Healing Isn't Compartmentalized • It's All Connected
To heal is look at the bigger picture and connect all parts of ourselves.
I’ve learned that just because an illness or imbalance manifests itself in a specific part of your body, it doesn’t necessarily mean that body part is at fault. It wasn’t that my breasts were unhealthy, it was simply the area where my imbalances chose to present themselves. To heal is look at the bigger picture and connect all parts of ourselves. When I started working with my ayurvedic practitioner, naturopath and functional medicine doctor they examined my WHOLE being. We looked at my digestion, nutrient deficiencies, hormones, stress levels, diet, food sensitivities, blood health and so on. All of these areas are connected and so you can’t experience an imbalance in one area without it affecting another. For instance, poor gut health can be a root cause of many food sensitivities. But as you heal your gut, many of these sensitivities go away. These food sensitivities (if you aren’t aware) can increase inflammation, which depletes important nutrients and goes on to affect hormone levels, cause skin issues and even worsen anxiety.
My symptoms of fibroadenomas and tumour manifested themselves in my breasts, and so I thought my breasts were the issue. This is long before I took my health into my own hands and learned just how connected everything is. My breasts were the canary in the coal mine. They were trying to communicate that something was wrong. When I had my first fibroadenoma removed I was told not to worry, that this was common and lots of women had this issue. So I didn’t worry, pay attention or give my body the proper nutrition it was asking for. I kept doing what I was doing. And things got worse. More fibroadenomas showed up and a phyllodes tumour started to grow.
I’ve always been an incredibly anxious, nervous and shy child, much less so now that I’ve learned how to manage it. I’ve come to understand that this constant anxiety, which I see as low grade but constant state of stress, really impacted my hormonal health. As a kid I gravitated towards comfort food (chips, chocolate, fries) to comfort my anxiety, my feelings of unworthiness and unlovability. I didn’t know how to navigate my emotional stress so I used food to soothe and comfort. This further created inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalance and set the stage for my fibroadenomas to develop. It makes sense that my imbalances would manifest in my breasts. They protect our heart space and are incredibly sensitive to emotional stressors. They hold on to hurt, pain, shame, sorrow and so much more. These are all feelings that I’ve experienced and bottled up as a means to protect myself. I never knew how to express my feelings, fears, anxieties or needs. I didn’t have the teachers to show me effective ways of communication. I simply built walls around my heart. I believe these fibroadenomas and tumor showed up to help me break down these walls. They were a cry for self love and attention. This is where breast massage can be incredibly beneficial. It’s a great way to move that stagnant energy and give our heart space some much needed love and attention.
Dis-eases often show up in places that are weak, have often been neglected and are calling out for our love and attention. For instance, you often hear of women that have suffered a traumatic loss or have been through an incredibly painful event, such as divorce, and they receive breast cancer diagnoses shortly after. This isn’t always the case but I do think there’s a very strong correlation between emotional and physical pain. To think that our emotional pain, anxiety, stress, feelings of unworthiness have no impact on our physical health is to separate our physical and emotional bodies from one another.
To heal our emotional and spiritual bodies is to heal our physical bodies.
To heal our emotional and spiritual bodies is to heal our physical bodies. Some of the most impactful spiritual work I’ve done is with Lacy Philips at Free + Native. As a manifestation advisor, she strongly emphasizes that the universe’s only desire for us it to step into our most authentic and magnetic selves. Her work helps you unblock the subconscious mind and regain clarity around your intentions.
Our childhoods have been filled with conditioning from society, family and peers from the very beginning. We walk around as a sliver of our true selves. We suffer from low self-worth, replay our parents lack mentality, and we deny our shadow selves. We live lives that are not are not our true calling, don’t light us up, make us ill, and simply don’t bring us joy. Her work has helped me increase my feelings of worthiness, confidence, lovability, it’s helped me create boundaries, learn when to say no, get clear about what I want, build my trust in the universe, and love all denied aspects of myself. Her programs are incredible, and if you commit to doing the work, you’ll experience life changing results. She has courses to call in your partner, reparent your childhood, create boundaries, call in money or career, and integrate your shadow self. There’s also an incredible Supported community you can join and meet like-minded souls. I implore you to check out her site. Invest in yourself. It will be one of the best thing you’ll ever do.
The work is far from over, in fact, I don’t think it ever ends.