An Incredible Journey Of Recovery Begins!

I have not blogged in a while but in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I decided to write a special article to tell about how

a simple daily writing practice aimed at rewiring my nervous system played an integral role in the transformation of my physical, mental, and emotional health as well as success in my personal and professional life.

I hope you enjoy the story I share within and that it serves to inspire and help you in some way on your healing and life journey!

BTW..this is about a 10-minute read but I am confident it will be well worth your time if you truly embrace the message I share.

So, here goes!

Hitting Rock Bottom!

7 years ago, after 18 years of struggling with complex, chronic health challenges while also trying to keep up with an immensely demanding career as a high school teacher, I hit rock bottom and suffered a severe breakdown that forced me to walk away from my career and my life as I had known it up to that point.

I was SO angry and resentful at everything and everybody! I felt as if the Universe had dealt me a shitty deck of cards from the get-go and continued to do so.

The way I saw things at this time is that I had tried everything in my power to get well, none of it worked, doctors and many others had screwed me over, and now I was simply doomed to be sick and financially limited forever!

I Was Entrenched In A Victim Mindset And It Was Killing Me!

Through this lens, I surely could not see very much to be grateful for and even if I did see it, I did not realize the importance of focusing on it and embracing it on a consistent basis.

And, the more I embraced and engaged with the narrative of “I am doomed, nothing ever works out for me and nothing ever will”, the more stressed my nervous system became, and the deeper into the abyss of fatigue, pain, and despair I fell.

It was a very dark time indeed!

A Twist Of Fate & A Change Of Mind!

One day, as I was mindlessly surfing the internet, desperately searching for something to help me, which I did most of the time, I stumbled upon an Ebook about Appreciate Living.

It was written by a woman named Jackie whose life had been blown apart by chronic illness as mine had been!

I purchased it and when it arrived, I read the entire book cover to cover that day!

The basic gist of the book was all about how living one's life in a state of gratitude, no matter how bad one's circumstances are, is a critical component for changing the circumstances.

On the last page of the book there was a 30-day gratitude writing challenge.

The 30-Day Gratitude Challenge!

This 30-day challenge was as follows:

For the next 30 days, set aside time each day, preferably in the morning, to journal about 10 things you are grateful for (no matter how small) and why you are grateful for them.

Do your best to make each daily gratitude list unique, without repeating anything from previous days.

This may seem like a stretch but it will help prune back the neural networks in your stress centers and develop the joy and creative centers in your prefrontal cortex, which have become atrophied as a result of all the trauma and hardship you've experienced. This is NORMAL!!!

And, if it feels right to do so, I also encourage you to also draw sketches of some kind to depict your gratitude. Don't get hung up on artistic ability. Stick figures are fine. The sketch can be literal or abstract, colorful or black and white, or whatever suits you.

The Winds Of Change Slowly Rolled In!

I did not have much confidence that this practice would help my circumstances but something inside of me pushed me to do it anyway.

I thought to myself, "Nothing else has worked, I am beyond miserable, what've I got to lose here?"

And so I purchased a journal on Amazon and I began my daily gratitude journaling practice.

I'm not gonna lie. The first week doing was grueling. It felt terrible on all fronts.

I was SO depressed, exhausted, and stressed out that even bringing myself to get the journal and a pen out seemed overwhelming.

Each word I wrote felt as if I was being forced to push wheelbarrows of stone up a steep hill with absolutely no physical, mental, or emotional strength.

I thought to myself, "How on earth is doing this going to possibly help me shift the level of damage that I have incurred in my body, mind, and soul!?"

Side note: Even in telling this story right now, I realize just how destructive my self-talk was at this time! Yikes!

Anyway...

A voice inside of me told me to keep with it each day even though I had zero motivation to do so.

And, at around the 3-week mark, I began noticing very subtle shifts in my mood, energy, and overall outlook.

I also noticed that I began looking forward to doing it each morning, even though I still felt quite miserable on all fronts.

From this point forward, with consistent practice, I continued experiencing subtle, positive shifts each week in both my physical and mental health as well as how I responded to the stressful events and people in my life.

You see, nothing breeds success like success!

These subtle, positive shifts served as motivation for me to keep with it, especially on days when I did not feel like doing so!

Gratitude Raised Our Vibration!

Now, please don't think I'm saying in any way that this daily gratitude writing practice alone is what transformed my health and my life.

This is not the case at all.

I absolutely had to do MANY other things. But, by making it a daily practice to shift from a state of anger, blame, and victimhood into a state of appreciation, I was able to calm my nervous system, raise my vibration and thus create space for healing energy to move into my body and my life!

This helped me to shift my perspective; which I desperately needed.

Focusing on the subtle, positive shifts was especially important on difficult days where I felt like throwing in the towel and allowing despair to swallow me up.

Anyway, to this day, I continue with a morning journaling practice that includes a gratitude segment but...

I have since upgraded to include many different components, rooted in neuroscience, designed specifically for rewiring my mind for wellness and personal success.

What is the key takeaway here?

Our minds, our emotional states, and our vibration play a much larger role in our ability to heal our bodies and transform our lives than we can possibly see and understand when we are in the thick of illness, turmoil, and life challenges.

This simple and FREE daily practice continues to play an integral role in my continued healing and the success of my business, my relationships, and everything else in my life!

And because this daily neural rewiring practice has proven to be so successful for me, I will be creating a special PDF booklet of the exact prompts that I used to share with all those that enroll in my upcoming Wellness Code health and life transformation program.

I will also be providing coaching around implementing the writing prompts effectively into one's overall comprehensive healing journey or in their work with clients!

You can read more about this amazing, one-of-a-kind program by clicking on the button below.

Have said all this, I now challenge you to do the 30-day gratitude challenge as outlined above.

I’m confident that by sticking with it for the full 30 days that you too will experience magical shifts in your health and life! You'll probably want to keep going and progress to more advanced neural rewiring prompts as I did! :)

Happy Thanksgiving to you!