Some additional thoughts from the publishers…
Well, as this third edition shows, alternative health and wellness is alive and blossoming in the Tri-States! The 45 farms, businesses and practitioners listed on the previous pages are testimony to that. (And of course we didn’t get everybody...there is always more to be found out there.)
Organic and natural items of every variety are available in the Tri-States—from salads, sprouts and fruit juices to coffee, beer, wine and tobacco blends. Even McDonald’s and Wal-Mart have jumped on the organic foods bandwagon. In the field of yoga, over a dozen of us are actively teaching...in contrast to the one, lone yoga pioneer who was teaching here a little over a decade ago. The yellow pages lists over 20 places in the area to get a massage, and more than twice that many practicing chiropractors. (There is now even an official yellow pages category heading for Alternative and Complementary Health Care.) More and more Dubuquers have tried things like acupuncture, reiki, t’ai chi, yoga or meditation. It seems as though everyone is taking at least one herbal supplement these days...maybe even an organic one.
So all of this is good, right? It certainly is progress, in my opinion. However, a note of caution deserves to be sounded—we need to stay alert that things are getting bigger and better, not just bigger. You, the consumer of these goods and services, need to always hold the providers of these goods and services up to scrutiny. Here are a few thoughts as to what questions a discerning customer ought to be asking:
- Why is this natural option better for me than its conventional equivalent? Usually there are many good answers to this
question, but there are also cases where the answer is not so good. Eating foods that are full of refined sugars is bad for your health, whether the refined sugars are organic or not. Using a natural healing modality instead of pharmaceutical drugs will not ultimately help you if you continue to live the unbalanced and destructive lifestyle that led you to a health crisis in the first place. A good natural option should help you to remove harmful influences from your life and replace them with positive influences. A competent provider of natural goods or services should be able
to assist you in understanding and implementing these sorts of changes.
- How is one product or service different from another in the same field? Organic food items can vary tremendously in terms of how they are grown and produced. (Also, two otherwise similar organic foods may differ in terms of one also being locally-grown, fair trade, biodynamic, additive-free, etc.) It pays to ask your local farmer what methods they use, or to carefully read labels in the store. Similarly, there are different styles of yoga, acupuncture, t’ai chi, reiki, massage, etc. If one style does not meet your needs, it is entirely possible that a different style will. Make sure to ask for details as to how a particular good or service will meet your needs.
- How will my purchase of a natural good or service affect the others besides myself? Is this good or service truly sustainable, environmentally-friendly, labor-friendly, supportive of the local economy, etc.? Very seldom does one good or service meet all possible criteria, but perhaps if more people asked these questions than more effort would be made to do so.
- And, of course, there are always the old standard questions—credentials, qualifications, licensure, years of experiences, areas of expertise, etc. Since most people are not realistically going to abandon conventional ways in every single aspect of their lives, it also pays to ask how best to integrate natural and alternative modalities into your everyday life. If you can’t afford to buy all your groceries organic, ask which conventional foods tend to be the most contaminated. If you can’t afford to quit that high-stress job, ask which natural healthcare strategies will best allow you to stay healthy. If you must be on some sort of prescription drugs, ask which forms of alternative healing safely compliment them.
Remember, it is not just us as individuals that need to be healed. It is usas a community, as a society, as a species. I have heard it said that the first thing that needs to be healed is our conception of who is a healer. The healer is you...every single person reading these words is the healer. We live in an exciting time, as many new options are becoming available to us. The challenge before us, then, is to do what a good healer should do: honestly evaluate the situation and then make use of every available tool to move forward in a positive direction. Like cells in one giant body, when you improve yourself you will uplift everyone else…and that is what it’s all about!
Many blessings,
Jim and Amber
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