Hello Again

So it's been a really long time since I last posted. I am happy to report that I have been pre-occupied with living my life. This doesn't mean that I don't have difficult times, but I am seeing progress on this healing process and am so thankful. I am certainly still working through all of the areas (hormone balance, diet, detox, etc), but wanted to mention that I am feeling hopeful.

I Love My Chiropractor

I have had quite a few chiropractors along this journey and I have really loved all of them for one reason or another. Each one taught me something valuable and new and I have just loved learning from them.

Chiropractors can really get a bad rap from the traditional medical community and I think it's just not fair at all. They really do have ALOT of pieces to the puzzle and I think it is so wise to get to know more than one of them, especially since they each seem to sort of specialize in something a little different. Some chiropractors specialize in nutrition and supplements, others specialize in structural issues, and still others seem to specialize more in energy healing. I think it's all important and worthwhile.

My current doc is so wonderful, gentle, kind, gifted, amazingly smart, and of course helpful. Yesterday he hurt me a bit as he moved around my organs, but boy am I glad he did! Things seem to be working better.

My wish for the world, is that we could each have a couple of chiropractors, a holistic MD, and a traditional MD, all for very little money.

I wish I could help more people afford help. Ugh.

Sugar is Not So Sweet to Me

I haven't written a post in a while because I've actually been feeling pretty darn ok! Notice I was careful not to say I'm feeling great, because I'm far from that, but I've actually been getting out and doing fun things with my family and it has been wonderful!!!

I was doing well, and thought I'd have some fun and eat brownies and candy at Halloween. Ugh. Bad idea! After that mistake, I got to suffer a huge flare up of all my symptoms. It is yet another reminder for me that sugar is definitely not sweet to me right now. When I say I had a flare up, it's not just a sugar headache. It is literally a flare up of a hundred symptoms.

I really think that anyone trying to heal chronic illness should carefully consider staying away from sugar as much as possible. It's amazing to me how many of my symptoms flare up with it and if I didn't normally stay away from it, I might not even know that's what was making me flare up. Anyway, I always say everyone is different, but it's definitely a huge factor for probably a lot of people.

I love the book "Healing Multiple Sclerosis", by Ann Boroch. It has really helped me to understand the importance of staying away from the junk as much as I can. :)

Mistakes Can Teach Us

The journey through health is a massive learning experience, filled with ups and downs, triumphs and mistakes.

When you want to emerge out of chronic illness, you are constantly loaded and bombarded with opinions on what to do and how to get better. When faced with these massive amounts of choices to make, it's enough to make you crazy!

AHHH.

I finally realized that the whole process is imperfect and that it takes time to implement the best plans for healing. The plan changes and evolves over time and I've learned to be still and quiet and do my best to listen and pray for direction and then move to make a choice. The frustrating thing is that even though I do that, I still make mistakes all the time. The best I can do, is go back to my place of stillness and prayer and try to take the lessons learned from the mistake and try again.

We can not be too hard on ourselves. When we realize how many times we had to fall before learning to walk, maybe then we can understand that falling down is a big part of many of our life experiences.

I just wish falling didn't hurt so much!

Individuality in Health and Healing

We as humans are so much the same in many ways, yet so different as well. The road through health and healing is an individual process and should be treated that way.

I have a very good friend that has dealt with many of the same chronic health issues as me, yet there have been times that we have had to move through this journey in vastly different ways. It doesn't mean that I am right and she is wrong, or that she is right and I am wrong. It just means that we are different.

I'm not saying that principles of healing are not universal , but it's important for us not to judge each other for the process that we go through individually. We can never fully understand all the pieces to someone else's puzzle, so we just have to love. We can not know the lessons they are learning and the direction their personal journey is helping them to experience. We just can't know.

We each need our own navigation system to guide us through this jungle of life.

Healing Vs. Band Aiding

We all need a band aid from time to time. There is no denying it. In fact, when I started on my downward health spiral, I realized I was in for a lot of band aiding. And I also realized it was necessary at times. When I say "band aiding", I am referring to the immediate, emergency type care that we sometimes need on this health journey.

The frustrating thing is that it seems like much of the holistic medical community looks down on the band aid approach, but I have to say that it has absolutely been critical for me at times. On the other hand, just because we do need the band aids at times, shouldn't cloud our vision on the miraculous tools that are out there for healing. It's unfortunate that much of the traditional medical community doesn't even think about the process of healing and cleansing through an alternative approach.

I guess that's partly because healing takes time, patience, prayer and a lot of work. The process of healing is not really that easy, but it is worth the effort that goes into it.

So anytime someone tries to tell me that I have to go "all" traditional medicine or "all" alternative medicine, I just remind myself that I have needed to use both and various times in the journey, and I have a feeling most people do to. It's better to be humble, prayerful, and open to the needs that our own bodies have at various times along our journey.

Taking Time Out to Heal

One thing I have learned through healing chronic illness, is that it has been really important for me to do everything I can to take time out to heal. It has meant that we have had to make drastic changes in our life so that I can do that. Taking time out means different things to different people, but I believe that as we pray for guidance to know what to do, we can slowly find what is right for us.

For me, it has meant that I have to put off teaching piano and choir for a season, until I am stronger. This has been very difficult for me. I've been teaching piano since I was 15 years old and have had to postpone something that I really love.

But for now, I feel so much peace when I look at my calendar and know that I can rest, pray, meditate, and heal every single day.