Are You an Empath?

🌻💕Ca Yesterday, I came across a new article on Psychology Today from one of my favorite people, Judith Orloff, MD. The article, titled The Importance of Self-Care for Sensitive People: The art of self-care for thriving as an empath, excellently describes the empath person and goes on to talk about how important self-care is to an empath. (Self-care is VERY important!  MOST essential!)  If you experience a regular high sensitivity to the feelings of other people and the world around you, I recommend reading this article and also looking up all of Judith's books.  

A couple of years ago, when I first read one of Judith's books called The Empath's Survival Guide a whole new understanding dawned within my soul!  This book has been immensely eye opening and helpful to me, granting me a greater insight into myself and a greater compassion and understanding for myself.  

My Health Story in a … (Big) Nutshell? Part 2

Thank you for staying tuned in.  Continuing on with my health story (see Part 1 by clicking here), I went from back pain to digestive dysfunction…

PART 2 - COLITIS AND EMOTIONAL TRAUMA

In August 2003, an unknown insect bit the back of my calf as I was traipsing through some tall wild grass.  The bite burned terribly and constantly and drove me to visit the doctor’s office because “What if it was a brown recluse spider bite?”  The doctor’s assistant prescribed a strong dose of cephalexin antibiotic, “Just in case”.  Within a couple of days of starting the medication, I began feeling ill in my digestive system.  I became so ill, I ended up asking my husband to take me to the ER in the middle of one night because I felt I would surely pass out or die while in the bathroom. That ER visit was a joke because when we arrived, they told us I would not be seen for 7-8 hours.  We left.  It was easier for me to be ill in my own bathroom, on my own toilet, than at a hospital ER.  First thing next morning, we headed to the doctor’s office, and I was given the diagnosis of colitis.  The cephalexin had done that magnificent (ha!) job because I had the Clostridium difficile bacteria in my intestinal tract.  This pesky, spore producing bacteria (which lives an abundant, happy life in hospitals) loves the opportunity that most antibiotics give it.  Antibiotics kill all kinds of bacteria, good and bad (unless you are talking about C. diff.).  Because the cephalexin killed all my other important gut bacteria that kept it in check, the Clostridium difficile was able to wreak havoc on my body.

My Health Story in a … (Big) Nutshell? Part 1

As part of the current updates on the Feisty ‘n Free Wholistic Living blog and its accompanying Facebook page, I thought it would be helpful for me to share my health story and the life events that propelled me in pursuing a more wholistic lifestyle.

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I believe humor is great medicine!  The moment I was putting some thought into writing this post, the image of a squirrel with a nut came to mind.  My husband and I have an ongoing joke in our home office about me “chasing squirrels”.  On any given day, I’ll be doing online research and study on a particular topic which then leads me to another and another and pretty soon, I’ve totally derailed from the original topic which I was researching and from my list of goals to accomplish that day!  So I find this cute picture of a squirrel with a nut totally appropriate to complement this post.  Sometimes, I’m a little nut.  And sometimes, I like chasing squirrels that are carrying little nuts. :-D

This writing will be an attempt on my part to give a brief overview and background on the health issues I have faced over my life and especially the past 15 years.  These have been the driving factors for me growing an immense passion for wholistic living and for pursuing alternative health and healing methods.  I will do my best to keep my story as brief as possible and to the point.  I started write this thinking it could be one post, but the more I wrote (even trying to be brief), the more I realized it would be best to turn it into smaller bite sized pieces.  I’ll post each part on upcoming days.