Sunday, May 26, 2019

Traditional Medicine in Oaxaca

The concept of Western medicine, which includes hospitals and what we are familiar with in the US, is still a fairly new one in the state of Oaxaca. While shadowing in the hospitals here, I noticed that their technology is not as advanced as what we have here, especially compared to a place like Boston, MA. Many citizens of Oaxaca actually still believe in the ways of traditional medicine and it is commonly used here. We were lucky enough to have a traditional healer come in and teach us about her traditional health clinic and demonstrate some of the rituals that she performs.

One of the first things that she did was introduce us to all of the natural ingredients that are used in her practice and show off some of the products that she can make using different herbs and plants. She had balms, body soaps, lotions, and even hair products.


After she explained what she does and how, she gave us a group spiritual cleansing. During the ritual, we all closed her eyes as she massaged different essential oils into our skins and looked into our souls. Many of us were skeptical of this at first because of what we are used to in the US but after hearing her words, we realized how legitimate they were. The healer was telling us things about ourselves that she had no way of knowing and often tugged at the things we held deep within our hearts and haven't had the courage to tell anyone yet. She was able to find these things about us while giving us this spiritual cleansing and give us advice on how to improve our lives. It was an experience I will never forget.

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