Why does an embarrassment or stigma still exist associated with those who are seeking psychiatric treatment? Why do people wait so long before come for help - to point of becoming nearly non-functional with their families, children and work environment?

First, many people have a picture in their mind of movies in which psychiatrists are ineffective listeners of problems of patients who are lying on psychoanalytic couches. It is important to remember that psychoanalysis preceded our modern treatment approaches which now have a much higher success rate. We currently have many safe and effective medications, which when used with or without psychotherapy, help many people fully recover.

originally published in "Wet Set Gazette", Pasadena, CA - Spring 1998 reprinting with permission granted

Your body's health is a complex system of mini-systems, just like a global village of its own - there are hills and valleys, eruptions and frozen areas, streams, oceans, and there are sometimes swamps. These areas of stagnation don't need to be treated with disdain - rather, they can be held as hidden treasure lands able to give forth fertile, recoverable items that are usable and actually add to richness of whole system. The trapped energy in stored fat or tension can be released thru deep breathing, allowing normal cleansing functions to harmonize themselves more quickly. With this attitude, let's talk about your internal Riverway and water treatment process that your body performs.

Get friendly with your highways and byways - lymphatic system is responsible for transporting wastes, returning filtered blood particles, and transporting immune response (lymphocytes). It is your internal shower - ongoing action of liquidy part of blood (plasma) "leaking" into spaces in between cells - like water permeating a sponge, lymph is meant to go everywhere - grabbing up and carrying along extraneous or foreign particles and cells, flowing all waste products toward main water filtration stations (lymph nodes). The patrol brings invaders to station and a battle may ensue. We may realize our immune system is responding to an alarm because warriors (lymphocytes) multiply and do body's main defending in node areas, making them swell when we fight a cold or other diseases.

The blood is pumped by heart, but lymph is pumped mostly by muscle contraction, along with respiratory diaphragm movement. When we do deep, complete breathing, exercising and sweating, we add to body's ability to cleanse itself of toxins and waste products - we pump lymph along its Riverway. The branch of yoga studying breath is called Pranayama, prana being Sanskrit word for Life Force or Vital Energy.

We all seem to realize it's important to take our cars in for regular tune-ups, repairs, oil changes, radiator coolant flushes, gas and air filter changes, etc. But what about our bodies? Who changes air filter in our lungs? and cleans out oil filter in our gall bladder? or flushes out blood cleaning mechanism in our spleen, kidneys and bladder? The intelligence of human body is so elegant that, merely using our breath, we accomplish minimum cleansing program. The diaphragm is beautifully situated where all filtering organs are latticed into its movement, and they benefit greatly from repetitive squeezing and releasing of cellular elements.

Our global village is ecological, too, in that it will reuse anything sitting around too long, So all garbage (unused sugar, fat, protein) sitting around in your backyard (or front porch..?!) will be held in a hydro-culture (ground substance) waiting to be sent out as waste or turned into useful calories. If it sits too long in one spot, sediment of river's flow is deposited in hard immobile impactions (colon) or soggy, swampy pools (edema), making ripe ground for holding disease pockets. The largest organ of elimination is skin, so it's important to perspire AND to exfoliate (dry skin brushing). We also eliminate thru colon, bladder, and lungs. When one organ isn't working efficiently or being given an opportunity to contribute, other organs have to take over extra toxic waste. This can, for example, lead to skin eruptions when colon is not moving at least 1-3 times a day. Most people need to DRINK MORE WATER. Formula (your weight divided by two = how many ounces per day you need)

It is important to always eliminate whatever we can no longer use. Once we have assimilated and absorbed, transformed and integrated something into ourselves, we are meant to harmoniously and efficiently get rid of all parts that are not useful or no longer need to be held in reserve. Another intrinsically elegant element in our design as human beings, is metaphor of our physical and emotional lives. Once we can let go of our habits, grudges, or unneeded negative reactive patterns, we can breath easier in our daily lives.

Your internal organs depend on your deep breathing and muscle tone in order to be squeezed, re-oxygenated, flushed, and efficient in their functions. They also depend on muscles that hold them up from gravity - hammock or sling that is bottom or pelvic floor for abdominal cavity - PC muscle group (pubococcygeus). Re-discovered in this century by Doctor Kegel, diamond-shaped area where this group of muscles weaves base sphincters together is also known in ancient yogic studies as Muladhara, or Root Chakra. Learning how to hold or lock (Muladhara Bandha) and elevate internal hammock is a Pranayama technique developed for increasing Vital Force. Once activated, it flows from base of spine up to crown, and charges up each one of neural plexes (chakras) as it moves. With this, body has an abundance of energy for cleansing, relaxing, and rejuvenating all internal organs. It creates a flow of electro-magnetic activity that harmonizes and reconnects breaks in continuous circuitry.