Raw Foods Diet & Raw Food Weight Loss Blog

[For those new to the Pure Jeevan family, you can search for "lyme disease" or "Nadi Balance" here on the blog if you want to learn more about Wendi's health challenges over the past few years.]

Sometimes returning to vibrant health isn’t a fast and easy event. A little over a year ago, I claimed I was cured of lyme disease. At that time I listed the remaining health challenges I had to overcome — all a result of the damage the lyme disease had done to my body. It’s hard to believe an entire year has gone by and I’m still not feeling vibrantly healthy or fully well. During this past year I’ve been brought to tears a few times, sometimes overcome with doubt and worry about whether the lyme disease was truly gone, or not.

The damage that happens in the body from lyme disease is incredibly complex. It’s a disease that is more difficult to cure than cancer. And, once the bacteria is fully gone from the body (which is not easy to prove), it has left behind so many imbalances it seems like a never-ending struggle to overcome. Nothing is impossible, however. Nothing. It’s those who give up, those who believe there is no cure or ability to heal, who live a life of debilitation and early death. If you are reading this and you have a health challenge, just remember that — and continue to learn about natural health and never give up. Giving up is just not an option for me — I plan on being fully vibrant and filled with health by the end of 2011. What we believe is what we bring about in life. And, yes, I do realize if that’s true then I brought the lyme disease into my life.

I know exactly when I allowed the disease to manifest. I had always had an inner desire to be cared for, almost like a baby. I’m certain it stemmed from some childhood need not being met, with the longing to be loved and nurtured still nagging at the core of my being. One day I actually voiced it out loud to Jim. I said I sometimes wished I could just be cared for, have someone feed me, give me a bath, hold me and cuddle me, etc. Well, that’s exactly what ended up coming to be in my life. Jim had to do all of that for me. On the deepest level, he was fulfilling that unmet basic desire/need I had been carrying with me since early childhood. A very positive look at all that transpired over the past two years, however, is that I have grown to love Jim even more. He was selfless, always present and lovingly caring for my needs.

At one point, during intense pain, I felt like there was something building up inside of me. I wasn’t sure if it was anger, frustration, terror, or something else. I found myself with a large drawing tablet and pastel chalks, tears streaming down my face because the pain of moving my arms even slightly was so severe I felt like I’d pass out. But I couldn’t stop. In about five minutes, or less, I was able to creatively show in a visual way what I was experiencing. I sensed Jim’s sorrow when he saw what I had created.

A few weeks later, I created another one. The second one has a softer feeling to it (even though the physical pain of creating it still had me in tears). I showed it to Jim and I wondered at the time if he knew that *he* was the one holding the baby (me) with red-hot, painful shoulders.

Right now, my biggest hurdle to complete health is releasing the comfort of having things done for me. It’s time my inner child realizes her need has been met and I’m more than capable of caring for myself. It’s very tempting to continue allowing Jim to do things for me, things that I can fully do myself, because there is comfort in being cared for. I’m a strong woman, though. I don’t need anyone to care for me, no matter how good it feels at times. My comfort, peace, and strength come from within — comfort, peace, and strength can never last if they’re manifested by relying on another human being. Not only are we not fully connected to and utilizing our inner strengths, but we are sapping another’s energy when they are doing for us what we can do for ourselves.

That’s essentially the point I’m at right now in my healing. It’s more of an emotional block than anything else. It’s all manifesting with physical symptoms, but at the root of each physical issue is the emotional desire to continue being cared for in many ways. Once I fully call on that inner strength, my physical recovery will quickly follow.

[For those wanting more details, I've shared a bit more below...but, as I stated above, these physical symptoms are coming from an emotional imbalance.]

My cure from lyme disease was brought about by some incredible cutting-edge science education, research, and experimentation. The healing I was gaining came from consistent testing and monitoring of my body, making adjustments in my diet to bring about a more balanced body. I was continually moving more in the direction of a balanced body, but then we went through a lot of life changes (which included a cross-country move) and the tools I was using to monitor my body were no longer accessible. This is what has slowed things down, but we are working on getting everything unpacked and set up so that I can continue rebalancing my body.

Looking over the last health update I shared with everyone, I can see that I’ve definitely been moving more in the direction of better health. For one thing, I can fully dress myself (I only need assistance with one very fitted winter coat). The range of motion in my shoulders has greatly improved (physical therapy helped a lot), and most people won’t notice the little bit of motion restriction (where in the beginning, everyone noticed since I wasn’t able to move my arms much at all).

My weight gain, brought about from the lyme disease creating Hoshimoto’s Disease (thyroid), and also reactivating the Epstein Barr virus, has actually increased a bit more. I’m now about 35 pounds heavier than I was before I became unwell. I do know I’ll get back to a healthy weight, and regain my energy, but sometimes I wonder if this weight gain has come so that I can learn even more about releasing excess weight in order to better inspire others.

Muscle has returned to my arms, so that’s a great thing! There is still some sagging skin from the initial muscle loss, but I know that will clear up once my body is rebalanced and fully healthy again. Something else that hasn’t been very firm over the past two years is my ability to remain positive. It seems I’ve become a tad pessimistic at times, and even taken on the attributes of a complainer a lot of the time. So, that’s a challenge I’m eager to overcome, as well!

The biggest physical challenge I’ve been dealing with is poor digestion. Raw foods were not digesting well at all, and in fact seemed like they were rotting in my stomach. So, I was eating some cooked vegan foods which felt good in my tummy. Every time I tried to eat only raw foods, the pain in my stomach returned, along with the rotting food sensation. Well, after a few months of having better digestion with cooked foods, I began to experience digestion problems even with the simple cooked foods. Adding raw foods just made things worse. So, I tried a bit of a water cleanse, followed by mega doses of food-derived vitamins, minerals, and protein. I’ve been regaining my energy, and much more. The disease left my body depleted of a lot of essential things, especially minerals. So, now I am rebuilding and feeling better every day.

Will I continue to consume cooked foods, however, once I’m healed? Not really (although I have promised my friend Mamta that I *will* eat her love-filled cooked Indian food when we are together again). It was remarkable to me that after so many years consuming solely 100% raw, organic, vegan foods that I didn’t become sick to my stomach when I ate cooked food (maybe because I was only consuming simple cooked veggies, though).

Once my body is able to digest raw foods again, I’ll go back to my pre-lyme diet of 100% organic raw foods. I’ll have the necessary tools and training, however, to keep an eye on my body’s balance so I can know if anything is getting out of balance (so I will never become susceptible to any diseases in the future). We’ll talk more about consuming cooked foods, or animal foods (I only consumed dairy as a means to heal), to rebalance the body in the coming months. Being dogmatic and sticking to a diet when it’s actually contributing to your ill health can be a big mistake. I had to get over my dogmatic belief that 100% raw, organic, vegan foods are the cure-all for everything. Although I do believe that a raw, vegan diet is ideal for me when I have a *fully healthy* body, I did find healing in consuming some dairy and cooked vegan meals.

So, what did you think about there being snow in New Mexico? Were many of you thinking it was more of a consistant hot climate like I used to think?

We left New Mexico, renewed, and headed to Oklahoma. Here’s where we left off yesterday:

When I arrived in Oklahoma, KDcat and I were surprised with how windy it was. The wind continued to be as severe as it was when we were in Prescott Valley, AZ. We started off our Oklahoma visit in Oklahoma City, where we met the lovely Penni Shelton, of RealFoodTulsa and RawFoodRehab. When Penni heard we were finally headed out on our tour, she asked if we’d be willing to do a talk for her raw food meetup in Tulsa. We agreed, of course, and from there Penni made other plans for some more fun.

Penni contacted the newly opened 105 Degrees raw food culinary training school, located in Oklahoma City, to see if there was a chance we’d be able to stop in and meet some of the staff and do some interviewing. I knew Russell James, one of the better known raw food chefs in the raw community, was going to be teaching at the school and hoped he’d be around so that we could meet him and ask some questions for our Pure Jeevan family members. Well, not only was Russell going to be there, but we were invited by Dara Prentice, a managing partner of 105 Degrees, to be special guests during the graduation celebration of the level one students. What a treat that was!

When Penni and I arrived at 105 Degrees, we immediately saw Russell sitting at one of the tables, having a meeting. I quickly snapped a picture of him and then we had a light lunch while he was in his meeting. Russell was brought over from the UK to share his culinary genius with students at 105 Degrees. If you don’t already know about Russell, be sure to check out his amazing raw food web site, The Raw Chef, where he shares many of his beautiful raw food recipes (which are like works of art).

The students wouldn’t be ready for us to join them for quite a while, so after our lunch we headed out to an Asian market to see what interesting raw food items we might be able to find. You can see some photos from that visit in the photo set, below. Then we headed back to the school to see what the students were doing on their final day.

I’m sad to say that the wonderful video footage I took of the graduation celebration, interviewing the students and hearing about their creations as they were being assembled, as well as a few separate interviews with Russell to inspire Pure Jeevan family members, didn’t turn out well enough to share here on the blog. The sound quality wasn’t very good because we were all in one big kitchen, everyone talking at the same time, and it was difficult to pick up on the intended sound for each video. The photos of the students’ creations and the celebration that day turned out great, however. So, those are visible in the photo set, below.

The students who were present, Vicki Morrissey, Aimee Dufresne, Austin Cummins, and Andrea Conneely created some incredible recipes. Not only were they beautifully presented to us for tasting, but they were unique and delicious, as well! Each student seemed to have at least one dish that really stood out above their other creations, something that was truly unique and creative, as well as delicious. I was impressed and I could tell that Russell was proud of how much the students had learned during their level one course with him. It was an honor to be invited as a special guest at their graduation celebration. We also met a couple of the Level Two students there that day, Alissa and Helen. If anyone out there is looking to hire a raw food chef, look no further than these incredibly talented students we met.

After the celebration, we headed to the unique apartment Penni rented for us for two nights during our stay in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The apartment building was round, and Penni joked that it was like a building from The Jetsons cartoon. It really did seem quite futuristic looking. Penni showed us around the building, which had a meeting room where I talked with some of the Tulsa Raw Food Meetup group the next day. During the talk, I met a lot of nice people and answered a lot of great questions.

Before leaving, I was able to meet Penni’s charming husband, Gordon, and her sweet dogs. Penni and I talked a lot, catching up on what each other has been doing since we were last together at the 2008 Raw Spirit Festival, and we interviewed each other for our web sites. Here’s the interview I did of Penni, where I asked her to share what she’s been doing with all of you. While I was away from the raw community during most of 2009, dealing with lyme disease, Penni created her own raw community group as well as published a book on cleansing (you can find her “Raw Food Cleanse: Restore Health and Lose Weight by Eating Delicious, All-Natural Foods — Instead of Starving Yourself” book through many popular online bookstores)! You can learn more about Penni and what she’s been doing by watching this interview:

To see the videos in which Penni interviews me, you can click below and be taken to her blog where she shares the videos. It’s a candid two-part video in which Penni asks me to share information about a lot of different things relating to health, diet, healing from lyme disease, and more. I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think!

You can also see these videos, commentary by Penni, as well as clips from my talk that day in Tulsa, by following the links, below, that take you to Penni’s Raw Food Rehab membership site:

Wendi Dee & I at 105degrees:

http://rawfoodrehab.ning.com/forum/topics/wendi-dee-i-in-okc-at

Wendi Dee in Tulsa:

http://rawfoodrehab.ning.com/forum/topics/wendi-dee-in-tulsa

Penni Interviews Wendi Dee:

http://rawfoodrehab.ning.com/group/mediaroom/forum/topics/wendi-dee-interview-by-penni

NEXT UP: Family stops in St. Louis, MO, and Geneseo, IL!

We hope you’ll check out our generous snack sponsor for the trip, Natural Zing, who made our travels extra enjoyable! They have the best selection of raw food snacks, supplies, and appliances for a raw food lifestyle!

Well, it’s nearing the end of 2009, and I’ve been unwell for half of the year. (To make a positive statement out of that, I’ll add that I’ve been well for the other half!) It’s hard to believe so much time has gone by and about half a year of my life was spent in pain, tears, and sometimes fear (mostly in the beginning of the lyme disease). I’m definitely looking forward to the new year, to leaving this disease behind me while taking the lessons I’ve learned with me into 2010.

As many of you know, I was very proactive in finding a “cure” to the disease as soon as it was identified. I tried allopathic remedies (antibiotics for about three months), alternative remedies (herbal protocols, vitamin/mineral/supplemental protocols, aromatherapy techniques, healing massage, hands-on-healing, water fasting, prayer/meditation/positive visualization), and so much more. Nothing completely cured my body from the lyme bacteria that seems to have spread throughout my body and found favorite spots to multiply (particularly in my shoulders and arms).

When Jim found me asleep on the bathroom floor last month (after all of the “medicine” came back up because my body wasn’t able to handle one more “cure”), something shifted for me. I gave up trying to look outside of myself for a cure. I sensed that my body was telling me that it could do this healing on its own, that taking “medicine” after “medicine” — as each one proved to not be helping me — was only stressing my system even more. At that point, when I practically passed out on the bathroom floor, I felt a sense of peace overcome me. I had given up the battle to fight the lyme bacteria, given full control of my health over to my body. How could I, someone who has so much love inside, be doing so many things to destroy and kill?

Since then, I’ve been building my body up instead of trying to break the bacteria down. LOVE is my number one cure. LOVE myself, my body, and trust that my body knows what to do to heal itself. I knew from the beginning a peaceful approach was going to be best, but I didn’t trust myself. I was afraid I was wrong and that I’d progress like so many others with lyme — to the point of needing morphine and a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I felt like I needed to research and find a way that worked for someone else, to have it work for me, too. It turns out, however, that there is no cure for lyme and those who go into remission have all done so using different protocols that don’t work for everyone. The “cure” is individual, it seems.

I did try something a bit radical as a 100% raw foodie, however, in an effort to aid my body in its healing process. For a few weeks I tried the radical “treatment” that was ultimately a failure. But, I did learn some things from it. What did I do and what did I learn? Well, as you’ve all read in our Raw 101 free ebook, there is scientific proof that when cooked foods are eaten, the body produces white blood cells because it sees the food as a foreign invader in the body. The lyme specialist I was seeing told me that if my body could raise its white blood count, I might stand a chance of healing from this without any further medication. My first thought was cooked foods and how consuming them raises the white blood count. So, I did it … after four years as a raw foodist, I did a radical thing and decided that maybe some cooked food was good for my body!

You’re probably wondering what I decided to eat after so many years, right? Well, remember that prior to raw foods I used to eat organic, vegan whole foods and my body was unhealthy. I wasn’t about to jump into foods that I knew didn’t serve me well in the past. So, I decided to approach the “cooked” experiment in the most healthy way possible. I figured I’d cook only the foods that my body seemed to desire — and I’d only cook them in water, no spices or oils to trick my taste buds into thinking the food was better than it really was, or to bring about a desire to eat more than my body wanted to eat.

The only foods I ate cooked were broccoli, sweet potatoes, peas, and one time I cooked some cauliflower (but cooked cauliflower caused my belly to bloat, which never happens to me when I consume it raw). Of all those things, the cooked broccoli felt the best in my body. However, NONE of those cooked foods felt good overall. They did warm my body up a bit and they didn’t taste awful (I thought they would, since they weren’t so vibrantly alive anymore), but I learned something about cooked foods versus raw foods.

With raw foods, you can eat and eat and eventually you feel satiated and you’re done eating. There is never a painfully full belly from overeating on raw foods. However, when I cooked the vegetables and ate them, I found myself eating and eating, never feeling satiated. I would eat until my belly was overly full and feeling a bit painful, but I still felt like I needed to eat. There is something in raw foods that allows the body to recognize when it’s satiated, has had enough. When those same foods are cooked, the body never receives that message. The most we can go on is that our belly becomes too full to consume one more bite, even though we are still desiring more food because we don’t feel satiated or fulfilled in some way. So, if you’re currently eating cooked foods, keep that in mind! 

That experiment lasted about two weeks, or so. I ate raw foods every day, too, but I ate them separate from the cooked ones (because the raw foods will eliminate the body’s production of white blood cells — it’s a long explanation of why that happens, so I’ll save it for a separate post someday). My belly didn’t feel good while eating the cooked foods. They sat in my stomach for too long, made me feel a bit too mellow (lower in energy), and didn’t seem to be curing me as I had hoped would happen. So, I stopped the experiment and called it a failure — but one with something learned!

This healing challenge has brought with it so many things. I’m learning a lot more about myself and the healing process. I’ve realized I am quite impatient and filled with a desire to control things. Neither of those things is possible with this disease … you have to be patient, since the healing is so slow, and you can’t control much of anything when you become debilitated and your body is in control of the healing process. So, I give in and learn the lessons that are presenting themselves. I struggle with them, however. Patience and giving up control seem to be some tough lessons to learn. It’s the lessons I’m learning that allow me to make sense of why the lyme disease is in my life, however.

Of all the things I’ve tried so far to help my body heal, the water fasting I did in the very beginning was the most effective. It eliminated some of the neurological symptoms that were beginning, as well as neck, heart, and some foot pain. I feel that a fast is definitely what my body will use to complete this healing process, but I’m not ready for a full fast at this point. That will be saved for the final stage of my healing journey. Right now I’m working on something else that’s pretty exciting! It’s too soon to tell what I’ve been learning and how my body has been responding, but the good news is that I’ve seen some major healing progress! For one thing, the pain is mostly only present in the middle of the night. During the day I am almost pain-free, with little aches, and the mobility in my arms has been slowly increasing! I have MUCH more energy and I’m able to sit at the computer for longer periods of time.

I’m definitely healing. This doesn’t seem like a temporary thing, either; it feels like an overall shift in my body to one of better health. I’m super excited to be learning all that I’m learning … because I’m not only able to help my own body naturally heal, but I’ll be better able to understand how the body works, how diseases manifest, and how we can ALL regain health if we become ill. I’m not claiming to be learning how to cure all diseases or anything. I AM claiming, however, to be learning some pretty amazing things about our bodies and how we can make changes that bring about a balanced body, which then brings about healing!

The more I learn, the more thrilling it all becomes! Oh, I wish I could tell you all about it right now! But, I’m still learning and I wouldn’t want to confuse anyone or say things the wrong way. I’m on to something BIG here, something that very few individuals seem to know about (that doctors should have been taught in medical school, but weren’t), and something that I wish I had known about when I was a teenager and trying so hard to understand the body and how to keep it healthy! I know you’re all going to be equally thrilled because you’re into health as much as I am, or else you wouldn’t be here reading all that I share with you! So, look to learn some amazing ground-breaking health information in 2010! I’ll touch a bit more on this in our New Year’s post, coming up shortly on the blog! The new year is about to begin and with it will come AMAZING transformations and growth for so many of us!

Lots of love to you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

p.s. My heart is overflowing with appreciation and love. So many of you have lovingly reached out to help me in one way or another. I definitely feel loved…that’s a feeling that I’ve been feeling more and more since I started this raw journey. I never really allowed others to love me before I went raw…I liked to give, give, give and never receive. I’m in a much more balanced place right now…able to give and receive LOVE, beautiful LOVE! Thank you all for being a part of my life!

I love you!!

Here’s a letter from Wendi to the Pure Jeevan family. I prettied it up a little with some color and graphics.  -Jim

Hi there, lovely Pure Jeevan family! I’ll be away from the computer for a month, working on some deep healing. It’s time to go within and really hear what my body and spirit are saying.

This Lyme Disease hasn’t been easy to heal. It turns out that the lyme bacteria can alter its DNA in order to avoid the host’s immune system. It makes sense that something that powerful would be the thing that can bring a raw foodie down. I’m lucky that my immune system is as strong as it is, however, because once the bacteria begins compromising the immune system, it can escalate to a point where it causes severe neurological problems.

We’ve been monitoring my health (and I’m under the care of a lyme specialist) and so far the majority of my symptoms are severe arthritis in my shoulders and arms. The pain is severe enough that I’m unable to do many things that we take for granted in daily living: chopping vegetables, showering, getting dressed, sleeping, hugging those we love, etc.

*     *     *

The raw diet helps individuals who have arthritis for many reasons, the main one being that it reduces inflamation. I don’t even want to imagine the pain I’d be experiencing if I wasn’t on a raw food diet.

An interesting thing about going through a health crisis: Food cravings are back! I think part of it is physical (the bacteria stirring things up), but a lot of it is emotional. I smell things and I remember how it used to make me feel (numb and sedated) and I desire that feeling again (even though I also remember that on a physical level it actually made me feel ill, as well).

It’s not just the smell of things, though. It’s the stress of knowing that you’ve done everything to gain a high level of health and then here you are, filled with pain and unable to live an active, healthy life because you are debilitated. It’s frustrating at times, and I feel like: Why shouldn’t I just eat such-and-such?! What difference will it make? I’m already not healthy. By not eating those things, it’s not making me healthier, it’s not healing me when I don’t eat them! At that point the tears usually start falling because I know deep inside that I want to continue being healthy on a deep level, that my cravings are borne out of frustration and helplessness.

That’s the main thing that this Lyme Disease has brought out in me: Helplessness. I have to rely on others to help me with normal daily tasks, or else I end up in even more pain. I have to ask for help, too, because my needs aren’t always obvious without me stating them. Here’s the thing, though…

I brought this all on myself! You know that whole law of attraction stuff — that we manifest in our lives that which we think about, desire, etc.? Well, not long before I began experiencing the symptoms of Lyme Disease, I said *out loud* to Jim and KDcat: Sometimes I just wish I had someone to take care of me. I wish someone would just scoop me up, give me a bath, hold me and cuddle me, feed me and take care of all my needs. (Prior to saying that out loud, that desire had only ever been in my head — and it had been there a very long time.)

That desire to have someone else care for me probably stems from deep psychological scars of not having all of my needs met as a child. My entire life I was connected with others, aware of their needs, always feeling their pain and trying to help them find a happier way of existing. Even here at Pure Jeevan, I’m here to help others. It’s been the biggest part of who I am — I’m Wendi, the one who you can rely on for unconditional love and understanding, the one who will help you if she can.

Many of you have followed my story about how I brought about the biggest changes in my life. You’ve learned that the largest factor in bringing me back to life and health was the single act of loving myself. Well, it seems that loving oneself is something that needs to continually be worked on for some of us, or else we can fall back into patterns of helping others and forgetting about ourselves once again.

What I know now is that my desire for someone to care for me, to fulfill all of my needs and make me feel loved and whole and safe, can’t come from outside of myself. Jim has stepped up and taken on that role, without complaint and with love and compassion in his heart. His caring has deepened our relationship as he has met all of my needs. All that I spoke out loud has come true. I am essentially helpless and having all of my needs lovingly met.

But, guess what? It ends up that isn’t enough. It’s not enough because that’s not really what I was desiring on a deeper level. You have to be careful what you ask for, because the Universe is going to deliver it in the way that you are thinking about at the time you’re asking. I’m not fully sure what it was that I was desiring, but I know that all that I truly need is within me. I know that my needs can be met from within.

So, I’m taking a month-long healing break. I’ll be going deep within and listening to what my body is telling me. In the silence, I’ll be able to hear and understand myself even more. This is going to be a physical time of healing, as well as a spiritual, mental, and emotional one. My entire life I’ve been taking these journeys within and without fail, I emerge with an even brighter spirit, in a body that is much healthier and happier.

Jim will continue updating this blog five days a week, because we want to keep you motivated along your raw food journey! So, be sure to keep dropping by and leaving comments so he knows you are enjoying his posts! I’ll probably be helping him with content, I just won’t be here at the computer doing things during my break.

I’m going to miss all of you, but I need to take this time for myself. I know I’ll return healthier, happier, and more myself — with arms wide open ready to embrace all of you once again!

I love you all so very much!!!

Wendi
XOXOXO

Getting Lyme Disease after regaining my health on the raw foods diet was a tough thing to accept. How could a body cure itself with a raw food diet, yet then fail to even recognize and destroy the Lyme bacteria? So many individuals have recovered from awful diseases, including cancer, by eating a raw food diet. Why, as a raw foodist, has my body been unable to easily eliminate this lyme disease?

I know Jim and I weren’t the only ones wondering this. Many of you have voiced concerns, as well. Questions have been asked about how healthy my raw diet has actually been. Have I been cheating and eating cooked foods? Have I been eating too many packaged raw food snacks? Am I drinking alcohol? What have I been doing *wrong* with my diet in order for this to happen in my body? Here are some answers:

• My raw diet has been 100%, other than about a span of one month when I was consuming a tiny amount of roasted carob in some shakes.
      
• I don’t eat a lot of packaged raw snacks because they don’t digest well (and they are quite expensive).
   
• No, I don’t eat cooked foods or drink alcohol.
   
• Before my symptoms began, my diet was mostly greens (lots of salads), fruit smoothies, and veggies with various nut/seed dips.
   
• I was spending a lot of time outside in the sunshine, meditating almost daily, keeping active with things that interest me, etc.

Essentially, I was living a mostly healthy lifestyle (I say mostly, because I did have times of frustration about still being here in Pittsburgh instead of moving forward with our plans of relocating to a better climate).

So, how could my well-nourished body not recognize and eliminate the Lyme Disease when it entered my system?

One of our Pure Jeevan family members, Joanna Steven, offered some very thoughtful words when I shared that question and my resulting frustration about contracting this disease:

“I think your case is different from cancer and all that. With cancer, the body is supposed to stop the proliferation of cancerous cells, and with raw, it can do its job again. We all have cancerous cells that are killed off everyday. With Lyme, it’s more difficult. Our body doesn’t deal with the bacteria everyday, so curing it is a very different thing. Don’t beat yourself up.”

When Jim and I read Joanna’s comment, we immediately felt a sense of peace come over us. It made sense: my body is learning to deal with something it has never encountered before! Some days it seems to be doing very well. Yesterday, for example, my pain was about a 4.5 out of 10. By the evening, however, it had jumped to about an 8 and has lingered there into this morning.

I’ve asked myself a lot of questions about this Lyme Disease, my health, my thoughts and emotions, etc. At first I was shocked: Nothing like this happens to “me”! KDcat quickly pointed out that just about everyone thinks that when something horrible happens in their lives. Why did this happen? What am I to learn from this? How is this helping me become a better person, deepening my sense of self, propelling me further in the direction I am journeying? How and why did I manifest this into my life? In what ways can I use what has happened to help others?

I don’t have the answers to all of my questions, yet, and more questions keep coming to me. I don’t doubt this will make me a stronger person in many ways, even though it may be difficult to see that in times when I’m suffering from excruciating pain.

Many times I center myself, am one with my core and separate from my body. Those are times when I am simply an observer, witnessing the beauty of life in all the ways it is present (even in pain). I’d love to say that I am always peaceful and in such a beautiful state of bliss, however that’s not the case. I’ve expressed my fears, worries, tears, frustration, anger, pain, etc., about this disease with close friends and family over the past 2-3 months.

I’m at a point now, however, where I’m shifting to a different level of being. I’ve accepted that a bacteria has enetered my body, that my body at first didn’t recognize it or know what to do with it (so it wreaked havoc and caused a lot of pain, etc.), but that my body is intelligent and able to heal itself. So, I’ve decided to step aside and get out of my body’s way of healing.

Instead of emotionally and mentally bringing my energy down with fears, worries, pain, suffering, tears, etc., I am going to fill my being with love, Love, LOVE and happy, positive thoughts of health and vitality. Instead of restricting what I am doing, for fear of my body experiencing more pain, I’m going to joyfully move my body in ways that feels good to help it keep strong. Instead of limiting what I’m eating (especially in the form of fruit), I’m going to nourish my body with the foods I know intuitively are good for my immune system. I’m not here to struggle with my body, I’m here to help it with this enormous task of regaining its healthy balance so that the Lyme Disease is not able to overpower the vitality my body is meant to have.

I’m asking for your help. Please share your Immune Building Knowledge with me. I’m going to help my body build its immune system in every way possible (body, mind, spirit, emotions). I’ll read everything you share. Anything that feels intuitively right at the moment, I’ll act on right away. Some things you share may be things my body needs right now that I’m not aware of. Some things you share may be things I’m already doing. And some things you share may be things I’ve never even known about before and the seeds will be planted to help me now and in the future to help my body build its immune system up as strong as possible — so that in the future, if I’m ever infected with some foreign pathogen, my body is better able to eliminate it and maintain its vibrant health.

So, what can you share about Immune Building with me???

Lots of love to all of you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

p.s. Your love, caring, and support has been keeping me strong and filled with such happiness. It touches my heart so deeply to know that I am loved by so many. I love each and every one of you, too!!!! *blows kisses*