Salutogenesic Healing Philosophy

This ancient traditional healing approach resurfaced in the middle of 20th century under the name salutogenesic. Let’s talk about the etymology of this word. According to Wikipedia, “Salutogenesis is the study of the origins (genesis) of health (salus) and focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease (pathogenesis).” In other words, we are focused on the health and not on the illness. This approach is widely used in indigenous healing traditions from the Far East to the Far West, from Nordic tribes to Southern islanders.

In our modern clinical practice, we focus exclusively on illness. The goal is to eradicate disease and to ensure the person's survival. In this model, we treat a person rather than heal him. We are fighting disease, and this fighting mentality expresses itself in aggressive or invasive treatments that sometimes could be avoided. By focusing on the illness, we narrow our view of the complexity of the human body, the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit. Hundreds of years ago, Hippocrates advised us to treat the patient and not the disease: “It is far more important to know what person has the disease than what disease the person has.” His approach to healing is a continuation of the healing traditions long before him, looking for the factors that cause illness. It could be numerous factors, but we always start with family, community, lifestyle, and environment.

By focusing on the person, we focus on emotional health, mind-heart coherence, lifestyle, and supportive connections with community and nature. This model of thinking is the heart and origins of traditional medicine. Ancient healing practices have always seen medicine's goal as bringing healing to both the mind and the body. The first step to boosting our body's self-healing ability is to restore inner peace and change our mindset from fighting disease to nurturing health. The human body cannot thrive when it tries to survive. Every healing tradition from every culture aims to empower our body's self-healing abilities. Techniques can be different, but they have the same purpose: restoring health. Our mind and body have different responses to these two methods: restoring health or fighting illness. One is associated with peace and happiness, and the other with the fight to survive; we can leave the doctor’s office feeling optimistic or with elevated blood pressure.

This emphasis on health is part of positive psychology, which improves healing by focusing on happiness and overall well-being. Research in psychoneuroimmunology confirms positive changes in the immune and nervous systems when we focus on health.

What can we do to improve our health personally? Here are a few suggestions.

1.      A day without a smile is a day wasted.

Make it a daily routine to give yourself a smile in the morning. Look in the mirror, smile, and give yourself a compliment or positive affirmation. When you feel a little down, it is time to watch comedy or funny videos. Even a fake smile sends a message to our brain that we are safe.

2.      We can modify or control our responses.

You choose your response when someone cuts in front of you when you drive. It could be, "What a jerk,” or “He may be rushing to the hospital or airport.” When you stay in line at the grocery store, “It is ridiculously slow,” or “I am blessed to have access to everything I need.” By choosing our response, we choose to be aggravated or at peace.

3.      Build resiliency that cultivates inner peace.

Resiliency is the ability to observe stressful situations and not be dragged in. There are a few suggestions to build it:

• Be a part of a supporting community

• Maintain close relationships with family and friends.

• Accept that changes are an unavoidable part of life.

• Create healthy boundaries

• Learn self-forgiveness and letting go.

4.      Recharge your batteries.

• Spend time in nature. Find a Forest Bathing Guide (Shinrin Yoku) to assist you, or find a quiet place in nature, merge with it, and observe.

• Have quality sleep. It is during this time that your mind processes the events of the day, and you can receive messages from the universe and your inner wisdom.  

5.      Practice gratitude

Make a habit at the end of the day, when you are in bed, to remember three things that happened that day you feel grateful for. Trust me, it doesn’t matter what kind of day you had. There is always something to be thankful for and appreciate.  

Our body, mind, and spirit want to be healthy and vibrant. They continuously communicate with us; the problem is that we are not always good listeners. We need to relearn our listening skills, so we can hear our body whisper before it starts screaming. It could take time to learn how to be quiet and listen, how recognize messages, and trust our intuition. It is worth our time and effort because the quality of our lives depends on it.

With love,

Roman

March 1, 2025