Happy day after Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is meant to be a holiday in which you express your gratitude and appreciation for all the people and wonderful things in your life. However, why should there only be one day out of an entire year in which you say your thanks and show your appreciation? Believe it or not, being grateful and counting your blessings can actually be very healing and therapeutic because you begin to focus more on what you do have rather than paying attention to what you do not have. Healing is about focusing on the positivity around you and that is the purpose of expressing gratitude.

I took a class on Physiology and Psychology of Stress a few quarters ago, and in that class, we worked with a few modalities for managing stress and anxiety. One of them was keeping a Gratitude Journal. My journal is the one pictured here and I created that specifically to use in this class. Our homework was to write in it everyday about something that we are grateful for in our lives. Mine started with expressing the more obvious ones, such as being grateful for all my loved ones, family, friends, having a job, my home, my Masters program, my professors, and my list continued. Then I began to realize that I was grateful for my computer, my cell phone, and even my water bottle and all the other “little” things I had in my life. I soon started to journal not only what I was thankful for, but also why.

In the process of having a Gratitude Journal, you realize that you have more to be grateful for than you realize. It’s very healing and it really does lift your spirits. As you journal about them, feel free to share some of your gratitude with those you are close to or feel comfortable sharing with. You can never go wrong in sharing your appreciation for someone or something. Gratitude journaling is also a great exercise when you feel stressed, anxious, and even depressed. I recommend that you begin and end each day by acknowledging something that you are grateful for. Gratitude is very nourishing for the heart, mind, and soul and with over time, gratitude will become a part of your life.

With that said, I thank you all for reading my health blog and I shall leave you today with this quote by Anthony Robbins: “When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”

With love,

Varsha

I know that it has been quite some time since my last blog entry. But I am now back and with some interesting posts coming up, which include nutrition, spirituality, health conditions, home remedies, and overall health promotion topics. And of course, all my entries revolve around the topic of healing. For me, curing is different than healing. I am a promoter of health and healing. One of my goals as a health professional is to empower every individual…your health is in your hands. You have more control over your health and your decisions than it may seem. Do not be afraid to question or challenge your doctor or any medical provider you work with. When it comes to your health, go with what you believe is to be true.

Yes, I do pulse diagnosis and I work with a variety of health conditions. But I do not just treat symptoms…I work with the whole person. I am in alternative medicine and if you are simply looking for a cure or a magic pill, I am not your go-to person. When it comes to your health, there is no such thing as a miracle pill. Ayurveda will tell you the same thing along with all the other modalities of healing. For true healing to occur, it takes time, patience, and work. Healing is a journey and a process, and is not always about the pill.

We live in a world governed by Big Pharma that says that there is a pill for everything. The more reading you do, the more you will discover that Big Pharma is all about the money and not so much about healing. Don’t get me wrong, Big Pharma has helped to do some good as well, especially in cases of trauma, chronic diseases, and increasing life span, but they also do not have all the answers. The truth is that nobody has all the answers for every single problem. That is why people work together in teams to come up with solutions. Do not be afraid to get second opinions.

As a child, I was vaccinated with the BCG vaccine, which prevents Tuberculosis, also known as TB. Therefore, if you ever do a TB skin test, you will test positive because you already have the antibodies for it. As a teenager, I was given the skin test to be able to work at the hospital and therefore, I tested false positive. I went and got a chest x-ray and I was cleared to be negative for TB. However, I still had to visit my pediatrician. I went and saw her and she said that I needed to be put on a six-month medication program. I was recommended to take medication for a condition that I did not have! Where is the logic in that? My parents took me in for a second opinion in which the doctor said that I did not need to be medicated and that I should never ever take another skin test in my life. The nurse who administered the TB-skin test overlooked the fact that I had a BCG vaccine. For all of you out there with a BCG vaccine, keep in mind that you are to never take the skin test, which could potentially end up being fatal. You are to do the chest x-ray.

How does my tangent story relate to healing? Well, think about it. If my parents and I had blindly trusted the first doctor, I would have had to take medication with adverse side effects. I still remember hearing the doctor say that the side effects of the primary medication included kidney and liver failure so I would need additional drugs to balance the first drug. That’s scary. Healing also means to follow common sense. Get second opinions and do not blindly trust your health to just anybody. Do your research!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks, where I will share with you my meaning of healing and some different methods for healing, along with what true healing is really all about.

In the meantime, I ask all of you to explore what your meaning of healing is? How do you define healing?

Happy healing!

Varsha