The longest story short: I’m seeing a naturopath to restore balance and generate health in my body and she’s got me on hella supplements.  I have one of those  monster pill cases that you might see on a seniors bedside.

But instead of pharmaceuticals that often only address or mask symptoms, my case is bursting with vitamins, supplements and minerals that we found my body was deficient in after rounds of clarifying tests.

A lot of the support I needed was for the processes and organs that eliminate toxins and help my body get back into its self-sustaining rhythm (lymphatic system, gallbladder, liver etc).

There are many other drops and pills in my daily routine and honestly, it did start to overwhelm me a bit. How long was I supposed to be on these things!? Was my naturopath more a pill hustler and not the body whisperer I was expecting her to be? I’d shovel the capsules in, shake the bitter drops on my tongue and then grimace and wince dramatically. The attitude was definitely that taking these supplements was a loathsome chore.

Despite my subconscious less-than-positive attitude I did notice after several days that my energy was up, my brain fog had thinned and I wasn’t breaking into hives with every other meal I ate. It was unreal.

Sometimes you don’t know how bad you feel until you start getting better (or worse ugh). 

I think a lot of us are putting up with pain and weakness and thinking it’s normal, or we think we have to because others have/have had it worse. Some of the symptoms I’ve dealt with on a daily basis are unseen, unprovable or are hard to understand and explain. They come and go and I can’t quite figure out a clear pattern of when and why.  I’ve been dismissed enough to want to keep my mouth shut when I was in pain, “save” the alarm for when it got really scary and grim.

I think I also waited to get real support with my health journey because I was afraid I’d be diagnosed with some disease I wouldn’t be able to mentally or physically bear, and to be honest, I didn’t want some doctor in my face telling me not to eat cheese and coffee and scowling at my marijuana use.

 I went with a naturopath because I knew their work was based on the root causes of body dysfunction, not  the symptoms floating on top. Thank goodness my innate desire to feel good, TRULY, deeply good, kicked in and sent me down this path of discovering what it means to really love and parent myself and my body. To work WITH my body instead of denying its existence by muffling or ignoring its messages

I remembered a piece of advice I’d given out years ago that I now need to receive back and heed: take your vitamins and supplements with intention.

By calling my supplements by name and stating what I intended them to do in my body I was able to connect with them as allies/blessings instead of an overwhelming chore. It ritualized the morning moment when I medicated and aligned me with the healing process, made things more graceful and illuminated the tiny yet steady, incremental relief I was experiencing. 

Like a large swath of Black folks I was low on Vitamin D meaning many basic functions in my body were lagging, my slow moving lymphatic system meant my glutathione was depleted and needed support. My gut biome was all out of whack and probiotics gave me a fighting chance to restore the bacteria that would make things work optimally. And so on and so forth.

 Envisioning the shift into wellness and understanding what is happening in my body not only makes my treatment more effective, I feel more in control.  I feel relief in having more answers and a clear path forward that does not include new negative symptoms, lower quality of life and jumping from medication to medication.

I think when we infuse intention into what we do, it becomes more powerful! When you workout, state your intention, when you cook food, state your intention, when you have sex, state your intention. 

Mindfulness/ intentional living, can increase connection and potency in the things we do, when it comes to medicine especially , why not give yourself the extra boost?!

Cast those love spells on your meds and let me know how it goes!!

P.s. Intention works for pharmaceuticals too ya’ll, so no shame in your medical treatment game! What works for one will not work for all. And also? What worked at one time may not work forever or in the future, to heal is to grow, shift, adapt  #knowthyself #listentoyourbody

With truth and gratitude,

Heather Ace Adams

#bipocwellness #naturopathicmedicine #homeopathicmedicine #intentionalliving #seattlemindfulness #bipochealers #autoimmunehealing #ancestralhealing #vitaminsandsupplements #consciousmedicine #plantmedicine #homeopathics