096 Recovery...A Journey Of Self Love with Jackie Shea

About My Guest:  

Jackie Shea-Life, health and business coach. 

Key Takeaways:

Lyme acted as a catalyst for me to go IN to the darkness and heal it all. Indonesia for ozone treatments, went to Florida for peptide treatments, saw healers, herbal protocols.  Insomnia, hair loss, depression, muscle twitching, joint pain, fibro pain I gave myself over to the spiritual, emotional and physical work.  Casting a wide net of support lightened the load. Give up the illusion that western medicine (alone) will save you. I felt a level of abandonment by doctors. Everything with Lyme is a process...I felt abandoned by medicine, my family, friends who could no longer be friends.  All these identity layers were starting to go away: my looks, my confidence, my brain, my feistiness, my adventurist spirit. What happened is that I had to find my soul, my spirit. Common variable immune deficiency-  Mindset-Moment. I had spent a lot of time just waiting for the illness to be over. So I could “go back” to life as it was. 

Two different perceptions of reality: 

This illness is an obstacle. This illness is part of my life’s journey. 

If you understood the reality that you might be sick for another two years, what would you do differently?

 

Engage with life in whatever ways you can. (even if it is from your bed)

 

Victim vs. Ownership (Fault vs. Responsibility) I was the victim of getting bit by a tick. And responsible for everything I did with it. It pushed me to a new level of responsibility and ownership over my life.  You have to take full responsibility for where you are in life so that you can get out of self-pity (victim mentality) so that I could get into gratitude, be present in the moment. So that I could live well while feeling bad. Responsibility and ownership over my life experience. Waiting to be well. Takes away from what your life could be.  Who you once were. Remember, years ago, before getting sick. That person that you are longing to get back too, no longer exists. Saying goodbye to who you used to “identified as” is a grievous process. “We don’t bounce back, we bounce forward.” Confronting your illness is a journey worth taking. People heal differently. A lot of healing from Lyme comes from throwing shit (protocols) against a wall and seeing what sticks. We all heal in different ways and use different tools. You have to try them and see how your body responds.  Healing, was really a journey of self love (self compassion, inner child work, trauma work, gratitude work, meditation, communication) I had to try all sorts of things, and listen to my body, and see what it liked and what it didn’t like.”   I was always trying to have Self-Love, illness made self-love a life and death decision.  If I didn’t learn to love myself (while being sick), I was going to spend the rest of my life being sick and miserable.  Inner Child work: When you do not know how to take care of yourself, ask yourself what the inner child inside you needs. When you are little, you need other people to meet your needs (food, shelter, love, laughter, food). When you are an adult, you need to learn to meet these needs yourself.  You. If I have a need, it is my responsibility to verbalize that. I have to take responsibility for meeting your own needs. Being responsible for meeting your own needs is what saves a relationship. Sick and in a relationship? Taking full responsibility for meeting your own needs. Don’t…. Our own sense of worthiness comes into play multiple times a day. Changing your living space is very impactful (don’t let your surroundings feel bad)  Everything in your view should bring you joy.(get rid of, organize, focus on joy) Find what works for you...infrared sauna, massage, acupuncture, trauma therapy. Be willing to ask for help. Then, be willing to keep asking.  Fear of asking for help...You can ask for as much support as you need. People might say no, that’s ok. The work is not done once you get well. You will not simply go back to normal. You have to practice functioning “well” over and over as new settings present themselves. Healing, rebuilding your life, has been an immense journey.  Rewriting the stories we have unconsciously repeated so that we can fully heal.  Shaman belief: We control 80% of our reality. 20% is….I can do the work I need to do to get well, but we don’t control the outcome.  Illness required me to be 1000% more focused on my life. It calmed me down enough to say this is what I want, and this is what I’m going to go for. Value system, I spend my time with people I actually want to be with.I do work that is important to me.  my priorities are clearly laid out within my value system. Because I’m not driven by distraction, I can be with myself, I have more self seteem and self love, I’m able to be alone, I’m able to accomplish and focus on the things that really matter to me. 

Connect With My Guest:

Self care checklist https://jackieshea.com/  

Healing Out Loud Podcast: https://jackieshea.com/podcasts/

We know that the only way out is through but it would help to have a tribe on the journey, right? Somewhere along the way, writing stopped feeling like the most efficient and enjoyable way for me to get this info out there, and creating a podcast dedicated to healing—the feelings, the facts, the options—germinated in my mind.  I am in love with producing my podcast. I get to interview people from all over the world who have extensive knowledge around illness and/or wellness and inspire me to live an even richer and fuller life. Each hour-long episode is jam-packed with vulnerability, self-care tools and very practical solutions to heal. I learn so much and grow more inspired after every interview. I love my tribe- Jackie Shea

Resources Mentioned:

Option B by Cheryl Stranberg  The Pain Chronicles by Melanie Thernstrom The Magic of Tidying Up- Self compassion by Kristen Neff ?

 

Links

Kangen Water- http://www.lymewater.com/ Envita Medical –Envita Medical Lyme Voice Facebook  The Lyme Voice Podcast- Lymevoice.com Lyme Documentary-Disappearing From Society, Life with chronic Lyme in 14 minutes…Documentary Little Bite, BIG TROUBLE, available on Amazon –Children’s book about Lyme disease Organic coffee!  https://www.ovaldogs.com