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9929 North 95th Street
Scottsdale, AZ, 85258
United States
844-662-2536
Get Healthy Naturally with Jennifer Schmid | Speaker. Healer. Nurse. Naturopath.
Our latest blogs and podcasts on earth-based medicine, current trends in healthcare, and finding the balance.
Filtering by Tag: healing
Let’s get a little woo woo for a minute, shall we?
I have a ridiculous amount of tools and knowledge in my healing box.
There is one tool I have that surpasses the others.
Of all the tools in my healing box, the most important, the most powerful, is love.
Read MoreThere is no podcast this week. In honor of last week’s new moon in Libra, I have been releasing old wounds that hold me back in my business and my relationships and prevent me from realizing my potential as a woman, a mother, and a healer.
As part of the healing process and at the suggestion of a friend and colleague who is a psychotherapist for the gifted, I burned a stack of about 20 poems that I had written in high school. Most of them were about unrequited love (sigh…), being the rejected ugly duckling, and how dreams couldn’t possibly come true. While each poem burned, I said thank you and good-bye to the words and their significance. I let go of the angst, the pain, the shame, and the fear. I made room for beauty, love, and gratitude. Then after I burned the poems, I realized there was much more within.
Read MoreIn the first segment of our 3-part Empowerment series, I discussed why it’s so important for patients and providers to feel empowered, and how we can use the Internet as a way to stay informed on best current practices. Today, we look at an uglier side of our health care system based on the outdated beliefs that the health care provider is always right, and Western medicine has all the answers.
Except in trauma, Western medicine excels at suppressing symptoms, but it’s not so good at helping people to heal. (I define healing as coming back as strong or even stronger than before the illness or health issue developed.) Even worse, our health care system is rife with practitioners – from all ranks of medicine, both conventional and alternative – who believe that they know better than their patients. And rather than using information to empower their patients, they use fear, coercion, and sometimes force to manipulate their patients into “patient compliance”, making them go along with treatments that are expensive, not evidence based, and/or may cause harm to the patient.
I know these are strong words to use. The problem is, people contact me every week because they want options. They question why their doctor is “requiring” that they or their child endure a treatment or intervention that might cause them harm, whether those treatments are surgery, chemotherapy, or supplements. They feel intuitively there must be a different way, but their provider is not providing them with any options.
It’s the ugly side of our health care system, and it is hurting patients.
Read MoreIf information is power, then the Internet – long crowned the “information superhighway” – provides both patients and health care providers a compelling platform for empowerment. Patients want to know about their choices and treatment options -- ALL of their options, not just what was taught in medical school ten, twenty, thirty years ago.
Read MoreHave you noticed that nature can’t be rushed? My attempt at a summer vegetable garden this year reminded me that nature is boss and works at her own tempo.It is the same thing with healing our bodies. You can’t rush healing or getting healthy.
Read MoreMost of the time, people become my clients because they are unhappy with the prescriptions they get from their doctors, whether conventional or naturopathic. They are overwhelmed by the pharmaceuticals, supplements, and diet changes that their provider insists they must swallow and follow for what seems like an infinite amount of time -- a year, the foreseeable future, or in some cases, forever. And that saps any possibility of joy from their potential healing. The client loses their mojo. They see Mt. Everest before them. Huge. Looming. Insurmountable.
Why in the world would they want to invest the time, money, and energy in a process that might or might not heal them, but will, in their eyes, cause them to suffer, whether physically or emotionally? To me, that’s a bitter pill to swallow.
I do not believe in telling my clients they have to “suffer through it,” “stick it out,” "feel crappy," “endure it,” or anything of that nature. Yuck.
One of the fundamental tenets of the work I do is to show people how to capture the joy in healing. Healing – no matter how it comes about -- should be FUN. If you’re going to spend the time, money, and energy to heal, it needs to feel good, whether it involves whole foods, herbs, or diet and lifestyle changes.
This is not some idealistic Pollyanna scam on my part. Like all of the work that I do, this premise is based on science. Just look at the research surrounding laughter as medicine. When patients feel joy, they feel better. It doesn’t matter if they’re depressed, have cancer, walk with pain, or are on dialysis. Their symptoms improve.
Therefore, incorporating joy and fun into a client’s journey towards optimal wellness is critical. They are integral components of earth-based medicine, especially where food is concerned.
We all understand the joy and comfort that we get from eating certain foods and drinking certain beverages. Unfortunately many of these foods and beverages take away from our health, particularly when we are dealing with some sort of health crisis.
For instance, I had a client, Liz*, who came to me wanting to lose weight and unable to kick a 30 year Diet Coke habit. She drank anywhere from 5-10 cans a day. She knew the Diet Coke was unhealthy and contributed to her weight gain, but she enjoyed drinking it during her stressful day as a high-tech executive. I asked her what she specifically liked about the soda, and she said, “The bubbles refresh me.” I suggested that she drink mineral water instead. Violà – the Diet Coke habit disappeared in one week, and she’s been on a healing journey ever since. All we had to do was tap into her joy.
Patricia*, who was already an amazing cook, has started listening to music while making dinner. She says the food tastes better, she is eating more slowly, and her digestion has improved.
Children especially need to have fun when they’re healing. Kate*, a beautiful 11 year old, came to me with her mom recently after dealing with debilitating joint pain for over a year. She has been to countless doctors, all of whose different diagnoses and prescriptions, despite their best intentions and steep costs, have caused Kate to suffer even more. Some recent bloodwork suggests that Kate needs to make some major changes to her diet, including not eating her Halloween candy. Together with her mom, we figured out what would bring her joy instead of the sugar, and she left my office empowered and smiling, knowing she would get some of her favorite Pangea Organics lip balm at the end of her candy-free week. There might even be a trip to Disneyland in the spring.
When you give people options, when you take the time to find out what brings them joy and what’s “fun” to them, you also tap into their innermost source of deep healing. Yes, healing can mean making major life changes, but these changes should be rooted in joy, not suffering.
I want my clients to have fun while they’re healing. I want them to savor the physical and emotional joy that comes from their symptoms disappearing and from living life to the fullest. My clients are redefining wellness for themselves and having a darn good time in the process. And that’s what I call medicine.
*Names have been changed to protect clients’ privacy.
The question is, how does one practice self-care when time and/or finances are tight? For me, it always comes down to using earth-based medicine – using the earth as a source to heal, empower, and rejuvenate.
Read MoreHow many people do you know who suppress their need to rejuvenate, who pick themselves up in the morning with their Starbucks grande and numb themselves in the evening with wine, beer, or whiskey? How many nurses and doctors do you know who are hooked on coffee, junk food, and Diet Coke to get through their long shifts? As a patient, how does it make you feel when you meet your doctor/nurse/practitioner for the first time, and they’re 50 pounds overweight, with big, dark circles under their eyes, and they too tired to greet you with a smile?
Read MoreLast Tuesday morning started off as what many might call, “a bad day.” I won’t go into the gory details, but by lunch, I was home from the office and running myself a hot bath full of essential oils to lift my spirits.
Within 30 seconds of soaking and deep breathing, a new day dawned.
Read More