When most people hear the word yoga, they think of postures (asanas) and saying the mantra "om". In reality, similar to Buddhism, yoga has an eightfold path with characterisitics that apply to most situations. I have been treating women with menopause for close to 14 years and there is no good answer. I have come to discover, that like yoga, maybe menopause care alos has an eightfold path. In this post I wanted to open a discussion as to the yoga of menopause, and I would like to hear from readers, their experience with any of the eight characterisitics.
YAMA (How you treat others in the world around you).
The yama of menopause would also potentially include, how you treat yourself. Be easy on yourslef and do not treat yourself as though you are a broken machine. Menopause is natural. Do not cheat on giving youself time for healing. Many women with menopause are also having issues with libido. The practice of yama would give you the ability to look at your situation as a couple and not just the individual. Most women with libido issues feel this problem is simply theirs, when in reality, there is a strained relationship.
NIYAMA (Inner discipline and responsibility).
Basically, treat your body like a temple. Eat many multicolored frutis and vegetables and exercise your body regularly. Try to be aware of something Divine other than yourself, or something that is in control outside of your body. Surrender is the most difficult and yet, the most productive spiritual course any of us can follow. Educate yourself on the menopausal change from hormones, herbal preparations, and body therapies to meditation and other movement practices.
ASANA (Yoga)
This is the yoga practice that we Westerners see in strip malls. Yoga asanas are less for staying fit and more for preparing the body for meditation. If you can control your body then would you not be able to control your menopausal symtpoms. Personally, I am a fan of Bikram Yoga, or hot yoga. Rather than fearing the heat and the hot flash, attack it and make it part of your life. Practicing Bikram or hot yoga would give you the ability to embrace the heat and make it your own.
PRANAYAMA (Control of the breath)
Focus on your breath. Notice that you breath. Focusing on your breath removes external distraction. Are you constantly distracted by your medical condition. I would challenge you to focus on your breath the next time a hot flash ensues. Try not to think about anything but your breath. Cleanse yourself with claen refreshing air and nothing else.
PRATYAHARA (Withdrawl of the senses)
Are you easily bothered by an itch on your nose, or can you smell popcorn at the office from yesterday. Are you constantly focusing your senses outward into the world around you. The practice of pratyahara occurs when one is meditating. The next time you have that mood swing or hot flash and can sit and focus on your breath try to withdraw the sense of heat from your body. Try to detach from it. The symtpom of menopause is temporary and simply a dream from which you can awaken.
DHARANA (Concentration)
The goal is to still the mind — gently pushing away superfluous thoughts — by fixing your mind on some object such as a candle flame, a flower, or a mantra. In dharana, concentration is effortless. You know the mind is concentrating when there is no sense of time passing. I realize that this is extremely difficult to do when something is annoying you, but, with time this is no longer something you have to practice, it becomes your medication. Instead of focusing on the events that are causing you discomfort, shift you focus towards something like snow or a point on your face.
DHYANA (Uninterrupted concentration)
Uninterrupted meditation without an object is called dhyana. Concentration (dharana) leads to the state of meditation. The goal of meditation is not unconsciousness or nothingness. It is heightened awareness and oneness with the universe. How do you tell the difference between concentration and meditation? If there is awareness of distraction, you are only concentrating and not meditating. The calm achieved in meditation spills over into all aspects of your life — during a hectic day at work, shopping for groceries, or focusing on the distractions of menopause.
SAMADHI (Bliss)
Can a woman suffering menopause have samadhi? Well of course she can. Much of the problem in this Western culture is the fact that we try to achieve samadhi with with medication or hormone replacement. There is nothing wrong with hormone replacement therapy, but it is a fals god. To achieve samadhi is to conquer menopause's control over you and to become one with the universe. Obviously, this is goal and the most difficult portion to achieve.
The eight limbs work together: The first five steps — yama, niyama asana, pranayama, and pratyahara — are the preliminaries of yoga and build the foundation for spiritual life. They are concerned with the body and the brain. The last three, which would not be possible without the previous steps, are concerned with reconditioning the mind. They will help you attain enlightenment (symptom relief) or the full realization of oneness with Spirit. Enlightenment lasts forever, while relief from taking a pill can disappear by letting your prescription expire.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
A Rant - Tale of the Tape
It is truly sad that allopathic medicine is so judgmental that there is really no room for other types of medical care. The allopathic medical model is relatively young when compared with methods like Ayurveda or Chinese Medicine that have been around for millenia. The true controversy is submerged in evidence based medicine. If it doesn't have a study behind it, well then, it just isn't good medicine. even good studies have flaws or the researchers skew the data to reflect their personal bias. Part of the problem comes from the fact that the ultimate scientific premise is that of the hypothesis. if you have a hypothesis can you truly be unbiased in either direction? it would be my challenge that if you are asking the question you probably already have an answer in your head and you hope the research will flesh it out.
Part of the pomp of allopathic medicine is that it prides itself as being the only arm of medicine that is evidence based. It feels as if it is the only form of medical care that is steeped in scientific method and uses deduction to determine the diagnosis. Physicians that feel that science is God are truly falling prey to the Pre-Trans Fallacy of Ken Wilber. By supposing that Science is God and everything can be deduced by science basically eliminates the transpersonal experience. The other end of the spectrum is the religious zealots that feel everything is based on religion. These individuals exclude the fact that there are truly wonderful scientific experiences.
Medicine is not politics (or is it). There is separation of church and state, but does there have to be a separation of religion and medicine. Unfortunately, many physicians are soulless. I do not mean this in the sense of religion or atheism. They simply have lost their spirit to the practice of medicine and science and they feel that spirituality has no role in healthcare. These are not truly healers, these are medical robots.
Why is it that physicians that pride themselves on scientific have such a hard time accepting the trend of Integrative Practice. Why? Again, they have no spirit. Is it so horrible to use your allopathic acumen to diagnose a native american patient with diabetes and at the same time udnerstand their culture and spirutality. Is it so horrible that the patient may then go home and participate in a sweatlodge with their entire family at their sides. Maybe it is the life of the allopathetic physicianworking horrendous hours and strapped to a lifestyle ever slipping away that is blurring the lines of reality and myth.
Archetypally the physician at large has become the wounded-healer, and many more have become the harsh judge. They not only judge their colleagues they judge their patients. The main reason for lawsuits agaisnt physicians is not becuase of a lack or science, but because that physician lacked the ability to talk with the patient and develop a relationship.
Should the physician separate their religion and personal beliefs from their practice of medicine? I am certain that the patients do not do so. I would think that a physician would have a difficult time dissociating himself/herself from their beliefs (is not this dissociation the crux of the problem in the first place). I think that doctors should be true to themselves. If they are against the morning after pill then don't prescribe it, but you should have a list of places where the patient can obtain the medication. They should not issue a judgement or preach to the patient, just as other physicians should not preach to other health care providers.
Should physicians stay true to their allopathic training? The training that pounded them into automatons and made them angry that medicine is falling apart right before their eyes because of the lawyers and insurance companies. The surgeons judge the internists and vice versa, and this has nothing to do with lawyers or insurance companies; this has to do with the legacy of the venerable physicians before us. They have created this debacle and now they sit back from their ivory towers and mock journals and judge us for living through their mistakes.
As medicine continues to evolve we should learn to become more accepting of other practices and educate them on why we believe the things that we do. If the other practices such as pharmacy and chiropractic, acupuncture, and homeopathy were free to feel that they could talk with us then maybe we could educate eachother for the benefit of the patient. Instead we are ready to institute "Marshall" law and burn them at the stake, and we wonder why they will not come to us for help. I am confinent in my allopathic training and I do not feel threatened by the naturopath. I am an M.D. not an N.M.D. I would imagine that this can be confusing for the patient, but I have training and I bring this to my office, not a disgust for someone with other labels after their names. As long as other complimentary providers are practicing within their scope, are not harming the general public, and are providing a service deemed legitimate, but the state boards of medicine, then so be it.
The ego is a dangerous thing if left unregulated and this is the basis of many spritual pracitices. Maybe those providers that have such fear of being rolled into a consortium and hold on to conspiracy theories should come out the corners themselves and particpate in the debate instead of shooting arrows. Collateral damage can destroy bridges.
Allopathic or Allopathetic medicine? I'll leave you to decide.
Part of the pomp of allopathic medicine is that it prides itself as being the only arm of medicine that is evidence based. It feels as if it is the only form of medical care that is steeped in scientific method and uses deduction to determine the diagnosis. Physicians that feel that science is God are truly falling prey to the Pre-Trans Fallacy of Ken Wilber. By supposing that Science is God and everything can be deduced by science basically eliminates the transpersonal experience. The other end of the spectrum is the religious zealots that feel everything is based on religion. These individuals exclude the fact that there are truly wonderful scientific experiences.
Medicine is not politics (or is it). There is separation of church and state, but does there have to be a separation of religion and medicine. Unfortunately, many physicians are soulless. I do not mean this in the sense of religion or atheism. They simply have lost their spirit to the practice of medicine and science and they feel that spirituality has no role in healthcare. These are not truly healers, these are medical robots.
Why is it that physicians that pride themselves on scientific have such a hard time accepting the trend of Integrative Practice. Why? Again, they have no spirit. Is it so horrible to use your allopathic acumen to diagnose a native american patient with diabetes and at the same time udnerstand their culture and spirutality. Is it so horrible that the patient may then go home and participate in a sweatlodge with their entire family at their sides. Maybe it is the life of the allopathetic physicianworking horrendous hours and strapped to a lifestyle ever slipping away that is blurring the lines of reality and myth.
Archetypally the physician at large has become the wounded-healer, and many more have become the harsh judge. They not only judge their colleagues they judge their patients. The main reason for lawsuits agaisnt physicians is not becuase of a lack or science, but because that physician lacked the ability to talk with the patient and develop a relationship.
Should the physician separate their religion and personal beliefs from their practice of medicine? I am certain that the patients do not do so. I would think that a physician would have a difficult time dissociating himself/herself from their beliefs (is not this dissociation the crux of the problem in the first place). I think that doctors should be true to themselves. If they are against the morning after pill then don't prescribe it, but you should have a list of places where the patient can obtain the medication. They should not issue a judgement or preach to the patient, just as other physicians should not preach to other health care providers.
Should physicians stay true to their allopathic training? The training that pounded them into automatons and made them angry that medicine is falling apart right before their eyes because of the lawyers and insurance companies. The surgeons judge the internists and vice versa, and this has nothing to do with lawyers or insurance companies; this has to do with the legacy of the venerable physicians before us. They have created this debacle and now they sit back from their ivory towers and mock journals and judge us for living through their mistakes.
As medicine continues to evolve we should learn to become more accepting of other practices and educate them on why we believe the things that we do. If the other practices such as pharmacy and chiropractic, acupuncture, and homeopathy were free to feel that they could talk with us then maybe we could educate eachother for the benefit of the patient. Instead we are ready to institute "Marshall" law and burn them at the stake, and we wonder why they will not come to us for help. I am confinent in my allopathic training and I do not feel threatened by the naturopath. I am an M.D. not an N.M.D. I would imagine that this can be confusing for the patient, but I have training and I bring this to my office, not a disgust for someone with other labels after their names. As long as other complimentary providers are practicing within their scope, are not harming the general public, and are providing a service deemed legitimate, but the state boards of medicine, then so be it.
The ego is a dangerous thing if left unregulated and this is the basis of many spritual pracitices. Maybe those providers that have such fear of being rolled into a consortium and hold on to conspiracy theories should come out the corners themselves and particpate in the debate instead of shooting arrows. Collateral damage can destroy bridges.
Allopathic or Allopathetic medicine? I'll leave you to decide.
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