Ashok Bedi, M.D.,

ISSN 1939-3407

 

Contemporary Western medicine is disease-based and focuses on the work of specialists rather than generalists. It is reactive rather than proactive, crisis-oriented rather than holistic, physician-directed rather than interactive, and focused on curing illnesses rather than promoting wellness. Medical treatment is delivered via a chaotic, disconnected matrix of urgent-care facilities, emergency rooms, hospitals, and specialists. The presumed driver of this care, the family physician, is at the bottom of this pyramid.

 

The emerging integrative medicine of the 21st century will be patient-focused, empowering individuals to take care of themselves through a balanced lifestyle that uses their unique personal resources and attributes, and invokes the traditions of their ancestral wisdom and their souls’ guidance. In this model, patients will map out, not only their illness profiles, but also their wellness plans. In this new paradigm, the emphasis is on accessing the Healing Zone to move from a focus on illness to a goal of enhancing wellness.

 

According to the National Center for Complementary Medicine, 42 percent of Americans use at least some of the methods of wellness medicine we will discuss (Spiegel, n.d.). More patients visit practitioners of these complementary methods of treatment than visit primary-care doctors. Among the main reasons for seeking these alternatives are pain, pediatrics, and self-care for stress and weight loss. Fifty percent of cancer patients and AIDS survivors consult complementary-care providers. Seventy-two percent of these patients don’t talk about it with their doctors, yet studies show that 83 percent of patients combine alternative with conventional medicine.

 

The Healing Zone is a place of awe and mystery. It is not a linear phenomenon, but a quantum field where energy and matter become interchangeable. My recently published book – Crossing the Healing Zone: From Illness to Wellness(Bedi, 2013) explores the Neuroplastic mysteries of the Healing Zone and lays the foundation for discussing the stress and rejuvenation systems of your body, the archetypes and myths that guide you across the flow of the Healing Zone, and specific practices that are accessible to most of us. These include cultivating a spiritual attitude, “Googling” the unconscious with your dreams and synchronicities, using active-imagination techniques, working with your complexes, hang-ups, fascinations, and antipathies, reconfiguring your cognitive distortions to deal with addictive cravings, and linking mandala therapy with neurofeedback. It also explores more traditional disciplines like pranayama, yoga, meditation, mindfulness attitude and practice, music, yantra techniques, and Kundalini balancing. some instruction, these methods may help you to navigate the Healing Zone from illness to wellness.

 

 

References

Bedi, A. (2013). Crossing the healing zone – from illness to wellness. Lake Worth, FL: Nicholas-Hayes, Inc.

Spiegel, David M. (2003). “Utilization of Integrative Medicine,” National Center for Complementary Medicine presentation, nccam.nih.gov/training/videolectures/mindbody.

 

NAMASTE.