Could 14 minutes help you heal your chronic disease?
I like to start (and/or finish) the day with uplifting stories. Often, depending on how early it is and how I’m feeling, I might do 2 or 3.
This morning, I stopped after 1.
It was all I needed.
Then I put on my shoes, got Pepper, and listened to it again. Then again.
For some reason, so many elements, maybe ALL of the elements of Sarah’s story resonated with me. When I want to do a “deep dive” into something, I like to write about it. Below is my recap or notes or even analysis of her story. If anything, writing this out will help me take it in on a deeper level. I hope it does the same for you.
Here’s my weekly video where I introduce Sarah’s video. In the video, I say I’m going to go analyze the video, which is what you’ll find below.
0:18 You will get sicker before you get better.
She also says, “I was told at the time ‘You will get sicker before you get better.'”
0:35 Today, I no longer identify with diagnosis.
0:41 At some point along the way, I had to shed diagnoses to heal as well.
Wow. I’m just going to repeat that part as it’s so good: “At some point along the way, I had to shed diagnoses to heal as well.” She had to shed what other people were saying, how they were labeling her, in order to heal.
0:48 Some of the diagnoses include …
How’s this for a list? She needed to think back to remember the big list.
- Lyme disease
- Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
- Autoimmune disease
- Mono
- Chronic Epstein Barr
- Insomnia
- Chronic fatigue system
- Fibromyalgia
- IBS with colonic spasms
- Eczema
- Chronic conjunctivitis
- Anxiety
Whew!
1:08 The thing that saved my life
“A belief I had, from the moment I was diagnosed, I believed, for whatever reason that I was going to heal. I didn’t know when, I didn’t know how, but I knew someday and somehow I was going to heal. Even as I got sicker, even as more diagnoses got added to the list, I never once, and it’s kind of unbelievable, I have no singular memory of ever really trying on for size the idea that I wouldn’t heal. It wasn’t that I was so stubborn or proud, it just didn’t feel right. It felt right that I would heal.”
Did you catch that part where she begins with “a belief I had” and in there also says, “it’s kind of unbelievable.” There is so much right here.
- She had a belief.
- Others might think it was unbelievable.
- It felt right (that I would heal).
Let’s do a quick vote. Which matters more:
- What you truly believe?
- What others are telling you (what they believe)?
This is so good. 😉
1:53 The truth was …
“After all this time, I was no better. I was much much worst. This was the true dark night of the soul.”
2:04 “I was incredibly lost, I didn’t know where to go.“
2:11 “Some piece inside of me was called to a fast.”
Yay! I love fasting. I was so thrilled she mentioned this!
3:10 “I asked myself the question again, ‘Am I helping? Or am I killing myself.” “I heard myself shouting, ‘I don’t know.'”
She doesn’t know. Her mind, brain, thinking doesn’t know what to do.
Ready for one of the best parts of the whole 14 minutes?
3:38 “You cannot think your way out of the dark. You can only feel your way out.”
Wow. This is key.
4:00 “From that moment on, I let my heart lead the way out of illness.”
“Now I got that second piece of the puzzle. A clear intention, I’m going to heal, with an elevated emotion, my heart is going to lead the way.”
- A clear intention: I’m going to heal.
- With an elevated emotion: My heart is going to lead the way.
Could it be as simple as these two things?
- A clear intention.
- With an elevated emotion.
“That path lead me exactly to where I needed to go. Getting the right information at the right time. Things feeling serendipitous.”
4:56 “I don’t even know what I want it [my immune system] to do.”
“Do I want it to rev up and fight this bad germ and go get ’em like you got this? Or to calm down, there’s nothing to fight here, you’re safe.”
5:16 “I don’t even need a diagnosis to heal. I can get bigger than the diagnosis. My body doesn’t speak in the language of diagnoses anyway.”
“All I have to do is heal what’s going on and I need no labels to do that.”
5:40 “This heart is going to lead the way out.”
Not the brain, the mind, or the thinking. The heart is going to lead the way out.
6:48 “An artefact from the past with a map to the future.”
Who is this poet? Is she reading from a teleprompter? Her story is so good, in such flow, and she’s a master storyteller.
” … could feel my past self writing this for me.”
7:04 “I have known this all along.”
Are our answers within us? When do they appear? Is it possibly that they have been in us all along? Since birth? Or do they enter into ourselves at some point, unnoticed, and it’s up to us to uncover, to discover what they are?
Is this fun or what?
7:20 “I am not leaving here until I can be different walking out than when I walked in.”
7:42 “I can’t tell you what happened for sure in the forest but I can tell you that I walked out different than I walked in.”
“When I got out, big things started to happen now. Now that little tiny spark of healing was bigger and some of the big symptoms came off like the fatigue.”
8:27 “Now I had all the motivation to keep going. This was a matter of time, I was on the path.”
Now she can’t turn back, wouldn’t turn back, no reason to turn back.
It’s no longer a question of “if” but “when.” Although, in her case, it seems there was never a question of if.
8:42 “I fell in love with the experience. I really loved this process.”
If her experience in the forest was the marathon, her daily practice is the “experience” and now she’s in love with the process, with the daily work, with the getting there, the journey.
This is the goal. The habit is the goal. The ritual is the reason.
10:28 “Oh, but I’ve already healed.”
Sarah is meeting others (at the retreat) who are helping her even further.
10:34 “Because the love you give gives you back.”
“I gave her mine and she gave me hers.”
