Body talk...
“I have lectured and written about the important role of perception and awareness in health and longevity—how awareness can actually transform matter, create an entirely new body.” ― Candace B. Pert
I have been thinking and writing more about the story of my body and my journey with autoimmune disease.
This group of illnesses are so incredibly present in our day to day lives now and so often when we receive a diagnosis we feel relieved that at least we know what's wrong and it can be fixed. Right?
This is simply the beginning of a process of change. If we choose it.
Or we can take the drugs, numb the pain and the symptom and hope 'they fix' everything.
Let's get down to what autoimmune disease is...
Your immune system works as protection and defence.
It usually protects you from diseases and fights infections. When it senses pathogens, it creates specific cells to target foreign cells. It can usually tell the difference between the foreign cells and your own cells.
If you have an autoimmune disease, your immune system mistakes parts of your body, such as your joints or skin, as foreign. It releases proteins called autoantibodies that attack healthy cells.
Some autoimmune diseases target only one organ. Type 1 diabetes damages your pancreas. Other conditions, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or lupus, can affect your whole body.
Below is a non-exhaustive list which is growing fast - as increasing research goes on, they are discovering so many more. Alzheimer's disease for example is now classed in the same group.
Ankylosing spondylitis (AS)
Celiac disease
Crohn's Disease
Graves disease / thyroid eye disease
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS)
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis / chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis / autoimmune thyroiditis
Lupus (SLE)
Ménière’s disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Psoriasis
Psoriatic arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sarcoidosis
Scleroderma
Sjögren’s syndrome
Raynaud's phenomenon
Ulcerative colitis (UC)
Undifferentiated connective tissue disease
Uveitis | anterior/intermediate/posterior
Vasculitis
Vitiligo
The medical system will say the body is attacking itself, and technically that is true. But why?
The physical manifestation of these diseases and the symptoms that accompany them are simply messages. They are asking us to listen.
Our physical bodies respond to what’s happening to our emotions, our thoughts and our experience. By the time we feel discomfort on the physical level, we've likely been grappling with the emotions behind it for some time, even if we have not been consciously aware.
We may not realise how emotional our bodies really are until we start to connect the relative ease or discomfort we have experienced with the emotions we have felt.
When issues with autoimmune disease started to filter into my life I discovered a whole world I had never experienced. Ways to work with my body with more understanding and ease.
There is always a root cause. Anxiety, aches and pains, constant coughs and colds, infections, headaches, exhaustion, brain fog, sleep problems, autoimmune disease, depression, anxiety and so on.
It can take a long time for our bodies to show us these issues. Poor lifestyle decisions, chronic stress, burnout and lack of awareness around emotional wellness. Our bodies hold us while we are giving them hell.
In my client work this is what I focus on, changing the consistent battering we give ourselves to make space for more understanding, better lifestyle choices, deep rest and some love to call it back into balance.
One of my favourite moments in my client work is the sentence "everything is connected!" I often say angels from heaven descend down upon me at that moment!
It is beautiful when people see their own body this way. They recognise the patterns that have been causing the issue.
They notice the body has been shouting at them, they see how the brokenness they feel doesn't need fixed, it just needs to be brought into deep awareness.
They begin to see that the anger and frustration just needs to be held, felt, understood and processed and through the body, not through the mind.
They begin to see the way we have been conditioned to work against the natural flow of life.
If we can give our bodies time and understanding instead of over loading them with more pills and potions in the need to get on with life and work, then we work with the natural energy of life.
Getting to the root, takes time, patience and deep compassion but it truly is a beautiful journey. I know because it was mine.
It honours our whole life journey and helps us unpick the parts that just need more understanding. We become more connected to our purpose and our essence.
As a culture we are conditioned not to listen to what our physical issues are trying to say. It is normalised in such a way, we are even told it's normal at our age or this is what our bodies do now and we think we must accept it.
The world we inhabit keeps us addicted, stressed out, disconnected from nature and permanently connected to a box. Our food is unnatural and processed, we are tired and wired and unable to express emotions healthily.
The answers the mainstream gave me over a long period of time were confusing and just didn't feel right for me in any way. When working with Graves disease, the long term option was to remove my thyroid leaving me with reduced thyroid function and tied to a prescription for the rest of my life, with all sorts of other health issues attached to that.
The answer wasn't dealing with the issue, which was a dysfunctional immune system. The other issues I had were connected to my eyes, skin and digestion. Was I to remove those too? It didn't make any sense.
We all have the capacity to become well but we become lost in the system and a slave to the prescriptions that are given. We become stuck in chronic health conditions because we become disconnected and disassociated with the messages our body is trying to send us.
Is your body calling you to listen?
Are you pushing through and hoping it will get better this time?
What symptoms are affecting you now and how do the feel?
Stop and listen, even just for a moment.
Notice the words that describe your symptoms.
Connect the dots…