Thoughts are energy
Thoughts are energy, and when you are stressed, those thoughts create negative energy that needs to be expressed in healthy ways. You see, energy is neither created, nor destroyed, only transferred. When you don’t release it in a healthy way, your body holds onto it. Over time, that negative energy, stored in your body, raises stress hormone levels and inflammation. This inflammation causes unwanted health symptoms.
How your body gets your attention
Now that your stress hormone levels are elevated, causing inflammation, your body will alert you that there is a problem. The way your body alerts you is through pain of some sort, like:
- stomach pains/digestion problems (IBS)
- headaches/migraines
- joint pain
- backache
- knee pain
- plantar fasciitis
- skin issues (rosacea, acne, eczema)
- sleep issues
- weight gain
- hormone imbalances
These conditions, over time, can worsen to things like:
- cancer
- diabetes
- obesity
- heart problems
- muscle degeneration diseases
- infertility
- arthritis
That’s just a few of the many conditions caused by inflammation, and elevated stress hormone levels over time.
Stress led to plantar fasciitis and hip pain for me
In March of 2020, I had several stressful things going on. Not only was the world shutting down, but I had made a decision to retire from a long career of elementary school teaching. On top of that, my ex was taking me to court over a child support dispute, and we were finishing up some remodeling on our home. Those first few months of the pandemic were scary, but the rest I got from staying home every day did help somewhat.
Right before the shut-down, I started having pain in my left foot, which I had a feeling was plantar fasciitis. I looked up the symptoms and felt sure that’s what it was. First, I bought some shoe inserts and some new Allbird’s sneakers. I wore those sneakers all day, every day, for a year. Eventually, when I just couldn’t walk without pain, my husband convinced me to go to the foot doctor. She prescribed some new insoles for my shoes and a brace to wear at night. She suggested a steroid shot, but I did not want to mask the pain and prolong healing.
At some point during that time, my opposite hip started hurting (my right hip). I figured the hip pain was due to shifting my weight to protect my foot. Exercise was almost impossible, not only with the pain, but with the construction in our home, and the restrictions on public outings as well.
One day, I happened to watch an interview with Nicole Sachs on Maria Menounos’ podcast, Better Together. Nicole had worked with Dr. John Sarno, who I had heard about before. Dr. Sarno mostly helped patients with healing back pain through changing your thoughts and healing repressed emotions. Nicole took his work a step further, though, and was helping people cure all kinds of chronic pain. I was very intrigued because I had done a lot of research and personal development with both, Dr. Joe Dispenza and Michael Singer’s books, on how powerful our thoughts are to our health.
I bought Dr. Sarno’s book, The Mindbody Prescription, right away. I started journaling in the way that Dr. Sarno and Nicole suggest, where you free write for 20-30 minutes and then destroy your writing. After a few months, my foot pain started going away. Then slowly, all of my hip pain started to disappear.
I really think it was a combination of things that helped me heal. Not only did I journal, and release repressed emotions, but I started working on self-love, changing my thoughts, distancing myself from painful relationships, and listening to my intuition. I had already started incorporating some of these things into my coaching practice, with good results, but now I had personal proof that they work.
How can you heal your own chronic symptoms?
You’re probably thinking, how can I heal my own chronic symptoms? Maybe your doctor has told you that you need daily medication or even surgery. Possibly you do need those things, but maybe you could try some other things first, or use a combination of conventional medical interventions and a more natural approach. These things may be more powerful than you realize:
- Setting boundaries
- Practicing self-love with healthy habits
- Journaling + destroying your writing afterwards (which is a great emotional release)
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Trust in a higher power (Repeat mantras or scripture that renews your faith.)
Studies show that just learning the facts about how negative or fearful thoughts can cause chronic symptoms, has helped many people reduce pain. Also, take into consideration the ‘placebo effect’ of many medical trials. There are countless stories of people healing just because they thought they were getting the real medical treatment. Start putting some of the practices I’ve shared with you in place and see how your own symptoms can reduce.
