“When I was a little girl,” recalls Prevention advisor Tieraona Low Dog, MD, “my grandma Jo—my greatest inspiration—took me to a powwow at Medicine Lodge in Kansas.” Jo was one-quarter Comanche, and these gatherings were powerful for her. They were transformative for Dr. Low Dog as well. Jo would say, “Baby”—that’s what she called her granddaughter when she was young—“when you are born into the world, you are set upon a path, and that path is your medicine road. The way you think, the way you treat other people, the way you feed yourself, the way you move in the world will determine your health and well-being.” That early experience at the powwow informed what Dr. Low Dog would do later in life, she says. Now, as director of the fellowship at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, she is one of a handful of MDs who integrate traditional medicine into medical practice. “It is in the stuff of our everyday lives that we find the answers to becoming healthy and whole,” she says. Early StrugglesAs Dr. Low Dog discovered, the medicine road has magnificent scenery but no highway signs offering direction, no neon lights flashing Danger Ahead. There are detours and dead ends. Our only navigational tool is our soul’s GPS—a deep understanding that the mind and spirit aren’t separate from the body. They must be nourished to experience wholeness. Her early years were both happy and challenging, with summer days filled with catching perch and catfish on the dock with Grandma Jo, whom she describes as beautiful, tall, and proud: “She showed me what it was to be a strong woman.” But as a child, Dr. Low Dog also struggled with dyslexia, a learning disability that made school so stressful that she didn’t spend much time studying. Instead, she was out experiencing life in nature. “Please don’t get me wrong, books and classrooms are wonderful,” she says, “but I recognized that it was also necessary to honor my own experience in the world. I’ve told my children many times, ‘There are some things I cannot teach you. Some things can only be learned through a lived experience. You are going to have to figure out what is right for you, because there is nobody else in this world just like you.’” When she started skipping classes and dabbling in drugs, the well-meaning adults in her life mischaracterized her as irresponsible, and her confidence and self-esteem withered. She dropped out of school at 16 and searched for direction in the ceremonies of the Plains tribes, particularly the Lakota and Comanche, which are part of her Native American heritage. After traveling through Oklahoma and South Dakota, working at odd jobs along the way, she wound up in Richmond, VA, where her meager earnings were enough to allow her to open a small leather shop. There, a midwife who’d requested a custom-made medicine pouch eventually took her on as an apprentice and encouraged her when she wanted to attend massage school. [pagebreak] Good at SomethingAt 17, Dr. Low Dog began studying martial arts and credits tae kwon do with disciplining her mind and giving her focus. “It gave me confidence and a deep sense of calm and internal quiet,” says Dr. Low Dog, now a third-degree black belt. “As I watched my body do things I never thought it could, I realized that with hard work and determination, I could accomplish anything.” For the first time, she felt really good at something. Her family had always used folk and herbal remedies—she herself had displayed a gift for natural healing as a young girl, applying poultices of salt and sage to her puppy’s injured paw—and she dove deeper into herbal medicine. Native American culture holds that the body has a great capacity for self-healing if we nourish it with what it needs and if, as Dr. Low Dog puts it, we don’t get in the way too much: “That has infused the way I practice medicine.” Finding Her PathAfter her first marriage fell apart, a close friend suggested she do a vision quest, a Native American ritual. After months of preparation, Dr. Low Dog went out in the desert in solitude for 3 days and 2 nights without food or water. “I thought I went out there in search of my life,” she recalls, “but by the second night, I realized I was seeking something different, a death of sorts—letting go of my attachments: the shame, the blame, the sorrow of my life. I had to let that part of me die before the woman inside could be born.” At dawn on the third day, lying in her circle and looking up at the sky, Dr. Low Dog felt profoundly whole and at peace. “Since that first vision quest, I’ve never run from discomfort,” she says. “I’ve learned to lean into it.” Over the next few years, Dr. Low Dog earned her GED, and “all kinds of doors opened for me,” she writes in her book Life Is Your Best Medicine. After completing her undergraduate studies, she was accepted into the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, graduating in 1996 as Outstanding Senior Medical School Student. Dr. Low Dog’s practice today is a reflection of her varied life experiences. “All the experiences I have encountered along my path have led me to where I am today,” she says. “I love both science and nature. They are woven together in a beautiful tapestry inside of me. I am so honored that people have allowed me to enter into their lives for a time, that they trust me to partner with them to find a path that will allow them to feel more whole and healthy. Part of the challenge as a physician is to find the best place to engage somebody. For some, it’s the body. For others, the spirit is the doorway—you nourish the spirit, and soon they want to start moving more and eating better, because they see how all is interconnected.” Dr. Low Dog’s spirit is awakened each day at her ranch—appropriately named Medicine Lodge Ranch—nestled on several hundred acres, 7,500 feet above sea level, in northern New Mexico. She lives there with her husband of 10 years and their horses, chickens, cats, and dogs. The property is flanked on three sides by the magnificent wilderness of the Santa Fe National Forest, and she has her own gardens, too: one medicinal herb patch and another for vegetables. “I live in paradise,” she says. “When I think of it all, I feel calm and centered, and my heart is filled with gratitude.” More from Prevention: How To Live In Gratitiude [pagebreak] The Low Dog RxResilient people are able to gather their strength and resources to overcome adversity and get through those dark, dreary days. It means that when we fall down, we are able to get back up again. We are most able to do this when we are physically, emotionally, and spiritually nourished. When women tell me they’re too busy to exercise, cook, or make time for themselves, I use it as an opportunity to explore what’s really important to them. Because if you’re too busy to do those things that will lessen your chance of chronic illness, then I’d say it’s probably time to reevaluate and reprioritize your life. People are so busy that they don’t make time to go outside for a walk or a picnic. They forget that their DNA, the very essence of who they are, calls for them to be in the green: to be by the water, in the mountains or the desert, to be in nature. We did not evolve in concrete and glass. We didn’t! We evolved in nature, and it comforts us. I promise that if you’d make time to be outside in nature, even for just a couple of hours each month, your spirit would be soothed and lifted (especially if it’s during the best time of day to walk.) People also don’t make enough time to play. When you watch children at play, you see in their eyes and imaginations that everything is possible. Wow. I would love to see people go out and spend 3 days by themselves in a tent with food and water—but no iPhone, no books, no journal or pen, and nobody to talk with. It would be life changing: to know that you can be alone with your own thoughts and at peace with your own company. For many, it’s not the wild creatures of the forest that frighten us; it’s the demons of our own minds. After 32 years of listening to people as a health practitioner, I’d say the vast majority don’t really like themselves. Women especially are so critical: I don’t like my hair. I can never please my husband. I’m too fat. I’m not a good mother. The list goes on and on. I used to tell people to go home, write down three little words, and tape them to the bathroom mirror. Then when you go to brush your teeth or wash your hands, you’ll see it: I am enough. For whatever I need to do, I am enough. More from Prevention: 4 Easy Self-Esteem Boosters
