You Are Not Your Disease
4 ways to accelerate healing
As originally published in Change Your Mind Change Your Life on Medium.com.
Image: francescoch on iStock
My headache is killing me. My cancer came back. I’m an alcoholic. Common words we hear all too frequently. But the thoughts we think and the words we tell ourselves are more powerful than most know. And where we place our attention, we place our energy. Our thoughts and words either help us or hurt us.
The Words We UseBy choosing words like “my” or “I am” ahead of an undesired condition, we identify with it and thereby make it part of us.
The problem here is that our mind is like a transmitter trying to make our words and actions a reality. And so our mind becomes judge, juror and jailor.
An illness is not who we are. It is something we may have to deal with, but it is not who we are.
We are energy. Everything is energy. I know it’s easy to forget this living in our 3-dimensional reality because we perceive this reality through our senses — sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.
But everything, including us, is made up of atoms. Atoms are 99.99% information and nothing that we can perceive with our senses. So this means that our “reality” is less than 0.1% of what actually exists.
If we can remember this, and in turn choose better words such as “I’m moving towards better health today”, we support our healing journey instead of hindering it.
The Thoughts We ThinkA thought we think over and over again becomes a belief. Our beliefs inform our behaviour. Our behaviour creates our reality.
So, if we think about an undesired condition all day long, we not only hold on to it, but we prolong it and almost certainly make it worse.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean denying or suppressing the pain, grief, anger or other negative emotions. On the contrary, it means recognising them, acknowledging them, understanding them, and finally nurturing ourselves so that we can let them go. The key is to not stop after step two.
The feeling that cannot find its expression in tears will cause other organs to weep.
— Henry Maudsley
I remember suffering from so many ailments a few years ago — from brain fog to a herniated disc in my lower back to a brain seizure and much more. I was depleted, frustrated, in pain and exhausted to name just a few emotions.
It took me some time, but I eventually understood why my ailments had manifested in my body and life. The turning point was when I began looking within myself instead of outside of myself for answers. After that, I could begin nurturing myself and changing my thoughts to support my healing.
The Company We KeepI spent years in toxic relationships which left me very unwell. As I began my healing journey I joined multiple support groups and even focused on educating others around the topic through my business.
While cathartic at first, I eventually realised that those actions were keeping me stuck instead of moving me forward.
If I continued to talk about the abuse, I would continue to give my attention to it and therefore my energy. Yet I wanted better health, better relationships, and a better life. And focusing on the past was not going to get me there. The universal law of attraction prohibits it.
It is said we are the average of the five people we spend most time with. I believe this to be true. So spending time with other survivors talking about what happened to me or to them was no longer going to support my healing process.
Misery loves company. But so does happiness.
The Food We ConsumeWhen we are born we have the perfect relationship with food. A baby will eat what it likes and reject what it doesn’t. It will eat when it’s hungry and stop when it’s full.
But as we get older we are often forced to eat what’s in front of us whether it makes us feel good or not. And our body adapts because its job is to keep us alive. The problem is that over time this takes its toll and before long, illness sets in.
It is said that 95% of all chronic diseases can be traced to a single root cause — an imbalance in our gut microbiome. That’s why it’s important to eat according to our own microbiome because our gut microbiome is as unique as our DNA.
One way to do this is to do an elimination diet. The other is to simply analyse our microbiome.
Over the years I have done both. Knowing the foods that give me extra nourishment versus those that drain me has not only helped me heal faster from injury, but supported my overall health in terms of more energy, healthier nails and hair, no more bloating, and more.
Start With Where You Want To BeIllness is contagious. But so is wellness.
At the end of last year, I broke my leg. Of course, the first week was tough, but it wasn’t long before my sole focus was on running with my dog again.
Instead of complaining, I doubled down on my nutrition, told myself I would be back on my feet sooner than the doctors expected, and every day got excited about running with my dog again. As a result, I was running again in 6 months instead of 7 months.
Why do we want anything in life? We want it because of how we believe it will make us feel. So if we can learn to feel that feeling today before our desired result has manifested, we will behave according to wellness instead of illness, and so create the potential to accelerate our healing.
Wherever you are on your journey, always remember that YOU ARE ENOUGH.
