The answer to the majority of health issues lies in being true to yourself…
When I talk about the root cause of ME/CFS, Fibro, Anxiety etc. being a build up of suppressed emotions/emotional issues, you might gloss over it for either being vague or something you don’t want to think about or deal with.
But let’s break it down:
Suppressed emotions mean, and happen when, you are not being true to yourself - you are not living as you really want to live.
It means that things and/or people seem to be getting in the way of you spending your time (whether work time or free time) doing the things you enjoy and that fulfil you.
This might be because you have learned from society or your family or community that you “should” do certain things or act in certain ways. For example, in Western societies, the general expectation is that you go to school, decide what you want to do for a living years before even finishing, then go on to train or study in the appropriate field. After that, you get a job and work full time. It is perfectly normal not to enjoy your job and even be extremely stressed out by it, therefore spend your weekends numbing your negative emotions through short-lived practices like drinking, shopping, watching braincell-killing tv shows and counting down to your next holiday.
It might also be because you have found yourself in an abusive or controlling relationship and you feel you have very little say in what you spend your time doing.
Perhaps you were brought up (as many people were, again, thanks to BS society rules and wonky interpretations of teachings and texts within religion and spirituality) to always put the needs of others before yourself - that they are somehow more important and worthy than you are.
It could be all, or endless variations, of the above.
The key point is, though, that this is not how we are meant to be living.
If it was, we wouldn’t be blessed with free will and an emotional guidance system.
These things, alone, tell us that we are here to imagine, create and live a fulfilled life, according to our true desires.
We are meant to take in the world around us and know how we – as individuals – feel about what we experience at a gut (primary emotional) level.
When we like something, we feel good and this is our emotions encouraging us to experience more of the same and other things that make us feel that way.
When we dislike something, we feel bad and this is that same guidance steering us away from things and experiences that produce these feelings in us.
When we ignore this emotional guidance, we will be doing less of the stuff that is personally good for us and more of the stuff that isn’t.
This leads to further negative emotions as we are not being, doing and having what makes us happy and, instead, subjecting ourselves to - or settling for - things and ways of life which make us unhappy and stressed.
These negative primary emotions are our inner guidance system’s warning signs. When we ignore them, the body’s biochemical stress response is triggered.
If corrective action isn’t taken, this can feel like a build up of stress and/or develop into things like depression, anxiety, boredom/lack of fulfilment and apathy.
It can then lead to further, physical implications such as a lowered immune system, allowing for frequent infections or viruses to occur, and the development of conditions like IBS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / M.E. Fibromyalgia, Long COVID and Autoimmune conditions.
It is actually generally acknowledged - even within Western medicine - that up to 95% of all illnesses and diseases are stress-related, so that includes Cancer, Heart disease, Stroke, Diabetes…the list goes on.
And, to be clear, what is meant by “stress” here isn’t short-lived moments of feeling pressure due to certain situations; it’s the state in which the body finds itself when that biochemical stress response has been switched on for too long. So it can be about feeling under extreme pressure for prolonged periods due to, for example, working in a high pressure environment or role. But it can also be a result of ignoring your inner guidance and, so, suppressing yourself and your emotions (and, by the way, this is also happening if you ARE working in that high pressure job for a long time!).
When we DO follow our inner guidance and live as our true selves, the result is wellbeing - emotional and physical.
But why is this so hard to do?
Well further to what I said about what we learn from society etc., most of us grow up believing we have to fit in with the majority to be loved and accepted and respected. (If only we were to learn earlier on in life that the opposite is true if we want all those things from the right people because they will love us for who we truly are).
So we get used to suppressing our beliefs and opinions; we adopt those of others and start living how others do, and when that doesn’t make us feel good, we suppress those feelings.
When we do this for long enough, we can even reach a point of feeling detached from our emotions and our self.
Before we know it, many of us have buried decades’ worth of ourselves, our beliefs, our feelings… And are now experiencing the ramifications of doing so.
So, which category do you fit into?
- Chronic stress / anxiety?
- Lack of fulfilment / unhappiness / depression?
- Chronic illness?
- Somewhere in between or all of the above?
No matter what, the root cause is the same, which means the solution is the same:
Learn to accept, love and be your true self by tuning into, trusting and following your emotional guidance system.
This involves meeting your emotional needs (which include your physical ones) and dealing with any issues that get in the way of you doing so, like overthinking and boundary/unfair treatment issues.
And, yes - you guessed it - this is exactly what I specialise in helping people with!