WINDOWS INTO THE SPIRIT ⠀ In East Asian medicine, we look into our patients’ eyes to assess their Shen or Spirit. We look for whether it is anchored or flying, sparkling or dull, engaged or distant. We look for the state of their spirit and heart in the present moment. ⠀ ⠀ A teacher challenged me the other day, asking me how the mindfulness counseling work I’m learning may step outside the bounds of my scope of practice as a soon-to-be licensed acupuncturist. A great question!⠀ ⠀ I answered that to me “integrative mental health” is sitting with the heart of another. It is being in the spaciousness of my heart and opening to the spaciousness of another’s. In fact, all of the traditional systems of healing I’ve come across don’t separate mental health from physical or spiritual. Decolonizing medicine, to me, is a process of returning to this basic wisdom, that: ⠀ ⠀ EACH OF US IS A LIVING BREATHING UNIVERSE, we are generations, warmth processes, we are climates and ecosystems, we are spirits encased in folds of flesh and water bones. ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ I am not getting a degree in mental health to treat mental health specifically (my focus is women’s and reproductive health). I am getting it so that my work can be grounded in listening, in holding space for all of who arrives. ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ If you are struggling right now or have a history of trauma, find a practitioner who is trauma-informed and has training and experience working with trauma. By @flowerhandwellness 👁️🌙🕸️ #Artisnotacrime #DivineFemi9 #PoeticJustice #Pimpthesystem #Higherconsciousness #Hiphopmystic #Healing #WombtangForever
