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.

In general, we are all taught that we need medication to control the diseases that show up in our body and that once we get a disease that is chronic, we just have to learn to live with it and be on medication for the rest of our lives. We are taught that we have no control over getting sick.

We are taught that we need flu shots for what used to be called, ‘the common cold’. There is so much controversy on this issue that you will just have to decide for yourself what is the truth or not. I personally, have never received a flu shot – and I’ve done just fine, thank you.

We are taught that aging equals disease. That our genes are our destiny and there’s nothing we can do about those affecting our health. Wrong again. We are taught that calories are calories and that carbohydrates are carbohydrates, that fats are fats – so not true.

Gulping down high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) sodas carbs – that by the way, HFCS can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease big time, and this is the leading cause for the need of a liver transplant these days – these carbs are very different carbs than those found in sweet potatoes or green veggies.

And, all fats are not the same – the source matters, the animal’s treatment in farming matters to the quality of the protein, whether or not pesticides and chemical processing were used – all matters to disease formation in your body!

Do you realize that a sickly, depressed, antibiotic-filled cow can be affected by environmental conditions and its epigenomic expression changed by its farming conditions, and this, in turn, can affect yours?  These are theories emerging right now in the field of epigenetics.

So, now you start to feel the cow’s depression…oh, oh. Your genes are not your destiny! Your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and environment affects the expression of genes affecting your health and well-being. This is true for the cow and it is true for you also.

Clean food is good medicine.

Integrative and functional medicine are new terms and can mean different things to different people. Integrative is defined as serving or intending to unify separate things. It is a type of systemic approach, it is seeing the whole picture and the whole person. It may bring in some of the old ways that are useful, but discards what is not.

It looks at the spirit, the mind, emotions, and body as a whole unit. There are some things from the traditional model of medicine that may be helpful. If so, we can integrate it into newer more effective ways of healing.

Functional medicine would include this approach. It, however, is not focused on symptoms and labeling people with diagnosis and then covering these symptoms up with medication. Instead, it is the search for the root cause.

It looks at the whole environment of the person, both internally and externally. It looks at food choices and symptoms that could be associated with foods. The thoughts, feelings, behaviors, triggers, environment, including people and even chemicals – that affect the patient/person being examined. It all matters.

The goal of functional medicine is to bring back homeostasis and balance, to bring back a healthy body and mind functioning. Not simply tick off a checklist of tests for the annual physical exam. With this existing traditional or allopathic model, doctors often watch and wait until a disease process gets bad enough that it is equally a threat to the life of the individual as the side effects of the medication.

By just waiting and watching, let’s say for example in osteoporosis, it is more difficult for functional medical approaches to heal the process, but still, it would be important to the process. Why wait until you are crippled, or even worse, dead?

Why suffer like this? You do have options, contrary to what you probably think. Don’t wait and watch, see a functional medicine physician!

Using medication for depression and anxiety without teaching the patient how to shift their thinking or without addressing the potential underlying gut-brain imbalance will potentially just lead the person down a deep, dark hole of chemical imbalance and dependency on drugs. Yes, sometimes it may be needed acutely, but this is not the long-term solution by any means.

A functional medicine approach addresses what is the underlying causes for the mood issues or anxiety.

Why should you care?

If you don’t care, and stay in the existing disease care system that is the model of healthcare in the U.S., hopefully, you never develop chronic disease. The odds are, you will, due to our environmental toxins, poor food quality for the masses, and high-stress levels without good teaching of self-management skills.

We understand our cell phones operating system better than we do our own brain’s! And we can simply learn the basics of how to do this in ways that are extremely self-empowering!

The outcomes and statistics, the financial burden of this system, are the worst in the world when it comes to chronic disease.

Also, when you work with a knowledgeable functional medicine physician, you can re-educate yourself about food and empower yourself to stay healthy. To not gain weight with aging. To lose weight and keep it off if you have gained weight already. To feel more energetic and vital than you ever thought possible.

And, you can grow your bank account instead of having it drained by over-the-top, nightmarish, hospital medical bills. Even more importantly…you can avoid suffering and pain.

Ultimately, we all have choices to make. You can choose to keep doing things the same way, and keep the brain fog, the leg cramps, the anxiety, the depression, the low energy, the bowel and digestive problems, diabetes, thyroid and other autoimmune issues, weight gain, and general malaise – or you can take back control of your health. Integrative/Functional medicine is the best path to your best life – and puts you back in control.