What's helping you rise?

I just discovered a wonderful website for a wonderful reading/study group: healthpursuitsgroup.com. They are a unique health book club for people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FMS), multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), and related conditions.

In 2008, they were the subject of a short study by the University of Toronto Medical School and the Environmental Health Clinic at Women's College Hospital, Toronto. They are the only model in the medical literature of a support group for those with FM, CFS, MCS, etc., which helps people improve while other models made people worse.

They have a cool metaphor they use: the hot air balloon. What helps you to rise—what keeps you down? You can find the hot air balloon image on their website.


Some of the things they say help us to rise cognitively:
biochemical balance; biomechanical balance; experience; positive social contact; goals; planning; practice; opportunity for expression; experienced practitioner; information; reflection; appropriate strategies; helpful routines; mentoring

What keeps us down cognitively?
life events; restrictive beliefs or attitudes; genetic malformations of cognitive equipment; misinformation; biochemical problems; cognitive attacks by others or social systems; accidents; biomechanical problems; misinterpretation of blocking of social, biochemical, or biomechanical signals

It seems to me that a lot of what they say may help us to rise are practical things; tools we can apply to our life in some way, as well as having room for reflection and self-expression. The things that keep us down are more about our own and others' belief systems. I have certainly found this to be true in my own life.

The more I can separate my emotional fear/panic/anxiety responses and belief systems from the physical, more practical realm, the better I can respond to a new challenge. But first I must be able to express the emotional freely (talking to members of my personal support team, screaming at the top of my lungs, writing in my blog, etc.). Then I am freed up to take very practical steps to resolving the issue—writing down pros and cons, making lists, contacting others to help me get the job done, etc. helps keep me sane and balanced.

Yesterday I read an interesting article on post traumatic stress disorder. It said that when one experiences a traumatic event, only unexpressed energy will remain in the body to cause PTSD; if you are able to release/express all your fears, anger, pain about the situation in the moment or over the next few days/weeks, you should not develop PTSD. So it's very important to express and emote all your bottled up feelings so they don't sit with you on a cellular level. And then focus on the practical.

One of the harder things to do is break down our (and others') belief systems, because they are so ingrained they have become invisible to us. The first step is identifying a belief system. For example, that "disease" and "cures" exist at all. Those are constructs humans have created. What ideas are guiding your thoughts, behavior—your life—that you don't even realize? That is the first step to breaking them down.

Please share in the comments section below what constructs you have identified in your life, how they have limited you, and how you have been able to overcome them.

Peace out! Julie

Glass Half Full

Living with a chronic illness is not easy. Especially when your symptoms include severe depression and hopelessness. It can take work to turn the picture upside down and see the glass as half full. But I can tell you that the effort is well worth it.

On my bad days, all I can see is that I am in my sixth year living in near isolation, that I have two tolerable outfits to my name that haven't been washed in months, I have no towels I can use, no bedding or bed, I sleep on a cold tile floor shivering in the dark, and my health seems to be getting more fragile with each passing day. I have friends and a boyfriend, but due to our severe sensitivities to chemicals and other environmental influences, during the long winter we mostly have a phone relationship. I haven't seen my family in over a year. With these grey-colored lenses on, it's hard to see much reason for going on.

On my good days, I am ever-so-thankful. My house-prison is transformed into a safe home on 20 acres to buffer me from neighbors' toxic practices. This desolate area becomes a beautiful landscape that my dreams can find a home in. My connections to friends and my boyfriend are incredibly cherished and deep—the kind of relationships I always craved but could never find growing up. The restrictions of my illness force me to live in alignment with a value system I always had but was too lazy/cowardly/apathetic to enforce. The boredom of hours freed up from lack of career/social life/activity opens up a space where I get to share my voice and vision.

How can you transform those things that bind you and drag you down? I challenge anyone reading this to take a list of all the terrible parts of their life and create something beautiful about each and every one.

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And perspective/attitude is everything.

let it flow

Blocked energy results in stagnation. Stagnation can contribute to disease. As part of my personal healing initiative, I promised myself this year to focus on "flow" and to open up all those blocked passages in body and mind.

One result of this is the "primal scream" practice I began a few months ago after moving to a more desolate locale—when I get certain chemical exposures, I find it so healing to open up those airways and let my angst out, as loud as possible. Now that I have few neighbors, and none within screaming distance (I think!??), I feel completely comfortable doing what I never did for the past 42 years of my life.

Another promise I made to myself was to start bellydancing and practicing yoga again. I need to get this body moving, get the juices flowing, and put those stored toxins on an express train outta here.

And when love surprisingly came knocking on my door last year, it brought with it an unexpected opportunity to let my emotions flow more freely. Being in a relationship takes work—especially when both people are disabled and have daily challenges that can create huge amounts of stress. Communication becomes so important, and my honey and I work hard at keeping ours open and unblocked.

Like the spaces in our bodies that can become weighed down and sluggish, so too can our connections to others. Since becoming severely chemically and electrically sensitive, I have been very isolated and have functioned in a dark vacuum for much of the time. In the name of "flow," I am now reaching out to collaborate with others and open up those channels for greater healing.

I started this journal over a year ago but never got back to it. I'm excited to be starting it up again, this time with help from my friends and colleagues. We will be featuring guest bloggers who will post about all things related to the continuum of health, from the point-of-view of the chronically ill patient, physician, healer, and everyday person. So please join me as I join hands with other beautiful beings on a healing path to wholeness!

Planet Thrive rocks!

PlanetThrive.com is a grassroots community for personal wellness, with a focus on the health-environment connection. We offer a healing space for those on a personal health journey and those wishing to live a healthier, more conscious life.

Although our members may arrive for different reasons - some based on lessons learned from their own personal experience with illness and others due to their passion for environmental issues and natural living - they are essentially on the same path: uncovering hidden truths about the systems we were raised to believe in, making connections between big business, the government, the environment and our health, and taking their health care and lives back into their own hands.

With more and more chemicals being poured into the world everyday, more people will be getting environmentally based health problems (in fact, we believe that most health problems today can be traced to toxins in our environment!). People are going to be looking for answers and our medical system is not set up to answer them.

Planet Thrive is a place where environmentally aware and health conscious people can share resources and personal experience to help each other heal mind•spirit•body as we heal the earth.

Visit PlanetThrive.com today and see for yourself!