The best medicine

They say that laughter is the best medicine. That may be so (and it is certainly a very enjoyable one) , but it’s not like it is always available; rather it is something that happens spontaneously, and that’s the beauty of it. The best medicine in my opinion should be at one’s disposal at all times, as one never knows when they might need it.

They also say that one man’s medicine is another man’s poison, meaning that these things are subjective, and I tend to agree. We are all different, complex and unique human beings, and so are our needs.

Sure, we also have an awful lot in common, especially on a physical level, yet even our bodies have different constitutions and respond differently to the same protocols and interventions. For example, when I practise yin yoga, there are oftentimes at least 3 variations of the same pose, since different bodies find comfort and alignment in different ways.

After all, even something as small as our fingerprint is unique to each individual on the planet, hence why these days Apple offers fingerprint identification as one of the options of ensuring the security of our iPhones.

Let alone the more subtle levels of being a human, where the individual settings can vary greatly. Of course the physical and the subtle are in communication at all times, and our emotional and mental processes affect the body and vice versa. Which is perhaps why there is so much complexity, as our emotional histories is where it all gets tangled up in a web that takes time to work through.

I like the relatively recent idea being circulated in the online wellness circles , that the ‘mind body connection’ isn’t really the right way to phrase things; rather than it being merely a connection, it is fair to say that it is indeed one and the same, just expressed differently.

So these are the reasons why one must learn what works for him and what doesn’t, as opposed to just following the general advice.

There is however a middle path here, something that I believe is universally medicinal for the human condition. Self- compassion. The very fabric that this oftentimes so unattainable thing called self-love is made of. Or perhaps it is one of its main ingredients. Either way, while self-love is recommended as a remedy for pretty much everything these days , and I believe it is truly a potent one, it is also more of a lifelong journey rather than a destination, especially for those of us who didn’t get to experience healthy love growing up, and as a result our definition of it is chaos. There is no inner template for it and so the navigation of where to find this elusive thing called love (or self-love for that matter), is not exactly reliable; the coordinates keep glitching, as love and pain coexisted for so long, our perception of the former is properly skewed. So much so that the very word ‘love’ is associated with its opposite condition- fear. It is a confusing place to be indeed.

Self- compassion on the other hand offers clarity, we all know its direction and what it feels like, there are no mixed messages here. And while it is not a default setting either for too many of us, as the inner critic jumps in before the heart even has a chance to speak, a simple reminder can usually go a long way and awaken a compassionate response instead of a critical one.

So there you go, this is what I consider to be the best medicine. Rinse and repeat as necessary.