It’s time to round out my incredibly short-lived Canada-USA-Canada saga. As I sit here publishing this post from the middle of my mandatory Canadian quarantine, I can’t help but be a little upset about rules that haven’t been updated for fully vaccinated individuals.
This week was filled with tons of amazing insight, and I chose to share some really intimate thoughts with you in this blog I didn’t share on Instagram. For some reason, vulnerability in this space feels safer, less reactive and more managable. There is something scary about real-time social media outside of the potential immediate feedback that makes it feel unsafe. I think it’s the desire to constantly check for that feedback and the pull it has on me to keep engaging and asking for more.
Those thoughts remind me why I started this project in the first place! I have got to stay on course so I keep having the time for my other passion projects outside of this public expression myself on social media. Hopefully, you’ll hear more about that soon.
Week beginning May 3, 2021…
✅I made the right decision. I crossed the US-Canadian border yesterday just after midnight. My upcoming blog will detail the events and stress leading up to this event, so I’ll keep it short here.
🗺Canadian border patrol and public health are not on the same page. My border patrol agent shared with me they were instructed to give everyone at-home COVID19 tests to perform on days 3 and 8 in quarantine- even those who presented proof of positive test results (and subsequent release from quarantine) in the previous 90 days. I called to confirm with public health that my positive COVID19 results exempted me from this additional testing. I will pretty much do anything to avoid tickling my brain over the next couple of weeks.
💤Traveling is stressful and tiring. I ended up arriving at my home and place of quarantine just before 2am. My incredible partner had my portion of the house completely detailed and ready for my imprisonment. Clean sheets, a glass of water and a little light were on for me. I also had a big, beautiful boy ready to snuggle all night! The exhaustion actually kept me in bed until 11am, which was definitely a first.
🧑⚖️I was forced to reconsider current public health guidelines for people who are fully vaccinated since I find myself in this situation. I am very much pro-public health and also a very big rule follower, but that doesn’t mean I can’t express my discontent with current public health guidelines. As it stands, fully vaccinated individuals in Canada have to follow the same rules as those who are unvaccinated with respect to travel and quarantine. In the end, those guidelines are supposed to serve as the basis for public health and safety, not just rules based on fear. Or ones not founded on science. While I do have concerns about early reports of breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated people, I also believe they are very few and far between. I have come to believe those are the risks we are willing to accept as a society if we are going to open back up as more and more people are fully vaccinated. We also currently understand that if those who are fully vaccinated become reinfected with COVID-19 that their illness would not be life-threatening.
📕I learned about a program and application called Zotero. It's a research organization tool, and it is absolutely changing my life! It allows you to organize and save research papers effortlessly and can reference and create bibliographies for papers. It even automatically changes reference numbers in papers for you so you don't have to waste any more flipping hours re-numbering when you add in another source. Also, there is a Google Chrome extension that works seamlessly with the program so you can easily add papers to folders and use tags to easily find later. Thanks to Dr. Cyndi Gilbert for taking time out of her day to show me how it worked, and what I've been missing out on my whole life!
💥I learned I am a part of something big at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. I joined a group of colleagues and peers and was a part of a working group that completely rewrote our naturopathic oath. After being inspired by the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine Class of 2024 who rewrote their Hippocratic oath, we recognized the need to dismantle racism and oppression in naturopathic medicine and honor Indigenous health knowledge. The original naturopathic oath was adopted in 1992 by the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and until now has gone unchanged. The new oath calls on naturopathic doctors to commit to allyship, honor the roots of health knowledge and medicines, dismantle systemic racism, and remain educated on health equity. It also maintains the essence of the original oath by including cooperation with the healing power of nature and addressing the root causes of disease. We envision a future where all naturopathic schools and doctors adopt this revised oath and have it overtake the current one. While our school allowed us to read our new oath to the incoming class, we still have some work to do to overtake the original one, and I don't mind one bit.
🎬I finally sat to watch a movie with my partner, and we chose My Octopus Teacher. Ohhhh myyy goodnesssss. What an incredible film! The cinematography. The vulnerability. The beauty! It completely affirmed my value-based choice to not eat those incredibly intelligent beings, and I only hope more people take some time to learn about their world through this film. Incredibly well done!
I was inspired by Cinco de Mayo to run a poll on Instagram asking why it was celebrated. Interestingly, more than half of respondents did not know that the day commemorates a battle between Mexico and France (Napoleon). I spent some time learning more about this history and what it meant for the ultimate demise of the confederate army during the Civil War. The French did come back to conquer Mexico, but nearly a year later which gave the Union the time they needed to strengthen in order to defeat confederate troops.
All in all, it’s important on holidays such as Cinco de Mayo, which was popularized in the USA in the 1960s, that the appropriate recognition is given where it is deserved. The day serves as a reminder of solidarity and perseverance for Mexican people, and it should not be culturally misappropriated. It is ok, however, to enjoy tacos and a beer, honor Mexican history and consider the importance of solidarity in liberation for all.
💡In order to be useful, you must learn to be useless. My dear friend, Michael Tung and I attended an online Qi gong event during the Integrative Medicine Summit being held by The Andrew Weil Institute of Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. We were introduced to this Chinese proverb by a man named Master Yang Yang, and it really hit me hard. He went on to teach that in order to be useful to others (and yourself), you must be useless in order to recharge. Let that sink in. Those who are wise, understand that being useless is a valuable state.
As I reflected upon the idea of usefulness being found in uselessness, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by a recurring, negative, emotional experience I have had throughout my life. It is one centered around this idea of being useless and how that is tied to shame and guilt. There was this single moment, an instant, where I felt this sudden wave of relief. It was as if I was permitted to extend myself grace for all of those moments I had beaten myself up about feeling useless. I must admit, the moment was short, but recalling it now, I can almost feel what I felt at that moment. This inner knowing that being useless is in fact needed for being useful.
📕Since I'm attending an Integrative Medicine Summit I am learning a lot! I'll mention that the day was focused on all of the stuff I am really fired up about, such as long-haul COVID-19 symptoms, chronic fatigue and complex chronic pain!
⬇️I learned that low energy is a major cause of pain, which is traditionally ignored by medicine! When you don't move because you have low energy, muscles get stuck in their shortened positions. Then they pull on neighboring joints and lead to pain. It's a hard cycle to be in, but very common amongst many of us at home these days.
👏I learned about a treatment paradigm that has lots of success with chronic fatigue syndrome- and when I say a lot, I mean like in the 90 percentile. Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum once suffered from CFS and has dedicated his life's work to studying and treating this complex illness. His book From Fatigued to Fantastic is being released on June 15, 2021, in its 4th edition, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. He openly shares his treatment protocols there and recommends all patients read that book so they can also better understand what's going on.
🤯Dr. Howard Schubiner similarly shared the importance of people understanding the root of their pain. He shares if the pain is not physical, then it can be eliminated. His approach to removing chronic pain not associated with physical pain is rooted in validation, compassion, and communicating to his patients how psychophysiologic disorders work. He teaches that slowly opening a door for a person to understand that connection allows for a shared discovery between he and his patients. He recommends all of his patients and clinicians to read any book by Dr. John Sarno who introduced him to these concepts. I’m adding The Mindbody Prescription to my list. (He also has one called Healing Back Pain if you suffer from this.) Dr. Schubiner gave us an extensive reading list on this topic so let me know if you want more!
🔦There were so many amazing things I can’t wait to use in practice!
💉Being pro-vaccine doesn’t mean you are pro- every vaccine and all current vaccination schedules. It means you are pro-public health at this moment.
Read. That. Again.
🌼I spent the day digging back into podcasting and video podcasting. As much as I want to do it all from the moment I start the project, I realize that very desire for it to be perfect is what's holding me back from moving forward. The disappointment I feel from not moving @realtalkwithrealdocs along keeps me wallowing in a shroud of guilt that I'm ready to burn down to it's last thread. I'm currently in the content creation phase and have a clear plan to take the steps I need to move forward with launching the podcast. Stay tuned for this very uncomfortable part of my journey!
🌸Happy Mother's Day, mom! This is my favorite picture I've ever captured of you. ❤️❤️❤️
