Yes, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve reached out to you. And, yes, I know that I’m inconsistent with getting these out to you. And yes, I’ve been thinking of writing every single week. 

Inspite of all of these ‘yes’s’, life takes its’ twists and turns and then spits me back out. It’s been a heck of a year. But, I’m back into my favorite time of year. This is when I turn in on myself and go back into my space of wholeness, self-reflection, and better my self-care. 

Writing has been my life-long, self-nourishing, creative outlet. And even better, when something I have to say might lend a bit of support to someone else. 

With more introspection, I’m continuing the journey of how to better care for my body, my mind, as well as my spirit. I go to deeper places of awareness and then take baby steps to make those changes that support a better balance for me in all areas. Doing this is not easy. It’s tough for me, it’s tough for most of my patients, and for those around me. Life puts an incredible amount of demands on our time, our energy, and our attention. 

I’ve found that I have what my gynecologist called ‘a big ol’ fibroid’ in my uterus. Her only option for me was a hysterectomy because of the way that it’s formed itself through the muscle wall. I’m not really into cutting out essential body parts, so I’ve taken this new information as a challenge to see how deeply I can go into healing. As with anything, physical, emotional and mental symptoms are the body’s ‘engine light’ to let us know that there’s an imbalance in our spirit.

While I’m working with my health care team on this, I’m also delving into where I’ve been out of balance. I’ve been working on this for pretty much my entire adult life, but time reveals deeper wisdom and understanding about where our blind spots are. 

My new Acupuncturist, on our initial visit told me that the Buddhists have a philosophy of treating ourselves as if we were little babies. I loved this. The way we would tenderly hold an infant. Rock them when they’re tired. Soothe when they’ve been hurt.

I feel like, as adults, somewhere along the way, we’ve learned to almost antagonize ourselves for not being tough enough, or feeling too much, or picking ourselves up so fast from a fall, that we don’t even process what we’ve been through.

And while there’s a balance to be met, I feel that we haven’t cared or nurtured ourselves in the ways that would truly allow ourselves to heal most wholly. 

When we’re not allowed or able to process our wounds, we stuff them down deeply. And when we do this throughout the days and weeks and months and years, eventually it erupts somewhere in our lives.

I share this with my patients, over and over again because, in our western way of thinking, we’ve been trained to throw pills and surgeries at all of our problems. And while I understand and support the need for these measures, these are literally band-aids as we limp along through the rest of our lives.

I’d like to take this moment to remind you of your bodies’ own ability to achieve balance, and in that, healing, when it has the blocks removed.

These ‘blocks’ can be a virus like in Lyme’s or Epstein Barr or a fall down the stairs or a fight with a friend or stress about finances. Whenever you’re unable to ‘process’ all that’s coming at you, your body ‘stuffs’ it down somewhere that it can deal with it later on. 

When these blocks become too much for your body to handle, I equate it to fuses blowing in the electrical box at home. Things start shutting down. This manifests as stress, anxiety, headaches, pain, inflammation, digestive issues, auto-immune issues.

I like to catch these stressors before they become bigger issues.

I traditionally put out an email during October, as it’s ‘Breast Cancer Awareness Month’, and while this email isn’t directed at that health issue, all of these suggestions that I’m making below support overall immune health and relieving stress, both of which supports overall healing and well-being

To minimize these stressors to keep your body’s channels ‘open’ to maintain maximum healing, research has shown the following to be helpful:

• A 20 second hug 

• Dancing for 20 minutes

• Running, walking, biking, swimming….whatever you love to do that gets your endorphins (your ‘happy’ hormones) flowing

• Acupuncture

• Chiropractic

• Massage

• Drinking an 8 oz glass of water

• Talking with someone you trust and love

• Long Deep Breathing for 1 minute

• Laugh for 1 minute

I found this amazing audio book earlier this year that helped inspire so many of the changes I’ve made to support my health and to get me through all of this year’s challenges. It’s called ‘Burnout’.

I found it through an interview with Brenee Brown. If you’re interested, I’ve provided the link from Spotify here.

Love is the key. Self-love. Self-compassion. Self-care. 

Know that you are valuable, you are loved, you are seen. 

In healing, Dr. Arjan

Photos by Gurusurya Khalsa