A new collective experience of social anxiety has been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic. Whether you suffered from social anxiety before or you’ve slowly developed social anxiety since being isolated and distanced from others, returning to post-pandemic “normal” life can seem more daunting than the onset of the pandemic itself for some people.

You are not alone in your concerns. Studies show that symptoms of social anxiety have increased significantly since 2020. The good news is, there are natural and effective ways to manage and cope with anxiety that will allow you to make a smoother, at-ease transition back into society.

Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety

To manage and cope with anxiety you must first understand the symptoms associated with it. If you or a loved one are experiencing any of the following symptoms, consult your healthcare provider or physician for clarification.

According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, the signs and symptoms of can anxiety include:

• Feeling nervous, irritable, or on edge
• Having a sense of impending danger, panic, or doom
• Having an increased heart rate
• Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation), sweating, and/or trembling
• Feeling weak or tired
• Difficulty concentrating
• Having trouble sleeping
• Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems

Over the last year, social anxiety has been front-row-and-center as we have trained our brains to perceive people themselves as a threat due to the risk of contracting the virus. Fear of going outdoors, interacting with strangers and even fear of the air we breathe in proximity to others has been a concern for many!

As more and more have either already contracted the virus and built up an immunity to it or have become vaccinated, the threat ratio has lowered, however, our brain may not recognize the change and continue to ignite our fight or flight response.

Get Ready to Face Society Once Again

Before the pandemic, you may not have had to deal with anxiety and fear of social settings as you are now. You may also be feeling the pressure from work responsibilities, friends, and/or family to return to your normal routines.

If the idea of re-engaging with society is causing you to worry, here are some tips to help:

• Get outside of the house every day. Go for a walk, go to the pharmacy, do the groceries rather than store pick up.
• If your workplace will soon require you to return back to the office, head to your place of work, and walk around to regain that comfort and routine. The same goes for those attending college/university or children who attend school and fear going back to the classroom.
• Start socializing with others on the phone, video calls and gradually return to seeing them in person one at a time when you can.

Start off slow, and steadily work towards the more challenging activities until you can feel comfortable engaging with others in society again.

Coping Strategies to Help Reduce Anxiety

There are many safe, effective, and natural ways to help cope with anxiety, whether you have been dealing with social anxiety for some time or if this a new onset of the pandemic.

Psychologists note that avoiding these issues can have the opposite effect than what you would want and only provide a temporary sense of relief while in the long run actually lead to an increase in anxiety. So, getting clear on what you can do to ease your anxiety and taking action right now is important.

Exercise

Exercise has long been known to benefit our overall health and no matter your age, current physical activity, weight, abilities, or size, even small amounts of exercise have been shown to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, reduce tension, and boost overall mood.

If you are unsure how to begin to increase your physical activity and are anxious about going too far from home, try these simple changes to your daily routine so you too can reap the benefits of physical activity.

• Engage in active family playtime. Any game that gets everyone up and moving counts!
• Catch up on household chores such as cleaning out the closet. Vacuuming is also physical activity.
• Mow the grass, go for a walk, or take a bike ride.
• Make television watching more active by doing jumping jacks or push-ups during the commercials.

Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation is a form of calming your mind to increase focus, reduce stress, ease tension, and reduce anxiety levels. It has been scientifically shown to help alleviate the chaos that can crowd our minds, especially when faced with a fearful or anxious situation.

Using meditation to ease anxiety takes practice as in the beginning it may be difficult to calm our racing minds while diving deeper into our inner selves.

Try these mindfulness techniques that can help ground you when feeling anxious and out of control:

• Deep breathing exercises. Breathe in for five seconds, hold, breathe out for five seconds. Repeat 5 times or until you feel more calm.
• Visualize calming places like a beach, the lake, or somewhere you have fond memories.
• Keep a gratitude journal. Each morning or evening write down 3 things you are grateful for. Reach for this and read back on your thoughts to stay positive.

Supplements and Natural Therapies

Many people turn to medication in an effort to manage anxiety, but the reality is the side effects from medications can have their own impact on overall health. Natural supplements like adaptogens can help you cope, reduce depression, help with sleep and keep your system balanced while you are working through new and past anxieties. Speak with your natural health practitioner to find out what supplements will work best for your unique body.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a derivative of the cannabis, or marijuana, plant and has been used as a treatment for a range of neuropsychiatric disorders including anxiety with positive results.

Unlike other forms of cannabis, CBD oil does not contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) which is the ‘high’ causing substance of marijuana, therefore, it is an effective anxiety reducer without affecting mental function.

Smells and aromas have a way of triggering memories and many plant oils have a calming effect on our body and mind. Lavender for example has been shown to reduce heart rate in the short term and help to ease sleep issues in the long term.

Do Things That Bring You Joy

Remind yourself of all the things that bring you joy and can help soothe your feelings of anxiety. Watch a funny movie or TV show, read a good book, or learn a new skill.

If you have pets, they can be a great comfort and you can rely on them for emotional support and calm your anxious feelings. Plus, walking a dog routinely outside can help ease you back into socializing with others.

Set Boundaries & Goals

How you choose to reintegrate into ‘normal’ life is your own personal choice. You may be comfortable visiting friends in an open area such as a park, but uncomfortable socializing indoors. Make a list of what you feel comfortable doing and express your fears and concerns with your loved ones so they can clearly understand your needs.

Go a step further and record your feelings, emotions, fears, goals, and expectations in a journal or diary. Often when we see our thoughts on paper, they are easier to face and approach with a calm mindset.

Lastly, be open-minded and allow yourself to be friendly (you never know if others are feeling the same way as you). While you need to have empathy for yourself and validate how you feel it’s important to understand that many people are dealing with this reemergence too and are equally anxious about what it all entails.

Can You Achieve an Anxiety-Free Return to Society?

Peer pressure exists in all stages of life so always remember you have the choice to say “no” when a situation makes you uncomfortable. Your optimal health and mindfulness are vital to re-engaging with society, therefore, when feeling anxious or stressed, try the methods above to calm your mind and release your body from the fight or flight mode.

There are, and always will be, stressors in your life. Re-engaging your inner peace by actively recognizing your anxiety triggers will allow you to focus on moving past them. Knowing your own values, fears, hopes, and future goals will help to set your mind on a new course allowing you to act on resolving your anxiety.

If you are finding your anxiety is increasing, affecting your relationships with others, or controlling your life, don’t hesitate to give us a call to schedule a free Mid-life Women’s Health Reset Discovery Call. There are natural ways to help manage your stress and keep your body balanced so these new stressors are not taking control of your thinking. Also, if your body has become imbalanced, you may have underlying gut or adrenal conditions that we can assess and address to restore the balance. Give us a call, or schedule online here.

We are here to help!

References

Bohlmeijer  E, Prenger  R, Taal  E, Cuijpers  P.  The effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy on mental health of adults with a chronic medical disease: a meta-analysis.  J Psychosom Res. 2010;68(6):539-544.

Hofmann  SG, Sawyer  AT, Witt  AA, Oh  D.  The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: a meta-analytic review.  J Consult Clin Psychol. 2010;78(2):169-183.

Blessing, E.M., Steenkamp, M.M., Manzanares, J. et al. Cannabidiol as a Potential Treatment for Anxiety Disorders. Neurotherapeutics 12, 825–836 (2015).

Li-Wei Chien, Su Li Cheng, Chi Feng Liu, “The Effect of Lavender Aromatherapy on Autonomic Nervous System in Midlife Women with Insomnia”, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2012, Article ID 740813, 8 pages, 2012.

Claire Thompson, Maria C. Mancebo, Ethan Moitra,

Changes in social anxiety symptoms and loneliness after increased isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Psychiatry Research, Volume 298, 2021, 113834, ISSN 0165-1781.

The post Post-Pandemic Social Anxiety: What You Can Do to Cope appeared first on Valencia Ray, MD.

Why is stress and burnout such an important topic for busy professional women in particular? I put myself in this category also, and I’m so passionate about it because it almost sabotaged my life and professional work early on in my career. Women often take on too much trying to care for everyone else but themselves, and frankly, we are typically conditioned by the world around us to do so. This is one reason why we do not tend to our own stress. Another reason is that we do not know how to, nor understand what really causes stress and burnout.

What is stress? If you search the word online, you will likely see some scary images of people who look like they are being tormented with anxiety or severe mental distress. Some look totally overwhelmed and unable to cope. This is a common misconception and a gross exaggeration! The fact is, most people in our society are struggling with stress on a daily basis…even with a smile on their faces. When we realize what stress is and where it comes from, we are better empowered and enabled to avoid burnout.

As an MD medical doctor extensively experienced and trained in psychotherapy coaching techniques, and also functional medicine, stress is one of the most prevalent issues I see in my practice. I believe that you need to take a holistic Mind-Body-Spirit approach to resolve stress before it turns into burnout.

Fortunately, I have learned over time just how dangerous this is for our health and well-being and made it a part of my business (literally) to learn what stress really is, and to learn stress self-regulating skills. Let’s face it – the world around us is not likely to change much very soon. The sooner we learn how to better deal with it, the better!

Chronic stress leads to common symptoms for example, such as anxiety, irritability, weight gain, hormonal imbalances, food cravings, sleep disturbances, recurrent colds, cold hands and feet, hair loss, digestion issues, recurrent infections, low energy and libido, and even lack of motivation!

You can probably see how this will affect your confidence, career, and even relationships!

You can think of stress as feelings of overwhelm that connect with our sense of survival and activates our body’s ‘fight, flight or freeze’ response. Also, stress affects our adrenal-brain connection physiologically, which leads to these physical symptoms and if not treated at the root cause, can result in chronic disease. As stress becomes chronic, it can lead to burnout which causes common mental, emotional, and physical, ‘dis-eases’ which are currently plaguing our society at this time.

There are four key stressors that you want to learn about in order to begin to ‘take back control’ and live a more healthy and thriving life. One has a focus on the mental and emotional realms, and the other three have to do with our food and lifestyle habits.

When we overemphasize ‘hard work’ and struggle and do not understand the necessity of rest, restoration, and renewing our mind as well as how some foods contributes to this, we accelerate our aging.

We increase our risk for low energy and low libido due to inflammation and hormonal issues, and chronic weight gain in particular when we do not understand how food, mindset, and lifestyle are at the root causes of these symptoms. These symptoms are commonly associated with a variety of health concerns. Considering how expensive our traditional disease-care system is these days, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a TON of cure’, not only a ‘pound’.

I can say that it is better and easier to stop a problem, illness, etc., from happening than to stop or correct it after it has started. Though now that I have also trained as a Functional Medicine specialist, I am grateful so say that we can actually reverse and prevent much of chronic disease that I was taught in traditional medical school to be ‘incurable. Our bodies are very resilient and can heal when we know what to do and why.

In the realm of Functional Medicine, you would be surprised how much capability we have to heal and reverse many chronic, common diseases. At the root cause of 90-95% of chronic disease is stress and the root causes of stress. This is why is it very important to educate yourself about prevention and reversing stress and burnout and their causes, and what you can do about it.

The 4 Key Stressors

Stress essentially is triggered by four basic pillars as shown in the photo below. I will briefly address all four. While you may be familiar with the idea that food, inflammation, and sleep could be connected to stress, very few health practitioners specifically discuss what follows.

The mental/emotional and even spiritual causes of stress (no sense of purpose or feeling disconnected) are often totally overlooked in terms of what is at the root cause of this category of the four stressors. I want to emphasize these areas in particular because hardly anyone talks about this area in the way I will share in this post.

1. Blood Sugar Imbalance

Sugar. Sugar by itself, in excessive amounts, can cause adrenal-axis dysfunction, known as Glycemic Dysregulation. Your brain and body need energy under perceived (whether real or imagined) stressful conditions. Sugar or glucose is one form of energy that is readily available. One important role of the adrenal gland and cortisol is glucose regulation.

Your adrenal glands (located on top of your kidneys) release cortisol as a response to regulate blood sugar levels by affecting insulin levels. While this can be helpful for acute ‘fight or flight’ they can be disastrous when we have chronic stimulation of this process, day in and day out. Individuals who consume a lot of sugar can become ‘insulin-resistant’ and this process starts to dysregulate or dysfunction. This can lead to a low blood sugar crash after a meal, which again, will retrigger the cortisol response. This rollercoaster response of the blood sugar can lead to a vicious circle and become difficult to control.

The macronutrients (fat, protein, or carbohydrate) content of our foods matter, particularly at breakfast time. If your first meal of the day is high in sugar (carbohydrates), over time you may accelerate problems within your hormonal and stress response systems. People who have chronic stress will likely to experience these types of dysregulation problems. Eating low-glycemic fruits and vegetables are quite important to this process to keep a good balance in blood sugar.

Read those labels! For the purpose of this discussion, let’s define high levels as more than 15-20 carbs per serving. Having been a ‘go-getter’ and over doing things for too long, I like many, have a history of being in the chronic stress category. I see a definite improvement in sugar craving and hunger since making this breakfast shift. I no longer need to carry protein bars and can go 4–5 hours between meals without any hunger during the daytime, even longer between dinner and breakfast the next day. What a difference!

There is no such thing as an overall ‘one size fits all’ best diet/food plan; this concept of the effects of breakfast sugar is based on the physiology of the stress response, particularly under chronic stress.

Having a ‘my diet is better than your diet’ argument is probably not going to be productive and may even raise our stress levels! In general, breaking your overnight fast (which is what ‘break-fast’ is), with high carbohydrates will likely cause mid-morning or afternoon brain fog or energy crash. Healthy fats and protein do not cause a sharp rise in blood glucose levels and tend to suppress hunger much better.

2. Chronic Inflammation

We are starting to hear more about inflammation, but we often do not connect the dot as to where this inflammation is coming from. It can come from our food sources, with sugar and processed foods leading the charge. It can come from toxins in our environment. It can also come from excessive ‘bootcamp’ style exercise!

What is often not considered as a source that is a very real source, are our toxic thoughts and emotions. Our mindset can ‘inflame’ our bodies. Just think about the effects of anger. While anger is a natural emotion and can inspire or energize us to take action, when we are chronically angry, anger itself is a cause of inflammation. Think about the idea that, ‘he was inflamed with anger.’ This is more than just a metaphor!!

One final cause I will mention here is lack of sleep! Sleep is our body’s chance to heal itself and to recover. When we don’t sleep enough or have restorative sleep, we are much more likely to trigger the biochemical responses of excessive inflammation in our body. Some inflammation is normal and an important part of our immune system, however when out of balance high or low end, it can lead to autoimmune problems or even lack of an ability to fight off infection.

3. Sleep

Well, you probably knew this was coming! I have personally come to realize just how dangerous lack of sleep is. Even as a physician of many years, I had no idea how deadly a lack of sleep can be for our health and well-being until I retrained in Functional Medicine in recent years.

There was a period of time of four years when my children were younger that I would routinely go to bed at midnight and wake up at 4:30am! This was during a time when I was also running a very busy medical practice and doing such a good job with spending time with my children, that at age 7, my son said to me, ‘mom, you don’t seem like you work because you are always here’. I built my schedule, planning and life around their schedules.

Little did he realize at that age and time just how much effort I was putting in to make this impression! Knowing what I know now, I would not have pushed myself this hard.

Lack of enough sleep can dysregulate not only your stress and cortisol, through this mechanism you can disrupt your thyroid, your sex hormones and even add inches to your waistline!

This is nothing to play with. When combined with lack of sleep, poor eating habits and inflammation, a perfect storm of chaos is created in the body’s system that can lead to prediabetes, hypothyroidism, autoimmune conditions, ‘leaky gut’ and gut disturbances, menopausal and peri-menopausal problems, PCOS, anxiety and more.

Hopefully, it is obvious why sleep is fundamental to ‘anti-aging’. As you can start to see by now, chronic disease is not about our age in years – even young adults are now experiencing these conditions with greater and greater frequency. HOW we age is what really matters.

One key area that is typically ignored is staying on technology devices or watching television into the evening hours. The blue-white light that is emitted can literally raise your cortisol and stress levels and disrupt your sleep quality! No joke! At the very least, use a good quality blue blocker eyewear protection, and even better, stay off of devices at least one hour before bedtime. Lifestyle medicine is an idea whose time has arrived and is greatly needed.

4. Mental and Emotional

Mental or emotional causes of stress can also be perceptual in terms of ‘how we see or feel’ about a situation. If this situation feels ‘novel’, or like a threat to our person or ego, or feels unpredictable or that we have a sense of loss of control…. it triggers our stress response of ‘fight, flight or freeze‘. This is why some people may love public speaking while others are terrified even at the thought of it! This category of stress requires special skills training to overcome.

Many people think that practicing mindfulness is a panacea that will alone,…and of course, in a short period of time (the quick fix), take care of this category. This is simply not the experience of many people, nor of my own. Mindfulness practice is an important aspect of beginning to retrain our brain to deal with this aspect of stress, but it is only the first step.

Mindfulness allows us to observe our thoughts and feelings, but we must then have tools and skills to ‘self-regulate’ our thoughts, feelings – intentions and attention – so that we are best able to take back the steering wheel of our mind. We must learn emotional resiliency.

This is more layered than it initially appears. This is where I tend to pay attention to stress management in a different way and where most physicians are not aware to do so. Remember stress management is not just about food, exercise, and sleep, though as I have already pointed out, they do matter.

For example, our own self-image and level of confidence will affect how we respond to the 4 Key Aspects of Mental/Emotional Stressors, which are:

• Novelty
• Threat to our ego (real or imagined)
• Lack of predictability
• Need for control

This is where learning how to transform our perception and ‘retrain our brain’ comes in. This is a skill set that we can all learn. As an entrepreneur, I can say that I am exposed to all four of these key aspects on a regular basis. I have observed in myself over the decades the power of these skills to bring greater confidence, fulfillment, less stress, and greater physical health and well-being when used with self-awareness. I now have greater emotional resiliency because of this.

A few words about spirituality and stress. When we do not have a sense of purpose or contribution that comes from our authentic heart, we may struggle with the meaning of our lives. Having a sense of connection with a higher power, purpose, or to nature can help us to live with more joy, inner peace and even tap into our own unique form of creativity easier. As you can imagine, this would all be stress alleviating on several levels.

You will generally not hear about these mental/emotional/spiritual aspects of stress management from your healthcare provider, whether in functional or traditional medicine. Understanding our ‘whole self’ is central to being able to live a life of thriving, not simply surviving.

Maintaining good health takes conscious effort in the world we live in now due to food quality challenges, excessive environment toxins, and a work environment and society that does not tend to honor self-care and downtime.

In order to be in control of our health, we will have to reeducate ourselves and look for alternative healthcare options and modalities that allow our body to tap into its natural healing powers. We can prevent and reverse many common chronic conditions when we understand how and have a strong enough desire to learn how to do so. This is a personal journey and the science is here now to validate many of the holistic approaches I use.

Yet, many of these approaches I used before the science substantiated it – like mindfulness of example – are now recognized quite broadly. Personally, I decided a while back not to wait on consensus from science but to trust my own experience – and it has served me well. I invite you to explore new ways of thinking about your health so that you can better empower yourself to thrive also.

Next Steps….

It’s my mission to help as many people as possible to live beyond stress and burnout. Please help me with this mission by sharing this blog post! ????????

If you’d like to learn more about how stress can lead to burnout, aging and low energy, I invite you to watch my free webinar on this exact topic.⁠ You can access it by going to the link at Taking Control of Stress and Burnout .

If you would like to learn how you can begin to transform your experience with stress, schedule your Free Discovery Session with me Here

The post What No One Tells You About Stress and Burnout appeared first on Valencia Ray, MD.

Let’s define first what I mean by feminine and masculine because I want to be clear that I am definitely not referring to gender or biological sex. I am referring to energy and principle. Feminine energy and principle are gender neutral – both female and male humans contain this energy as part of simply being human. The same goes for masculine energy. Our society has essentially conditioned children and the genetic pool of human consciousness (as in epigenetics) to program our thinking that feminine means female and masculine means male. This is not the truth.

Let’s define the principles of these energies first – this is not the stereotypical storyline that has been created by culture.

In principle, feminine, in essence, means ‘receptive’:

• It is diffuse, sees the big picture, able to see the whole more clearly and has more diversity of associations, spiritually aware.
• It is our capacity to receive and listen. To hold a space.
• It is more concerned with our feeling nature or certainly at least cares about it.
• It is more intuitive, non-linear, and appreciates humor.
• It is our source of empathy, compassion, and non-judgmental discernment.
• It sees new patterns and is our source of insight and exploring the field for transformation and evolutionary pathways.
• It is community and unity based, helps us to feel connected to others.
• It aligns with the qualities of our right-brain – it is the ‘heart’ and spirit.

In principle, masculine in essence means, ‘active’: 

• It is linear, logical and linguistic. Loves to speak and help us to ‘be heard.’
• It is structured, focused and goal-directed.
• It is critical, meaning, lives in the land of polarity – ‘this versus that’ – judgmental in general.
• It ‘decides’ consciously, meaning as the word decision implies, it cuts away what it doesn’t want, ‘good versus bad’.
• It is not the big picture, it sees things and people, in pieces.
• It is individualistic – protects the identity of ‘self’.  Us versus them.
• It keeps us in the 5 sensory, 3D realm; it is not intuitive. Intellect rules. And, it loves to be right and have predictability.
• It aligns with the qualities of our left-brain – it is the ‘head’.

Can you see both men and women you know who have qualities of both masculine and feminine? In fact, I see a spectrum of these qualities in every person I know. You see, we all have a right and a left-brain. The issue is that we are socially conditioned to define ourselves by a distorted definition of what it means to be male or female and what is valued and what is not.

In our society, the active is highly valued.  The active principle is ascribed to male, and male in our culture is ascribed to masculine. There is an emphasis that men are supposed to be active, focused and goal-directed, and aggressive – to a fault. No time for feelings, humor, intuition or connection. Even though, the men who tap into these qualities within themselves tend to have more charisma, likeability and frankly, greater leadership success!

Women are taught that feminine means ‘passive’. Yet, tacitly, we are expected to take care of everything outside of the realm of money and power – which means we have very little time to be receptive and connected from our heart and are prone to burnout and chronic fatigue trying to be all things at once. Because we ascribe goal-oriented and focused behavior to men instead of to our left-brain masculine energy or principle, women who are exhibit these qualities are labeled as ‘acting like a man’.

Now that I’ve given some examples of these Yin-Yang, brain-based, energy-based qualities of being human, I want to relate it to health and well-being.

It is when we can freely move along this spectrum of feminine and masculine energy within ourselves, that we can become healthy and whole. That we can express our own individual authenticity while still staying connected to others in relationships that are fulfilling and cooperative. We can allow others to be who they are and still feel secure about ourselves.

It is when we can access both sides of ourselves that we can be active and receptive, we can talk and listen. We can work hard and rest. We can be goal-directed once we have had time to slow down and reflect and see the big picture. This would actually save time by avoiding needless mistakes from rushing through our ideas. We can value sleep, recreation, and restoration when we value our feminine principle. We can access our assertiveness, speak up and make clear decisions when we own our masculine principles.

Our society overvalues activity and ‘doing’, individualistic self-centered thinking, and undervalues listening, taking time to rest and restoration, simply, ‘being’. This is one big reason that there is so much depression, relationship dissatisfaction, workplace unhappiness, and all of this helps to create chronic stress and disease. Our mind affects our body and when our body is tired, ill-nourished and uncared for – it affects our mind.

Integration is about rebalancing, whatever that may mean for you, and bringing together the whole of feminine and masculine energy within us. It is about blending in an authentic way. In integrative/functional medicine, we get to the root cause of disease, not simply medicate. Yet, while it is important to focus on the gut and removing triggers and repairing nutrition, let’s also remember that our thinking, feeling and behaviors also are a part of the rebalancing and healing process.

Our lifestyle matters and what impacts our lifestyle of course, is how we prioritize. We have to care about rest, being receptive to others by listening and being present. Cultivating healthy relationship and not always needing to be right or suck all the oxygen out the room for ourselves. This not only bring about healing energy for others, it truly helps us to heal our own whole being as well. It has been shown repeatedly that there is a connection between healthy relationships and a healthy body and mind.

Accessing both sides of ourselves in a holistic way – not just piecemeal is very important for well-being. We cannot hope to live healthy, happy and productive lives while living the lie that we are who we are based on an artificial definition of gender roles or social stereotypes. It is not a matter of ‘either/or’ thinking; 21st-century skillful living requires ‘both/and’ thinking – feminine and masculine. Both are equally important.

We can not get off the merry-go-round of chronic disease only living in the land of activity and treating the body like it is a mechanical thing. We will only begin to thrive when we put the soul back into the science of our technology and access our inner superpowers of both sides of who we really are. The root source of healing is restoring this connection between the head and the heart. This will then make it much easier for your body to get on board and align with its innate source of healing power.

The post Integration: The Root Source of Health and Well-Being appeared first on Valencia Ray, MD.

Your perception can obstruct your vision through your brain as much as a literal cloudy fog can hide a huge mountain in our environment. The photo on the left is the same portion of my backyard as the photo on the right taken only about an hour apart.

Where’s the mountain and the blue sky in the one on the left? From a perceptual viewpoint, it appears there is no mountain, we can’t see it. If we didn’t know better, we would not even assume there are other possibilities than the way we are currently looking at this area of the background.

Perception is ‘how’ we see, it’s the story or the meaning we assign to a given situation or circumstance based upon our unique way of looking at life.

Sometimes we can be even looking at a situation or event right in front of our eyes and not really see that there is more than one possibility of what is before us. Like the mountain range behind the fog. Very recently, during a period of heavy rain here in Northern California, I noticed that the vast mountain range behind my home seemed to disappear as the clouds and fog descended low enough to obstruct it, so I took the photo of my backyard from my window.

If I didn’t know better, it looked like there were no mountains, that the land behind my home was flat and that I was just seeing the edge of the sky on this rainy, dreary day. In reality, things were not as they seemed. In a little while, the clouds and fog rolled away to reveal the huge, majestic mountains and the beautiful sun and blue sky.

I found this situation to be a an interesting metaphor for perception. This is important to your mind and body health and well-being. Whether we realize it or not, things really are not always the way they seem, and in fact, they are generally are the way WE see; it is subjective based upon the meaning we assign due to our perception.

It’s like a ‘Cataract of the Soul’ that blocks the Light of our soul, who we really are, and keeps us from witnessing our own intrinsic worth and beauty and from seeing this beauty also in others.

As an ex-eye surgeon, I can tell you that most people had normal, healthy eyes behind their cataract, which is simply a clouding of the lens of the eye. Once removed, their vision typically returned to 20/20. We don’t often realize that there is more to a situation, person or explanation than meets the eye. Two individuals can come to very different conclusions based upon how they have unconsciously wired their brain over time and how they expect the outcomes to evolve.

They can have different, ‘stories’ for similar circumstances. So they ‘see’ things differently. Often we are metaphorically seeing the world through a ‘cloudy lens’ of perception.

For example, we’ve been taught that chronic disease is a part of aging. Therefore, when we buy into this, we assume that there’s nothing we can do to age with good health. We don’t look for causes in our behavior, food, or toxins in our environment that harming our mind and body and destroying our health. We ignore new research. We don’t pay attention to reports that show toxic foods and pesticides are harming out gut. We don’t recognize that allowing our mind to wander into negative self-talk is actually creating disease in our body through the stress response. We continue to only look for evidence that aligns with what we believe and we therefore miss evidence right before us. It’s like there’s a cloud blocking out potential. That’s perception.

This is how perception can work. When we are not aware of how we are conditioned and have unwittingly wired our mind with a host of self-limiting beliefs, we can make assumptions that we will never see our way clear again and become full of stress, anxiety or even become depressed. When we don’t have a vision for our life we only focus on the clouds and lose sight of the potential majesty that could be hidden from our view at the present time. However, if we take the path of higher wisdom, we can make room for the possibility in our mind that perhaps there is just a mis-perception within our thoughts. That things can change, that we can change. The the ‘authorities’ are wrong and that what we once thought was true, is just not true or certainly not for everyone. That we can expand our vision and possibilities and change our perception.

Instead of thinking less of our self and allowing our fear to rob us of peace of mind and even help create disharmony in our relationships and lives, we can learn to hold the faith and courage to recognize that there are beliefs and ways of seeing life that need to evolve if we are to reach our greater potential. As we change our beliefs, we will notice new information starting to show up in our view.

Our soul’s journey is one of remembering that underneath the surface, behind the clouds in our life lies the Light of our spirit that is magnificent, like the mountains, beautiful, strong and majestic all at the same time.

It just may be temporarily covered over by confusion in our mind and heart that cloud our vision for our life. If we make time to

• feed our soul and spirit, to contemplate and reflect
• develop the trust in our inner spirit to guide us
• to apply the actions of our intuitive nudges that come from within our heart…

…we will be able to expand our vision for our lives as the circumstances shift and the clouds roll away in our perception to see the hidden beauty that was there all along. We can open our mind to new ways to heal our bodies and reverse chronic disease. This is the new science. It also requires your active belief change to participate.

The more willing we become to learn and grow and recognize that retraining our brain and mind and ‘making friends with our emotions’ is a skill that we can develop, the easier it becomes to navigate the storms and clouds that show up in our lives, including our health.

As we get to know our inner lives and the power within us to cut through the confusion and fog around us, we are better able to live with greater purpose, passion and to see the beauty that is hidden from our perception within the context of our everyday lives.

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