Nobody likes being sick. And it’s natural that feeling sick can feel triggering. We feel bad that we’re feeling sick, not just because we feel physically sick, but because being sick kind of sucks. And in this blog, I will share with you three ways that you might start to see that being sick can actually be a more spiritually connective experience. Let’s dive in.
Leslie here, I am an acupuncturist, spiritual guide and healer, and I help empaths, sensitive people and healers and seekers really use the wisdom of their body to release the trauma that’s been trapped at the subtle body level to actually live the life that they’re meant for, even if you’ve done everything else, if you know something in your mind, but can’t actually do it in your life, you probably have a subtle body block.
I’ll put some links to that below. In this blog, we’re talking about the experience of being sick.
Now it’s natural that when we don’t feel well in our body, we know that there is a mind-body connection. It’s natural to feel, not just physically crappy, but emotionally crappy about feeling physically crappy and especially in these times, there’s a lot of fear around getting sick.
News flash! You don’t have to look too far and Google research that has been done that even feeling fearful has an effect on the actual function of your immune system.
So what if we could take the experience of being sick and put fear a little bit up on the shelf knowing that that’s naturally there and instead use some keys to transform a feeling of not-well-ness in the body into a more spiritually connective experience?
Something that connects us with a deeper part of ourselves that is more abiding and can be a real source of support?
So I’ve got three keys for you that I’m gonna share…
1. Your body is designed to heal.
Number one is the idea that being sick actually can bring us to trust our body even more. Your body is designed to heal. If you really stop and think about it for a moment, you can see that it’s amazing and miraculous that you have made it through the s*** that you have made it through in life. Not just as a helpless infant in the midst of numerous kinds of bacteria and viruses and things that have happened.
We start to notice that we are part of nature and nature has a way of integrating things. Your body from the time that you were in the womb is starting to create and use not just your mother’s protective immunity, but your own immune system is very smart and your body can be trusted. So I’d like you to make a mind shift. I’m inviting you to make a shift of your conscious mind and start repeating to yourself to remember the truth is that your body is meant to heal. That’s the only function of the immune system is to keep you safe. So one is making that change and really noticing that your body has your best interest at heart, and it can be trusted. It’s like a friend who’s been with you your whole life, and you can not freak out at the moment that it feels better, but just know that somebody’s on the job.
Even while you’re sleeping, your immune system is there to keep you safe. So making that mind shift, my body is meant to heal and can be trusted.
2. Directionality
What does that mean?
Most of the time it’s natural when we find something that is a little bit challenging, is a little bit outside of what is happy and positive and pleasureful, we tend to want to go away from it directionally.
‘Ooh, I’m feeling sick. I don’t wanna think about it. Let me just heavily medicate myself. Let me just distract myself.‘
This is normal and a part of human nature, but if we can switch the directionality and instead of pushing away, we can actually turn towards it. What that means practically is one just noticing when you don’t feel well that your body is actually telling you something. So instead of you tend to be someone who sort of tries to ignore it, who tries to just maybe even just lying in bed and, you know, Netflix and chill, watching videos, and just trying to pretend like you don’t feel well, instead, make a shift of directionality and actually turn towards what’s happening in your body.
Now, this is something we train people very deeply within the Body Wisdom Academy of how to actually change your physical sensation at the moment by learning how the subtle body, the mind-body wiring functions in the body. But one of the things you can start with is actually paying deeper attention to the sensation. So for example, if you’re having a sore throat, instead of trying to get away from the sore throat and numb it down, I’m not saying you should still obviously follow your doctor’s directions, take remedies and ask your body, turn towards the sensation and really focus on allowing it at a deeper level. I know this is gonna sound strange and if you’re someone who has never been in contact with their body or done any mindfulness, it’s okay that it sounds a little crazy. Just practice. It’ll help turn towards the sensation and actually allow it to be there.
Maybe I’m saying out loud, “Hmm, sore throat. I love you. Thanks for being here.” Turning towards it and just allowing it to be there in itself, you might notice some change in the physical sensation. The second part of this is actually to trust your body.
Now, there are lots of different ways in natural health modalities, but you can actually ask your body and notice what you feel drawn to and not. Obviously, take your doctor and your registered licensed medical practitioner’s advice. Anything that I’m sharing with you in this video is not meant to diagnose, cure, or treat any disease and has not been approved by the FDA. You can trust yourself. And I’ll put a little video below if you want to learn a technique for sort of seeing what your body is aligned with or not. If there are two natural health supplements that you know because you have research or your practitioner has recommended, you can sort of asking your body, which one you’re drawn to in that way.
So you’re turning towards the wisdom of your body instead of turning away from it and trying to suppress it and ignore it.
This one gets a little spiritual real quick is that the discomfort of illness brings us actually in a certain way, triggers our natural fear of death.
Now, people don’t like to talk about death because it triggers us naturally as mammals, as embodied humans, there is a natural part of your mind that is afraid of, tries to ignore and forget about the fact that at some point we are all gonna die. Nobody here is getting out alive as the saying goes.
So it’s natural that as embodied human, spiritual traditions realize that we all have an inherent fear of death and so much so that we can know it rationally, but we don’t even wanna think about it. And so when we’re forced to sort of think about the fluctuating nature of the body by getting an illness, think about the vulnerability of being a biological temporary organism that we are, it can bring up all sorts of fear and reaction in the protector system in the body that actually make the illness itself worse because not only are you having the physicality of an illness but you are laying on top the triggering sensations in the body because there is a heavy mind fear about the idea of our own mortality.
Hmm. Didn’t think this blog was gonna get that deep, that quick, did you?
So what do we do instead? Well, part of it is we start to bring to the surface what exactly is happening. So if I’m feeling really triggered by feeling sick, I can start to notice, Hmm, I’m feeling really sick, but I wonder what I’m really afraid of. I wonder what this is really about. And you can sort of start to think about the worst-case scenarios that aren’t rational and you probably don’t believe them with your conscious mind, but if you start to touch in with the body and sort of, as we say, trace things down to the basement, you’ll start to notice that there are other irrational things connected that your body is operating on. So in a way, you also might belong to a particular spiritual tradition or practice that has practices along with how to deal with the fear of death.
There are lots of resources out there to start to think about this. In the Eastern Buddhist traditions, you can think about a practice they call Impermanence which is really making your mind realize that everything that comes into this life will also fall away. And the more that we sort of train our mind and force it to look at this and really know the more we can also be free from the suffering and the fear of the mind that we naturally have around that. So by keeping in mind some of these three points and really using the discomfort of illness and physical symptoms, you can transform what is sometimes an uncomfortable, disturbing experience of being sick into something that really gets you more in touch with the deeper levels of reality.
So that’s a little bit of an invitation and a challenge. I hope it helps you the next time you come down with a fever or a cold to remember that your body is built for healing, that you can turn towards it and bring out information and transform a challenging situation into one that really bears fruit and gives you gifts and to remember that it can point you towards the natural reality and fears of being an embodied human that will actually give you more freedom to connect with who and what you really are in your essence.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You are a soul with a body and you deserve great things. I’m glad to be here with you. If you like this blog, give it a little thumbs-up-like, subscribe, maybe send it to a friend that you know might be challenged with something in this way.
I’ll see you next time! 
Disclaimer: This program is not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health or counseling services. No practitioner-patient relationship is established and the training content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and nothing here is intended to diagnose, cure or treat any disorders.