Embracing The Wisdom of Your Body for Holistic Healing
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Our bodies have a specific order of healing based on prioritizing survival, so healing doesn't always happen in the way we expect it to! Read on to find out more information about the different steps the body takes to heal and some practical tips to support your healing.
Table Of Contents
UNDERSTANDING THE ORDER OF HEALING
PRACTICAL TIPS TO SUPPORT HEALING
CONCLUSION
This particular episode was inspired by one of my amazing Relief and Transformation Recovering from Long COVID and ME/CFS students. She's had ME/CFS for 25-plus years and has endured a lot of pain that whole time. That's in addition to all of the crazy things that come along with ME/CFS, like the bone-crushing fatigue, the brain fog, the post-exertional malaise, and some other things that she specifically experiences.
She's seen wonderful shifts in her pain and inflammation levels in the Relief & Transformation course so far and also in her emotional health as well.
In fact, everybody in the course has commented about how she's now smiling and laughing when she never had in classes before. Overall, she's feeling better.
But her energy levels and her overall activity levels have gone down considerably. What the heck? Is she getting better or is she getting worse? She's feeling better overall, but energy and activity just haven't been there. Let's get into it.
Understanding the Order of Healing: Optimal Blueprint
Our bodies are marvelously intelligent. They possess this innate wisdom that knows precisely how to heal itself. I call it our ‘Optimal Blueprint’ that we're just born with. And this is from the tiniest scrape to chronic conditions like long COVID, like ME/CFS. The big question is, "what is this order of healing?" And how can we understand it so we can recognize when the healing is happening and know that we are actually moving in the right direction? Let's take a closer look.
Recognition Phase
The first phase of this healing process in the body is recognition. This is when our body identifies an injury or an imbalance, invaders or pathogens. Then, that triggers a series of chemical messengers that signal the immune system to take action. It's calling up arms, really, to protect.
Inflammation Phase and Hidden Infections
Then we have the inflammation dance, and even though it might sound counterintuitive, inflammation, when it is occurring the way that it should be occurring, is a natural response that actually helps our body to clean up and prepare where it's going to be healing. It's like inflammation is the cleanup crew that paves the way for the next stage. Now, the thing is that in chronic illnesses like Long Covid, ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, Lyme, MS, etc., the body gets stuck in the recognition phase. Remember, the recognition phase is the immune system trying to locate and fight off the root cause of the illness, which is, by the way, hidden infections. I'm going to be talking about that in just a bit here.
The body also gets stuck in the inflammation phase. That's because it's constantly trying to heal the havoc that the hidden infections are wreaking on the body. It's also stuck in the inflammation phase because the hidden infections are continuing to proliferate.
Role of Hidden Infections
What I've found over years and years of coaching and teaching my Relief and Transformation: Recovering From Long COVID and ME/CFS online course is that the root cause of all these chronic illnesses is a combination of parasites, fungus, candida, and other pathogens like Lyme, mold, and other things. The thing is that these are hidden infections. There here are tests for these hidden infections, but they are inaccurate so often. I can't even tell you how many times I've had a new student say, “Hey, I've had all the stool tests, and the parasite tests, and the Lyme tests, and all the tests" and they've all come back negative, and I don't think I have any parasites or anything else.
After a week or two of being on the Relief and Transformation Eating Plan, or starting actual treatment, some students will send me an email saying, “Oh my gosh, I just passed a worm." Or lots of worms, even.
Not only are there not great tests to see if you have these issues, but the symptoms are all over the place from person to person and from body system to body system. It is really difficult to put this into the whole picture and to be able to see it clearly unless you are looking at it from this point of view of the hidden infections.
Treating Hidden Infections
If a person comes to me with chronic issues, then I immediately assume that there are gonna be these pathogens involved. I have not been wrong yet. Basically, in order for the body to start to heal and to get out of this constant cycle of being stuck in the recognition and inflammation phases, we have to actually get rid of the parasites and the fungus, and the other pathogens. This brings down the number of bad microbes. Then we start to bring up the number of good microbes so that the body can regain its balance.
Challenges of Treating Hidden Infections
Killing off those pathogens is quite a lot for the body, especially if it's already compromised. While you're treating the pathogens, a lot of energy goes into killing the pathogens and dealing with the toxins that they release as well, because those need to be flushed out of the body. Quite a lot of toxins get released as you're treating. Because of this, a lot of people feel even more tired while they are treating for parasites, fungus, and other microbes. It certainly happened for me and it happens for most of my students as well.
Rebuilding and Regeneration
Now the good news is that as the scales begin to tip and you have fewer of the bad microbes and more of the good microbes and fewer toxins in the body, the body is able to start to move into the next phase of healing. This is where our body starts rebuilding and regenerating the damaged tissues.
Now, just a caveat here: This is not a linear process.
You're not in either immune or inflammation or healing the tissues. Sometimes you're in several at once, and sometimes you move back a step. Meaning, sometimes the body moves back to a previous phase. As you probably know and have experienced, this healing process is not linear. It has dips, it has peaks and valleys, but overall the trajectory is up when you deal with the underlying causes of parasites, fungus, and other pathogens.
So once that balance has shifted and the bad microbes are not as prolific and the good microbes start to inch up again, the body starts to focus on rebuilding and healing the damage that has been caused by the pathogens and by the toxins that they have released.
And guess what? The process of healing the tissues, meaning organs, cells, etc., that takes a lot of energy too. You might still feel worn out during this part of the healing process.
The reason that it happens in this order is because of that bodily wisdom - that inherent blueprint. The body is attending to your survival first and foremost. That's why the immune system kicks in first and then the inflammation is like that medical crew that takes care of getting things ready for the healing stage, which is necessary before the body can focus on creating more energy.
Practical Tips to Support Healing:
Meditation
Let's talk now about some practical tips to support your body's wisdom. The first one is what I call "Beditations". I always start off all my students and clients with this very easy win. These "Beditations" are a twice daily practice of lying down in a dark room with no interruptions for 30 minutes or more with your eyes closed, practicing radical rest. This means you're not listening to podcasts, you're not looking at your phone, you're not scrolling through social media. You can certainly do something like yoga nidra or a guided meditation or listen to soothing music. Or you can just take a nap if that works for you. What I find is that this simple practice of doing these twice a day for 30 minutes or more makes a huge difference for a ton of people.
They find that this simple practice increases their overall energy envelope
for the day and sometimes for the week, which is very helpful as we all know.
Nutrition
The next thing that we do in the Relief and Transformation Course is the Eating Plan. This means providing your body with the best nutrients that it can get for the healing process, and at the same time not feeding the pathogens as much as possible. The pathogens consume sugar. Any type of carbohydrate that you put in your body is going to feed them. Not only that, but if you eat too much protein in one sitting, then that will actually turn into sugar in the body and feed the pathogens as well. The Relief and Transformation eating plan includes eating s a lot of healthy fat, a lot of healthy animal protein and low carb veggies.
Rest and Sleep
You might need to sleep for 10 hours a day or more, and that's okay because that is when your body is healing.
Then, of course, rest and sleep. This is allowing your body so much good time to rest and recover. I find that especially if you're in phase one or two of Healing (see the PHASES OF HEALING QUIZ), you might need to sleep for 10 hours a day or more, and that's okay because that is when your body is healing. You do want to make sure that you are able to regulate your sleep. If you're not able to, I do have a couple of resources for you in that area that might be able to help you out.
Good Feeling Words Meditation | For Sleep | For Active Meditation
RESTORATIVE YOGA FOR EXTREME FATIGUE with Rachel Talan (Sleepy Santosha)
Long Covid and ME/CFS Sleep Issues
Filtered Water
Of course, as we all know, you want to drink a lot of good quality water. You want to make sure that this is filtered water. You might think about adding some deep ocean mineral drops to the water and taking extra electrolytes to keep them balanced in your body.
Minimize Stress
Stress can disrupt the body's natural healing process. It can also encourage the bad microbes and discourage the good microbes. Incorporate relaxation techniques like meditation or very simple yoga - one pose every 30 minutes, for example, depending on which phase of healing you are in. Sitting outside in nature is a simple way to reduce stress.
Have a Routine
Another thing that's helpful is to have a structure for yourself. What that means is waking up at the same time each day and knowing exactly what the first two or three things that you're going to be doing right after you wake up are, and doing those. Get morning sun. Go to sleep at the same time each day. This structure for yourself helps to lower stress levels when you're dealing with all of these unknowns in your body and in the world around you.
Conclusion
Our bodies know what to do. By understanding that premise and knowing a little bit more about the process that's happening for our bodies when we're healing, we can support that natural healing process and move through it with these chronic illnesses with more ease and understanding. Remember that we're not just passive spectators on our healing journey. Nobody's going to do it for us. You are in charge of your own health and wellness. There are people out there who can help you.
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