Philosophy of Naturopathy

Namaste 🙏

Today in this blog we are going to talk about a topic which majority of us hates “philosophy”. For me, word philosophy is synonym of boring, but I promise Naturopathy philosophy is really easy to understand and its not at all boring. So let’s get started with “The Philosophy of Naturopathy”.

The main objective of Naturopathy is to help re-establish and maintain sound health by preserving the balance with Nature.

According to naturopathy disease come and go, but underneath them all, health continuously exists. Therefore, to treat the disease, we should not approach it from the relief of symptoms but rather increase health. I know this is bit difficult to understand, So let me give you an example:- Suppose light is health and dark is disease. Darkness is not removed by directly attacking it, but it disappears on its own when light is brought in, or sufficiently increased. In the same way, when health is raised sufficiently high, disease disappears.

Always remember one thing that health takes place always in a toxic-less body and disease develops predominantly in the body filled with toxins. Of all the factors affecting our health, they can be broken down into three categories: physiological, psychological and psychosomatic

1. Physiological

Some common examples are faulty diets (unnatural, overcooked, fried, stale, too much quantity), inactivity or overactivity, disease suppressive treatments, using inorganic chemicals, genetically modified food grains, fruits and vegetables, improper rest, lack of fresh air and sunlight, etc. Such activities causes deficiency of required raw material, which leads to improper functioning of the body. You start to feel tired, can’t think clearly, indigestion, etc.

2. Psychological

Depletion in the life force is often experienced by feelings like tension, stress, jealousy, envy, anger, and hate. Addictions (tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, drugs, cigarette, etc.) and the fear of breaking such habits also fall into this category. These consumes the dynamic life force allotted for normal and necessary functioning of the body, thus leads to obstructions, imbalances, eventually improper deposition of toxins within our body.

3. Psychosomatic

Our emotions, sentiments, and attitude are just as important as any physiological or psychological elements. Negative thoughts and energy can have a deep impact on the hormone secreting glands, creating abnormalities in the mechanism of the body. All of this leads to imbalances in proper secretions of hormones, which leads to the accumulation of disease causing toxins in our body. Not only naturopathy but the Modern system of Medicine also believes that our Mind have strong impacts on our body which is equally capable of causing any disease as well as curing any disease.

Here I have a real life example of this to share, my father used to tell me stories of his childhood, whenever he wanted to bunk school with his cousin he uses to close his eyes and think in his mind strongly that he has fever and after 5 to 10 minutes, actually his body temperature rises and with that he uses to convince his teachers they let him go home with his cousin. This is the power of our thinking and our mind, if we think negatively it will affect us negatively and if we think positively it will affect us positively, it’s very simple science.

In short, whether the factors are classified as physiological, pathological, or psychosomatic, you see that the essence of all diseases is only one, an imbalance in the dynamic life force (vital energy) which leads to the accumulation of toxins thus, creating an environment conducive to the survival of diseases. Naturally, if the root cause of diseases is one, then uniformity must be maintained in its treatments, too. Always remember the main objective of Naturopathy is, not to fight disease, but to increase health so that the body can remove toxins and restore natural balance. With a unity in the cause, we see a unity in all diseases and finally a unity in treatment. Simply, one cause and one cure is a philosophy of Naturopathy.

“The man who accepts nature cure never begs. Self-help enhances self-respect. He takes steps to cure himself by eliminating poisons from the system and takes precautions against falling ill in the future…”

(Harijan, 2-6-1946, p. 165) – Mahatma Gandhi