Healing and Regeneration: A Nature-Inspired Approach
This article was first published in the magazine Biomimicry Works in June 2024. The full article and beautiful layout can be found here: https://www.biomimicry.works/
A holistic, well-adapted and nature-inspired approach to individual healing can support the collective wellbeing of society and the health of this planet.
How might biomimicry guide adaptations in lifestyle behaviors and mental health to improve well-being? Rather than shifting from one addiction to another, taking a pill to cover up symptoms, or accepting unnecessary suffering, nature-inspired strategies that serve the unique individual may offer a locally-attuned approach to unlearning pain and fear, reducing or eliminating symptoms of anxiety and depression, and more intuitively heal injury and illness. As humans are freed from the debilitating suffering that keeps them feeling stuck, they are better equipped to manage a sustainable practice toward health and wellness that dually benefits the ecosystem in which they live.
A challenge with current medical models includes a lack of feedback loops between practitioners and patients. Often after symptoms are presented to a practitioner, it’s either too late for intervention or follow through on behavioral change is not well understood. Specializations and lack of communication between doctors make things complicated. A cardiothoracic surgeon looks at coronary artery disease and attempts a bypass graft. How did it get so far into degeneration? Years prior, this patient’s primary physician may have diagnosed high blood pressure and recommended the patient lose weight and exercise more, but how does someone begin that journey without access to education, motivation, and accountability?
How might we integrate a whole ecosystem approach to healing where a patient is made more aware of the multidimensional aspects of health within their bodies and the environment in which they live? What resources and support could transform that information into action? How might patients realistically apply concepts like losing weight and lowering blood pressure to their unique lives? That's where a nature-inspired approach to healing can fill the gap. By adapting the biomimetic problem-solving process to a human seeking a solution for poor health, pain, and suffering, a more deeply interconnected and intuitive healing approach can better identify the root cause of suffering.
The wonder is not lost in mimicking how human brains respond to learned mental and emotional patterns, injury, and illness. The art of protection can be studied and adapted when learned responses create unintended consequences, such as a heightened sense of anxiety even when safe or emotional trauma disguised as physical pain. Every human presents a personal challenge with unique contextual circumstances. Where they live, what they have access to, their personal experiences and perspectives, and who has been recruited to their Healing Squad will help determine the scoping process for their personalized healing journey. By looking at all aspects of their life and co-creating a plan of action, weight loss begins to look like addressing nutrient deficiencies and seeking locally-sourced whole foods that resonate with the individual both through culture and bioavailability. High blood pressure may be addressed through sleep habits and stress management techniques like deep breathing, journaling, meditation, or trauma reprocessing strategies like Emotional Awareness Expression Therapy (EAET) or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Through this regenerative whole body and ecosystem approach, the unique individual integrates Life's Principles—being locally attuned and responsive, whereby they are connected to their place in the world, access to food, materials, and resources (while recognizing not every strategy will work for everyone). Life-friendly chemistry is prioritized through food, clean water, non-toxic materials in clothing, the home, and beyond. Energy and resources are used efficiently—meeting a person where they are at and making progress achievable and sustainable to maintain. Each level of habit formation and cognitive reprocessing integrates development with growth—where habits are slowly built upon one another (see the Bioinspired Universally-Infused Loving Development Series, a.k.a. BUILDS as an example for how this applies toward health positive habits).
The program and healing protocol adapts to a person’s needs as they change; and ultimately, this approach is designed to help the individual evolve to thrive—reconnecting them to the ecosystem in which they are a part and functioning in ways nature intended, enabling a person to get better, not just get by. We learn from natural biological processes in the human body, wisdom from our ancestors, other organisms, and ecosystem services beyond to inspire creative and wise solutions that promote deep, regenerative healing.
As a person heals, they gain more capacity to think, care for, and act in ways that go beyond survival mode. They become more equipped to reconnect their community and the natural world. Through this process, awareness for our Earth and fellow planet-mates can grow empathy; and where there is empathy, protection beyond ourselves inspires action. Essentially, by addressing the root cause of an individual’s suffering and helping them transform their lives through self-love, agency, and deep healing, our collective goal in creating a more peaceful, prosperous, and regenerative global ecosystem becomes more attainable.
