In college I took a course that integrated neuroscience, sociology and psychology. It was my first introduction to mindbody-nature medicine, even though I didn’t know it then. Since that course, the intrinsic and concentric circles of our innate nature in symbiotic relationship with environment have been etched forever in my mind. It was the academic version of what I was learning under apprenticeship with a Lakota storyteller and medicine woman. The terms were different, the outcome the same.
In allopathic medicine and its cousins, we treat symptoms and rarely understand the root. This is even more of a gap in modern psychology even though mindbody medicine is now more widely accepted. If the gap did not exist there would not be the need for disciplines like somatic psychology and ecopsychology to reunify what was once simply common thought.
It is wild to me how many people I would help in my previous practice who could not track symptoms and connect them to daily habits, foods, emotions etc. No shade, simply a signal of how much we are rewarded when we defer our bodily awareness to an outside expert. Now, medicine focuses more on lifestyle factors, diet etc., parroting the “alternative” forms of care that knew this all along.
In other words, it’s no wonder why things like burnout, adrenal fatigue, autoimmune diseases exist without any hope for a cure in modern medicine. First and foremost allopathy is a form of emergency medicine not preventative care. Secondly, the language of medicine itself promulgates the separation of us from our own empowered movement toward self-healing. Third, it is entirely owned by capitalism and will exploit your illnesses for profit. It’s not all bad though. If you need something amputated or operated on it is the only way to go. If you need lifesaving measures from an accident or strange bacterial infection- it is the best choice and if you need a clear diagnosis that can be clearly given for something with clear definitions- allopathy is the move. But if you need something more nuanced, recovery from emotional trauma, healing after years of pushing through, burnout, or a lifetime of eating the standard American diet- or if you are a woman having a baby- you are essentially and factually fucked.
This worldview is worlds away from self-healing. In my mind, I see tumors for example, as the body’s way of consolidating toxins to perhaps make the overwhelming task of fighting them more manageable. Post traumatic stress disorder is a natural response to something that human minds should never have been exposed to for the duration they were exposed to it. In my medical intuitive perspective and shamanic insight, autoimmune diseases are developed over time from environmental, emotional and psychological toxicity and the increasing inability to cope with ongoing negative stimuli. Back in the day, I would’ve been strung up and burned for saying such things.
Also my research indicates the path to burnout begins the moment of our disconnection, often rooted in trauma, illness, or overwhelming and chronic stress. In our most vulnerable moments, we face a choice; tend to our authentic needs or push through in the name of safety. When we consistently choose to ignore our inner signals like fatigue, pain, grief, rage- and we are simultaneously unable to express our needs, we begin to retard or delay the process of our inner growth. We put our self-care aside, we become something else in order to survive.
I have come to believe that self-abandonment isn't a character flaw as much as it's often necessary for survival and a learned response. Like empathy is learned only when it is taught, we have been perpetually forced to override our instincts because self-care is deemed selfish and doctors are seen as the only health experts. We become strangers to ourselves, measure our happiness in accordance to what we have and how we perform for others.
The Forgotten Self
Self-abandonment is not something you would go to a doctor for, but the inevitable symptoms of it may cause you eventual concern. Chronic pain, insomnia, constipation… these may inspire a visit and the good doc will have a pill for that. The psychiatrist and the counselor will have a course to follow. And no one will be “wrong” but nothing will work quite right either. In Classical Chinese medicine, emotions are considered to be at least in part responsible for the cause of disease- not just germ theory leads to illness. Stress is not simply a thing to manage and many of the shamans that mentored me agreed that it will inevitably lead to an early death. When you are simply a cog in a machine to a system that eats your life, what does intrinsic value matter?
Well, our coming awake to our intrinsic value is… everything.
Self-actualization is a process of self-care and progress toward becoming whole. You are a microcosmic event becoming aware of itself, the dreamer awakening to the dream that you are dreaming into existence. It is the infinite yin yang turning over unto, onto, into itself. There is nothing in existence that is not you except for that which you say you are not. These concepts are mirrored in many ancient wisdom traditions- (I have just borrowed from four different cultural concepts).
Self-actualization is the higest form of personal responsibility because it requires that you see yourself as worthy enough to deserve the life you inhabit, the space you take up and also noble enough to not ever delude yourself into believing you are more deserving than any other living creature on earth. You are not nothing and you are not everything. You are the all that is and ever was and ever will be and if you can truly innerstand this, you also know that makes you essential to the whole, but not the whole itself.
You feel?
Self-actualization is a process of self-realization, a re-membering of who you are by facing your inner bullshit or shadow self (Jung). Your thoughts, dreams, spiritual experiences, moments of wonder, periods of grief, flashes of insight, and quiet contemplations are a cumulative and holistic matrix of what makes you yourSelf. The true you exists in a realm entirely separate from your output. Your inner landscape, imagination, visualization, capacity for being a keeper, seer, empath is rich with memory, intuition, and meaning-making. It’s perhaps the most essentially human part of you, yet it receives no line item in performance reviews.
I would like to invite you to consider:
Your worth exists independent of your usefulness, performance or perfection. You don't have to earn your place at the table of existence through achievement, transactional service, or even by being nice enough. You belong here simply by virtue of being alive, carrying the same inherent dignity as every other conscious being who has ever drawn breath.
You possess unique gifts that are soulpowered. Perhaps you have an uncanny ability to create safety for children, or you notice beauty in moments others rush past. Maybe you can sense when someone needs comfort, or you have a gift for creating spaces where people feel they can pour their grief into. These capacities, often invisible to current systems, may be among your most valuable contributions to the world.
You are part of a constellation of relationships that belong in the story of humanity unfolding. Your identity isn't contained within the roles you play. You belong to communities, neighborhoods, ecosystems, lineages, and traditions that connect you to something larger than individual achievement. You are simultaneously someone's descendant and someone's ancestor, part of an ongoing story that began long before you arrived and will continue long after you're gone.
You are a creature connected to rhythms and rituals that don't follow a predicable calendar. Your body and psyche are attuned to lunar cycles, circadian rhythms, and natural patterns of rest and renewal. Your energy naturally ebbs and flows; your creativity has seasons; your soul requires periods of dormancy as well as moments in the sun.
The Practice of Self-Actualization as Burnout Prevention
Yep, I said it. I bring this argument to the table and stand on business with any credentialed and degree-protected whitecoat. I challenge germ theory as being overly simplistic. I am calling out your shadow and asking the system of medicine to rise up and evolve. When humanity does, when you choose to become more self-aware, awake within the framework of this dream- all of the systems around us will be forced to as well.
Self-actualization isn't a destination- it’s not the magic 5th dimension. It won’t save us from ourselves. It will lead us back to ourselves in the most embodied way. It is a form of self mastery and it’s a lifelong practice. The ongoing work of putting attention on who you actually are beneath the layers of who you think you should be requires developing what we might call authentic awakening. The capacity to notice your real responses no matter how dark, desires- no matter how taboo, your needs no matter who they satisfy, takes real grit, full guts. I dare you to tinker with it.
It begins with small acts of recognition. What brings you genuine joy versus what you think should bring you joy? What does your body actually need versus what your schedule demands? What conversations leave you feeling energized versus depleted? What environments allow you to feel most like yourself?
What do you consider to be selfish indulgences and who said so? These questions are essential intelligence gathering for a life lived in alignment rather than constant friction with your innate nature. When you consistently honor these authentic responses, you build what Albert Schweitzer might call “self-fidelity"- the capacity to remain true to yourself even under pressure.
The journey from self-abandonment to self-actualization often requires returning to those original moments of disconnection—the trauma, illness, or overwhelming stress that first taught us to ignore our inner signals. These experiences, while painful, often carry important information about our limits, needs, and what we truly value.
Healing doesn't mean erasing these experiences but rather integrating their wisdom without continuing to perpetuate the self-abandonment they initially required for survival. Sometimes pushing through is necessary; the problem arises when pushing through becomes our only strategy, causing us to lose touch with our capacity for rest, reflection, and authentic response.
In my definition, self-actualization is a holographic experience built by commitment to self-care, self-love, self-forgiveness and through it we expand our inner and outer capacity to be selfless and in service to others.
Aho.