On This Page:
Note: Table of contents is clickable
1) How I Practice Mind Body Spirit Medicine
2) What you need to know about Mind Body Spirit medicine
3) History & Practice of Mind Body Spirit Medicine
4) How We Can Help
Some Important Things to Know about Mind Body Spirit Medicine:
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How I practice Body Mind Spirit medicine
My practice explores the mind, body, and spirit of the patient with curiosity and openness. More and more patients are craving a type of medicine that explores all aspects of who they are with a health professional that has the willingness to hold space for these investigations and actively participates in the uncovering and discovering of themselves.
"Patients want not only to be listened to but to be heard. " |
Patients want not only to be listened to but to be heard. They want the healthcare team that is treating them to truly care how they are feeling and what is happening in their lives. This not only makes it easier to talk about vulnerable feelings or difficult symptoms, it can help put the holistic picture in perspective for both the patient and healthcare team.
It’s important to note that if you are receiving Mind Body Spirit care with Butterfly Naturopathic, patients will not be expected to do all the categories at once. As a patient you can dive into something like emotional work when you are ready and if you have appropriate rapport with your medical professional. Nobody is forced to do this work and each person will have a unique pace that works for them.
It’s important to note that if you are receiving Mind Body Spirit care with Butterfly Naturopathic, patients will not be expected to do all the categories at once. As a patient you can dive into something like emotional work when you are ready and if you have appropriate rapport with your medical professional. Nobody is forced to do this work and each person will have a unique pace that works for them.
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What you need to know about Mind Body Spirit medicine
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What is Mind Body Spirit medicine?You’ve likely heard the term Mind Body Spirit Medicine before but have you ever thought about what it really means? Terms like Mind Body Spirit medicine or Mind Body Soul medicine can be used interchangeably. Here at Butterfly Naturopathic Medical clinic when we say practicing Mind Body Spirit Medicine we mean we are practicing medicine that is called holistic medicine, meaning that the entire human experience is considered while formulating a treatment plan and all treatment plans are unique to each patient. |
Some Important Things To Know...#1 - Keep in mind that although some of the info laid out here is shown in linear type lists for explanation purposes, not one of these sections can ever be truly considered separate from the other. anchor: mbsnoseparation
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Each part of Mind Body Spirit and the signs of imbalance explainedHow do you know that you are out of balance in any category of the Mind Body Spirit Medicine model? This is a quick look at what each category is, including some signs to watch for that could show that you might benefit from some rebalancing. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list by any means, just a guide to get you started. Signs of imbalance does not necessarily mean something is wrong with you. Considering balance is a changing moving process and checking in with yourself for balance adjustments is a normal part of being human!
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MIND
What is the “Mind” part of the Mind, Body, and Spirit model? Mind is considered to hold both emotions and mental processes.
Let’s break Mind down into two categories:
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MentalMental is considered your thought processes either conscious or subconscious. They can be anything from random thoughts that float into your subconscious to thoughts that come from concentrating on a specific task or situation and much more.
Signs of imbalance: If you are feeling unbalanced here you might consider simple exercises like actively observing your thoughts. What trends are you noticing? Do you happen to see that you have a lot of negative self-talk? Maybe you are constantly second guessing yourself? Or possibly criticizing others frequently internally as you go through your day to day? Struggling to focus because thoughts seem to be intruding on your mental processes or inability to sleep because your brain won’t turn off, is also how this can show up. anchor: emotionalmbs
EmotionalEmotions are the feelings that you have in your body that sometimes are a result of an external situation, a physical sensation, or a thought process. It could also be said that emotion is the process of moving through a feeling. They usually have some sort of physical sensation that coincides with the feelings and shows up in interesting language linguistically like having butterflies from nervousness or excitement, hot or cold sensations like flushing from embarrassment or anger or feeling like something is “chilling” or scary and creepy, having a lump in your throat because you are trying to hold back feelings, or feeling tongue tied are some examples. Interestingly there is currently no scientific or even generally agreed upon way of explaining emotion.
Signs of imbalance:
Are you having feelings you can’t quite put a name to? Noticing irritability when you are historically not irritable is a common sign. Sometimes it’s just something simple like you notice you are having bigger emotional reactions to situations than you normally do. You might feel like everything doesn't seem to feel as bright or interesting. You only want to experience “happy” feelings and avoid any other feeling. Joy or being generally happy seems to not happen at all or at a reduced rate to what you feel comfortable with. Frequently feeling overwhelmed. Expressing feelings outside of yourself without meaning to. |
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Body
This is often the part of Mind Body Spirit that most people are familiar with. Your body is referring to your physical body.
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Signs of imbalance:
If you start to have physical sensations that are unpleasant, unusual, or start to interfere with your lifestyle, this is usually a sign that your physical body needs attending to. A physical sensation is indicating that your body needs something and could be as simple as feeling stiff and uncomfortable from sitting too long. Getting up and walking around is a way of attending to your body's signal that it needs help. Ideally if a pattern starts to emerge like feeling stiff every day we can do something proactive to help our body like creating a timer to get up and stretch every 20-30 mins proactively. Likewise if you have symptoms that are concerning, and you go in to see your naturopathic doctor, they would address it with treatments you are reacting to an imbalance and then moving to attain balance again. |
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Spirit
The spirit part of Mind Body Spirit is something that you believe in or experience that is bigger than yourself. Spirituality can’t be defined in one way for everyone because spirit is what you define it as, it is different for each person. This could be something like believing in a particular religion which is what many people often equate it too, or something as simple as celebrating the vast beauty of nature, or creativity, or community. Spirituality by our definition is something you feel in awe of when you think of it. Thinking of what makes you feel a sense of awe and possibly wonder or curiosity is a good place to start if you are unsure of what spirituality means to you. Also you do not need to have spirituality all figured out ahead of time, this is something that can be further explored as part of your unique process.
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Signs of imbalance:
Feeling lost like you don’t have a purpose, empty, or don’t know what your life path is? These can be some signs of how spirit imbalance manifests for some. Craving or seeking for a spiritual experience or practice. Feeling confused or irritated when people bring up the word spiritual. Feeling disconnected from your spirituality if you know what it is. Avoiding practicing your faith or beliefs. Not making time for these practices even though you know they make you feel better. |
Some Important Things To Know...#2 - Your emotional state will change your physical state and your physical state may change how you need to adjust mentally. This all interacts with spirituality, as spirituality tends to encompass everything. Look at it like a living changing entity that moves and grows. anchor: mbslivingchangingentity
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Mind Body Spirit medicine is an invitation to explore the whole self
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Some Important Things To Know...#3 - What works to create balance for you over one part of your life can change over time and sometimes suddenly, depending on life events. Taking stock of where you are at on a regular basis can be helpful, so you can balance your needs and fill whatever bucket, so to speak, needs topping up. anchor: mbschangeisinevitable
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Does every practitioner that uses Mind Body Spirit practice the same way?
The meaning of these terms can widely vary depending on the practitioner you are seeing. Some physicians seem to only briefly touch on the mind and spirit parts and focus on the physical while others might lean heavily on the spiritual and/or mental side. If you are seeing a physician that practices this type of medicine it’s a good idea to have a discussion about what that means and how they practice it to make sure you are both on the same page before you start to work with them.
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Some good questions to ask your physician are:
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Interconnectedness
Every part of Mind Body Spirit is connected, there is overlap with each “section”. They are so intertwined that sometimes it is hard to tease them apart. We do so for explanation or educational purposes but those simple linear explanations don’t even begin to explain the vast interconnectedness of it all. This is a starting point that will hopefully inspire you to discover more.
For example, the Mind or the Mental emotion doesn't just stop with that definition, the body just doesn't see hard boundaries like that. If you think about it’s actually kind of amazing, there are physical chemicals that react in our physical body as a result of how we are feeling, how we are feeling affects how we are thinking. We have a tendency to have thoughts that align with our feelings, it’s like an indication system to inform our thoughts where to focus on and how. How we are thinking in turn affects what actions we might take such as getting out for a walk in nature, and that then again impacts the physical body by getting out and moving. As a result of the walk in nature your mental health improves. Did you know there is research that says walking in nature is as effective for mental health as some medications? This is just the tip of the iceberg! There are so many other interactions and connections that when considered in relationship to each other, can really help tip the balance of what ails you. Ultimately the separation of the different aspects of what we see as modern medicine has disconnected us from being in touch with and understanding our humanity. Our humanity is in the interconnection of the mind, body, and spirit and so should be treated with the consideration of all parts. With so many individuals struggling with stress induced medical conditions, a more integrated approach that considers all parts is needed.
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History & Practice of Mind Body Spirit Medicine
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The Departure of Looking at Health Holistically
Why does North American culture seem to be obsessed with pulling apart the holistic system and treating everything as a separate entity when everything is truly connected?
Humans have always had a holistic approach to medicine until quite recently in time. Initially, dissecting and learning from the human body was likely human curiosity. Then as humans evolve it was likely to further our research about how the body works, but how come they decided to continue to look at and treat parts of the human rather than the whole?
One step further was to take the mental/emotional component and to separate the spirituality from study of the mind. Not everyone has the same spirituality, religion or belief systems, so in a sense separating spirituality from medicine made sense at the time. That separation of spiritually all together was an overcorrection of sorts, and now we seem to be realizing there is a balanced approach that considers each person’s unique spiritual beliefs.
Humans have always had a holistic approach to medicine until quite recently in time. Initially, dissecting and learning from the human body was likely human curiosity. Then as humans evolve it was likely to further our research about how the body works, but how come they decided to continue to look at and treat parts of the human rather than the whole?
One step further was to take the mental/emotional component and to separate the spirituality from study of the mind. Not everyone has the same spirituality, religion or belief systems, so in a sense separating spirituality from medicine made sense at the time. That separation of spiritually all together was an overcorrection of sorts, and now we seem to be realizing there is a balanced approach that considers each person’s unique spiritual beliefs.
"Scientists do their best to create an environment where they can understand and control the variables. Sometimes isolation is mostly possible, and sometimes research variability is unable to be controlled because there are things we don’t understand are interconnected and unable to be isolated in this way. Sometimes we need to separate everything and start to learn in compartments to tackle large and difficult to understand systems." |
Obviously, there are both challenges and benefits to dissecting the physical human body and then separately researching the mind. As a result of our curiosity and scientific study, we have made many discoveries that have advanced medicine. Scientists do their best to create an environment where they can understand and control the variables. Sometimes isolation is mostly possible, and sometimes research variability is unable to be controlled because there are things we don’t understand are interconnected and unable to be isolated in this way. Sometimes we need to separate everything and start to learn in compartments to tackle large and difficult to understand systems. On the other hand, it seems that when a system of a human is not viewed as a whole at some point, it is more likely that the person being treated starts feeling like their symptoms are a game of whack-a-mole that doesn't get to the root of the issue. In some cases, we are starting to see research that is looking at the human as an interconnected entity which is fascinating.
There are both challenges and benefits to adopting ancient systems of health and medicine as well. Regardless of the culture, ancient healers often developed systems to help their communities survive or thrive. They would then share information with neighboring communities or cultures. These systems are often complex, effective, and rich with entire cultural systems of information. When you take one part of the system out, it doesn't quite have the same effect on health as it would have in those ancient times. These systems have been used effectively, in some cases, for centuries or even longer. Much of the ancient wisdom is recorded as anecdotal, sometimes this is in written form and sometimes spoken. This is also a valid way of collecting information. Although like research based medicine, not everything about an ancient and wise system should be adopted without question. There have been some treatments from ancient systems that are now outdated, for instance, we wouldn’t use mercury to treat humans anymore. We know mercury is toxic now because of research.
What if we thought that old ways of seeing health were not useful anymore but they contained keys to unlocking health solutions of the future? It looks like we truly need a balance of the wisdom of both current researched medical discoveries and ancient systems of health and wellness.
Regardless of how researchers or ancient healers discover medicinal information, their goal is often similar. Like the ancient healers that shared wisdom, studying the body scientifically allows us in either case to get information and share it with others.
So then how do we safely blend together what we know from the most current medical science with the ancient wisdom that has been passed down for thousands of years? That is where the Naturopathic medicine model is pivotal for holistic medicine. In North America, there are Naturopathic degrees that train future Drs in a wide range of current and ancient medicine philosophies and methods. They study the interactions of treatments and safety or efficacy of a wide spectrum of treatments and health models. There is at least one common factor to all of these naturopathic educational institutions, they promote medicine that considers the whole human.
Some Important Things To Know...#5 - Treatments of the physical body may come with insights from the mental, emotional, or spiritual parts of ourselves. Everything has a meaning in the context of mind, body, spirit medicine. anchor: insightsfromthephysicalbody
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Naturopathic Medicine And The Holistic Model Of Medicine In BC, Naturopathic doctors are licensed and regulated by a provincial college under the Health Professions Act. Naturopathic physicians are trained to use nutraceuticals, supplements, botanical medicines, chinese medicine & acupuncture and spinal adjusting, similar to chiropractic medicine. NDs can even obtain advanced certifications in pharmaceutical prescribing and intravenous therapies (IV therapy). Naturopathic doctors follow the naturopathic principles. One of the principles is to treat the whole person. This can be interpreted by each individual to what they think holistic medicine means. So if you ask different practitioners what their definition of holistic medicine is, they might consider the entire body being connected rather than the balance of both the physical and mental/emotional, or they may be aware of the body mental/emotional connection, but they often leave out the spiritual. I have discovered as a physician it’s really important to consider the spiritual beliefs of your patient to really start to understand the whole picture. It’s really not about the particular belief that your physician has, so much as it’s more about fostering a connection with what you as a patient believe. |
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Research and Mind Body Spirit Medicine
There is research showing that spirituality or believing in something bigger than yourself has health benefits. It doesn't matter what you as an individual feel pulled to believe in. It doesn't even have to be a religion, it can be that you are an atheist and you are just in awe of the beauty of nature.
Considering mental/emotional needs of the patient is also an aspect of medicine that has been seeing some encouraging research. Patients are often more successful when their mental health needs are considered |
Some Important Things To Know...
#6 - If haven't felt seen or heard by your healthcare team Mind Body Spirit medicine might be something to try as hearing the patient's story and experience is an integral part of Mind Body Spirit medicine,
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How We Can Help
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Mind Body Spirit Medicine With Dr. Wong Mind Body Spirit medicine can be helpful in so many ways, it’s not only about finding the root cause of a condition you may be experiencing but contributing factors of your life as a whole. Anyone can participate in Mind Body Spirit medicine and benefit. If you are looking for holistic help that is inclusive of your life experience and not just your physical symptoms Mind Body Spirit medicine might be a good fit for you. If you live in British Columbia, have a look at how to apply to be a patient and work directly with me at my clinic here. I am a teaching physician and I dedicate a portion of my week to work directly with patients. |
Some Important Things To Know...
#7 - Answering the call to explore the whole self is an ongoing journey. Everyone will have a different need and approach and it’s the job of the doctor to meet their patient wherever they are at.
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