Your body never lies

For too long I've been wanting to fit in, not to stand out, only to realise that after 30+ years, I will always be that round peg trying to fit into the square hole. Maybe it's time I challenged the status quo.

What is to follow are some of my own personal experiences when it comes to health and healing - I am in no way giving out health advice.

My eldest daughter, was my gateway into the world of healing. Diagnosed with ALL Leukaemia at 9 months of age, my life trajectory changed on that day. Through hours of research, discussions with professionals, studying and following my instinct I came to understand more about sickness and how the body heals. I got to witness the workings of the infinite intelligence that lives within her and within all of us. About how when we work with the body, when we support the body, and when we trust in the awesomeness of her, miracles and healing happen.

I think this has been forgotten today.

Society has become so scared of being sick.

I can remember when I was about 8 years old and I got the flu. I was home from school for two weeks. I had raging high fevers, vinegar-soaked rags were wrapped around my neck, I lived on chicken soup, drank hot lemon drinks sweetened with honey and I rested. I was bored, but thank goodness for the daily Shirley Temple movies that were being screened on the TV back then. But I recovered. And in the process, my immune system got that little bit stronger.

My youngest daughter did not have any pharmaceutical medication (including panadol) until she was 17 years of age. She got colds and the usual array of childhood illnesses, (including tonsillitis) but I was able to work with her own natural processes of healing: first to help speed recovery without causing long-term health risks and second to help her be as comfortable as possible and pain-free as possible while healing was taking place.

Illness is the body's attempt to re-establish balance and harmony. Fever is a sign that the body is trying to burn off something which is not supposed to be there - a bacteria, a virus, a toxin or a foreign food particle. The rise in temperature is required to cleanse the 'baddies' from the system. I spent many nights sitting with my girls checking their temperatures, utilising my home first aid kit including herbs, homeopathy and essential oils, using abdominal compresses and 'loving' them through their sicknesses. Of course if I was ever in doubt, I would call my doctor and be guided by them. What I grew to understand, is that with every illness that my children recovered from, their immune system became stronger and stronger.

No-one likes being sick. It sucks. But if we can see sickness for what it is - the body's attempt to come back into balance - we can come to learn and understand so much more about ourselves, and bring about the change our body is guiding us towards. Have we been staying up too late, are we stressed and overwhelmed, have we been eating too many processed foods, are we sitting too long at our computers, are we staying in a soul-sucking relationship or job?......

Sleep, rest, nutrient dense food, the sun, exercise, clean air, creativity, laughter, play and connection are our daily medicine. Our body never lies. She is always guiding us towards wholeness. It's up to us to start listening to her, to be guided by her and more than anything to begin to trust in her ability to heal. We are blessed to live in a society where if needed, we do have access to doctors and medical care, but I believe it is important to be making informed choices every step of the way towards our own health and wellbeing.

Sending you much love,

Cate xxx