CRUCIBLE: Hilot and Wellbeing (1) Julkipli Wadi

QUEZON CITY (MindaNews/30 Nov) There is no denying that modern man has become very sophisticated as he tries to reach the pinnacle of securing and sustaining life with his fervent desire to attain near immortality status or experience. Compared to other species, man has mastered his condition and the environment he lives in as he is able to break from state of nature making him an almost independent, self-preserving being.

Whereas animals and other creatures have not left their primitive stage so much so that there is obviously no development let alone sophistication and innovation in their existence; if you look at trends why many animals become endangered, it is because they have not persisted to live with what Charles Darwin refers to as survival of the fittest. They thus fail to fit, to live with the demand of an evolving and increasingly constricted global ecosystem. It is not so with man; he is resolute in looking for ways to secure and sustain life.

This is the frame of my reflections after visiting a number of hospitals recently where I was diagnosed, according to the doctor, with nerve impingement at my back. After undergoing Electromyography or EMG and other tests, doctors recommended me to have Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI, to undergo physical therapy, and to wear a corset, which is an iron brace to support the lower portion of my back.

Due to my rather unease on medical cost and physical encumbrances to wear a corset as if my condition is so serious to merit that; and as a believer on Tausug hilot that I previously learned from my late grandfather; given, too, my being discriminatingly rebellious on anything conventional, my wife and I thought of exploring alternative ways to relieve my nerve impairment.

Perhaps, our advantage these days is that there is an array of medical institutions and health facilities with varied therapeutic approaches easily accessible ranging from those available in conventional hospitals to traditional hilot, Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, food supplements including physical therapy and techniques like reflexology. Easy access to information allows us to know their efficacy as we can easily compare each other while providing us varied choices so we can make better decisions.

After trying and experiencing these interventions, I realized up close how far todays marvels in medical and health science and technology have become. It includes my observation on growing trends and increasing consciousness of people in availing highly consumerist package of health and wellbeing techniques and physical treatment that have now reached enormous proportion that we could even hardly cope with its fast pace development.

All of these are, in my view, geared towards securing and prolonging life, while maximizing the optimum potential of ones wellbeing, which is generally accepted and mostly patronized by the haves as their universal notion of good life. Whereas, have-nots and those with aversion on post-modern lifestyle could only relish with their own self-definition of good by appreciating and resorting to what is essentially basic and simpler ways in attending to their health issues.

Yet, a deeper insight has to be advanced given the fact that while the thrust of medical institutions and health related methods are all geared toward securing or prolonging life, on the contrary, we might also have to unravel the question where that dogged desire for maintaining healthy lifestyle and wellbeing is coming from as it is possibly based on prevailing and dominant worldview about life a life that is atomistic and segmented and possibly detached from what Dr. Henry Lindlarh refers to as evocation of Creative intelligence that permeates in all beings.

So that the impression created is that, when we get sick, such an experience is viewed totally negative as we immediately resort to some medical interventions even reflexively without us realizing that sickness or diseases are part of natural order of things with our body having that innate ability to do its self-healing process.

The implications on too much reliance on medical interventions are enormous not only affecting us medically, emotionally, and financially, at times, even creating in us a kind of dependent psychology that our salvation lies in the hands of doctors and medicines, therapists, beauticians, spas, yoga centers, and so on. And for good reasons indeed. The importance of doctors and the marvel in todays medical sciences and health related technology and methods is undeniable.

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CRUCIBLE: Hilot and Wellbeing (1) Julkipli Wadi