This week at church our family style VBS (Vacation Bible School) has had the theme “messy”. Our family got randomly selected to go on stage for a messy game and had to dress in hazmat suits to keep our clothes clean. As I was looking at pictures a friend took of us, I began to think.
Is this how my friends saw me when I was hunkered down for the storm of healing from chronic disease? Is this still how the world would see our family since we are gluten free, dye free? Is this how we really were while healing?
I’m not sure where you are in your chronic illness journey, but at some point, we all go on red alert and feel like everything everywhere is so toxic – its all killing us. We go germaphobic times 1000 and start literally suiting up or don’t go out anymore. We hazmat up and lock the door.
Yes, our environment has gotten more toxic and yes it is killing us faster, but I want to talk about taking the hazmat suit off and starting to live again. I want you to learn to enjoy and relax into living your new normal.
How can we protect ourselves from our toxic environment and keep our bodies healthy and still live?
Yes, we will forever be different since discovering Lyme in our house and mold in our house and all the co-infections that came along. The line you draw in the sand will look different from mine. The things you cannot risk again are not going to be necessarily be my hotbed items of avoidance. Draw your line in the sand and acknowledge that there is a gray area in between. Not everything is black and white in healing and avoiding toxicity is the same.
Remember the line is drawn in sand, not etched in stone. You can move it. You can fudge more depending on how strong you feel. You can learn to test the boundaries of your boundaries, but don’t be afraid to take risks and see how strong your body has gotten as you heal.
For over two years when I was healing, I didn’t eat a single piece of food that I didn’t source or cook. What I ingested was helping me heal so I was picky. I wanted out of that pit so badly, that it was worth the effort and sacrifice. We still don’t eat out often because I like to control our intake and eating out health is so much more expensive than eating out for crapola food.
Now, I have taken off the hazmat suit and eat at Chipotle and other healthy alternative restaurants that honor gluten free and I can trust their ingredients and preparation. When we travel, we make sure that along the route there will be a Trader Joes, Whole Foods Market and/or Chipotle so we don’t have to pack every stitch of food with us and we can trust to eat out.
We still avoid chlorine pools because the kids are very sensitive to chlorine, so we swim in salt water or fresh water which is more rare around us. But it is worth the sacrifice because the reactions are still pretty severe. Every now and then we “test the waters” literally and see if they can handle a chlorine pool, but haven’t been able to yet 4 years since our ground zero.
We will always avoid preservatives and dyes and artificial anything in foods. So my kids can’t eat the bright colored cupcakes at birthdays like the rest of the kids, but it again, is worth the sacrifice for me and for their health.
We still eat gluten free and mostly dairy free. We eat all organic and have our own chickens. We love eating pure and our kids are good food snobs – awesome. There is no down side here.
I take my own sheets when we travel, so we don’t sleep on hotel linens. I don’t go anywhere without my essential oils and top 30 remedies. These are just the standard norms for us now. I’m used to it and feel that living this way but without the hazmat suit on help us to be proactive for our health but still have the opportunity to make plans, have adventures and live again.
I have a friend who doesn’t sleep anywhere without her charcoal sheet. I have another friend who still get lymph massage monthly. I have friends who have their own bees now. The list goes on and on.
I hope this helps someone out there who is just starting to dip their toe back into the pool of life and is wondering how to do it now. What does your new normal look like? Good news, you get to create your new normal. Build the house all over again and do it with a more firm foundation in health and an understanding of healing.
Don’t be afraid to live again. But don’t beat yourself up for being apprehensive about what you can and can’t do. We all go through this stage in healing and it can be intimidating to stretch your legs and get out there – but you still need to try.
Blessings and healing,
Janice Fairbairn – The Lyme Evangelist
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