6.Makes political decisions and laws based on a diverse populace and with a sensitivity that represents all cultures and SES.
In indigenous cultures when someone is mildly ill, they call the local healer in for care and cure. When some is very sick, the local healer calls upon the community to come together to help the person return to health. Its a practice that has been done for centuries before any masks or distancing was a thing of reality.
And continues to work in modern day. Recently, someone I love very dearly who is undergoing chemo (immunocompromised in the conventional medicine world) was physically assaulted. The beautiful human called on her family and they came together in person and helped create an environment that felt safe and comfortable so healing could begin again. No one wore a mask or distanced from her. No one quarantined for 14 days before giving her a hug or some flowers. She was simply surrounded by those who loved her and her healing emerged. Community, hugs, love and safety as medicine, that is what a truly progressive minded person and community does.
To make mandates and rules completely omitting this modality of human touch, connection and community is totally short-sighted and narrow-minded. To take away human interaction from those in nursing homes who suffer from loneliness more than anyone in the world is just plain evil. To make people wear a mask who may have been suffocated by a cloth over their face and assaulted at gun point is not a compassionate way to support a human.
The so-called progressive, liberal, woke politicians of America have a responsibility to get into this, understand this, live this in their decision making. And if they are unable to, they should be humble enough to ask for guidance and help from those who can. Open and inviting to alternative viewpoints and perspectives with facts, figures, science and medicine to back up the opening up of society, the encouragement for human interaction, the return to schools, the real medicine that is happening around the world.
Some Progressive and Liberal Approaches I Recommend
I’m not just some independent journalist off the street with an opinion. I worked for the only ID pediatrician in West Texas. I’m a PA and Public Health worker who has lived and worked in underserved communities my entire life and have seen the zebras and most severe illness in Austin, El Paso, Phoenix, Mexico and Costa Rica. I’m still asked to take over practices, wanted for collaborations around the world and have a street cred from the tens of thousands of patients I’ve been privileged to care for. Though I’m retiring from medicine all together in a couple months, I will forever maintain my depth of knowledge in what real health and healing means for humanity in the short and long-term.
I don’t know everything, I do not call myself an expert in anyone’s health but my own (and my daughters at this time) and I’m confident enough to say that. I do know enough about health and healing to speak on this moment in time. And if I do misspeak or misinform, I have zero ego about course-correcting.
Some neuroscience as an intro. When the pandemic hit the U.S. and was still an unknown, every single American including myself, went into the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the ‘fight, flight, freeze or fawn’ part of our brain. It is the part that has been sharpened and perfected over millions of years as we were running away from lions and tigers. The SNS keeps us safe and away from danger, real or perceived. Physiologically when there is a threat or trauma, our heart rate and respiration increases, cortisol and adrenaline increase and we’re ready to react for our survival.
The limbic system is the associated with the emotional part of the brain and drives this sympathetic reaction of fight, flight, freeze or fawn. The limbic system will be activated with not only the real trauma or danger, but also perceived or associated stimuli. It is why soldiers experience flashbacks during fireworks, the trigger sets off the same cascade as the trauma before they can determine if they’re truly in danger. Biologically and physiologically the body is already in the mode towards shutting down the reasoning part of the brain and just reacts.
Trauma is known to create neural pathways in the brain acutely that can end up lasting a lifetime. It is like a hiking trail on the greenbelt, enough people walk on a unbeaten path and eventually the foot/bike traffic will pave a new road. And just like feet or bike rides can beat down the greenery creating a new trail, triggers and trauma can do the same for a neural pathway in our brains.
When we were first alerted about the threat of a pandemic, we all experienced trauma. The thought of death, the thought of our loved ones dying, the fear of being on a ventilator, the thought of not having enough ventilators for those who need them, the thought of past pandemics and seeing people on the streets and overflowing the hospitals, any or all of these real and perceived traumas created a groove in our brains. These fears were based on academic modeling and estimations, not on actual medical findings and factual data, but we went with it, because fear makes us turn off the rational, reasonable part of our brains.
Each day since February or March, we woke up to the news or social media and listened to the latest reports and rising counts. We scrambled to create guidelines in unprecedented times, hoping to prevent the end of days. Then we would get new information, at times contrasting, but because the brain feels safe with the familiar, when it caused cognitive dissonance, we dismissed it or placed it in conspiracy theory category or made up our own reason why it doesn’t fit with our established narrative.
And now, almost four months later, those neural grooves are deeply imbedded within our brains. The pathway of mask wearing, social distancing and isolation is strong and steady, keeping you safe in your head and acting out of habit, but at the core, creating more mental, physical and spiritual dis-ease.
The fantastic news is that as quickly as we can create negative, fear-run pathways, we can do the opposite with constructive, positive experiences. This is called neuroplasticity and starts with awareness and mindfulness. When we’re able to get into the parasympathetic, we feel safe and can move away from those often toxic triggers and emotions into a more calming space.
A Liberal and Progressive Approach To Feeling Safe & Protecting Humanity
Human connection, yes, real life, in person, human connection. For much of our existence, when we’re in non-stressful situations as long as we’re emotionally healthy, our bodies stay in a social engagement state, or a happy, normal, non-fear-based state.
This is huge. Being in a non-fear-based, normal, happy state is essential for human health, healing and survival. This is so well-articulated by Dr. Stephen Porges and his Polyvagal Theory:
Through the history of humanity, when humans were threatened, they mitigate the threat response through social interaction, through being hugged, through being with a trusted individual. What we’re calling social distancing creates a problem because it takes away from us the toolkit that humanity had always used to regulate threat.
DR. STEPHEN PORGES
With mask wearing we’re not able to see smiles and often avert our gaze avoiding eye contact, which he says,
When you gaze avert another person, it’s a trigger to their nervous system. Through neuroception, it’s a trigger of being dismissed or being rejected, and our bodies interpret these reactions with our own personal narrative. We start feeling poor about ourselves, or we may get angry at the person who does it. But we have to understand that our bodies are reacting to these cues.
DR. STEPHEN PORGES
Essentially our nervous system regulates our behavior, how we will interact or isolate in the world based on how safe or dangerous we feel. After the trauma of a worldwide pandemic hit us earlier this year and the idea of death came at us all day every day for months, re-traumatizing us each daily count, many of us behaved in a way that shut down our humanity completely.
In safe mode, we are in what some call the parasympathetic and Dr. Porges calls “social engagement”. He also calls it the ventral vagal response, because that’s the part of the brain that is activated when we connect to others. It’s like a “go” for normal life, where we are able to be connected to another human being, walking around, cool, calm, collected, enjoying the goodness of life.
The parasympathetic mode looks and feels like:
Healthy immune system.
Sense of goodness, happiness, openness, peace, and curiosity about life.
Able to have restful, REM sleep
Expressive face.
We emotionally relate to others.
We more easily understand and listen to others.
Our body feels calm and grounded. (Adapted from Dr. Puder)
Here are some prescriptions I would recommend. Some come from my 22 years of healthcare and 13 of practicing, but mostly they come from way deep inside and from those before us (not an exhaustive list):
Laughter, joy, hugs, love, rest, connection, dance, crying, screaming release is medicine
Breathwork (WimHof has a EBM article where a group of participants fend off E.Coli with breathing techniques)
Meditation, mindfulness
Nature, walking, running, biking, skating
Using our voice heals
Speaking our truth heals
Human touch heals
Thoughts create our reality, fear-based thoughts create a fear-based reality.
Collective thoughts and ideas change our physiology and biology
Stories are powerful
Community, gatherings, parties, celebrations with strangers and loved ones will change the world.
I’ve said this before and I’ll repeat it until the day I die: Humans have more powerful innate physiological, biological, immunological, neurological wisdom in their pinky finger than any of the mandates created by all the public health departments and governmental organizations combined will have them believe. This is not faith, it is fact. Resilience is built into every part of our DNA. Whatever the color of your skin, whatever your ancestry, whatever culture, it is there. You will be told something else in office visits, on the news, in the healthcare system, from society and the collective, particularly in this current landscape, but it is all false.
I know this for certain. And I know that many, maybe most, do not subscribe to the mindset of the empowered, resilient, sovereign being in body and mind, but something deep within you does. I also know if you’ve submitted to the mandates of wearing a mask, social distancing and isolation as the hallmark for health and wellness, you’re missing the mark completely.
America, we proclaim that we’re so liberal, progressive and woke and we do all the things that would make you seem so. If Austin is the compass, we have this. We have yoga studios on every corner, ‘keep it local’ to support homegrown makers, hold classes on how to sage your home, cacao ceremonies, a ‘holistic care’ arm of Dell Medical School, have a medicine woman on the front lines at your community clinics and tons of other seemingly progressive acts and services. You have compost pick up every week (except they seem to be missing from low-income zip codes). You’ve recently written Black Lives Matter, (because they do and we are finally taking the steps to make sure they know) on two main streets, but you have a very long history of segregation, which continues, just check out the demographic East and West of I-35.
Liberalism goes beyond making verbal pronouncements and planting yard signs to showcase political stances. It manifests itself through political action. The blinding nature of white privilege allows some to believe Austin is progressive without considering how Blacks actually experience the city.
LAKEYA OMOGUN, THE TRUTH ABOUT BEING A BLACK WOMAN IN A LIBERAL CITY
And I’m guilty of it too. I’m in medicine, have been my entire life and part of the patriarchal system that brought us to this moment in time. The one that reduces everything to a war to be fought, a pill for every ill, a solution for every problem that you don’t have quite yet, but we’ll scare you until you succumb to the idea that you just may have it soon enough.
The approach to the pandemic in our country is one that follows traditional views and perspectives, one not open to change and leans more towards a conservative approach of following a school of medicine that is most known and utilized in our country. To me, it looks like a conservatism at its finest.
I don’t know one thing that sounds more progressive than empowering humans to know and understand their innate resilience and the amount of control they have in their health. This isn’t some woowoo, pseudoscience quackery, it is the way the healthcare system is going because what we’ve been doing since the late 1800’s isn’t working. Yes, modern medicine is incredible. Acute intervention, even more so. We’ve had some amazing advancements, inventions and have eradicated deadly illnesses and diseases, but to stick to this antiquated reductionist approach because it is what we’ve always done, is ignorant and stifling and won’t get us out of the sickcare system any time soon. Again, we spend the most in healthcare in all the world, but are number 37 in quality.
I know that no one gets paid with a healthy populace. I understand that clearly and fully. The world may not, but anyone who has practiced in the healthcare system in the U.S. knows this to be true.
My wish as a PA and a healer has always been for people to access the healer within. I have always empowered people to make their own decisions and choices when it comes to their health and move away from the fear being punished for those choices. I want people to feel safe to leave their homes, to go to parks, to allow their kids to play and return to school, for communities and families to gather, for churches to hold services, for small, family-owned businesses to say “you’re welcome to enter with a mask if we want or not if we don’t.”
It is time to step into our calling, America. Let's get back to that superpower status we once held so proudly. If you’re truly made up of progressivists and truly live “the idea of progress in which advancements in science, technology, economic, development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition”, try some outside the box thinking on for size. Look at the doctors, epidemiologists, scientists and experts outside the mainstream media and listen to what they have to say. If you need a list, let me provide you with one. And please look beyond their leanings, as this isn’t a political issue, it is a human one.
Dr. Alan Preston, Dr. Rebecca Miller, Dr. Zach Bush, Dr. Kelly Brogan (questioningcovid.com), Dr. Dan Erickson, Dr. Artin Masihi, Dr. Melissa Sell, Dr. Knut Wittowski, Dr. Eran Bendavid, M.D, Senator Scott Jensen, M.D, Dr. Barr Lando, Dr. Andrew Kaufman and countless others.
My Final Prescription
There are countless modalities to shift our mindset from one of fear and over-caution into one of calm and reason. I can’t pick one that is right for you, I can only recommend what I have found to work for me. Honestly, the greatest gift you can give yourself, even if just for a week or two, is to turn off the screens, not watch the news or scroll the socials. Spend your time getting in nature, reading books, cooking yummy food, calling your loved ones on the phone, drawing, working outside, walking if you can in nature, riding a bike, writing letters, organizing your closets, sleeping, napping, playing, doing anything that keeps you from absorbing outside input.
If you’re convinced that being disconnected keeps you ‘uninformed’ and therefore dangerous, then try staying off for 24 hours and take a measure of how you feel. See if just within that short time you can tap into your intuition and deep knowing that every little thing is alright.
And if your soul calls you to see your loved ones for even just a conversation without masks from afar, do it. Maybe end with a hug as I know it will feel right.
I have encyclopedias more to write, but I will stop here. Thank you for being here with me on this magnificent journey of life in this time. America, I know we can step into your highest calling and be the woke, progressive, liberal country we all know you can be.
Love,
Erica