Why your health issues keep flaring up – and how to switch them off
Author, accredited Clinical Nutritionist, Functional Medicine Practitioner, Coach, Trauma Therapist & PhD Scholar Filipa Bellette shows us how you can tap into your body's ancient wisdom and finally find relief from chronic health issues by learning to deeply listen, connect, and trust yourself.
Have you been struggling with chronic health issues for years, maybe even decades? Things like fatigue, anxiety, gut issues, food sensitivities, body pain, headaches, menopausal symptoms (if you’re a woman)? You’ve probably tried everything under the sun - GP visits, lab tests, naturopaths, supplements, diets, even yoga and breath-work - but still those annoying symptoms keep coming back. Sound familiar?
My Chronic Health Story
I was there once too. I have experienced chronic “weird” health issues three times. I struggled with a mix of anxiety, insomnia, gut issues, low immunity, body pain, female hormone issues, low energy, chemical sensitivity and histamine intolerance.
The first time was after my first baby and I resolved some of the issues with lifestyle changes - sleep, movement, wholefoods and low-tox living. It was GREAT, until baby number two came along, and all my symptoms flared back up, even though my lifestyle was dialled in. This is when I came across functional medicine, and I became a practitioner and started lab testing my own body systems and therapeutically supporting imbalances in my body with natural medicine supplements.
This worked amazing, and I got on top of my symptoms. Until … COVID came along, and I was under a lot of stress, and all the same issues flared up again! I realised I still hadn’t addressed the deepest root-cause of my health issues, and that was the “baggage” stuck in my unconscious mind (dysfunctional unconscious core beliefs, deep-seated perfectionism, people pleasing and addictive-doing patterns, and unprocessed past distressing events), that were dysregulating my nervous system.
The Missing Piece In Healthcare
What I’ve found in the health industry as a whole, is that we have lost the ability to communicate with our bodies. You go to a GP or medical specialist and they are the expert dictating what tests to do, and what medications you need to be on. I even see this in natural medicine modalities, like functional medicine (which I practice), where the practitioner runs some labs and creates a protocol for the patient. This is great for therapeutic support, and something I do with clients, however, it is still promoting the message that “others know best.”
This is simply not true.
You Are The Expert of Your Body
I wholeheartedly believe that 95% of what you need to heal is already inside of you. Our bodies hold ancient wisdom, and you know inherently what is good for you, and what isn’t. The thing is, society as a whole has lost the ability to listen to and communicate with our bodies.
I’m here to change that! In our practice we work with clients to rebuild trust with self, to learn how THEIR body communicates to THEM, and to act on the messages.
When you act, magic happens! I have literally seen symptoms “switch off” in the moment when clients listen to their bodies and act accordingly. For example, I spoke at a business women’s conference on the Gold Coast on the weekend, and took attendees through a process to communicate with their unconscious mind through the symptoms in their bodies. One lady stood up at the end and said her chronic headache that had been hanging around for days completely disappeared (she’d even taken 4 pain-killers that morning, which didn’t budge the headache!).
Oh my gosh, how cool! I see this again and again for myself and with our clients, how quickly chronic health issues can be resolved when you deeply listen, connect, trust and love yourself.
I’ve seen:
- Chronic fatigue disappear over months
- Heartburn clear up in a moment
- Anxiety ease
- Chronic pain in the body switch off within days
- Brain fog lift
- Food sensitivities dissolve
- Plus so much more!
It’s Not Woo-Woo – It’s Science
If you’re someone who needs the facts, let me tell you this way of holistic healing isn’t just “woo woo” or “magic”. It’s how we’re wired as human beings.
For example, let’s look at pain. Pain is not your enemy. As humans we have evolved for safety and survival. Pain is a primitive way our bodies have warned us of danger. You touch fire, you get burned, your brain creates a neural pathway to never touch the fire again because it hurts!
The nervous system, too, is so important at sending you messages of safety or danger. It’s always trying to keep us safe and alive. So if it deems something unsafe - this could be your own beliefs about yourself, self-doubt, uncertainty, shame, guilt, frustration, or fears about eating certain foods, smelling perfumes, being around mould, etc – your system gets very good at creating symptoms to alert you of danger, which then leads to chronic health issues.
When you can create the space to ask: what is unsafe? What’s the story behind the symptom? And what do you need from me, body, to feel safe and loved and to heal? Then you can finally end your state of dysregulation and body burnout.
Filipa Bellette, author of Ending Body Burnout ($29.95), is an accredited Clinical Nutritionist, Functional Medicine Practitioner, Coach, Trauma Therapist & PhD Scholar. She is co-founder of multi award-winning health practice Chris & Filly Functional Medicine, best known for ending body burnout (for good!) in “busy” people with energy, mood & gut issues. Find out more at www.chrisandfilly.fm
Image: Courtesy of Filipa Bellette