I’m not too proud to ask for help. In fact, I firmly believe that those adept at caring for others often neglect their own need to receive healing. As I have recovered from a once-unrelenting eating disorder, I’ve learned that pride has no place in self-help. When it comes to building the lives we want and deserve, we need to be willing to go to any lengths. I needed help recovering from bulimia (and I still need help with my ED recovery although not in the same way I once did) and I need help with life in general. We all do.
All of us have blind spots. When driving my car, the side-view mirrors warn me that “objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.” They don’t warn me that some things may be too close altogether for me to see them reflected out of the corner of my eye. I have to turn my head in order to notice what’s right there beside me. Just like in driving, if I am moving forward too quickly in life, I may not be able to see what’s next to me accurately. I may not be able to see it at all. It’s easy for each of us to get so focused on the road ahead that we fail to see what someone on the outside can easily perceive.
What, you might wonder, do blind spots have to do with needing to ask for help?
Even though I am a healer, sometimes I can’t recognize my own “tappable” issues because I am too immersed in a situation to see it with the same level of comprehensive awareness that I might bring to a session with a client. I need to invite an outsider in to help me either by adding another perspective (which I can then use to help me direct my own EFT or yoga or Emotional Yoga transformation); or, alternatively, by relying on another practitioner for help.
A few years into my recovery from bulimia, I suffered an unexplained bout of weight loss followed by a significant, unexplained weight gain. Then, I began to experience severe, debilitating gastroenterological problems. I spent well over a year in excruciating G.I. pain which seemed to have no identifiable physical or emotional cause. Then, I was diagnosed with celiacs disease. I gave up gluten and, still, my symptoms persisted. Towards the end of 2012, my colon shut down entirely. I couldn’t poop for a period of four (yes, count them, four) weeks. I was admitted to the hospital where they dealt with the issue with a number of painful and humiliating medical interventions. At that point, the doctors informed me that I’d likely have to have part or all of my colon surgically removed. There I was, a healer of others and a healer of many of my own psychological and emotional issues. Yet, my body was breaking down and I felt powerless over it.
Yoga didn’t help. EFT didn’t help. I saw body talk practitioners, naturopaths, medical doctors, massage therapists, Reiki practitioners, alternative healthcare providers, and specialists of all sorts. It just wasn’t enough to staunch the flow of my pain.
And, yet, I knew (and still know) that Emotional Yoga can heal me. It will heal me. It has healed me. I’m just in the middle of a blind spot right now. Hopeless, right? Wrong! I called Gary Craig and enlisted his help.
Well, actually, I emailed Gary Craig (the founder of EFT). He called me back. I was incredibly touched to hear from him only a day after sending my original email. When we spoke, he helped me to see that, while I was identifying some of the issues underneath the illness and while I’d teased out the threads of my dysfunctional emotional past, I was having trouble identifying the specific memories that were contributing to my sick identity. As a child, I had asthma, allergies, and epilepsy. Then, I started getting healthy. My favorite aunt died of leukemia just as my own illnesses were abating. Then, I lost a series of family members in rapid succession and my mother met and married a man who treated me like a nonentity. Around that time, I suffered sexual abuse and felt so very alone and unloved. I perceived the birth of my sister as eclipsing me. My once-close relationship with my mother evaporated into nothingness. Despite my years of self-inquiry and my diligent practice of Emotional Yoga I was struck by the old adage that “the doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient.”
I’m not a doctor. And I wholeheartedly believe in primarily using EY as a self-help technique. However, I was blind even to my own blind spots. By enlisting the help of Gary Craig, I was able to hone in on some specific areas of stored pain and then to use EFT to break down some of my physical problems. Then, I took it a step deeper and started to use Emotional Yoga to delve into the issues which my EFT session illuminated.
The results have been incredible! Today, my doctors are baffled by the fact that my colon is functioning. Last year, after performing a series of tests, they told me that I had an inert colon and showed me my test results which offered conclusive proof that segments of my colon were dead.
“Your system will never function properly,” my physician said, shaking his head sadly.
Within a few months, I was going to the bathroom by myself without any medical help – utilizing only yoga, EFT, EY, meditation, relaxation, homeopathy, and body talk. Today, my body is still in the process of recovering and I feel better each day. I am no longer blind to my blind spots.
Many thanks to Gary Craig and to all the practitioners who illuminate my healing path so that I may illuminate the path of others.
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