PROBLEMS YOUR LIFE PURPOSE CAN SOLVE: #4. STUCK IN SICKNESS, STRESS & SURVIVAL MODE
Are you Fixated on Fixing your Brokenness?
BEING CONNECTED TO YOUR PURPOSE, NOT YOUR PROBLEMS, ALLOWS HEALING TO HAPPEN
It was the strangest thing.
When the alarm went off at 6:30am on the Saturday morning, I awoke feeling refreshed. As I drove for an hour to my very first Kinesiology class, I felt energised. As I finished the two 8-hour days of classroom learning, I felt inspired.
What the actual hell?
🤔
I was nervous when I signed up to learn Kinesiology. Truthfully, I didn’t think I’d cope. For years I had battled debilitating illness and fatigue. I was taking a million supplements daily, attending multiple therapy appointments weekly, researching new ‘cures’ and adhering to a strict dietary, meditation and exercise regime.
I had developed a phobia of tiredness and my life revolved around managing it. Every decision I made involved anxiety-ridden analysis. I lived in constant ‘energy conservation’ mode, scheduling appointments and social engagements within the parameters of strict guidelines. Early starts were particularly daunting, triggering numerous worries about getting to sleep, staying asleep, getting enough sleep, sleeping well…
And yet the day that I started my ‘new path,’ learning a modality that had been instrumental in my own healing, I managed to feel better than I had done in years.
🤯
No one was more shocked than me at this turn of events. Although I had recovered enough of my health to move out of ‘survival mode,’ I was still living my life ‘managing’ my symptoms and dedicating every ounce of my mental and emotional energy to ‘fixing’ them.
To my mind, I was broken. There were so many things wrong with me. Things that needed fixing.
And I certainly believed that they had to be fixed before I could move on with my life.
This is why the decision to divert my focus to learning something new (albeit so I could learn more ways to fix myself!) was a major turning point:
What would happen if I dropped my fixation with fixing and instead focused on something purposeful?
Effortless and enjoyable healing.
That’s what happened.
Who would’ve thought?
🤷♀️
‘Fix it’ mode can leave you stuck in cycles of:
Believing you are broken and that there is something ‘wrong’ with you.
Over-protection, self-preservation, and hypersensitivity.
Underestimating your strength and resilience.
Holding yourself back from opportunities for growth and expansion.
Forbidding yourself to focus on what brings you meaning and joy.
Resisting the invitation for transformation prompted by your illness or crisis.
I often wonder what would’ve happened to me if I had remained in ‘fix it’ mode. I’ll never know. But I do know this: discovering a purpose and allowing that purpose to take over as the guiding light in my healing journey was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.
Even though my mind was often sceptical of this approach, the proof was in the pain-free pudding. Every time I focused on self-connection, followed my intuition, and actioned my purpose, I had no symptoms. Whenever I was ‘in my element,’ my energy flowed. I have since seen this phenomenon replicated in the experience of hundreds of clients.
Patricia Fennell, an expert on chronic illness, researched and developed the Fennell Four-Phase Model (FFPM) for understanding and treating trauma and chronic medical and mental health conditions. It describes “a predictable passage that patients navigate on their way to defining a new self and a new life after the onset of chronic illness.”
The model outlines four phases of adaptation – Crisis, Stabilisation, Resolution, and Integration. In the Resolution phase the task is to begin establishing an authentic new self and start developing a supportive, meaningful philosophy.
Fennell’s empirical framework validates what I had accidently discovered driving down the freeway to my first Kinesiology class all those years ago. It proves that finding meaning and connecting to your purpose is an important and necessary part of any healing journey.
While there is a phase of healing dedicated to resolving trauma and alleviating symptoms, you’re not supposed to stay there.
And yet, you stay sick. You keep repeating stress cycles. You get stuck in survival mode.
Why?
Because you’re fixated on fixing. Mistakenly believing that you’re broken. That you haven’t fixed yourself yet. That there’s more healing work to do.
But what if your healing journey is simply waiting for you to move to the next phase? To allow yourself to take the next evolutionary step. To embrace your purpose.
When you’re living your purpose, healing happens.
Thankfully, it’s the type of healing that doesn’t involve deprivation, elimination, or painful processing. It’s the type of healing that comes from reconnecting with your passions, indulging your creative flow, reclaiming your joy, and the sharing of your gifts with others. If you find yourself stuck in sickness, stress or survival mode, perhaps it’s time to be courageous enough to step onto your path of purpose.
The PATH OF PURPOSE: 5 WEEK JOURNEY OF SELF-TRANSFORMATION will help you release your fixation with fixing and connect to your Life Purpose so you can allow healing to happen.
This series of life-changing virtual workshops , a group experience with 5 INDIVIDUALLY kinesiology-tested reports to guide your way.
