Know Yourself, Trust Yourself

The biggest piece of my healing journey, by leaps and bounds, wasn't an "aha!" moment, but something I learned slowly. and also things I unlearned. For years I'd been told I needed to do certain things and I would be healthy (aka skinny). I listened to criticism from people in my personal circles, health professionals I saw, and experts out there who had never met me or anyone like me. I heard that people with conditions like mine had no hope of truly healing and that my body was attacking itself. And I hated myself for every instance where my body didn't respond like it was supposed to.

During the time I tossed aside what I felt like I should be doing and did what my instincts and more research and education told me, I learned to hear what my body was saying. I learned that every pain, every reaction to some trigger, every inch of increased inflammation was telling me a story. There were clues I had ignored until I didn't really know anthing except that my body was in chaos, riddled with aches and pains, and seemingly completely out of my control. As I began to sit with myself and take deep breaths and allow myself the comforts of calm and peace and warmth, I started being able to realize something vital: I could listen to those whispered clues instead of letting my body get to a place where it needed to scream to be heard.

I learned to trace many symptoms backwards, to pay attention to what was happening, and step by step, in the quiet that had replaced my frenzied approach to managing symptoms, patterns began to emerge and instead of being surprised by pain and days that knocked me into bed for long stretches of time, I noticed the whispers and learned to address them. The migraines that used to catch me unaware? I haven't had one in two years. Debilitating back spasms? It's been almost two years since I've had one of those as well. I began to "catch" these things at earlier and earlier points in their progression until I'm able to stop them at the first hint instead of stop life for days to deal with the pain and its aftermath. I know now that a slight ache in my joints when I wake up in the morning means I need to slightly tweak my food choices. I know when to hydrate more, whether a pain in my spine is a sublulxation or just the way I'm sitting. And speaking of those subluxations I used to have several times per day, they are very rare now. If I start feeling pressure, I know how to nudge things back into alignment before they get to a point where I have to stop completely.

These are just a few of the symptoms I've been able to address with careful attention, though it wasn't just stopping to really listen to my body. The next part was trusting myself again. Did that specific tightness in my trap really mean I would get migraine aura and then migraine over the next several days? Yes, it did. Was that ache in my fingers really an indicator that I needed to stop eating grains for a few days? Yes, it was. Did skipping one session in my sauna blanket really leave me less able to do things? Yes, it did. At first I doubted myself, but I over time I learned that if I was truly listening, I was also gaining knowledge and understanding that needed to be followed. I paired my understanding of nutrition with my new training in anatomy and how unlocking the fascia resets the body. I began to trust what my body was telling me and trust the path God had led me down and put it all together.

Truly, it has made all the difference. A mindshift rooted in you being the expert on what's happening within your own being is life-altering. Taking control and responsibility for how you will address your own health is a powerful decision. God created something marvelous when He put all those cells together to create you, and every signal your body gives you is it striving to be its best and bring you back into a state of health.