For fifteen years, I have published a weekly spiritual e-newsletter called Seeds. The idea is to sow seeds of spiritual thought in the reader. Here are some of the best—along with new commentary applying each Seed to the creation of exorbitant well-being.
Buddhists take the Three Refuges. They say, “I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha.” Last post, we took refuge in the Dharma.
You will remember that taking refuge is creating an environment where you are safe. Taking refuge in the Sangha is what sanctuary is all about. Sangha means community. To be blessed with a spiritual community within which to practice is indeed precious and very rare in this day and age of busyness.
It is the purpose of sanctuary to be a place (read: refuge) where you know you will always hear Yes in your life of spiritual seeking and finding. Listen closely, carefully and quietly for the Voice from your own inner sanctuary. I know you’ll hear Yes.
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Sanctuary, like refuge, is where you make it. It might be at your kitchen table, or in your walk-in closet, or on a tuffet. You decide where you find sanctuary. The point is to find what works for your as sanctuary and use it. An empty sanctuary is no sanctuary at all.
When I came to Boston in 1970 after nearly a decade of medical education at Yale with the leading experts on infertility and gyn endocrinology of that era, I brought with me a distinct view of women’s endocrinology. Since then, I have expanded that view and developed an approach to gynecologic endocrinology that focuses on the whole person and on results rather than on arbitrary lab data. When I started my career here in Boston, I ran the gyn laboratory at Beth Israel Hospital and studied steroid dynamics at the Worcester Foundation, the facility where early research on hormonal contraception took place. That left me with a healthy respect for the techniques involved in modern laboratory analysis and for the pitfalls of relying exclusively on lab data to make diagnoses.
From the beginning, my work with infertile couples led me to recognize that it was essential to look at the role inability to conceive played in a couple’s life and world view. I was as concerned with how they dealt emotionally with the crisis in their lives that infertility had created as I was with the pathophysiology involved. Long before it was fashionable to do so, I provided counseling in my office for couples who could not conceive unaided. It was that that led me to RESOLVE, the original organization for providing education and support to infertile couples. I wrote the grant proposal that brought them the funding to expand from a local Belmont based organization which provided group and individual counseling to a nationwide organization with chapters in almost every state of the Union that provided information and referrals in the era that antedated the internet.
I was equally concerned with individuals for whom not conceiving was important. C Lee Buxton, the Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale who brought the suit to the Supreme Court that established the right to privacy and the legalization of contraception in America in 1965, was a personal friend and mentor. When I came to Boston, I began working with the late Mary Geiger, a wonderful woman from the Commonwealth’s Department of Public Health, to establish a network of clinics across the state that would use federal and state money to provide free and subsidized contraceptive care. The family planning program run by ABCD, Boston’s model NGO community service organization, one of the largest family planning programs in the country, is an outgrowth of that early work. I have been its medical director since 1975.
My years of teaching at Harvard Medical School have left me with a love of educating my patients so that they can participate in the decisions involving their health care. While I pride myself on being able to find the least interventional form of therapy for infertile couples, my experience with in vitro fertilization, both conventional stimulated IVF and natural cycle IVF extends over 25 years and I am happy to be able to continue to provide that service.
Joining Visions HealthCare is going to give me the opportunity to bring my view of endocrine and infertility problems and their relationship to the individual’s lifestyle, to diet and exercise and inner life to a community of individuals who appreciate that endocrine health is part of a person’s totality and must be viewed in context and not in isolation.
I had the chance to re-read a great book last week, Waking: A Memoir of Trauma & Transcendence by Matthew Sanford. It is all about the healing & the mind-body connection, and what happens to this relationship when a person no longer has access to much of the body by way of physical sensation. The author had a car accident when he was 13, resulting in paralysis from the chest down. He is a well-known yoga teacher now, working with both able-bodied and disabled students from his wheelchair (and on the mat).
The book, I Have Cancer What Should I Do: The Orthomolecular Guide to Cancer Management, by Drs Gonzalez, Miranda-Massari, & Saul, provides evidence-based recommendations for an integrative approach for those dealing with cancer and seeking to improve their quality of life and survival.
I am so excited to join Visions Healthcare, a practice that prides itself on the principle of whole body medicine. My journey into food and nutrition started at a young age. I always enjoyed watching my parents cook at home and at their bakery. I pride myself in being able to create in the kitchen, as food is a focal point in all our lives. Food is Medicine. Medicine is food. However, for some, food can do more harm then good if the individual has either an allergy/sensitivity/intolerance or medical condition like diabetes or heart disease, for example. I never understood the extent of such a concept until my son was born with a multitude of food intolerance and allergies. The numerous doctors I sought would treat my sons systems but would not entertain finding the root-cause of what was causing him to be so ill at such a young age. So, I went to work on researching what could be causing such systems and found that is was, in-fact, food. I eliminated the foods that he was sensitive/intolerant to and he began his journey to heal. My passion to heal through food is personal and I am honored to be able to share my knowledge and experience with you. I look forward to working with the Visions Healthcare team as your lifestyle coach and integrative and functional dietitian.
For fifteen years, I have published a weekly spiritual e-newsletter called Seeds. The idea is to sow seeds of spiritual thought in the reader. Here are some of the best—along with new commentary applying each Seed to the creation of exorbitant well-being.
Buddhists take the Three Refuges. They say, “I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha.” Last post we took refuge in the Buddha.
You will remember that taking refuge is creating an environment where you are safe. Taking refuge in the Dharma is a concept foreign to many non-Buddhists. Dharma means Path or Practice. When you take refuge in the Dharma, you return to your everyday spiritual practice as a means of keeping on through whatever you are suffering. The everydayness of your practice sustains you as refuge.
The implication here, of course, is that you HAVE an everyday practice. Do you? Yes? Wonderful. No? Wonderful. Start anew today.
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It doesn’t matter what your practice is … it’s YOUR practice. Pray at red lights. Breathe deeply every time you touch the kitchen sink sponge. Walk consciously. Close your eyes for a few seconds before you speak. Practice isn’t a perfect; it’s a practice. Practicing it is what makes us get better at it!
To your health!
If you want to subscribe, send me an email to scorso@visionsmedical.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line.
Visions HealthCare has been highlighted by the Wellesley Community Channel in a Wellesley Business Spotlight Video. View the video for a message from the Visions HealthCare Founder, Dr. Edward Levitan. The clip will be aired on the Wellesley Community Channel as well as available anytime on the Visions HealthCare YouTube channel.
