If you or someone you love has a chronic or mental illness, this post is for you. It’s for you if your physical, mental or emotional brokenness crushes your spirit. It’s for you if you’ve been to the best doctors that you can afford, and there’s nothing more that they can do. It’s for you if your treatment options are limited to the symptoms of your illness, not its cause. It’s for you if you’re tired of being tired, if you suspect that there’s more to the story than what you’re being told, if you feel like you’re out of choices and out of time.
Is there hope for your condition? Can you be healed of what ails you? Friend, I don’t know. What I do know is this: every part of us is intricately interconnected, mind and body, heart and soul. Your health may be damaged by your genetics, by years-worth of toxins and pathogens from food and your environment, by demonic strongholds, by your family baggage, by your past trauma, by failing to measure up or look perfect or always succeed, by your sorrow and by your pain. I can relate. But these things don’t have to define you. They don’t have to have the final word. Your choices and your faith, your openness to truth and to change, will shape your path. Balancing work, play and rest, good food and movement nutrients, prayer/meditation/mindfulness, nurturing life-giving relationships, these things can dramatically improve your health.
If you have a chronic or mental illness, healing doesn’t come easily, and may not come at all. Sometimes, a single word and a rushing wind is all it takes for the long-awaited cure to cast out the darkness. If your story is like mine, you become your own mental health expert and determine to find the answers you seek, however long it takes and however hard it becomes. And ultimately, you surrender to the fact that your healing may not be fully realized in this lifetime. Perhaps your search will end without the answer you were looking for, and yet the person you are and the legacy you leave will be far greater than the destruction wrought by your disease.
Dear friend, if you seek answers with an open mind and heart, take courage. My healing journey began with the choice to find an alternative to medication for my diagnosis of Bipolar I, because the meds were not healing me. That journey was the beginning of this blog 2 years ago, and is now leading me down a path to be wholly healthy and medication-free. Stay tuned for more on how I’m getting well, including resources that have rocked my world and transformed my life.
Do you or someone you love have a chronic illness? What hurts you, helps you and keeps you going? Sickness can be isolating. Let’s build each other up.
