Listen Up! A Guide to What Your Physical Symptoms Are Telling You
Hey, all you lovely Wellness Rookie readers! I’m Clara Wisner, NTP and I write over at rEvolutionary Lifestyle. I’m so pumped to be able to collaborate with Cass and write something for the Wellness Rookie community! I feel very lucky to know Cass from way back (we went to the same high school!) and share her Montana roots. I love Cass’s message and how she makes health and wellness practical and accessible to everyone. On my end, I help women struggling with compulsive and disordered eating ditch self-sabotaging beliefs and fear-based food choices, so that they can focus on living the joy-filled life they deserve, and stop obsessing over food. One way I do this is by addressing the emotional components of physical symptoms. Read on…
Do you have an injury that just won’t heal? Maybe you are still struggling with weight gain, a sluggish immune system, or motivation even though you are taking good care of yourself? Do you find yourself having a hard time pushing past certain health/fitness plateaus even though you seem to be doing everything “right”?
You’re not alone. I’ve been there.
About one year ago I had finally gotten to a place where my diet was dialed in, my exercise routine was one that worked for me consistently, I was sleeping well, I had a healthy relationship, everything was “squared” away.
But…
I still had this nagging feeling that something was off. All the effort I was putting in to be healthy made me feel good, but it also felt like a lot of work at times, like a lot of sacrifice.
As a certified clinical nutrition therapy practitioner I’ve made it my job to know what’s healthy and what’s not.
I know how our metabolisms work and the chemical reactions and building blocks needed to create energy, so that I can help people get more it.
I’ve memorized the chemical processes that take place in phase 1 and phase 2 liver detoxification, so that I can help people support their natural detoxification.
I understand the endocrine system and how hormones send signals to regulate all our bodily functions so that I can help people feel more balanced and aligned.
But…
“So I dug deeper.....and when I finally came up for air, I was surprised at where my search had taken me.”
I couldn’t figure out what was going on with me. When would I stop wanting to eat pizza all the time? Why wasn’t I bouncing to the gym everyday with a big smile on my face like other “healthy” people do?
So I dug deeper. And when I finally came up for air, I was surprised at where my search had taken me.
It had led me away from the physical and towards the emotional, mental, and spiritual.
Skeptical? Believe me, I was too.
According to world-renowned scientist, Bruce Lipton, physical symptoms are merely tangible evidence of what is going on in your unconscious mind and how you are really feeling inside.
Evolutionary theorist, Calvin Banyan explains that your emotions play a crucial role in ensuring your needs are met. If feelings are ignored, your subconscious mind must find another way to get its message across (physical symptoms) and help you see that your deeper needs are being ignored.
Symptoms and feelings are the way your body alerts you to this. And when you ignore the root cause of these physical symptoms, no matter what you do physically (diet, exercise, etc) those symptoms won’t go away until those emotional needs are met.
What all this meant for me (and what I believe it means for all people having similar experiences) is that I had to address my emotional, mental, and spiritual needs to feel truly healthy.
If you want to get to a place in your life where you feel staying healthy is an intuitive process you have to willing to go deeper.
If you want to live from a place where you can eat, exercise, rest, and adapt from a place of innate bodily wisdom then you have to address all your emotional baggage, your mental health resilience, and your spiritual connection to the Divine (or whatever you believe).
So the next question is, “Where do I start?”
You start by identifying the emotional and metaphysical issues that may be manifesting as physical symptoms in the body.
The picture below goes through the possible underlying emotional causes for these symptoms.
Where in your body do physical symptoms tend to show up?
Awareness and examination are only the beginning to really working through our emotional baggage and perceived spiritual disconnection, but they are the first steps to going from a life where healthy decisions seem like work to a life where health is effortless, intuitive, and natural.
Clara Wisner is a certified nutrition therapy practitioner and lifestyle coach. She specializes in helping women ditch fear-based food choices and release the self-sabotaging beliefs and thoughts that keep them from creating the health and happiness they deserve. She does this through her rEvolutionary approach, which blends evidence-based nutrition recommendations, strengthening your spiritual connection to self, functional movement, and practical tools and practices to transform your mindset for the long-term. Clara’s health and lifestyle coaching practice is rEvolutionary Lifestyle.
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