Current Issue

The River of Homeopathy: We Share the Journey
by Nancy Tam

“Homeopathy cures a larger percentage of cases than any other form of treatment and is beyond doubt safer and more economical.”—Mahatma Gandhi

I had a persisting cough that dragged on for months and months that eventually led to my close friend, Amara, strongly encouraging me to give homeopathy a try. I was scheduled to present at a national conference and was quite worried that I wouldn’t be able to deliver my speech. After answering seemingly odd and yet intriguing questions during the interview, I’ll never forget taking a few sips of a remedy and almost instantly feeling the cough subside. A few days later, I was able to give my speech in a very strong and animated voice! I was amazed at how well homeopathy had worked for me! However, it still took me a few years before I felt called to homeopathy as my “GO TO” for first aid situations, minor ailments, as well as chronic and more serious health issues: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. I marvelled at the totality of homeopathy and how it could holistically support my whole well-being, including my dreams. For the past 25+ years, homeopathy has become my way of healing, my way of seeing, knowing and being, it has become my way of life… I WAS ALL IN! I began the journey of climbing the homeopathy mountain of learning and living, growing and healing, taking one step at a time, with Hoe Mark as my inspiration, guide, and mentor.

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The Microbiome: Your Body's Internal Ecosystem
by Dr. Louise Gagné

Over the past few decades, scientific research has uncovered a hidden world inside our bodies that plays a vital role in our overall health—the microbiome. Once overlooked, this complex ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms is now recognized as a key factor in metabolism, weight regulation, immune function, and even mental health. Understanding and supporting your microbiome is one of the most powerful things you can do for your well-being. But what exactly is the microbiome, and how can you ensure it works for you, rather than against you?

Promoting Brain Health and Reducing the Risk of Dementia (Part 1)
by Lorrel Elian

There are many risk factors for dementia. Quite a number of them are under our control. Here are practical steps you can take to improve your brain health and help protect yourself and your family.

Feed Your Brain in Healthy Ways. Choose a wonderfully varied, plant-based diet of unprocessed foods, with at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Use extra virgin olive oil, and include green tea and spices like rosemary, oregano, basil, and parsley that have powerful antioxidant properties. Make sure you are getting a good balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. One of the things I recommend is that people increase their intake of fatty ocean fish that is rich in omega- 3s and low in environmental contaminants. Good choices are salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring.

Ceremonies for Grief and Loss from Traumatic Health Experiences
by Pam Fichtner

What do you think of when you hear the word ceremony? A joyous day when a couple are wed together in love? A public event when a person receives an award? The anniversary of a particularly important day? What ceremonies have you had that are important to you? There are many meanings associated with ceremony, but it is basically a formal act to mark an important event. The formality of each event can be as unique as you are – it does not have to be traditional, solemn, or prescribed – the main intention is that it is a purposeful desire to create something meaningful for you.

“You're in the Normal Range”
The Hidden Consequences of Mineral Imbalance and New Insights for Emotional Eaters
by Lorrel Elian

Tired of always feeling tired and grumpy? Dieting and exercising but nothing changes? No matter how diligently you supplement or exercise, if you still find yourself exhausted and moody, you might start wondering—"Is this all in my head?" I've listened to doctors repeat the same phrase for over forty years, "You're in the normal range." Like many women on a healing journey, my path began with misdiagnosis, unanswered questions, and frustrating medical dead-ends.

The Teacher as Writer
by David Schleich

Teaching, as Parker Palmer puts it, “is a fearful enterprise.” Over many years in various educational systems I have met them. Teachers who, among the thousand things they have wanted for their careers, to be writing, too. I have met those who have published a little, or not at all; those held back by complex, crazy-busy workloads, by family commitments, by professional development work, by timing, by energy, by courage. Palmer says that teachers face day after day, year after year “the perverse but powerful draw of the ‘disconnected’ life.” They teach and learn “at some remove from [their] own hearts,” he writes.

There is a compelling feature of that story those teachers tell themselves repeatedly, and it is this: fear. Those teachers are eventually afraid enough to let the clutch out on a serious shot at writing (even part-time, but protractedly), that they let a dissenting voice inside themselves stop a “live encounter” (again, Palmer, that mazing mentor of teachers) with the writer within. Such a meeting with the teacher as writer is daunting, because it invites transformation. We are feverish about the possible learning, about the creativity, about the products of our work. We are, though, as Albert Camus puts it, “porous.” What will happen? What will change?

Still Blessing the Trees With LOVE
(an update on the Saskatoon Forest Chaplaincy)
by Shawn Sanford Beck

There is something new and refreshing in the air. For well over a decade, we have seen a steady uptick of books, articles, and social media posts describing, in terms both scientific and spiritual, an awakening to the fact that the more-than-human world is alive and sentient. Trees in particular have been singled out as communicative beings (eg. Finding the Mother Tree by Canadian ecologist Suzanne Simard), but mushrooms, fungi, and mycelial networks are a close second (have a look at Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life). All in all, it feels like animism in general is having a series of micro-revivals, as humanity remembers that it is but one strand within a vast web of Life. Indigenous communities have never forgotten this primordial wisdom, but “the West,” in particular, is in deep need of re-awakening. Thankfully, this transformation away from human egocentricity toward a renewed “eco”-centricity is underway, both globally and locally.

Editorial
by Melva Armstrong

Hello! Welcome to the 30th Anniversary WHOLifE Journal issue!!! I find it very exciting to have reached this milestone. I never thought about publishing it for 30 years when I first started. In 1995 I was guided by spirit to create a natural health and wellness magazine in Saskatoon, that could be beneficial for many reasons. One way was to provide a magazine where practitioners of every kind could promote their work to a large audience. A second way was to be a venue to help healers and wellness businesses to connect with each other. Thirdly, was to provide articles and advertising with health-conscious information for the readers. Initially it was just to be circulated in Saskatoon. However, it wasn’t too long after getting started, I met some very kind and loving folks from Regina, who offered to drive to Saskatoon to get copies that they could distribute down there. That was the beginning of circulation and it just expanded from there to include many parts of the province.

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