I was recently invited to be a guest on a podcast entitled

“Healing Vibrations – Changing the perspective of illness – To see it as a gift!”

and it got me thinking about how we are conditioned to view illness as something to be battled against.  We take medication to suppress our symptoms and struggle on regardless in the hope that, if we ignore them, they will go away.  And, of course, they often don’t.

What if we changed our perspective?  What if we viewed our bodies with compassion?  What if we realised that our bodies are on our side and are desperately trying to let us know that something about our lifestyle (work, diet, relationships etc.) isn’t ok and is stressing us out to the point where something needs to change (often our attitude!) … would that make the symptoms easier to deal with? 

When I was sick, I felt scared and powerless because I didn’t know what was going on and neither did my doctors.  I suffered from stomach pains and was convinced I was seriously ill, but was told that there was nothing wrong.  I was “At My Wit’s End” and realised that the only person who could help me … was me. 

Forty years ago, my doctor in Germany, where I was living at the time, told me that I was stupid to think that anger, frustration and stress could cause stomach pains.  There was no connection.  But I knew they did.  So, I started searching.

As I did more research, I was introduced to the idea of unexpressed and unresolved emotions being the cause of physical symptoms.  That blew my mind!  But since studying Chinese Medicine (3,000 years’ worth of wisdom!) and the effects of Flower Remedies, I now believe that our emotions are the basis of many illnesses.  By not expressing our emotions in a healthy fashion, we become walking pressure cookers, which eventually explode.

Armed with this information, I no longer felt the need to hand all my power and decision making about my health over to my doctor, but realised that I only get one body per lifetime and so had better try harder to make our relationship a harmonious one.

It’s not an easy journey and it doesn’t all happen overnight but my body and I have now agreed a truce.  It lets me know when stuff is going on around us which doesn’t suit us and the moment my stomach twinges, I now stop dead in my tracks and listen, asking myself, “What just happened? Did someone say something or do something unacceptable?  Did I have a worrying thought that I don’t know how to deal with?  Am I having mental arguments which I’m not able to resolve in my head? etc. etc.  And then I wait quietly and listen.  My body’s wisdom, or my intuition, let’s me know what the problem is, usually with a thought that enters my mind.  Once my body has communicated the issue to me and knows that it has been heard, it stops needing to get my attention and so stops causing the pain.

I’m learning to be grateful for these twinges, accepting that my body and I have the same intention … to be healthy and to live life feeling well for as long as possible. 

That is the gift I have seen in illness.  What might your symptoms be trying to tell you and how is your body communicating them to you?  Might reframing your thoughts and looking for the gift in your symptoms be the start of your empowered healing journey?

Let’s get you back to Living Life Feeling Well.

This article forms part of the series (At My) Wit’s End Wisdom.