A Root Cause Approach to Allergies: From Practical Solutions to Profound Healing

Holistic tips for a healthy spring

In the northern hemisphere, it’s about that time of year when nature is emerging from her dormancy. While this is a beautiful time for new life to emerge and blossom, it is a confronting time for those of us who struggle with seasonal allergies. As the macrocosm invites us to begin again and embrace new life, the immune system is preparing for battle, and uncertain whether we’re safe.

If you’ve been following my root cause series, rest assured I’ll be back next week with part 4. In this piece I want to show you what root cause healing actually looks like in practice- and offer some practical tips for those of you who struggle with allergies.

In my opinion, the root cause of allergies is not singular. It’s not simply that we’re exposed to an environmental trigger and it causes an effect, like sneezing, post nasal drip or itchy eyes. The root cause goes beyond cause and effect. It’s a theme that shapes patterns and influences our health and lives in undesirable ways. The most common theme I see underlying allergies is a deep confusion about our sense of safety. For many of us, the roots of this confusion extends back to the first years of our lives when we’re discovering the limits and potential of our bodies.

You can read a lot more about this theme in “Insecure Attachment and the Epidemic of Inauthenticity”, and “The Healing Path of the Root Chakra: Integrating the Forgotten Self”.

This underlying theme lives deep in our unconscious and it impacts everything. When our sense of safety feels conditional, it doesn’t just make us sneeze in the spring. It permeates the entire immune system, predisposing us to allergies (and other forms of immune dysregulation). It influences the nervous system, making us highly vulnerable to stress and anxiety. It shows up in the adrenal glands, setting us up for fatigue and circadian rhythm disorders. But root causes hiding in the unconscious don’t just express themselves in the physical body. They shape our thought and emotional patterns, as well as our life choices. This theme of insecurity programs our thoughts to protect us, so we ruminate on that which happened in the past that we don't want to repeat, or we fixate on worst case scenarios. Not only does this theme make us more prone to fear, anxiety and doubt, but our physiology and our thought patterns feed and validate those emotions. When we move through life questioning our safety, afraid to be who we are and hesitant to fully inhabit our bodies, we aren’t really living.

So if you want to approach allergies holistically, and address the root cause, it’s important to look beyond the allergies. Scan your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual experiences and ask yourself where else this theme comes up. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t take a Claritin and move on with your day- but if your immune system doesn’t feel safe on a beautiful spring day that you desperately want to enjoy, your relationship with safety is likely getting in your way in other areas of your life and health.

This is why I always encourage you to pursue the root cause- because the results of your work won’t be limited to a 12 hour break from a runny nose and itchy eyes- they will transform your whole life. And the work you do to address your allergies this year may result in an allergy free future- because once you tend to the parts of you that are confused about your safety, your immune system is free to rest and focus its efforts elsewhere.

Here’s how I approach allergies from a holistic, root cause perspective: