“You have to lower your stress”, my doctor of 12 years told me. This was after over a decade of extreme, persistent chronic lyme disease symptoms and a myriad of treatments, both traditional and alternative. Over a 15 year period of time, I traveled all over the country and spent over $300,000 trying to get well. I was a functioning, bedridden person, working every day with flu-like symptoms to afford my therapies and my supplements, with no idea when it was going to end.
“You are pouring very expensive seeds on very poor soil,” my doctor told me. I paused and said. “I can’t lower my stress. I am not being chased by lions and tigers, I have enough to eat, and I have not had significant trauma in my life.” This, of course, was said in my head.
“I have to lower my stress response.”
“Yes!”, said my doctor. “Okay, well how do I do that? What treatments are available?”
“I don’t know.” Said the best doctor ever. The search began…
I started with my friend Google, of course. That led me to understand that the stress response is largely impacted by the vagus nerve, the main nerve (starts around the back of your neck) that controls the autonomic nervous system. Some clinics were implanting pace makers to help regulate its activity, which was pretty much a non-starter for me. I already had about 5 surgeries in my lifetime and was not interested in any invasive option.
There are many things that positively affect the vagus nerve, but the two that caught my attention were meditation and cold therapy. Before I go on, here’s what you can do at home for little to no cost:
- cold ice packs on the back of your neck
- hot/cold showers, ending in cold
- iTunes has a ton of guided meditations, I searched and just downloaded the ones I liked
- Heart rate variability apps – there are many out there, pick one with a guided breathing meditation
- binaural beats on iTunes or other music alternatives (pick alpha, theta, delta or gamma tones)
- Wim Hof has an app on iTunes or Google Play to practice breathing techniques
All of these work.
After I cleared my infections one more time, I decided to go to the experts in meditation. I invested time and money to learn from some of the best. I attended a week long Alpha One session with Biocybernaut in Sedona. Through that experience, I was able to reduce many supplements I had needed to support my body’s ability to handle stress. The basic premise was forgiveness and trauma release with a ton of data every day to assess how well I was clearing these internal stressors. I saw my brainwaves changing as I was working.
It turned out that, not unlike many people with chronic illness, I was carrying a lot of baggage and suppressing my reactions to people. People with chronic illness tend to create happy shells around us all of the time, all the while feeling stressed out and emotional on the inside. Through the neurofeedback I did, I started to be more honest with myself as to how I was feeling and it helped to change the functioning of my vagus nerve.
I continued working on it in my daily life, finding my emotions and expressing them honestly with a great deal of compassion.
After about a year of daily working on opening up to the world, I found The Four Winds Society and started to research the field around us. I have now come to understand through my own life experiences and work with my clients that the best, most efficient way to change the stress response is to clear the heavy energy that resides in our fields.
Some of the more high tech ways to do this are to increase your body’s oxygen levels (HBOT, Photobiomodulation, advanced Wim Hof Method), cold therapy like cryotherapy, and to release the energy with mediation (float rooms, sound and light healing). Combine these with ancient techniques of healers/shamans around the world and that’s where the magic happens.
Book a consultation with me and let’s see what therapies work for you.
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