The Summit Method: The Question Beneath The Symptom

In this episode, I introduce one of the foundational concepts behind The Summit Method: the idea that healing is not determined by what you choose, but by why you choose it. We explore the difference between operating from faith versus fear, how those two states influence every layer of healing, and why awareness may be the missing piece for so many people who feel stuck in cycles of symptoms, frustration, and uncertainty.

In this episode:
The question that changed how I think about healing
Why most people focus on the "what" instead of the "why"
The difference between faith, trust, and fear
The four layers of The Summit Method
How fear can disguise itself as healing
Why awareness is often the first step toward transformation
Perimenopause as an example of fear-driven versus faith-driven healing
A simple 7-day practice to identify whether fear or trust is driving your decisions

Summit takeaway: “Maybe you're not making the wrong choices. Maybe you're making the right choices from the wrong place.”

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Continue the conversation on Instagram: @alannacrawford_

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Summit of Deck, where science meets goal and you don't have to pick one or the other. Hi, I'm your host, Elena Crockett, osteopathic manual practitioner and wiking applicator. On the pod, we're talking about body wisdom, energy, intuition, and becoming an expert on your own feeling. Whether you're looking to find yourself again, create a new version, or see, just here for the results, you're in the right place. I'm here to demystify spiritual curiosities while adding a layer of humanness to the healthcare experience. No gatekeeping, no pedestals. This podcast is for the woman who is ready to take her power back. Let's do it!

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday! How are we? What's going on? What's new? What's good? Today's episode, it actually didn't come from a common question. It really came from an aha moment I had when I've been building out this new framework that I'm rolling out for how I do treatment moving forward. Um, it's how I've always been doing it, but I'm really formalizing it. Um, and if you want to work with me, this is the way we're gonna do it. Uh, because I think it's the best. Anyway, I've been talking about this on Instagram, um, and I pretty much talk about this framework uh with every episode and every topic on this podcast. But I believe that when we're looking at a healing process, there are layers to it. If we want to get like really exact, I think there's four layers. Um, and again, no shade to our healthcare sector. Like I do very much count myself lucky every single day uh that I live in a in a country with free healthcare. Yes, it does have its issues and its limitations being that way, but I do believe that free um is the best way as the most people can be helped that need it. But because it's designed that way, often when we look at a symptom someone is experiencing, we look at it siloed. And when I say symptom, I don't mean emergency medicine. I think our healthcare system is outstanding for emergency medicine. But I'm talking more along the lines of chronic pain, chronic digestive issues, pretty much something chronic that doesn't have a mechanism of action. And when I when I say a mechanism of action, I mean it doesn't have a memorable moment when it happened. Either like an injury or being in an accident. You ate something specific along those lines. It's when I say chronic symptom, it means it showed up one day and you can't really pinpoint what caused it. Um and it's either stayed persistent this whole time or it waxes and wanes and it comes and goes based on things that you try. So when we look at that in traditional in the traditional healthcare sector, we get sent down one rep. So I'm gonna use chronic pain as an example, um, just with my osteopathic background. So we'll go in, we'll get sent for x-rays or ultrasounds, and then based on those findings, um, whether there is something on imaging or there isn't, but the level of pain is high, you'll typically get sent to a physio. And physio, physiotherapist. So the physio gives you the treatment prescription for the body part that was identified as the injury. Pain gets better, but then it comes back. So patient goes back to the doctor. This time they get some sort of painkiller and likely an injection, like a steroid or a hyaluronic acid, and back to physio. And this can keep happening sometimes, like a surgery consult gets looped in, um, but it's usually a bit, it's a bit more of that same song and dance that's happening. And I'm not saying physio is not a good physio. That's that's in no way what I'm saying. It's just that they're treating one layer of a problem that really has an unknown origin. Because again, like we're talking about these chronic, unidentified start phases. So this is where I typically get people in my clinic. I not so much now because I've been in the game for a long time and people understand who I am and what I do, but this was 95% of my caseload in the first couple years that I started. I was the last resort. Most people came to me angry, frustrated, losing faith, um, in really finding a way to feel better. And they've kind of they were in a fear state. Fear it wouldn't get better. And therefore, they're in a position where they're just handing over agency to myself or to anyone who claimed that they had the missing puzzle piece onto why this was happening and how they could make it better. And that has always been a big part of my process, not operating from fear. I could never really put that into words though. Like I didn't have, I knew what it felt like and what it looked like, but I didn't have that those words. And maybe because it shows up different in everyone, like fear shows up on a different level in different ways in everybody. But I was listening to this uh lecture series by Carolyn Mace. Um, in like I was listening to this lecture series, it was like 10 hours of lectures, um, when I was really like hunkering down and putting pen to paper to write out what is my treatment framework. When people ask me, what do you do? How are you different? And I was really focused on sitting down and putting that onto paper. Um, I heard something in that lecture series that completely, I don't want to say changed the way I think about helping people, but how I verbalize it. And it's not a new tool, it just gave me one new question. Or rather, it showed me this was a question I've always been asking. I just I couldn't get to the point fast enough. So it's gonna help me get there faster. So most people think life responds to a decision that they made. Should I get imaging? Should I see a physio, chiro, or osteo? Should I do an injection? Um, to the other side of the stuff that I deal with in clinic on the energetic side of stuff. Should I stay in this marriage? Should I leave? Should I drink? Should I quit drinking? Should I start the business? Should I have the baby? Should I move? We spend all of our energy obsessing over making the right choice. But what if that's not actually what matters? What if the what, the what of the situation has no bearing at all, but it's the why. A woman stays in a marriage. Was it the wrong decision? It depends. She leaves a marriage. Was that the right decision? It depends. Someone takes medication, someone refuses medication, somebody drinks alcohol, somebody quits alcohol. None of these actions are inherently good or bad. The universe, although people think so, the universe actually isn't grading your life like a multiple choice exam. It's not. Often people live in this obsession of is their choice right or wrong? Or was their choice right or wrong? Am I still experiencing this thing because I made the wrong choice? And if I just made that right choice, or now knowing what I know and I and I make a different choice, will it solve my problems? And I don't think that that's the right question. I think the better question is did I make that decision from faith or did I make that decision from fear? And that's the wording that she gave me that I've been trying to figure out what it is that I that I choose to operate from. So faith, faith is actually the term she uses, and I wanted to modify that to be trust, but when I really started to get into it, trust doesn't encompass the entire picture. So I think that faith can have religious connotations, and this has nothing to do with that. Faith means trust, faith means belief, faith means surrender to a point. I have trust and belief in yes, a higher power, but also my higher self, my intuition. You really want to get into it, my solar plexus, if you will. And fear is the opposite. Fear is contraction. We've talked about that before. How an expansion feels outward, a yes feels outward, or fear or lack is an inward. It's a contraction, it's control, it's protection, it's avoidance. So here's ways you can look at questions I see in my clinic. Um when people come in for Reiki with relationship questions, staying in a relationship. Faith says, I believe this can be repaired. Fear says, a fear-based decision says, I'm terrified of being alone. So that's why I stay. Quitting a job. Faith says, I know there's something better. Fear says I need to escape this immediately. The choice to drink alcohol, faith says, I'm choosing this consciously because it genuinely adds value to this experience. Fear says, I don't know how to be here without it. I'll give you a personal anecdote there. I had not drank alcohol for 12 weeks, gave it up for a few reasons. Um, last Saturday we were going to a wine festival. When I decided to give up alcohol for however long, right? Not claiming to be sober. Um that thought stuck in my mind. Oh, I'm going to this wine festival. Well, what if I can't drink and you get the chatter? Um, I did end up choosing to have drinks at the festival. And I did it because it was a game time decision. It wasn't like I needed, after that 12 weeks, I didn't need to be there with alcohol. I could show up as me and have just a good time. I actually thought this does add value to my experience. I'm at a local wine festival. It's gonna be so fun. And the worst part, worst or best part, is I actually felt fine the next day. Nothing changed in my life. I always want alcohol to rock me so hard after I quit drinking for a long time because I I just wanted an excuse to cut it. But it's really alcohol for me. Alcohol is not the problem. It's it's the reasons why. And that's exactly to my point here. Same action, different energy, creates a different frequency. So in my clinic, my first focus, my first focus of treating somebody, of working with somebody is what layer, what layer of healing, what layer of the body, what layer of the psyche is talking the loudest right now? Which one has the alarm bells on? And then going to that layer and asking whether the layer is operating from faith or fear. And maybe this isn't as exciting as it is for you guys as it is for me, but it's it's a really, this question is a really important step in me speeding up our endpoint. And I think it's a really great entry point for you as the listener, if you are stuck in a siloed approach to your own healing right now, you can incorporate this question to start to gain some momentum at your layers. Let's look at the layers. So the first layer is the physical layer. I always say physical is the first way in. It's the easiest way into lasting healing, but it's not, it's again, it's not always the first way in. Some layers really truly are screaming way louder, um, and we might need to start there. But if you are attempting this journey on your own, I highly suggest the easiest starting point and the lowest hanging fruit, easiest to entry, is the physical. And when we say physical, that's like exercise or movement, food, sleep, supplements. People always assume that because they're in these categories that their choices are healthy. And sometimes they are, but sometimes there's not. And here's a way to look at that: exercising because you love your body, exercising for longevity and brain and heart health. Those are great ways of operating from faith. But exercising because you're terrified of gaining weight or your worth feels wrapped up in your physical appearance, appearance, appearance, that is operating from fear. So you're using this, it's the same action. We're exercising, but it's a different base decision and therefore creates a different frequency. So the next layer is our nervous system, and those are things like meditation, breath work, rest, therapy. Are you working in this layer because you want to help your body and your mind heal? Or because you actually want to stop feeling numb out and use them as escapism, because all of those things can go either way, and there's a big difference. The third and fourth layer, I kind of pair them together here, is emotional and energetic. Um, and these are things that are like working with manifestation, journaling, tarot, Reiki, spirituality, psychedelics, therapy, yes, talk therapy, but often in this category, you'll get more of like the alternative sides of therapy. Um, and you want to ask here, am I doing this because I want to identify and break patterns? Or am I doing this because I'm desperately trying to control the future? I see this as an energy worker with my frequent flyers who are constantly coming in for Reiki, Tarot, Mediumship, Akashic Records, like they're trying to control the future or get the future dictated to them so that they can plan every step accordingly. And still, it's a form of control, and that's not breaking patterns. So I want to take this framework and put it in the example of perimenopause. I mainly treat women, and perimenopause has become kind of the default for everyone. And please let me state: I am not saying you are not in perimenopause, but I think that perimenopause is such a good example of fear versus faith. And I'm honestly probably my next episode will be a full episode on perimenopause, but now we're just we're gonna do the cliff notes, okay? So, firstly, I believe the internet and every woman's health podcaster has women aged 37 to 45 feeling, fearing that they're in penny perimenopause. Um, perimenopause is being shoved down our throats, and it's kind of scary. We live in a world where we want predictability, kind of like what I'm talking about with my frequent flyers, right? We want certainty. So, for all of these experts, and I'm I'm air-quoting experts because I think a lot of people talking matter-of-factly about women in their 30s being in perimenopause are not experts. Um, so when someone's stating all of these symptoms that you have, and keep in mind, these symptoms can be for many reasons, and it's and it's they're so common, and so many of them are experiencing them because it is to be a woman in this day and age, there's such weight put on that, so much expectation, so much like all of these symptoms are very real symptoms that might not be related to perimenopause. I digress, but you see all these symptoms and you're like, yep, that's me. And this expert or this person is so confidently stating that if I have these things, then I have perimenopause. So you take that and you go see your doctor. And sometimes the doctor will run a hormone panel, but often perimenopause is based, is diagnosed based on symptoms because a hormone panel is just a snapshot of your hormones at one moment in time. So it's not necessarily the best gauge unless you did do a hormone panel and you're truly like you're tanking your hormones on on a low end or you're in high excess on the other side. But often people are not on those. And and if they truly are and they're tanking are really high when they use an HRT or when they work on their hormones, they're not in a chronic phase because they they take the thing and it gets better. But if you're not that and you didn't do a hormone panel, or your hormones were normal, but you're still they put you on HRT because it's really easily prescribed based on symptoms, and you get sent on your way. And it does work for a bit, so you get some hope, but then you end up with the symptoms again. I see a lot of women in my office who are on HRT and they're still experiencing a wide range of symptoms and desperately, desperately trying to fix their bodies. I see more exercise, more supplements, more protocols. And this isn't inherently wrong, but it's it's fear. Fear is driving all of this. And when we get to the deeper layers, it's fear of aging, it's fear of change, it's fear of losing herself. It's like a midlife crisis. All of a sudden you hit this age, and it's like, bam, you think it's perimenopause, and you're thinking, like, am I doing what I should be doing? And it's really like a coulda, shoulda, woulda moment. And you ask, how do I get my old self back? And that question is being asked in fear. The faith-based question, which switches everything on its head in this in this instance, is who am I becoming? Regardless of your if you're truly in perimetopause or not, we stop asking, what can I do? How can I fix this? And we flip it. The summit method, see what I did there, branding. It asks, what layer is speaking? What does this layer need? Is fear driving this? And what would faith do instead? And let's make that process a participatory conversation and ponder this. Maybe your life isn't stuck because you're making the wrong choices. Maybe you're making the right choices, but you're making those choices from the wrong place, the wrong driving factor. What is meant for you will never miss you. It should truly, truly won't. And I say that all the time. It will just take a really long time to get there if we're in the wrong operating system. When we get stuck in these cycles or stuck in these symptoms, it's not because the what you are doing is wrong. It's the why behind it. Like attracts like. We talk about this. So if we keep deciding or we keep vibrating from fear, we're going to keep getting the same results because we're going to keep attracting those results. If we begin to flip the script and decide from faith, we start to attract that which is aligned with a higher frequency. And if this all feels really overwhelming to you, I'm gonna simplify it to this. For the next seven days, every decision, big or small, ask yourself, am I choosing this because I trust, or am I choosing this because I'm afraid? And just notice. You don't have to change anything. You can still do your normal decisions if you want to. I just want you to notice and don't judge it. Just literally clock it. Because awareness truly is a massive, massive step in the healing process. It literally can be as simple as that, even just starting with that awareness. But it so gets missed because it seems so simple. And if you want a little more, look at the layers. What layers driving the bus for you? And where are you operating from there? And when you figure that out, hit me up on Instagram at Alana Crawford underscore and let me know. That's all I have for you today, folks. I hope you have a wonderful week and I will see you next Wednesday. Love ya.