In the tension between Western and natural approaches, I took a side

[Nivsch]

Not in a simplistic manner though.

My thinking went through three phases.

Phase 1 - Mainly western approach, Until the end of 2019

I believed that the combination of a pill I took for anxiety, with the mindfulness practice is the best long term.

Phase 2 - Natural approach

At the beginning of 2020 I had an anxiety wave I have not had for years, what made me start experimenting with nutrition, start tapering the drug down very slowely (still to this day! that slow. never do this fast) and started to feel better in the following years, had cognitive breakthroughs about myself and about how to manage my thoughts, what made me believe in the intelligence of my brain and body to solve their problems.

Phase 3 - From 2026 actually

After a couple of years of a constant trend of improvement and feeling between OK to good most of the time, I had another anxiety wave which took couple of months, which at the end of it, this January, made me surrender many things, be more humble, less intelectualizing my thoughts (what I thought to work great for years turned out to be limited and not enough), more immersed mentally with nature, and also practically with returning to invest more in my nutrition, and seeing myself more as just part of nature, listen much more to premitive desires (which I am deficient in) and devote the following year mainly for them.

So which is better, the Western approach or nature?

So during last years I got triggered almost every time a family member talked about her training in psychiarty in her medicine degree, and basically each time I felt they are talking too much on western strategies of all kinds for physical and mental health.

But this week, I learned something new about the problems with the human childbirth process. This was the first or at least the most significant moment in which I accepted the incompleteness of nature comes from natural selection, but at the same time I saw why this is precisely the reason for the genius of the human body and its ability to keep us alive in a way that no technology could do for even one single hour.

So I feel things have kind of integrated better from this moment, and I feel now much more confident to talk about those topics when taking even more than before the side of nature and the natural approaches.

In taking a side, I don't mean overlooking the intersections where western approaches are crucial and life saving, but just to put that in proportion, and hopefully no longer getting insecure and triggered in family conversations when I agreed to fall into that "complexity nihilism" of "Yeah both approaches are important" leaving the natural approach still not getting the respect it really deserves from family members, society and culture.

So to sum it up, I feel I am coming out of this last wave with an even deeper connection to myself and seeing more sharply the gap between the intelligence of nature and the credit it gets in our time, and I am aiming to incorporate those insights into my therapy work with other people, which I started in the last year (of course after completing the appropriate courses) and to show the side I took in an ever clearer way.

Edited 17 hours ago by Nivsch

[Koeke]

That sounds wonderful. It was nice to read. 

 

9 minutes ago, Nivsch said:

In taking a side, I don't mean overlooking the intersections where western approaches are crucial and life saving, but just to put that in proportion, and hopefully no longer getting insecure and triggered in family conversations when I agreed to fall into that "complexity nihilism" of "Yeah both approaches are important" leaving the natural approach still not getting the respect it really deserves from family members, society and culture.

This is relatable. Although I am also avoidant of these kinds of topics. I find that people either respond way too confidently or too sceptically/stubbornly.

However, over the years I'm learning that there are many angles from which people's minds can be opened when talking about such holistic topics (relating to Eastern wisdom, compassion, metaphysics).