The Medical Hyperhorrorization Of The American Psyche
And how to avoid it by caring for yourself like a human bonsai tree.
by Dr. Jaime Fritsch, DACM, L.Ac.
Look how adorable you are.
American institutions have a tendency to use scare tactics to keep citizens living in a perpetual state of negligence toward authoritarian governance. For a while it was the war on drugs, then it was terrorism, lately it was right wing extremists for half the country and antifa for the rest. The response is always more control.
Controlling populations is a science that reached its peak with the USSR and USA. The former was more overt with their systems, leading its population to a state of perpetual distrust of anything involving the government. The latter has been more sophisticated: the so called land of the free, after all. An excellent documentary—which also inspired the name of this post—about these two superpowers and how they aim to control their populations can be found here.
Currently there is a new frontier of scare tactics and it’s maybe the most powerful one yet because practically nobody can escape its psychological tentacles: health. Everywhere you look, something is telling you that you might have something gravely wrong inside of you. This could be any number of ailments from hypertension to ADHD to cancer. The common denominator is that there is an undercurrent of information telling us that there is something inherently sick about us.
Tragically, we are sicker than ever just like terrorists and street drugs were real, too. The problem though is that—just like with terrorists and street drugs—we’re developing this sort of mass hysteric hypochondria leading to unprecedented elective surgeries, pharmaceutical interventions, and biological prophylactic measures which all come with risks. Even seemingly benign diagnostic measures such as CT scans, mammograms, and colonoscopies aren’t without side effects.
Recently I’ve witnessed people experiencing autoimmune conditions crop up after vaccines, rapid metastasis following colonoscopic polyp removal, strokes after heart catheterization, erectile dysfunction alongside blood pressure medications, and many other moderate to serious side effects from procedures that were supposed to be therapeutic. Possibly even more grave to consider, however, is that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America. Furthermore, the first and second causes of death—heart disease and cancer—are conditions that the medical system is failing. These are chronic conditions that pharmaceutical solutions and surgeries are just simply not working to alleviate even with the 4+ trillion dollars Americans spend on healthcare per year. That’s $4,000,000,000,000. Plus. Per year.
Enough is enough. It’s time for us to think proactively toward long, healthy, enjoyable lives as opposed to worrying about every little thing and then taking a pill or going under the knife to fix-not-fix it.
It’s time to tune into the universal undercurrent of healing that courses through your existence.
This is a massive psychological shift but the steps aren’t all that complicated. If you have something related to your health that you are currently worried about, first go see a good health practitioner that you can trust. This is any person that has the knowledge and skillset to assess your health and could be anyone from a DO to an LAc to a witch doctor or an MD if that is who you trust with your own health. Get yourself a clean bill of health and see what areas you want to work on so you can have peace of mind from the onslaught of garbage assaulting your psyche.
Then move forward holistically beginning with a little exercise envisioning yourself as a bonsai tree. A human bonsai, if you will.
I want you to see yourself as this little being, worthy of the utmost attention and care. The basics are the same for humans and bonsais. A little house, some food, some sunshine. That’s all you need to start. These little trees don’t require a lot to survive. But given lots of love, they flourish. You can feel the energy of a well-loved bonsai and they can live for hundreds of years. I want you to envision giving yourself the same love and affection that you’d give this cool little tree were it yours to care for.
So here’s ten steps to care for a human:
Have good relationships. When we cease to be part of the community and don’t participate in the cycle of giving and receiving, we step out of life. This is how cancerous cells behave. Step into the flow of giving and witness it circulating around you. This aligns the cells in your body to the way of nature.
Enjoy yourself. Finding activities you enjoy floods your body with signals that turn on your parasympathetic nervous system and allow healing to occur. My personal endgame for enjoying myself is drinking cappuccinos and participating in Italian umarell culture.
Rest. Sleep is somewhat of a mystery but we do know that sleep is when our bodies rejuvenate and heal. Try to get horizontal by 9 or 10 and asleep by 11 as much as possible. If you need to stay up late binging a great show now and again, go for it. So long as normally your routine is to get good sleep.
Face your fears. This strengthens the Kidney energetic network, nourishes the life essence, and ultimately gives peace of mind. Life’s too short to live with unnecessary fears.
Faith & gratitude. This could be having faith in anything from the Tao to “The Universe” to your community to Jesus. Doesn’t matter. Just have faith that it’s going to be ok. Along with having faith that things will work out, practice gratitude as they do.
Exercise. This doesn’t have to be in a gym. Yard work and gardening will do the trick. Cleaning your own house is good. Tending to your own kids instead of paying someone else to do it is really good. Just move your body and get fresh blood flowing to your extremities. Walking a few minutes after meals is fantastic for peristalsis. And hills are great for aging bodies because they build muscle going up and encourage osteoblast formation on the way down.
Breathe. Let fresh, clean outdoor air deeply into your lungs as much as possible. Check yourself to make sure you’re not breathing shallowly as often as you are aware to do so. Don’t overthink this one. Literally just breathe.
Take herbs. People who live a long, healthy life tend to drink herbal teas and use all sorts of natural remedies. In my personal life and practice, I use Classical Pearls herbal formulas which are focused on the Taoist-inspired roots of Classical Chinese Medicine. There are herbs for everyday use and there are herbs for chronic conditions and there are herbs for every kind of cold/flu you could imagine.
Eat well. See my last post for how I suggest you should eat.
Fasting. Periodically denying yourself of food is featured in just about every wisdom tradition worldwide and is now backed by modern science as a, frankly, weird predictor of long life. This can be as simple as stopping eating at 80% full or doing a weeklong bone broth diet or skipping breakfast until late morning. The point of fasting is merely to send a message to your cellular system that says something to the effect of, “Hey, let’s be wise with our resources.”
And that’s it. Ten simple steps to live in a new paradigm that fosters a sense of care and healing for the precious entity that you are instead of the currently mass-prescribed paranoid psychosis. As with anything I write about, talk with your trusted healthcare professional before making any changes in your life. Everybody is different, and some people might need to take extra precautions with things like exercise, herbs, and fasting in particular.
Be good to yourself, you sweet little bonsai.
You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
—Buddha
See you next time.
—Jaime