What is wellness? How do you know you have achieved wellness? Is it the same for everyone? Can I go from feeling crappy to happy? Can I stop the cycle of feeling sick and tired all the time? Does my medical history have to be my fate?
Wellness is a state of wellbeing and good health. Wellness is achieved progressively as we develop our own supportive routine and lifestyle. Wellness includes a variety of activities, choices, and lifestyle shifts throughout our life span. We can each experience our own unique wellness regardless of life’s challenges and obstacles. Your medical history doesn’t have to be your fate.
Conventional medicine is amazing for life-saving approaches but it is lacking insight in health promotion and prevention.
It took me 7 years to find my Wellness because I lacked an understanding of the importance of tackling life’s challenges with a synergistic approach. My journey was difficult and traitorous because when my health crisis happened I was stuck in the scientific and conventional world of medicine. Conventional medicine is amazing for life-saving approaches but it is lacking insight in health promotion and prevention. Prescriptions are designed to cover up one problem and new symptoms emerge. Going outside the box of conventional medicine is the way to truly tackle to root of your illness, disease, and symptoms to heal the body. It took me years of suffering through meltdowns, rock bottom moments, and illness because I was unaware of the importance of tackling the emotional and physical root of illness and disease simultaneously. The gift I learned in the process is that the journey doesn’t have to be so difficult or torturous. You deserve to find your unique wellness. Everyone deserves to feel better.
I realized prescriptions, surgeries, injections, and physical therapy were not my answer. I was in search of a true solution and desperate to feel healthy and free inside my body.
My name is Diane and I have a genetic condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome type III (EDS III). This condition impacts the entire body requiring many prescriptions, treatments, and surgeries to deal with the overwhelming symptoms. I went to see a geneticist because I knew as a nurse that something wasn’t right. It wasn’t normal for a 35-year-old to be taking more than 13 prescriptions and spend most of her life in doctor’s offices. By the time I was diagnosed I had more than 6 surgeries and more to come. I also spent months in physical therapy for frequent injuries. The health issues caused me to spend my life at neurologist, allergists, endocrinologists, gynecologist, pain clinics, rheumatologists and gastroenterologist’s offices to deal with the expanse list of symptoms. Trust me that is not a happy or healthy way to live. But after suffering for so long, I realized prescriptions, surgeries, injections, and physical therapy were not my answer. I was in search of a true solution and desperate to feel healthy and free inside my body. I had felt trapped and helpless for so long that I was desperate for a solution. And I chose my health and myself for the first time in my life.
I began my journey outside the box of conventional medicine to truly tackle my illness once and for all. In the beginning, I had tunnel vision that blinded me of the full picture. I started with nutrition, fitness, and supplementation to heal and repair the severe damage my body had undergone since childhood. By the age of 35, I was taking 13 prescriptions, and injections for pain were a monthly must. I was diagnosed with EDS III after several years of focusing on nutrition, fitness, and supplementation. I went to the genetics simply to prove that my hypothesis was correct and the doctors that had treated me were clueless. My hypothesis was “Nutrient malabsorption, poor diet, lack of exercise, and genetics was causing my expanse list of symptoms.” My visit to genetics was proof for me that I was on the right track. When I was diagnoses I was already 60% better but there was a missing element I hadn’t realized yet. Nonetheless, the geneticist and my specialists were all astonished at the transformation I had already achieved. I was on only two prescriptions (as needed), the pain was under control without prescriptions and I was living a healthier lifestyle.
Nutrition, fitness, and supplementation worked on the physical root of my illness and disease.
This is the physical stress we experience when life stress and diet create inflammation, toxins, and damage in the body. I had that under control with supplementation, nutrition, and fitness but injuries, pain flare-ups, and irritable bowel symptoms still occurred frequently. My worst symptoms to control were indigestion, heartburn, bloating, fatigue, and chronic pain. My digestive flare-ups would trigger the muscle pain and fatigue to return. And my gastroenterologist decided a psychiatrist was the answer to calm my anxiety and reduce stress with a prescription. I started on Celexa to help control my symptoms and finally had to face the fact that my symptoms had an emotional component. I didn’t want to accept that my emotions were triggering my symptoms but after they diminished the truth was clear. The quest then became to tackle that emotional pain without a prescription and truly overcome my symptoms. I did not want to be on anti-anxiety medications my whole life.
It was a difficult journey but worth the fight because I knew I wasn’t alone in this struggle. I am not the only person that is sick and tired of being sick and tired all the time.
I am not the only one who is sick of all the prescriptions that wreak havoc on the body and cause more problems than good. I am not the only person that feels trapped inside their body. I am not the only person that wants to find a solution to all their symptoms.
Fast forward to 2018, the missing element, emotional pain, would prove to be my most difficult obstacle to face and overcome. I realized that there was an emotional root to my symptoms that stemmed from my childhood. By this time, I was trying to overcome a new fear and my physical symptoms were back with a vengeance. My fear of being seen and being heard. I desperately wanted to share my story and create videos on social media but my emotions kept getting in my way. I underwent hypnosis to tackle the subconscious blocks and self-limiting beliefs from my childhood. And suddenly, the symptoms were less frequent and I was making great progress with my fears.
The simple truth is that we all have a negative voice inside our heads.
We all have experienced negative thoughts, self-limiting beliefs, and emotional pain. This occurs due to unprocessed emotions from our childhood. We experience events, circumstances, and situations in our childhood that are difficult for us to understand and process because we were never taught ways to process and release our emotions. This vicious pattern continues throughout our lives as we re-experience these emotions and feelings. The simple truth is that we all have a negative voice inside our heads. And these little negative character controls are actions and reactions to everything we perceive in our lives. I call these negative voices, Negative Nancy, and Negative norm. My Negative Nancy was a dominant voice in my head that controlled all my actions in life causing me to feel frozen and stuck. She was holding me back from my dreams and hypnosis helped me realize that I could regain control of my subconscious mind.
The simple truth to share with you now is that your physical and emotional symptoms are connected. You may be skeptical as I was in the beginning but it a very powerful truth. To achieve your own unique wellness there needs to be a shift in the physical and emotional realms to truly create a lasting effect. And once that is introduced into your lifestyle, you can absolutely go from feeling crappy to happy. You can prove to yourself and others that your medical history doesn’t have to be your fate. It will end the cycle of feeling sick and tired all the time. It will help you thrive and create the life you dream. So the question is… Do you want to Thrive? Do you want to find Your Unique Wellness?
I was drawn to your article because I am a true believer in the fact that we are responsible for our health and well being. I applaud you for being determined to find your way back from an inordinate number of prescription medications. Even those who are sick with chronic or life-threatening illness and can’t cure themselves, at least need to advocate for their care and not allow lack of medical attention deter their progress or diminish their health more rapidly then necessary. In college my research paper for on my classes was devoted to psychosomatic illnesses so I know how critical it is to own your condition and consider physical, mental, and emotional impacts on your health. Congratulations on your good health.
I love the comment. Thank you. Very interesting that you studied psychosomatic illness. As a nurse it took me so long to get out of the conventional realm and realize emotional wellness is essential to heal the body. I hope to inspire more people to advocate for their health and go outside of the conventional medicine bubble for true healing. Thanks again for the kind words. Keep advocating for your own health and wellness.
Perhaps talking about psychophysical well-being is simpler and more accessible than a discourse on ‘happiness’ and, inevitably, the meaning of life. Feeling good is a human, intimate, profound need, at times complex and articulated as it relates to very personal aspects that are not always easy to read and understand. But we cannot do without it, we cannot escape from this yearning for well-being. And it is, in fact, a good thing that it is so, that there is a sort of continuous call to something that only apparently seems to elude us.
Aldo thank you for the comment. Well-being is definitely a complex and unique topic for everyone. And the huge link between physical and emotional health is a tricky process to balance. It is a uniquely powerful experience as we tackle the root of our trauma to unveil our ultimate potential. And this process unveils well-being in ways we never dreamt were possible. Well-being is constantly evolving as we age and develop deeper connections with ourselves.
Thank you so much for sharing your courageous story, Diane. I 100 percent know that we are heart, mind, body, and soul -to have wellness -a holistic approach tends to work beautifully. We now know from ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) research that traumas during childhood are linked to physical ailments in adulthood. We also know that emotional health is linked to physical health. Yes, indeed! What a powerful message here as we learn more about our whole selves and wellness in all domains. What an important message to share with many people. I cannot even begin to imagine what you endured and I celebrate the fact that you’ve found wellness for you, that you found your way to thrive!! Yey!!!
Laura thank you for the beautiful comment. Childhood trauma is definitely linked to adult ailments and many times hidden deeply in the subconscious mind. So many people are unaware of this trauma because seemingly minor events in our childhood impact our emotional health deeply but hide in the depths of our minds. And these emotional stressors continue to impact us our entire lives impacting our physical well-being. And those that have experience significant trauma are impacted in exponential ways in their lives. There is a uniquely special gift for those with minor or major trauma in tackling that subconscious mind to unravel and reprogram those self-limiting beliefs, negative thoughts and stressful patters at their root.