Transcripts
How we heal from something
will show us the curriculum,
Speaker:why we're here and who
we are meant to become.
Speaker:That curriculum is one that
is deeply steeped in working
Speaker:in the fields of energetics
and spirituality.
Speaker:Hello and welcome back to
Remember Why You Are Here,
Speaker:a podcast for seekers and sensitives
where you can relax, receive,
Speaker:reconnect yourself, and remember
the most important thing of all:
Speaker:why you're here. And
in this episode today,
Speaker:I wanted to revisit a really
important recording I made a
Speaker:couple of years ago now called
"How I Healed from Lyme Disease."
Speaker:So this recording was
many years in the making.
Speaker:It had been a long time that I wanted
to talk about my experience with Lyme
Speaker:disease.
Speaker:I have been in touch with so many
people over the years who have
Speaker:interacted with this very
specific disease and experience
Speaker:and was sharing my experience,
was sharing what worked for me,
Speaker:was sharing the whole arc
of my healing journey.
Speaker:And I knew at some point I wanted
to make an offering where it was
Speaker:freely available and all of
this information was there.
Speaker:The whole story arc of how I healed.
And I'm thinking about it now in
Speaker:particular because this fall is the
10 year anniversary of when I first
Speaker:contracted Lyme Disease.
Speaker:You'll hear in the story that I
actually contracted Lyme disease twice.
Speaker:And so the journey was
not a straightforward one,
Speaker:but was really powerful.
My experience of healing from Lyme
Speaker:disease was deeply spiritual in nature,
Speaker:and at the same time,
Speaker:so much of what I went
through ended up teaching
Speaker:me how to help guide others
through the uniqueness of
Speaker:their own experiences.
Speaker:Lyme disease is so
prevalent in our country,
Speaker:is so prevalent in many
places in the world.
Speaker:It's becoming something that a lot of
people are encountering and dealing
Speaker:with,
Speaker:and I have some deep thoughts
about this particular
Speaker:teacher,
Speaker:what we can learn from this
spirochete that causes Lyme
Speaker:disease,
Speaker:and why I think there's actually
so much to learn through
Speaker:encountering a big guide,
Speaker:a big teacher like this.
What I have seen,
Speaker:and I'll talk about this more
as we get into the recording,
Speaker:is that we heal in a
Speaker:way that is important
for us on a spiritual or
Speaker:energetic level.
Speaker:How you heal from something is unique
because how you heal is showing you who
Speaker:you are and who you're meant to become
in this lifetime. So even though I
Speaker:contracted Lyme disease 10 years ago,
Speaker:the journey to healing
was not straightforward.
Speaker:It did take years.
Speaker:And it just feels really good to
be able to share about that journey
Speaker:here now. Iif you are someone
who is dealing with Lyme,
Speaker:or someone who's dealing with Lyme,
Speaker:but I also think that this story is
helpful for anyone who is encountering
Speaker:the deep teacher of chronic illness or
chronic pain. You'll hear at the end of
Speaker:this recording that I am inviting anyone
who's feeling called to step into an
Speaker:entirely free class that I'm
offering called Illness as Teacher.
Speaker:This class is still up on my website.
Speaker:It is everything that I've gleaned from
over a decade of living with chronic
Speaker:illness and chronic pain and
working with so many others,
Speaker:so many sensitives in particular,
Speaker:who have been moving through
these experiences. In the class,
Speaker:I talk about what kind of people end up
having illness be a big part of their
Speaker:journey, what it means about you.
Speaker:The class is here to help
you understand who you are,
Speaker:to touch into the questions that we all
want to know, those "why" questions,
Speaker:and really help you orient to this
Speaker:powerful way of living,
Speaker:this way of living in which we're
able to see illness as teachers. So
Speaker:I have heard people saying that they've
listened to this class again and again,
Speaker:that it completely changed
the way they saw themselves,
Speaker:their life experiences. This
class is completely free.
Speaker:It's not a lead in for anything else.
Speaker:It is literally just an offering that
felt really important for my soul to
Speaker:create and offer to this world.
So if you're interested in that,
Speaker:you can head over to my website,
asiasuler.com/illnessasteacher,
Speaker:and sign up to access that
course today. So with that,
Speaker:let's get into the story.
Speaker:Let's talk about how I
healed from Lyme disease.
Speaker:Lyme disease is incredibly
prevalent in our world right now.
Speaker:It is a powerful facet
of many of our lives,
Speaker:and it is one of the most
powerful spiritual teachers
I have ever encountered.
Speaker:This is my story of how I
healed from Lyme disease.
Speaker:So chronic illness and chronic pain has
been a large part of my life's journey,
Speaker:and one of my cycles dancing
in that arena was working
Speaker:with Lyme disease.
Speaker:People have been asking me to share
about my journey of healing from Lyme
Speaker:disease for many years now.
Speaker:And so I'm excited to finally be putting
this information out into the world to
Speaker:be sharing my story of how I healed
from Lyme and what it taught me.
Speaker:So the first disclaimer I want to put
up here is that everybody's story is
Speaker:different. Everyone's healing
journey is going to look different.
Speaker:And that's the point because one thing
that I found through working with
Speaker:thousands of people around the world in
my client practice and in my teaching
Speaker:is that the way we heal from
something shows us who we are and
Speaker:what we are meant to embody in
this lifetime. And because of that,
Speaker:everybody's healing is going to
look different. And so while I
Speaker:am excited to share my story and
I hope that it's very helpful,
Speaker:I also want to honor the unique
individuality of each one of our journeys.
Speaker:This story is not intended
to treat or diagnose, cure,
Speaker:or in any way prevent disease,
Speaker:but it is here to support and
inspire and hopefully open
Speaker:a window into a world of possibilities.
Speaker:Now, a little preview before I get
into the story of how I healed.
Speaker:I did not heal from Lyme
disease in a conventional way.
Speaker:And what I have seen and what I have
heard from many other practitioners who
Speaker:work with folks is that most
often people who heal from
Speaker:chronic Lyme are not healing
in conventional ways.
Speaker:That unconventional healing
in many ways is one of the
Speaker:linchpins that helps people heal
from this nebulous condition that
Speaker:is chronic Lyme disease.
I had what I consider to be a
Speaker:energetic and spiritual healing from Lyme,
Speaker:and I'm going to talk exactly
about what that looked like for me.
Speaker:And why I'm sharing this is that I
Speaker:want whoever's listening to this,
Speaker:if you are dealing with Lyme disease
or if you are supporting other people
Speaker:moving through this,
Speaker:to open your mind to the
possibilities of the various
Speaker:ways in which healing can take
place. Because as I said before,
Speaker:healing is so unique for each
one of us in our lifetime.
Speaker:How we heal from something
will show us the curriculum,
Speaker:why we're here, and who we are
meant to become. And for many,
Speaker:many people who contract Lyme disease,
Speaker:that curriculum is one that is
deeply steeped in working in
Speaker:the fields of energetics and spirituality.
So to start,
Speaker:let's ground in a reminder of
what Lyme disease actually is.
Speaker:We're going to look at it briefly from
a scientific lens as well as looking at
Speaker:Lyme disease from a mythopoetic lens,
Speaker:which I find to be very helpful in
understanding this disease. Lyme disease
Speaker:is still very mysterious.
There's a lot we don't know,
Speaker:but we do know that Lyme is caused by an
ancient bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.
Speaker:.
Speaker:And this bacterium is a spirochete.
Speaker:Spirochetes are a very,
very old form of bacteria.
Speaker:There are different
strains, of course, of Lyme,
Speaker:but they're all spirochetes and the
spirochetes are named for their corkscrew
Speaker:shapes.
Speaker:These corkscrew shapes are part of
what allow it to get into places
Speaker:that other bacteria can't,
like into our ligaments,
Speaker:into our brain, into our nervous system.
Speaker:But one of the things that makes this
bacterium really special or unique
Speaker:is that it is a shapeshifter.
Speaker:So Lyme has the ability
to shift its shape to get
Speaker:into different places and to evade our
nervous system or our immune system. So
Speaker:the bacterium of Lyme can
go from a corkscrew shape
and then it can look like a
Speaker:cyst like blob, and then
it can look like a film.
Speaker:And so one of the reasons why it does
this is to avoid our immune system.
Speaker:Put a pin in this idea of this bacterium
as being a shapeshifter because it's
Speaker:important. Once this bacteria
enters into our bloodstream,
Speaker:it will often change its outer
surface to avoid immune response,
Speaker:and then it can move from the blood into
the tissue and into parts of our body
Speaker:that other bacteria simply can't.
Speaker:Most people know that this bacteria
is carried by what we call deer
Speaker:ticks or black legged ticks,
Speaker:and that's how people are
contracting Lyme disease,
Speaker:the disease that is named for basically
the symptoms that's caused by the
Speaker:bacteria.
Lyme disease itself is a mysterious
Speaker:illness. We're still
learning a lot about Lyme.
Speaker:As I mentioned,
Speaker:this unique shape of this bacteria
means it can get into really specialized
Speaker:places within our body. It
can penetrate cell walls,
Speaker:it can cross the blood brain barrier,
which is quite unusual for a bacteria.
Speaker:It also means because it can
cross that blood brain barrier,
Speaker:that it can get into our nervous
system, our central nervous system,
Speaker:and affect the actions of our central
nervous system. Because it can also
Speaker:break that blood brain barrier,
Speaker:it can open us up to be more
vulnerable to co-infections,
Speaker:which can be a large part
of dealing with a journey of
Speaker:Lyme disease. Now, once
Lyme gets into our system,
Speaker:it can rapidly disseminate into areas
like our lymph nodes and our tissues.
Speaker:And so once it's in those
places, it's harder to detect.
Speaker:And so that is another part of a
lot of people's journey with Lyme is
Speaker:that once it's in these
harder to detect places,
Speaker:it's not as easy to test for.
All this said, Lyme disease,
Speaker:as we know it has been around for a
very long period of time. In Ötzi,
Speaker:the frozen caveman found in
the Alps 5,000 years ago,
Speaker:we were able to identify and see that
actually he was afflicted by what we would
Speaker:now call Lyme disease. So this bacterium
has been around for a very long time.
Speaker:Scientists say that likely a
predecessor of this bacterium
Speaker:that carries what we know as to be
Lyme disease that was likely around
Speaker:when human beings first
came onto the scene.
Speaker:So this is a ancient bacteria to
Speaker:be in relationship with,
Speaker:and likely Lyme disease itself is
an ancient disease. Now that said,
Speaker:it is very much on the rise
in the world right now.
Speaker:There's been a huge explosion of
this disease in the past 30 to 40
Speaker:years.
Speaker:And so we are in a moment
right now where we are really
Speaker:learning from the
teacher of this bacteria.
Speaker:New statistics stay upwards of
400,000 people in the United States
Speaker:are diagnosed with Lyme
disease every year.
Speaker:And one statistic,
Speaker:the CDC says that perhaps up to 15%
of the population has experienced Lyme
Speaker:disease or has been
infected with Lyme disease.
Speaker:80 to 85% of people who contract
Lyme disease will recover quickly.
Speaker:But what that means is about
15 to 20% of people do not,
Speaker:or 15 to 20% of people develop
what's called chronic Lyme disease.
Speaker:And the chronic condition itself of Lyme
can be complex because it can mean that
Speaker:you still have a Lyme infection.
Speaker:It could mean that you have another
tick-borne disease or a co-infection,
Speaker:or it could be that the original infection
caused systemic issues or triggered
Speaker:an autoimmune response. Now that
we've grounded in a little bit of the
Speaker:science of Lyme disease, let's
just take a deep breath together
Speaker:and look at this bacterium from
Speaker:a mythopoetic lens.
Speaker:All illnesses have
their own consciousness.
Speaker:From a shamanic point of view,
Speaker:everything on this earth has their
own sentience, their own awareness,
Speaker:their own consciousness.And
the same is true for illness.
Speaker:And the same is certainly true
for this ancient bacterium.
Speaker:The spirochete that causes Lyme
disease has its own personality,
Speaker:its own energy, and its own ancestry. Now,
Speaker:Lyme, I will call it Lyme,
Speaker:but really it is this bacterium
that we're talking about, right,
Speaker:is an ancient shapeshifter.
Speaker:It is a being that can
reach into the deepest
Speaker:levels of our body, our
nervous system, our brain.
Speaker:It can touch the parts of us that make
us feel distinctly like ourselves,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:And this is one of the reasons why when
people develop Lyme disease or chronic
Speaker:Lyme,
Speaker:there's this sense of not fully being
yourself or there's something off on a
Speaker:level that's perhaps hard to explain,
Speaker:but it's as if you of you has
been shifted a little bit.
Speaker:And that's because this bacterium
is such a powerful shapeshifter,
Speaker:it can reach the deepest
levels of our being. Now,
Speaker:let's look at shapeshifters
in mythology. In mythology,
Speaker:shapeshifters are sometimes forces
of benevolence, sometimes tricksters,
Speaker:sometimes they're bringers of danger,
Speaker:but they're always
incredibly powerful figures.
Speaker:Figures that are here
to help us transform,
Speaker:to bring things into our awareness,
Speaker:to help us question reality
in a way that is necessary and
Speaker:needed. In a psychological context,
Speaker:the archetype of the shapeshifter
is one that's thought to help us
Speaker:bring awareness to the
subconscious parts of ourselves,
Speaker:the parts of us that we've had
to repress or leave behind,
Speaker:or that we feel we've lost.
Speaker:The shapeshifter allows us to contact
these parts again to come back into
Speaker:relationship with them.
Shapeshifters are catalysts for change.
Speaker:They help us respond to
this inner desire for
Speaker:transformation that we
all are carrying around,
Speaker:this soul level desire to transform
and become the people that we are
Speaker:meant to be,
Speaker:to shape shift ourselves into the form
that has been waiting for us in this
Speaker:lifetime.
One archetype of the shaman is as
Speaker:the original shapeshifter,
Speaker:the person whose role
it was to contact the
Speaker:unseen world,
Speaker:to move in and out of shapeshifting
in order to bring back
Speaker:information from the unseen
world. And not only information,
Speaker:but healing as well.
Speaker:In many traditional contexts -
whatever the word was or the word is,
Speaker:that is being used for what we now
call shamanic healing or a shaman,
Speaker:whether it was healer or bruja - often the
Speaker:role of this person was to go into the
unseen world, shapeshift themselves,
Speaker:to move into that unseen world and bring
back healing for an individual person
Speaker:or for the community.
Speaker:So here we see this idea that healing
lives in the unseen world and interacting
Speaker:with the unseen world.
Speaker:And that shape-shifting and interaction
with the shapeshifter is required for
Speaker:bringing back that healing.
Speaker:And I want you to put a pin in this
because we're going to return to this in a
Speaker:little bit.
So for now,
Speaker:now that we've seen this
bacteria from this mythopoetic,
Speaker:energetic, spiritual, and
shamanistic viewpoint,
Speaker:we can see the whole picture
and we can start to move into
Speaker:interaction from a different place.
Speaker:Now that we have this in our
minds and we're sitting with it,
Speaker:I'd love to share my story with you
and the hopes that perhaps it brings in
Speaker:inspiration and healing for you in
your life. So I first contracted Lyme
Speaker:disease in 2013.
Speaker:I was camping in Minnesota at the time,
Speaker:and I did not show symptoms
until five weeks later.
Speaker:I did find a nymph tick on me.
Speaker:And when I started showing
symptoms five weeks later,
Speaker:I was already in what you
would call stage three Lyme.
Speaker:So by that point, I had severe headaches,
Speaker:dizziness, lightning
pain, pain in my joints,
Speaker:muscle aches in very unusual places.
Speaker:I started having arthritis in my joints,
Speaker:heart palpitations.
I had what I call
Speaker:mind-sweltering social anxiety
that seemed to come out of nowhere,
Speaker:bone deep fatigue.
Speaker:My cognitive function had declined
very rapidly in a way that I
Speaker:couldn't really attribute
to anything else.
Speaker:I felt like the way I described it was
like my brain was a helicopter that
Speaker:couldn't land. And
really powerful insomnia.
Speaker:So I would be up till six or
seven in the morning most nights.
Speaker:And I knew something was wrong. I mean,
Speaker:clearly all those things
would say something is wrong,
Speaker:but I knew that it wasn't
just a normal illness,
Speaker:that something was going on with me.
Speaker:And I had dealt with cycles of chronic
Speaker:illness and pain earlier in my life.
Speaker:And so I knew what it felt like when
things were really off inside my body,
Speaker:and I knew that this wasn't just
some run of the mill bug or illness.
Speaker:And so I ended up going to
the doctor and asking to
Speaker:get tested for Lyme because I knew I had
been in an area where Lyme disease was
Speaker:prevalent, and I had known
I found an nymph tick on me.
Speaker:And so I went and got the
test and I tested positive
Speaker:for antibodies. Now, if you're
aware of Lyme testing at all,
Speaker:you know it's a two phase journey.
So I was tested for antibodies,
Speaker:and then I was tested with the Western
blot, and that came back as negative.
Speaker:So from a testing point of view,
Speaker:I tested negative for Lyme.
In the interim of getting these
Speaker:tests, however,
Speaker:I got in contact with the group of
friends I had been camping with,
Speaker:and five or six of them
had developed bullseye
Speaker:rashes,
Speaker:had been tested for Lyme
and tested positive and were
currently on antibiotics.
Speaker:So I had strong anecdotal evidence that I
Speaker:was experiencing Lyme even though
these tests were negative. Now,
Speaker:I want to mention this because
the testing for Lyme disease is
Speaker:notoriously tricky and
it's very easy to get
Speaker:misdiagnosed in both directions. I've
seen this happen in both directions.
Speaker:People who have Lyme not getting diagnosed
with Lyme via testing and people who
Speaker:don't have Lyme getting a false positive.
Speaker:And one statistic I saw in PubMed
Speaker:said that 50% of testing misses
Speaker:the Lyme. So 50% of
tests are not accurate.
Speaker:So I'm saying this because this can be
a particular journey that people with
Speaker:Lyme go on,
Speaker:that the testing is not giving them
an accurate portrayal of what they're
Speaker:experiencing inside their body.
Speaker:So trust what you are experiencing.
Because I had such strong anecdotal
Speaker:evidence that this was
likely Lyme disease,
Speaker:I requested a month of antibiotics
Speaker:and I immediately started antibiotics
and an herbal protocol at the
Speaker:same time.
Speaker:I also sought out the
expertise of a Lyme specialist
Speaker:and was clinically diagnosed with Lyme
during that time. So with this clinical
Speaker:diagnosis in hand,
Speaker:I was on a month of doxycycline and
was also taking herbs at the same
Speaker:time. My background is as an herbalist,
Speaker:so I had trained as an herbalist.
Speaker:I was already practicing with folks at
the time that I contracted Lyme disease.
Speaker:And so I knew that I wanted to work with
Speaker:herbs as well as antibiotics
and support myself in that
Speaker:way.
Speaker:Herbs are really helpful in tandem
with antibiotics because they do
Speaker:help the antibiotics to cross that blood
brain barrier, which is very important.
Speaker:And because I already was in what you
would consider sage three Lyme at this
Speaker:point,
Speaker:the spirochetes had already
crossed that barrier,
Speaker:and I knew that I needed help in
that capacity. So I did a bunch of
Speaker:different research.
Speaker:I did work with what I would
call an amended version of
Speaker:Stephen Harrod Buhner's
Lyme protocol. At the time,
Speaker:this was one of the
only protocols that was
Speaker:just well-known or available.
There's more protocols out there now.
Speaker:So my whole herbal protocol, what
I used, the dosages that I used,
Speaker:is on the blog post that
accompanies this video.
Speaker:So if you're watching this
video not on my website,
Speaker:then you can click the link below
to head over to that blog post.
Speaker:You can see exactly the herbs that I took,
Speaker:the dosages that I took them in.
I say all of this though with the caveat
Speaker:that it is really important that you have
support when you are in this process,
Speaker:that you are consulting with
your doctor or your herbalist,
Speaker:that my protocol is not intended to treat,
Speaker:diagnosed or cure,
Speaker:that this is me sharing from my own
personal journey of what worked for me.
Speaker:And of course,
Speaker:remembering that protocols like this
are based on your unique symptoms,
Speaker:where the bacteria is
manifesting in your body,
Speaker:what you are experiencing.
Speaker:But in the spirit of sharing an
Speaker:inspiration,
Speaker:that protocol is over on my website if
you'd like to check it out. I was on this
Speaker:herbal protocol for eight months.
Speaker:I was on this herbal protocol for
several of those eight months before
Speaker:I added in an addition that
was really helpful for me.
Speaker:And that addition was Teasel root.
Speaker:So one of the things that's said about
Teasel root is that it's particularly
Speaker:helpful for the strains of Lyme
that exist in Wisconsin and
Speaker:Minnesota.
Speaker:And I have found since working with Lyme
myself and working with other people
Speaker:who have Lyme,
Speaker:that doing research and adding in
herbs that are specific to where you
Speaker:contracted the disease can
be a real game changer.
Speaker:So that was a real game changer for
me because different strains exist in
Speaker:different places. So that
was a game changer for me
to add in this herb that was
Speaker:local to where I contracted the disease.
Speaker:And I really feel that
Speaker:the antibiotics did an okay job.
Speaker:I think they took the
population down somewhat.
Speaker:The herbs continued that good work,
Speaker:but I was still very much in the throes
Speaker:of having this disease.
Speaker:And through working
with this clinical Lyme
Speaker:specialist, she recommended
pulse antibiotics.
Speaker:And it was something that I did try,
Speaker:although I did not ultimately feel
like it was the right thing for me.
Speaker:I do feel like the herbs continue to
take down the population. So that's
Speaker:one of the first things right with Lyme
is we're taking down the population
Speaker:often of the bacteria in your body,
Speaker:and then we're moving towards, normally,
Speaker:strengthening our own bodies and
systems and moving towards latency.
Speaker:So latency is where a
pathogenic factor goes
Speaker:into basically quiet mode within our
body where our body is strong enough to
Speaker:handle that disease. One of the
things that's said about the bacteria
Speaker:that causes Lyme is that
it's a bit like chickenpox,
Speaker:where it's something that once we
contract it, it never leaves our system,
Speaker:that there's always probably some aspect
of it in perpetuity in our body. Now,
Speaker:whether you believe this
or not, totally up to you,
Speaker:but a lot of the goals normally
of therapies, of herbal therapy,
Speaker:or otherwise is to take down the
population enough and strengthen your body
Speaker:enough that population can be small
enough that our body can just handle it
Speaker:pretty much forever.
So at this time,
Speaker:I also started acupuncture,
Speaker:and specifically I worked with a
particular kind of acupuncture called
Speaker:divergent treatments.
Speaker:This is something that's not normally a
part of contemporary traditional Chinese
Speaker:medicine or TCM,
Speaker:but it is something that is practiced
by different acupuncturists.
Speaker:It's something that is taught in the
acupuncture school here where I live,
Speaker:and I find it to be very potent
for treating things like Lyme.
Speaker:And so I want to mention it here,
Speaker:if you are in the midst of this and
you're specifically wanting to work with a
Speaker:type of acupuncture treatment that
addresses this. So divergent acupuncture
Speaker:treatments work with
the divergent channels,
Speaker:which are channels that are created to
deal or hold on to pathogenic factors,
Speaker:things that we can't fully address
when we're experiencing them,
Speaker:so that we kind of put them into these
divergent channels and decide we're going
Speaker:to deal with them later.
Speaker:So oftentimes divergent
treatments are used to access the
Speaker:yuan level of our being
in China's medicine,
Speaker:which is the deepest level of our being,
Speaker:the level of our being that corresponds
to things like congenital issues,
Speaker:personality disorders, autoimmune issues.
Speaker:It's sort of a direct line into
our soul, our life's blueprint,
Speaker:sort of like the deepest level of your
nascent being. This yuan level of our
Speaker:being and these divergent channels
will often work directly with the
Speaker:nascent channels of our body,
Speaker:sort of these first channels
that were developed in our body,
Speaker:things like the brain, the
heart, and the nervous system,
Speaker:which coincidentally are
all places that Lyme disease
Speaker:affects. So these divergent
treatments can be very
Speaker:intense because it's letting everything
that has been in latency in your body
Speaker:out. So I know for me,
Speaker:I started experiencing in
reverse chronological order,
Speaker:illnesses, chronic pain,
Speaker:other maladies that I had
experienced in my life, injuries,
Speaker:as I did these treatments.
So they're very intense,
Speaker:but I also feel that they did
a lot to bring this disease
Speaker:that had become latent in my body out
so it could be dealt with and released.
Speaker:I worked with my friend Greg Casey of
Mystic Dao for these treatments and his
Speaker:information as well as all the information
about the different treatments I used
Speaker:are over on that blogpost on my
website if you're interested. Now,
Speaker:in the midst of doing all these things,
I was also trying to rest a lot,
Speaker:eat healthy, drink a lot of water,
Speaker:really support my body in being
strong enough to address this
Speaker:illness.
Now,
Speaker:I believe all of these things
helped me get to a place where I was
Speaker:functional. I was able to go to work,
Speaker:I was able to see friends sometimes,
Speaker:but I was basically just
surviving at this point.
Speaker:It's like things looked
functional on the outside,
Speaker:but on the inside I would
have frequent collapses.
Speaker:Pretty much weekly I would have
collapses where I was not functional,
Speaker:where I had to be laying in bed.
Speaker:And so I knew that this
wasn't sustainable.
Speaker:I knew that I needed to do something
drastic in order to get to the other side
Speaker:of healing. And so that is when I decided
I was about eight months in at this
Speaker:point, and I decided that I was going
to do a whole month focused on healing.
Speaker:And for me,
Speaker:this looked like taking down
everything that I did to the
Speaker:bare, bare, bare minimum, working
the bare minimum of hours, resting,
Speaker:doing yoga every day,
Speaker:eating a really clean diet
and doing a meditation or
Speaker:shamanic journey every single day.
So shamanic journeys
Speaker:are a form of meditation. It's
a form of active meditation,
Speaker:where you are entering into a visual
or an experience with the unseen,
Speaker:normally aided by some sort of rhythm.
Normally, drumbeat's very common,
Speaker:but some people like to get into shamanic
trance through dancing, for example.
Speaker:And this had been a pathway for me in
my life that was really important and
Speaker:really helped me connect with my deepest
self. So that was my goal. I said,
Speaker:okay, I'm going to do a journey
every single day for a month.
Speaker:So this is what helps me heal
from this first occurrence of Lyme
Speaker:disease.
Speaker:And I really believe that it was this
month that was the turning point for me
Speaker:of all the things that I did.
Speaker:And there were two
things in particular that
Speaker:really helped me turn the corner:
So the first thing was focusing on
Speaker:boundaries during this month.
Speaker:Boundaries had historically
been very hard for me.
Speaker:I am what I consider to be an empath.
Speaker:I am a highly sensitive person.
Highly sensitive people,
Speaker:if you're not aware of that term,
Speaker:make up about 15 to 20% of the population.
Speaker:It is a nervous system trait.
Speaker:It means that you are more
sensitive to external stimuli.
Speaker:And so it can be a beautiful thing. You
can really feel the power of a sunset,
Speaker:and you can really attune
to someone else's feelings,
Speaker:but it can also be overwhelming.
Speaker:And it often does mean that if
you're a highly sensitive person,
Speaker:that your nervous system gets overwhelmed
more easily. And highly sensitive
Speaker:people have sort of naturally
porous boundaries. That's
sort of how we are born.
Speaker:And so I had struggled with boundaries.
Speaker:I had struggled with saying no to work
projects, to request on my energy,
Speaker:to time spent with friends.
Speaker:But one of the things that really hit
home for me when I really took this
Speaker:concentrated time of healing,
Speaker:was realizing that when I did what I
wanted to do, when I wanted to do it,
Speaker:I had energy. When... the
moment I didn't do that,
Speaker:the moment I was like,
well, I should do this,
Speaker:or this person's expecting me to do this,
Speaker:my energy would tank and I'd be
in bed again for another 24 hours.
Speaker:This was a huge learning lesson for
me. When I did what I wanted to do,
Speaker:when I wanted to do it,
Speaker:I actually had energy and I was healing,
Speaker:my body was strong.
Now,
Speaker:this is a huge lesson for
sensitives and empaths,
Speaker:and I would learn with time, I
didn't know this at the time,
Speaker:but looking at the work of Gabor Mate,
Speaker:I would learn that this is
a specific trait that often
Speaker:exists for people who experience
chronic illness and disease,
Speaker:this inability to set boundaries and this
difficulty with setting boundaries and
Speaker:this desire to people please.
Speaker:So I learned that I was not alone in this,
Speaker:and that obviously on a energetic level,
Speaker:this was important for my healing. But
on a very physical, tangible level,
Speaker:not being able to set boundaries for
yourself is really stressful for your
Speaker:system. And so the first thing that
Lyme taught me that was incredibly,
Speaker:powerfully,
Speaker:life-changing was this ability to set a
boundary and to do what I wanted to do
Speaker:when I wanted to do it. And the
amazing thing about this, at the time,
Speaker:I had my own business, I was
also still working other jobs.
Speaker:But the amazing thing about it
was that when I just did that,
Speaker:somehow it all worked out.
Speaker:Somehow I ended up having time for the
things that I thought I'd never want to
Speaker:do, like bookkeeping, for example.
Speaker:I also realized how often I was saying
yes to social engagements that were
Speaker:draining my energy.
Speaker:So this was a huge revelation for me.
And this is
Speaker:something that Gabor Mate talks about
in his books, and in one of his talks.
Speaker:He specifically says this
quote that I wrote down,
Speaker:because it really was meaningful to me:
Speaker:"If you don't know how to
say no when you need to,
Speaker:your body will say it for you in the
form of chronic illness." So what I
Speaker:have seen over the years,
Speaker:because once I dealt with my
iteration of Lyme disease,
Speaker:it just felt like people started coming
out of the woodwork to find me and work
Speaker:with me as an herbalist for
their experience with Lyme.
Speaker:And I saw over and over and over again,
Speaker:there was a very specific pattern for
people who contracted Lyme disease and had
Speaker:it become chronic.
Speaker:And this pattern was that they're
often people who are already several
Speaker:years down their path.
They're already on the path,
Speaker:and they're established in
certain ways in whatever it is,
Speaker:their life, their career, their
art, their spiritual practice.
Speaker:But there's an aspect of them that is
still living their life for other people,
Speaker:that is still in this process of
Speaker:learning that it's okay to set boundaries.
Speaker:And so Lyme often comes in to
help teach them how to live for
Speaker:themselves,
Speaker:and that is the energy that is next needed
in their life to reach the next phase
Speaker:of their evolution, their spiritual
journey, their development,
Speaker:their becoming.
So Lyme and the spirochete that
Speaker:causes it is the ultimate boundary
crosser, right? We talked about it:
Speaker:it gets into your nervous
system, in your brain,
Speaker:like the parts of you that you feel
like are essentially you, right?
Speaker:So it's the ultimate teacher
when it comes to boundaries.
Speaker:And I see this over and
over and over again,
Speaker:that it's sensitives and empaths
who end up dealing with chronic Lyme
Speaker:and being taught, basically by this
disease, how to use their energy,
Speaker:how they're meant to use this energy in
this lifetime to really feed their own
Speaker:creativity in their own projects.
So I was learning this at the
Speaker:same time that I was doing
these journeys every single day.
Speaker:And for me,
Speaker:shamanic journeying is an important
way that I connect into my
Speaker:deepest self and the unseen world.
Speaker:Everyone's going to have their own
ways of connecting. So maybe for you,
Speaker:it's journaling, maybe it's prayer,
maybe it's dance, maybe it's channeling.
Speaker:But I've seen over and over again that
this spiritual connection is incredibly
Speaker:important for healing chronic Lyme.
Speaker:One subjective study done at the
University of Antioch found that
Speaker:100% of the people they interviewed
who healed from chronic Lyme
Speaker:believed that their spiritual
connection was innate
Speaker:and essential to their healing. That
this sense of spiritual connection,
Speaker:awakening,
Speaker:and transformation was at the
heart of their ability to heal.
Speaker:So over the course of
this month of journeying,
Speaker:I learned so much about myself,
about my ability to set boundaries,
Speaker:about who I am, about why I'm here,
Speaker:and how to use my energy.
Speaker:And I went from probably being at a
Speaker:50% at that point in my
health to an 80%. And to me,
Speaker:that felt great. To me, that
was like, okay, this is healing.
Speaker:And on the other side,
I felt like, you know,
Speaker:I think I can let go
of the herbal protocol.
Speaker:I don't think I need to revisit the
idea of pulse antibiotics anymore.
Speaker:This is totally livable. That said,
I did have some things that were...
Speaker:I didn't use the word worse,
I use the word different.
Speaker:Some things were different. So
I still had some joint pain,
Speaker:I still had headaches, and I still
had lower energy. But I thought,
Speaker:you know what? I can deal with
different. This is just different.
Speaker:But a powerful healing took
place inside of my body.
Speaker:And after that month of deeply
connecting to myself and to the healing
Speaker:and the teachings that this
disease was bringing in,
Speaker:I felt like I had reached the other side.
So all this said,
Speaker:lessons tend to stick better
the second time around.
Speaker:So a little over a year later,
I contracted Lyme disease again.
Speaker:Now, the second time that I caught Lyme,
Speaker:it was at an event that
I was traveling for.
Speaker:It was a big, beautiful wedding in Rhode
Island for dear friends who I loved.
Speaker:And yet I knew looking at my schedule
that it was going to be stressful.
Speaker:I knew that it was going to
be hard for me to make it,
Speaker:that it would take a lot out of me.
Speaker:And it was the first time I
remembered after that big learning
Speaker:lesson of Lyme, of realizing
the core message for me,
Speaker:which was to do what I wanted
to do when I wanted to do it...
Speaker:It was the first time I was
doing something that I knew
Speaker:was not in alignment with what I
needed energetically at that time.
Speaker:But I loved these friends. I thought,
there's no way I'm going to miss this.
Speaker:I'm going.
Speaker:And I came back with four
nymph ticks and once again,
Speaker:contracted Lyme disease. And once again,
Speaker:what was really fascinating about this
experience was that there was a large
Speaker:portion of the wedding party
who also got Lyme disease.
Speaker:So I had a very strong confirmation
that this is exactly what I was dealing
Speaker:with again.
Speaker:I knew what this was because all the
same symptoms came back all over again.
Speaker:And I immediately went on antibiotics and
immediately started my herbal protocol
Speaker:again. And I thought, okay, I've learned
this lesson right? I healed once,
Speaker:I can heal again, but
my health just spiraled.
Speaker:So none of these ways
of working with it we're
Speaker:helping again.
Speaker:And I was several months in
of both antibiotics and herbs
Speaker:when I had a dream.
And in the dream,
Speaker:a beautiful white-haired woman came out
from a log at the edge of the woods,
Speaker:and she handed me a rattle and she said,
Speaker:"shamanism will heal you from Lyme
disease." And I woke up and I was a little
Speaker:disappointed because I was like, well,
we're going to have the healing now,
Speaker:or when is this going to happen?
But it was a very, very clear,
Speaker:strong message for me. And it just
so happened that a few weeks later,
Speaker:I had a wonderful friend
coming to visit me,
Speaker:my friend Julie Travis
of Stone Flower Healing,
Speaker:and Julie is a shamanic practitioner,
Speaker:and I was telling her about
this dream that I had and this
Speaker:experience, and she said, well, let's
do an extraction. If you're up for it,
Speaker:let's try this shamonic extraction,
and we'll just see what happens.
Speaker:And I was game because here I was several
Speaker:years down this path of Lyme
in one iteration or another,
Speaker:having contracted it for the
second time, and I thought,
Speaker:what do I have to lose?
We were doing this ritual,
Speaker:and at one point she looked
into my eyes and spoke to the
Speaker:consciousness of this bacteria,
Speaker:and then spoke to me,
Speaker:and asked me if I was willing to
completely let go of this disease.
Speaker:And what I found really shocked
me, even though I said yes,
Speaker:there was a part of me that was reluctant.
Speaker:And I was so surprised by this
because on the outside, I would think,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:I've been for years in one iteration
or another dealing with this particular
Speaker:illness and this disease, and
I don't want to be anymore.
Speaker:But there was a part of
me that was holding on.
Speaker:And for me, my truth is that,
Speaker:because my own awakening experience,
Speaker:the thing that led me to the
altar of the green world,
Speaker:that opened up my spiritual
awareness of the world,
Speaker:was dealing with chronic illness and
chronic pain in my early twenties...
Speaker:This was obviously pre Lyme. But
because I had had that experience,
Speaker:I realized in this session
that I had this awareness that
Speaker:there was a part of me that was holding
onto this because I thought, oh,
Speaker:this is how you heal. This is how you
evolve. This is how you connect to spirit,
Speaker:is through being ill.
Speaker:So I had this powerful realization that
there was actually a part of me that was
Speaker:holding on to this
illness in order to learn.
Speaker:And at the end of the session,
I thought, okay, well,
Speaker:that was a powerful realization and if
nothing else, that will really help me.
Speaker:But within a week, every symptom that
I had had for the past two years,
Speaker:of these two bouts with Lyme
disease, completely evaporated.
Speaker:And I was shocked, really
completely shocked by this,
Speaker:especially after all the different
things I tried, all the treatments,
Speaker:all the angles and ways
of dealing with this. And
Speaker:that for me was a complete healing.
So that was at the end of: Speaker:And at the time of
recording this, it is: Speaker:And I have not had a
symptom of Lyme since then.
Speaker:And for me,
Speaker:looking back on this particular journey,
Speaker:I know that what healed me
Speaker:was learning how to hold boundaries,
Speaker:learning how to connect
to the truth of who I am,
Speaker:how my energy wants to be used,
what's right for me and what isn't,
Speaker:understanding that I'm a highly
sensitive person and that
Speaker:part of my journey, a
large part of my journey,
Speaker:is to work in the realms of the unseen,
Speaker:to work into the realms in the realms
that would be called energetic or
Speaker:shamanic. And I had already been working
in those realms before this time,
Speaker:but this was an initiation for
me to go deeper. And so for me,
Speaker:this is how I healed. And as I mentioned
on the other side of this disease,
Speaker:I seemed to have people come out of the
woodwork who were also dealing with Lyme
Speaker:to come work with me,
Speaker:both as an herbalist and as
an energetic practitioner.
Speaker:I did intuitive readings at
the time, I did energy healing,
Speaker:and I saw several core
components and takeaways
Speaker:from my own journey as well as the
journeys of those who I worked with.
Speaker:So these are the core things that I
noticed that helped people heal: The
Speaker:first thing is for them to work
with medicines that they really
Speaker:resonated with.
Speaker:So some people really felt comfortable
with antibiotics and felt like they
Speaker:really were good for them,
they really worked for them.
Speaker:They'd been helpful in the past, and
that tended to really help those people.
Speaker:Other people were really passionate
about herbs or they felt really
Speaker:connected to the plants outside their
home, and that really helped them.
Speaker:Obviously, in my experience,
Speaker:connecting on a shamanic level
was extremely important for me in
Speaker:order to experience this healing.
Speaker:So working with medicines
that resonate with you.
Speaker:And this is really just part and
parcel of working with your body,
Speaker:working with your body,
not against your body.
Speaker:This is all an initiation
in working with your body,
Speaker:so working with the
medicines that you trust,
Speaker:that resonate for you and your
nervous system. The second thing I
Speaker:saw in every person I worked with and
with my own self is this call to recognize
Speaker:who you are. And by and large,
Speaker:every person that I worked
with was a sensitive person,
Speaker:was someone who was ready for
the next step of the journey,
Speaker:but was also ready to reckon with
the ways in which they were using
Speaker:their energy for people or
things or ventures that were not
Speaker:healing for them, that were not here
to bolster or support their systems.
Speaker:So it was a call to really
claim their own energy,
Speaker:to really claim their energy
in this lifetime, to claim
their power in this way,
Speaker:and to step into this next phase of
their journey through setting these
Speaker:boundaries once more.
And so this deep
Speaker:awareness of energy, where it needs
to go and where it doesn't need to go,
Speaker:was healing on so many levels for people.
Speaker:And so even on a very
tangible physical level,
Speaker:when we reclaim this energy,
Speaker:we then have energy for
our body to deal with this
Speaker:bacterium, with this
ancient consciousness,
Speaker:and to be in that negotiation
and to be in that healing.
Speaker:I also saw time and time again, and I
know I've mentioned this several times,
Speaker:but it's very important, that healing
looked different for each person.
Speaker:And that's an exciting thing because
the healing that comes in and the
Speaker:way that it came in was coming
in specifically to show people,
Speaker:what is your curriculum in this lifetime?
What are you being asked to work with?
Speaker:The thing that healed them was the very
thing that was calling them forward in
Speaker:their own lives.
Speaker:And so it was a invitation
to go on this journey to
Speaker:find out what healing looks like,
because that through that journey,
Speaker:you find out who you're
here to become. Now,
Speaker:that said,
Speaker:that journey of healing for the folks
that I worked with who were dealing with
Speaker:chronic Lyme, and
obviously for my own self,
Speaker:that journey normally is taking
people into this deeper terrain of
Speaker:working with the unseen,
Speaker:of working with these aspects of
themselves that are ready to come out and
Speaker:flourish, be seen, for these unseen
aspects of the world. I mean,
Speaker:chronic illness itself
is an unseen experience.
Speaker:You're working with something that you
cannot necessarily see inside of your own
Speaker:body, but that is very much there
and is very much affecting you.
Speaker:And so when we can embrace the idea
Speaker:that illness is a teacher,
Speaker:that Lyme is a teacher,
Speaker:and that these experiences are
coming to teach us on an energetic
Speaker:level, on a physical level,
on a spiritual level,
Speaker:that when you embrace them as teachers,
Speaker:that is when healing happens.
And that at the end of the day,
Speaker:was the thing that helped people
Speaker:transcend, who I worked with.
So this is the
Speaker:story of how I healed from Lyme disease,
Speaker:and this is the story of what I have
seen to be helpful for people who
Speaker:are dealing with chronic Lyme.
Speaker:This is something that has become central
in my own life and in my own practice
Speaker:and my own teachings and understandings.
Speaker:I have personally lived
with chronic illness and
Speaker:pain, different cycles
of it for over a decade,
Speaker:and working with thousands
of people around the world,
Speaker:and I have seen that over
and over and over again,
Speaker:when we can approach illness as a teacher,
Speaker:this is when we initiate
the next era in our life,
Speaker:and this is when we initiate our healing.
So if any of this is resonating with
Speaker:you, if you are experiencing
Lyme or another chronic illness,
Speaker:I would love if you joined me
in my class Illness as Teacher.
Speaker:It's completely free.
Speaker:It's something that feels like
it's a part of my life path and my
Speaker:healing to be able to offer.
Speaker:It's a live class that's
happening on September 28th.
Speaker:So if you sign up now, you can join
us live. If you can't join live,
Speaker:then you can sign up and
get the replay later.
Speaker:Or if you're listening to this later,
Speaker:you can still sign up and
receive that replay now.
Speaker:I have found this
awareness and this framing
Speaker:of illness as a teacher to be really
powerful for inviting in the healing
Speaker:that we're meant to experience in
this lifetime. So in the class,
Speaker:we're going to talk about what kind of
people end up having illness be a big
Speaker:part of their journey,
Speaker:and specifically what it means about who
Speaker:you are and who you're meant to become,
Speaker:and specifically the gifts
that you're meant to embody.
Speaker:Because illness comes in as a teacher.
Speaker:And the thing that happens when
we embrace illness as a teacher
Speaker:is then we embrace the parts of
ourselves that are ready to be
Speaker:manifest in this lifetime. We embrace
our own curriculum and life path.
Speaker:And the cool thing that happens when
you embrace illness as a teacher is
Speaker:you embrace your path as a teacher.
Speaker:And I've seen this over
and over and over again.
Speaker:That illness comes in as a teacher,
Speaker:and our job is to embrace that teacher
as a student. And when we do that,
Speaker:when we can do that fully,
Speaker:then we become teachers in this lifetime.
The author,
Speaker:Caroline Myss, has this really wonderful
quote that I think encapsulates it.
Speaker:She writes, "when illness is
part of your spiritual journey,
Speaker:no medical intervention can heal you
until your spirit has begun to make the
Speaker:changes that the illness was designed to
inspire." And what I have seen is that
Speaker:folks who are dealing with chronic illness
are often being called to this deeper
Speaker:path, this spiritual path in their life,
Speaker:and called deeper perhaps
than they've gone before,
Speaker:because often they're
already walking that path.
Speaker:But there is something
here waiting for you.
Speaker:And so there's this awareness or this
ability to understand who you are.
Speaker:And through this class,
Illness as Teacher,
Speaker:we're going to touch into the question
that we all want to know, which is why?
Speaker:Why am I experiencing this?
Why is this a part of my life?
Speaker:Because illness is really hard. It's
a really huge big path to choose.
Speaker:Powerful souls are the ones who choose it.
Speaker:And it's important that we
have support along the way.
Speaker:And it's important that we have these
moments in these times to stop and
Speaker:orient together to the teacher and
to the teaching that's coming in.
Speaker:Because what I have found is that when
we can connect with illness as a teacher,
Speaker:that's when healing streams in.
Speaker:That's when we step into the path that
we are meant to walk in this lifetime.
Speaker:And that is when the rest of our life
begins. So if you're interested in this
Speaker:class, there is a link to sign up below.
Speaker:You can join me live or listen
to the replay at any time.
Speaker:I am feeling really excited
about being able to offer this
Speaker:opportunity for healing and connection.
Speaker:And so if this is something
that's resonating with you,
Speaker:I would absolutely love to see you there.
Thank you for listening to my story.
Speaker:I hope that it brought in some
windows of possibility for you because
Speaker:what I have seen time and
time again is that healing is
Speaker:always possible,
Speaker:that there is a deeper benevolence to
absolutely everything we experience on
Speaker:this planet,
Speaker:and that the hardship of the
journey is here to open us
Speaker:to the deep well of gifts that we carry,
Speaker:to the undimmable
radiance of our own spirit
Speaker:and the powerful lives
Speaker:of healing and beauty,
Speaker:and learning and becoming
that we're here to experience.
Speaker:So wherever you are on
your healing journey,
Speaker:may you find exactly what you
need to keep walking that path
Speaker:and to heal. Well,
Speaker:thank you so much for being here,
for witnessing me and my journey,
Speaker:and for taking this time for
yourself to reflect on your journey,
Speaker:the big things you've encountered,
Speaker:the big teachers you've
encountered in your life.
Speaker:You are where you are because you
have encountered those teachers,
Speaker:you've encountered your own deeper self,
Speaker:and you've continued to
say yes to your journey.
Speaker:And I'm just so honored to
be here with you as we all
Speaker:continue to say yes to our own unfoldment.
So if you have
Speaker:comments about this episode or you
just want to reach out and share your
Speaker:thoughts, head over to
AsiaSuler.com/remember,
and leave me a voice note.
Speaker:I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker:And may it be that every
bigness you encounter,
Speaker:every teacher, every plot foil,
Speaker:every challenge, every opening,
Speaker:just shows you more
and more of this thing,
Speaker:this thing that is the most
important thing of all:
Speaker:remembering why you're here.
