Biology describes an ecosystem as a diverse group of living and non-living things that live together in a cooperative and collaborative way. That description is helpful, too, when we explore the nature of our struggles to remain healthy and to regain our health when we aren’t. Each of us stands as an ecosystem of internal pieces and parts that live - ideally - in cooperative and collaborative balance with each other. Each of us is also part of the larger ecosystem that surrounds us - our personal, larger social, cultural, spiritual, and even planetary system of which we are but a single and unique element.

When our inner and/or outer ecosystems are out of balance with our needs, ill-health or disease results (dis-ease: dis,” which means apart or asunder, and ease, which means comfort or without effort). In other words, we lose our health when our natural, effortless comfort falls apart or is torn asunder.