The Exploration of Heart Burn

I’m always exploring my daily life for the subtle and obvious dependencies that deny me freedom and relief.
I suffered from heart burn for years. I took many medications over those years to counteract it. Those medications did provide relief, but if I did not take the medications, the heart burn was nearly unbearable. At times, the choice to take those heart burn medications was denied to me by conditions. Repeated moments of excruciating heart burn led me to get rid of this targeted dependency.

I began to consider the mind-body connection thoroughly.

What, if anything, was my body trying to do?

Heart burn, chronic acid reflux, is basically a cycling of stomach acid up and down the upper digestive system. To me, it seemed like the body was trying to hold on to what it had, instead of letting it continue its journey through the body toward the exit.

Immediately, it seemed absolutely simple. The mind, which I know attempts to hold onto this idea of the body being the self, is telling the body what to do here. As the mind tries to hold on, the body mimics the lead.

So, as the inevitable heart burn begins, I decided we would close our eyes and attempt to let go of anything in my mind. Shockingly, the heart burn went away every single time.

Initially, the heart burn would come back quickly. So, I would repeat the closing of the eyes and the mental letting go exercise. Every time, the heart burn would dissipate. It was mind blowing. I couldn’t believe it.

Over the course of just a little over a week, the heart burn would not resurface to the same degree. In less than a month the heart burn would not return again.

On the spot transformation of a real life, all too common physical issue.

What was necessary? Simple exploration of an ongoing situation.

Have an issue? Apply your mind.

More on Sunscreen and Sun Exposure

In any explorative process, it is vital to have many input streams of fresh information and fresh perspective. It is especially helpful to listen to inputs that absolutely disagree strongly with any different idea I might have.

For this reason, I listened to sunscreen experts on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show.

Explorer Personal Note: I enjoy listening to talk radio as much as I enjoy channel flipping always.

Since I have very different ideas about sunscreen, I thought it very necessary to listen to proponents to sunscreen use. The lack of thorough challenging of their scientific assumptions was frankly terrifying.

Skin cancer use is up. Sunscreen use is at an all-time high. Yet, the amount of consideration of why this correlation exists was explained away with an anecdotal fairy tale story about an imaginary bottle of sunscreen that lasts over a year for a family of five. Truly scary to know the mental laxity our experts engage in to avoid leaving lingering questions in their own mind.

Certainly, sunlight and UV radiation are not singular entities. Is there any possibility that there is something in sunlight other than damage? It is absolutely true that we need sunlight and UV radiation to survive. Certainly, there are damaging potentials with overexposure to anything. Water is vital to life, yet people drown. Sunlight is vital to life, yet people develop skin cancer and die.

These are very serious issues. I do not tread lightly. You should not either. Just because I believe sunscreen to not be the best choice for myself, does not mean there are no benefits to sunscreen use. I think it’s important to really examine any of these assumptions, thoroughly.

My Explorer Notes

Humans had no sunscreen for many millennia. Yet, humanity survives today.

Our skin is an organ. It is designed to interact with sunlight to keep us alive.

Sunlight is not a single entity. It is a slew of energies, some harmful, some beneficial.

The skins reactions to some of these energies keep us alive.

Explorer Theory

Sunscreen blocks some of these sunlight energies. My theory is that it blocks the energies that yield potential beneficial protections against continued sun exposure. With the beneficial portions of sun exposure blocked, the less easy to protect and much more destructive aspects of sunlight are allowed to damage the skin.

Exploring Healing of Severe Sunburn

I was outside in the blazing sun for about 7 hours this last weekend.

I used no sunscreen. I had a plan.

I elected to not use sunscreen because I feel that sunscreen mostly blocks the good of sun exposure and doesn’t block the most damaging. There are different kinds of UV radiation. The skins reaction to good UV rays helps protect your body from the worst UV rays. That’s my theory.

PBS NewsHour did a story on sunscreen last night, believe it or not.

So, post sunburn, I set up a new strategy for relief.

Most importantly, we elected to not use soap whenever we shower. Soap draws out oil and the water than washes that oil away. With sunburns, the skins natural oil production becomes severely limited. Preserving the natural oils is critical post burn. If you wash away what natural oil remains, you set yourself up for excessive peeling.

Also, we attempted to keep the area moist with a prescription strength hydrocortisone lotion. Not excessive application, but as needed to relieve the most painful spots. It worked out well.