Fighting Against Chronic Fatigue
From age eight until I was 21 years old, I suffered from debilitating depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, joint pain, bloating, constipation, anorexia, bulimia, skin rashes, acne, and other physical ailments. My symptoms began to appear when I was in elementary school.
On the outside, everything looked normal. I was a cheerleader, horseback rider, and had many friends and various boyfriends. I always did well in school. My biggest skill was putting on a smile to hide from the world.
However, under the facade I was exhausted, sad, angry, lonely, hopeless, in pain, confused, disappointed, and despondent. I felt like no one understood me. I pushed friends aside and pulled away from family. I was thin but I was miserable. I spent more than a decade crying under the covers on a daily basis. I truly believed that the rest of my life would be simply more of the same.
From Roulette To Recovery
At age 16, I began a game of roulette by attempting to find the right combination of antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications while suffering ominous side effects. I tried a myriad of medications from Zoloft, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, and Celexa. The side effects I suffered— weight gain, moodiness, acne breakouts, irregular periods, constipation, dry skin —were life-altering and added to my anxiety and depression.
I was at the end of my rope when I began my pursuit for alternative solutions.
As my mother and I perused Barnes and Noble one afternoon in 2005, she picked up a book called Eat Fat, Lose Fat, by Mary Enig. That week I devoured more than three books teaching the wisdom of Dr. Weston A. Price. Price, a dentist in the 1920’s and 1930’s, found an increasing majority of his patients suffering with severe tooth decay and failing health. He embarked on a quest to discover the source and traveled the world studying indigenous people’s diets and overall health.
He found the majority of them healthy, with perfect straight white teeth. It seemed like there was a strong correlation between dental health and overall health.
Price began comparing diets and lifestyles of each group of indigenous peoples around the world. His findings concluded that consuming a traditional diet enabled indigenous people to maintain their health with little to no health intervention. Each group he studied followed varying traditional diets which all included these key nutrients: Vitamin D, Vitamin A and, what Price deemed the “X factor,” what we today called Vitamin K.
I dove into my studies of alternative nutrition and health at the Institute of Functional Medicine, as well as under the auspices Dr. Joseph Mercola, Bruce Lipton and Lee Cowden. In 2007, I began studying under Dietrich Klinghardt, a brilliant medical doctor. I then became an Autonomic Response Testing practitioner (ART) after my studies. ART is an advanced hands-on examination technique similar to Kinesiology. ART measures changes in the autonomic nervous system, allowing the practitioner to scan the body for specific infections, toxins, and other “invisible” problems.
Food Is Thy Medicine
I began by healing my gut. I employed an organic anti-inflammatory, low carbohydrate, high fat, and low sugar diet. My dietary guidelines were frequently changing as I navigated my own health. For some time, I consumed homemade bone broth multiple times per day. In order to follow my strict diet, I stopped eating food prepared anywhere other than my kitchen.
Foods I have consistently avoided are gluten, soy, corn, cane sugar, dairy, grains, nightshades, and rancid oils. There was a time when I increased protein and healthy fats, such as avocados and coconut oil. Then I followed up by experimenting with decreasing protein and fat intake. This allowed me to titre macro nutrients and find the optimal balance specific to healing for my body.
It seemed the food I needed to ingest changed along with my healing process. This allowed me to tune in and listen to my body. At one time, raw foods felt great. But then, just one year later, cooked foods agreed more with my system. The ketogenic diet was great until it wasn’t. Along the way, after incorporating new healing techniques, I was able to begin reintroducing foods that I’d avoided at other times. For periods, I consumed pastured organic animal products and other times I felt better on a vegetarian or vegan diet.
The biggest lesson I have learned is to open myself to new ideas and continue learning about new approaches to maintaining a healthy diet. Every human body is different. There is no one formula that works for everyone.
Today there is a plethora of substitutions and recipes online. I love getting creative, formulating substitutions. For instance, for sweeteners, I sometimes experiment with monk fruit and stevia. I used healthy ingredients to create delicious sweet treats that do not feed the bugs in my body. These homemade goodies help facilitate optimal health for myself and my daughters.
A New Me, A New Life
After a year and a half, I was able to heal myself, balance my hormones, replenish beneficial gut bacteria, improve my skin, stabilize my moods, detoxify heavy metal and toxins, and restore proper energy function and production in my cells. I take numerous supplements everyday, such as Vitamin D3, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K2, CoQ10, curcumin, various herbs, cistus tea, liposomal, chlorella, zeolite, and other minerals. I also rotate between different probiotics.
I’ve never received conclusive lab serum tests confirming Epstein Barr or any other bacteria, virus or parasite. This is not surprising, because parasites and bugs are very skilled at hiding. However, through energetic testing, multiple bugs were apparently present in my system, including candida, borrelia, mycoplasma and various viruses. At some point, I stopped caring about naming what was causing my symptoms because I was on a healing journey, and I kept getting better. It wasn’t a priority to name it anymore. I could feel I was on the road to recovery and that’s where I wanted to maintain my positive focus.
In addition to focusing on food, I have learned healing requires regard for epigenetics (the study of chemical reaction). Epigenetics include removing electromagnetic smog, smart meters, wifi, and toxins in your environment. It also includes systemic detoxification via daily chelation and earthing, as well as new evolving healing techniques like cryogenics and newly formulated supplements.
A Journey To Healing Starts With Wholesome And Clean Eating. Enjoy Our Organic Superfood Smoothie To Revitalize and Maintain Weight
Five Levels Of Healing
Healing ourselves necessitates more than simply looking at our physical body. Klinghardt established a pyramid structure of the five levels of healing.
The bottom or densest level is the physical body.
The 2nd level is the energy body or “body electric”. This level is related to Fritz-Albert Popp’s work on biophotons, light and electromagnetic fields in our cells, and more specifically, our mitochondria, redox signaling molecules, and electron transport.
Level 3 is the next higher body referred to as the “mental body” extending past the physical body. Beliefs, attitudes and thoughts are at this level. Every idea or thought that goes into this field and becomes part of an invisible library that can be accessed by anyone. Every emotion (2nd level) is preceded by a perception and a thought or chain of thoughts. Thoughts trigger emotions and other energy body changes, which in turn trigger change in the physical body.
According to Klinghardt:
“The 4th level is a level beyond the mind and beyond language. It is the home of near-death experiences, past-lives, archetypes, spirit possession, ecstatic states, karma, and the expression of unresolved trans-generational family issues.”
The 5th level is the plane of self-healing. I call this level the “spirit body”. The only relationship that exists here is the relationship between the individual and god. The fifth level is this part of God that reaches into us and wants to learn and experience the physical word through this individual with all his or her flaws, strengths, and idiosyncrasies. True healing requires simultaneous work on all 5 levels. There are descending influences (trauma to a higher level causes problems in the lower levels) and ascending influences (the reverse). Healing impulses created with a practitioner on a higher level can penetrate downwards, but not upwards. Vitamin C (level 1) cannot change a post traumatic stress disorder (level 3).
A healing intervention therefore must be either on the level where the illness was created or on one of the levels above. If the practitioner has no tools on the higher levels, he or she will not succeed with many clients. Each level can have blockages which prevent healing impulses from the higher levels to reach the physical world. Each phenomenon that we observe in the physical realm seems to also occur simultaneously on the other 4 levels. In fact, the physical body is designed like a computer screen that makes visible and tangible that which happens in the new spirit (the 5th level). However, you can have problems in the higher levels, which have not yet penetrated down to the lower levels.”
Spiritual healing is the highest. When we address the spiritual factors that contribute to our sickness, we are able to heal all the other levels of our self.
In conjunction with healing on a physical level, I have been on a journey of emotional reflection, incorporating self love, gratitude, willingness, sacred plant medicine journeys, trust, and opening to a higher power in the Universe. My studies of Kabbalah and Quantum Physics have contributed greatly to this journey.
Prior to beginning my healing process, I always felt lonely and unhappy, even though I was surrounded by friends, family, and lovers. Today I am elated to share that my health, happiness and life is truly the life of my dreams and it continues to get better every day.
Looking back on my life I can see and appreciate why I went through every trial, tribulation, illness, and physical and emotional pain (immense amounts of pain!). Physical symptoms that manifest in our bodies are a communication. We have the power to change our lives. I love sharing my story and hope to inspire others to create the life of their dreams.
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