Holistic Medicine is a form of healing that considers the whole-person; body, mind, and spirit, in the quest for optimal health and wellness. While my background are in psychology and medicine, my soul has always had a yearning for traditional eastern philosophies. Therefor, I have chosen to embark on my journey in a holistic manner.

Holistic healing seeks to treat imbalances and choices leading to a more balanced lifestyle. While here, in the states, the Science of Medicine is traditionally healing with medicine, I also find it to be a bit more like symptom management, rather than addressing the cause or the imbalances that may cause the ailment to begin with.

Holistic healing is not a replacement for traditional medicine, rather a way to address the "whole person."

Many physical illnesses are symptoms of a greater imbalance that may or may not have a root cause. The holistic healer recognizes that our discomforts or pains are merely symptoms of an imbalance. The holistic healer looks at the whole person, to include physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

I have spent most of the past 17 years fighting major depressive disorder and potentially Bi-polar II disorder. I have tried various medications, talk therapy, support groups, counseling and everything else modern medicine has to offer. Sometimes, I feel better, although it is usually short lived. Sometimes, I feel worse.

With my history of medication and its varying success rates, I have chosen to integrate traditional and modern modalities in my quest for wellness. I intend to try different holistic methods as well as modern medicine (aka anti-depressants) in my quest.

I hope you find this blog to be informative, as I document my experiences and my journey. Take what you want a leave the rest. Please, consider this to be an interactive journey, there is strength in sharing and together, we can help one another rise from the ashes of our own pasts to find a healthier, more balanced way of living.

I have seen holistic described as Body-Mind-Spirit, sometimes including other things, such as emotions or heart as a 4th category. For the purposes of this blog, I have chosen to go with three primary categories  of Body-Mind-Spirit. I have also chosen to add  additional categories: Environment, and Energy, as well as several subcategories within each.  Let's take a closer look:

Body - includes everything of the physical body and incorporates most forms of modern medicine such as nutrition, exercise, medication and sleep as well as some "alternative" modalities of the physical body, including massage, acupuncture, reike, Ayurveda, chiropractic, acupressure, essential oils and herbs.

Mind- This category will include things such as traditional medications, various types of psychotherapy, journaling, counseling, stress management techniques and sleep, but also seeks to look at biofeedback, NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), meditation and mindfulness.

Spirit - In this category, I intend to look at religion, meditation, mindfulness, contemplation, prayer and other techniques to heal the spirit.

Environment - I have chosen to add this category, as a way to look at outlying or external things that  can have an impact on the whole-person, such as relationships, de-cluttering, hobbies, music, aromatherapy, routines and other things in our environment which can have a huge impact on the way we feel.

Energy - Many traditional (vs modern) approaches to holistic medicine look closely at energy or life force. Energy work or tapping into the body's own frequencies, has long been practiced in Chinese medicine. Things I will investigate in this modality include reike, reflexology, tapping, tai chi, chakra cleansing and others.

Since I am just starting my journey, these categories I have chosen to focus on will likely evolve with research, experience and success (or lack of). For now, I intend to try to contain my research to these 5 categories.

Do you think these 5 categories are sufficient? Tell me what you think