Yesterday I drove up to Anacortes to see my biological dentist Dr. Russ Borneman. What is a biological dentist, you ask? It is the equivalent of a holistic health care practitioner, a dentist who looks at the effects of his dental work on your entire organism. I was introduced to Dr. Borneman earlier this year when I was told I needed a root canal. After talking to some friends about root canals, I was pretty sure that procedure wasn’t for me, so I was directed to Dr. Borneman. Together, we decided to pull my dead tooth (not “save it” and have my body forever dealing with low level bacteria in my mouth—at best). I have a little partial tooth being made of material my body feels good about, and having the dead tooth out of my mouth feels great. One thing I noticed right away when I met Dr. Borneman were his fingernails! He has some of the shiniest and healthiest looking finger nails I have ever seen. No ridges, strong moons, good color, all indicating healthy blood and bone tissue. I knew I wanted to work with him, and have since been investing in my healthcare by removing some of the toxic dentistry I had in my mouth from childhood (mercury fillings) I decided to have the mercury removed not because I have severe signs of mercury poisoning, but because I recognize the overall load that mercury is having on my organism, and, at 50 years old, it makes sense to me to lighten the overall load my body is dealing with.
When I was an infant, my mother worked in a hair salon. She used to bring me in with her to visit in the first 6 mos of my life. My newly developing lungs were exposed to all of those nasty chemicals at a critical time. As a young child I had terrible bronchitis that continued every winter. Later as a teenager I developed “hayfever.” My lungs are still a weak link, but my habits (yoga, pranayama, daily walking) and diet (appropriate to my constitution, lighter allergen load during allergy and cold and flu season, probiotics) support them now, and so I don’t have those problems anymore. No over the counter meds, no avoiding the trees and grasses that I love—no endless sneezing—I learned how to support my system and it now supports me.
Ayurveda is the science of life: a collection of knowledge about what does and does not support health and wellbeing (on every level). As a holistic system of preventive health care, ayurveda recognizes the unique individual and seeks to understand what brings balance and what brings disharmony to each system. It is not one size fits all—it is very particular. Some constitutions are naturally stronger than others. We all have unique khavaigunas (inherited “weak-link”—like my lungs in the above example) that come from our genetics, our childhood illnesses and our past behavior/habits. Under stress, our khavaigunas are more vulnerable. We can learn about our weak links, get adequate support for the stress in our lives and adjust our lifestyle and habits to support our weaknesses and not add to their overall burden. This is a key to self-healing.
If you need help creating the diet and lifestyle habits to support your system, come in for an ayurvedic assessment. This is a two-appointment process where I collect your health history, learn all about your current lifestyle, diet and health issues/concerns, and do some ayurvedic observations (tongue, eyes, face and nails to name a few). Based on all of that, I will design a protocol just for you to better support your organism now and over time. Based on your interests and goals, I will give you a little bit to work on (God-willing, some of the key pieces), and you will be able to integrate these recommendations over time.
Your investment in this two-appointment session is $324 (which includes a few self-care staples to take home with you). This is my lowest price-point offering, and an incredible value when you consider the costs of over-the counter-meds that cover symptoms but don’t support your system, feeling ok but not great and the confusion many have around general health recommendations (like drinking green smoothies) which may or may not be a fit for your particular constitution and time of life.
As an added incentive, if you sign up by Friday at midnight Pacific Time, I will include a one-on-one yoga session (which we can record) into your package. That’s an hour of yoga time with me where you can receive some help with your practice or we can create a routine for you to practice at home. To take advantage of this special offer, reply here.
In Service, Shannon
P.S. I am giving two FREE TALKS on AYURVEDIC SELF-CARE next week at Two Dog Yoga: Thursday, 7/23, 7:15 -8:15pm and Sunday, 7/26, 7:15- 8:15pm. I will be serving a little homemade kitcheree (a rice and mung bean soup) during the talk. Come for a yoga class before the talk, if you like: Thurs, slow flow I & II and Sun, Yin Yoga and Meditation, both 5:30 – 7pm (yoga class cards or drop-in).