Autoimmune diseases are skyrocketing! More than 24 million Americans, by some estimates up to 50 million, have an autoimmune disorder — diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s, Graves’, Crohn’s, multiple sclerosis and dozens more. About 4 of every 5 patients are women, a mystery that has baffled scientists for decades.
A ‘mystery’ that when you understand the root of chronic disease, especially something like autoimmune, makes perfect sense.
Our society grooms women to be ‘nice’, to achieve, and to abandon their needs so they can meet the needs of others, to minimize their emotions so they’re not ‘too much’, all while making them feel like nothing they do is ever really enough, whether it’s how they look, how smart they are, how talented, etc.
Over the past decade, the women that I worked with who have autoimmune also have nervous system dysregulation, a body that is begging for rest and a break, a massive reservoir of overflowing repressed emotions, and personality traits that generate a ton of inner tension and “dis-ease” within the body.
We know that a run-down nervous system compromises the immune system and contributes to autoimmune. We know that repressed emotions shut down the immune system which contributes to autoimmune. We know that a harsh inner critic, so common in women these days where nothing is ever quite good enough, compromises the nervous system which shuts down the immune system and contributes to autoimmune. We know that people-pleasing generates inner tension which contributes to autoimmune. We know that chronic stress contributes to chronic inflammation which contributes to autoimmune.
When you start looking a little closer, it all makes perfect sense! Ladies, your bodies make sense! And once you understand WHY they do what they do, you can help to unravel the ‘mystery’ and get to the root. You’re not just unlucky. You’re not broken! In fact, your disease is our body‘s way of trying to heal and once you start looking at it this way, you can partner with your brilliant body making healing possible.
If you’re not connecting your thyroid autoimmune with repressed emotions, inability to express yourself and feelings of shame, you’re missing the key to your healing! If you’re not connecting arthritis and Crohn’s disease with chronic inflammation caused by years of repressed emotions, mostly anger, you’re missing the opportunity to get to the root! If you’re not connecting your symptoms with your body pleading for a break and change, you’re missing the message!
Our body often reflects what is going on inside the deeper parts of ourselves, our internal world. The body speaks in symptoms because it cannot use words, but sadly so few know how to decipher the body’s communication.
I want you to know that if you have an autoimmune disease (or any other chronic health challenge), you can heal but you’re going to have to go so much deeper than symptom management and really uncover the deeper layers of your internal world. You’re going to have to turn toward painful emotions you’ve been avoiding for a lifetime. You’re going to have to observe how your inner critic is contributing to disease. You’re going to have to change the background theme song of your life of ‘I am not enough’ to ‘I am enough, just as I am’. You’re going to have to take a body that hasn’t felt safe maybe forever and create safety for the first time. You’re going to have to face dark parts of yourself, and meet every ounce of it with love and self-compassion! You’re going to have to learn how to rest and slow down, or your body may keep forcing you to.
This is what your body is begging for! Your body so badly wants healing and once you partner with it, this is when healing is actually possible!
YOU CAN HEAL ❤️
