yet, the following quote really spoke to me.

Stillness is your essential nature. When you lose touch with inner stillness you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with your self you lose yourself in the world.

Not only is this something I need to remind myself of every day but why I write so much about meditation, stillness, and paying attention. It is just too easy to get caught up in the busyness, the details, the stuff, the things. It is just so easy to make excuses. It is just so easy for the conscious mind to stay so busy that it stops paying attention so that the subconscious mind takes over repeating patterns, replaying programs that don’t serve me. Enough.

Stop, Look, Listen – even if just for a minute.

Have you ever gotten in your car, arrived at your destination but had no recollection of the drive and how you got there? It surprises you and kind of scares you. Who was driving that car? This is the subconscious mind taking over the steering wheel.

My writing is often like this. I write every morning.  I am an ongoing student of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Every morning you write 3 pages. Stream of consciousness. No judgement. Whatever you write is what you’re supposed to write and sometimes I’ve written over and over again “I can’t think of anything to say today” or “I got up at 5:30 and brushed my teeth, then fed the cats, etc…” The point here is that I had never thought of writing as meditation.  But this is what I can tell you: when I write my morning pages my day is calmer, better, smoother. When I write the outside world is turned off for a bit.

When I write, it’s just me, breathing in and breathing out and most of the time stuff just comes out, like my hand and pen are a vehicle without a driver. In fact, several times I’ve looked up and 30 minutes have flown by with no concept of time.

Mind you, most of what I write will never see the light of day but each time I write, I also get an inkling of what I’m supposed to share. As I write my morning pages, snippets, flashes and thoughts about meditation just keep floating to the surface which is why I’ve shared more about meditation recently than other health and stress relieving tips. It will be interesting to see what comes next!

She wakes with a smile on her face, welcoming the day. She is grateful for the day and excited about how it will unfold. Every day there is always something to look forward to; there is always something to learn. She knows what she likes and she is confident with her choices.

She chooses her clothes for the day with confidence and enthusiasm as she’s ready for her day to begin. She chooses a black top, perhaps a little too light for the chilly weather and black and white flowered pants that nicely compliment her top and figure. Without hesitation, she chooses lime green and hot pink socks. In spite of the snow, she chooses her favorite shoes, leopard print peep toe flats with the little black bows and now she is ready to embrace whatever the day has to offer.

Her smile is radiant. She is not afraid of what others might say. She is confident in her choices and her decisions. Is she color blind? Is she a fashion disaster? Is she a confident 21^st century woman who is powerful and feminine and doesn’t care who judges her taste?

No, her name is Greta and she is 2 today. Oh, that we all could embrace each day with such unbridled joy and enthusiasm and with a smile.

Easy Stress Relieving Tip: Just Smile

Charles Darwin was the first to suggest that our expressions intensify our feelings. Smiling helps you relax. Smiling has been proven to decrease muscle tension, mental stress and blood pressure and to increase the production of endorphins which are the happy neurotransmitters. Even if you aren’t happy, simply using the smile muscles will put you in a better mood. Those smile muscles are part of how the brain elevates mood.

If you don’t have a two year old to smile at, just smile anyway. Happy Birthday Greta. Love Mimi

The news is the site is renamed www.intentionalhealthnews.com

The dash in Intentional-Health was inconvenient for me and others and made it hard to find. I do thank all of you who did find me and for your comments. They are greatly appreciated. www.intentional-health.net will continue to link to this site for a year if you’ve bookmarked it.

Intention – a course of action that one intends to follow, an aim that guides action, an objective. Synonyms: purpose, end, goal, objective. Intent implies more deliberateness than some of the other synonyms.

Intention has become one of those 21^st century (some may call new-agey) words like manifest, abundance, hold space, synchronicity that are becoming more common in everyday language. Just Google intention and intentional health and you’ll get about 66 million hits.

One of my first posts was called What’s in a Name? Is it a good or a bad thing that the name Intentional Health is used by many to describe their work? How will anyone find me? Well, the thing that’s so amazing about intention and all those other words like manifest and synchronicity is that the people who are supposed to find me, Margy, are going to find me. So, the name Intentional Health will stay the same because I still believe that good health and wellness are as much about your intention to be well i.e. knowing what you want as about what pill you take or what exotic fruit you drink.

Just focusing on the body/the physical aspect of health I don’t believe is enough. Intention adds some of the mind/spirit stuff that I believe is needed for healing and balance.

So, Intentional Health it is.

Mine is probably a little bit of both.

A Maze has a beginning and an end but along the way there are lots of wrong turns and dead ends. Even when you do get to the end and you almost always will whether by sheer determination or by asking for help, you are often exhausted, confused and turned around. You are off balance. Mazes, like most of our daily lives, are linear and left brained.

A Labyrinth, on the other hand, has no twists, turns or wrong ways. It is a journey to the center and back. There is one way in and one way out. While some of the turns take you away from the center, the experience is calming, rhythmic, right brained and yes, meditative. You can not get lost. When you get to the end you feel relaxed and quiet. You are balanced.

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol of wholeness dating back 3500 years. Walking a labyrinth is a unique experience and often a healing experience. Whether it’s relief from emotional or physical pain or you are just looking for a way to relax, reduce stress, quiet your mind or even for some insight on a matter of concern, a labyrinth walk  may just do the trick.

It is interesting that the medical community is always asking for “proof” for double blind placebo studies to see if traditional healing methods “work” yet many hospitals have labyrinths in their gardens for their patients and staff because it’s calming, because it reduces stress, because “I just feel better” even though there is no “proof”. To learn more about  labyrinths or to find a labyrinth to walk, please click above (not to the right) on Articles.