What is slow medicine?
Slow Med·i·cine
/slō ˈmedəsən/
Slow Medicine is working with the art and practice of creating an environment, first and foremost, that enables healing to take root, grow, and thrive. It’s the missing link to healing.
For the last decade, people have come to us frustrated and at a loss for what they can do to heal. They have been to countless doctors and practitioners, paid many thousands of dollars for supplements, and many more on functional testing. All the recommendations are well-intentioned, but what is missing is the time and space needed to look at each individual's environment, both internal and external.
We see Slow Medicine as the missing piece that people have been searching for as they navigate their way to feeling healthy, energized, and resourced. Infusing slow medicine into food, herbal, and lifestyle medicine is what's needed for all people who are seeking to awaken their body into a place where healing can finally take root.
To learn more about how we define Slow Medicine here at the Slow Medicine Collective read on!
Slow medicine as a paradigm shift
When working with Slow Medicine, we take a step back to look at the space and time in which each individual's health issues are manifesting. We ask the question: what in your environment needs to be remediated before we can begin working with functional nutrition and herbal medicine principles? We can't expect anything to thrive in an environment that has not been first remediated and tended to. Moving forward without addressing this step is likely what’s been keeping you stuck, frustrated, and searching for more.
What do we mean by Environmental Remediation?
From an environmental biology approach, working with environmental remediation simply means to remedy the environment. If there are toxins in the soil you are trying to grow vegetables in, those veggies might grow, but not to their full potential. That which you are trying to grow takes on everything in its environment. If you are trying to heal a complex autoimmune condition by working with various supplements, and dietary protocols in an environment that has not yet been remediated, those supplements, herbs, and dietary protocols are going to be taking root in an environment that is NOT setup for growth, change, and healing. This is where we see people left feeling depleted, frustrated, confused, and at a loss for what to do next.
If the environment we live in constantly triggers us, how can we expect ourselves to heal?
The values we embody at the Slow Medicine Collective are centered around offering each individual a sanctuary to explore what their body, heart, and soul are most needing when it comes to nutrition and lifestyle support. It's about creating a life that enables you to heal and thrive, not just survive another healing protocol that's been recommended or prescribed to you without looking at why your environment is perpetually triggering your state of dis-ease.
What's at the Heart of Slow Medicine?
A Viktor Frankel quote is at the heart of what we are offering here at the Slow Medicine Collective:
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom" – Viktor Frankl.
Brene Brown recently wrote this quote out as a math problem, and it looks like this "S ( ) R" The heart of Slow Medicine is dedicated to that space between stimulus and response for in that space lies our power and freedom.
What's included in working with Slow Medicine?
Slow Medicine is taking the time to discover what season of your life you are in. Not just the physical seasons but the internal seasons. Are you in a Winter, Summer, Spring, or Fall? If you are in a Winter, a time of more restoration and rooting down, are you bringing in protocols that are geared toward someone in the peak of Summer which demands a higher level of energy and output? How can we expect or force something to grow and thrive in the wrong season or environment?
Slow Medicine is bringing awareness to the rhythms of your body and the rhythms of the nature that surrounds you.
Slow Medicine is working with the power of community to help us disentangle from all the systems we are caught up in that keep us in the place of feeling the need to speed up and find the magic bullet solution, herb, test, and protocol.
There is a vital step that is missing in the healing journey. We're humbly here to offer you a new way to heal through Slow Medicine.
If you feel called to step into this new paradigm of healing, join us for our next session of Awaken, which starts on November 30th. Learn more here and email us at hello@slowmedicinecollective to sign up for the waitlist!