Fast Forward Three Years!

Hi all! Wow! It’s been three years since my little healing sabbatical. It was back to work and not a word of writing since. Shame on me! That does not mean I haven’t been working on my healing, but it does mean I would like to start sharing again as I have so much to update and so many ideas percolating!

As of three years ago, here were my problems:

• Overweight: Female, 5’6” and 167 pounds
• Chronic back pain: It’s now been six years since my initial episode
• Chronic indigestion: About twenty years
• Chronic sinus headaches: About fifteen years
• Chronic fatigue (moderate)
• Joint pain: On and off for ten or so years

Sheesh. Overall I was fine and functioning and still looked pretty good despite my weight (I was thinking I hid it well), but I wanted to feel better. My biggest problem was my chronic back pain, which is what prompted my healing sabbatical and this blog.

I took a six-week sabbatical three years ago. During that time,  I wrote about my progress and health, I didn’t work (I’m a photographer and didn’t want to do any heavy lifting), I practiced yoga or walked every day, rested, saw a chiropractor and acupuncturist and watched what I ate. Almost nothing changed.

Fast forward three years and I have done the following:

• Weight: Lost 25 pounds
• Back Pain: Went from chronic back pain an average of 80% of the time to 0-20%
• Sinus headaches: One recent bout, but about 100% clear for two years
• Indigestion: One bout almost a year ago, but almost 100% clear for two years
• Chronic fatigue (a little less)
• Joint Pain: Less, but still there

Please follow the next few weeks of writing to find out what I’ve done during my SLOOOOOOOW  and continuing route to recovery! In the meantime, here is a before and after (scary to post the “before”)!

Before

After

"The Natural Way"

One of the books I picked up at my local used book store is called “The Natural Way: An A-to-Z Guide to Alternative Healing” by Mariah Jager. I quote Google books in a search for information about this book and author: “A beautifully packaged, information-packed resource covering more than a dozen alternative healing practices.”

I read this little gem in one evening and consider it a great resource to get a quick overview of various natural healing practices. It was first published in 1998 as “Alternative Healing Secrets” and re-published in 2005 under the current name.

I would highly recommend this book as a little start-up handbook if you’re researching various natural healing practices. There are some practices you may have never even heard of and wouldn’t know how to find or what to look for on the internet. Succinct and informative, I think this book would be a great first step in learning about the variety of natural healing processes.

"Prozac Nation" is Probably Not a Good Read While Trying to Heal

I was recently on a women’s retreat and during our Friday night happy hour the group of women I was with decided to go around the room and offer up our favorite three books. I wrote everything down and then distributed the reading list once I got home. I’m trying to become a library user as much as I can, but the little branch library by my house is teeney-tiny and I’m a little impatient about ordering books. Anyway, I needed a book to read and headed to the library to try to find one of the books on the impromptu book list that was created at the retreat. As I went down the list on the reference computer, not surprisingly I realized the library didn’t have much on the list. The one book it DID have was “Prozac Nation”. I was desperate for a “read” and so I checked it out. No doubt, it’s probably a great book and I like the author’s style of writing but SURPRISE! it’s not a very uplifting book.

On the hike I took today, I realized that the book was bringing me down which is a little counterproductive when I’m trying to be on this hopeful healing sabbatical. I’ll have to put “Prozac Nation” aside for now and so took a walk over to the terrific little new/used independent book store down the street from my house. It’s called “Spectator Books” and it’s a great alternative to checking a book out of the library. I was in search of a book a friend told me about called “8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back” by Esther Gokhale. Although I didn’t find the title and may end up buying it new (or trying to order it from the library), I discovered a whole bunch of books on healing pain naturally. I picked up three and will report on any that seem worth reading. Your local library and used book store probably have loads of reading material on pain and healing, so check them out. Always nice to support local business!