Looking Behind the Curtain of Truth and Health

In my health care practice, “looking behind the curtain” is where the journey begins. It is often challenging for people - it can even be frightening for some to accept the responsibility to engage in testing and to see in black and white what is building in the background. As people, we come with all kinds of constitutions - ones that tease us into thinking we are “fine” because symptoms are not present, ones that tease us into thinking we are sick when we are not, and ones that are somewhere in the middle, knowing there may be something brewing but seeing it as “separate” from everything else. Finding your individual constitution and utilizing appropriate types and schedules for testing/confirming is what it means to look behind the curtain. As a practice, it helps us get to the truth and avoid relying on just what is obvious.

This is something we are also facing in our current health crisis. This blog is written for the purpose of acknowledging how extraordinarily difficult it is to be in a time of such conflict and also how extraordinarily important it is to stay present, respectful, and ever mindful of the choices we make in the expenditure of our energy. Regarding the latter, looking behind the curtain most often appears to be just “too much” energy to expend, so we come to a quick judgment, fight for it and let other information and arguments “go”. We fight to win rather than fight to learn (which is really the best use of a fight!). We are bombarded - politically, financially, medically, and at the very heart of our souls. It’s hard to know what to believe, and it’s hard to believe what we know.

I remember when I first accepted the need to look behind the curtain in my own life. I saw myself as a young, vibrant, slim, active woman. I had been taught to accept the forceful opinions of others and to deny my own experience. At that time, there were some signs that things were not all that rose-y. But in my efforts to “save” energy, I did not want to look nor investigate. I just wanted to keep doing “healthy” things and trust that all would be well. But all was not well, and when I did look behind the curtain, it was frightening and overwhelming. I have not experienced this in the current crisis because I have been looking behind all kinds of curtains for decades now. It is where I understand the truth and real peace to be sourced, in due time.

Unfortunately, fear of this process is happening on a large scale with our current health crisis. Instead of calmly looking at information that counters one’s existing opinion, most people are fighting and responding with defensiveness and insults. The fight consumes massive energy. Looking behind the curtain of what is proposed in the media and all conventional outlets does not take more energy, in my opinion, but rather gives it back. So, why are we so afraid?

The Dynamics of Fear

Fear is part of the fight-flight-freeze mechanism in the brain, most particularly in the amygdala. It is a normal, natural, necessary response, as it is built in for the purpose of life protection. But our brains likely not have had a chance to adapt to the multitude of perceived threats we now face. I believe that the combination of numerous threats and the speed at which we “live” life in this time have resulted in a massive pileup of “unresolved files” of fear experiences. The brain orders experiences according to memory, and the more memories we have of fearful experiences along with lack of resolution (“files” as I call them), the more likely we are to respond through fear. We no longer take the time to stop and ask what the fear is about, nor to face its ultimate impact upon us - a practice which can actually diffuse the intensity of the emotion. We stow away one unresolved file after another, and their cumulative impacts are possibly devastating to our abilities to slow down, breathe, analyze, and use a broad base of information. Rather, in order to get to a quick response to the fear, we also quickly judge and attempt to “rest” in that. But, really, is there rest? I don’t believe so. I believe there is ensuing biochemical stress and exhaustion. When fear is prolonged and repetitive, it is likely to become full-fledged anxiety - generalized and all-consuming, it reaches a point where we cannot even understand what we are afraid of anymore. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 30% of adults will develop a form of anxiety in their lifetime, either specific or generalized. Those numbers are estimated to have climbed to nearly half of adults in the US during the current crisis.

We have now an existential crisis of fear files - both having them and attempting to induce them in others. One of our greatest responsibilities in this time, in my opinion, is to return to civility, compassion, and being in favor of intellectual exercise over emotional response.

Fear fires us up, at least temporarily. It causes us to act/respond, quickly and intensely. There is a surge of energy but then the systems begin to run down, exhaust, and fray. Courage, on the other hand, may lift us and give us a sense of comfort in not knowing but being willing to investigate and to remain patient while answers arrive. Courage: “the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty”. I have had no shortage of fear-based memories and unresolved files in my life, but I am committed to courage. Its exhilaration has most certainly lifted me, and its impacts have saved me many times over, especially in my health. The courage exercised to look behind the curtain has landed me on the right side of prevention (rather than disease) more times than I could possibly count. Courage has also allowed me to stay in an investigative, analytical, approach during any crisis.

For decades, I have used this simple 4-step practice to begin the process of acknowledging a fear and the need to design a courageous course:
1. Believe the best

2. Face the worst

3. Do the most

4. Leave the rest

GIve this a try in both your personal health and bigger picture journeys. It is simple yet profound. Notice in your past approaches which step may have been missing…they are all very necessary.

At What Price Our Collective Health?

Slowing down, continuing to investigate and answer questions is not just critical for our individual health (both physical and mental), but also for our public health. If we are to effectively care for the largest number of people going forward in ways that increase health vs. decreasing health or having no measurable impact, we must continue the dialogue and investigations until there is greater clarity and greater consensus based upon what’s behind the curtain. If we close the curtain and call it a day, we will add to a growing list of epidemic conditions as well as the one currently at hand (which is also being reinforced by our most prevalent and deadly ones).

This is also true as it relates to our everyday health as individuals, which is a major contributor to collective public health. Looking behind our personal curtains at processes that are building towards disease prevents the expression of those diseases and therefore the increase of horrible statistics and pandemic expressions. Ask yourself what you are doing today to look behind all of these curtains. As always, I am here to support you in those efforts and offer my commitment to continue to do the same. I provide holistic telehealth services.