71. Your Body Was Designed to Heal Itself, Here's What It Needs

Are you waiting for a supplement to "fix" your migraines? Hoping the next practitioner will finally be the one who heals you?

Dr. Leslie tackles a pet peeve topic: natural medicine practitioners calling themselves "healers."

Here's the truth:

No one can heal you except your own body.

Not a doctor, not a supplement, not a "healer." Your body was designed with an inherent healing mechanism, just like a tree that regrows bark over an injury. The question isn't whether you can heal, it's whether you're giving your body what it needs to activate that process.

Most migraine sufferers are stuck in a passive cycle: take a pill (prescription or supplement), wait for it to work, repeat. But healing doesn't happen when you're passively swallowing capsules and waiting. It happens when you're actively engaged in making changes across your entire environment, physical, mental, emotional, even spiritual.

Dr. Leslie explains why handouts about "healthy sleep habits" and long supplement lists aren't enough. Real healing requires deeper work: understanding why you started staying up until midnight in the first place, working through the mental-emotional patterns sabotaging your recovery, and identifying where your life fell out of alignment.

This work is hard. There will be aspects of getting through the jungle that challenge you deeply, habits that are tough to change, mental-emotional patterns that require honest (and sometimes painful) examination.

But when you give your body what it needs within Dr. Leslie's three principles, it will do what it was designed to do: restore itself to health.

If you're ready to stop being a passive recipient of pills and start actively engaging in your own healing process, Dr. Leslie offers free consultations.

Book you free call below!

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/apply

Free Training: 5 Proven Steps to Being Migraine Free (Even if you think you've already tried everything.)

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Episode Transcript

hi everyone
it's Doctor Leslie
welcome to the Healing Migraines Naturally podcast
and today I want to talk about a topic that it's
it's actually kind of like a
like a pet peeve a topic of mine
this is a little bit of a soapbox topic for me
I wanna talk about the phenomenon
in the natural medicine world
where you have a lot of natural medicine practitioners
calling themselves healers
so this is something that
whenever I see a natural medicine practitioner
describe themselves as a healer
it's like nails on the chalkboard for me
I'm a naturopathic doctor
and I'm under this big umbrella of natural medicine
you know alternative medicine
and there's a wide variety of practitioners that are
under the umbrella that I'm under
but I see this with a wide
wide range of natural medicine practitioners
so it could be you know
a fellow naturopathic doctors
chiropractors functional medicine doctors
a lot of you might call them more like health coaches
those types of practitioners
they will describe themselves as healers
so obviously if you're listening to this
you are probably prone to migraines and headaches
or you're really in the throes of really
really suffering from chronic headaches and migraines
and so just culturally
when we have a chronic health concern
we view that as something that is
almost like something that is outside of us
that attacked us you know
one of my mentors the great late uh
Jim Sensenig
he would always kind of kind of jokingly ask
where did the diabetes come from
did it just like fall out of the sky and hit you
and this is the thing right
it's like where did my health conditions come from
did I catch migraines did I catch diabetes
was it something in the environment that caught on me
or it's almost like
this little monster that jumped on our back
and is torturing us or
or generating these symptoms
but culturally we view like
disease and the symptoms that we're experiencing
the things that are causing us suffering
we view them as external to us
something that is sort of acting on us externally
or from the outside all right
even though we're feeling it in our body
it's something that almost like
attacked us from the outside
so we kind of have this conception already
that the disease the chronic condition
it's external to us and so therefore
the solution follows the conception of the problem
this is always the case right
so and
and
this is why I try to talk about some of these cultural
undercurrents a lot on this podcast
because if you're listening to this podcast
you're probably not happy with your medication response
you know having to take more and more medications
as the years go by
I'm sure you've dabbled in natural therapies
and maybe you're unsatisfied with those too
but the things that we choose to do
to address a problem are always
going to flow sort of logically or rationally
from how we view the cause of the problem
how we view the problem in the first place
so we sort of have this conception that
when we're not feeling well
we have a chronic condition
there's something from the outside coming in
and disturbing things and so therefore
we're looking for an external solution
and so the most obvious impulse
of an external solution is going to be a medication
like a prescription medication
or an over the counter medication
and so when we take that medication
we're taking an external agent
an external substance
and we're just like swallowing the pill
we're just taking the injection
we have to do something to administer the medication
but we're not in any sort of active participant
it really doesn't take that much effort to
swallow a pill or give yourself an injection
or have somebody give you an injection
we're kind of like the passive recipient
or the passive actor
receiving this external solution to a problem
that seems to be external to us right
so often we look at everything now as genetic
and with genetics right
I've got migraines because of my genetics
well that's just a fancy way of saying I have bad luck
right this is that sense
that
what's causing our suffering is kind of external to us
so then we take a remedy a solution
a medication that we are sort of the recipient of
I mean
even we didn't make the medication
we didn't come up with the formula
we didn't do the studies you know
medication may not even have been made in our country
right it's like completely external to us
and we don't have to expend that much effort
to take that medication and then we just administer it
we take it and then we wait and we see what happens
right and there's
you know if I take an imitrex for a migraine
I just have to wait for that to go
to work on my biochemistry
and hope and pray that I get some relief right
there's nothing that I would do to activate the imitrex
or you know
make the imitrex work better or antidote the imitrex
right it's not like
well take this imitrex and then I want you to
you know go for a walk to make it work better right
I mean there's absolutely no sort of like external like
like thing that I have to do
in addition the medication is just going to
kind of do its bio chemistry on me
and I'm just gonna wait for that to happen
so again I'm just sort of like
passively waiting for the medication to
to work to kick in right
so we have this experience
right where okay
these migraines came from somewhere
and then
I'm gonna take this external agent to get relief
so I am totally
sort of removed from this whole experience
now I think intuitively we know that this is false
right so we know that when we're taking the medication
it's not a root cause solution
we're just doing it to feel better
we have an intuitive knowing
there's something that makes us a little bit uneasy
about this whole whole thing
even though it's sort of
the cultural conception that we're operating under
so there's this like tension
there's this disconnect
there's this little bit of lack of alignment between
well I
on the one hand I
I'm kind of think this is the case and this is true
but on the other hand
I don't really think that's the case
I don't think that's true
and that sort of
disconnect
is what drives people to look for other solutions
and then people will go into the natural medicine space
or alternative medicine space
this is exactly what happened to me
when I started getting chronic migraines
and when I went into my doctor
I thought that doctors got to the root cause
and helped you like
fix the problem
so that I wouldn't be getting migraines anymore
but that's not what she did right
I kind of had this rude awakening
where she just gave me a prescription
and I was very shocked by that
I talked about that in my Migraine Story podcast
but you know
that sort of inner intuitive
knowing that we're not quite on the right path
and by right path I mean
the path that's actually aligned with reality
the truth of what's going on
and so
people then go into this alternative medicine space
this natural medicine space
but then we have to really ask ourselves
is the underlying way of treating my migraines
or my symptoms my chronic condition is
is it actually coming from a different philosophy
when I'm going to a natural medicine provider
and this is sadly usually not the case
so because all of us
have been steeped in this cultural environment
we're all sort of kind of coming from the problem
we're coming to the problem from the same perspective
even the vast
vast majority of natural medicine providers
and so most natural medicine providers
they're just using their natural substances
like their supplements or or natural remedies
whatever they may be
they're using them in place of the medication
and that also is not going to be very effective
so what's the difference so like
let me ask you
if you've been to a natural medicine provider
and they have given you supplements
and so what's the experience right
so they say okay take this pill
go home and take these pills three times a day
with your meals in between your meals
go home and take these pills so you just take the pill
you swallow it and then you wait right
so what's the difference in your experience
as the person who's sick and suffering
what's the difference in your experience
you're taking a pill of stuff that you like
you've been given the name of it right
like so if I have this pill and I like okay
the pharmacy said it's Imitrex okay
I have this pill that I was given
and I was told it's butterbur
so I just know the name
but what else do I really know about the substance
I didn't make it I just bought it right
I mean even natural
you know the
the ingredient
pipeline on natural substances is still mostly overseas
as well because most
most things are made overseas right
so it's like okay
well I'm just taking
something that I really don't know anything about
that I have no connection to
and then I'm just gonna take it and I'm gonna wait
alright so again
how much effort
connection change is actually occurring with me
even when I'm going to a natural practitioner
and I see this over and over again
because most of my clients have been to other
natural medicine providers
before they come to me
they've been to a functional medicine doctor
chiropractor and acupuncturist
other naturopathic doctors
health coaches you know
I'm usually not the first
you know so called
natural medicine provider that they are working with
that they're seeking out and so
you know
it's part of my intake process with a new client
I'm reviewing what are your prescription medications
what natural supplements are you taking
or natural therapeutics are you taking
and over and over again I see these long
long lists of supplements
that they've been recommended to take
by a professional
that they consulted and paid for that advice
or now what's also very prominent are
you know Instagram TikTok
I mean there's
there's so many people selling all these supplement
formulas and stuff like that on Instagram and TikTok
so maybe you know
some of them are you know
from little clips or other podcasts and so on
that they've kind of added into
but what are you really changing
you're like you're just taking a substance
and you're just waiting for it to act on your body
you're not actively engaged in a process right
you may have researched a lot
you might have you know
spent a lot of energy on researching and so on
but you're not really actively engaged in anything
that's changing you right
it's just kind of taking more pills
more of a passive type posture
and this is not how
healing and health restoration is going to take place
if you're taking a supplement
why why do we call them supplements
they're called supplements
because they are a supplement
to the other changes that you are making
to facilitate healing and health restoration
they are not supposed to be
you know the
the 10 horses pulling the cart
supposed to be like a little add on
a little helper
so this is something that I think is very important for
for people to understand
to restore your health involvement
you have to be actively engaged in making changes
in a wide variety of let's call it your life
we we got out of a state of health
because the environments that we are in
our physical environments mental
emotional even spiritual environment
is out of alignment
with the environment that is best suited
for human flourishing
and so just taking a capsule of something
just taking a pill of something
even if it's natural
is not going to facilitate a change in our environment
we have to make changes to change our whole environment
that really truly holistic environment that we are in
to bring it into alignment
with an environment
that's suitable for human flourishing
and I will say we humans
we are very adaptive
we are unlike any other animal on the planet
other animals
they have to live in very specific environments
they have to live in a very specific
you know latitude
they have to have a very specific diet
they have to have you know
particular climate we humans
we can flourish from the Arctic to the equator
so we are highly adaptable
but there are some limitations to that
and so we have to live again
we humans we also always want to be like God right
so we always want to just say well
if I wanna do it then I'm gonna do it right
and but there are some limitations that we have to live
into we didn't write the rules of physics
and biochemistry and physiology
and so on so while we are highly adaptable
and there isn't just like
one particular way that we have to live
to be in a state of health
or even more specifically
not have migraines we do have to live within the laws
and the parameters
that have been set down within the universe
and so we have to as part of the healing process
we have to gain an understanding
and gain an awareness of where were we
not quite in alignment
with what's going to be a suitable environment for us
humans and so to make those changes
you you don't get that in a pill
you don't get that in a capsule
you have to take an active role
you have to be actively engaged
and many times it can be a little humbling right
because we ultimately
as part of the healing process for many
certainly for me over the years
for many of my clients
it's a process of taking an honest
and a hard look at some of the choices that we made
some of the environments that we put ourselves in
and had we known better we would have done better
this isn't to beat ourselves up
this isn't to but it's just to take an honest but
you know
compassionate look at some of the things that we have
if you wanna say kind of co signed
that were
not in alignment with what was going to be best
for our human flourishing
and that can be very humbling
it can inspire a lot of remorse
regrets a lot of emotions
and working through all of those emotions is
for many people
also very critical part of their healing process
and again there's no pill for that
you can't get that in a pill
so this is like I say
it's something that isn't talked very much about
particularly when you go I mean
particularly if you go to a medical doctor
they're really not gonna have this conversation
with you at all I think in the natural medicine space
I think a lot of practitioners will kind of
pay a little bit of lip service to this
and the lip service might be giving you a few handouts
or you know
healthy sleep habits or you know
some of these healthy habits handouts and so on
but that's really lip service
it's not really helping people kind of do a deeper
maybe inventory or gain a deeper understanding as to
well you know
why did I start staying up until midnight
in the first place right
like
a lot of people get themselves in a situation where
they start staying up later
and later and then unfortunately
that starts to shift their hormonal cascades
that starts to shift their biochemistry
and then now
they're having a great difficulty falling asleep
and now they have insomnia
so you know
just giving somebody a handout
okay go to bed at 10
get up at six well
that's not really what's going on here right
we wanna take a deeper look as to what drove
going to bed later and later
and later in the first place
and when we have that understanding
then we can more easily
start to bring ourselves back into better alignment
say with our sleep habits again
you don't get that from a handout
and you don't get that just from a capsule okay
if you have gone to a provider
and all they have done is given you pills to take
and that's it
and that provider could be a medical doctor
with a prescription
or it could be a natural medicine provider
with a long list of supplements
if that's all you've ever been asked to do
take these pills
and then here's some handouts to tidy up a few habits
this is why
you're not getting the result that you're looking for
because it takes more personal work
and personal change personal
how would I it it takes more personal engagement
to go deeper
into the reasons why we got out of a state of health
or out of a state of alignment in the first place
and so
let me bring it back to this concept that irritates me
when people call themselves healers
so your provider is not your healer
the healing that's taking
place is happening because of your active engagement
your own good
care that you're taking of yourself from a
from a perspective of greater self knowledge
and self understanding and like I say many times
there's some you know there's some remorse
there's some you know
there's some regret that has to be worked through too
you're you're doing the healing
because every living thing on the planet
has been designed to have a healing mechanism
when there's an injury when there's a sickness
so you know you can see this at play even with plants
so you might be you know
on a little hike in the woods
and you come across a beautiful big tree
and it's very obviously like there's
there's a
a scarring on the bark on the trunk of the tree
there was some injury to the tree
maybe the tree got hit by lightning
and you can see that the the trunk
the bark grew back over the injury right
so there's even like plants heal themselves
animals animals can get sick and they will recover
this is how things were designed
things that are alive were designed
with an inherent healing mechanism built into it
so when we run into that tree in the woods
where clearly there was an injury to it
and it healed over right
the the tree is alive right huh
maybe hundreds of years later after the injury
there may be a scar there
it may not look perfect but it's alive
it healed over did was there a healer involved in that
right there was no human healer
that sat in front of that tree and
you know
recited incantations to make that trunk heal itself
make that bark regrow right
the tree was designed to do that after an injury
so the the tree didn't take any capsules of anything
so we are designed to heal and repair
when we give our body and when I say body
I mean sort of like our entire aspect of ourselves
cause we're more than just a physical body
but when we give ourselves
when we give the body in the broadest sense of the term
in the truly holistic sense of the term
what it needs it's designed to respond to that
we hope
that we can heal faster than the disease progresses
right now again
migraines are not a terminal problem
thank goodness you know
we may may
we may feel like something horrible is happening
within our brain but thank goodness
migraines are not a life threatening condition
thank goodness so
you know the
the question is can we heal
can we activate this healing process
can we identify what our body needs
from a holistic level we
are we able to give ourselves that
and then can we heal faster than the disease progresses
so when people call themselves healers
when practitioners call themselves healers
it's putting again
it's putting the practitioner
this outside person
is having the impact and the control
over our healing process
and this is why this grates on me so much you know
it's it's just like this external supplement
or this external you know medication
now I need this external person who's a healer
to come in and heal me right
and so again it's
it's like we're just gonna sit back
and the healer's gonna come in
and with their magic they're going to heal us
and that that doesn't happen either
that's not how this works either
so when people call themselves a healer I'm like
what
why are you why are you saying this about yourself
this is completely false so you know
I I'm a guide
I'm someone who has walked this path I mean
I'm still walking the path until the day I die
I'm gonna be walking on this path right
and so I'm somebody that has walked the path
has dedicated my life to study and practice and so on
so I have knowledge I have experience
I have some some wisdom but I'm just the guide right
you have to walk on your own path I can you know
help one of my clients I love this analogy she said
you're like my guide through the jungle
and you helped like hack the
the jungle leaves down
so that I could walk through this jungle and find
you know
as the further and further I walked the less and less
you know jungle overgrowth there was
and the path got clearer and clearer and I thought yeah
you know that kind of hits it like
I'm here to help you hit down the leaves and you know
with a machete and like
let's clean this up and you know
I I think that this is the path
I think we got a path here and we're gonna
we're gonna take this
and I'm gonna help guide you through this
but you've got to walk on the path
I'm I'm not doing any healing
you're doing the healing so
we want to make sure
that we are not perpetuating a situation
where we are just sort of the passive actor
just the passive recipient
of either the symptoms or the disease
the passive recipient of the medication
or the supplements or the passive recipient of some
sort of healing that is coming from some other person
want to be
we want to think of ourselves because this is true
this is accurate we wanna
we wanna think of ourselves accurately
as the person who's doing the healing
who's walking themselves down the path
through the confusing jungle right
cause when we're not feeling good
and our body is generating tons and tons of symptoms
it's it's like you're in a jungle and you can't see
you know 2 feet in front of you
because you've got all the jungle vines and everything
else there's a path forward for you
but you can't see it so yes
it's helpful to have a guide
it's helpful to to have somebody that's
walked through the jungle before
but I'm telling you
the path that I had to walk through the jungle through
the path that
another client of mine had to walk through
the jungle through is not the same path
you're gonna have to walk through
everyone has to go through that jungle
on their own unique path
because I've been through the jungle so many times
not only with myself but with so many other people
I kind of know the lay
I can guide you and I can help you
but you're gonna
going to have to walk through that unique path
to your own healing your own health restoration
your own process of feeling better so a lot of times
you know when I have someone reach out
and they book a free consult call with me
and we talk about you know
their symptoms
and what they're struggling with right now
they'll say well
is it gonna be hard how hard is it
and I can tell you
it's it's going to be hard I you know
I I feel for you I wish it I wish I could say oh yeah
this is gonna be real easy oh
you know I've cracked the code and you know
it's just this is just gonna be a walk in the park
and it's just gonna be super easy
but for everybody
there's some aspect of getting through that jungle
that is going to be very hard for them
and I don't know ahead of time
what's gonna be hard for any individual person
I know what was hard for me
and I can see what's hard for my clients
but again what you're going to find difficult
is going to be
very different than what someone else is going to find
difficult and be again
because I've been a guide to so many people
I can help people right it's like you know
you're trying to climb a mountain and you've
you've got a guide with you
you've got a Sherpa with you
but you've got to get to the top and you know
what
little section of the mountain might be hard for you
another person might breeze through that part
but they're gonna find another part of that mountain
climb challenging
and you found it easy
but I can tell you to actually restore your health
if you have chronic migraines
any chronic condition
there's going to be some really hard parts
and some of them might be
you know you
you might have five habits
that are undermining your health
and four of them might be super easy for you to change
but the fifth one might be really tough
and in those cases
you need more than like one of these handouts right
you need somebody that's there for you
to really help you what is the real difficulty
why is this particular thing hard
and then how can we either mitigate that
how can we have a deeper
insight into what's happening in our unconscious
that's making it difficult for us
that whole process of resolution
it's very helpful
if you have someone to help you with that a
a a guide to guide you through that
and to support you and
and to encourage you and motivate you
and so it can be things like changing habits
that can be hard for again
for us that are struggling with migraines
there's usually a mental and emotional component
to our migraines and so that can be very hard to do
the mental and emotional work
what is it about getting into conflict at work
that really tips me over into a migraine
that type of work can be challenging
and again
it's helpful
if you have someone there to support you through it
and guide you through it but you've got to do that work
when I'm working with my clients
helping them you know
see these things on the mental and emotional side I
I can't read their mind
I don't know what's in their unconscious
but I can help guide them
to a deeper level of understanding
for themselves
but they have to come to that understanding
so I'm not the healer nobody is a healer to you
you are the person who's doing the healing
because you've been designed
your body is designed to bring itself back into health
back
into better functioning biochemistry and physiology
when you give it what it needs on a physical mental
emotional and even spiritual level on
that's how life on earth here was designed
so I now that I've talked about this
it might be interesting
because if you're listening to my podcast
you're probably listening to other
natural medicine providers podcast
and so on
you're probably on some other mailing list and
and so on so take a look
is this practitioner
are they calling themselves a healer
what position are they putting themselves in
relative to me or relative to their clients
relative to the people that they are
you know again
they're they're they're not healing people
but they're guiding people
they're advising people right
they're they're sort of walking with people
that's what they're actually doing
they're not a healer
so look for that and see what you notice
see what you see within this
this industry I
I feel I always feel like I'm in sort of like the wild
wild west being part of this alternative medicine
or natural medicine industry
there's a lot of wonderful
wonderful practitioners that are doing really
God's work really doing the lord's work
but unfortunately there's
there's a lot of really crazy stuff that goes on too
so see what you notice
and let me know if this resonates with you
leave a comment below if if this resonates with you
and I hope this gave you a little bit more
insight into taking a look at okay
where am I coming from with this
am I kind of coming from my mind
am I kind of coming at the treatment
whether it's conventional treatment with medication
or natural medicine treatment
am I just like passively taking something
and just waiting for something to work
this is like kind of like this magic pill concept right
oh I'm just gonna take this magic pill
and everything's gonna be better
and that's not that's not how it works
that's not how healing works
any natural therapies are effective
because they're a additional little supplement
an additional little nudge
an additional little helper
to help the body do what it is supposed to do
it's natural therapies or natural substances
shouldn't be used like medications
to fight or combat symptoms
they should be used as little helpers
so if they should be used as little helpers
with the larger work
and larger changes that we are making
from a truly holistic sense
so think about what
you have been advised to do in the past
and if it's kind of passive
if it's just well
I had a couple handouts and then I took these pills
and I you know
I went on don't get me started on these diets
I spent a lot of podcast
hours talking about these ridiculous
you know migraine diets and you you know
depending on your health concern
you have to have a different diet so you know
other than you know tidying up my diet
or going on like a really restrictive diet and
you know doing a couple handouts and then taking
taking things and just waiting for something to happen
that's why you haven't been happy with the results
so if you've been looking for a practitioner
that is actually
going to work with you on this type of level again
everybody
in the alternative medicine space uses the word
holistic this is a holistic approach
but I hope this helps
illustrate what an actual holistic approach
looks like so if this resonates with you
I'd invite you to book a free consult call with me
go into the description for the link to do that
and I would love to talk with you
and let's talk about where you are currently
at with your migraines
what you've already tried in the past
and let's talk about you know
what you would actually like to experience
or achieve with your health
or in your life so
you know let's see
let me see if I can do this a little bit better
so if this resonates with you
if this describes the the type of approach
that you've really been looking for
then please reach out book a free consult call with me
I would love to talk with you it's a free call
we get on the phone
we talk about where you're at with your migraines
and any other health concerns that you have
right now and then
we talk about a game plan to get you feeling better
and get you back into your life
get you off your medications
and if you're taking handful of
sub handfuls of supplements
get you off those supplements as well
and then you will have the freedom to
not only not be dependent on these external substances
but have the
have the freedom of waking up in the morning
without doing the head check right
the notorious head check
you wake up in the morning I'll check my head
what kind of day is it gonna be right
it's not a question of what kind of day is it gonna be
because what do I
what exciting things do I have planned or
or what things am I going to uh
contribute to my family or my community
it's OK what kind of day is it gonna be
based on how does my head feel when I wake up
let's get you out of that OK
so uh
thanks for watching great to talk to you guys today
and I will talk to you soon