Illness is likely to affect most of us.
Whether we are ready for it or not it can happen at any time and what may appear to be over night. Once the initial shock subsides, we tend to get straight into looking for help.
For many of us, me included, the answers may not come immediately which gives the illness time to exacerbate. My experience was quite distressing in that my psoriasis had spread to cover my entire body within 7 years of having it.
My initial thoughts were that I need to FIGHT this! So I was in battle mode ready to defeat it right between the eyes.
This is common amongst many people as we believe in order to be healthy we need to fight illness.
Let me tell you why this is a bad idea. When our body is in FIGHT MODE it signals the body to release inflammatory chemicals so to give you the best possible chance in beating whoever/whatever you are fighting. Our body will go into fight mode at the first sign of stress.
So whether you are Rhonda Rousey ready to go into the ring or the ‘average person’ meeting deadlines, or ‘fighting an illness’, your body has no idea of what the difference is.
All it recognises is that you are stressed so we need to prepare to either fight or flee. In order to do this our body will release cortisol and adrenalin which are inflammatory chemicals.
Now for the short term this is perfectly fine as our body is ALWAYS focused on preserving life.
However, long term stress will create an imbalance in our body’s physiological processes and possibly lead to other health problems such as digestive upsets, food allergies/intolerances, hormonal imbalances, auto-immune disease and so on.
So if you are currently working through a health issue and you are in this fight mode you are actually perpetuating it. I would encourage you to fly the white flag and surrender.
It is only in this time, when your body’s parasympathetic nervous system is activated that the healing process will be initiated and your body can return to optimal health.
This may be more challenging for some of you as your illness is more chronic as mine once was, however the process of surrendering is more important for you. If you are finding it difficult perhaps follow some of these steps:
- Read books to inspire a positive mindset.
- Say daily affirmations that centre around loving and respecting your body, having trust in your body’s ability to heal and visualisation your body regaining optimal health as the illness leaves your body.
- Eat a healthy anti-inflammatory diet as this will help you be happy and feel less irritable. Ensure you minimise/eliminate caffeine, refined carbohydrates and sugars as these will create more anxiety, brain fog and poor motivation which isn’t ideal when looking to improving your health.
- Meditate daily as this will switch on the parasympathetic nervous system which will encourage better health.
- Ensure you are always around people that are positive and who feed your soul. Minimise contact with those that make you feel deflated after spending time with them.
