A Return to Health: How to Love Your Body After Illness

Dear Community,

as we contemplate on the middle pillar, today Lorraine is sharing her article on 

Return to health: How to love your body after illness.

Enjoy!

You’re also most welcome to join us for a Chi- Do session this evening at 

7.30pm!

Love

Kate

Hi everyone!
I’ve been very blessed in my time on earth. After surviving cancer and kidney failure, I have returned to a state of health as an adult that I only dreamed of when I was a teenager! Even though this is a personal story, I’m telling it because I hope that it reaches someone that needs to hear it. After my health returned to a “new normal”, I took certain steps and had multiple epiphanies that you can have a good life no matter what happened to you in the past!

Know that you are so much more than a difficult past: Being a sick teenager took over every aspect of my life. After my kidney transplant, my health was still at the forefront of my mind but I met a College Professor who helped me open up about my transplant and taught me to celebrate it as it made me uniquely me! Learning to come out of that box of how I defined myself helped me open up to new experiences and new people. These new people knew I had been sick and didn’t judge me for it, like I judged myself. As I learned to connect with myself and my past, it made it easier to connect to others. I needed my body to smile at people, to speak to them and surround myself with new friends.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda: There was a time that I felt angry because I felt that being sick shouldn’t have happened to me! Life could have been better if I had my health! I would have gotten into my preferred university or been a part of a “better” social group if I wasn’t sick. This wasn’t how my life was supposed to be!It’s easy to get caught in this spiral. My mother once told me that I needed to deal with the cards I was dealt in life. I had trouble accepting this, but I knew I had today, the here and now. Today, I can attend to my education. Today, I can spend my time with people who are kind, fun and joyful. Today, I can make a plan for my first steps into a fulfilling life. To do all this I need my body and my body will carry me through.

“You live most of your life inside your head. Make sure it is a kind place to be.” I am not sure who said that quote, but it is so true! My inner dialogue was so critical of myself and of my body! The way I would speak to myself — I would never speak to a friend that way! I learned about self compassion, I began to practice it and started to tell myself: “It’s ok that I can’t run a mile, this is the first time in years.” “It’s ok that it’s hard to pay attention in class. Concentration and focus takes practice.” “At least you’re starting, everyone has to begin at some point.” I needed to learn how my body worked, it took time, a lot of compassion and reminding myself it’s ok to stumble — everyone does

Taking care of yourself: I used to think there wasn’t any point in taking care of my body. I thought: “It’s already damaged, why should I even try?” I didn’t eat right, I didn’t drink enough water, I didn’t exercise… Perhaps this was a lack of self-worth that I was experiencing. I questioned if my body was worth taking care of and cherishing? I don’t remember what the turnaround point was, but when I hired a coach to teach me about fitness and nutrition, I was shocked at what I was capable of! Moving my body to squat, lift, lunge, run, row, and push for the first time in my life was hard both mentally and physically. It was painful and I doubted myself, but I surprised myself with what my body was capable of. When I started eating better and moving more, my mind cleared and the brain fog lifted! I was stronger in my will as well legs and arms. Taking care of my body helped me mentally and spiritually as well as physically!

I got a Life Activation: I was introduced to the Modern Mystery School by the same College Professor who taught me to celebrate all of the parts that made me uniquely me. After my Life Activation, it was as if a light switch turned on and all of the heartache I had been experiencing after all of those years began to melt away. My life went on a completely different trajectory and I have been able to create and live my life in ways that I couldn’t even dream of a decade ago, and of course, my body came with me.

There are many, many different ways to love your body and to heal yourself and these were the ways that helped me! My hope that this reaches those who need to hear it and opens hope for a more joyful life.

***

About Lorraine Pimienta

Lorraine is a Ritual Master and Life Activation Practitioner with the Modern Mystery School.

She is passionate about raising awareness on organ donation.
She volunteers with NHS Blood and Transplant as an Organ Donation Ambassador to make conversations about organ donation and transplant easier for donors and families.

Lorraine is also a Tedx Speaker with her talk due to be released in May 2020.