Healing – in thriver words

Not This Reset

Some resets are good, but maybe not this reset. Last week, my neighbors informed me that there is an electric bed that resets your DNA in our community building. It was purportedly invented by a female scientist with some legitimate sounding credits. But my first response was still…A what?!?

Then one of the reporting parties told a story about having cardiac ablation to fix a heart rhythm problem. That made me curious what the electric bed might do to her? The more I thought, the more curious I got.

I started clicking around. Could such a bed really reset anything?

I didn’t find anything online about our resident electric bed, but I did discover “medbeds.” It appears this term can describe a medical bed or a meditation bed. Either one will come with many ideas about what it is.

With medbeds, some lines of thinking extend to the conspiratorial and far-fetched. Others lean toward holistic medicine but remain outside of mainstream practice.

A company called Tesla BioHealing (No relation to the car company or SpaceX) offers facilities in which you can experience a medbed for about $160. They also sell a home generator for just under $20,000. But what are these and how do they work?

Tesla BioHealing offers Life Force Energy makers or enhancers at two levels of strength – biohealer and generator. You simply put them next to you (or under your bed) and they provide extra life force that, according to their website, will cause cells to activate their self-repair mechanisms.

Yeah, yeah but what is this life force energy?

Interestingly, they don’t attach the words life force energy directly to anything. They do have a section that talks about biophotons. Those are defined as low-level light emissions produced by biological systems such as cells, tissues, and organisms. They may play a role in communication between cells, but the biophotons don’t seem to tie directly back to the healer or generator.

Having been down a few roads with my mother who loved fringe alternative medicine, I’m getting the same feeling I got when she took me to a dentist who put a rod in each of my hands attached to electrical wires which were inserted in small vials of water.

I was to hold the rods for a specified amount of time while my body generated, and the machine deposited into the water, whatever it would need to heal. At the time, I had just recovered from a second bout with psittacosis. I wanted answers and to be totally rid of the organism, but this was a bridge too far.

Like other quick and easy fixes, a product that enhances your “Life Force Energy” to combat many health conditions at once sounds appealing. And it’s possible that it could briefly appear to improve some conditions through the placebo effect. It may also be considered preferrable to the significant side effects of multiple pharmaceuticals to those who prefer a holistic approach to healing. But just because we’d like for solutions to work like magic doesn’t mean they do.

There are MedBeds that appear in scientific studies – they’re electric beds in the sense of positioning a patient comfortably. You know, a hospital bed.

I’m not saying it’s impossible for someone to invent something that will help cells heal – hyperbaric chambers exist after all. But I wouldn’t jump on an electric medbed right now and expect any sort of bump in life force energy.

If you’re looking for a reset, start with the basics – healthy food, plenty of water, lots of movement, and a good night’s sleep. It’s amazing how much your health can improve just from consistently making those part of your day.

A shockingly good electric bed reset will have to come later – when one exists.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Tolerating Discomfort

When you’re tired of tolerating discomfort, you may have to learn to tolerate discomfort. Why does paradox always feel as though life is laughing at you?

For years, my tummy hurt. My joints ached. My muscles were weak. I broke out. I itched. My eyes were dry. I couldn’t sleep because I was so uncomfortable. Getting better meant I had to tolerate a different kind of discomfort. That’s often how healing goes.

It would be nice if things were always upward and onward, but they just don’t work that way. While the general trajectory may be up, there will be times that feel like dips. During those times, we have to endure and increase our window of tolerance so that we have more resilience when the next hurdle comes along.

You can think of this as emotional weightlifting. The resolve to continue on a healthier path is often affected by emotions. And sometimes, the body has trapped a traumatic response in its muscle memory. Releasing that requires a special kind of tolerance for discomfort.

When it comes to tummy troubles, most of us want to get rid of pain. That’s why we seek medical attention. Getting better begins with refusing to tolerate discomfort. But when we hit a dip in improvement or a treatment plan increases pain, refusing to tolerate momentary discomfort can derail healing. We need to be able to stick with the plan in spite of how we feel.

When it comes to emotional pain left from trauma, it’s possible to experience more discomfort from attempting to let it go from remaining caught in familiar pain. That doesn’t mean you like how you feel. It just means letting go may feel scary to the point of terrifying.

Either way, increasing tolerance for discomfort can be the key to staying on track. So how can you increase tolerance?

Patience. We all think our minds can stay ahead of our bodies. But the lower brain is wired to protect us from perceived danger. If it gets triggered, our behavior can sometimes surprise us. This is a normal part of the process. It’s messy but it doesn’t mean you’ll forever be out of control.

Stillness. You can’t learn to sit with discomfort unless you allow yourself to feel it. That won’t happen if you’re constantly moving, medicating, working, or otherwise distracting yourself.

Practice. Like any sort of desensitization, tolerance is built one step at a time. At first, a minute or two may be all you can handle but each moment will build on the next.

Balance. Regularly including an equal balance of something fun, joyous, pleasurable, or exciting will give you a space to move into that feels good once you’ve reached your current tolerance for discomfort.

Structure. When you feel messy inside, it’s beneficial to have routines, deadlines, accountability partners, and community to provide an environment that feels solid and stable.

Like everything, learning to tolerate discomfort is a process. The experience will be slightly different for each of us. The only thing we all have in common is that to build tolerance, we must start the process. Otherwise, it will not happen.

Talking about it won’t make it happen. Making promises won’t make it happen. Continuing to numb or distract will prevent it from happening.

We are all capable of more than we believe. We can tolerate more discomfort than we think we can. Don’t overthink. Just begin. Slowly, but surely, good things will happen.

What You Resist

“What you resist persists.” – Carl Jung

Said in other ways: What you avoid persists; what you fail to learn persists; what remains hidden in your subconscious persists; what trauma traps in your body persists. And very often, we actively invite or create what we most hope to avoid in our lives.

Pogo creator Walt Kelly wrote a parody line that seems apropos – “We have met the enemy and he is us.” While it is true that there are societal and economic obstacles that get in the way of personal improvement, there are also myriad internal obstacles that hold us back. Some are easily changed. Others require layer after layer of courage, honesty, and effort to peel away and release.

All improvement begins with insight. If you don’t see a problem, there is no problem and therefore, no need for improvement. Experts will break insight down into specific categories and steps of recognition leading to action. I’ll keep it simple. Can you realistically connect your action/inaction/decisions/attitude/behavior to the results they are bringing to your life?

We all have a self-protective tendency that allows us to live in denial, sometimes for years. Admitting our flaws and failures can be difficult and painful. It can feel threatening to our self-esteem. And then there’s shame. What do we do with that? As difficult as it may be to level with ourselves, it’s imperative if we want to maximize our potential.

So how do we gain insight?

Get curious! Ask:

What’s that nagging thought I keep pushing away? Often, we have an internal knowing we choose to ignore. Sometimes we may even make a great effort to ignore it. If that’s the case, stop those efforts and see what happens.

What do I keep accusing my partner of? You may have heard, “every accusation is a confession.” There’s some truth to that. Take each accusation and flip it. Are you talking about them or you (or both)?

What will happen if I really lean into what I’m feeling? One way to gain insight is to change something. If you avoid certain feelings, plunge right in and explore them for as long as you can stand it. Your tolerance will grow with practice.

What do I feel in my body? Following what’s happening in our bodies often results in insight. It can also free us from recurring trauma responses. Somatic experiencing therapy uses this process.

What will I have to change if I gain a piece of self-knowledge? We often remain in a familiar rut because in some convoluted way, it feels positive. Will we have to admit we’re acting just like the parent we swore we’d never act like? Will we lose some of the attention we’re currently getting? Will we have to apologize to a lot of people? Will we lose victim status?

It is true that knowledge may mean we will no longer be able to tolerate our current path. That’s good news! It puts us at an ideal point from which to implement change.

And more good news is that your path for improvement can be whatever you wish it to be. You can be your own hero instead of your own enemy. Get out there, be brave, and get a new cape!

Your best life is calling! Do not resist.

Acupressure For Gastrointestinal Improvement

Can we consider acupressure for gastrointestinal improvement? Directly or indirectly, a lot of us adopt specialized diets because our gastrointestinal system causes us distress. Sometimes we adopt the change because of a specific diagnosis. Sometimes it’s because we can see an observable difference in how we feel when we avoid certain foods. Sometimes, we’re at the point we’ll try anything in an attempt to get relief. And sometimes it’s a mix of all three plus some.

Being in constant pain or worry about needing to find a bathroom makes even the most routine tasks miserable, tiring, and anxiety producing. It becomes a natural reflex to stay home in order to avoid embarrassing situations. No one wants to limit themselves. But what do you do when you can’t seem to find the thing that brings relief?

I’ve lived this in varying degrees for over 20 years. I became gluten-free in 2003. Eliminating gluten helped. Eliminating dairy products helped. But it was only in the last year that I discovered eating low histamine foods would vastly improve my lingering symptoms.

As I’ve experimented with dietary changes, I’ve also explored the effects of stress and ways to rein in feelings that overwhelm my system. I have no doubt the function of my digestive system is related to the function of my emotional regulation system.

Recently, I’ve explored using acupressure to calm the vagus nerve. Mind you, I’m early in the learning process. I haven’t really found any documentation that indicates acupressure will be effective.

What I did discover were some small studies that researched the effects of acupressure on post-operative hysterectomy and colorectal cancer patients. If these studies hold true in larger numbers, it appears that adding acupressure to post-op care could result in better bowel motility and quicker, less painful recovery. That sounds positive to me.

Acupressure has also been effective in reducing post-operative nausea experienced after general anesthesia. Acupressure can also reduce vomiting when no antiemetic medication is used.

If acupressure can reduce nausea and vomiting in a post-op situation, I’m wondering whether it can work for stress or trauma related nausea and IBS. It seems possible given that the physical mechanisms involved may be the same or similar.

There are many websites and books touting acupressure as effective trauma treatment. They may all offer great tools. I do not know. I haven’t tried any of their techniques and I haven’t yet found randomized, controlled trials to confirm anecdotal improvement.

If your doctor indicates acupressure will not create complications for your existing health conditions, I see no harm in giving it a try. If it works, you don’t need anyone to prove it to you. If it doesn’t, you can stop including it in your health plan.

Minimally invasive, non-pharmaceutical interventions that result in a healthier gut will complement the dietary changes you make. This can lead to generally feeling better and having less need for isolation.

I see lots of possibilities for acupressure as a tool for gastrointestinal improvement in situations beyond post-op recovery.