Last Friday I had the pleasure to have a phone
interview with Jennifer Marcenelle, a board-certified, holistic, registered nurse
with over 30 years of experience in the medical field who is, moreover, an energy
medicine practitioner of Gemstone and Diamond Therapy. This personal interview
came about through the efforts of Public Relations Manager Arden Izzo, who had first
contacted me with background information as well as a brief article on
Jennifer’s experience, practice, and initiatives and who then set up and arranged my interview with her.
Jennifer who used to work as a cardiovascular nurse
for over 20 years considers emotional stress, heartache and burnout as serious
but generally under-reported and unacknowledged sources and causes of illness
and disease. Since she viewed and approached stress and burnout through a
holistic lens and away from the current standard and traditional practice of
Western medicine, I was not only intrigued but very eager to personally speak
with her about these matters that are close to my own heart (pun intended).
Our conversation started off with a bit of background
information about herself. Thanks to her knowledge, experience, and work ethic,
she achieved higher levels of leadership and management positions in the health
care industry. However, all of that took a heavy toll on her health and led to a
near suicide due to burnout.
It was at that point when she had a life-changing
spiritual experience. She realized that not only was there a driving
resistance against change within her, but the main issues in her life could be
traced back to problems with “energy” levels.
In fact, she was energetically
damaged by hate and jealousy projections from others as well as by herself. Although
she was already practicing alternative medicine, such as acupuncture and
Chinese medicine, the problems had been alleviated to a certain degree,
but then they plateaued and stagnated and did not advance much further
thereafter.
This led her towards another path, one that was further
away from corporate America and towards a place that was both physical and spiritual
in nature and in which she could receive and later herself provide what is
known as energy healing.
Jennifer told me that one of the main causes
for burnout is our relationships, namely the relationship we have with ourselves
as well as with others. We often carry around negative energy in the form of
thoughts and feelings, but we also absorb the negative energy that is oozing
and emitted from and by others. Becoming aware of these emotions and then
releasing them is part of the process of realizing what is true and essential to
one’s own unique and special way of being.
This is what constitutes wellness, according to her.
The problem with Western medicine is that we tend to turn to pills to alleviate
the symptoms, but pills are and cannot be wellness. In fact, they tend to make
the problems worse as they are not directly treating or dealing with them but
rather circumventing and avoiding the real issues and problems while causing
many unwanted and potentially damaging side effects.
Symptoms of any kind are indeed a message from our
body, and they show us what specific parts of ourselves need to be changed and
healed. For instance, in my case, I tend to suffer from higher cholesterol, and
I am generally urged by my family physician to take pills, which is her response
to any medical issue; nonetheless, we would still need to keep in mind that
cholesterol has its own function as a natural protection against inflammation.
Just blocking a natural defense system from doing its diligent work and
ignoring or drowning the message it is trying to give us would be
counterproductive.
It does not mean one should always avoid medication,
far from it, but rather one should take it, if, when and only as long as it is necessary;
put differently, it should be used only as a temporary measure and at the
correct dose.
One should not overlook other more natural and much more
effective means, such as diet, lifestyle, and, most importantly, a reduction of
overall stress, all of which would need to be addressed first to effect and
bring about healing.
Jennifer further explained that each organ in our body
has an energetic counterpart, an aura or a chakra, so-to-speak. In fact, strong
emotions have their emotional connection with a physical body part; for
instance, anger and jealousy literally burn in one’s inside and cause and
contribute to energetic injury, which can eventually lead to burn-out.
We often unconsciously acknowledge this connection
when we say that love is “pulling at one’s heart strings.” Indeed, emotional
stress and heartache can damage the heart, change its shape or deform
it, and in some extreme and dire cases, it can even lead to death. Jennifer
personally witnessed this when a mother collapsed and succumbed to a heart
attack when visiting her injured son at the hospital. In fact, recent research
shows that emotional stress can also alter the brain, which has given insights
into post-traumatic stress disorder and why it is so pervasive, prolonged and
harmful when left untreated.
What can we do about emotional stress then and how we
can protect ourselves from it? The best way to find wellness would be to
release and remove the negative energy we carry inside. Unfortunately, we have
become less and less adept at doing so. Jennifer suggested that we work with a
practitioner to create balance and equilibrium in our aura or in the energetic
anatomy.
In fact, everything in our environment has a given frequency and
reacts with energy fields. For instance, herbs that stem from the plant kingdom
have their own vibratory rate, which affects healing, but the frequency of
plants is relatively small.
On the other hand, the mineral kingdom has much higher
crystalline frequency and its healing rate, as a result, would be much higher
as well. Practices like diamond or crystal therapy alongside meditation and
yoga can help realign vibratory forces. When you meditate with the sound of
Ohm, the verbal components of the word can help your body, which is mostly made
of water, vibrate, and this can aid healing.
Asked upon her own meditation practice, she told me
that she likes to engage in what is known as contemplation or active
meditation. For about twenty minutes and twice a day, she would try to focus
and connect to the divine to reach a certain form of cleansing from within. She
would, however, be discouraged from doing the type of inward meditation I
engage in, which is, by all means and purposes, construed as rather passive: a
kind of Zen sitting and being aware of feelings that naturally come and arise.
The problem with such passive meditation, in her view,
was that it could leave one at the mercy of evil energy or forces out there.
She claimed that certain things, certain thoughts and emotions, should be
avoided, and that some fears are best left alone or dealt with only with the
presence of a licensed practitioner.
This was one of the few instances we disagreed with
each other as my approach is to actively seek out what one is afraid of and to
face one’s inner demons. There was a noticeable and palpable moment of
silence on the other side of the phone when I mentioned those words.
I myself strongly
advocate psychoanalysis as a means of releasing trapped and accumulated negative
memories, feelings and experiences so that one can become free and independent from
their pernicious influence.
Contrary to avoiding certain thoughts and emotions, I
believe that those are the ones that ought to be faced, addressed, and
confronted to begin with. Without stepping out of one’s comfort zone and
without making unconscious processes conscious - some of which will feel quite uncomfortable
- nothing true and lasting could be achieved, and we would
be only caught in a vicious cycle.
Upon my question on what she thought about psychology
and psychotherapy, Jennifer responded that she believed one should have no
agenda and one should not live by the truth that others propose but rather be
guided by one’s own personal truth.
The problem, she added, is that psychology
alongside Western medicine, has its limitations as it is too focused on the
mental structure. They work well with the mental body, yet at the expense of
all the other bodies that we are made up of, including feelings, intuition as
well as spirituality.
There is hope, however. Many in the medical community
are changing their views on these issues and have become more open and flexible
to alternative medicine and holistic care. In fact, there are various methods
and treatments, such as Reiki and general holistic care in many systems and at different hospitals and institutions. This type of acceptance of different views
on health care and wellness has also become visible at cancer care facilities
that do not merely or solely rely on traditional Western medicine.
In fact, at the public deliberation meetings on cancer funding I attended earlier this year, I was made aware of a local supportive
cancer care facility by the name of Inspire Health. At this institution, they support
cancer patients by adding holistic practices, such as yoga and meditation as
well as a person-based model or outlook that focuses on stress, emotional
support, nutrition, and spirituality. In fact, I am planning to visit this
place soon, so I shall be able to provide more details about their approach as
well as practice.
Why is it that traditional medicine has been so
skeptical, narrow-minded and even averse to those changes for such a long time?
I asked. The answer, Jennifer responded, goes back to the United States when
influential and wealthy people like John D. Rockefeller - in fact, he is
considered one of the wealthiest Americans of all time - wished to make additional
sums of money from the fountains of the petrochemical industry.
As a result,
they developed the medical model that would actively utilize sources of petroleum, commonly referred to as Big Pharma nowadays. By relying on this limited and often ineffective
definition of health and wellness, it helped owners and shareholders grow their own pocketbooks,
but left the patients to deal with various medical issues and complications.
To heal, it is important to go inward and take responsibility for oneself and
one’s health, and one needs to realize what parts to address and change in one’s body
and mind. This cannot be achieved via pills or medicine but needs to go much
deeper and further than that.
Although I entirely agree with Jennifer that healing comes
from going inside and releasing accumulated negative energy, our means and
approaches seem to be rather different. I am accepting and open-minded
of other points of views and practices, but I tend to be skeptical of proposed
treatments like diamond therapy. However, Jennifer pointed me towards the book Gemstone
Energy Medicine: Healing Body, Mind and Spirit by Michael Katz, which I would
have to consult in the near future for more information and details on the topic.
All in all, I very much enjoyed talking with Jennifer
over the phone, and I learnt a lot about treatments I had known very little
about. In addition, Jennifer is a very pleasant and resourceful person to talk
to, and if you are interested to know more about her as well as her services
and practices, please feel free to visit her website at Burnbrighttoday.com.
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