I'm excited to be working as a naturopath. It feels wonderful to be able to share with others in a tangible way what I have learned over the past 12 years. I believe that healing is simpler than we may have been lead to believe. I am seeing strong patterns in the people I am working with. Unsurprisingly the gut plays a foundational role, as do diet and lifestyle. Which begs me to ask the question; do you ever feel that you are the one sabotaging your health?
This blog is a shout out to my amazing 18 year old son who was once crippled by OCD and ended up on a life support machine aged 7 because his body couldn't cope with a respiratory virus.
He has guided me in my own health journey as we have discovered his intolerances to gluten (makes him feel emotional, edgy and adrenal) and dairy (he loses his sense of smell and feels generally mucousy). He self regulates because he knows how those foods make him feel. He happily supplements with certain vitamins and minerals because they support his central nervous system, well, his whole system.
He is sensitive to drugs, clearing them slowly, so I weaned him off the steroids and asthma medication that he was given after his near-death experience, instead focusing on a varied, organic, seasonal diet, filtered water and clean body products: basically a nutrient-rich, low-toxin lifestyle. Moving to the countryside helped enormously - he never suited city living. Home education saved him in other ways: he got to explore his passions and go at his own pace. This massively reduced his stress burden which is paramount in healing.
As a result he is no longer governed by OCD, recovers from colds faster than anyone I know and is a gregarious seeker of fun; an extrovert with enormous confidence. A sensitive, intelligent and wise child, he has reached adulthood intact and is fully living his potential. This could have been a very different story.
Each of us have unique genetic propensities which are directly guided by the environments we create for ourselves, both internally and externally; how we respond to stress, what we eat, what we put on and in our bodies. Each of us have a different path to health and yet so many of us unknowingly continue to live in ways that are unsustainable. What are these diet and lifestyle health obstacles? Processed foods, limited and restricted nutrient-poor diets, stress and toxic beauty products are all sabotage the body's natural balance. They make our livers work harder and they tax our guts. The downstream effect is one of toxicity and deficiency; the hallmarks of chronic disease. The body will communicate any imbalance to us. First it will whisper with pain, bloating, fatigue, dry skin and fragile nails or insomnia. Unheard it will speak more loudly with auto-immune illnesses like allergies, hypothyroidism, kidney stones or gall bladder issues. Finally it will scream with life-threatening diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
When we learn the language of the body we are able to hear its messages and respond by supporting its immense efforts at maintaining balance. With this rebalancing comes energy and a lust for life. Health is not the absence of illness - it is about feeling vibrant, potent and happy.
