When Medicine Gets Lazy

Medicine can get lazy, that's a fact. While research and technological advances in medicine are happening everyday, the nuts and bolts of a doctor's appointment don't always reflect the benefits of this work. Yet, the doctor's appointment is where healing should start taking place. Too often, patients are given the run around through differing diagnoses, put through batteries of tests, given discouraging messages about their health, and sparked with fear toward their own bodies. What can we do when medicine gets lazy and fearful?

Health is not meant to be built around fear, so the first step toward supporting your body and well-being is to question and debunk the fear tactics used toward you in a doctor's office, if you do encounter them. It's not a common topic of conversation, but medicine is both a business and an institution in many cases, and therefore will have its own agenda that doesn't always take into account how you're feeling. At the same time, we're told to see medical establishments and the providers working there as an authority over our health.

You can see the conflict of interest that can arise in this setup. If you are told that you are helpless without a specific pharmaceutical drug, that lab results define everything about your health, or that your health is somehow a burden and nuisance, it's time to take a step back from the medical system and get back in touch with your body and how you want to feel in it. You can still seek advice and second opinions from trusted health professionals, but recognize yourself as an authority on your health too. After all, you're the only one living your life and in touch with your body on a daily basis.

Next, don't wait until a doctor's appointment to pay attention to your health, daily habits, and how you're feeling. Your body gives you signals and clues on a daily basis as to where you can show more care to yourself and how you're feeling. How you're feeling means not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Suppressed experiences, emotions, and thoughts are a leading source of chronic symptoms and fatigue, and often apathy about life in general.

Today's medical system often does not get at the underlying roots of how you're feeling on a mind-body level. However, you can do this type of investigation of your health on your own. When you try this approach, you'll be employing preventive health measures that can help you feel better, avoid excessive symptoms, and make your health visits more effective when you do have them.

Third, stay informed. Try not to lose curiosity and the desire to learn about yourself and your health just because modern medicine doesn't always feel like a caring or healing environment. There are resources and services out there in the medical field that will work with you and use a more educational and preventive style toward health care. However, there are also less healthy influences in medicine which can be discouraging and make you want to give up at times. Listen to yourself when these unhelpful voices enter the picture, and that way you can stay informed and educated about your options when it comes to supporting your body's health, vitality, and longevity.

Your health is not a burden, chore, or hopeless situation and if you allow the space in your own life to acknowledge this, you will be prepared if you happen to encounter negativity and discouraging messages out in the world of medicine. You and your body possess an innate intelligence and healing potential, so communicate with it and you will find that it will respond back to you too.