A symptom of imbalance!
Traditional psychology views mental illness as a disease that is usually incurable. That is why self-healers must be given the tools to work on themselves when no therapy sessions are possible. We need to know when the tools will work in a self healer’s context.
It separates the mind from the body. And it relies on talk therapy and medication as treatment options.
Holistic psychology views mental illness as a symptom of imbalance and not as a disease. It understands that body and mind are connected. Holistic psychology uses lifestyle changes: nutrition, meditation, nature, exercise, intuition for self-healing.
I can’t wait to share more with you, but I also want to hear from you.
Dm or write a comment with any questions or anything you’d like to chat about. Let’s build a community of self-healers.
Start the journey to healing yourself.
The unconscious in the self healer’s context!
90% of the time, most of us are on a program called the unconscious raised in childhood. The brain thus conserves energy and wants to give you the most predictable life experience, even if it makes you feel miserable.
You can “execute” this thing called life, but it always feels like things are happening that are beyond your control. And those that are out of your control. Because you are not present in the now, you are constantly reacting to the past. Most people I work with describe this as a constant overwhelm.
Developing self-awareness is literally waking up to your reality. It is home to choice, logic, and self-confidence within the structures and boundaries of society.
The importance of sleep!
Your brain removes damaged cells and toxins during sleep.
They organize memories and experiences.
During sleep, the pathways between cells strengthen to achieve concentration and fast reaction times.
Sleep protects against Alzheimer’s and dementia.
If you’re not feeling well mentally, it’s essential to watch how you sleep. Sleep is like a battery charge for the brain. It repairs damage, stores memories and categorizes thoughts. Do you know, insomnia damages your brain, especially the amygdala that regulates the emotional response.
I’ve spent a ton of time studying sleep research and committed to going to bed at 11pm for the past year. In the beginning, it was difficult, but now my body expects it. Aligning my circadian rhythm is a game-changer for me in countless ways. Are you investing in sleep, or are Netflix and social media winning?
Your belly!
Serotonin is made in the stomach, not in the brain.
Your brain removes damaged cells and toxins during sleep.
Files and organized memories and experiences strengthen pathways between cells to achieve concentration and fast reaction times protects against Alzheimer’s and dementia.
If you’re not feeling well mentally, it’s essential to watch how you sleep. Sleep is like a battery charge for the brain. It repairs damage, stores memories and categorizes thoughts. Do you know that insomnia damages your brain, especially the amygdala that regulates the emotional response?
In the 1980s, a model of the brain as a computer unit became popular.
In this model, the brains were treated separately and had little to do with anything in the body.
We actually have 3 brains. The mind, heart, and gut are constantly giving feedback to each other. Each has its place in a system that makes you who you are. To heal any part of this system, we must address them all.
A mind/body approach to psychology says all your brain matters, not just the “thinking one.”
Eat tuna for your brain.
Tuna is packed with omega fatty acids like DHA, the ultimate fuel for your brain.
The Easton Center for Alzheimer’s research looked at DHA levels in red blood cells of more than 1,500 men and women ages 67 and older who were free from dementia.
They measured the size of their brains, took MRI scans and performed cognitive tests. Those with the lowest DHA had significantly more small stokes and smaller brains. They also performed worse on visual and memory tests.
DHA aids in brain cell growth and strengthens neural connectivity.
DHA is also anti-inflammatory. New science shows that depression is linked to inflammation of the brain.
Other high DHA fish include salmon, swordfish, sardines, and anchovies.
Be sure to buy wild-caught (not farmed) fish. The unnatural diet lowers the omega ratios.
The storyteller.
A victim mentality stems from the belief that everything happens ‘with’ you. Emotional growth is taking a step back to understand that nothing is personal. Everyone comes from their perspective of what will become their reality. It has nothing to do with you. The ghost is a great storyteller.
It creates ideas and gives meaning to everything that happens to us. From the lady, you bumped into at the coffee shop to your friend who left dirty dishes in the sink. If we don’t control our minds, we have an exaggerated sense of self-importance. We believe that everything reflects back to us.
Our stress hormones believe it too. When nothing is personal, we give up to defend who we are. We take feedback and use it to grow and evolve. The victim is replaced by choice. Do you do the inner work?
Search on narcissism blog “inner” or link to the tools in bio.
Traditional psychology teaches that depression is caused by low levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin in the brain.
Dr Nicole Leperla taught this model, but after learning the incredible science that supports the link between depression and inflammation, I see depression as a symptom, not a disease.
There is some evidence that ongoing inflammation in the body reaches the brain’s blood-brain barrier. An inflamed brain can cause depression, brain fog and lack of concentration. Using foods to support the brain can help your symptoms.
Unfortunately, it’s rare to find a psychologist who asks you what you eat. Food is essential in reducing inflammation. Nutrition is critical in reducing inflammation.
Here are ways to get started with self-healing tools.
Avoid inflammation oils: Canola oil, vegetable oil, and soybean oil have an overload of omega 6 fats that cause inflammation. Switch to coconut oil, lard, butter or avocado oil.
Don’t eat processed foods: anything you can’t pronounce will not be recognized by the body. Eat clean, unpressed food.
Avoid refined sugars: The studies linking sugar to inflammation show how toxic it is to the body. It’s in dressings, almond butter and ‘healthy’ tea. Please read the labels!
If you want to learn more about the connection, check out “The Inflamed Mind” by Edward Bullmore.
Our mind is the most powerful tool we have.
Thoughts and prospects are more important than the actual ‘reality. Reality is only the work of the mind.
Ellen Langer, a psychology professor at Harvard, has done fascinating work showing how connected the mind and body are. This is important because psychology at the time rejected that the two were connected. What you THINK about ageing affects more than the ageing process.
“The results were almost too good. They begged to believe,” Langer said. “Health and illness are much more rooted in our minds and hearts and how we experience ourselves in the world than our models can even begin to understand.”
Psychology will never fully understand the power of faith. It’s personal, hard to qualify and in some ways mystical.
Our thoughts have the power to heal us. They can make us sick. Our body only knows the messages that the mind filters on it.
What do you think about getting older?
Usually, we think about being addicted to things (food, drugs, sex), but we can also be addicted to emotions.
We can also be addicted to emotions. Even if the feeling causes us stress or gives us total control, we seek it out because it feels familiar and safe. Often it’s the emotion we felt most growing up or couldn’t handle, and our subconscious programming recreates this time and time again.
Are you addicted to an emotion?
Healing is more about mindset than anything else.
The spirit can hold you, or it can help you create a new reality. Leaving a victim mentality is scary because no one can be blamed. There are no apologies. You are forced to be present.
Then you face things that you have drowned in distraction. It’s uncomfortable and scary. Controlling the mind isn’t about calming thoughts. It’s about creating space between them, so you can see what you’ve been avoiding.
When you are committed to healing, everything is a lesson. You learn to value personal choice in any situation over the illusion of control.
Triggers are teachers in a self healer’s context!
To breathe. Create space between reactions. Repetition. To cure.
The vagus nerve in the self healer’s context!
The vagus nerve is the highway for messages to travel between your mind and body. It determines how you react to the stress in your environment. Most trauma people are in “fight or flight,” which creates an unhealthy vagal tone.
A disturbed vagal tone leads to inflammation, gastrointestinal problems and symptoms of depression/anxiety.
Studies conducted with devices that stimulate vagal tone show improvement in PTSD, depression, IBS, rheumatoid arthritis, sleep, and apnea and migraines. There is a convincing link between low vagal tone and inflammation.
While scientists are working on a lot of technology to stimulate this nerve, the easiest way to do it naturally is by using your breath. Practising breathwork (you’ve seen me do this in my stories) neurologically changes how you respond to stress.
It just takes dedicated practice.
Sit wherever you want. Try to do this on an empty stomach (morning is best).
Breathe deeply from your lower abdomen. When you can’t take in more air, stop and hold your breath for 3-5 seconds.
Exhale without any force. Take a cycle of regular breathing and repeat 10 times.
When you first start practising this, you may feel dizzy or panicked when exhaling. Your body will adapt quickly. Use this whenever you need it to release stress. The vagus nerve is like a muscle. Every time you stimulate it, you amplify a healthy response in the body and mind.
A hidden world of the self healer’s context!
After going through a personal health crisis myself, I spent years studying an essentially hidden world from me in school. I learned about the gut-brain connection, ancestral nutrition, functional movement, sleep, and the biology of faith.
By healing myself, I understood that psychology as we know it traps therapists and patients to really heal people. I’ve changed my coaching, creating loads of content to share a new kind of psychology.
One that not only focuses on talk therapy or medication but teaches people to heal themselves. I don’t feel super comfortable in front of a camera. Still, all good things happen with an uneasy feeling and looking forward to creating a community of powerful self-healers.
Years in psychotherapy have taught me that there must be a radical change in how we view psychology and the brain attached to a body.
Self-awareness is a superpower in the self healer’s context!
Few of us know who we are but want other people to understand us or our life experiences. Get to know yourself. Spend time alone, sit still and find silence. Occasionally, the obsession with being misunderstood comes from not really knowing who we are. Learning who we really are makes it less essential to be understood by everyone around us.
Do you believe your thoughts?
Most of us go on a wild ride brought to us by believing our thoughts. We have a view, assume it to be accurate, and then act on those thoughts immediately.
Our subconscious makes our decisions. Thoughts are actually relics of the past. They exist where conditioning and habits meet. If we believe every thought we have, we suffer because we have no room to choose.
We cannot say, “Is that true?” we pretend it’s already true. Our mind is the most powerful tool, but if you’re not working on mental fitness, you can (and become) a slave to your thoughts. You jump from one idea to another in nanoseconds, out of control, and you are overwhelmed.
Breaking this cycle requires mindfulness.
It’s a buzzword now, but mindfulness is presence. Mindfulness is the way to create new responses to thoughts. It takes you away from the thinking mind just enough to observe thoughts. Sit down and really taste your food.
Lie in the sun and feel the warmth on your skin. Leave your thinking mind and use other neglected senses. Make sure you don’t have to trade with them anytime. This is freedom and peace of mind.
The gut and brain are in constant communication.
Inside the gut is a system called the enteric nervous system (ENS). The ENS is often referred to as the “second brain.”
Ens is a mesh-like system of neurons that control the gut.
It sends and receives impulses, records experiences and responds to emotions.
Just think of when you have to speak in front of a group of people, and you literally feel nauseous. You can thank the enteric nervous system for this feeling.
This direct line of communication between the gut and the brain turns every meal into an opportunity to improve mental health.
What message did you send to your belly today?
The world is a mirror that shows you the state of your mind in the self healer’s context!
When we are present and aware, we become co-creators of our world instead of passive participants.
Most people spend 95% of their time in an autopilot state, driven by the unconscious. In this state, events happen, then we react. We give up the power to create the world around us.
If you put two people from the same city in a room and ask them about the state of the world, you’ll get two entirely different answers. Same planet, other thoughts, different experiences. The mind can only work with what is given to it.
Creating a new world is about giving the mind a whole new perspective. It’s about having a say in changing how we respond. It is a challenging but life-changing method of self-care.
Do you see the world as a mirror?
Barefoot, sun in your face and silence of nature is one of the many self-healing tools.
We often overlook these simple things, but they are so crucial for optimal mental well-being.
Our house is on the outside, but still not far enough from the companies and close to a busy road Roeselare Diksmuide, Veurne, Nieuwpoort and De Panne. The air is sometimes dirty, the radiation is everywhere in the house due to our frequent use (Annemie and Feb work from home, and the energy is intense.
I understand how this affects me, so we use our weekends (and early mornings) to take walks in nature. Occasionally, I drag myself there when the bank calls me. My mind and body feel wholly different afterwards.
I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for following, commenting or sending a message or joining our private group. See left in the menu. It’s incredible what you do.
I spent hours studying and then creating this content, hoping it would give people the tools to do what we can all self-healing. If you’d like to chat or provide more feedback, I’m just a DM away.
What aspect of recovery would you like to learn more about that you can’t find with the search on narcissism. blog?
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