Why We Start Using Homeopathy Like Conventional Medicine When We Panic
One of the questions I’m asked more than almost any other when I’m teaching is, “How often should I repeat the remedy?”
On the face of it, it’s a perfectly sensible question. But the more I’ve thought about it over the years, the more I’ve realised that hidden within that one question is something much bigger. I don’t actually think people are only asking about repetition. I think they’re revealing the way almost all of us have been taught to think about illness.
We’ve grown up in a world where medicines come with instructions. Take one every four hours. Finish the course. If nothing seems to be happening, take another dose. Medicines are measured by the clock and improvement is often judged by whether the symptoms have disappeared.
So when people discover homeopathy, why would they think any differently? Of course they don’t.
Over the past few years, I’ve taught homeopathy to thousands of people and, long before they ever join one of my courses, I see the same pattern over and over again. People buy a remedy kit. They follow a few homeopaths online. They might read a book or watch a few YouTube videos. They become excited by the possibilities of homeopathy and can’t wait to try it.
Then somebody in the family becomes ill and suddenly all of that enthusiasm is replaced by uncertainty.
“Have I chosen the right remedy?”
“Should I repeat it?”
“Nothing seems to be happening.”
“Perhaps I should try another one instead.”
Before long, they’re reaching for another remedy, and another, and another. I often joke that they’ve started pepper-spraying their children with remedies.
The funny thing is that whenever I say this in a class, everybody laughs. Then almost everybody nods because they’ve done it too.
I certainly did.
I often think how different my own journey would have been if somebody had explained these principles to me years earlier. I wish I’d understood fever instead of automatically reaching for Calpol or Tylenol. I wish somebody had explained that healing doesn’t always look like symptoms disappearing and that some of the earliest signs of improvement can be incredibly easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Perhaps a child who has been restless for hours suddenly falls asleep. Maybe they finally ask for a drink. Or perhaps a discharge begins.
That last one can really throw parents because we’ve been conditioned to believe that every symptom is bad. But what if the very symptom we’re trying to stop is actually one of the body’s first signs that healing has begun?
The trouble is that if we’re only looking for the fever to disappear or the cough to stop, we’ll often convince ourselves that the remedy hasn’t worked at all. And that is frequently the moment we either repeat unnecessarily or abandon a well-indicated remedy far too soon.
The more I teach, the more convinced I become that the greatest challenge in learning homeopathy isn’t actually learning remedies. It’s learning to let go of the conventional model of disease that most of us have carried around for our entire lives.
We’ve all been conditioned to think in an allopathic way, so it is hardly surprising that we bring that same thinking into homeopathy. We’ve been taught that symptoms are the enemy and that medicine works by suppressing them. Homeopathy invites us to think very differently.
Perhaps nowhere is this more obvious than with fever. We’ve become so focused on bringing the temperature down that we sometimes forget to ask why the body created the fever in the first place. Instead of asking, “How do I stop this symptom?” we begin asking, “What is this symptom trying to achieve?” Instead of watching the clock, we begin watching the person. Instead of expecting every improvement to be dramatic, we begin recognising the quieter signs that the body is responding. Instead of prescribing for the diagnosis, we prescribe for the individual in front of us.
This shift in thinking doesn’t always happen overnight. In many ways, it requires us to unlearn decades of conditioning before we can really begin thinking like a homeopath.
Perhaps that’s another reason I believe we’ve accidentally made homeopathy seem far more complicated than it really is.
In my last article, I wrote that I think we’ve started teaching chapter twenty before chapter one. We become fascinated by constitutional prescribing, miasms and all the incredible depth that homeopathy has to offer, yet many people still don’t feel confident supporting a child with a fever or knowing whether to repeat a remedy.
Maybe chapter one isn’t really learning remedies at all. Maybe chapter one is learning how to observe, because once you understand that, everything else starts making much more sense.
One of my favourite moments as a teacher is watching someone stop asking, “What’s the best remedy for a fever?” and start asking, “What is this particular person telling me through their fever?”
That single shift changes everything. Instead of reacting automatically, people begin observing. Instead of feeling they have to do something immediately, they become more comfortable watching what unfolds. Panic gives way to curiosity, fear to observation and helplessness to confidence.
People often tell me that Homeopathy Heals at Home has been life-changing and, whilst I’m always incredibly humbled to hear that, I don’t think it’s because they’ve learnt dozens more remedies than they knew before.
I think it’s because they stop feeling helpless every time someone they love becomes ill. They become calmer, more capable and more confident because they finally understand what they’re looking at.
For me, that is one of the greatest gifts homeopathy has to offer.
P.S. If this article resonated with you, this is exactly why I’ve decided to run Homeopathy Heals at Home Summer School this year. It isn’t really about learning more remedies. It’s about learning how to observe, how to trust yourself and how to become the person your family turns to when illness strikes. You’ll receive immediate lifetime access to the complete Homeopathy Heals at Home course, together with three live Q&A sessions with me and two special sessions with the wonderful Natasha Burns. If you’ve been thinking for years that you’d love to learn homeopathy properly, I’d genuinely love you to join us. Learn more here.