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| Starting this month we are featuring inspirational guest writers – Buteyko educators, enthusiasts, students and natural health advocates. |
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The following article is kindly provided by Dorisse Neale, a Registered Nurse, Herbalist, Mother, Writer, Performing Artist, Respiratory, Movement, Wellness and Buteyko Breathing Educator who has been teaching people of all ages about natural health for over 33 years. She has a private practice based in Asheville, NC, and travels and teaches throughout the country. | |
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The erroneous preconception that medicine and doctors somehow have absolute understanding and responsibility for people’s health has been the issue of my life and so many of us who might be called “wounded healers” – those who grew up with potentially life threatening illness, turned it around, and now teach what they learned. 20-30 years ago people began talking about the need for a paradigm shift. I began asking myself what exactly does that mean, and how do we apply it to health? The foundation of my work is in the embracing of the “Wellness paradigm” and unless people really understand it, therapeutics often are short lived.
In nursing school 33 years ago, we were taught that there was a wellness/illness continuum, with wellness at one end and illness at the other. In that model, there is forever a degree of illness present. As a paradigm shifter, I put wellness at the center of that continuum, which is our inherent right as human beings. That being our center, recovery from any condition depends on bringing the body back to center by nourishing, toning, remediating and supporting the body in doing what it intuitively can do by strengthening the respiratory, immune, cardiovascular, digestive, integumentary and other systems. So in any given situation, we can have individuals with different symptomatology, and the work of getting out of the ruts (symptoms) and returning to health is the same (yes, with some tweaking needed for the individual with asthma vs diabetes vs hypertension). This is the responsibility of the individual, and health care practitioners are here as guides and helpers, not to do it for them. In the illness paradigm, “curing” is a matter of fighting and doing battle with “what’s wrong”. The problem becomes the focus. Endless diagnostic testing, supported by a system that is financially dependent on people being sick, often exaggerates the problem and creates new ones. Mentally, people are brought on board immediately by the diagnoses, and fear becomes their guide as they become more and more entwined with the doctors who have convinced them that they have a problem. I remember an incident when I in my early 40’s, a few years before I discovered Buteyko breathing, although I had been involved in holistic health and wellness for almost 20 years. I was lying in my hospital bed after another severe asthma crisis which had landed me in the emergency room 36 hours previously, during which time I had been given nebulizer treatments every 4 hours. Finally the broncho-constriction had relaxed; I was exhausted yet could breathe easily. The doctor, on his hurried morning rounds, came in with my chest xrays, held them up in front of the window for me to see, pointed and waved his finger at me, and angrily said, “Look at this. You have the lungs of an 80 year old, and you need to be on steroids for the rest of your life, otherwise, go find another doctor.” Wow! That hit me like a brick, and my immediate reaction inside was anger, as I thought, “well !@#%&* you, I WILL find another doctor! “That was the moment which began my eventual move to California in search of a greater destiny which I knew I had, having no idea at the time that it would be as a respiratory educator. The point of this story is that I held that image of “my lungs are those of an 80 year old” for years, until I finally got it that what I needed to do was hold the image of perfect, healthy, vibrant lungs as a crucial part of returning to my optimal health and well being. THIS is a major player in a shift to the Wellness paradigm, the images and beliefs that we hold about ourselves. And since then, I have met many 80 years who I know have healthier lungs than I probably did at 40 anyway! In the Wellness paradigm we make it clear that we take responsibility – no longer will the doctor take care of our body in the same way that the mechanic takes care of our car. Gently yet firmly reminding people that each time they say “my asthma” or “my heart disease”, they do not have to own that condition; they can rethink the issue and see it as a symptom that is reversible. I have seen so many miracles in my years in health care (tumors disappearing, quadriplegics walking) that I believe anything is possible if we make the commitment to change. And yes, this is a tall order for some, although it is what we are given and the choice becomes ours regarding how to deal with it and achieve the outcome that we desire. If you wish to contact Dorisse, send Email to dorisse@breathdance.org.
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Tags: breathing exercises, Buteyko, Buteyko Breathing Method, natural health
Great post!
Really appreciate you sharing this post.Thanks Again. Keep writing.