MY STORY:
I think it is very important to pay attention to yourself. Pay attention to your feelings, emotions, ailments, and what you put in your body. Also pay attention to what you put on your body as well. I had to learn this the hard way. I ignored myself for so long that all my negative emotions, feelings, ailments and all the bad food I was eating became normal. Stomach aches, dizziness and pain was my norm. I would get sick and instead of changing my life style, I kept putting a bandage on the problem. If it was stomach problems, I would take medicine. If it was emotional problems, I would pray. Which is a good thing but you also have to do your part and change the way you think. There were periods in my life that medication resulted from stress or too many negative emotions. If it was an ailment such as a headache, muscle pain, muscle fatigue, dizziness, or consistent itchy dry skin then any medicine or lotions were my resolutions. When problems arrive from living that kind of life, I would end up going to get medicines or band aids for problems instead of changing my lifestyle.
Getting to know your body requires slowing down a bit. Take notice of how you feel at any given moment. Assess and resolve it with change of thought, behavior or food. I was always making excuses for how I felt instead of looking for a resolution. I would eat something with dairy in it and feel horrible afterwards, but I would tell myself it was worth it. It was good. Sometimes discomfort from eating the wrong foods would last for almost a week. Even after discovering that I had food intolerances, I did not want to change the way I ate. I did not listen to my body until eating foods that I knew I could not digest sent me to the doctor office numerous times. I even had a couple of visits to the emergency room from the stress of it all. Remember stress can kill. Also eating foods you can not digest or processed foods can causes all types of ailments even disease. After almost being ill for half a year with doctors trying to figure out what was wrong, I decided to take my health into my own hands. Of course I was sent home with a general diagnosis. I have Gerd and IBS. I was given prescriptions to mask the symptoms. I did not take them because I had a strong gut feeling that changing my diet was all I needed to do. My gastroenologist told me I inherited my stomach digestive issues and to just deal with it. So I decided to get to know my body, something I never learned to do. I did a lot of praying and asking for God's guidance on what I should eat.
After doing tons of research on the digestive system, mind gut relationship studies, Ayurveda, food intolerances vs. food allergies, different diets, and Yoga, I learned a great deal. I found out so many interesting things. I found a whole new way of living. A Holistic way. I learned what I could and could not eat. I learned how to deal with stress properly. I learned that stress has everything to do with my digestive system and health as a whole. Basically I learned a whole new way of living and I think it saved my life.
