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Ancient Medicine for Modern People

by Kristy Vanacore

Roughly 88 percent of people are currently metabolically unhealthy and carrying one or more diagnoses of chronic health conditions. Regardless of race or culture, humans innately carry the medicine of lineages of ancestors who wove Earth’s wisdom like healing tapestries. As modern times have uprooted us from these essential connections, the consequences have been dire. Like the domesticated animals on the verge of extinction, our inner fires have been extinguished, creating insufferable physical and psychological illness.

From the shamanic perspective, all physical illness is an expression of energetic imbalance. If one were a villager and went to a shaman, or medicine person, presenting with any ailment, they would be asked four questions: When did you stop singing? When did you stop dancing? When did you stop believing in the magic of storytelling? When did you stop finding comfort in silence?

It has been said that trauma isn’t what happened to us; it’s what happened inside of us because of what happened to us. Trauma is residual energy stuck in the connective tissues of the body. The energy blockages wreak havoc on the brain and body, suffocating cells and obstructing life flow, creating fertile ground for illnesses to breed. Trauma is an urgent public health crisis, and true healing is available to those who become “ReWilded”.

To ReWild means to return to our natural processes and rhythms, to restore and reclaim the essence of humanness. By freeing ourselves from domestication and social conditioning, we can reconnect with our roots, rekindle our instincts and reclaim our inherent curiosity, passion, ingenuity, instinctual wisdom, boundless joy and potent self-healing capacities that are critical for physical, energetic, psychological and spiritual well-being.

Years ago, our ancestors spent their days rising with the sun, hunting under the light of the sun, eating their harvest, then fasting and retiring to sleep with the sunset. They didn’t rely on clocks, calendars or to-do lists. They listened to their intuition and the voice of nature. They regularly gathered as tribes for ceremonies and rituals with dancing, singing and storytelling intended for healing and celebration, as they knew those practices move stuck energy. They cultivated many moments of stillness and silence to commune with nature and their own inner landscapes.

Our human bodies have been designed to live in a harmonious relationship with nature’s cycles. For instance, women’s menstrual cycles are in sync with the moon cycles every 28 days. We have a circadian rhythm—a 24hour cycle that corresponds to light and dark that both produces and regulates hormones, specifically insulin, cortisol and melatonin.

We were built to utilize natural vitamin D infusions from the sun’s electromagnetic field—the source of our cells’ mitochondrial coding. We are built to metabolize a diet of healthy fats and proteins, and to fast periodically to induce our innate self-healing mechanism known as autophagy, which allows us to naturally clean out sick cells like cancer, and to clean the plaque from our brains. We also have internal seasons that mirror the Earth’s seasons—each of which carries its own energy, emotion and element.

Today, humans are experiencing “evolutionary mismatch”— meaning that the demands of our modern lifestyle are at odds with our inherent genetic programming. This is precisely why so many of us feel completely disoriented, disconnected, devoid of a purpose and sick.

During the day, we are indoors sitting at a desk for eight to 10 hours per day. We stay up late at night staring at computer screens in brightly, artificially lit rooms. We sleep erratically, eat highly processed carbohydrates that carry a shelf life of 20 years and use birth control to shut down our natural menstrual cycles. Our nervous systems are stuck in hyperarousal, and “flight-or-fight” is just how we live, as though we are in constant imminent danger.

As the pressures of modern life continue to threaten our health and vitality, it is imperative that we reconnect with our potent self-healing medicine—the innate universal healing salves that are so readily available to us. It’s time to remember.

Dr. Kristy Vanacore is a spiritual visionary, medicine woman and sacred storyteller who weaves ancient wisdom with modern science to empower families to thrive. A prominent trailblazer in the field of holistic psychology for two decades, she has revolutionized the personal development industry by creating an innovative mentoring program for all ages and stages that includes coaching, collective healing experiences, evidence-based psychological therapies, somatic/ movement-based practices, energy medicine and Shamanic healing techniques. Connect at 914-497-8006, Kristy.Vanacore@KMVGroup.org or KMVGroup.org. See ad, page 19.

Why Words Matter

by Marlaina Donato

From witchy incantations in Shakespeare’s Macbeth to ancient Sanskrit mantras; from the stirring speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the divinely inspired poetry of the Sufis, words have bridged the chasm between the visible and the invisible since the dawn of human language. They have the capacity to conjure change, rock the boat, manipulate mood and alter the inner landscape.

According to language research center Ethnologue, there are more than 7,000 languages in the world. We use words every day to communicate, to learn, to teach, to bond with kindred souls and to win opinion wars on social media. We can use words as medicine or weapons, and we too often forget their power.

Many religious texts draw attention to the spoken word, especially in creation stories and the creative capacity of deity. In the Vedanta Sutra, an ancient Vedic text, the phrase anavritti sabdat translates to “by sound vibration, one becomes liberated.” Consider what it would be like if we each made a daily commitment to use everyday words as a conscious tool for healing—a practical form of spiritual discipline from which everyone might benefit.

In our age of rapidly developing technology and jam-packed schedules, the spoken word is becoming a casualty in the daily blur of abbreviated texts and emojis. Forty percent of the world’s languages are on the threshold of extinction, and so is the language of everyday courtesy and compassion. “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” the old saying goes, but words do hurt, chipping away at our mental health in the classroom, on the checkout line at the supermarket and in our social media newsfeeds.

Negativity-overwhelm has become the norm. If the mystics of old are correct regarding the energetic impact of our words, thoughts and self-talk, incredible power awaits on the tip of our tongues. With a little bit of attention and intention, there’s so much we might be able to create for ourselves and others.

Words are seeds, and we can sow life-sustaining gardens for generations to follow. Consider what to plant today.

Marlaina Donato is the author of several books and a composer of visionary music. Connect at WildflowerLady.com.

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