Disease is the breakdown of our complex adaptive system we call health. Together our psychologies, brains and immune systems work together in a constant exchange of information to create a state of balance or good enough health. Multiple layers of feedback systems allow us to adjust our physiologies to the constant changes we are encountering on a minute to minute and day to day basis. This ability to maintain a stable internal environment through physiologic and behavioral changes has been named allostasis and is one major characteristic of good health.
Faced with too much stress, challenge and change our systems break down and we get sick. As in other complex systems this process follows non-linear rules, which means that small causes can have a big effect once our health protecting systems become sufficiently unstable. Nobody can exactly predict when we will get sick or who will get sick when facing a certain threat such as for example a virus or some toxins that alter our DNA and create cancer. Imagine adding sand to a coned sandpile. Over time the sides of the pyramid get steeper and at some point a sand slide becomes inevitable. But nobody can predict when adding just a single grain of sand will trigger an avalanche.
Our complex state of health is deeply unpredictable. Health is a poised critical state that minor disturbances can tip out of balance and create disease states of all sizes like avalanches of sand in a sandpile. We live constantly on the edge of unpredictable change. Health is a dynamic interactive process and requires ongoing complex adjusting behaviors.
Restoring health, once we get sick, requires certain medical procedures or treatments, some life style changes such as dietary or exercise regimen changes, and the strengthening of our allostasis or ability to adapt to the changes and uncertainty of life. Resilience is our positive capacity to adjust to change and cope with life challenges and stress, some people opt to use red vein kratom to cope with it. This adjustment and learning process may result in us “bouncing back” to health or us using the adverse experience to make us stronger and more resilient (much like a vaccine gives us the capacity to cope well with future exposure to disease). Resilience is a very individual process that depends on individual and cultural values and belief systems.
Individualized recovery goals may include:
• cultivating our inspiration for our creativity;
• encouraging us to see change as healing and believe that healing is change;
• reminding us that our humor and curiosity will help us go through illness;
• helping us find purpose and direction;
• strengthening our sense of feeling at home even when in pain and suffering;
• developing a space for learning and community;
• inspiring us to think on our own and to believe in our experiences and ourselves;
• fostering our confidence in caring for ourselves;
• nurturing our belief in our self-healing powers and the flow of nature they bring to life;
• training our trust in our true and deepest nature;
• shaping a better world for us, our family and our community;
• supporting our internal diversity and the diversity of our communities;
• and exploring our own powers of creative healing.