Decolonising Health-Seeking Behaviour

Working with health issues from the inside-out (from the spiritual to the physical) can be considered as a potential first-step in decolonising health-seeking behaviour.

We know all too well that Western medicine often works from the physical to the spiritual only touching on the spiritual aspect right at the end of life when it has run out of options.

The practice of giving medication for a symptom works at the physical level (for a while) but often does not ask the deeper question of why the symptom is there in the first place nor does it try to decipher the emotional, spiritual and collective meaning behind its presence. As a result, a myriad of opportunities for growth and transformation are missed by this bottom up approach leaving people in a cycle of symptom leading to symptom control rather than symptom leading to root cause analysis and holistic growth that results in what is termed eudaimonia (flourishing) in Aristotlean philosophy.

I don’t believe that the Western medical model was intentionally designed this way however the evolution of this system through time has resulted in one that keeps us disempowered, reliant, afraid and disconnected from our inner healing intelligence.

Someone once said to me:

‘It’s funny, Western medicine studies life by looking at dead things (cadavers) while Chinese medicine studies life by looking at what increases vitality and Life force (Chi/Qi)’.

This was a profound thing to have heard and I still meditate on it often. Western medicine is of great value in a crisis, either one that is acute or that has been a long time coming, and I think that this value can mainly be attributed to the fact that the historical focus of Western medicine has been to work backwards from death. Prevention of death has been concentrated on damage-control with patients and doctors scurrying around to mitigate the symptoms of ill-health when they have already arisen.

Preventative medicine is a relatively new field in Western medicine and still far behind philosophically because it is still focussed on preventing death or other serious health events instead of being focussed on what is life-enhancing which would automatically encapsulate those things and more.

Other systems, including traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have developed over thousands of years of very wise and interoceptive (internally observant) people diligently studying what makes them feel better, more alive, more energised and ultimately live longer.

The prescriptions are not only given for what has already arisen but also for lifestyle practices that not only prevent disease but enhance vitality and the experience of it. Because the principles, practices and prescriptions are philosophically founded in exploring the gift of being alive from the perspective of the daily experience of being in a body the tenets run through all aspects of life and culture at every age. Nothing is excluded from this kind of approach because the approach is the study of Life itself in all its interconnectedness including taking into account the natural cycles and seasons that occur within and out.

What’s more, the knowledge does not remain only with the doctors but we, the laypeople, are encouraged to make our own investigation through the vehicle of our own bodies by exploring the effects of interventions such as martial arts, meditation, the interaction of food and the seasons and the use of herbs and spices in our kitchens and even the effect that the arrangement of our furniture has on our sense of vitality. This approach invites curiosity, playfulness, presence, responsibility and empowerment with the added benefits of gratitude, pleasure, vitality and long life.

So to repeat: working from the spiritual to the physical layers instead of in the other direction is the first step in decolonising our health-seeking behaviours.

There are many other wisdom paths and ways of knowing for us to draw on that have been marginalised by the Western colonial model and I hope that this post has had the intended effect of demonstrating that although there is great value in Western medicine – give me a surgeon in gloves and loads of morphine if I have severed a limb anyday! – its greatest value tends to lie in the extremes.

I hope that you will feel inspired to seek health and healing intuitively, trusting your wise inner healer to guide you to the practitioners and resources you need.

There is great healing potential when healthcare is sought from a locus of self-efficacy without always requiring permission or validation from the historically-paternalistic model of Western medicine that still struggles to incorporate the emotional and spiritual into its framework.

Seeking the expertise of ‘other’ age-old and highly advanced systems that put the emotional and spiritual at the centre of the physical and mental experience or from Western practitioners who recognise and respect their value can indeed be beneficial in the healing journey.

Western medicine is useful but not a panacea and we would do well by ourselves to explore the meaning of health and Life beyond what most of our Western doctors have been trained or feel equipped to do.

This medical self-empowerment is the key that will open the door to your unique and personalised health journey from a place of wisdom and trust that you will find exactly what you need on the spectrum of Medicine when guided by your inner sense of aliveness, natural inclination and birthright, to seek eudamonia.