Healing . . . Again

Even those of us who know the formula for wellness can lose our grasp on it at times.  Wellness is tenuous for us spoonies.  Sometimes something changes and we need to tweak our formula, or change it altogether.  Sometimes we're knocked off course by unexpected stress or a change of routine.  Sometimes, we let our formula slip ever so slightly, again and again, until we are at critical mass -- the so-called last straw -- and we crash.

Today I realized I'd come to that point.  I've been more fatigued than normal recently, and transient symptoms, which normally go away after a good night's rest, had greeted me again with the sunrise for the last couple of days.  When I took a good look at myself, I realized I'd let a few things slide.  Before my self-examination went any further, I put a pot of water on to boil and grabbed the marrow bones from the freezer.

Spoonies have individualized arsenals born of years of trial and error.  We try everything, and endeavor to keep track of what works and what doesn't.  I've been vegan, paleo and gluten-free, and different combinations of these diets since 2010.  The one thing that hasn't changed about my diet is being dairy-free.  Dairy's effects are dramatic, immediate and specific, so there's no need to wonder about it.  Gluten doesn't seem to be as cut and dried for me.  While I undoubtedly feel best without it, my love affair with pasta has led me to bring it back into my life little by little.  Hence my "last straw" realization this morning.  I'd had one bowl of pasta too many.

Pasta isn't my only problem, clearly.  Unfortunately, as we become lackadaisical about one area of wellness management, others may tend to slide as well.  Without undeniable proof, we can deny that the lapses are having a deleterious effect.  An accumulation of lapses leaves it unclear what the worst offenders were.  So -- time to weed out the culprits.

Back to the drawing board:  Bone broth has been absent of late, so I made a big pot of it.  I'd forgotten how much that essential oils enrich wellness.  Out they came again.  I steered clear of gluten today and instead made this healing soup:  bone broth, coconut milk, ginger, garlic, Brussels sprouts and rapini and nothing else.  Soup for breakfast set the mind at ease, and before long the remaining tingles in my arms and hands, and the hypersensitivity and pain along the left side of my body went away.  Even the canker sores that had popped up in my mouth this morning (a sign of toxicity) went away!  Shockingly, I was better within two hours of the broth.

We know what heals us.  The key for us spoonies is to remember what we already know, in the moment, as the stresses of life, or our own choices, knock us off track.