Two decades (7,300 days 😮) is a long time to learn and grow. Over the past two decades as a holistic psychiatrist, I've changed a lot. In fact, one of the things that has changed is my willingness to embrace change. It's easier now for me to look forward with excitement and anticipation to life's changes.
Today's article is the third and last one in a series that reflects back on my years of practice and asks: What has changed?
I've discovered that certain perspectives, which had once been a big part of my life, no longer influence me. It's part of my healing process, and I'm very grateful for it. Keep reading for a list of the top three perspectives that I don't assume anymore.
Have a fun week!
Three Perspectives That I Don't Assume Anymore
Reflections After 20 Years as a Holistic Psychiatrist
As a holistic psychiatrist, I spend a lot of time thinking about thinking from different perspectives. In fact, most of my work centers around "using" thoughts to heal other thoughts, just as a carpenter might use a hammer to put together a house.
As a thought builder, it's critical for me to have clarity about thoughts: what is true and false, what is good and bad. However, often my focus is on examining others' thoughts, and not focused on myself.
Thankfully, as I heal others, the process benefits me as well. Over time, I find myself healing root perspectives that need adjustment. Here are three big ones that have changed over the past twenty years:
1. Pills are more powerful than thoughts in healing. Being accustomed to using a pill to heal people, it was not impossible for me to imagine that nutritional supplements in the form of pills can heal people too. But to leap from using pills to using thoughts for healing requires more faith and intuition. How can something invisible heal the visible?
From my empirical observations, I cannot deny that thoughts can heal powerfully and miraculously. I assume they work at the vibrational level of being. Healing with helpful thoughts requires a new way of perceiving, measuring, and assessing their effects.
Using intention to heal blockages requires careful consideration and dosing, just as a pharmacist would measure out a certain kind of blood thinner for a patient who has blood clots blocking the circulation.
Healing with the use of positive, true thoughts belongs to the field of energy medicine. I believe that consciousness can manipulate and shift energy at the level of consciousness. I have demonstrated its immediate effects countless times. Change proceeds from a pinpoint shift of energy, like a domino effect, until it manifests at the level of matter.
2. One person can't make a difference. Sometimes, through compassion, we begin with a desire to help someone even though we may feel insignificant or inadequate. We give it a try despite our insecurities and ignorance. With repeated successes, we grow in confidence and understanding.
After twenty years and countless experiences, I've come to gradually release the presumption of my own insignificance. I've come to realize that one person can make a profound difference. In fact, to my own wonder, that one person includes me.
We all question our self-worth at some point and ask, "What can one person do?" The essential question to ask is "What can I do?
I can't do everything, but I can do something. I hope that you will also release the presumption of your own insignificance once you realize that you matter.
The influence of your thoughts and actions spreads like an endless ripple as it permeates the whole world. If the flapping of butterfly wings is significant, how much more powerful is each person's impact on the world?
3. Perceiving life hierarchically. People tend to think in terms of comparisons. Higher or lower? More or less? Bigger or smaller?
I'm still working on changing how I compare my circumstances to others, but I think that it's a knee-jerk perspective that needs to stop. Take the example of a flower. Are its petals more important than its roots because one is higher than the other? Are the roots better than the stem because there are more branches?
Of course, it's harder when it comes to human beings. Is one person more important than another because one makes more money? Is that person more important than this person because she is more famous? Is this man more important than another person because he has higher social status?
How do I perceive life as a holistic psychiatrist? I see life as an opportunity to explore experiences holistically and deeply. I believe that life continues forever, and there will be other opportunities beyond this life where we can keep on growing and exploring.
We are here to explore many varied experiences: love and hate, wealth and poverty, power and helplessness. The list goes on.
In the end, I believe that life is light, and what it wants to experience most of all is what it hasn't experienced before. As soon as life shines in a new field of being/experience, that space will magically transform into something better.
For me, Life is simply being—it is neither high nor low, big nor small. Life is an eternal, magical adventure of exploration.
Have a wonderful week exploring life!
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This week, I am staying at an Earthship house to try out what it feels like to live "off grid" in a house made of garbage, like rubber tires, tin cans, and glass bottles. The house uses solar energy and filters its own waste and water.
Instead of a podcast this week, I thought I would share a funny, little poem I wrote while on vacation. It's located on my website under the Creative Writing section. See below for "Can't Do Nothin'." I hope you'll enjoy it!
Can’t Do Nothin’
He said I “can’t do nothin’.”
My mind is always thinkin’.
But I’ll show him instead,
as I sit here in bed
that I can do somethin’
about putterin’ and squattin’
I’m going to meditate and listen
to the wind as it’s whistlin’,
watch the light outside the windows,
sheets shielding me from the spring’s cold.
Yeah, not a thought in my head.
I’m just staring blankly, unfed . . .
Okay, I admit that I’ve been readin’.
The computer screen’s open,
and my fingers have been tappin’.
Some words to a poem came unbidden,
Trickling down like rain from heaven.
Kerplunk, they landed just when
I was creating my state of Zen.
I give up. It’s time to stop.
It’s too hard for me to do nothin’.
The stars aligned just so at my birthin’.
Don't play—step up and start cookin’.
Now that I’m old and even on vacation,
The astrologist’s right; I can’t do nothin’.
Alice W. Lee