How To Holistically Heal...With Curiosity

A New Way To Engage With Your Symptoms

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In this edition…

1. Healing: A New Way To Engage With Your Symptoms

2. Reverence: Curiosity

3. Exploring: Ten Practical Steps to Embrace & Engage with Your Symptoms

Healing encompasses a comprehensive holistic approach, acknowledging the intricate web of factors that shape our well-being: our health, inheritance & genetics, environment, relationships, creativity, spirituality & self-care.
Reverence is the deep respect & attention to the things that truly impact healing. 
Exploring is the journey into the deeper work, meeting the parts, wounds & survival strategies that keep us small, stuck & suffering with persistent symptoms & feelings.

1. Healing: A New Way To Look At Your Symptoms

In my years as a naturopath, I've observed how patients often approach their symptoms with set attitudes, a particular tone that may, in some ways, hinder their path to healing. I’ve sat across from individuals who present their symptoms with minimal detail, almost as though they hope by under-emphasising, they might diminish their significance. Others, however, arrive with intricate narratives, describing each symptom meticulously, and yet somehow, the tone becomes detached, as though the story they tell isn’t fully their own, leaving them both consumed by and distanced from it all. Then, there are those who approach their symptoms with an air of resistance, perhaps anger or frustration, as if their bodies have betrayed them in some way.

Yet, while all of these perspectives are valid expressions of the complex experience of living with symptoms, they may not be fully conducive to healing. When we approach symptoms with curiosity instead of avoidance, frustration, or detachment, we open ourselves to discovering what our bodies might be signaling.

In this exploration, I’ll guide you through the many forms symptoms take—whether acute, chronic, psychosomatic, or differential—and offer insights into why curiosity might be the key that turns our symptoms from foes into allies. In this way, symptoms become less of a burden and more of a guide, illuminating pathways to healing that may have previously remained hidden.

Let’s delve deeper into what symptoms really are, the different types we encounter, and how shifting our perspective can reveal a new way of understanding—and ultimately, healing—our bodies.

Symptoms

What is a symptom, technically speaking? A symptom refers to a physical or psychological manifestation arising from an underlying condition. For example, hives can be a symptom of a food allergy, an insect bite or an autoimmune condition. Different people can display different symptoms of the same dis-ease influenced by factors such as age, gender, genetic predisposition and overall health status.

Subjective symptoms are reported by the patient and can’t really be measured, like pain or fatigue, while objective symptoms are those that can be observed and measured, like a fever or blood pressure.

Symptoms can vary widely depending on the specific condition and may include pain, fatigue, fever, cough, dizziness, anxiety, depression, or other abnormal sensations or behaviours. Some symptoms serve as warning signs of serious conditions, such as chest pain indicating a heart attack.

The word "symptoms" originates from the Greek word "symptoma," meaning a sign or indication. The prefix "sym-" denotes unity or being together, suggesting that various signs and indications in a person's body or mind are interconnected and occur simultaneously. This emphasises the collective nature of symptoms, highlighting their relationship to a larger health condition or underlying cause. The suffix "-ptom" comes from the Greek "piptein," meaning "to fall," speaking to the fact that symptoms are like pieces that "fall" into place to create a recognisable pattern of a particular condition or disease.