Recently, I was chatting both in our Facebook group: Women with Mojo, and with some new clients, about chronic health issues. I asked, “What chronic health issues do you struggle with? What have you done to resolve them? How do you feel in relationship to your body?”
One woman, Tessa, struggled with chronic fatigue and back pain. She had tried one doctor after another. She believed her body had betrayed her and felt discouraged, alone, and broken.
I could relate.
After competing in the Olympics, I walked away with a chronic back injury. I tried everything, one specialist after another, from orthopedic surgeons and physical therapists to acupuncturists, healers and even emotional therapists. I firmly believed that if only I could find the right expert my back would be healed.
It wasn’t. Plus, I also wound up with chronic fatigue, digestive problems, eczema, and I was allergic to about 30 things. Each time my body came up with yet another symptom I would feel that sense of:
dread
betrayal
hopelessness
In response, I’d pull up my boot straps and double my efforts find the right expert to fix me.
It never worked. I felt crazy. Why did other people get better and I didn’t? It wasn’t fair! I felt alone, helpless, and broken.
Women who struggle with chronic symptoms, like Tessa and I, are usually:
Pleasant
Hardworking
Rarely disagree with others
Don’t show anger, or even relate to getting angry
What these women don’t know (and I didn’t know) is:
Your body isn’t the enemy, but is trying to communicate with you?
Your soul is desperate to get your attention?
You have all the resources to make peace with your body and heal your pain within you?
Okay, okay…I can hear you saying now, “But CrisMarie, I don’t understand my body’s language?!”
You’re right. If you’re:
measuring the pain on a daily basis
trying to get rid of the pain
looking for someone else or a magic pill to fix you.
You not only don’t understand the language, but you are jamming your body’s signals.
Start Listening to Your Soul
It’s time to stop jamming you body’s signals, and instead, turn towards them, and hear your soul’s guidance. Wanna know how? Great.
My personal prescription for dealing with chronic issues is simple, free, and you can do it right now.
Step One: Ground in Your Body
I bet you rarely slow down long enough to connect with your feet, your calves, your thighs, your bum, and feel the weight of your body on the earth. It sounds so simple, but slowing down to connect with your body is the first step.
Why? Because your body holds the key to your soul’s guidance. If you’re chronically overriding, ignoring, and treating your body like it is wrong, broken, or betraying you, you’re not connecting to what’s there to be felt.
Struggling doing this? No problem. I have a FREE Gift to help you connect to your body!
Step Two: Get Curious
Yep, stop measuring, judging, and feeling betrayed by your body and your symptoms.
Instead, treat your symptoms as something in you that’s upset, like you would another human being. Turn towards your symptoms with interested curiosity. Here are some questions you can ask the pain or symptom, and then listen for the answers:
How do you feel from your point of view?
What are you worried about?
What are you wanting?
As you do this, you’ll start to cultivate what I call your Larger Self. A place inside of you that’s compassionate, can see all, and can hold, and be with, the parts of you that are hurting, screaming, and longing for something.
If you ground and turn towards your symptoms with interested curiosity often enough, you’ll start to feel a softening in your relationship to your body. If you listen and honor what your body says it wants, you’ll start to hear deeper messages from your soul.
I’ve done this for six years consistently. As a result, my back is better, my chronic fatigue, skin, and gut issues are gone. Plus, currently, I’m only allergic to one thing. Now, don’t get me wrong, my body still speaks to me through symptoms at times. It just means I have to pay more attention to my body relationship.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s another expert (I bet you like that!)
Dr. John E. Sarno, The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain. As a medical doctor treating back pain, he realized it didn’t matter what he did until the patient was willing to feel their feelings.
Hugs,
CrisMarie
P.S. Want some help ? Why not sign up for a three month Impactful Coaching Package? I have three spots available. I’m about to update my coaching packages. So now’s a great time to get started.
P.P.S Want to get in on some juicy conversations about body, relationships, and making your dreams come true? Join our FREE Women With Mojo Facebook Group.
CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke
Coaches, Business Consultants, Speakers and Authors of The Beauty of Conflict
CrisMarie and Susan work leaders and teams, couples in business, and professional women.
They help turnaround dysfunctional teams into high performing, cohesive teams who trust each other, deal with differences directly, and have clarity and alignment on their business strategy so they create great results.
Check out their website: www.thriveinc.com. Connect with CrisMarie and Susan on LinkedIn. Watch their TEDx Talk: Conflict – Use It, Don’t Defuse It! Find your copy of The Beauty of Conflict: Harnessing Your Team's Competitive Advantage here.