My "Perfect Storm"

This is a term I came up with to help my clients understand their vulnerability to disease in certain situations. There is a potential perfect storm for everyone, some will be lucky enough never to have to weather it. A perfect storm, in my opinion, is the unique culmination of events supported by ideal conditions that together bring about an imbalance, a dysregulation, a dis-ease in an otherwise healthy person. The storm can be chronic or acute, it can take years or days to happen. As with all healing philosophies, this imbalance begins in the spirit and is brought to the surface by an emotional assault to the very core of who we are as individuals.

The Perfect Storm, in my opinion, is the reason why some people succumb to a life-changing illness at some point in their lives and others might not; it takes all the puzzle pieces to fall into place at just the right time at that perfect moment in life. It’s the Russian roulette of 'dis-ease triggers'.

"A perfect storm is the unique culmination of events supported by ideal conditions that together bring about an imbalance, a dysregulation, a dis-ease in an otherwise healthy person."

For most people it is a combination of prolonged stress and/or emotional trauma, an infection of sorts and less than optimum self-care. For example, you have been working long hours with extreme pressure or deadlines, you are also currently going through a divorce and your neighbour with whom you had supper with last night was sick and passed the virus on to you. Added to that you haven't been sleeping well, nor eating well and you haven't been taking your vitamins. The result is 3 weeks in bed with Bronchitis -which happens to be your weakness- you get a secondary infection and need antiobiotics, which further disrupts your gut/immunity and for the next 10 years you suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome....do you see how this can happen so easily? It was the perfect storm.

My perfect storm kicked off after the stress and grief of my father’s illness and passing. Events that added to my storm were a trip to India thereafter, where I picked up a parasite and got very ill, a viral infection a year after that and some traumatic betrayals in my personal relationships.

4 years after my father’s death, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that had slowly been brewing. The severity of my feelings of un-wellness led me to my doctor’s office time and time again until I eventually asked her to test my thyroid as I had a gut feeling. Up until that point my GP kept writing me off as having generalised anxiety disorder. It turned out my thyroid had gone haywire and took my immune system with it. There were warning signs, but I didn't listen.

I had been into health and wellness for many years already, studying and working in the industry but nothing could prepare me for this. For a whole year I looked after my father while he faded away before my eyes, working full time yet spending every waking moment I could, with him. I could never have anticipated what my hypersensitivity to my emotions and to life as well as the extreme exhaustion it brought with it, would eventually do to me. I had no mechanisms in place to cope with such extreme circumstances even though I was convinced I did. They presumed I had Grave's disease, an autoimmune disorder with hyperactivity in my thyroid gland. It is said in Chinese medicine that this illness is one that stems from extreme emotions. I was plagued with a resting heart rate of 120+ beats per minute all day and night, extreme weakness and weight loss, panic attacks, intolerance to heat, low blood pressure, inability to exercise, up to 5 bowel movements a day, insomnia, insatiable appetite and intense fear. I almost died once and ended up in hospital- for the first time in my life.

This, my perfect storm, a combination of heartache, trauma, toxicity and pathogens, catapulted by severe emotional dysregulation and grief. And so my journey began. It took 3 years to regain balance and I am still working on it, it's hard work. I had to make many changes. I am learning to trust my body again, to trust life and to find that brave, strong and balanced woman that came before.

I have learnt so much, I have been humbled and I have been pushed to brinks I didn’t know existed. I am the best version of myself right now, as I sit here putting the pieces back together. This journey has amplified my beliefs, those that no longer serve me as well as those that will carry me forward. I weathered my storm and although there may be more that lie ahead, I have no doubt the human body is both miraculous and unpredictable and is always trying its best to protect us and lead us to its highest potential.

In times when you are more vulnerable to a 'system collapse', mind your habits and make better choices. Take extra care of yourself and quit doing things that are harming your health. You could prevent that perfect storm from happening by altering the conditions in your internal environment, by changing the things you CAN control. This experience in my journey has only amplified my reasons for wanting to help others in theirs.