What is your medicine?

I recently bought a new oracle card deck. The cards are the ‘You Are The Medicine’ cards by Emma Cannon. I was drawn in by the word medicine, and by the idea that medicine is within me and not out there in a hospital, doctors surgery or pharmacy.

As a nurse for over 20 years my past is firmly rooted in western medicine. I’ve seen the miracles of western medicine first hand. I am thanked daily by my patients for the relief they experience from the western medicine that I prescribe. Despite this, something niggles at me that this can’t be all there is. Why are so many people sick? Why do we only offer surgery or drugs? What about all the other healing modalities?

In my health community I meet with a lot of women experiencing long term health conditions. The number of women living with long term conditions is rising. I myself live with an autoimmune condition. My condition affects my digestive tract and, when I asked my consultant what diet would be best to help me to heal his answer was, “there is no evidence for any particular diet, just take the medication”. How can this be right? 

So I have been doing what I love to do the most and researching this issue. The history of women's health is a very sad and disheartening read. We have, and still do live with a medical system created and run mostly by men. Many women live with long term conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia for which there is little in the way of medicine or support. 

Medicine has a purely scientific approach to health and if it can’t be explained scientifically (either the illness or the treatment) then in the western medical world it probably isn’t real. For years I have immersed myself in what people call “alternative health” or “complementary health care”. What I am now beginning to realise is there is no “alternative” medicine. Just medicine. Whatever helps to heal you is medicine.

In her book Medicine Woman Lucy Pearce acknowledges that “we need to take the focus from the compulsion of fixing our bodies, and extend to the ultimately more necessary project of integrating our souls and accepting our bodies in their diversity.” 

What if we broaden our concept of medicine? When we do we realise there is so much more medicine available to us. We can choose the medicine, self prescribe, use trial and error to assess our response and grow through the whole process of healing without handing our power or our bodies over to anyone. 

I still fully support using what western medicine has to offer, but what about your own medicine?

Your medicine could be:

Deep rest

Restorative yoga

Meditation

Family support 

Support groups

Womens’ circles

Nutrition

Walking

Tree hugging

Aromatherapy

Reiki

Laughter

Massage

Journaling

Bathing 

Sleeping

Reading

This list could be endless. And most of it would be scoffed at by a western medical doctor, but I know that my symptoms are made worse by stress and inflammatory foods. When I introduce rest, relaxation, supplements and nutritious anti-inflammatory foods I heal quickly. I haven’t taken the medication from my consultant in years. That's not to say that I won’t need it at some point but I will only ever be using it in conjunction with my own healing tools.

So if you live with a long term condition or are experiencing health challenges right now. I urge you to create space and get quiet. What does your intuition tell you you need? More rest? More green vegetables? Less screen time? More hugs? This is all medicine, and it’s yours.