Exploring Holistic Medicine Approaches in the Western World

The connection between humans and nature has been changing throughout history. At times, nature has been used as a form of medicine and at others it has been shunned out altogether. Unlike in the Western world, in parts of the Eastern world such as India, their connections with nature have been strong for thousands of years. India’s ancient medical system, Ayurveda, connects the human body to the elements of the nature. Their use integrating these elements allows for a balance between mind, body, and spirit in overall health and wellbeing. With the changing times, the West, too, is adapting to using nature for healing. A new vision for healthcare is emerging which is patient focused and considers the wide range of healing that alternative medicine has to offer. Fields such as holistic psychology are emerging to provide people with a more natural approach to treatment of certain psychological disorders. Psilocybin treatment is now being introduced into the research field of psychology in order to reduce stress and anxiety. This topic is of importance as it can increase exposure of pre-modern and modern practices of medicine so that humans can benefit from the existing holistic knowledge that surrounds this field.