Online Recovery Programme Session 27

Therefore, the healing process is going to take time, as well as changing those beliefs and habits, but it can be quicker than you think, it's all about awareness!!

What we want you to see this week is how the 8 Elements of Freedom are all linked together and they all affect how you feel. And that awareness plays a key role!

When we are not aware of something, we don’t have a choice in what we can do about it, however when we become aware, we then have the FREEDOM to choose how to respond!

Firstly remember to celebrate just how far you have come. You are an inspiration to those around you and sticking to the programme shows your commitment to yourself and regaining your health.

Our Thoughts and Emotions

Skipping Sessions Can Mean We Have Resistance

So you may have skipped though some of the previous sessions as you felt like you had already dealt with that subject. Or that it wasn’t that relevant to you. Sometimes that might be true.

But sometimes, and more often than not, it is our resistance and it’s on autopilot, making decisions for us. When we are actually resisting the exact thing that we really need to tackle to make the biggest shift towards recovery!!

So becoming aware of that is the first step.

Before we get into the 8 Elements, we are going to take a look at our thoughts and emotions, as they play a huge part of what affects and triggers many of the physical symptoms.

The recovery interview this week is with Anna Hemmings. Anna was 6 times ‘World Kayak Champion’ and after recovering from CFS went on to compete in the Olympics.

Anna is an inspiration to many, and you will hear from her story that the triggers and causes of her condition were emotional, and once she found the right way to deal with these and make some changes, her symptoms disappeared.

Being in our head a lot of the time can mean that we are overthinking and worrying. This plays a big role in triggering many of the symptoms, as is being aware of what is going on in our head and intercepting it rather than allowing it to keep playing over and over again, like a cd on repeat!

Keeping a Journal

We recommended in the beginning that you keep a journal and this will help you become aware of some of your repetitive thoughts and triggers. (If you haven’t kept it up, it's ok, just get it back out and start journaling again)

For example: Maybe when you have conversations with a certain person, you might be feeling ok, but afterwards you start going downhill and not feeling too good. Some symptoms start reappearing: this is your body giving you a message.

Sometimes it’s not always so easy to pinpoint, especially if our minds are overactive and thinking of too many things. That’s why journaling or writing down what’s going on in your head and detailing your activities is a great way for you to see your patterns. Then you will be in a position to make a choice about how to deal with that situation and make the necessary changes.

If many of your thoughts are about fear to do with your illness, it is common that when you start increasing your activity for instance, you worry about symptoms coming back.

So what can you do?

You will hear in Anna’s story how when she was on her own she went into her head and worried about her symptoms coming back, and this made her symptoms increase, so she realised she needed to be around friends more to stop her worrying.

This realisation that isolation actually made her worse, allowed her to take action to stop those fearful thoughts.

Are you worse when you are alone or around certain people?

Elaine's Story

The depression that I sank into was because of the isolation that occurred when my health crashed. I would worry about how I would ever get better, visualise myself getting worse and worse and never getting my life back.

I wanted to feel needed in the world but was too exhausted to do anything about it.

My thoughts became obsessive and fearful. I was totally wrapped up in how I felt and what my body felt like.

Does this resonate with you?

The difficulty is when you are isolated and ill, your mind is all you have for company and inside your mind there lives a little gremlin that is not your best friend. It wants you to be self-obsessed - it is your ego - it is always warning you of dangers that are usually non-existent - it thrives on fear and anxiety: this is what feeds it.

Eckhart Tolle calls it the ‘pain body’. When you read his work The Power of Now you will see just how damaging this gremlin is.

In life when we are able to work, socialise, take care of our home, take care of family, go shopping, plan for the future, life itself distracts us from the horrible little messages of the gremlin and we can usually keep it at bay.

We have to break the cycle.

We have to get out of our own minds and distract ourselves with something outside. Is there anything you can do for others? Do you have a friend that would like you to put their photos in an album? Are you better when you have a chat with other people and hear about their lives?

I found a recipe to beat this. I got my adrenal glands supported to help with my chemical imbalance.

The recipe is:

• Find the trigger to the upsetting thought or emotion
• Note what you are doing or who you are with when it starts
• Decide what action or distraction you can do to intercept it
• This will distract the mind immediately when it starts the fear or anxiety loop
• Find the Relaxation technique that works for you
• Get away from obsessing about you - help someone else

Anna’s recovery was all about dealing with her emotions, learning her triggers, adjusting her pace of life and her old habits as these were triggering many of her physical symptoms.

As we have discussed before, when these emotional/stress triggers are left unchecked they affect the endocrine system (see Session 9), as well as not having a great diet (which we cover in Sessions 7 and 21).

We have learned that neglect of these areas in your life leads to the breakdown of the immune system and the digestive system and then recovery takes so much longer because each of these areas all need to be dealt with systematically.

You will notice in Anna’s interview she mentions that Reverse Therapy was what she used to support her towards recovery. The philosophies behind Reverse Therapy are very similar to those of The Chrysalis Effect.

Reverse Therapy focuses on the emotional side and the way the mind and body interact when the beliefs and thought patterns are triggered by the emotions.

Reverse Therapy does not address the nutritional and endocrinology - it focuses solely on self-awareness. In our own practitioner training we teach this element so that you can have the one to one support if you need help with identifying your triggers and patterns.

Sometimes we need an outsider to help us become aware of what has become automatic.

We are all unique and it's about finding the key to your recovery!

So let's take a look at the 8 Elements of Freedom so you can see which areas you have addressed sufficiently and which ones may be the weak link in your chain of recovery.

Sometimes we start changing our eating habits for example, and then slip back into old patterns. Eating foods to which you know you are intolerant for example. I know for me, that I was strict and stuck to a healthy diet, because food affected how I felt so much. I would make sure I planned what I ate, and still do now.

I prepare and make up homemade soups and freeze them, and I always take fruit and healthy snacks with me when I’m out and about so I don’t get stuck without something to eat, and then have to just eat whatever's available. A little planning goes a long way!

The thing with our digestive system is that it's not all just about food. When we are stressed, the adrenal switch goes on and our digestive system slows down, or stops (depending on how stressed – remember fight or flight).

The body is ready to fight off the tiger so all its resources go to support that, so digestion shuts down. When you're just running late, or having an argument, or stressed out, your body still thinks its ready to fight the tiger.

That affects our gut too, so remembering that these are all linked, keeping yourself calm, using your meditation and relaxation will all help keep your digestive system calmer, (oh and your tummy flatter – which is always good)

Re-visit Sessions – 7 and 21.

Also consciously being aware of what you are doing, and living in the present (easier said than done) is again something that needs to become a learned behaviour and awareness is the key to this.

When you become aware of your surroundings and environment and be present in what you are doing, without continually worrying about how you will feel, or what you're not doing, or could be doing, that is a massive part of the recovery process.

So just keep bringing yourself back to the NOW and be present as often as you can. This will make a big difference. The assertion, self-esteem and confidence is coming up in future sessions.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Revisit Sessions

Session 13 is a good session to revisit, looking at your values.

Now don’t laugh at this, but something happens when I drive under trees that arch over and create a tunnel, it’s the weirdest thing, I just feel this incredible sense of relaxation, like I take a deep breath, (I know I must sound a bit strange, but someone else said it happens to them - that made me feel better!)

So next time you are out in the car, or walking and you come across an area where trees create an arch, just become aware, see what happens. I go to the New Forest, as this is such a beautiful place with horses roaming around and arching trees everywhere, I love it there.

I also go for walks in National Trust gardens, the lakes, rivers, amazing views, picnics in the parks. Visiting places that help you relax, be in nature and feel good is important, but do what works for you, tree arches might not be it, but whatever it is, get out there and do it more often!

Revisit Sessions

Revisit Session 5, where you can redo your wheel of life, blank canvas exercise, and take another look at your work/life balance.

Homeopathy has been around since 1796 when a German Doctor, Samuel Hahnemann discovered a different approach to healthcare. The name Homeopathy comes from the Greek word meaning ‘Similar Suffering’.

There are two ways of treating illness: the way of opposites (conventional medicine) and the way of similars (complementary therapies).

Homeopathy is an effective and scientific system of healing which assists the natural tendency of the body to heal itself.

It recognises that all the symptoms of ill health are expressions of disharmony within the whole person, and that it is the person that needs the treatment, not the disease.

So let’s give you an example.

In conventional medicine, for insomnia they would prescribe a drug to bring on artificial sleep. In the way of similars, the homeopathic way is to give the patient a minute dose of a substance, such as coffee, which in large doses causes sleeplessness in a healthy person. Surprisingly this enables a patient to sleep naturally.

Homeopathic remedies work by stimulating the body’s own healing power. It has a long history of treating M.E. and CFS, and can greatly assist with both physical and emotional symptoms.

There are over 2,000 homeopathic remedies available, so the skill of the practitioner is in selecting the remedy which best matches the total set of symptoms of the patient.

Taking a full case history usually takes one to two hours at the first appointment, and will include details of medical history, family’s medical history as well as plenty of detail about current symptoms, including questions about diet and sleep.

The practitioner will try and find out about the individual’s personality – what they love to do in their spare time, interests and hobbies, foods they like and dislike and what makes them angry etc.

Based on all this information, a remedy will be chosen for the patient. Some practitioners will prescribe more than one remedy; for example, there may be one which is suited to the patient in general, and others to address specific symptoms, such as vertigo or insomnia.

A key part of prescribing a remedy is trying to identify the cause of the illness. Many sufferers from M.E. will have ‘burnt out’, and the homeopath will try and discover what drove the patient to overwork initially.

Others will have developed symptoms after a viral or bacterial infection (it is very common for glandular fever to precede M.E.) whilst some people may have become ill after a traumatic emotional event.

The action of the remedy depends on the individual – some people will experience a huge shift in symptoms and energy almost immediately, whilst others may notice a more subtle shift over a period of weeks.

One reason that the initial case-taking is so detailed is to enable the homeopath to identify a change in symptoms – when a symptom has disappeared the patient will often forget they had it!

Appointments are usually every 3 to 6 weeks for homeopathy and treatment will usually be over a prolonged period to support the patient through their recovery.

The treatment uses simple kinesiology to detect the presence of allergies or sensitivities. Then acupressure is used on the back and on specific points on the body, and this effectively reprograms the body. The treated substance is then avoided for 25 hours after treatment.

Nutritional supplements may then be recommended to boost the body’s levels of essential vitamins and minerals once any allergy to these substances has been eliminated.

As with homeopathy, the initial appointment will involve a detailed case-taking to find out the personal and family medical history of the patient and the potential causes of the illness.

At the first appointment the practitioner will usually test some basic food groups to ascertain the treatments which may be required. Some M.E. or CFS sufferers will be insufficiently strong for the kinesiology to be performed on them, in which case it is advised that a friend or family member attends each session and acts as a surrogate.

Most people undergoing NAET treatment come for treatment every week or twice a week. Treatment can take many months but the results are profound and can transform the quality of life for many people.

This was an interesting experience when I went through this process, of course made so much better by getting to see Mary Jane every week! When you work with a practitioner you get to talk to them about so many other things as well.

I wasn’t completely sure how it worked, but I trusted the process and had had enough of avoiding so many foods!

Some weeks were easier than others depending on what I had to avoid for 25 hours. And being the healthy eater that I am, this could be interesting, especially when avoiding vitamin B - now that was an interesting one! I ended up eating sausage & chips, deep fried for breakfast & lunch and boiled cabbage! What an excuse to eat food like that!

See when we say we will do anything, we really do!

But trust me it was so worth it as I can now eat eggs, chicken, chocolate and so many foods I was initially intolerant to for so many years. 

You can find a NAET practitioner at on the NAE Europe website