by Tab Moura
I think it was the sound of my daughters laughing that brought my drifting thoughts back to earth. I was sitting with my back facing the window, watching as my shadow was cast on the far wall. I probably looked like I felt self-conscious, did I look like Pinocchio demonstrating how he has “no strings?”
“I’m doing yoga.”
They giggled a lot that day, but it didn’t take long for them to begin mirroring me. When you find yourself as your own personal science experiment, because you haven’t found relief in the mainstream health system, It’s at that point that even the “weirdest” things really start to make sense. What is “weird” anymore? I’m writing to you as a former skeptic, I believed pharmaceuticals were the only answer— and I believed this until a doctor told me to stop taking them for my own HEALTH. I’m stubborn, so I don’t take “you’re out of options” as an answer.
With my history of migraines, dislocations, and Endometriosis, I was definitely swearing in my head while trying to imagine my quality of life without things like ibuprofen or the good cold medicines. He told me about steroid shots, Physical Therapy, and surgeries… he told me I could see a nutritionist, but he didn’t believe diet would eliminate my issue. He was right, I wasn’t looking at a simple process, but I refused to give up without trying.
Yoga, cannabis, and other foods and plants are the most consistent tools I use from day to day to manage pain and neurological symptoms. It turns out natural stuff can be quite effective when you invest in understanding it; you accept that functional medicine feels slower because it addresses the root cause, but in reality, it’s lifting the entire body’s baseline as it works.
There isn’t an OTC “12hr-slow-release-make-you-feel-like-you-don’t-really-have-the-flu” pill in natural medicine… but as I’ve explored my options, accounting for my allergies, I’ve learned how to truly listen to my body when it whispers, instead of waiting until it’s shouting. I’m not where I would like to be, but I’m finally dancing, exercising, and playing for the first time in years; and I don’t care if it looks silly anymore, I’m living.