Europe has a long history and tradition of natural medicine, which textbooks say date back to ancient Greece and Egypt - or possibly further, as further archaeological evidence comes to light.
What is not widely taught or known is the healing tradition that came out of the ancient forests that covered the European continent for thousands of years. Europe’s indigenous peoples lived in the forests and practiced their indigenous forest culture. All of their knowledge and wisdom came from Nature.
Their legacy was oral-based and was responsible for our current knowledge of healing herbs. Unfortunately, once forests were cut down, the way of life for these people changed dramatically. Knowledge of their holistic heritage is overshadowed by today’s modern medical industry.
One could say that natural medicine and folk medicine were a common body of medicine.
In the beginning, and still today, many people in Europe, as well as in Russia and the UK, look to and work with nature to understand how illness develops and how best to heal the body, mind and spirit as a unified whole.
“Gesundheit bekommt man nicht im Handel, sondern durch den Lebenswandel.” “Health can’t be bought in a shop, it comes from our way of life and being.”
– Sebastien Kneipp
Something that every TEM practitioner has in common is the acceptance of natural medicine as more than just a way of managing illness. Ultimately, it is an active way of life.
Some facts about TEM:
- We are an inseparable part of Nature.
- The TEM path to health includes avoiding illness-forming habits.
- The TEM goal is for the complete organism to be in balance.
- Health is based on all four humors (hot, cold, dry, wet) being in balance.
- Plants are used to stimulate the body’s self-healing power, with the preparation of compresses, extracts, essential oils and bathing waters.
- Healers such as Sebastien Kneipp based their natural medicine approach on five pillars of health: nutrition, movement, healing herbs, water and life balance. Kneipp believed our psycho-social environment and lifestyle choices influenced the health and fitness of our body and mind.
Typical Traditional European Medicine treatments include:
- Breathing (breath is life)
- Cupping
- Healing fasts
- Heliotherapy (sunlight)
- Herbal medicine
- Homeopathy
- Hydrotherapy (healing water)
- Manual therapy (Dorn method, touch for health)
- Meditation
- Movement (bodyweight)
- Nature (hiking, being)
- Nutrition (natural, unadulterated, wholefood)
- Raw vegan diet (Bircher-Benner, Ehret, Evers, Gerson, Walker)
- Reflexology
- Temperament (humors) diagnosis
- Therapeutic massage (lymphatic, deep tissue, craniosacral)
Posted by Jasmin on Dec 21, 2016