by Dr. Alberto Villoldo: The Novel Coronavirus has been a known threat to world health for over 6 months now—and an unknown part of the ecosystem for much longer…
It’s interesting to recall that 500 years ago when Europeans first arrived in the Americas, they brought with them a virus that was also new to this part of the world. Within 30 years, Smallpox wiped out 95 percent of the 100 million natives of America.
From the perspective of nature, viruses are just the way that biology unfolds over millennia. We get exposed, we become stronger, and the virus becomes a harmless part of our DNA. So, as far as Mother Nature’s concerned, this is just another challenge for us to step up to. Thankfully, the coronavirus is not as infectious as Smallpox, but around the world there are still thousands of people succumbing to it every day.
From the shamanic viewpoint, we have to work on the terrain—not on killing the virus, which is where Western medicine wants to go, but on how we can become part of that 95 percent that gets minimal symptoms from the virus. We do that by attaining exceptional health.
So while we are waiting for science to come up with a vaccine or a cure, which is still is a long, long way off, we need to focus on improving our health, so that we become that outlier. Now is the time to strengthen, heal, repair, eat right, take your supplements and vitamins so you can grow a new healthy body.
You may have read that vitamins don’t do anything—that only refers to those who are in good health, who’s vitamin levels are already topped off. The rest need to take it upon themselves to get topped off as well so their bodies can optimize.
I learned the value of vitamins and supplements when I first did the Grow a New Body program, after I became deathly ill with viruses and parasites I picked up during the many years I traveled the world doing research as a medical anthropologist. I needed something that would not just repair my body, but regenerate it. This is the future of medicine—we know how to turn on the body’s repair and regeneration systems with nutrients and meditation practices.
The GNB program starts at the level of the physical. As a society, we’re in very bad shape health-wise. Keep in mind that 70 percent of America is obese and 40 percent has some level of diabetes or metabolic syndrome. So we must clean up our diet—eliminate white sugar, white bread, white pasta. We need to feed the body good fats—coconut oil, olive oil, nuts. We should eat organic, and make sure we get all of the essential nutrients. We need to take a good multivitamin to supplement those we don’t get enough of naturally—such as vitamin D, which resets the immune system.
We also need phytonutrients—from leafy green vegetables and berries. These are the ones that switch on more than 200 genes that create health, and silence more than 500 genes that cause Parkinson’s, dementia and Alzheimer’s. Remember that in shamanic medicine we don’t treat disease—we create the conditions for health so disease goes away.
At the level of the mind we have to practice forgiveness. When we forgive ourselves and others, we reprogram the neural networks of our limbic brain. But in order to truly forgive, we must upgrade the programming that is the source of our limiting beliefs.
Once we’ve mastered that challenge, we need to practice gratitude toward those people we just forgave, because without them we would not have learned the lessons we needed to learn. Carrying a burden of anger or feelings of victimization actually depresses the immune system, so this is important.
At the level of the soul and of the heart, we must do shamanic practices which bring us back to nature. St. Francis of Assisi taught us that when we are at peace with nature, nature is at peace with us. So come to inner peace, practice forgiveness and compassion, and rededicate your life to being a steward of the earth.
My 7-day plan to grow a new body and mind is available for free here. Folks who want more detailed information can order a copy of the newly-revised edition of Grow a New Body here.
