Page 634 - Total War on PTSD

and enjoyable. While herbal medicine can be helpful, you must consult a Tibetan Medicine practitioner for a prescription. However, even without herbal pills, these simple techniques and recipes, such as dietary changes, meditation, acupressure, massage, and the rLung incense can be applied by anyone. This simple approach can be profoundly helpful in relieving, soothing, and calming most anxious and stressful thoughts. They are also inexpensive and ecological. The meditation techniques can easily become a lifelong learning tool for understanding oneself more deeply.
As a practitioner of Asian medicine in the United States, I work with many people who want to transition off anxiety medication, and I witness them emerging from their anxiety whole and complete, with the ability to feel more deeply than they did before. When I first meet them, they almost always appear to be addicted to their anxiety medication and experience various side effects, such as being overweight or suffering from insomnia. Many are still anxious despite taking the medication. As one woman said to me, “It took me two years to come off my anxiety medication. I still have deep- seated fears sometimes, but I also now have my life back. I have lost weight, and there is less of a wall of medication between me and the world...my social anxiety still rears its ugly head in certain situations...but I can handle it because I’ve learned the tools to deal with anxiety thanks to your guidance.” When people follow the simple path of more wholesome habits, especially the calming of the mind through meditation, exercise, and diet, life is observed more clearly. People start to grow and evolve at a much faster pace than if they were continuing their lives with a muddy and agitated mind.
The agitated mind takes up a lot of energy. By deepening our spiritual life, or whatever you want to call the path of Tibetan Medicine, we find lasting joy and
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