Those of us who struggle with chronic illness and autoimmune disorders can also struggle with self-nurturing, even though we know what an important role it plays in our healing journey. Despite all the best efforts of our medical team, our health coach, our family and friends, and especially ourselves, self-nurturing sometimes seems like an impossible mountain to climb. Why is that? Shouldn’t it be the easiest thing in the world to take care of ourselves? To love and nurture ourselves? Maybe it “should” be easy (although you know I don’t like that word “should”), but … [Read more...]
A Dinner Out
I want to tell you a tale of two diners, both of them me. Crabby Christine used to hate to go out to dinner with her husband Larry. Every time Larry would suggest we go out to eat, I would have to pretend to be pleased when all I could think about was all that food I wouldn’t be able to eat, because of my AIP protocol. I was equating going out with my sweetheart of a husband with deprivation, lack, want. In other words, I was associating pain with our date instead of pleasure. I really didn’t want to keep doing that. So I put on my coaching hat and sat crabby Christine down in my … [Read more...]
The Harm of Frustration
One of the most valuable lessons I learned while teaching Western Medicine courses at an acupuncture college was that, unlike Western Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) included emotion as part of the evaluation and management of disease. Now, I am not an acupuncturist nor do I have any official training in TCM, so please bear with me while I try to explain this from my perspective. Emotion as a key factor in overall health or illness. What a great idea! As humans, so much of our experience in life involves emotion. It makes sense to me to include that as part of an evaluation … [Read more...]
On Choosing Happiness – Part 1
One of the most challenging things I come up against with many of my patients is something that has nothing to do with medicine. It has to do with attitude. Take Sara. Sara is a middle-aged woman who works an office job. She complains about her job to me a lot. She also complains about her husband, her house, the yard work she has to do AND the pain that brings her in to see me. Sara believes that there is nothing she can do for herself except come to see me, which is only helpful for a short time, in any case. I have spoken with her many times over the years about the effect that … [Read more...]
