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We can alleviate physical pain, but mental pain - grief, despair, depression, dementia - is less accessible to treatment. It's connected to who we are - our personality, our character, our soul, if you like.

It's so important for those living with chronic pain to establish good communication with both their healthcare professionals and caregivers. Clear communication about pain is vital to receiving proper diagnosis and effective treatment.

My father is an acupuncturist, and the way he practices is very free. For me, he's like an artist. He started to do acupuncture when it wasn't so accepted. His spirit and outlook inspire me.

I count on chiropractic sessions to keep my body aligned. Standing for hours can impact my posture, and that can throw the rest of my body out of whack. Acupuncture helps me relax and release stress. I'm also very into massage to help release tension in my back, neck, and shoulders.

In this hectic life, we have no time to take care of ourselves, hence massage is needed for rejuvenation and stress reduction. A lot of people are looking for quick fixes: like, they are taking medications, and they are doing other things which are not healthy. But massage is very holistic and natural.

Medicine involves dealing with people who are going through changes and cycles, often people trapped in bodies that are going out from under them. Spending time with them lets you think their way, gives you insights as a writer.

What you learn about pain in formal meditation can help you relate to it in your daily life.

Well, I've seen a bunch of acupuncturists and one of my sister-in-laws is an herbalist. So I know a lot about alternative medicine. I don't know a lot about the practice but I know about the world.

Mind-body medicine should not be an 'alternative,' nor should complementary and integrative medicine be something doctors are not exposed to during their training.

Increasingly we know that we're going to have multiple medical conditions, and the person who's got the greatest incentive to manage those conditions is the patient him or herself.