Truth, Reconciliation, and the Medicine Wheel

Holistic health and wellness teachings have been passed down for generations. Western medicine is starting to acknowledge and understand what First Nations peoples have practised and known for years. We must treat individuals through a lens of interconnectedness and holism.

“Wellness from an Indigenous perspective is a whole and healthy person expressed through a sense of balance of spirit, emotion, mind, and body. Central to wellness is belief in one’s connection to language, land, beings of creation, and ancestry, supported by a caring family and environment.” ~ Elder Jim Dumont, Definition of Wellness

The Medicine Wheel

Focusing on the whole-being includes Mental, Spiritual, Emotional, and Physical aspects of health.

A symbol that best represents holism and interconnectedness is the Medicine Wheel. You can use the Medicine Wheel to visualize health, healing, and what it means to be a living ‘being’.

Why is the Medicine Wheel circular?

The Medicine Wheel is circular to represent strength, all the force is concentrated inward to the center of the circle. This reminds us that we have the power over our lives and our journey.

A circle also shows the interconnectedness of all dimensions of health and the continuous interaction between all dimensions of our inner reality.

Health is so much more than the absence of dis-ease

When your body is at-ease you will express well-being. Wellness is expressing who you truly are. You can do this by sharing your gifts and talents with your family and community. The circle itself is meaningful, as there is no end and no beginning.

“We are not our mental thoughts, but observers of our thoughts.”

Viewing health from a non-physical perspective

1. We are spiritual beings who are always for fuller expression and expansion. We ALL have pure potentiality and can create wellness in our lives. Better is a beautiful word here, as there is no limit to the good you can express. There is always a better way.
2. Through the understanding of the mind, you can learn to control your thoughts and feelings. Your emotions are the expression of what is going on inside your mind, repeatedly. Our most common thoughts and feelings begin to show themselves in our outward physical reality.
3. You are not your physical body but you are living in your body. Think about it, you do not say “I am hand” or “I am foot”. No, you have hands and you have feet. Your body is your vehicle to life! Yours is unique, you must take care of your body and learn what it needs as it is your only place to live.

We all have unlimited potential to up-level our health and wellness. Just like a seed that is planted in the forest can grow into a giant tree, you have the potential to grow in all aspects of your medicine wheel and express your powerful gifts.

All human beings have the capacity to grow and change

All four areas of health can be developed when we have a vision of what is possible for us. We can use our understanding that the Creator made everything in the image of spiritual perfection. We all have a unique purpose, pure potential, and the ability to envision a happier and healthier future together as human beings.

Take time today, to envision your ideal health and how you can take action to express your well-being and potential, today.

“The Creator’s (God’s) gift to you is more talent and ability than you will ever use in one lifetime. Your gift to the world is to develop and utilize as much of that talent and ability as you can, in this lifetime.” - Steve Bow

With Love and Gratitude,

– Kayla Larsen

References

Bopp, Judie, Michael Bopp, Lee Brown, Phil Lane, and Patricia Lucas. The Sacred Tree. Wilmot, WI: Lotus Light, 1989. Print. Turabian (6th ed.).