I'm going to put the cart before the horse and write about some of the healing that I have been noticing recently. There are several posts that I have not yet written that are going to be presupposed by what follows (not least an explanation of what healing it is that I'm in need of!), but I want to set this down and share it, since I'm already noticing some things.
The most important and exciting observation is that my body is responding to homeopathy now! My homeopath mother had never understood why homeopathy never seemed to do anything for me, and I found it frustrating too, since the whole system, the way that it works at the energetic level and takes into account the whole person as opposed to merely a set of symptoms, is so appealing to me. After many years away from any regular healthcare supervision, last fall I had a blood test, which showed, amongst other things, that I was deficient in just about every amino acid. For my mother, who is also a nutritionist, this explained the unresponsiveness. As she put it, 'Homeopathy works on the energetic level, but it needs the presence of nutrients to transmit the information.'
Since that time, I have been taking high-quality digestive enzymes, probiotics and various anti-bacterial herbs and, despite the obvious need for protein, have found myself being very sparing with animal protein (because of concerns about anti-nutrient factors/toxins that may prevent the absorption and also because of my inclination). I've completely stopped having dairy in any form (no yogurt either, except what I've made myself with nut or coconut milk), and have been trying to get a variety of protein. Remembering how good it was for me to eat avocados in Hawaii, I've started buying avocados regularly (demoting my 'can't eat them because they're not grown here' parameter). Been eating chlorella (spirulina is on the way). I've gone back to soaking my nuts and seeds, and never eating them roasted. I've also been sprouting seeds and beans/lentils, and making nut milks (a delight for me, and a significant demotion of the 'don't use electricity to make something that's just for me' parameter).
The enzymes etc and 'caution with protein' steps have been in force for almost six months now, but the positive differences have only started to be noticeable more recently: since the addition of nuts/seeds/avocados/nut milks/sprouts, I would say. Maybe it took that long for the enzymes etc to work, or maybe the avocados etc have been a significant boost. Either way, I noticed homeopathy working in the past two or three weeks, first when I tried the 'constipation remedy' to help with my elimination issues and try to back off from the vitamin C megadoses I've been using, and had good success with that. Then, I had severe menstrual cramps (a _completely_ new and outlandish thing for me that's a part of this current health challenge), remembered homeopathy (which my mum says is a sign in itself), looked in the kit, found the 'menses' remedy, took it together with aconite, and had literally almost instant relief! I made my raspberry-leaf/licorice/ginger tea too, and my feeling is that they both helped.
Aside from the relief from discomfort, it was wonderfully gratifying to take remedies and have them work, as opposed to being left skeptical as to the whole healing system or else skeptical as to the right functioning of my own body! And if my mother was right, that homeopathy was ineffective for me because of lack of nutrients to carry the information, the fact that it has recently been efficacious is an exciting indication that there are some nutrient messengers present in my body now!
I recently started adding garlic vinegar (apple cider vinegar which has had chopped garlic macerated in it for several days) to my salads. I can't tolerate raw garlic, but the vinegar has worked for me in the past. I also started taking the milk thistle and gentle-cleansing-herbs blend twice a day on an empty stomach instead of once with breakfast.
The first time I had the garlic vinegar on my salad, I had gas and a stomach ache afterwards, and thought that maybe it stimulated my appetite a little, the way raw garlic and onions sometimes can. Yesterday and today, though, I've had it with salads both lunch and dinner and, while I don't care for the garlic taste that lingers in my mouth long after, I feel a sense of being 'resoundingly' satisfied, as if the pitch of my body is in tune and my mind is clear. Light, because it was a small amount of food, and yet satiated. My elimination has also been better.
I had also started using spinach instead of lettuce as my salad base, per the recommendations for my 'type' in the metabolic typing, so perhaps that helped too. It makes it harder for scientists, but I believe that it is a beautiful thing that there are almost always several factors at play when circumstances change. Several causes for an effect.
Since I have been focusing, thinking and preparing to cleanse of late, it is also possible that this is partly an instant manifestation of the intention: while I gather information and supplies to undergo cleansing, I've given the message to my body and it is starting to respond.
I know that many people are positively allergic to the kind of thinking exemplified by the previous paragraph, and it is something with which I have faithfully tussled for a long time and about which I regularly fall into doubt, despair or confusion. The whole topic of creating our reality versus magical thinking versus cause and effect will be subject for another post.
