Natural vs. Lifestyle Changes

Today I was writing a story on sleep apnea and was looking for some "holistic" treatment options. I learned an important lesson here. The term holisstic is a fuzzy word. Yes, I knew this, but sometimes I think I have a narrow view of what fits there. What I discovered was that there are very few holistic therapies for sleep apnea. But I was very wrong. Once I thought about it more, most of the treatment options are holsitic in nature; I was just seeing them as traditional, and thus, not holistic.

Let me explain. One treatment option is to learn how to sleep on your side. This helps with the collapsing or obstruction in the airways. Since this is a normal intervention, mentioned by hospitals, physicians and associations with a more biomedical focus, in my mind, it wasn't holistic. Oh but it is! An alternative that isn't harmful and isn't ignoring the problem - this is one of the definitions of holistic interventions!

What I think ended up being most important in this process for me was remembering how wide the holistic net is, and how differently it is interpreted by different people. There are quite a few options for sleep apnea, and most importantly, many of them are lifestyle changes, which are holistic in nature. Rather than being in the holistic camp and scoffing at mainstream medicine (I'm working on that), I am beginning to see the interconnectedness. This is true integrative medicine. It's a beautiful thing, you know, the best of modern medicine when it's really needed and choices when it's not.

This or That? How about both.

During this year's election battle (thank goodness for not having a TV!), I began to think about the dualistic culture we live in. We think we must choose between good and evil, black or white, republican or democrat, gay or straight, yes or no - the list goes on. We all know the phrase that it's not always black or white. In my world, there is no black or white - there are different shades, and different ways of looking at it.

We all have choices, don't forget that, but we also usually have more choices available to us than we think we have.  For example, don't like Romney but don't really like Obama either? Vote green party or liberatarian. Research other options. You also have a choice to not vote (I know, I just said that). I get the impression that culturally, we think there are two candidates and we have to choose. Who is the better of the two evils? But this is dualistic thinking - feeling like there are only two sides to a coin.

Let's make this more about daily life. Soon we'll head downstairs for lunch. This is what will probably happen. I'll open the fridge and say we have leftover cheese soup or wild rice casserole. The fridge is pretty bare. But that's seeing only two options. That is no where near the whole story! I'm missing out on potentially awesome ideas just by thinking in a linear dualistic way. I'll realize this and say, or you could have minestrone soup, or hot coco, or raw veggies or rice and veggies, or pancakes or oatmeal or apples and peanut butter. All of a sudden, the world seems more joyful, more pleasant, more available to me.

Now, I also have to add that psychologically, too many choices are bad for us. We get paralyzed and can't choose. So be careful of the options, but don't limit yourselves.

Sometimes we practice this idea by just naming crazy things. So I'll say, what would you like to do tonight. Then we'll rattle off a list: play a game, clean the house, watch a movie, go to a movie, go to a bar, make coffee, have a drawing contest.....when we run out of "mainstream" ideas, we'll get more silly. Erik will often say something like we could go rob a bank, or take a walk naked, or chop down a tree or go rock climbing, or take a vacation. All just ridiculous, but yet realistically, we could do these things. It helps tap the creativity and promote thinking outside of the box. I also find that it makes us laugh and promotes a sense of unity and playfulness.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.