Recently I found myself on the chronic illness side of Tik Tok and stumbled upon these “influencers” who have “healed” their chronic illnesses with kale, meditation, and imported olive oil from Italy. While I don’t want to discount their experiences and the choices they made in their wellness journey it got me thinking about how wellness and/or healing are not a one size fits all approach. It also got me thinking how many people have tried healing their chronic illness with imported olive oil from Italy and still feel just as sick, but at least they have good olive oil in their cupboard.

I can remember in the early days of this journey, especially after discovering I had mold in my body..Those were fun test results to get back, I went on this journey of trying anything and everything anyone said would help me feel better. I spent an insane amount of money on supplements, Iv treatments, sauna treatments, occupational therapy, etc all in the name of trying to feel better and heal. I even tried drinking celery juice. I don’t care what drinking celery juice supposedly heals I would rather be ill than start each morning trying to gag my way through a big glass of fresh celery juice… It’s that bad. I am convinced that the people who say they like celery juice must be missing some crucial taste buds. I wanted to feel better so badly that I tried it all. Ok, maybe not all. I’ve never done coffee enemas or bee sting therapy.. everyone has their line.

Now that I have been at this wellness/healing thing for a while I have learned that it’s about balance and the treatment that was amazing for one person may not work for another. That’s why I refrain from listing out the meds, supplements, etc that I take on this blog because what works for me may not work for anyone else. I will say that for my body I have found a mixture of traditional and non-traditional treatments to be the best. I take pharmaceuticals and I do somatic exercises. I see an OT and I do tapping and meditation each morning. I have a roughly 2 hour morning and night routine that I have found helps keep me functional. It doesn’t heal me, it doesn’t eliminate flares, it doesn’t return my body back to the way it was before, but it does allow me to live and even thrive in some moments.

I think living is the same way.. there is no one size fits all approach to living life. What work for you may not work for me and vice versa. It’s so easy in this social media world we live in to compare our lives to what we see on the screens before us. What you see on someone’s Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc is a snapshot of their life. Comparing your most human days to the smiling pictures someone puts on their social media is never going to be a helpful endeavor. There is no one path to follow to get through life or life benchmarks of where you should be at a certain age or season of your life. Live the life you want to live. Live the life that makes you feel like you’re alive and like you’re living as opposed to like you’re just getting through each day like a task to check off your human to-do list. Live the life that feels like home to your nervous system and your soul. Life is too short to be living for the reaction of the crowds in the stands. Life is also too short to spend each morning gagging your way through celery juice. It’s all about balance..