The recent outcomes of an ongoing study on women’s health showed some troubling results. One in three women worldwide spend their days in chronic pain, that’s almost a billion (with a B) women! One in four women have health problems that keep them from doing normal activities. And more women report being more sad now than during the height of the pandemic.
To me, these are startling statistics. Even though I work with women who suffer from chronic pain, debilitating health problems, autoimmune diseases, and emotional stress, worry, anxiety and sadness, I would never guess the numbers for these health problems are this high.
Women I don’t work with confide in me all the time about their health, but I would not guess one in four women I speak with have these issues. So what that tells me is most women are living with these health problems without telling anyone. Women are isolating themselves for several reasons. Many women feel like they hear others complain of the same thing so it’s just normal, right? Some may be embarrassed because they feel like they can’t handle the pain or sadness and they don’t want others to know. Some women may not be saying anything for fear of finding something serious. Or for some women, the health problem may have been progressing slowly for years and it has now become an uncontrollable health problem.
What’s a woman to do?
For most women, the first stop is the doctor when something isn’t quite right and has gotten to the point where you can’t handle it anymore. The doctor will assess you by running tests to find a diagnosis. They may find something but with many of these health problems, they find the symptom, but the cause is hidden. They will prescribe a medication to help you manage the symptom (pain, sadness, anxiety, fatigue, etc…), but they won’t tell you what’s causing the symptom.
You leave feeling hopeful your symptoms will at least be manageable but deep down you know this isn’t the answer you are looking for. You may have even asked the doctor for a reason and you didn’t feel heard because no reason could be given. So you take the medication because that’s your best option. But after a while, the medicine stops working or you have a new symptom.
You’ve gotten to the end of your rope. Now what?
When you’ve gotten to the end of your rope with health challenges, this is where your healing comes!! The reason I say this is because you need to make intentional changes to your lifestyle. Nothing will push you to make changes until you have no other option. You’ve been down every road and hit You start with holistic wellness.
Making holistic wellness your lifestyle
Holistic wellness is an approach to medicine that addresses the whole person and all areas of their life including physical, mental/emotional, spiritual and social. It’s a way of teaching you how to practice healthy habits to heal and thrive. Holistic wellness practitioners have been trained to spend time asking specific questions to find the root cause for each person’s health problems, and that’s what I do.
Changing your lifestyle is no easy task (although, when working with a professional it’s much easier 😉), but it must be done. There’s no perfect way to start, you just have to do it. I help my clients find the areas that are causing the biggest problem and tackle those first. I call it “clearing the muddy waters”. It’s hard to see what the source of the problem is if everything is muddy. So we clear the muddy waters, one change at a time until we find all the sources.
You know I’m going to really push for you to change your diet first, because that’s a huge source of mud for most people. But balancing the nervous system, cleaning your environment, opening your detox pathways, improving your mental status, and growing your spiritual health are all key players.
There is hope!
If this is you, I see you, you aren’t alone. Alone is right where the enemy wants you, but you don’t have to stay there. There is hope. There are answers and there is healing.
I would love to hear your story. If you are feeling alone and helpless in your health journey, would you like to talk? You can schedule a quick call with me here. Or if you know someone that is struggling to find the hope in their health, share this post and my website with them, they need to know there is an answer and there is a better way.
