Last time, we explored the idea that everything is interconnected and even whole units (like cells) are parts of a greater ‘ONE’ (the human body, the planet, the universe). Let’s now wonder what happens when those parts stop recognizing each other as one unit and begin to attack one another.
As an adult, I experienced a myriad of health concerns that left doctors scratching their heads. After getting back blood work that showed only minor inflammation, I was told by one doctor, "You can touch your toes, you are healthy to me". She was saying that because I was thin, I was healthy. She sent me home with Prevacid for my chronic digestive discomfort.
Over time, I learned that the answers to my health issues were not to be found with traditional medicine. After much research and dabbling with self-diagnoses, I finally found an integrative physician that was able to uncover some of the root causes of my many ailments. Mold exposure, candida overgrowth, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis were just a few discoveries. This led me down the path of health coaching, and I began to inhale any information about health, nutrition, and the imbalances in our systems.
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease where our immune system attacks and kills hormone-producing thyroid cells thus resulting in a decline in hormone production. Other autoimmune diseases include type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, colitis, and more. The University of Oxford just released data showing that 1-10 people now experience autoimmune diseases. This is double what was reported just 8 years ago.
No one is completely sure why our bodies do this. We are learning that lifestyle choices, environmental toxins, and stress levels play a critical role, though. Stress can be related to the unprecedented ‘busy’ factor our society cherishes, emotional traumas, toxic relationships, and addictions just to name a few triggers. Disease and infections are another version of stress that impacts the body’s immune system. For me, I learned that my body was defending itself from mold exposure, while also trying to fight off parasites, worms, and candida. It was too much. In the process, it began attacking itself. I wonder if it was in such a state of stress, it was no longer capable of recognizing itself. Frantic to protect itself from possible threats.
Recently, I started to draw some parallels between autoimmune diseases in our bodies and the state of our society in the world. The similarities were bizarre. As humans, we go through periods where it seems we no longer recognize one another and then attack. Our attacks can be with negative looks, whispers, words, or weapons but we no longer seem to recognize that we are part of a greater whole. It seems if we have different political beliefs, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, or cultural backgrounds we must be separate- no longer connected as one.
I wonder how much this impacts our internal world. Could our insides be matching our outsides? Could we look within and heal our internal universe and that may shift what is going on around us? Or could we start to embrace our differences as integral parts of a whole and begin to heal our internal dis-ease? It is like the Gandi quote - “Be the change you want to see” What if by calming our internal world we could create a ripple effect that calms our universe?
Question: How is your internal world? Is your body trying to communicate unrest? Is there one thing you could add in or remove that might create more calm in your body? If you could tap into your calm, would this impact anyone or anything else?
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