The strange process of healing
I continue to exist in a state of “medium low” as I balance my healing process with caring for a 2 yr old, parenting a struggling teenager, navigating a long-distance relationship, running a healing centre, building four new houses on the ridge, renovating the learning centre and writing a book.
I feel like my one of my patients, with symptoms of low energy, poor digestion, a fragile voice. However I am grateful to have moved out of the stage of having a sore throat, blowing my nose constantly, coughing all night and feeling weak and discouraged.
In fact, I am positively cheerful these days. As my homeopath Dr Veronika reminds me, this process is my mental imbalance moving from my mind out through the body as I release longstanding negative patterns, specifically deeply held fears that have been haunting me most of my life.
It is a strange process, this healing. I’m feeling akin to Karen losing 100 lbs and not recognizing herself as I go through my own changes (see Karen Secord’s ongoing posts this month & in our archive: “Food Fights”). I can go for walks in the dark now. My mind is softer, less critical, kinder — whereas before I had to make an effort to appear that way when feeling the opposite. People that used to irritate me a LOT now seem quite likeable — which is infinitely more pleasant for me! My tastes have changed suddenly: after decades of hating sour foods, I am now wanting them and adding them to my meals. And I am eating more raw food, something I couldn’t handle since the days before my eating disorder, although my digestion is still needing to get truly strong. My period appeared on time again after many months of being irregular, a sign of renewed vitality.
These hopeful changes make it easier to deal with the classic low energy that comes with deep healing. German New Medicine explains that after we resolve a stress that has been there a long time, the body has to recover with a letdown phase where the parasympathetic part of our nervous system predominates. The fatigue makes us rest in order to repair the internal damage caused by the stress. So I go to sleep when Felix does almost every night, trusting that when my energy comes pouring back that I will be able to catch up on all the unfinished business on my desk in no time — rather than slogging through it and making this phase last longer — which I do often enough anyway!
I realize I could move faster into recovery by giving up more things on my plate. I have already let go of my role in running our retreats, beyond a few appearances for classes, and cancelled my professional lectures over the next year, except for a presentation at our national naturopathic convention in Calgary in June! I am also developing systems in the clinic to improve patient care and delegate some of my roles to others. Naturopath Kealy Mann is helping immensely in this regard.
That would be it for now, except for an interesting anecdote. Last week I received a phone call at midnight from my 19 yr old daughter Coral after she had bashed her head on the sidewalk from a longboard fall and was dizzy and incoherent. I called an ambulance immediately and when I arrived at the hospital, Coral was barely able to form sentences and was under observation. I slipped her the homeopathic remedy Arnica 1M and within 15 minutes she was speaking normally again, amazed at the transformation. She was so well that she was able to go home after only a neurological exam and no Xray. It reminded me of a patient we treated when I was a student at naturopathic college who had epilepsy as a result of a head injury. One dose of Arnica cured it and she no longer needed her medication, Dilantin, that she had been taking for 10 months. Even after 30 years, that is a vivid memory!
It is a little frustrating to have to wait before creating more courses and programs to share the vast information that natural medicine has to offer. For instance, a first aid course that uses homeopathic remedies such as Arnica is an invaluable addition to anyone’s medicine cabinet! However, after we complete most of our infrastructure at the centre over this next year, we will be able to focus on content and offer invaluable tips that can make your life better.
In the meantime, thank you for bearing with our growing pains, especially once construction starts in spring!
And here’s to being patient with your own healing process. . .
~Katherine
(note: photo image by Sara Grein)
