Staying healthy these days takes more than a couple of aspirin and a phone call to the family doctor. It takes a dab of courage and a little bit of mind-stretching.
"The mind is the key to our well-being," said Ann Watters, a Christian minister, registered massage therapist and Polarity educator/practitioner in Salem. "Polarity is the holistic study of the positive and negative energy effects of the mind on emotions and our physical bodies. We try to enhance the subtle energy fields within the body."

Polarity Therapy

Founded by Dr. Randolph Stone, Polarity Theory embraces life as an expression of energy, and that energy emerges from and returns to a central unified source of life energy, Watters said.

"The body is composed of the interaction of five elements -- ether, air, fire, water and earth," explained Watters, a graduate of Stone's Polarity Institute on Orcas Island, Wash.

"These are electromagnetic in nature. The body, then, is an electromagnetic energy system expressing the dynamic interplay of these elements from their most subtle to their most dense forms."

Polarity uses yoga, massage, meditation, homeopathy and diet as ways to best keep the chakras in line, leading the way to health and well-being, Watters said. For herself, this

Eastern art became a healing modality that set her onto a new path in life.

"I went from tangled, confused, sad and miserable in the world to healing my wounds," Watters said. "Polarity is a way of life."

Energy Healing

Another outlet that reduces stress and promotes healing is reiki, a Japanese technique involving "laying on hands" to enhance the flow of life energy. Founded by Dr. Mikau Usui, and employed by several Salem-area practitioners, reiki embraces the practice of certain simple ethical ideals to promote peace and harmony.

Energy healing is "cutting edge," claims Steve Koc with Riverfront Wellness, a Salem facility offering alternatives such as sound therapy music CDs, tribal drumming classes, writing and journaling workshops, meditation and more.

"If you like adventure and are a rebel, go with it," said Koc, who fully endorses the body/mind/spirit concept of healing.  "My grandparents were mountain people from Albania," he said. "They made their own medicine from wildflowers, did juice fasting for serious illness, saw chiropractors and healers, prayed to the saints and guardian angels."

Raised in mainstream Michigan, Koc said these old-world practices made an early impression that "couldn't be erased by Twinkies and TV." Koc believes Western medicine offers the greatest technology to treat the body, to save the dying and to diagnose illness, but has self-imposed limits.

"It does not address healing and doesn't account for the human soul, the energy, our spirits," Koc said. "Alternative ways ... look deeper than the physical, to the root causes." Koc advises people to "get involved in your life. You have the most to gain -- or lose."

Power Yoga and Shiatsu Massage

Helping her clients to gain or lose their way to health is Dr. Zohra Campbell's tribute to wellness. A chiropractor at Indigo Wellness in Salem, Campbell blends chiropractics with power yoga to help them gain cardio-vascular benefits and lose stress -- and even weight! Power yoga helps people "stay on task, be more in the present, be less reactive to things going on around them, and get to a more peaceful place within," said Campbell. She credits the chiropractic/yoga combination for helping people to shed the aches and pains that stress and other factors contribute to.

Shiatsu massage is Robert Ellestad's method of releasing stress and body aches in his clients. Based on anatomical and physiological theory, shiatsu uses localized finger pressure in a rhythmic sequence on acupuncture meridians.

"Many of my clients choose shiatsu, which is applied through clothing and without oils," said Ellestad, who turned massage therapist earlier this year after returning from a military tour in Iraq.  "Shiatsu releases toxins in the body and clears your energy channels," said Ellestad, who also employs other massage therapies. "People feel almost euphoric afterward."

Depending on stress levels, one or two sessions a month are ideal for maintaining the health benefits, he said. "If you don't have time for a massage, you need a massage," Ellestad said.

Spirituality

No time to visit a therapist? Try tapping your way to health by using Gary Craig's Emotional Freedom Techniques. Using acupressure points, EFT followers have tapped their way to weight loss, pain management and other life disruptions, Craig claims on the EFT Web site.  If tapping doesn't help, meditation and prayer -- components of almost all religions that have been practiced for centuries -- might.

"After college, I lived and worked in Nicaragua, then traveled extensively in South America," said Dr. Evelin Dacker, a medical doctor with Vida Family Medicine in Salem. "I had the opportunity to work with shamans and other indigenous healers. I saw how much belief played a role in healing, and was intrigued in how we can better our own health by empowering people rather than taking away control by just treating them with a pill."

Dacker doesn't practice alternative medicine, but often works in conjunction with providers who do.  

"It complements my Western medical approach," said Dacker, an advocate of using nutrition and lifestyle choice instead of traditional medicine. She cautions falling for fads such as blue-green algae or the newly touted acai berry. She also encourages people to seek advice from providers, including medical doctors, naturopaths, acupuncturists or even "a counselor who can teach new ways of dealing with behaviors and stress."

Pastor Sam Miller, a counselor and associate pastor at People's Church in Salem, believes prayer leads to physical and spiritual well-being. "Those who commit themselves to daily prayer and a daily committing of their `ways' to God will find that better health ensues," said Miller of the practice he follows, leading him to make "healthy and right decisions that lead to a healthier body and lifestyle."

Beliefnet and other Web sites dedicated to health are incorporating individual and community prayer avenues onsite -- and a daily joke.

The Best Medicine

"When life gets bumpy, try laughing," advises "Jollyologist" Allen Klein. Attitudes, he claims, improve as well as other aspects of the body, mind and soul.
Also convinced about laughter's health benefits is the Humor Project, dedicated to promoting the positive power of humor. With a click of the mouse, people can get more "smileage" out of their lives and jobs by applying the "practical, positive power of humor and creativity" the site champions.

Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful existence, says Charles Corbin of Arizona State University on definitionofwellness.com. Improvement is always possible and a variety of options exist, he said.

"If what [people] are presently doing is not working, or if they feel `stuck,' then looking outside the box can be helpful," Dacker said.