“I refuse to become a seeker for cures.
everything that has ever
helped me has come through what already
lay stored in me. Old things, diffuse, unnamed, lie strong
across my heart.
This is from where
my strength comes, even when I miss my strength
even when it turns on me
like a violent master.”*
Personal medicine is about bringing you into deep knowing contact with your own being so that all your choices feel aligned and right for you. Through frank and open exploration of all that you are and all your healthcare options, your choices become powered by connection, intuition and insight, rather than fear, doubt or anxiety.
WHAT
Personal medicine is a medicine tailored just for you. Most likely, you are not “one size fits all”. In a world of standard sizes, a medicine customized for your life and your unique being will deepen your relationship with your own knowing even as it encourages new and novel expressions of you. Rather than something you can pull off the shelf, personal medicine is something it is possible to discover and cultivate. Rather than medicine you take, personal medicine is something you can give, from you to you, a reclamation of all that is essential and powerful for you. Even in the face of complicated diagnoses and many prescriptions, personal medicine is possible. The best medicine is always the medicine you choose.
WHY
Each person has a unique destiny, a unique curriculum for this life and body. Drawing from the deep and vast resources of Chinese medicine and Buddhist meditation, treatments, prescriptions, and lifestyle applications created just for you will allow your innermost purpose and finest manifestation to come through whatever circumstances life has brought you.
WHEN
The call has come. Pain or illness now prevents you from carrying on in the ways that you have known. Change is happening. In a one-to-one retreat setting, change becomes simple, easy and natural. Specialized treatments, in-depth conversations and food made for your specific condition provide the necessary support and insight for your transformation.
Does this sound like a medicine for you?
Are you longing for a deeper relationship to your own path?
Are you ready to be fully present in your life?
Does your health feel like an obstacle to changes you wish for in your life?
In our days together we will partner to create the vessel and add the ingredients for your individual evolution. We will explore all your options in light of all you have been offered, been drawn to or feel ready to hear about. Some of the ways we might make medicine together include acupuncture, herbs, essential oils, stones, meditation practice, Qi Gong, cooking and conversation.
How Does It Happen?
We will meet together in retreats and intensive days together on site in North Carolina or wherever you may wish to meet. Topics and methods for any retreat or meeting are created specifically for the individual and all aspects are customized to address the individual body, mind and spirit of the client.
It’s not something we often do, or when we do, we do it because we feel wounded or sick. In this case, creating the space of retreat is about allowing, encouraging and generating the foundation for healing and evolution, change that happens through alignment and resonance.
What has brought you here?
It could be that your health is demanding attention, that your body is complaining and you don’t know how to answer its cry. It could be that you feel your emotional life is spinning out of control, that you want to cry and you don’t know why or feel you aren’t equipped for the challenges you face. In either case, our days together are a place where you can reclaim your vital energy and connection to what really matters, a time and a space where you can focus on your own process and your own knowing.
In retreat you will be supported by an environment that is free of distraction, obligation or the usual noise of the world. In our familiar environments, we often resist change, creating stagnation and finding ourselves stuck in patterns that no longer serve us. In retreat it is possible to open new pathways for ourselves as we forego judgement and analysis, in favor of creative inquiry.
To enter the vessel of change, consider these questions:
What does health mean to you?
How will you know when you are healthy?
What do you wish to do before you die?
The process of change is continuous, but through conscious choice and inquiry, we can begin to harness the power of change to embrace our lives more fully no matter our circumstances.
About working with Josephine:
I have been on an accelerated path to awakening under Josephine’s guidance for over a year now. (I had been on that path for many years, but the pace was sluggish.) Josephine’s mysterious combination of direct instruction (from her seemingly bottomless wisdom from various traditions) and her encouragement for me to stay open to my own wisdom is exquisite. Anyone wanting and willing to experience a richer, deeper, more authentic life should meet Josephine Spilka.
-Peggy, Weaverville, NC
The most essential aspect of my mentoring with Josephine is knowing that I am seen and heard. I’ve been very active in both meditation and health, which are usually seen as separate, but their intertwining is obvious once it is pointed out. After a three-day retreat, including delicious meals tailored to my under-appreciated needs, I am newly grounded, feeling secure and optimistic, and I understand how to keep the momentum flowing. I recommend it highly!
-N.
Last fall Josephine and I engaged in an extended health retreat together over nearly two months, including three weeks in person for good portions of each day. While we have worked together for years, the intensive nature of the retreat – and the commitment I made by taking that time for myself – has deepened my path. The material generated, the insights gathered, and the ongoing consultations with Josephine have helped me stay focused on my health practices. I have encouraged her to use the term Personal Medicine because that is what it feels like to me. Our work is fully grounded in how and what my life is now – unfolding the potential for healing in each day.
Josephine has been an ally and teacher since the very beginning of my journey with cancer in 2000. Her doctoring – herb, diet, acupuncture, and other prescriptions – has been enormously helpful. But there is something else that arises from our therapeutic relationship that is even more important to me. I hesitate here, searching for the words… Perhaps it is best to describe how I am. I feel confident to negotiate whatever arises. I feel happy in my life – even with the uncertainty, even with illness so much a part of my life. I feel present in the experiece of the full range of my emotions. I feel calm because I am supported by an informed and expansive view of my situation. I feel encouraged and trusted to make the choices that feel right for me.
-Katharine, Nova Scotia
* From Your Native Land, Your Life by Adrienne Rich
