Principles of Naturopathic Medicine: Our outside world as my inspiration for the Vis
There are six principles of naturopathic medicine (you can read all of them here). My favorite principle is the Vis Medicatrix Naturae, the Healing Power of Nature. This refers to Naturopathic physicians acting to facilitate and augment the body’s inherent self-healing process, but this Vis exists in the natural world and can be viewed in many ways. If you garden, you plant seeds and watch the transformation to a flower or as food, an inherent process of the plant. If you hike in the mountains, you see the way the geology has changed over time. Some of these, like growths in plants, are not always viewed as beautiful or beneficial, like when a plant has a funny growth on it, like as the wasp galls in some plants like goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), or even when the leaves turn color in autumn. Plants and insects have adapted together, and a gall is an example of that, and an example of the Vis, like humans, have overcome disease.