It seems to be a popular consensus amidst both the conventional and holistic health arenas that inflammation is the foundation for chronic dis-ease states.

While I totally agree that inflammation plays a large role, I am now of the belief that inflammation is preceded by reduced mental, emotional, and cellular energy. And, here’s why and what to do about it!

“Where there is space, there is movement. Where there is movement, there is energy. Where there is energy, dis-ease cannot exist” -Dr. Henele, Energetic Health Institute

To begin, let’s first consider some important concepts:

• Everything requires energy to functional optimally. A country. A company. A school. A teacher. A vehicle. A garden. A family. And, the list goes on. Our minds and bodies are no exception!

• When we expend more energy than we take in, we become run down. When we become run down, we become vulnerable to poor health states.

• Low energy states set that stage for impaired digestion of the nutrients that our cells need to operate, the bio-accumulation of infections, and the build-up of toxins in our body; all of these things then create “the dreaded” chronic inflammation.

• Once chronic inflammation sets in, the body requires energy to remedy it.

• Mental, emotional, and physical fatigue are the body’s first warning signs that something is not right, yet it is most often ignored and simply just chalked up to “normal” stress of daily life and therefor pushed through.

• Healing requires energy. Processing medications and supplements require energy. Cellular detoxification and repair require energy. If there is not enough energy in the reserve tanks, the body and mind will not heal.

As I ponder my own long, hellish journey with CFS/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (aka: what I prefer to refer to as Chronic Fucking Shit Syndrome), I now clearly see that it all began with aspects of my life that drained me on a continual basis and left me vulnerable to future dis-ease states.

For instance, I ate a Standard American, grain and sugar-based diet, I had a chaotic upbringing that lacked the teaching of healthy boundaries, I was very perfectionist orientated, I was a catastrophic / all or nothing thinker, I dated guys that treated me like shit, I often pushed myself beyond my own limits, and I made very poor choices in the name of always trying to lose weight.

In my adult-life I established myself in a teaching career that capitalized on my Type-A dysfunction and therefor ultimately sucked the life out of me. When I finally crashed and found myself deep within the rabbit hole of chronic illness, all of these patterns not only continued but some of them become more pronounced; particularly the catastrophic / all or nothing thinking patterns and unhealthy relationships with myself and others.

Furthermore, my desperate efforts to regain my health were hyper-focused on finding the “one” answer as to why I was so sick as well as the “one” magical treatment protocol that would bring me back to a state of health and wholeness. I spent countless years traveling around from practitioner to practitioner, taking handfuls upon handfuls of supplements, and engaging in all sorts of different treatment protocols that often made me worse.

I now understand the reason for this was because I simply did not have the energy in my body to make use of other things I was doing to get well. Since studying functional health, mind-body medicine, and bio-energetic applications, I now understand that we humans derive our energy through optimal exchange with the environment.

What does this mean? It means that in order to maintain health-promoting energy levels and prevent and/or heal from dis-ease we must do the following more often than not:

• Eat a whole food, nourishing diet and drink plenty of clean water (note: identifying and eliminating foods that trigger an immune response is key!)

• Get outside in the fresh air and natural sunlight

• Move our bodies in nourishing ways

• Breathe deeply (fast, shallow breathing is SO common in our stressed out, technology driven culture)

• Balance our day and night cycles (aka: circadian rhythm); which means going to bed at least 2 hours before midnight and waking up with the sunrise

• Challenge destructive thinking patterns and limiting beliefs

• Be aware of our limitations and learn to say “NO!”

• Create and enforce healthy boundaries and relationships

• Allow enough downtime / alone time

• Identify and remove sources of environmental toxins (non-organic food, fluoride & chlorine riddled water, household cleaners, personal care and makeup products, toxic air quality, dirty electricity, etc.

• Limit the use of technology and screen time

• Do work that we enjoy and are passionate about; work that fills us rather than drains us

• Be KIND to ourselves

• Have a growth mindset

• Let go of blame and take full ownership of healing regardless of the shitty things that have happened in our lives

• Engage is some sort of mindfulness practice that resonates with us

If I could turn back the hands of time, prior to spending thousands upon thousands on running myriads of labs and downing handfuls of supplements over the course of many years, I would have taken a long period of rest and focused primarily on incorporating these strategies into my life. I 100% believe that had I done so, things would have played out much differently for me and I would have saved myself tons of money and so much suffering.

In closing, regardless of where you are on your own personal health journey, I highly encourage you to take a hard look at your life and aspects of yourself that are draining your energy reserves. Remember, without energy, the body and mind cannot and will not heal! Additionally, no amount of medications or supplements can undue a life that is draining you.

Aside from the strategies mentioned above, another great way to up-regulate energy reserves and support the body’s ability to heal is to incorporate bio-energetic medicine into your approach. As a functional health practitioner that has also walked the path of disabling chronic illness, I know first hand, how difficult it can be to shift patterns in our lives when we have a bunch of trapped toxic energy in our bodies that we don’t know how to shed. Because of this, I continually seek additional modalities of healing that can help support myself and my clients with this aspect.

That said, as part of my comprehensive, functional approach, I weave in NES Bio-EnergetiX along side of functional lab testing, nutritional & lifestyle mentoring, and mind-body coaching. The best way I can describe this modality is that it performs a scan of your body’s energetic bio-field (this can be done remotely by the way!), indicates where there are blockages and stored trauma, and then makes recommendations in the form of infoceuticals based on what your body needs help with the most in prioritizing order. This is a perfect way to help up-regulate energy, help your body release the energy of stored trauma, and help anything else you are doing to be more effective.

If you are interested in learning more, perhaps you would like to book an initial FREE Exploration Session!