Relax Your Grip
After getting started with my day, this morning, I became acutely aware of the ache in both elbows. I spent about 30 seconds going over in my mind, what I might have done that would cause this and then it hit me … arthritis.
For those of you that are either new to me or not familiar with my story, on December 9, 2019, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, skin cancer, and arthritis throughout my spine (top to tail), hips and feet. I refused to tell them about the achiness in my hands because there was no question in my mind those x-rays would produce the same results. Besides, what was the point? I have arthritis AND breast cancer which required my immediate attention.
But a year later and I’m in a holding pattern with cancer treatments due to a combination of waiting and COVID, the inflammation from surgeries and radiation has dissipated and my elbows ache.
Arthritis is a dis-ease of rigidity. Let’s face it, you’re stiff plus it hurts to move, making it much easier to ‘hold that position’.
Now, what follows has NOTHING to do with blame. It is a statement of ownership / responsibility for how I’ve conducted my life, introducing me to this experience. It’s essentially, a realization put on ‘loud speaker’.
Am I going to dive into eating a poor diet. No. Am I going to suggest my situation with arthritis, or breast cancer, is energetic, meaning that they relate to the various energy centers of the body? Yes and no. Yes because on some level, I can absolutely link specific chakras to these conditions. Plus, when I think about my lack of confidence, also known as not having a backbone, there’s definitely an energetic correlation. However, this explanation is the reason why I believe SO many people struggle to overcome their health issues or live on an allopathic management plan. My goal is to assist people by underscoring the science to all dis-ease.
Just for the record, I’ve been a vegan / vegetarian (during my pregnancies) my entire life, and by entire, I mean since I started eating table food. Actually while I was still in utero. According to my mother, she was placed on a diet of saltines, carrots and celery for the last 6 months of her pregnancy, (that’s not a typo .. she gained her weight limit by 3 months) and because she was a health professional, her compliance was stellar. It seems she passed a few things onto me. More about that in a minute. As for my diet, I’ve lived a reasonably clean, green life … you know the lifestyle promoted by allopathic and natural professionals.
Everyday, I’m discovering that diet and exercise ARE NOT the solution to fixing or preventing health issues. Our cultural practice of limiting or eliminating certain foods and getting physically active may relieve symptoms BUT they do not address the culprit. As it goes, and say it with me if you’ve read previous posts, the guilty party is the stress system. In fact, I list the hormonal changes that occur when the stress system is activated in Hormonal Changes Affecting our Kids The difficult fact to swallow is this system is on more than it’s on idle due to the emotions driving the overthinking, doubt, worry, and without question, rigid thinking.
An interesting fact is I was aware of my need to control and rigid adherence to plans and schedules. As I said, my mother certainly passed on the ‘unyielding’ gene to me and then I was further programmed by my father, the navy seal, to tow the line and not deviate from what was required of me to achieve the goal / result. In other words, I was raised with a cast iron fist that believed spontaneity was impractical and senseless.
Look, I get it, these two were born into this belief system. It doesn’t make it better, good or right and it worked for them. However, one way does make the right way. It’s just a way. And the truth is, I was witnessing the impact rigidity was having on my parents and saw it blooming within me. Although, I did all that I knew to do based on cultural suggestions such as yoga and swimming, my body still degenerated.
Quick question: how much more fluid can a person get? Swimming and yoga ….
So, today when I’m feeling the ache in my elbows, I reflected on the way I’ve done life and the knowledge I’ve acquired through hours, days, months and years of inquiry and investigation, and I came up with this:
Holding onto plan of action or strategy so fiercely, while admirable, is a serious need to control the outcome. This is called fear. Fear is not a bad thing, it’s a built in protection mechanism designed to keep us safe. Can you be grateful for that? However, when we neglect to recognize that these fears are projections, predictions and / or assumptions, we rely on them to direct our actions as well as our momentum, all the while, giving little attention to the emotions driving our efforts. This is stress and between the emotional body and the environment, our stress system remains on high alert 24/7., activating all the chemical changes that lead to inflammation which degenerates the body with time, sometimes sooner than later, as we’re seeing in our kids.
If you want nutritional recommendations on how to support the body, you only need to worry about 4 things which are listed in Hormonal Changes Affecting our Kids
Why doesn’t everybody develop arthritis and cancer? Every body has it’s own unique wiring system called the genome. Each body manages stress in it’s very own way which I’m certain is reflected in the individual’s thoughts and behaviors.
As for my parent’s health, my mother and I are not close so I know nothing of her current health situation, other than to say she was never diagnosed with breast cancer and arthritis. On the other hand, my father and I had a sweet, yet tense, relationship. His degree of rigidity manifested into Parkinson’s as well as blood cancer. Again, we see the energy of the condition matching the emotions and evidence that it’s beliefs and behaviors that are passed on from parent to child
So what about essential oils?
It’s difficult to say simply because no two people emote in the same way over anything. That said, given the type of chemical changes occurring with an active stress system, I offer the following which must be adjusted every few weeks. In fact, I invite you to watch my latest video (it’s long, so take it in bits if necessary), because in it, I review why it’s wise to change the oils you use more frequently than we realize.
To start:
black spruce
myrrh
roman chamomile
sandalwood mysore
Again, this is an initial blend; however, if you’re currently living with a health condition, it’s advisable to to get a more personalized recommendation.
Thank you for being here. Let me know your thoughts and / or questions! I love hearing from you!