I am going to make a bold statement. As far as overall health and wellness (mind-body-soul), I consider myself in the top one per cent, and most people who know me would put me in their top three healthiest people they know. And when I do get “sick”, I generally recover very quickly and with no medication.
But it hasn’t always been this way, and it took years of trusting my intuition, exploring outside the box of conventional thinking AND experimentation to get where I’m at today.
And given every single person on this planet is faced with an internal crisis regarding health – now is the perfect time to address intuition.
Every single person who has recovered from an “incurable” dis-ease will tell you it was a mostly a result of a spiritual transformation – often forced by an inner journey that embraced a holistic approach when conventional medicine did not work.
As I talk about in UnSpiritually Spiritual – Getting Real about the Great Awakening, one of the biggest cultural distortions is handing our power to a perceived external authority – and one of the biggest life areas we do this with is our health – especially when it comes to Doctors!
I personally know and have worked with some wonderful doctors over the years via my time as an exercise physiologist who embrace my way of thinking (they were usually out-of-the-box thinkers themselves) – and I love them because we have a healthy appreciation (and debate!) for each others ideas. But there have been times, especially before I became an exercise physiologist in my mid-20’s, where I was often judged and spoken down to when I shared alternative ideas in an appointment.
Nevertheless, I would like to share one such story of following your intuition from Shannon Dunn – Journalist, Eco Beauty & Holistic Wellness Guide, who went through her own journey, Healing Prolapse. Please note that her story applies to any health condition – which at the end of the day, comes from finding the power within to follow your intuition and being willing to think outside the box and embrace EXPERIMENTATION!
Below is an excerpt sharing an overview of where my “wellness journey” began, that will appear in one of Shannon’s up-and-coming books:
I believe you can heal from anything if you are willing to explore, dig deep and experiment. During my early 20’s I was diagnosed with glandular fever and practically spent 6 months in bed. Not great for someone who loved exercise and was a high-performance athlete at that time. I could barely walk to the car without wanting to take a half-day nap.
The doctor prescribed me anti-depressants, which I didn’t take. It wasn’t the first time I had been prescribed anti-depressants. Around 15 or 16, I also had fatigue issues during high school, and the doctor told me I had depression. I didn’t feel depressed, I was actually quite upbeat and optimistic, but I did spend most of my spare time on weekends sleeping. Even then, I didn’t take the anti-depressants. It just didn’t feel right.
To be honest, the first three months following my glandular fever diagnosis, I did enjoy the sleep time. The relief of knowing why I was so lethargic for the months prior acted as permission for me to just rest. I only got out of bed to attend uni classes and go to my casual job.
But I also knew I couldn’t sleep all my spare time away, as much as I enjoyed the comfort of my snuggly bed and retreating from the rest of the world!
I was fortunate that my best friend at the time was studying natural medicine and recommended a naturopath. This lady was amazing. She was also an accredited chiropractor and reiki practitioner. Within weeks, I was bouncing out of bed and had commenced light training again.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. I still got tired quickly, and it took many years before I got back to the level of fitness and performance I was before the diagnosis.
However, I had always been philosophical at heart. I had an innate appreciation of factors not necessarily “obvious” contributing to health conditions, which I began to explore.
About three months before the glandular fever diagnosis, I had commenced a romantic relationship. It ended up being one of the most toxic and soul-destroying relationship experiences I have had.
He was very charismatic and, in the eyes of society, a great catch. He was a handsome ex-private schoolboy who was the dux of his class and captain of the sports team. However, behind the scenes, he was very controlling who see-sawed between love bombing and gaslighting.
I ended that relationship after only three months, not long before I was diagnosed with glandular fever, but after a compelling plea for a second chance, “Maybe I’m overreacting”, I kept telling myself, I agreed to recommence our relationship.
After a tumultuous 18 months, I eventually broke it off. Even though I had been doing much better physically right up until the break-up (thanks to the naturopathic herbs, dietary changes, etc.), it wasn’t until the relationship ended until I felt the full extent of my vitality return.
It made me realise that there’s more to health than just what you do with your physical body because I was already very healthy before my diagnosis. I knew it had to do with “me” because I was also investing a lot of energy in meeting the expectations of others and maintaining the status quo.
This relationship experience forced me to examine my people pleaser persona, poor boundaries, and my constant second-guessing of myself. My “knowingness” kept saying one thing, despite what was being presented by my ex and other people who seemed to enjoy taking advantage of my over-giving nature.
As a person who did not like confrontation, it took a lot of courage to step out of my comfort zone for the following years to manage cloudy boundaries and uneven relationship dynamics. But I also didn’t want to spend the rest of my life “managing” fatigue.
It was disconcerting in the beginning as many people left my life. Still, I had many new amazing people enter, with whom I shared mutually respectful boundaries. I became a lot more fulfilled in my relationships and had a lot more vitality.
And this “revolving door” of experiences and relationships has continued ever since, as I continued to grow and choose new ways to experience myself. And this extends to my exploration of my health as ailments came and went.
I have come to learn that our body responds best when we listen and act on intuitive guidance, no matter how strange it sounds to others. For example, I’ve had skin conditions resolve overnight (that typically take weeks) simply by having candid conversations with certain people.
And I am also open to trying new things or tweaking ideas from experts so it works for me – after all, you never know until you actually try it!