Health and Women as Healers in the African American Culture Research Paper

Health and Women as Healers in the African American Culture - Research Paper Example African Americans have a long health tradition and practices of health that shape what they do to care for themselves today. According to Becker, Rahima, and Edwina (par. 9), the traditional medicine of African Americans can be traced back past enslavement in America to their native cultures in Africa. Fundamental facets of the African American culture are key self-care strategy development. There is a basic self-care approach that builds on extensive values and practices. These practices and values comprise of social support, spirituality and traditional medicine. Each of these practices of culture is vital in shaping the understanding of an individual of self-care. Together, they form the foundation for the activities of self-care that are cultured further so as to manage illnesses. Nonetheless, when the cultural approach to self-care was applied to particular health concerns, the establishment of additional self-care strategies was impacted by access to health care. Health care accessibility made a difference in how individuals managed their illnesses Healing has a long alliance with faith, spirit, family support and altered consciousness state. Women have traditionally been healers in the society in all cultures, as healing has been viewed as the natural duty of wives and mothers. Healing has also been regarded as a natural display of the feminine principle. Healing is the return toward the integrity natural state and individual wholeness. Healers facilitate the process of healing. The woman healer learns or inherits skills and abilities of healing from family, apprenticeships or spirits. The woman healer can holistically observe the intricate nature of the illness. Then, she treats the mind, body and spirit with stress in the spirit and practice prevention of disease. Moreover, their clients trust them. These women have a distinct connection to the spirit world that empowers them to heal. Additionally, they are wise to

Nature Presented in Multiple Ways Research Paper

Nature Presented in Multiple Ways - Research Paper Example Nature has been said to inspire awe, it has been cited as having all the power and has been seen to be filled with a beauty that can only be referred to as being dangerous. Nature has also been said to have fences which humans being cannot be able to transverse, whether the task is too daunting for the emotions or impossible for the physical body. "For my part I feel that with regard to Nature I live sort of a border life, on the confines of a world into which I make occasional and transient forays only. . ." (Thoreau, 1862) This seems to be the notion that Thoreau tended to exemplify in â€Å"Walking†. Thoreau further said that due to these confines of nature, human beings were more or less insignificant and that their existence amidst the very nature was largely untenable. Nor need we trouble ourselves to speculate how the human race may be at last destroyed. It would be easy to cut their threads any time with a little sharper blast from the north. We go on dating from Cold Fridays and Great Snows; but a little colder Friday, or greater snow would put a period to man's existence on the globe (Thoreau, 1862). The sentiments expressed by Thoreau are largely drawn from the belief by Jonathan Edwards that nature has the forces in which God aims to show his glory to mankind. Therefore, in case we go against what nature desires from us, then it can be ruthless. Here, human beings are being cautioned to appreciate nature and to follow the rules of natural justice. Among the many qualities of nature is its elusiveness. Thoreau and Emerson claim that many people lack the capacity to grasp the massiveness of nature. In many cases, nature, excluding what people perceive physically is considered infinite. There is a thrill therefore in chasing the elusiveness of nature in attempting to understand its dynamics and it a bid to discover what others have not about it. Although both philosophers felt that they were so close to reaching the periphery of nature, they could not quite do that but this only aided in their push for that elusive fact that would tell them apart from the others. The enigma of such an endeavor can only be