A few years back just after I turned 40, I found myself in an unusual situation. I was experiencing strange physical symptoms and did not know the cause. Up until that point I had not had any physical issues or serious illnesses. Occasionally I would get a cold but even that was rare. I never really got sick and hardly ever missed work.

The symptoms I had were hard to describe but I was diagnosed with a couple of things and given antibiotics. A bunch of tests were run but everything came back normal. I was starting to feel paranoid that something serious was wrong and the doctors just could not find it. I did not understand how I could feel so bad, and nothing be wrong.

Of course, I started Googling stuff (generally not a good idea) and self-diagnosed myself with all these crazy illnesses. All of which of course were false.

What was also weird was the symptoms would change and I would think to myself "what now". There was a period of at least six months where I just did not feel well or comfortable no matter the situation. I continued to function normally and to the outside world, no one knew anything different.

Through my Google quest to find what was wrong, I did stumble across some articles about how sustained levels of stress can cause physical symptoms. That sounded kind of crazy to me and I thought surely, I could handle my stress. I never had an issue before and certainly being over 40 now I should be beyond something like that.

Well, being over 40 in my case most likely meant that my stress levels had finally reached a point that physical symptoms started to present themselves. I had realized without going into much detail that my life was quite stressful and had been for a while.

One other thing and what could have been the tipping point was right before these symptoms started showing I had witnessed a horrific car accident in which a person lost their life. I know this was something that weighed heavily on me for a couple of weeks but after that I thought my life was back to normal. I guess not. Not long after that is when I started feeling like garbage.

Without ever getting any real answers I kind of accepted that stress was what was causing my symptoms. I continued to live my life and kept working out on a regular basis since I seemed to feel my best after working out.

Slowly my symptoms for the most part went away over what seemed like forever. At the time, I probably should have looked more into the connection between stress and physical symptoms. I probably could have gotten through it quicker.

This brings me to the reason I am even writing about this. Just recently I came across an article in Psychology Today called "How to Tap into Your Self-Healing Superpowers" written by Lissa Rankin M.D.

Dr. Rankin describes how she suffered from a wide array of health conditions that turned out to be more emotional than biochemical. She decided the only way to get well was to treat the emotional, psychological, and spiritual illness that was manifesting as actual physical symptoms in her body.

She was sick to the point she left her practice. After some time, she realized she still needed to practice medicine, so she took a job at an integrative medicine center. What was strange working at this center was that her patients lived the healthiest lives. They drank green juice daily, had personal trainers, got a full night's sleep. They did everything "right" but were still sick.

Dr. Rankin was not really prepared to treat patients like this so she would ask them what they thought they needed for their body to heal. Instead of asking for some sort of pill, most of the answers were like "leave my husband', "quit my job", "move to a different place", "put my mom in a nursing home".

When her patients listened to their intuition and had the fortitude to follow through on their own prescriptions, what seemed like incurable diseases sometimes disappeared.

She realized her patients were not responding to conventional medical treatment but were healing themselves. Something she could not explain. She did some research and found numerous cases where patients with incurable diseases got better. Illnesses from stage 4 cancers to diabetes and high blood pressure that just went away. She saw cases where patients went from HIV + to HIV - and even a person with a gunshot wound to the head that got better without medical treatment.

Dr. Rankin went even deeper into her research and discovered that you can overcome about 18-75% of illnesses by healing yourself. This is more than just the placebo effect and that for your body to be healthy, you need to be healthy in all aspects of your life. This includes:

• Healthy relationships
• Healthy professional life
• Sense of spiritual connection
• Creative expression
• Healthy sexuality
• Healthy finances
• Healthy environment
• Healthy mind

In addition to this you still need to take care of your body with diet, exercise, sleep, addiction avoidance, and traditional healthy behaviors.

She goes on to say that living a wholly healthy life must come from you and that you are best at knowing the real reason you are sick and what you need to do to get better.

This does not mean you should not see your doctor and that there is not an actual biochemical component to your health issues. But it is rarely only biochemical and only getting biochemical treatment rarely leads to cure when there are emotional, psychological, and spiritual factors that contribute to illness and are left untreated.

So, what can you do to optimize your health?

Dr. Rankin explains that you need to figure out what is out of balance in your life that may be contributing to the physical symptoms you are experiencing. Also, try to listen to what your body is trying to tell you.

Her exact quote is "Pay attention when your body speaks in whispers. Please darling, don’t wait until your body starts to yell."

To read the entire article see "How To Tap Into Your Self-Healing Superpowers."

Thanks for stopping by.