Archive for Case Studies of Healing

Aug
26

Hidden Stressors-Part Five-Technology

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I received a phone call and email from a long-time reader of my newsletter, thanking me for what I wrote about how my nervous system got overwhelmed and threw me into a several-day near shut-down, complete with physical pain.

Paulette wrote:

You put into words what I have been dealing with for several years! On Saturdays we have been attending a [particular group] study via Zoom. It begins at 10:30 a.m. and continues until at least 2:30 p.m. with no breaks. The teacher’s entire life is spent studying [this topic] — I mean 14 hours per day EVERY day. She always says there is so much more she wants to share, but just doesn’t have the time.

macbook pro displaying group of peopleI have gotten to the point that after one hour I am ready to scream. All of her words run together for me. I really don’t hear much after that point. My husband doesn’t have the same problem. [My note: notice the difference between Paulette and her husband. Paulette is Highly Sensitive; her husband is not.]

About the same week I received your email, I said enough is enough. I told the group that [my husband and I] would be taking a break. Since we have left I am happier and more relaxed. Yesterday my neighbor commented that she had noticed a change in me.

Studying [this particular topic] when there is so much bad news all around us was more than I could handle. I have learned a lot over the past several years, but I think my health has suffered as a result of attending this group.

Thanks for putting into words what I have been feeling.

Paulette’s words to me reminded me that we often don’t recognize the hidden stressors that are sucking our energy and stretching our nervous system to the limits, because those stressors are such a part of everyday life. Read More→

Last week, I attended three days of an online business retreat that I thought, at the time, was fantastic.

I experienced transformation. I got ideas. I connected with people.

And it threw me into a massive 4-day healing response.

It was, apparently, too much, too fast.

The next day after the retreat, I was the usual Sunday tired.

On Monday, however, I was in pain. More stress hit when I had to drive my husband to a dental appointment in the teeming rain, where I couldn’t see in front of me and I was flanked by trucks also navigating construction barrels on the two highways I traversed.

Tuesday the pain got worse. It seemed to move all around my body. (I learned from a trauma expert that this can be a sign of trauma—trapped energy stored in the body.) I slept poorly that night.

Wednesday I could barely move, I was so tired and in pain. I rescheduled a client appointment–something I think I’ve only done two or three times in the past 13 years of coaching. (I’m nothing if not dependable!)

Read More→

Whenever I come across the same idea two or three times within a couple of days, I figure it’s something to pay attention to.

Especially if it’s from Scripture.

This week, the idea that healing can come through unexpected means came up twice on the same day. So I thought I’d pay close attention, and share it with you.

The first time was through a devotional app I really enjoy. It’s called Lectio 365, and each day there is a morning and evening audio (and printed words), using the simple outline of P-R-A-Y: Pause, Rejoice & Reflect, Ask, and Yield.

The Scripture selection for reflection on July 26 was from John 5:5-9a, about the man who spent years by the pool of Bethesda, waiting for a miracle. Jesus sees him, knows that he has been sick for a long time, and asks him a pointed question: “Do you want to be healed?”

The man explains why he can’t be healed: “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going, another steps down before me.” His chance at being healed was slim to none—or so he thought.

The devotional points out that at this point, the sick man knew only one way to be healed: to get into the pool first when the water is stirred up. “But Jesus expands his limited imagination with an invitation to action; ‘Get up, pick up your bed, and start walking.’”

And the man did!

That very same day, I was reading through my two-year Bible reading plan, and came to the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5, who had some kind of serious skin disease. He was general of the army under the king of Aram, and very valuable to the king. A girl from Israel who had been captured and ended up being the servant of Naaman’s wife told her that there was a prophet in Israel who could tell Naaman how to be healed.

Naaman first went to the king of Israel for help, but that king recognized his grave limitations in being able to heal, and referred Naaman to Elisha the prophet.

Naaman came to Elisha, all decked out with gifts. Elisha didn’t even bother to meet him in person; he sent his servant with a message to Naaman: “Go to the River Jordan and immerse yourself seven times. Your skin will be healed and you’ll be as good as new.”

This totally offended Naaman. He lost his temper, and fumed, “I thought he’d personally come out and meet me, call on the name of the LORD, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and get rid of the disease. Aren’t the Damascus rivers cleaner by far than the rivers in Israel? Why not bathe there; at least I’ll get clean.” He stomped off in a rage.

[Here’s another example of someone believing he could only be healed in a certain way. In this case, he vociferously resisted the new (and simpler) approach given by Elisha.]

Naaman’s servants tried to change his mind. “If the prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn’t you have done it? So why not this simple ‘wash and be clean’?”

Naaman gave in, followed Elisha’s orders—and was completely healed. AND he was convinced that the only true God was Elisha’s God, the LORD.

These stories remind me of the people I’ve tried to share The Healing Codes with. They are resistant to such a strange way of healing. If you don’t understand that everything is energy, and that if you shift the energy from negative to positive, things can change, things can be healed—you won’t be open to The Healing Codes.

Or a number of other healing modalities, for that matter. I don’t believe The Healing Codes are God’s only tool in his toolbox. He can use any tool he wants.

The question, for all of us, is: Are we open to God using a tool that we’ve never heard of, or don’t understand?

Can we, like the man at the pool of Bethesda, or like Naaman, take the step of faith and follow what God may be showing us to do—even if we don’t understand it or if it seems too “simple”?

What “miracle” might be possible if we did step out in faith?

[Note: you might want to share this link with someone who is skeptical about The Healing Codes or whatever else you know will help them, that he or she has resisted.)

I believe God has given me some new tools, besides The Healing Codes, that have worked to not only heal, but transform my own life and that of others. If you are interested in exploring what more God might have for you, please visit my web page and fill out a Clarity Questionnaire for the Align with Your Divine Design program. No obligation.

I received a text the other day that totally lit up my day. I hope it will fire you up about what’s possible with The Healing Codes.

Jose G. came to me five years ago with a diagnosis of leukemia. For four years it was pretty much kept at bay as he did custom Healing Codes to heal his heart issues. He also bought a Halo and used it regularly.

We worked on many of Jose’s heart issues, and also a number of generational issues. Realizing he is a Highly Sensitive Person was a huge shift for him. He began to accept himself even though he was different than other men. He began to know in a deep way that God made him this way and the trait was something to be cherished, not feel ashamed of.

Jose overcame a number of other physical challenges, including a very bad case of poison ivy, and COVID. He was hospitalized for the latter, but made it through.

Several months ago, Jose’s cancer markers got worse, and he had to decide whether he would undergo the medical treatments his doctors were suggesting. Being a doctor himself and seeing what such treatments do to people, Jose agonized over what to do.

I don’t know the specifics of what treatments he decided upon, but one thing we worked on was the fact that his father had had the very same diagnosis as Jose, and died five years after. It was hard for Jose to break out of the fear that he would follow in his father’s footsteps, as he faced bad news about his own health and was coming up on 5 years after diagnosis himself.

Of course we addressed that one from a number of different angles with The Healing Codes.

All of this groundwork paved the way, I believe, to the amazing testimonial Jose shared with me:

 

Jose is sorting through his own interpretation of this miracle.

My perspective so far is that because he had cleared away so many “heart issues,” his body had the resources to fight the cancer. The body is an amazing healing organism—if we allow it to do its work. No doubt whatever treatments he took were also a factor. But I personally don’t think we can attribute his healing solely to medical treatments. I have seen too many cases (and Jose saw even more) of people who underwent treatments and either the treatments didn’t work, or they impaired quality of life, or even killed the patients.

But I’ve also seen clients who have undergone medical treatments while also doing The Healing Codes experience great results, and even bypass negative side effects of the treatments. (I always advise people to include in the prayer of intention, where you mention the specific physical issues, “and any negative effects of the treatments.” I can’t remember any client who has added that to their Healing Code prayer experience debilitating side effects.)

Another important point: It was crucial that Jose changed that belief that he would follow in his father’s footsteps, lest that become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

(I remember working with my mother, who had a similar fear. When she was 78, she was very fearful that she would die of a stroke at 78, just like her mother. We healed that belief. My mother lived to be 88, and survived two strokes before she passed of congestive heart failure.)

I rejoice over Jose’s healing. I told him it made my day (really: week, month, year!). I hope you find it inspirational, too. I hope that it motivates you to regularly do this healing work. You never know what it may be staving off for you, or when you will need the foundation of healing it affords to get you through a health crisis in the future.

And if you need some extra help, check out my coaching options at https://healingcodescoaching.com.

Last time I wrote about my “long siege” trying to settle a very messy estate situation, and how I got through it (mostly) intact.

Now I’d like to share what to do when your “long siege” is over.

Again, your “long siege” might be an illness (your own or a loved one’s, in which you were the caretaker), a divorce, a difficult family situation, or any number of other trials.

For many people, the pandemic and all it entails has been a “long siege” which may or may not be over.

It may feel like any long siege will never end, but it usually does, one way or another.

The time of closure when it does end can be a very rich time of receiving all the gifts from the experience.

It can also be a time of vulnerability.

It’s not uncommon for people to get sick after an especially stressful period, a phenomenon called “the let-down effect.” I was aware of this, and wanted to make sure I don’t get sick now.

(Although I have to say, perhaps God is already helping me in that regard. The very day I knew for sure how things would end with the estate, we took our car into the repair shop. Verdict: we need a new car. So this week was spent on getting that together. But, as a friend put it, “maybe I need new wheels for new adventures.” I like that! And maybe I needed another shorter-term, minor stressor to help me “wind down.”)

So here are some steps I’m taking to provide closure on the “long siege” so I can heal and reclaim my life. Read More→

Every Labor Day weekend it hits me: If what happened on that weekend in 2007 hadn’t happened . . .

  • you wouldn’t be reading this blog.

  • The Healing Code book might never have been published.

  • you and thousands, perhaps millions of others might never have heard of The Healing Codes.

  • and thousands and thousands of people may not have been healed.

What transpired on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, 2007 set off a chain reaction that led to all these things . . . and more.

It showed me how seemingly terrible incidents can lead to much good.

So what happened back in 2007 on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend? Read More→

 

This week we lost power for almost 2 days.

CC BY-NC by sjrankin

The outside temperature was 90°F/33°C, with a dew point of 73°F. (I have learned that the dew point is a better indicator of humidity than “relative humidity,” and anything over 60°F is uncomfortable. I haven’t seen a dew point much higher than 73°F here, so this was nearly unbearable.)

On top of that, the night before the power loss, our kitchen faucet handle was about to break off. I called at least eight potential handymen (before we lost power). Only two got back to me. One said he could come the next day to fix it at 5pm, but then texted me at that time saying he couldn’t make it after all. At 5pm the faucet handle broke off completely. Two and a half hours later, with a lot of dishes to be washed from dinner, the power went out.

It reminded me of the children’s story I used to read to my kids: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.

For us, it was two days.

I can’t honestly say it was all terrible, horrible, or no good, though. Very bad, yes. But here’s how God helped me, and what I discovered about alignment, intuition and, surprisingly, electricity and sleep.

Hunting for the Graces

Because of what I had learned about how gratitude fosters resilience, I kept looking for things to be grateful for.

First: the storms that knocked down trees and power lines did not dump a lot of rain. With the power out, the sump pump would not have worked. Had it rained heavily, the basement could have flooded. That potential disaster did not happen, despite the storms that hit both nights our power was out.

Second: A handyman came that first morning after we went dark. He installed the new faucet my husband bought the night before. He did it in the dark kitchen, with a flashlight (bless his heart!). He left his phone and a screwdriver behind because it was so dark he couldn’t see that he’d set it down. Soon enough, we had a functional kitchen, which lessened the stress a little.

Third: A neighbor said we could put our frozen food in his freezer.

Fourth: We have a gas stove, so I could cook.

Intuition

As soon as we lost power, I went up to shut down the computer correctly. I have a BackUp Universal Power Source that is a surge protector and a battery backup. It allows your computer and peripherals to keep going in a power failure until you can shut it down properly.

Here’s where the intuition part comes in. Read More→

Have you ever been under so much stress that you just couldn’t get your brain to focus on even the simplest task at hand?

I’m sure you have. Perhaps it’s even a daily occurrence, given the amount of stress many of us have endured for so long. It hasn’t really abated, has it?

Today, I needed to write my weekly article, and my brain just wasn’t working.

Normally I am full of ideas; knowing what to write about was never a problem. I texted my best friend, Louise: “Pray for me please. I can’t think of a thing to write about.”

Louise knew exactly why my brain wasn’t working. She is the only one, aside from my husband, who has been privy to all the twists and turns of this estate I need to settle as co-executor. Several lawyers have agreed our situation will go down in the annals of lawyer lore as The Most Complicated and Messy Situation EVER.

Twists and turns, delays and roadblocks, unpleasant shocks . . . Every. Step. Of. The. Way.

And now we were facing a deadline, and there was dead silence from all the people I needed to hear from.

Louise texted back, “How about writing about when you can’t think due to stress? Explore what it’s like and how it happens and why there are times when you need to give yourself an extra large dose of grace.”

So here goes. Here’s what it’s like, and what I did to get through it to a place of calm. Read More→

If you weren’t dealing with grief before the global pandemic, I suspect you’re dealing with it now, in one way or another. Who hasn’t lost something in the pandemic, even if it’s only the familiar way of being able to “do life”?

Many are dealing with loss of so much more. Loss of health. Loss of a loved one (including a pet). Loss of connections. Loss of work, of income. Loss of a sense of stability. Loss of a dream. Loss of faith. Loss of a marriage.

If you have unhealed grief issues from the past, likely any of the more recent losses just make the grief feel even worse. Grief is cumulative, and time does not automatically heal it. That is a myth.

Dr. Bernard McGrane, Professor of Sociology at Chapman University, says that “unresolved grief is the major underlying issue in most people’s lives.” Incomplete recovery from grief can have lifelong negative effects on your capacity for happiness—not to mention your health.

If you’ve felt that your healing has not progressed as you would like, it could well be that unhealed grief is the block.

If you were to tally all the losses of your life, how many would you say feel resolved? Read More→

Nov
21

Grief, Grace, Gratitude, and Grit

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This post was written in late November, 2020.

My mother left this earth on November 19, 2020. Marie Boos Filakovsky was 88.

There is grief. It’s showing up as lethargy, insomnia, fatigue, and sadness. I am always amazed at how strong the mother-daughter bond is.

Mom and I had a complicated relationship. The product of Childhood Emotional Neglect herself, she passed that on. She married a good man, my father, and lived out the 1950s script of a good Catholic girl, wife, and mother.

Mom and me, Aug. 2017

I never knew who she really was.

Until she was 78.

That’s when I started giving her custom Healing Codes. And I watched her change.

The changes in my mother solidified for me the power of The Healing Codes.

I can still remember the day she asked me how I was doing—and meant it. Before that, our weekly calls were mostly about her. It didn’t feel like she really was interested in me. Until that day.

From then on, she opened her heart more and more. I discovered to my astonishment that she had a tender, sensitive heart. For most of her life, she had hidden it under layers of socialization. Once she said to me, “You are giving me what I should have given you,” i.e. emotional support.

Then she had a stroke. And a second one, in 2017. After that, communication was very difficult. In a way, I lost the mother I’d just found.

A few weeks ago she was put on palliative care, and it was really difficult not to go out there. But with COVID-19, I just couldn’t risk flying out, for her sake and mine. I was told that it was too taxing for her to talk on the phone.

It was so hard, being cut off from her in her last days. Read More→

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