mindset – Chronically Holistic

But, “You don’t look sick”.

This statement use to really hurt me to my bone. The reason I personally allowed my body to get so sick was because I didn’t look sick. This is something I have endured my entire life. I have had pain issues and eventually did end up in a wheelchair during my childhood, but most of my pain issues were “idiopathic” and my fatigue was because of mono. I had no obvious deformity or growth in my body, but I was getting sicker and sicker despite medical attention, I continued not to take it seriously. Now I have the knowledge and experience on why you shouldn’t ignore your body and I hopea you will not do the same.

I thought the older you get the more pain you get, so everyone must feel this sh*tty all the time. Plot twist, you aren’t supposed to feel that much pain or THAT tired in your twenties. In our society we are taught to suck it up and keep on working. That’s how we get to extreme burnout and allow our bodies to get so sick. It’s okay to work hard, but your body has to be a healthy place to do so. As we get more and more tired, we eat easier to make and more unhealthy foods. We stop taking care of ourselves and go into fight mode. Our body thinks it’s in survival mode and our bodies to continue to get sicker. By doing so this allows our body functions to decrease or cease. So the whole “you don’t look sick thing” ignore it. You DON’T want to let your body get to that point of looking sick. Once your body is that sick your adrenals (stress hormone center) will be shot, your thyroid (another hormone regulator) will be shot and you will have 10x the amount of work to get your body back to “normal”, rather than listening to it in the first place.

You know your body better than any practicing professional. That being said is why you shouldn’t give up on feeling better. Find a doctor that will work with you and not give up on you. Find one that will look for the root cause and won’t continue to shove medication after medication into your body after months and months of no results.

I’m not anti-medications by any means. Personally since childhood I’ve been on more antibiotics than I can count just because it could help. Trust me when I say these medications are doing more harm than good if you don’t NEED them and are just being taken for the hope that they will work. A lot of medications are for the symptoms and not the cause. While the cause of your illness will probably continue and you may continue to get sicker. While medications are important if they help fix your illness or imbalance, if you aren’t seeing a change after the time your doctor said to give it, stop it. Of course do this while working with your doctor. Each medication takes time to work and wean off. Trust someone who’s been on more medications than most adults combined, being on a medication hoping it will help is terrible for your body. The more we put into our body unnecessarily the harder our kidneys and liver had to work to excrete them. Our gut is becoming leakier and making us sicker by leaking out toxins and waste our body couldn’t process. Our brain receptors are becoming flooded and not allowing our brain to work at the best potential. We are basically feeding into anxiety and depression because we are assisting in altering our brain chemicals (neurotransmitters).

If this is known science then why do doctors keep prescribing us medications repeatedly “hoping” to help us? Sadly that’s all they know and what they are taught. Western culture makes their money though pharmaceuticals, insurance and treating chronic illnesses. Herbs and natural medicine is normally not something that can be charged through insurance. I now know that Hollistic healing with food and natural medicine is very effective. There are countless of studies done that food and nutrition can help heal 90% of our illnesses and diseases. Yet we would rather continue to be lazy, sick and taking “magic pills” than to have a slight lifestyle change. It may sound brutal, but it’s the honest truth. If you told college me that I would have to give up half the food I eat daily I would have laughed. But if you told me I was going to struggle with pain, anxiety and chronic brain fog and fatigue would I have listened differently ? Who knows, but now I truly understand the importance of food nutrition and gut health and I hope you will take it serious too.

If you’ve ever had mono in your life (EBV) you may battle this reactivation of fatigue and should work with a practitioner who understands the virus to allow you to function a normal and healthy life. Check out my last post on this virus and check out these books which go into detail the importance of EBV and how it’s the underlying reason disease and illnesses are able to enter our body.

The Rain Barrel Effect: How a 6,000 Year Old Answer Holds the Secret to Finally Getting Well, Losing Weight & Feeling Alive Again!
The Epstein-Barr Virus Solution: The Hidden Undiagnosed Epidemic of a Virus Destroying Millions of Lives through Chronic Fatigue, Autoimmune Disorders and Cancer

You are not your illness, and there is hope. I hope that this mindset helps someone. I am unsure if years ago myself I would have been ready to listen. But if I help even one person avoid years of pain and countless medications and procedures, it’s worth it ❤️

Things I wish I knew going into dealing with a chronic illness

If you are suffering chronic pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and so forth, I feel you. I know how debilitating each day can be and you do your best anyway. I know how desperate for relief you are, and how you will try any medication or procedure for the hope of relief. After years of this, I want to share with you what I’ve learned and how to skip a few painful lessons on your own health journey.

The first and most important lesson is to get professional guidance!

I’m considered a medical professional but this isn’t medical advice, just my own experiences. Even though I have medical knowledge and thought I could do this on my own, I needed help. I went to specialty after specialty after realizing I needed help, but finding the right help is the next step. I have another blog post on all of the doctors I’ve rotated through if you need help deciding where to start. From both ends of the spectrum of western medicine to anything Holistic, a naturopath has been the most helpful for me.

Commit to your health as the #1 priority.

This one is hard. I know a lot of you are moms and have to work 40 hours a week to pay bills. But try your best to put yourself first. Let it be okay — the house will stay dirty and accept it’s not worth exhausting yourself more. Being a perfectionist with a chronic illness is hard, but you also learn what is a priority and what’s not.

You have to continue to put yourself first, even on hard days when you want to give up and let it all take its course. I would try something new that someone recommended or that I read and committed to, but it wouldn’t work. At the end of each trial I was still sick; I would say it’s in my head and I would give up, then repeat. Commit to your health. You owe it to yourself and your family, and you are worth it. Being run-down with brain fog and pain is not okay; no matter how many of your friends also suffer like this, it’s not normal. It may be a simple fix – as little as a diet or attitude change or as big as a chemical imbalance or infection. Either way, invest the money in a practitioner. It’s so helpful to have someone give you guidance rather than guessing yourself. Being let down time and time again only adds to the depression of feeling ill.

Stop letting what others thing about you matter.

Guess what — it doesn’t matter. You matter and your health matters. In a year, the opinions of others will mean nothing compared to having your mental and physical health. Yes, you have your tribe of people, and you NEED them or someone on this journey to support you, but at the end of the day, YOUR health mentally and physically is what is important. By letting yourself care about what other people think, you allow doubt and negativity in. You do you, and you’ll find yourself. As soon as I stopped caring about others’ judgements toward me is when I started reaching out to the right people and finding actual answers and seeing progress. Nothing is worse than thinking others assume you are a hypochondriac and it’s all in your head, but it’s your body and you are trying the best you can. You have to believe in yourself; you know your body the best.

Patience

This is the hardest one, the one I still struggle with. Especially if you’ve been struggling with something for a while and feel like you’ve tried everything, you have to give everything a few months, not days or weeks. This is the hard part because it takes time. But this is why it’s important to get the proper guidance. With the proper help, you minimize wasting time trying to tackle this all on your own. The more you fail and continue to suffer, the more fear for the future, depression, and anxiety is created. You have to believe in the process, but having help getting there is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s worth every dime to minimize the time it takes to heal yourself and get you to your best self.

Your food and environment are essential to your recovery.

It’s okay to eat out and enjoy yourself. You don’t have to go vegan or never eat your favorite food again, but you do have to be aware of proper nutrition and the toxins in the standard American’s diet. The food we feed ourselves and things we put in and on our bodies has been shown to harm us dramatically. Here’s an old post on how to live a chemical-free lifestyle. It’s hard at first, but it’s worth feeling better. This one is important and can be the hardest for a lot of people. Even before learning my blood nutrition results from my practitioner, I ate healthy. But sometimes what you think is healthy isn’t for you — another reason why it’s worth the time and money to have someone run these tests for you.

It’s so important to know what your gut and body actually need. I’ve written a previous post on the importance of avoiding preservatives and eating organic foods. When you feed your gut, you truly are feeding your health. The gut-brain connection is a proven yet ignored thing. Your diet can dramatically change your mentality and decrease inflammation in your body. By fixing our diet, we eliminate the cause of many “symptoms” that we are put on medications for. Eating well gives your body the fighting chance to work in synergy, to heal, and to provide us with the best health we can give ourselves. I know it sounds easier than it is, but start small. Small wins lead to big changes!

Your mindset is everything.

If you know me, you hear me preach about mindset and the importance of good energy and healing. You don’t have to be as spiritual as me, but your mind is truly a powerful thing. Meditation, yoga, gardening, etc. are all great relaxing tools and are needed to help your mind heal. Check out this old post on the importance of your parasympathetic nervous system and tips on staying grounded.

I’m not saying these steps are the all cure — but it could save you a lot of time and money by avoiding the months of medication trials, diets, and specialists.

My personal health journey has led me to a naturopath practitioner. She was able to connect all of my issues to Epstein-barr Virus (EBV). This virus is commonly known as “mono.” 90% of the population has had it and carries antibodies for it. Most people’s immune systems handle this fine. For others it creates havoc in the body, triggering gut issues, brain fog, pain, depression, and autoimmune issues. Your body fights itself, depleting the thyroid and adrenals, and your body continues to get sicker with no explanation. The research done on this is crazy — yet western medicine ignores this virus because as mentioned above, most people carry the antibodies and are fine. But there are a lot of chronically ill people out there, and the way we eat and live our lives these days trigger the illness to become more and more active, oxidizing and depleting our bodies. Feel free to contact me because I would love to help you heal as food is honestly the best way to do so with any inflammatory virus.

Thanks for reading and I hope you start to feel better soon. I can’t wait to post about my healing journey and all its success and hear about others! Stay positive and keep fighting; you’re worth it ❣️

Compassion and Happiness

I use to have a hard time having compassion for others while I am suffering myself. This was unknowingly selfish of me, because others have great compassion for me by listening to me while I am still throwing myself a pity party. I’m not saying don’t complain, because struggling day to day silently is also not healthy. It’s healthy and okay to reach out and talk to others about your struggles. Compassion can lead you to happiness. Whether it be in relationships with your friends or family, into your work or environment etc. By including this into your daily life you can change your mindset by changing your behaviors. Being a nurse I naturally have compassion for others, but meaning it is different. It takes time to mean it, but it’s necessary to help you heal from your own pain.

If you have chronic pain, anxiety and/or depression, you wouldn’t wish it upon anyone…I hope 😉. No one chooses unhappiness over happiness. Suffering with these ailments makes life suck or seem not worthwhile some days. Becoming compassionate for others helps you become more present and appreciative of your surroundings outside your pain. You learn empathy and are able to connect with others and stop focusing all on your struggles.

Pain, anxiety and depression all hit similar transmitters and parts of our brain. Our gut helps impact all of these three as well. It’s hard to work towards rewiring our brain and healing our gut until your able to get your mind into a more positive mindset.

By showing compassion and being able to empathize with someone else’s struggles you are able to take a break from yours and stop feeling and wishing for your own struggles to end and wish for another’s happiness. You are triggering other parts of your mind and are tuning into being more aware. Mindset can impact our lives tremendously. It doesn’t get rid of our issues, but it does open our eyes making us more aware that we can control our body more than we think. We can help stop our thoughts from going down into that dark tunnel of sadness and self pity. When you express compassion or do something go for others for no reason…you feel good right? You trigger endorphins and you become full of happy fuzziness and are able to sit up straighter and think clearer. Now I’m not telling you to donate all your money to charity, but to simply do more kind gestures to others.

It’s hard to listen, to want to do things for others, to actually care for others while you are struggling. It’s hard to get the feeling of happiness and joy for others when you yourself are hurting. But with more practice your mindset will shift. Your compassion towards others will help lower your pain, anxiety and/or depression or maybe all three! It’s not a magic answer or quick fix. As I said earlier, no one chooses to be unhappy.

So choose to feel happiness and give compassion a try. You have nothing to lose by being kind to others. You’ll gain more connections with friends and strangers, you’ll learn more about your true self and you will see happiness on others faces which will in turn bring you joy.

Healing your pain is not always an easy fix, a quick pill or diet. It’s a journey and hard work physically and mentally. Nourish your body with good food and energy. Life is worth living, and it’s worth being able to enjoy a happy more present life ❣️ Namaste 🙏🏻