Poison Medicine

     Even though my allergies were acting up in the spring they were very mild compared to previous years.  This change was brought about by eating local honey.  Upping the ante, I then started taking local bee pollen with the intention of building up a stronger immunity to pollen. 

     The first time I took the pollen grains, I took too much. Immediately I noticed my throat and eyes started itching and my nose began running.  The next day I took fewer grains (about 5) and there was very little reaction.  The result has been amazing!  Since beginning this regimen, I’m suffering almost no hay fever symptoms. 

     So this got me thinking.  To decrease the histamine reaction that my body automatically produced whenever I was exposed to the allergen, I was ingesting the very thing that triggered a reaction.  This is the homeopathic approach to healing.  The idea being that by taking milder doses of the “poison or allergen,” the body builds a resistance to it, and over time the body would become immune.  I wondered if this approach could be applied to life’s ‘allergens’?

     In fact, it can.  To build up an ‘immunity’ to those big and scary episodes that we’ll inevitably face in life, the instruction is to use the minor everyday upsets we encounter as training ground to help us become less afraid.  I suppose this would be the homeopathic approach to developing equanimity.  The idea of cultivating equanimity is we can then, even in the midst of chaos and upheaval, remain present, aware, connected and calm as life unfolds.  

     The fact is we can’t always control what happens to us in each moment, but we can prepare ourselves to respond well.  Wisdom is being ready to deal skillfully with the unsettling changes we’ll inevitably face in life – the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the onset of an illness.  It is true these difficult situations will cause us sadness, but they also help us grow.  

     Developing equanimity isn’t about shutting off our feelings and becoming ‘unaffected’ by life’s pain and tragedy.  Equanimity is the ability to remain connected and aware of what’s going on while keeping calm and not reactively shutting out the painful experience. This discipline builds endurance, strength of mind, self knowledge, and calmness.  And we achieve this by changing how we view what is occurring in our life.

    Everything we face, irrespective of whether we define them as good or bad, can be viewed as a teaching to help us become wiser and more skilled in handling life’s challenges.   We start by viewing those incidents that we’d normally consider an irritation, setback, turmoil, disappointment from this new perspective.  Seeing them in a new light: they are helping us discover inner strength and grow our coping ability -- is like taking mild doses of ‘poison’ to help us grow strong against the effects of the full strength poison.

   What small dosages of ‘poison’ are you ingesting this day?