In today's episode, I'm going to share three mistakes that people make when it comes to dealing with a chronic illness that keeps them stuck in what I call a disease middle ground. That's all. Coming up here on Embrace Your Healing Journey podcast. Stay tuned. 5s There was a time our daughter used to hardly sleep at night. She used to lie awake almost all night, itchy and unable to sleep. This was due to her severe eczema and before she went to bed at night. It was an hour long ritual of deep moisturizing, wearing red wrap, which is basically clothing made of a special material that retains moisture when wet, and so it prevents the skin from drying out in the night. It was really uncomfortable, but at that time we were willing to try anything to help, and we had already gone through the whole gamut of moisturizers, lotions, phototherapy, you name it. We had tried it medications, but nothing was really helping her to that extent. And remember that my two year old son was very small at that, and he also wanted one where it's like these long sleeved clothings which covers your entire body so you are covered from your neck down. So it's like a top and a trouser kind of a thing, but it's made of this tingly material, so it clings to your skin and prevents it from drying out. To some extent it was effective to some extent, but you know, that was not the solution. But my son also wanted one because the sister is to wear one. So we got him a blue one. So I have this picture of the two of them, one wearing pink, my daughter wearing pink. Yes. No mean it's a girl boy thing, but that's what it was. And my son was wearing a blue one and they have smiles on their face. But only I know as a mother how much pain was behind that smile for my daughter. 1s So the year was 2013, and at that time we were going from one doctor to another trying to find the right medicine that would help bring her eczema under control, her severe eczema under control. And she was already on immunosuppressive medication called cyclosporine. We had already tried a couple of other drugs, and she had also been on a steroid for about six months the year before. So we had all of this. We had a caring team of doctors trying their best to help us. And but there were certain mistakes that I was making because we were not, you know, told that there was any other way to help her. And that's the reason I decided to do this episode. Before I talk about the other aspects of chronic illnesses, autoimmune conditions, gut health, I chose to talk about this episode as one of the early episodes so that, you know, you know, if you need to change anything, because I learned a lot and I'm going to share that with you. And as I said, we had a caring team of doctors trying their best to help help our daughter. And yet the only solution that conventional medicine had was to offer her one medication after another. And while these medications had to make her life bearable, they were clearly not the solution we were looking for. And so we were pretty much stuck in what I call a disease merry go round, not knowing where to go next. And this went on for many years till one of the medications that she was on, so she was put on, it was a new medication doing all kind of due diligence, and she was admitted in the ICU with a life threatening infection. And I've spoken about this in episode number one in detail. And what finally helped get her off, you know, her medications, you can go back and listen to that. And, you know, the reason that I said, I choose to talk about it because I wish, you know, I wish that someone had told me when she was a baby to focus on her gut health, because that was the key to actually bringing her immune system back into balance and bringing her eczema under control. And it would have definitely prevented her eczema from becoming so severe over the years. None of these things happen overnight. No chronic illnesses develop overnight. And how it's developed over a period of five years or so, and it could have saved her so much of pain and suffering. It could have saved our family a lot of pain and suffering. In any case, I learned a lot during that phase from during that phase of our lives. And. One of the good things that came out of that phase is that went on to discover functional medicine that eventually turned her health around, and it changed our life, our entire family's life. And if you're listening here to this podcast episode, chances are that you may be stuck in some kind of disease. Merry-Go-Round, too. And this is why I'm talking about the three mistakes that people make when they're dealing with any kind of chronic illness. Or maybe you will get something out of it and make some changes, because you may be wondering why you are going around in circles, trying to get better, trying to get your symptoms under control. But your symptoms keep getting worse despite your best efforts, right? You have tried one medication after another, maybe even one diet after another. Going gluten free, dairy free, maybe going paleo keto for more than three years, but without seeing very little results. Maybe not much improvement either. And you may have even tried other healing modalities such as homeopathy and weather, but you've not really seen any sustained improvement. You're sure you've seen some improvement, some, you know, some reversal of symptoms, but you've not seen a got a long term solution yet and can completely relate to the frustration and hopelessness that you may be feeling right now. Because this is how I felt for a very long time. I felt really desperate and hopeless and helpless because I didn't know what else could be done. I had no other solution. But then I realized that the mistake was making what mistakes I was making. It was only when I changed my approach that I finally found a long term solution. And I see that many people make the same mistakes, like the clients that I work with, people all around me, you know, people with all kinds of chronic illnesses, including autoimmune conditions. And I want to share that with you. And I want to open your eyes so that you can take a different approach. So here are the three most common mistakes. Mistake number one. 1s Most people rely on the experts for all the answers, like to get all the answers from the experts and they keep waiting for years, if not decades, because they believe that they don't have any role to play in their own healing journey. So they believe that all the answers lie outside of them, and they can only be provided by someone with a medical degree or some such qualification, and that they have no role whatsoever and they can't do anything about their own healing. Mistake number two. They rely only on medications to deal with the severe symptoms, believing that one day they will be able to find the right medication that will solve all their problems. And this is where I was stuck for a long time, believing that the next drug would give us, give her the solace that we were looking for. But that day never came because there is no such drug. So a mistake. Number three they ignore or suppress their symptoms without realizing that this is their bodies way of getting their attention and letting them know that something is wrong. Your symptoms are a gift. They are your body's way of sending you messages to get your attention, to tell you where to focus on, what to prioritize and if you are going to ignore them or suppress them with medications, then you are sort of just wasting opportunities and wasting valuable time to do something about your own healing. Right? And maybe to prevent further deterioration of your condition in the future. So what happens as a result of these mistakes? Right. They lose. People lose valuable time in preventing ongoing tissue damage. They are. Instead of supporting their bodies healing process, they continue to fight it because that's the way that they have been told that they can get better, and they feel disempowered because they're simply not aware of the important role that they play in their own healing process. Right. So these are all things that keep them stuck for a very, very long time and maybe some many times on a lifetime of medications. And this is certainly where we were stuck for almost five years before I realized the mistakes that are making, that we were making. It took a long time to come to this realization. It's been a whole process, and I don't want you to wait and wait any longer. I don't want you to be under the misconception that there is this miracle cure out there that's going to help solve all your problems. I want you to take action right now without waiting for anyone's else's permission, without waiting to get the right diagnosis, without getting to know, without waiting for the next test report. Of course, diagnosis is important. Of course medication is important, and I strongly believe that. It's not whether you should be searching for answers or a diagnosis or getting a test done right, because you can get a lot of data and use certain medications to bring maybe very severe symptoms and the control and prevent further tissue damage. But you also need to find a way to address your root causes. And because that's going to be a long term solution. So it's both actually right. It's not either this or that. It's not conventional medicine and addressing the root causes. It's actually a mix of both. Right. That's that's that's what it has to be. That's the kind of approach that you need to take. And in our case, I did these three things that finally helped to bring my daughter's health back into balance. So when I look back over the years, I did not know this is what I was doing. It's only when you look back that you can connect the dots. I think Steve Jobs said that and it's so true. So when I look back to those years, last ten years or so, you know, now I can see and connect those dots, right. So what are the three things that I did differently? Number one. I stopped waiting for others to give me all the answers, and did my own research for almost a year before I came, finally came across, and practically stumbled across handsome medicine that helped address the root causes. And functional medicine is a stream of medicine that helps to find and addresses the root cause of disease. Using a systems biology approach where we believe that each organ in our body are a network of systems talking to each other, or each hormones are talking to each other, the neurotransmitters. So we are all one whole person and everything is communicating with everything else. So you need to address the whole person, right? So that is not waiting for others to give us all the answers. Right? I was taking their help to manage the day to day condition, but I was looking at taking a more long term and a more root cause approach. The second thing I did was I stopped believing that suppressing my daughter's immune system with strong medications was the only way for her to get better, right? I stopped believing that. I realized through my research that that was not the crucial I was hoping for. And that's why there was not one miracle drug or medication that would help her magically get better. I needed to find a way to bring her immune system back into balance, and I did that by focusing on her gut health, because that's where 80% of our chronic illnesses start. And that's certainly true for 100% of all auto immune conditions. And I'm going to address that in episode number five. So you can go in here, listen to that one. And the third thing that I did is I took complete responsibility for her healing journey. Right. That means that I decided to take the steps that were necessary in terms of dietary changes, in terms of lifestyle changes, in terms of making changes in our environment, removing things that were toxic for including cleaning products, detergent products in the laundry products, and putting in things. 1s Of cultivating a positive mindset and building her inner resiliency. Adding in nutrients so its physical, emotional and spiritual. You know, the healing happens across all levels. So and because she was a very small child at that time, I as a parent had to take her responsibility. If you are going through a chronic health condition and you want or you want to prevent one in the future, you have to take responsibility for your own healing journey. That means you need to, you know, understand which are the areas that you need to focus on how you can support your body's healing process. Right. It's not about stopping all medications or treatments, but rather than making rather about making lifestyle and dietary changes on top of medications. If you are on medications right now, it's as I said, it's actually yes and approach. Yes. You may need to be on medications. You may need to be on treatments, you may need to do certain tests and figure out what actually is going on and address that at the same time, you also need to take responsibility of the food that you're putting in your mouth and food really covering this topic. You know what food is medicine. So what you're putting in your mouth is your responsibility. How you're living your life is your responsibility. How you're dealing with your stress is your responsibility. And I'll be talking about all of these areas in upcoming episodes. 1s In fact, what I, you know, I, I find that believing that there is simply nothing you can do about your own healing is a single, most disempowering belief that you can have. Right? That is what is keeping you stuck. That is what is making go round in circles in a disease made you go down because you believe that there is nothing you can do apart from taking popping in a pill or just going to the doctor in one specialist after another, maybe one doctor after another, hoping for some answers. Right? And that there is nothing else that you can do. And because you believe that you are not able to take the steps to find out what can be a solution for you, what are the other ways? What are others doing? You know, there are, you know, the internet is an amazing place, but if with some amount of intentional research, we can actually find resources and this podcast is all about helping you with those resources, and you don't have to sift through all of that for a year like I had to. I mean, it took me almost a year because the internet does throw up a lot of crap as well, right? But I needed to figure out and filter out what was real, what was not, what was fact, what was fiction. And it took me a long time to get there. But this podcast is going to shorten that time for you. You don't have to do that. In each episode. I will be sharing books, etcetera, so that you can actually just go straight to that resource and see what is applicable for you, because outsourcing your entire healing process and keeps you from getting better, it prevents you from figuring out what you know. You need to focus on what you need to prioritize, and it also undermines your confidence in your body's own healing properties, healing capabilities, and it prevents you from taking any action. So here this is where you remain stuck, maybe for a very long time, without realizing the power that you have, that you hold in your hands, that the power that your body has because it has kept you, you know, safe, it has kept the species alive over millions of years of evolution. Our species wouldn't have survived if our body was so weak and vulnerable. 2s And to the biggest mindset shift that I want you to make today is to own your healing journey. Because the reality is this unless you take complete responsibility for your own healing journey, you will continue to feel helpless and frustrated as you keep waiting to find answers, to get better and to get your life back right. And so the path to healing from any chronic condition which cannot be cured by one particular medication because it is multifactorial, there are many contributing factors. It begins with a shift in your mindset, and IT mindset is about owning your healing journey. So when you take ownership of this journey and you focus on the true root causes rather than just the symptoms, healing becomes possible. And it happens not only at a physical level, because sometimes the damage is very extensive and obviously everything cannot be reversed. But the healing happens at an emotional and spiritual level as well, which is not dependent on what's happening at the physical aspect. Right. So this is what I want to leave you today. There is one thing that you take away from this episode. I want you to know the kind of power that your body has to heal when given the right kind of support, when you know when it is asked to live in the right kind of an environment that is conducive for healing. So it's your responsibility towards your body to provide that. And although that road may be long, that's why I call it a journey. It's, it's, you know, you can have its ups and downs. I want you to have faith in your body's wisdom, to guide you along this journey, to guide you along this path and take it one step at a time. So we take one step today, then another step tomorrow, and then and pretty soon, that you find that as you go along this path, being guided by your own body, you know when you are going off track and you come back again on, you know, on the right path, it's very hard to get lost. Right. And you and also what helps you is to surround yourself with the supportive community that is a part of our podcast community on Facebook. It's called Embrace Your Healing Journey podcast, so you can look for it and you can find it. I'm going to share the link below. So you are surrounded by women on a similar journey, and that also helps you keep going. And that's all I have to share today. So thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Embrace Your Healing Journey. If you love this episode, do take a minute to write a five star review. It would help me to bring more content, you know, similar content to you. And in the next episode, I dive into a very important yet little understood and controversial topic that is common. Can chronic illnesses like autoimmune disease actually be reversed? 1s Your body knows how to heal. It just needs your support. I hope that you're going to give it that.
