The Process Of Healing

[Pointless]

One thing that still confuses me, even after discovering Peat, is this question: what happens in the process of regaining one's health? I think most doctors and patients assume that you're either getting better or getting worse. Symptoms decrease if you're getting better and increase if you're getting worse. Health is a straight line. We could get into the philosophical limitations of our worldview that favors linear thinking over cycles and curves.

But what if you take something that you know is good, but your symptoms get worse? Should you persist in taking it and knuckle down? Or maybe keep taking it but find another way to deal with the side effects? Or maybe "listen to the body" and stop taking it no matter what?

For example, some people complain of increasing estrogen dominance after low doses of progesterone. The logic is that estrogen is being flushed out of the cells and causing temporary problems. But some people remain on high doses of progesterone for a very long time, and they still need it after all that. Won't the estrogen eventually be depleted if there is a "cleansing" going on? I don't take progesterone, but many therapies cause estrogenic symptoms for me like rashes and eczema, flushing of the skin, serotonin in the gut, loss of libido... and possibly other symptoms are connected like hair loss.

I've been dealing with magnesium issues too. It seems like when I take mag bicarbonate, it can get better or worse. Cramps, voice cracking, insulin resistance... taking magnesium can make these better or worse. I read on some blog that when you supplement magnesium, things can get worse because your body ramps up production of magnesium-requiring enzymes. There was no citation, so I have no idea if this is true.

It seems like there needs to be more studies that deal with this question of how the process of healing takes place. Not just the before and after but what's going on in between. My question to you all is, what do you believe about the process of healing, and how do you apply it to your own personal health goals?

 

[Heidi]

This is an excellent question. I hope that more people respond.

For me with my healing, it has been very common to have a healing crisis, or to have symptoms get worse before they get better. Healing often seems to be more of a 3 steps forward, 2 steps back kind of thing. But slowly there is movement or progress in a good direction. I've also had the experience of doing something for a long time that made me feel good. I thought it was healing and helpful, but then it turned out to be causing lots of negative symptoms. Sometimes a healing modality is very mixed, it helps in some ways, but then causes problems in other ways.

There are lots of levels that healing can operate on. Sometimes a symptom is cured, but deeper healing has not taken place. For me deeper levels of healing involve the emotions, physical relaxation, and a deeper sense of well being, connection, and peace. Typically for me healing feels like something has let go, rather than something being gained. Lately I've been in a process of unraveling, where patterns and layers of contraction and holding are gradually giving way. It started by feeling the sensory experience of exhaustion. By paying attention to and feeling my exhaustion, it gradually healed and is no longer an issue. So then I focused on a subtle tension and holding in the core of my body. Then that released. Now I'm working with tension in my jaw. When I focus on something it appears to get worse, but I think that is because I am bringing attention and focus to it. Perhaps healing is simply learning to accept and be with that which is very uncomfortable, that which we are rejecting and pushing away. Somehow the process of gentle sensory attention over time, integrates and releases that which had been frozen or stuck in a state of trauma.

Paying attention to my breathing, keeping my breathing settled, and making sure I am breathing only through my nose has been an integral part of this ongoing healing process. But I also allow my breathing to be spontaneous when there is some kind of release happening.

I focus more on breathing, emotions, and sensory experience because for me the results have been much deeper than taking supplements. Though I'm not opposed to supplements, and feel like they can be supportive.

I think that in regards to healing it is important to be honest with oneself. It's easy to deceive oneself, and then with self-deception one can easily be misled by another, or misled by a belief in how something is supposed to work. Honesty leads to more clarity about what is right for you. Honesty with yourself clarifies what is most important in life and makes the direction to move in more clear.

I think that healing is also about bringing oneself and one's life into alignment with deeper truths, whatever that means for you. For me it's about recognizing the transient nature of life, feeling and acting upon my connection with others and the earth, facing death, and living openly and spontaneously in the present moment at hand. These things can sound like cliches, but taking small actions in these directions, helps to counter all the wrong beliefs and unconscious conditioning.

I wonder if some people have studied the process of healing and written about it? I just did a quick google search and turned up this article on emotional healing that feels aligned with what I wrote. The Five Stages of Emotional Healing : Susanna Barlow

 

[TheHound]

what healing? the clock starts ticking toward your death the moment you are born

 

[Xisca]

I think that when I do not get better, this means I have different issues and did not find them all, and I go on searching.
If crisis, then the speed of treatment might be to fast.
And I always think I might think I do good, and then I see I do not and was wrong. We are all different within our similarities! Sometimes it is worth listening to others the way we would like others to listen to us...

 

[lollipop]

Excellent question.

I have noticed the healing process is like a wavy line on a graph with a straight line midpoint line. Midline is generally upwards but has highs above the midline and lows below the midline. Never a straight line. Sort of like what was mentioned above: 3 steps forward, 2 back, 3 forward, 1 back, etc. The trend is overall upwards with variation along the way.

I have noticed that over time the wild upward and downward swings get less and less and trend towards a middle expression around the upward direction midline. Also, over time clarity comes as to what works for you as an individual. Needs a lot of experimentation for this clarity to emerge imho.

Also every step you make with an intention to heal matters. Nothing is wasted or useless...

 

[Heidi]

Excellent question.

I have noticed the healing process is like a wavy line on a graph with a straight line midpoint line. Midline is generally upwards but has highs above the midline and lows below the midline. Never a straight line. Sort of like what was mentioned above: 3 steps forward, 2 back, 3 forward, 1 back, etc. The trend is overall upwards with variation along the way.

I have noticed that over time the wild upward and downward swings get less and less and trend towards a middle expression around the upward direction midline. Also, over time clarity comes as to what works for you as an individual. Needs a lot of experimentation for this clarity to emerge imho.

Also every step you make with an intention to heal matters. Nothing is wasted or useless...

I agree with what you wrote Lisa. I'd forgotten about how wild the swings use to be. And how clarity gradually emerges after long experimentation. I wish that I felt that nothing is wasted. But there are a lot of dead end paths that I went down, that I would skip altogether, if I could do it over again. But perhaps one needs to learn what doesn't work for oneself, in order to come to clarity on what does.

I am very interested in hearing about how the process of healing works for different people. I would think that there would be similarities or patterns that would emerge.

 

[lollipop]

I agree with what you wrote Lisa. I'd forgotten about how wild the swings use to be. And how clarity gradually emerges after long experimentation. I wish that I felt that nothing is wasted. But there are a lot of dead end paths that I went down, that I would skip altogether, if I could do it over again. But perhaps one needs to learn what doesn't work for oneself, in order to come to clarity on what does.

I am very interested in hearing about how the process of healing works for different people. I would think that there would be similarities or patterns that would emerge.

Thank you @Heidi. I agree, this is such an interesting subject and would love to hear other's ideas

 

[Pointless]

Have you guys experienced "re-tracing"? where you experience the symptoms in reverse from when you got them. So like if you had arthritis at age 40, and bad digestion at 35, and acne as a teenager, then on the way to healing, you would experience arthritis first, then bad digestion, and then acne (even if they have since gone away). I don't think I believe this, but if someone has a strong experience, please share.

 

[lollipop]

Have you guys experienced "re-tracing"? where you experience the symptoms in reverse from when you got them. So like if you had arthritis at age 40, and bad digestion at 35, and acne as a teenager, then on the way to healing, you would experience arthritis first, then bad digestion, and then acne (even if they have since gone away). I don't think I believe this, but if someone has a strong experience, please share.

@Pointless I have experienced this retracing but mostly in yoga because I had not dialed in my nutrition and/or supplementation when I started. Saw it repeatedly in myself and others. I have noticed it less with food alone because it is all mixed in together now; my wellness is so intertwined with multiple facets it is hard to isolate.

To answer your question specifically: yes it exists and yes it can take YEARS for such a process. Sort of like PUFA depletion, takes a while and along the way body slowly gets better and reverses conditions complicated by the PUFA.

 

[Heidi]

Have you guys experienced "re-tracing"? where you experience the symptoms in reverse from when you got them. So like if you had arthritis at age 40, and bad digestion at 35, and acne as a teenager, then on the way to healing, you would experience arthritis first, then bad digestion, and then acne (even if they have since gone away). I don't think I believe this, but if someone has a strong experience, please share.

I've been experiencing a sense of my body unraveling in layers. As I work with the layer I gradually become aware of what it is connected to from my past. For me it hasn't been as specific and exact as what you described. The mind tends to see things in terms of labels and diseases, while the body's language is connected to emotion and sensation. But there is a real feeling of a layer being healed and falling away, and that layer might be a specific symptom or ailment that I've had for a long time that finally goes away. But I haven't recognized any age related progression. But my body sure is clear about what it wants to focus on next!

One close friend of mine had illnesses that tended to replace each other. Something he had got better, but at the same time another disease emerged. Or maybe his disease went deeper and took another form, as some people would say. So for him, I wouldn't be surprised if he experienced a "retracing".

This is a very interesting discussion. I wish more people would weigh in on their experience. @Pointless, you ask really good questions. I appreciate the self-reflection that your questions engender.

 

[lollipop]

@whodathunkit Can you weigh in on this thread? You have such a wise voice of experience to contribute to this thread. I think these are awesome and genuine questions @Pointless is asking and would love to see voices of wisdom contribute

 

[whodathunkit]

@whodathunkit Can you weigh in on this thread? You have such a wise voice of experience to contribute to this thread. I think these are awesome and genuine questions @Pointless is asking and would love to see voices of wisdom contribute

:)

Y'know, I was going to weigh in on it a few days ago, but then read the whole thing and seems like y'all got it all pretty well covered. @Heidi mentioned "three steps forwards and two steps back", which is an old axiom of mind. It's still a net gain of a step and a journey of 1000 miles can be completed in that way, even though it's not the ideal of how we should progress. 'Nuff said.

Y'all are also covering retracing as a common phenomenon. Not much else to say. It happens to many of us. You won't necessarily experience them in the order they appeared originally, and you may not experience all of them, but you could experience at least a few, and also in an order of appearance mimicking a "reversal" of the downward slide into illness. They can be physical or emotional. Can get kind of hinky if you're retracing PTSD symptoms like intermittent explosive stuff. Retracing has definitely happened to me. It leaves you thinking "WTF is *this* all about?!" Thankfully the reemergence episodes are usually brief, even if it can take years for them all to play out. And I say "usually brief" but IME and from what I've heard it's pretty individual. My retracing episodes have all been pretty brief, if intense. YMMV.

A wise man over at Phoenix Rising, username Freddd, has a nice theory about the "layers of healing". He applies it to his innovative theories about some supplements, but it seems to be true in general. You peel off one layer (a symptom or cluster of symptoms) with the use of various deliberately applied healing aids (supplements or medicines or whatever), and expose a whole new layer (new symptoms), that in its turn will peel away when it's time.

But what if you take something that you know is good, but your symptoms get worse? Should you persist in taking it and knuckle down?

This was posted after my last read here so maybe I can offer something.

Answer is It Varies. If you listen to your body it will usually tell you.

One way to isolate the correct answer is to completely stop the therapeutic in question, and then see what happens.

If you still need it you'll either experience a worsening of your condition after you stop (which could take a while), or you'll keep getting the niggling feeling like you need to circle back around to it. Resuming it often elicits a feeling of relief or at least a better overall feeling. Then you tweak your dose from there. Sometimes you should adjust up or down for optimal effect. Dosages fluctuate over time so don't get locked into a static, all-the-time dose. For example, at one time I was taking 40mg of folate per day. I needed that much to keep me out of symptoms I was chasing. Then over time, as I got better, I was able to step my dose down. Now I no longer need folate on a daily basis. But I was at the huge dose for almost a year before I was able to come down off it.

Anyway, if you stop a therapeutic and it was wrong for you, you'll either feel relief that you stopped, or a sort of definite "NO" feeling when you wonder if you should start it up again. For example, niacin in any form (even Peat's beloved niacinimide) is a definite "NO" for me.

One mistake we tend to make over and over again with therapeutic measures of any sort (diet, supplements, subtle energy, etc.) is stopping them before we're done with them. These are usually things we got an initial benefit from, but then over time they seem to "stop working". It's like we no longer get the buzz so don't see the need to continue. But stopping things like this in under 6 months is usually a mistake, as IME it takes a long time to truly rectify a deficiency bad enough to provoke clinical-type symptoms. How long varies with the individual, but IME almost anything that shows initial benefit should be continued for six months minimum. Then we can try stopping to see what happens.

Of course if the reactions get bad, even if initially they were good, don't fly in the face of common sense and keep up with it for six months no matter what. It's okay to stop, get better, and circle back around later if you still think it can do you good. Best thing you can do is learn to listen to your body. Sounds lame and hackneyed but it's absolutely true. The ability to listen to my body is probably the most valuable skill I have, and it was a bit of work and time to acquire it. Time and effort well spent, though.

At any rate, think of any statement I make like "The Code" that governed the pirates in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies: they're more like guidelines, anyway. Do with them what you will and what your own circumstances dictate.

 

[Blossom]

I think a pendulum swinging in equal but opposite directions can be a useful analogy in healing sometimes. The initial dramatic swings are unsettling but just like our bodies the pendulum returns to a stable point over time as long as there is not too much outside interference! The pendulum seeks balance and stability just like us. I believe it was member @aguilaroja that originally introduced me to this idea in one of her helpful posts.

 

[moss]

I think some therapeutic agents are needed to re-balance, however, if something is making me feel worse, I have no qualms in stopping a supplement because I think suffering in the hope I am getting better or feeling like hell is not conducive to improved health.

For people who experience chronic ill health, it would make sense to start slowly because they are most likely are coming from an energy deficit. Problem is, people get impatient and expect solutions quickly and get frustrated like it some straight and narrow road you follow going from A to B.

As health improves and peeling back the layers also poses new questions and opportunities if we care to take and make the time to enquire like most of us are doing on this forum.
Just adjusting dietary/supplements is not enough. Being congruent and true to yourself is so important (and for ya liver). It does not matter what anyone else thinks. If you are in a job you truly hate, or you wake up to the person next to you and think, actually this is not working, or you constantly deny, push and shove away the things you'd rather not tackle - think about that and why you don't take action - you are deluding yourself and getting in your own way from improving your health more fully.

Circumstantially, were are raised the way we were as children and we cannot change that. We can make choices as adults and that is the beauty of being an adult. And so we can be part of the problem and not the cure!
About how, where and with whom (or not) we choose to live. Attending to physical and emotional health is part of the equation. Surrounding yourself with decent people who energize, rather than flog your energy. Immersing yourself amongst beauty, little and often - whether in nature, art, music, writing, whatever works is beneficial for your health.

Whether you want to stick to some straighter line or whether you to chose to question and act is a choice we do have. Having a few like-minded and supportive people around you especially when you are in a funk or attempt to make changes because it can be downright scary at times and is worth the ride I reckon. I certainly don't want to come off that I have all things sorted - far from it. What I can say, is I am always experimenting and evolving and resisting being stuck and rigid, having said that I have gone through a hellish period this year and come out the other end the better for it because it has taught me some interesting lessons and I needed to adjust and make a few changes.

I think the process of healing can be very concrete for some who think if I take this then it will fix that. The process of healing can be incredibly frustrating and yet so creative if we allow ourselves to reflect within and be open to possibilities.