Are you looking for illness?

Are you looking for joy and health? Or are you looking for illness?

This week is always a bit of a funny week. Christmas is over, but work for many of us is still fairly suspended. It leaves a lot of us with downtime, or stillness. I used to hate stillness, and much preferred to be busy. But now, I crave this kind of time. It is time for me to check in with myself, and my body. And really hear the answers. 

Am I taking care of myself? Am I gripping too tightly to outcome and trying to control? Is my body burying any emotions, and are they coming out as symptoms? And mostly, given all that I do to support my health, what is the energy behind the testing, and the biohacking and the choices I’m making? 

Let me share a bit more about what I mean by this, because this is the single most important impact I find in my patients. 

When I am making choices to eat a “healthy diet”, or when I lift weights, or when I incorporate my bedtime routine… is this in an effort to control outcomes and to perfect my body? Or is this to serve my body,  because I know it will bring me the most vibrance, health and joy? When I monitor my sleep, activity and blood sugar with wearables, or when I get my bloodwork done, am I looking for illness and trying to find what is wrong? Or am I looking for health, and finding how to best support my body’s physiology to find its ideal balance? 

What I am getting at, is that the mindset we have is constantly sending our body signals. If we believe we are safe and healthy, and if we make decisions and take actions from this space, we send our body signals of safety. Chemicals are released that tell our body it’s okay to relax, to digest, to love, to find joy, and to truly rest. 

But, if we believe something is wrong, and we are running test after test, or constantly trying to control what is going on in our bodies…. Well, then we send our bodies signals that we are very much not safe. Cortisol and adrenaline rise, HRV plummets, blood sugar is erratic, etc, etc, etc. Long term? Well, if you go through your day-to-day life, for months or years of this type of survival mode, this wreaks havoc on your health. 

Now don’t get me wrong… sometimes fight or flight is truly necessary. Sometimes, something really is wrong, and you need to fight like hell. But in my experience, more often than not when patients come to me, that period of true survival is over. And their bodies haven’t quite come to trust in that safety yet. So our systems become hypervigilant, in a super intelligent effort to protect. 

So how do you know what kind of energy you are bringing to these choices? And how do you know when it is time to fight, and when it is time to let go a little bit and just live?  Well, it comes down to discernment, and trusting that intuition in your body again. I learned this lesson the hard way during my years of Lupus, and again during our infertility journey these last couple of years. It is always when I let go of control that the most beautiful outcomes happen. Life is always here to remind of us of our greatest lessons, and in my experience they will keep showing up until we learn them. 

This is one of my very favorite topics, because it is the missing link for most of my patients with chronic symptoms. Which is why a healing mindset is the first lever we dive into in Autoimmune Academy. You’ll learn all about how to recognize this in yourself, and daily actions that can help you shift back into a mindset of healing and vibrance. But it starts with a simple gut check… Are you able to shut it off and truly relax? Are you making your choices in an effort to control? Are you looking for health or are you looking for illness?   

I hope you take a few moments this week to truly let your body rest and heal. And I hope you make a couple of decisions out of real joy for yourself… whether that’s a trip to the gym or that piece of pie. You deserve it. 

As always, thanks for listening. 

Doctor Erin