Natural Healing vs Western Medicine
I believe that many are diagnosed unjustly as so much is misunderstood in regards to empathy and how it affects our makeup, but that is Western or Orthodox medicine, it has its purpose for those who chose to seek it, though from a natural worldview as it is in Te Ao Maori (the Maori World View) traditionally a ‘diagnosis’ would take into account many other factors that do not exist in Western Medicine which is primarily physical and mental, yet leaves out the wairua (the spiritual) aspects.
Other indigenous cultures also give emphasis to the Mind Body Spirit, or holistic approach which is all encompassing such as Homeopathy and Naturopathy. In Te Ao Maori, we would incorporate many factors based on the hinengaro (mind), tinana (body), wairua (spirit) and mauri (life-force), as well as whakapapa (genealogy) and life experiences as well as others such as whanau (family) dynamics, environment etc.
Having personally been through all spectrum’s, I found Western medicine aggressive, highly toxic to the body and mind and causing an even greater imbalance of the ‘whole’ person and lets not forget lacking empathy in a huge way. The latter would actually be the deciding factor for me to move away from Western medicine and seek alternative (natural) healing modalities. A decision that did not occur overnight, it took 10 years of receiving medical treatment (that pretty much sums it up for me, treatment!) to have empathy knock on my senses!
At that time I was very blessed to have a highly trained kaiako (teacher) of our Ancient Mirimiri and Romiromi come from our homeland Aotearoa (New Zealand/NZ) to run workshops here in Australia. I truly felt like I had finally ‘come home’ within myself, not just in the workshops which I deeply resonated with, but also in having my own experiences directly with the healing. Mirimiri and Romiromi is unlike any other healing modality I know of, each session is different from the last and immediate in responsive healing on all levels, it also opened my potential to other natural healing such as Homeopathy and Naturopathy, simply because I live in Australia and am unable to utilize Rongoa (medicinal native plants) from NZ. It’s a long story cut 9.99yrs short!
I made a choice which was determined by personal experiences as others do when they come to you. If your offering traditional healing or other forms of natural healing, people come to you for that purpose, and only you can decide if you can work with both in alignment, that is, if they are also seeking Western Medicine and balancing this with traditional. At the end of the day only the individual person can choose if they embrace both (one is generally fear based, if you don’t take this medicine you will get very sick, or what you have is chronic for life… its ugly to say the least!) or lean more to one side or drop one altogether.
Empathy only becomes a double edged sword by that which we don’t know. As in all things in life, if we are not taught, it can’t be natural, so comes with loads of challenges. For many with strong empathy, those challenges are amplified in the busy society and communities in which we live our lives out. So yes it is vital to learn to understand empathy, as we do so, we are not bogged down by the weight of the unknown and empathy is no longer a mystery or seen as a curse. We must unravel the fears for we are worthy of embracing the true gift that empathy brings.
Copyright © 2014 Christel Broederlow