The Power of ˌafərˈmāSH(ə)n (AFFIRMATION)

I decided that today’s ENDOMETRISIS AWARENESS MONTH blog post would be about harnessing the power of our words by using affirmations. This idea tags onto the idea brought forth in the blog posted yesterday, What Else is True? That is an example of how we can use our language and our thoughts for healing and our greater good. As a part of my healing I enjoy making little graphics with mantras or affirmations on them, so I will share a few throughout this post.

To start I’d like to share an incredibly powerful, healing, love-filled meditation set to video with beautiful images throughout that was made by two dear friends. Diana Lang (you can access her website by clicking here) is an amazing yoga and meditation teacher, and spiritual counselor in Los Angeles. Her work (on all fields) has absolutely massively changed my life in countless ways for the best. The video was made by another incredibly creative and loving friend, Angela. Diana frequently shares meditations that are available to listening and sharing for F R E E. They are each special and hit the spot at different times. However, VIOLET is always one of my go to meditations. It is a pain relief meditation. Does it completely take the pain away? NO but does it help drastically improve it? YES. And it is the only treatment I can think of for physical pain that has only POSITIVE SIDE EFFECTS! If you would like to watch this video click here to watch. I suggest watching once and keeping your eyes open to enjoy the visuals and then listen with your eyes closed.

Using affirmations for health and healing is an important part of our healing process and is one of the only effective treatments that I know of that:

-is FREE

-is FREE OF NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS

-can be implemented ANYWHERE and ANYTIME by ANYONE

-is ALWAYS available, requiring no rx and no pharmacy

Affirmations can be used for any part of our lives that we might like some improvement or increased peace in; for example, there are wealth, love, self-compassion affirmations. Because this blog is about ENDOMETRIOSIS AWARENESS and HEALING we will focus on those areas with the affirmations we provide. 

I found a really great page with a brief explanation of affirmations and some great examples of some HEALING affirmations and you can visit that page by clicking here. I have copied the article here. I really like this article because it not only gives great examples of affirmations for HEALING but gives a little blurb about each one! I increased the size of each affirmation so it is visibly obvious and then the statements following expand on and further explain the affirmations.

You have the power to help your body heal itself. Whenever you’re hurt, use these affirmations to help bring your thinking and your choices back in line with basic principles that support the alignment of the physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

1. My body knows how to heal itself, and is doing so even now. The body is naturally a self-healing mechanism. It is constantly maintaining and restoring itself. You know this to be true because your body has been doing it ever since you were born. Think about all the cuts and bruises you’ve acquired that have closed up and gone away.

2. My body tells me what it needs. The body speaks to you in many ways. Sometimes the signals come as hunches or silent impulses, at other times they come through feelings of comfort or discomfort. Listen to whatever the body tells you. It never lies.

3. I honor my body’s wisdom by trusting the signals that it sends. When you override or ignore what the body is relaying, you interfere with the body’s natural healing process. Sometimes the body does not want to do what you would like to do. When you honor the body’s message, you honor the body’s wisdom.

4. Every part of my body carries out its tasks easily and naturally. The body is an intelligent energy system that maintains its inner harmony freely and easily by adhering to the infinite wisdom that supports and sustains it. 

5. My body is attuned to the wisdom of the universe. The body is a microcosm of the universe. Just as the stars move in harmony with that great macrocosm, so are the body and all its parts designed to move in sync with the natural rhythm and harmony of the universe.

6. Joy is my body’s keynote; vitality is its song. The body does not know stress, yet when we interfere with the body’s natural healing work through poor diet, lack of exercise, or other unhealthy choices, the body’s ability to function at optimum efficiency is compromised. When you listen to the body and honor your body’s needs, vitality improves and joy awakens in your heart. You know you are in sync with the body’s wisdom when the body “hums” with vitality and joy.

7. Gratitude and peace flow through my mind and body like a clear, healing stream. Whenever you see and know the truth, whether for yourself or for others, that truth becomes a healing stream that flows out and supports those for whom you pray.

Affirm these universal principles whenever there is a need for healing. After all, prayers of healing are acts of compassion, and compassion is a form of love. Give yourself the gift of love that carries healing in its wings.

• See more at: http://www.chopra.com/ccl/7-affirmations-for-self-healing#sthash.kl7tTm2f.dpuf

This blog is not meant to be religious in anyway. Affirmations can be designed to be as religious or spiritual as you would like. You can view them as a prayer if that is something you feel more comfortable with or a mantra while going around a mala if that is more your style. The most important aspect of affirmations is USING THEM. They only work if we use them.

I suggest when you're first incorporating  affirmations into your life that you set an alarm on your phone for a few times a day as a reminder to use your affirmations. It can also helpful to have them on a sticky note in the car and you can use them when driving, now I'm suggesting repeating affirmations, OBVIOUSLY NOT MEDITATING WHILE DRIVING. Or some people having some by the bathroom sink and when you're there washing your face, brushing your teeth, putting makeup on, etc you can repeat them. It can take a few weeks for a habit to be built, but the commitment is definitely worthwhile and can help increase a sense of inner peace. Also, while fighting a chronic and seriously impacting disease such as ENDOMETRIOSIS it can be really helpful to use a tool such as healing affirmations as a way to assert some control in a situation in which it feels as though we have no true control. What a great way to exert control, too!

One of my favorite affirmations that can really work for any aspect of our lives is from Diana Lang and is:

I deeply and completely accept myself

I hope this article gives you some ideas of some HEALING affirmations you can bring into your life and hopefully help you feel better and better. 

My hopes are to have a short blog posted everyday during this month. **FINGERS CROSSED**

Sending out much love and healing to all of my 176 MILLION endometriosis-sisters! I hope you all have the support and love that you need in your life in order to heal and hopefully T H R I V E. 

Thriving is exactly what I’m working on in my life right now. Definitely not there yet but on my way!

What Else is True?

What Else Is True?

I’d like to start this blog post off by giving a brief endo-related bio of myself so any new readers to my site can have an idea of what I’ve gone through in terms of dealing with this monster of a disease, ENDOMETRIOSIS:

I’ve experienced symptoms of endometriosis beginning with my very first period when I was 13 years old. From that age through my diagnosis at age 27 my symptoms seriously increased in severity. I finally heard the E-word at a doctor’s appointment in 2010! I remember having trouble pronouncing it even in the beginning and having to read it off the post-it to tell people about it. I was so relieved to have a name for a condition, a PHYSICAL one that was causing these problems- I had been through the ringer up to that point with doctors dismissing me completely or writing off all of these symptoms, which I will list in a minute, to anxiety and according to one doctor “being unable to handle the emotions of everyday life.” I was diagnosed via lap while having a uterine ablation on Saint Patrick’s Day in 2011. To fast forward a bit over the past 5 years I have had 5 surgeries to deal with the endometriosis and severe adhesions i have developed. I had a total vaginal hysterectomy in 2012, in 2014 I had a cholecystectomy and liver biopsy (have some liver issues resulting from a medicine I was coerced into trying, and I had lysis  of     adhesions and excision of endometriosis with an endo  specialist surgeon a few months later. Almost exactly one year later in June of 2015 I had an oopherectomy, lysis of  adhesions and excision of endometriosis performed by a specialist surgeon who uses the DaVinci robot at a leading medical teaching conglomeration in Southern  California. And now I am currently waiting for a referral back to the most recent surgeon having most recently seen a different ob/gyn surgeon who said I am the worst case he has seen and says I need a team of doctors for this next (and god-willing LAST operation).  

Wanted to give a quick list of the symptoms I have experienced over the years, and i have had endometriosis and adhesions removed from most of my abdominal and pelvic organs:

∴intense cramping on left pain at midline/waist area

∴nausea, frequently resulting in vomiting

∴bleeding with bowel movements

∴unbearable pain with bowel movements (pain being way up in the center of my belly, so severe that I cry while trying to go)

∴lower back pain

∴pain both during and after pelvic exams, ultrasounds and intercourse

∴painsomnia (pain so bad that it makes falling or staying asleep very difficult)

∴intermittent vaginal bleeding (nearly 3 years post-

hysterectomy)

∴serious abdominal bloating, where I  can go from looking my normal belly  to several months pregnant in the matter of a few minutes!

Last year over the  Independence Day holiday (one of my most favorite holidays!) I wrote my first piece about the What Else is True technique. I will copy and paste that here:

This year I find myself 5 weeks and one day post-op from another major endo surgery, 5.5 years past my first endometriosis surgery in which I was officially diagnosed. Over the past few years I've really gone through a lot but have also done a lot of work and am experiencing a great amount of growth. I cannot say that I'm grateful for the endometriosis trail I've had to go on but I am grateful to be able to be in such a place of self-exploration, healing, experiencing a shift of perspective and an ever-increasing amount of LOVE in my life. 

I love Independence Day and love it in both a macro and micro sense. I hope you find some time today, even if just a brief moment, or a breath even, to focus on what in your life you are working on gaining independencefrom, maybe what you've already conquered. Take a deep breath and give yourself a spiritual high five for keepin' on keepin' on. 

Whatever struggles you're experiencing may feel or seem overwhelming, I feel that way sometimes with what I'm going through. But the current mantra I'm working with is "what else is true?" So I am learning to be able to lift up out of my pain,  which is very real, and to see something else that is also very real but more positive and less painful. For example on this morning of Independence Day, I am in a lot of pain while writing this, BUT what else true?! What else is true is, I am in the beautiful mountains with people I love, I am going to be going to a firework show tonight and I know it will be amazing, I am able to revel in and deeply breathe in the healing properties of nature. 

For this past Independence Day Holiday Weekend, these were my "what else"  observations that got me through:

I am not always good with the "what else" mantra but that is life, eh, we work on what is presented to us, what we stumble upon, what experiences (good and bad) what are put in our path. Like right now (Monday July 6th) as I write this I am in some of the worst pain I've ever had. Sometimes the pain is so hard to look through that my "what else" can be hard to see. Writing has seemed to help me. I hope by my sharing my process and experiences I can help someone else on their path when the times might be tough and hope seems far away. 

Fingers crossed for me, and each of my readers especially my sisters, that we have an easy day and may our pains be diminished, even if just a bit, by the "what elses" we have in and around us!

I sincerely hope that the techniques offered in this passage will help you in your journey. Please try them and feel free to comment with feedback, or even if you would like to share things you have tried that have helped, and those that haven't!

If we all continue to share what we go through and what we do to get by, we can only grow stronger and even more powerful.

Signing off with love and healing thoughts,

Stephanie

ENDOMETRIOSIS AWARENESS MONTH 2016!

March is ENDOMETRIOSIS AWARENESS MONTH!

Endometriosis Awareness is one of the most sincere passions I have in my life. I try to do all I can to help raise awareness, lessen stigma surrounding the disease and to help people (including and sometimes mostly with DOCTORS) have a better understanding of just how much and in how many ways this disease can impact our lives. I cannot think of an area of my life which has not been impacted by this disease, and frequently serious, lifelong ways. 

This blog entry is going to be somewhat short. I just wanted to start off the MONTH of ENDOMETRIOSIS AWARENESS with a quick post since it has been soooo long since I've been able to write.

I wanted to share some images and info-graphics which I've found on Facebook.

I am taking part in an endo photo challenge where everyday there is a different theme.

Day #1 of the Challenge has ENDOMETRIOSIS as the theme. I decided to use an op picture.

When I used to design flyers for educational presentations I would coordinate for an old job I would always put KNOWLEDGE IS POWER across the bottom and now I put the same graphic at the end of each Thrive blog post that I write. We can't expect everyone to know what we need to know. We need to understand what is going on with our bodies so we're able to make fully educated decisions. With ENDOMETRIOSIS there are many decisions to make that have serious and sometimes lifelong ramifications. Should I have a HYSTERECTOMY or OOPHERECTOMY at the chance of it helping me to feel better?! Should I try LUPRON, which is PROSTATE CANCER CHEMO?! Should I stop working and try for disability to try to deal with everything and taking all of the needed medication to help keep the symptoms at bay?! Should I share and be open about the disease I have to not only try to raise awareness but to help it become less taboo and shame-ridden?! Should I keep fighting, day in and day out, this disease that deeply impacts every single area of my life and that feels like it will never get better and become more tolerable, much less ever experience remission and truly feeling better?!

I wish I could personally tell each and every one of my endo sisters that she isn't crazy. That it isn't all in our heads and that no matter how many people in our lives tell us that it is, IT ISN'T.

This one is incredibly true, too. Frequently I get misinformation about this disease and the symptoms from doctors and nurses. I've been told I am too young to have endo, I should be cured because I have had both a hysterectomy and an oopherectomy. I've been told too many pieces of misinformation from medical professionals to even remember them all. 

Fortunately I've also had doctors and nurses who have the same lack of knowledge BUT they do not assume they know everything about it and they will ask me about my experience in a genuinely interested way, which I really appreciate so very much and we are able then to have an open and honest conversation about my experience.

My hopes are to have a short blog posted everyday during this month. **FINGERS CROSSED**

Sending out much love and healing to all of my 176 MILLION endometriosis-sisters! I hope you all have the support and love that you need in your life in order to heal and hopefully T H R I V E. 

Thriving is exactly what I’m working on in my life right now. Definitely not there yet but on my way!