By Endorsed Mind-Body Coach Gail Kenny

Learning to self-soothe and using it on a regular basis is one of the best ways to reduce stress and chronic pain. It takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it and it becomes a habit that makes a significant difference in being able to more easily come back into balance when life gets challenging.

Anxiety on Top of Pain

I distinctly remember a time when I was really stuck in chronic pelvic pain. I had been experiencing a flare-up of pain for weeks that wasn’t showing any signs of letting up. I had anxiety in addition to pain which just made the pain harder to deal with. I thought that if the anxiety would just go away I could handle the pain.

Then I found the pelvicpainhelp.com website and spoke on the phone with Dr. David Wise, a psychologist who once suffered from chronic pelvic pain and who has found significant relief. His recognition of and familiarity with my suffering, and his kindness and optimism that his approach could help me was so reassuring that when I got off the phone my anxiety was gone and I felt quite a bit better!

We can learn to comfort  ourselves the same way through the practice of self-soothing. When we resist discomfort, anxiety can arise which makes the discomfort even more intense. Self-soothing can reduce anxiety and resistance to discomfort and significantly dial down pain.

How to self-soothe

1.  Notice when you’re worrying or obsessing about pain and consciously change your approach to it. Get a broader perspective by imagining you can take a step back from being in the middle of your pain and simply observe your experience of it instead of automatically reacting to it.
2. Accept that what you’re experiencing is hard, challenging, or uncomfortable. You might be feeling angry, scared or sad. Turn towards feeling the emotions about it and underlying it instead of resisting them.
3. Take at least three mindful breaths and focus on the physical sensations of the emotions while you let go of your story about the pain.
4. Feel the support you already have in the moment. It can be as simple as noticing you have plenty of oxygen to breathe and that gravity holds your body and allows it to rest against the ground or in your chair.  Find a place in your body that feels comfortable and focus there.
5. Then treat yourself as you would someone you love. Be compassionate. Surround yourself with love, have understanding and love for yourself in your situation. Reassure yourself as you would someone you love.
6. Imagine that you’re being held with a kind and loving hand on your back. Or put your own hand on the place in your body that feels uncomfortable and imagine you can channel unconditional love through your hand and receive it in your body.
7. Feel sympathy for the younger part of you who is worried, scared, or unsure. From your fully functioning adult-self, imagine that you’re comforting and reassuring the part of you who is distressed and sense what that part really needs in order to come back into balance. See your adult-self comforting the part of you who is suffering.
8. You can take this a step further and imagine that you have the complete attention, love, and support of a higher part of yourself, a mentor, or a spiritual guide. Imagine that they love you always.

An Example of Self-Soothing

I recently woke up with a sore back from stacking a load of firewood the day before. I noticed my mind starting to go into worry about a big pain flare up and the possibility of being in pain indefinitely. Because I’ve been practicing self-soothing and good self-care I quickly reframed my story about my discomfort and realized that I had lots of resources for calming my discomfort starting with accepting that I had discomfort. I took some time to relieve the myofascial pain by massaging sore spots with a ball against the wall. It really helped. Then I continued with allowing my body to feel sore and reassuring myself that I’m okay and noticing how I’m already being supported in the moment. As I felt the support of gravity holding my body to the earth and the support of the air already giving me plenty of oxygen to breathe I also imagined softening around the discomfort. Then I imagined surrounding myself with a kind and loving presence comforting me and reassuring me that all will be well.

Self-soothing helps relieve the resistance to feeling discomfort and allows you to be with feeling discomfort with a sense of also being comforted and supported. Then it’s not so scary. Then you can be present in your body to feel without blocking the experience. This allows you to also be present with emotional energy around the discomfort. Being with and witnessing discomfort allows it to be acknowledged and that’s what helps it to release and for you to return to balance and comfort.

Photo credit: Stuart Miles freedigitalphotos.net

Endorsed Coach – Gail Kenny

When I found Abigail I had been struggling with chronic pelvic pain (including pain in my lower abdomen, IC symptoms, yeast infections and myofascial pain) for over 20 years. Mind-body coaching was the last thing I needed to truly get my life back. I know first-hand the challenges of healing chronic pelvic pain and I’m well prepared to help you with your healing. I’m also a certified Martha Beck life coach and trained psychic.

I work with people in physical pain who have already tried all the normal solutions. I help them heal old dysfunctional habits of thinking and feeling. I teach them to relate to their body, emotions, mind, and soul in new ways, creating relief from underlying tension, healing pain from the inside out and getting back to living the life they want. Start with your free pain relief practice here.

I’m a newly endorsed mind-body coach.  Along with all the mental and health benefits I’ve received from practicing the tools, my coaching practice is filling up. Remarkably I’ve got clients who want to see me week after week.  They are becoming increasingly grateful and complimentary.  Suddenly I’m finding myself with days of back to back clients scheduled.  My confidence and effectiveness as a coach has increased exponentially.  I’m much better at allowing what is for myself and allowing for my inspiring clients too.

This is what I’ve wanted for so long, so why am I feeling so much discomfort along with my newfound success?  Is my body saying no, just as I’m getting what I want?  As I put myself out into the world and coach authentically, the excitement, exhilaration, and contentedness is accompanied by some heavy duty fear.

I’m afraid they will find out I’m a fraud.
I’m afraid that I won’t be good enough.
I’m afraid that I will disappoint them.
I’m afraid that I will screw up and miss appointments.
I’m afraid my kids or the doorbell will interrupt the call and our flow.
I’m afraid I won’t have time to do other things.

As I think about all of these worries, my stomach churns in the form of a writhing worm.  One impulse I feel is to go back and hide, to withdraw.  When I take a moment to breathe, listen to my body, connect and talk to the worm, he has a lot to tell me…

It is not about being perfect and having “arrived”.  This is a lifelong journey and practice.  By not being perfect I show others it’s okay that they aren’t perfect.  In truth we are all totally perfect anyway.

Coaching isn’t about me or how good I am.  It is about connecting clients to their own inner wisdom.  This is their journey.

There are many other amazing mind-body coaches.  If for some reason I can’t help maybe someone else can.  Maybe I’m just not meant to help them.

If I screw up and I will, it will only show that I am human and make mistakes too.  There will be a good reason for each mistake.  I can put systems in place to sync calendars and check appointments each morning.  This will lessen the likelihood of error.

I can schedule appointments when my kids or others won’t be here.   I can leave doorbells unanswered.

I can set my own schedule and work as little or as much as my inner wisdom dictates.

Though I’ve heard and thought of much of this specific wisdom before, this time I know it is true for me. I can feel the truth of it.  After our chat, my worm feels calmer and is resting.  I feel fondness and gratitude toward him.  I know he will be with me for a long time to come.

In this case, the discomfort and fear in my body wasn’t saying no.  It didn’t really want me to go and hide.  My fear was giving me more details about how to be a coach and even practical suggestions about setting up my business and managing my time.

Given my new found knowledge and connection with my discomfort, I’m ready if you need help connecting with your own inner worm or sources of discomfort.  What are they trying to tell you?  I’m curious.

*Thanks to my fellow mind-body trainees and coaching buddies for helping me talk with my worm and face my fear.

Have you ever experienced a full-blown panic attack where your breathing gets very shallow and you just want to escape?  Or you get so angry and frustrated your body tenses up and begins to shake?  Or you’re filled with so much fear that you’re physically unable to move?

These are all very LOUD ways your body talks to you to let you know something is out of balance in your mind and has triggered your flight/fight/freeze response.

This is a response triggered by your autonomic nervous system when your brain perceives a threat.  You may experience many physiological responses like:

increased pulse rate

sweating

shallow more rapid breathing

muscles tense up or you start to shake

narrow focus on what’s creating the stress response

These physical responses represent what happens to the body when you are under physical or emotional stress.

What Can You Do When You Notice This Happening?

I’d like to recommend combining two tools. The first is the Three Breath Trick I learned from Abigail (found in her Healthy Mind Toolbox) and the second tool I call Return To Your Senses.

The Three Breath Trick is very simple yet an incredibly powerful way to interrupt the spin cycle going on in your mind.  When coupled with the Return To Your Senses tool it may provide a long enough PAUSE that you notice yourself calming down.  From this place you’re more open to discover the cause of your stress using Abigail’s tools from the Healthy Mind Toolbox.

So how do you do it?

When you notice any of the physiological responses listed above happening in your body, bring your awareness to your breath.  Notice how you’re breathing then intentionally take three deep breaths deep into your belly.  Allow your belly to expand with each breath.  This is not a time to worry about holding in your stomach.  Let your belly relax and extend with each inhale.

While you’re breathing, pay attention to how your breath feels moving through your body; in through your nose and out through your mouth.  You can do the Three Breath Trick more than once.  Between each round of deep breaths, breathe normally for a few seconds.  Then continue with three deep belly breaths for up to nine cycles.

Next, bring your awareness to your five senses – sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste and ask yourself the following questions.

• What do I see around me in this moment? What do you physically see in your current environment?  Focus your attention on those items.
• What do I hear? Do you hear sounds of the world around you?  People’s voices?  The sounds of nature?  Sounds of an urban city or birds chirping?  Focus your attention on the sounds.
• What do I smell? Do you smell something cooking in the oven?  The smell of the dirt outside or smells coming from the breeze?
• What do I feel? Do you feel clothing on your body?  Do you feel your hands sitting on your lap?  Do you feel wind on your face?
• What do you taste? Did you recently have something to eat or drink and the taste lingers?  Or do you taste the familiar flavor of your own mouth?

You don’t need to be in a full blown panic attack to try this.  I invite you to take a few minutes and give it a try now.  Before you start, check in with your body to see where you notice any physical tension.  After you’re done see if you notice a shift in your physical body.

When you focus on your five senses and the present moment you quiet the spin cycle going on in your mind.

The last question:  after you’ve done the Three Breath Trick and the Return To Your Senses ask yourself this question.

Am I safe in this moment?

When you become present and quiet the fear in the mind you’ll discover at your deepest core lies peace and awareness.  You have love and everything you need all around you and you are safe.

With love and healing,

Diane

A smart and hardworking client who is a full-time student and almost full-time employee shared this thought recently. A cause of her angst? She took a nap after getting more done in a morning than I do some weeks. It got me thinking about this particularly sneaky form of perfectionism and self-criticism. It’s a crazy-making Catch 22: I’m not doing enough, so I better do more, which still won’t be enough, so I can either continue doing more in an increasing frenzy or get stuck and avoid thinking, feeling, and acting because it all seems like just too much – at the same time it’s not enough. Just perfect. (Pardon the expression).

When I think I’m not doing enough, I often do less. When I believe I’m not doing enough volunteering/donating/ paperwork/exercising/de-cluttering/flossing/?, I can become immobilized or unmotivated. Or I do the opposite: way too much. I overhelp from an anxious, pleaser place, which doesn’t feel good. It’s also annoying to most and under-appreciated by the rest…of those whom I am trying to do more for.

Why do we do this? In my case, I think it goes back to basic human fears: I am not safe; I am not enough. The irony is that self-judgment and perfectionism create conditions for the perfect (!) storm of the fight/flight/freeze response. This creates feelings of being even less safe and less adequate. Closely related to its cousins, “I should be doing more,” “I should be doing it better,” and “I’m not doing it right,” it’s also a setup for distraction and procrastination. Nothing happens, except we get to beat ourselves up for not doing enough (or anything.) Those of us who experience mind/body pain, anxiety, emotional eating, and other symptoms courtesy of the stress trifecta also get an excuse to view our disconnection through the same self-critical lens, and the “beat” goes on.

How to free one’s self from this loop? Here’s the thought I am playing with: maybe it’s all true. Rationally, I know that sometimes what I’m doing is enough and I just need to hold that thought. It may also be true that sometimes doing more would be better, and I’m not doing as much as I could be doing and it’s still enough. It might be what my body, energy, time, and sanity have to give right now, so it’s actually perfect. And some days, doing more is taking a nap.

Wishing you sweet days and dreams,
Ann

Years ago I received this excellent advice from one of the wisest and most practical people I know. At the time I was attempting some version of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, relying on my mechanical style statement of jamming the stubborn item (drawer, door, key, trunk lid, you name it) into its “proper” place.

His advice, that the most important information was 1)not that it didn’t fit, but 2)why and how it didn’t, and 3) how to make it work with ease, it was a lightbulb moment for me. It led to noticing what what was stuck – and to non-violent household solutions.

For awhile “Don’t Force It” was my DIY mantra. Eventually I realized its truth as a more global philosophy. Force leads to struggle, which leads to a fight/flight/flee stress response, which leads to a host of mind/body pain, from IC, back pain, and fibromyalgia, to weight gain, anxiety and beyond. When I started listening to my body, it all fell into place.“Don’t Force It” replaced my previous all-purpose motto, the old Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”

One of my “do’s” had been to drag myself to the running trail whether it sounded like fun or flogging. I eventually started to notice that when my body’s need was to heal, my muscles and joints weren’t happy, the endorphins didn’t kick in, and the experience was more ordeal than exercise. Coincidentally (or not), I started reading about the concept of over-training, which provided scientific evidence for what I was experiencing. The gods of “should,” OCD, and habit didn’t strike me down for taking a day or week off. My physical being thanked me with energy and lifted spirits. I began to focus on my body’s messages and expanded my awareness to other areas of my life.

Additionally, as I played with listening to my body, I realized that at times she wanted something (physical activity, completion of a task, protein) and had difficulty being heard because of whiny thoughts: “It’s too much work, I don’t feel like it, I deserve six cookies.” That’s when my logic mind and my meta-consciousness (Compassionate Witness, Wise Guide) entered my awareness as helpful detective and observer. They have also become guides to what my being really desires: whether it’s doing, not doing, doing something else, or choosing to do/not do it this time, or file the info for the future.

My To-Do or Not To-Do Steps:

1) Notice the physical sensations and emotions from a situation/decision, especially heavy or light

2) Notice thoughts attached to emotions/sensations, if thoughts arise

3) Ask yourself what message is being sent

4) Act accordingly

5) When values, uncertain boundaries, or practicalities lead to actions that don’t feel body-centered (i.e. attend the meeting, change the litter box, pay the bills) give self a hug for awareness and file as “good to know for the future/what did I learn from this?”

The Quick Version:

I encourage you to experiment with ways of hearing what your body is telling you. I’m still learning and I would love to hear your own listening techniques. There are multiple benefits and no down side to getting your body’s opinion – and letting go of unaware force.

May the Ease be with you!

Ann

This week, I thought you might like to have my latest update of the Free Writing Tool.  Even if you haven’t been utilizing the Healthy Mind Toolbox Audio Course, you might find this tool helps you become aware of emotions you may be inadvertently holding inside your body.  Bringing these emotions into your awareness will give you a chance to release them, release tension in your body, and relax into healing.

Download the Free Writing Tool here.

Have you ever felt like your body was filled with lead and actually doing the items on your list was harder than pushing a boulder uphill?

Have you ever forced yourself to do them all anyway, and ended up feeling exhausted, doing less-than-awesome work, and feeling downright horrible?

Nah. That’s probably never happened to you.

It has, however, happened to me! At least a few times each month, I experience this phenomenon we call resistance.

I used to beat myself up and feel guilt for even experiencing it, and then push myself through to the finish line with dogged determination. I used to think that if I forced myself to work through resistance, I’d get over it. I used to completely ignore my body whenever it had the lead-filled feeling.

It’s REALLY hard to ignore your body when your hoo-ha is on fire, your bladder is spasming, you have terrible gas all the time, and your knees throb.

Which is, of course, the point.

My body got seriously tired of me ignoring it. And after several years of learning how to listen to it, I now have a different reaction to the lead-filled feeling. I realize it means I need to stop. Now. Check-in. Breathe. Ask my body what it needs. Listen. Obey.

Resistance tells us to stop. If we honor that, we learn something important.

Like: It’s time to rest. I need more singing in my life. My body wants to sleep more this week. I feel like taking up dancing. I never did write that book I meant to write. I need to connect with a friend. This project is big, and I need help. I need to learn to delegate. That idea isn’t right for this project/moment/year. I need a date with my spouse. I need to play in the park with my kids. Time to shift my priorities. Today is not a creative day. Today is not a working day. I need to breathe deeply more often. Etc.

Whatever the message is, it’s something we need to hear. So resistance comes up to make us stop, listen, and learn. Which is why overriding the resistance is not helpful. It’s okay if it doesn’t all get done today. It’s okay if it’s not perfect. It’s just plain okay.

Stop.

About an hour before the call I noticed a stabbing pain in my stomach.  Twenty minutes before the call, my older son’s caregiver told me she wasn’t feeling well and asked to go home.  At the precise time the call was scheduled to begin, my sister rang to ask when she could drop off my younger son.  My thoughts drifted to the tower of projects perched on my desk.  I asked myself, might it be better to reschedule (for the third time?)

The scenario above provides a perfect example of when my mind does it’s very best to distract me from doing my work.  It really “thinks” it’s doing the right thing by throwing in the stomach pain or the phone call from the sister – anything to keep the decoy strategy alive.

The initial purpose for the call was to find the reason for my late night eating when I wasn’t hungry.  I had ten extra pounds of suppressed emotions camping out on my hips and I was ready to find out why.  All the little distractions that led up to the call were my mind’s way of avoiding the examination of some painful thoughts.

So, I climbed into bed, took a deep breath and made the call.  The “Whys” were ready to surface.

I looked myself directly in the mind and answered my coach’s questions honestly, openly and without judgment.  Bottom line, I was in attack and judgment mode and felt crappy.  All the while I rubbed my stomach trying to ease the painful cramping.

Thirty minutes into the call I made a break through.  I took a deep breath and laughed and in that moment noticed the stabbing pain in my stomach was completely gone.  My body knew I was believing a lie and when I let go of the belief that anything had to be different than it was, my body relaxed and said thank you.  When I’m in a state of loving what is, everything around me and in my mind is full of love.

What’s cool is that when I “fall out of love”, I have this reference to return to at any time.  My body is there to gently (and sometimes not-so-gently) get my attention to let me know I’m believing a painful story that’s untrue.

Do you remember a time when you experienced physical pain that seemed to appear with no explanation?  Do you recall what was happening in your life at that moment in time?  What was your emotional state?  Were you stressed, anxious, fearful, or sad?  Can you recall if you wanted something to be different?

When your body starts to hurt in all kinds of interesting ways including pelvic pain, a migraine, back pain, Interstitial Cystitis, or IBS to name a few, it’s doing the very best it can to show you, teach you, let you know there’s a valuable message for you to discover.  Start asking yourself questions to discover the truth.  When you do, you’ll be delighted to find the pain dissipate and crawl back into the recesses of your body and wait to serve as a messenger when you get distracted.  And maybe next time you’ll notice it just a little bit earlier until it only needs to be a whisper instead of loud, chronic pain.

If you’d like help with the questions, I’d love to support you through your discovery.

Cheers to 2011 and to listening to the wisdom of your body.  It never lies.

What comes to mind when you think about emotional suppression?

Being a mind body coach trained by our very own Abigail Steidley and a long-time master at emotional suppression*, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, discussing and experiencing emotional suppression. But I didn’t realize until today that when I think about emotional suppression, I only think about suppressing the…shall we say, slightly less comfortable emotions…

I’m guessing you know exactly what I mean by slightly less comfortable emotions, but just in case you need to be hit on the head (gently, of course, with a silk pillow or an oh so soft stuffed pig named Twinkletoes), here’s what I mean:

Slightly less comfortable emotions = anger, sadness, rage, frustration, shame, irritability, fear, boredom, anxiety, desperation, loneliness, fill in your favorite here ___________

While you may derive a sort of dark pleasure from referring to these emotions as crappy, yucky, sucky, or anything your creative self wants to dream up, they in fact, like all emotions, are energy in the body and are inherently neither positive nor negative. However, the story we tell about our emotions and the way that we express them will create experiences that may feel pleasurable, highly unpleasant, and anything in between.

Most of us come to mind body healing not purely for the joy of feeling emotions that we may have worked hard (albeit subconsciously) to suppress since Lincoln was in office, but rather to find relief from our pain. We embark on this journey with the hope that if we do this challenging, unappealing (at least at first), often unfamiliar work, we’ll get a result we dearly want.

If we stay with the work—which may involve stopping and starting, moving forward and backward, and innumerable retreats into the comfort of our familiar patterns and habits—we eventually find what we’ve really been looking for all along. We find ourselves.

If you’d told me a few years ago—heck, maybe even a few months ago—that taking this path would lead me to more of the self I already was, I might have run screaming in the other direction. I didn’t want to be more of myself unless it involved being a happier, fitter, more together, cellulite free, incredibly stylish, and professionally successful version of me (just for starters).

But along the way something started to change. I’m still undergoing this process, but I’m at the point where more of me doesn’t sound like such a bad idea anymore, and I can definitely see how more of you would definitely be a welcome addition to this world. I used to hate it when other people wrote things like that. How could they know that I had a light inside me if I sure as heck couldn’t see it? They didn’t know me. And I may or may not have met you. But I do know that everyone, including you, whether you believe me or not, is welcome and wanted in this world. And I’m talking about the you that you are today—high energy or low energy, natural weight or more or less, disconnected or connected—you name it.

So what does this have to do with emotional suppression?

As my coach friend lovingly helped me to realize yesterday, when we suppress, it’s not only the so-called negative emotions that we’re suppressing. We suppress the whole kit and caboodle, including laughter, playfulness, joy, power and more. Our emotions come as a package deal.

And when we suppress emotion, we’re containing the expression of ourselves: our innate wisdom, energy, vitality, the expression of our individual uniqueness and brilliance and so much more. Whether we know it consciously or not, there is something within all of us that’s yearning to be expressed. As we learn to allow our emotions to move through us in the moment, we learn to experience and express the grace of who we are.

Suppression is most definitely not “bad”—we learn to contain our emotions as a creative response to what’s happening in our environment. And unlearning suppression, if we choose to do so, takes time and commitment. But if you ever need some extra motivation or inspiration when you’re feeling discouraged, remember that when you’re ready, in your time, the universe is waiting with open arms for more you.

* Here’s the short story of emotional suppression in case you’re new to mind body healing…because you’re human (at least I’m assuming you are if you’re reading this), you feel. It just happens, the way rain falls and the wind blows. But sometimes for a wide variety of reasons, we learn that some, or even most, emotions are not okay to feel. So we work very hard to keep from feeling these emotions—or even knowing that we have them at all—by tensing our muscles and creating distractions in our minds and in our lives. This is the short story of emotional suppression—if you’d like to learn more, you’ll find lots of great tools and resources on Abigail’s blog.

I started reading the book one afternoon and put aside everything else immediately. I read the whole book in one sitting and heard the faint but distinct voice of my Inner Healer. The book spoke to a deeper part of me than my logical mind or my emotionally stressed heart. I took in everything Wise wrote and absorbed it thoroughly. I was interested in the physical therapy techniques for dealing with pelvic floor dysfunction. However, it was the other message in the book that drew my Inner Healer to it with a magnetic force.

To me, the core message of A Headache in the Pelvis is about relaxing both the body and the mind through relaxation techniques, breathing techniques, and cognitive therapy or learning to truly understand how thinking shapes our emotional lives. (This goes far beyond “just relax and you’ll feel better,” by the way. This is relaxation in a way most of us don’t truly utilize or even understand. It is powerful and extremely healing.) I knew without a doubt I needed to learn and apply everything about these mental techniques. I studied the book itself and then worked my way through the recommended reading, making trips to the library and bookstores regularly. I knew I was onto something right for me – my Inner Healer was dead certain.

I told this to Dr. Wise yesterday and the ensuing conversation included an important point that I felt was necessary to share with you, no matter where you are in your journey to health. As we talked about the mental/emotional concepts addressed in A Headache in the Pelvis, Wise told me many of the people who come to his clinic or read the book do not take those ideas to heart. He was excited to learn of the healing effect they had on me, and correlated the healing process for pelvic pain to the process of losing weight. Many people want the quick fix, the magic pill, or the instantaneous result. Lasting weight loss takes time and lifestyle changes. The body cannot be rushed. Likewise, healing must include digging to the root of the problem to eliminate it forever.

This has absolutely been my experience. Had I simply done physical therapy, I know I would not have healed. Five seconds after I left the physical therapists’ office, I was taking my freshly relaxed muscles straight back to square one with each passing minute. The constant process of storing stress and emotion in my pelvic muscles was just that – constant. To undue the tension during an appointment was just a miniscule moment in time compared to the ongoing tension that wasn’t being undone in those muscles. It wasn’t enough.

My Inner Healer was extremely wise, as usual. She knew I needed to undo the process of storing tension in those muscles and really learn new ways to approach every aspect of my life. Only then would I be getting to the root of the problem. I am always so impressed with my Inner Healer when I look back and see her genius in retrospect. She took me through the somewhat long (roughly six months) and not entirely easy process of changing myself, and how I deal with life on the very deepest level. I won’t say it was a simple or quick process. However, the payoff was far greater than I could ever have imagined. Not only did I heal completely but my entire life changed for the better. My depression lifted, my creativity skyrocketed, and I became a version of myself I had only dreamed of previously.

The quick fix may have the allure of instant gratification, but the deep fix has the allure of complete health. I am grateful to Dr. Wise and his incredibly valuable, enlightening, and calming writing for starting me on the journey to this place of absolute, whole, mind-body health.