What You Need To Know About The Root Cause of Every Dis-ease

Spoiler Alert- there are always 2 causes ... at least :)

I’m going to cut right to the chase on this one- which may sound a bit woo to some of you- but stay with me because I’m also going to translate the woo into real world, clinical experience and provide a perspective that may persuade you to approach current and future health struggles differently.

Energy Always Moves In 2 Directions

Think about tit like this- currents can move in two directions- clockwise or counterclockwise. As I write this I have a vivd memory of visiting Ecuador in my 20’s. I stood on the equator and watched how flushing a toilet north of the equator sent the water spiraling in one direction, and just a few feet to the south, the exact same action sent the water spiraling in the opposite direction. Nature doesn’t lie. She has laws and boundaries that impact us all.

As a healthcare provider- from physical exam to ultrasound- I have a range of tools to help me assess how fluids are moving in the body. And as an energy worker, I use the sensitivity of my hands and a pendulum to assess how energy is moving through a system. There are so many reasons why understanding these two directions are important and in this piece, I’m only going to discuss one of them.

The Two Directions

One of these directions represents energy moving from spirit into matter and the other represents energy moving from matter into spirit. Think about the former as the direction of birth, life and growth on the material plane, and the latter as the movement toward death, rebirth, decomposition or the recycling of old materials. We can also see these two directions in our biology. Anatomically, blood and lymph can move with gravity through the arterial system (to breath oxygenated life into the periphery) and against gravity through the venous system, back to the source (to be recycled and reborn).

These two directions can also represent the complementary poles on a battery. The (+) represents the force that pushes against gravity- the active principle- the inhale, and the (-) represents the flow that moves with gravity- the passive principle- the exhale. In yoga, this concept can be represented by the two channels that dance around the central channel (the sushumna)- the pingula (+) and the ida (-). In Kabbalah these directions can be seen in different paths through the sephirot on the tree of life. The lightening path shows the spiritual journey from the top down, from spirit into matter and the serpent path shows the journey from the button up, from matter into spirit. Neither direction is more valuable than the other.

This concept of energy moving in two directions is consistent across many spiritual traditions, and it’s foundational to our biology. The exhale cannot exist without the inhale, and vice versa.

The Chakra System As An Invisible Map

If you’ve read my articles on the chakras, you all ready know that I use the chakra system as an invisible framework to explore health from a holistic perspective. If you’re new here, What Do The Chakras Have To Do With Your Health is a good place to start. You can also make your way through my chakra series, starting at the root chakra here. To read more on each chakra, explore the archives.

When it comes to the chakras, the lower three represent the separate self- the individual with defined physical, emotional and mental boundaries. But the upper three chakras (above the heart) represent a more unified version of ourselves- where boundaries dissolve as we climb the ladder toward the crown chakra. If you’re moving from matter toward spirit, at the heart chakra our sense of self transforms from me to we. But if you’re moving from spirit into matter, the heart chakra is the point where our sense of self shifts from we to me.

As a health care provider, this distinction between the separate and the unified self is important because when we’re separate, personal responsibility is critical to health and healing. Our individual genetics, circumstances and choices matter A LOT. When we’re unified, community, systemic, and societal responsibility is critical to our health. Relationships, resonance, and environmental circumstances matter A LOT. During the pandemic, we really saw the tension between individual and public health play out. But the truth is, this tension is always present both systemically and within our personal health struggles.

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve worked with in my private practice over the years that did all the right things to heal on an individual level- but it wasn’t until they uprooted their entire lives and relocated to a different climate, community and culture that they were able to heal. It wasn’t until they became aware of the ways in which the collective, shared reality was influencing them that things really began to shift.

When we ignore the flow of energy and information from spirit into matter we neglect the influence the patterns of the collective have on our health. I can’t stress how important it is to be aware of cultural, societal and relational wound patterns, belief systems and states of health.

What this means for a root cause approach?

When we’re investigating root causes we have to remember that energy- which can take many forms (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual)- moves in both directions, so the cause is never singular. The roots are in both the individual experience, where we are separate from one another, AND in the collective experience where we are all intimately connected. If we focus solely on the individual experience (which most clinicians do) and we don’t get the results we want, we feel broken, hopeless and like we’ve failed. I see this in my practice all the time- people who have seen the experts, the specialists, and the Mayo Clinics of the world without much improvement. They often take too much responsibility for the treatment failure. They feel as if there’s something so wrong with them because the best of the best couldn’t help, and become fearful that they’ll never find the relief they’re seeking. This is what happens when we approach dis-ease solely from the bottom up.

However, if we put too much emphasis on the collective shared experience, we forfeit the personal responsibility required for conscious healing. This shows up in my practice in a variety of ways. One example is when someone takes on other peoples’ experiences of an illness. I see this a lot when people are diagnosed with conditions that conventional medicine is poorly equipped to manage, such as Lyme, mold toxicity, and the long list of syndromes on the rise. The internet is a wonderful place, full of information and support groups- but we have to be really careful not to take on others’ experiences of a diagnosis that we share. This can really complicate the healing process and is particularly common with highly sensitive people.

Let’s Get Practical. How To Incorporate This multidirectional Approach In Your Own Health