Find Your Unique Gifts: The 6 Principles of Original Medicine

The concept of Original Medicine is an indigenous teaching l came across in a book, Transformational Speaking, by Gail Larson. The concept of Original Medicine is the idea that we are blessed with and born with gifts that only we have, because of who we are uniquely, and what we are, through our life. It is important that we share that with the world because it is uniquely ours, as if we don’t, it is left unshared.

This has been really helpful in breaking down my own life and the aspects that I have wanted to get clear on for myself, when I think about how I want to approach my life and what it is that I'm sharing or being about.

I found that combining the concept of Original Medicine combined with the six principles of transformational speaking that Larsen provided, was a pretty powerful exercise for myself. It’s a great exercise to do for yourself, and it’s a powerful practice to do with friends and share what you come up with. We did it on a zoom call recently, and it was fascinating to see how other friends viewed their lives and journeys. Here are the six principles.

Principle #1: You are an original. Nowhere else duplicated.

Write in a journal about how you are original. How are all the accumulations of your experiences, definitely unique. You may be a twin, you may have siblings, you may have people that have the same culture, but when your experiences and traits are combined, you're utterly unique.

Principle #2: You are a hero on a journey and your journey defines your message.

Is there a bigger goal in which you are feeding your journey? Where do you think your journey in life is leading?

Principle #3: The world we experience, both personal and planetary, reflects and expresses who we are individually and collectively.

What are those worlds that we're experiencing? What are the things that we've been in, what are the places that we've lived in, what are the cultures that we've experienced, and how does it give more expression to who we are within ourselves and in the communities that we're in

Principle #4:You can't figure it all out. Everyone holds a different strand of the web of life, and we must each heed our own call.

What is that strand of life that you hold? What is it that you bring what is the knowledge that you have or that you're seeking or that you feel strongly about? That can be anything, it can be something small, a habit to something you know to something you resonate with. What is that?

Principle #5: Use your authentic power with those who can hear you rather than the forces of argument with those who can't.

Find the people that would resonate with you, they are out there. Who do you think your power would resonate with in the world? Who do you think are those that you could speak to and you can find community, because that's who you will resonate and create the strongest vibration with?

Principle #6: You must personally, you must be personally sustainable to do the work of change. Cherish your precious, worthy self.
What are the ways that you can make the work sustainable? To make sure that you’re not burning yourself out, but it's in a process of doing the work that you can love and do it every day. To have practices that take care of self so that you make sure you have the fuel to continue to do that.

Your responses are all the different experiences and different strands that make you, uniquely you. And with that, it's a very powerful thing. From that point, try to pinpoint what your original medicine is. Use those six principles and examine your responses through journaling each principle for about two minutes. Just free write and let it flow. What comes from that? What do you see? What are those threads? From there you can try to pinpoint what that original medicine is and that it will continue to be within you throughout your life because it is you. You're the only person who can give it to the world.

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