The Power of Vulnerability After Illness

Being vulnerable and honest with you here on my blog (and in my NEW COOKBOOK) and with myself is one of the greatest ways I’ve healed.  It has been an incredible way for me to connect with each of you as well as to connect with my own body during my healing journey.

Something that my healing journey has taught me is that to truly heal, we must make sure our path is connected with our heart. A few years ago I wouldn’t have understood what that meant. And so you’re probably looking at me reading this wondering what planet I’m on…but give me a chance…I’m always with you what I’ve learned and what has helped me heal- in hopes that it helps heal your heart and body.

Our bodies hold all the answers that we need when we are willing to slow down and listen to the signs in front of us.

I’ve mentioned this before in previous posts but when I started to connect with my body, stop listening to what every doctor was telling me to do–or guessing at what was possibly wrong with me- I started to get quiet with myself and find time to just ‘be’…this is when all the answers started flowing to me.

I think being vulnerable is a huge part of healing. Why? Well, for starters it allows us to be real and honest with ourselves and to open up. Connection with others is incredibly healing and it does wonders for our mind and our hearts and our body. Something I surely didn’t realize until 9 years into illness. I wish I had understood more about this 10 years ago, but then again, I probably wouldn’t have listened to any of this because I just wanted to get better quick and didn’t think anything relating to energy work or mind-body healing would help me. Turns out I was wrong. In a really big way. Because it’s proving to me that this is the last missing link to my journey and that now I feel empowered and alive and free.

Vulnerability is all about getting real with yourself. Not many people I know, understand how to be vulnerable because they bottle up all of their emotions inside of themselves until they’re about to burst or they just keep the emotions shoved down in their bodies for years and don’t realize they have this aching pain inside of them because they are numb, like I spoke about in my latest post about in my post about What It’s Really Like…

My hope for being vulnerable with you is that you catch things going on in your life and in your body before they manifest into pain and illness so that you can change your thought patterns and your lifestyle and your way of life to be more peaceful and relaxed and allowing instead of pushing and pushing and pushing for something outside of yourself to achieve. I’ve slowed down my life tremendously- like a mother does when she’s birthing a baby- because I’m birthing my new life and treating my body like a temple so that I can thrive for the next decades to come.

Opening up and talking about what’s really going on in your life is such a great way to release anything jumbled up inside of you. The funny thing is, many of us don’t even realize we have anything bottled up inside of us. I didn’t. I had no idea I had anger inside of me until I started working with healers this year and each of them told me I’m full of anger and fear. I laughed at them and walked out the door. I didn’t believe them. Then I went home, got quiet with myself and started crying out of nowhere. Well, there is was. I was full of anger and fear from my childhood as well as my medical experiences the last traumatic 10 years. So, I called the healers back up and started working with them until I felt a huge shift in my life–like a weight was lifted from my body. It was a huge step that I needed to take but I had no idea I needed it. No doctor told me about this. No nurse mentioned it. No one talked about it. Why?

I learned about healing energy from friends who saw incredible benefits and I never believed them…hahaha. Until I got desperate for help to heal my body and was willing to try anything.

Wouldn’t you know it worked?!?! Crazy. Or maybe not so much. But now, I feel more in alignment with who I am and I’ve released a lot of the pain from my past. And I’ve pulled in more trust and faith on a daily basis that everything is working out exactly how it should be. This has given me a piece of mind and allows me to relax into my body and breathe from my belly (not my chest)–which I talk about in my book, as well- to signal the parasympathetic nervous system to relax instead of the stressful fight/flight mode of the sympathetic nervous system when we breathe from our chest.

A huge part of my healing came from realizing that I am made of laughter and love and light and that life is supposed to be fun and exciting- not hard and complicated. I learned this from one of the healers I went to who helped release the trauma in my mind from illness that I honestly didn’t even realize I had–until someone pointed it out to me. (Just goes to show we often don’t see our own shadow). This was such an important part of my healing process because I allowed myself to move forward out of the past and into the present moment.

Here are a few thoughts that can help you with this process…

Be vulnerable.

Open up.

Be yourself and stop looking for validation outside of yourself. You are enough. You are amazing. You are a superstar.

You have everything you need inside of you. Stop looking for answers from everyone else- they don’t understand your body or your past or what you want. Only you do. Listen to YOU. Once I stopped listening to what everyone else was telling me to do, I started getting the answers I needed to heal in a beautiful way.

Laugh often.

Cry a lot.

Let love find you.

Spend time in the grass or the sand.

Walk barefoot in your home.

Sit outside in the sunshine and daydream.

Give yourself permission to be a kid again and make play dates where you can feel free and alive.

Trust the process of life. You are exactly where you need to be right now.

You are not alone.

Allow love to flow into your life. Allow your heart to open wider than your fears.

Allow love to dry your tears.

After the tears flow, you’ll see more clearly.

Trust yourself. You know YOU better than anyone else does.

If you are in pain or dealing with illness….ask your body what you need to know in this moment and listen to what your body is trying to tell you. This came from one of my friends, Jennifer, who I met many years ago and we’ve been on our healing journeys together. She taught me how to listen to my body and slow my life down to hear all the answers that will come to us. Our society reaches outside of ourselves for the answers to everything when all we need is really inside of us…we’re just too busy to listen or we don’t have time or we’re blocking the messages that are trying to flow to us. Soften into the energy of caring for yourself and trusting yourself and getting quiet with yourself. I assure you…you already know what you need to slow down and you will get what you need. That’s exactly how my life has unfolded and how I’ve finally healed.

You are brave and being brave means being vulnerable. Opening yourself up to others and getting deep with someone else is an incredible way to heal and connect. What I’ve realized (as I’ve mentioned before) is that we are all longing for love and connection in life. Give yourself that gift; surround yourself with people you can connect with on a real level where you are being vulnerable.

One thing that has helped me tremendously in tough situations is sending love to people or situations that have hurt me. This has been so healing for me. I picture sending them love and light and after a few weeks of doing this, the icky feelings I have seem to dissipate and I feel so much better.

I invite you to step inside and enjoy being someone who chooses loving YOUR LIFE, accepting YOURSELF, being grateful for YOUR LIFE, and ADORING YOU. Simply because you are worth it.

Sending you so much love.

xo

 

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2 comments

  1. Thank you for your honesty. I am on another path to my healing journey, each path takes me a little closer to who I am.
    My current counselor told me to be vulnerable for 15 minutes a day and quite frankly I had no idea what she was talking about. Reading this blog gave me inspiration and understanding as to why this would even be a thing and how to do it.
    Thanks again,
    Cindy