By Adrienne Ryan, Brisbane, Australia
A few months ago I was feeling not so great in my body. I was overweight, tired, my period had been going haywire and I had been experiencing discomfort in what I thought was my left ovary area. It had been some time since I had gone to my GP. Usually I visited him when I was too sick to work. This time was different. I was still working and going about my day-to-day life, but I realised that I wasn’t feeling good and I wanted to know why. I decided to book in for a thorough check-up to see what was happening with my 46 year old body.
I enjoyed being there with my doctor, taking the time to say, “Hey, I’m not sick sick, but I don’t feel well either.”
We did some hormone tests and these were all normal. It turned out the area I thought was ovary discomfort was actually my bowel and we scheduled a colonoscopy. My GP also recommended a bone scan.
I went back home and realised something had changed. I started to pay closer attention to my day-to-day habits and how they felt. I became more aware of the part of my diet that was based on instant food gratifications that tasted great but left me feeling buzzy, heavy, fuzzy, tired, bloated, itchy, congested, dull or depressed afterwards – signs that my body wasn’t enjoying what my mouth was. I started to realise that there were many foods that didn’t truly agree with me. As the weeks passed I began to let these foods go and noticed how much easier my food choices were and how I enjoyed not having the mental tennis match of will I or won’t I have a corn chip now? I had started to master choosing what to eat from my body’s perspective and not my mouth’s. I also began to see how the quantities of foods, or times and ways I ate also had an effect on me: too much and I would feel tired, too late and I’d wake up feeling whacked, too fast and I’d over eat.
A month came and went and I noticed how I didn’t have the same heaviness in my being that I did before. My weight changed a little, but I noticed a greater sense of lightness, ease and evenness. The other amazing thing is that my periods returned to what I considered normal for me.
I felt more alive and it was great that my period had normalised, but there was more to go. I still felt a bit sluggish and my digestion, even with the changes I’d made, was still not flowing smoothly.
I booked in for a visit with a naturopath and spent time beforehand filling in a detailed questionnaire he gave me about my health history. It was like writing an autobiography of my body and was a great confirmation of how much my health had changed from a severely asthmatic, allergy, eczema and bronchitis sufferer to a woman who, after making changes over time in my lifestyle ‘suffered’ these things no more. It was also inspiring because it made me aware of things that were not as severe as these past conditions, but none-the-less left me feeling less than well and vital in my body. I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.
The naturopath performed some tests and we came to see that for my body there was too much of some things (meat, some nuts and too many egg yolks) and too little of other things (mineral salts, cod liver oil, hydration). He suggested cutting back on the too much and increasing the too little. I have done this for three weeks now and, we’re becoming intimate here, my bowels have returned to a beautiful, regular, healthy consistency. I would never have said my bowels were terrible but how I feel now is so clearly different that I have a new level of ‘normal’ for my bowels.
Today I went into hospital for my scheduled colonoscopy. There were lots of questions to answer about diet and the consumption of drugs and alcohol, and information needed on current medications I was taking. When the nurse checked my answers with me I realised from her comments that it is not so ‘normal’ to not drink alcohol at all or to not be on any type of medication.
The procedure was done and I was aware of what was going on and really appreciated the gentleness and skill of my surgeon and his team. I was told I had a beautiful bowel and that there was nothing there to worry about. It was great to have the confirmation by the medical system that my bowel was healthy.
It was only later that I discovered I had perhaps answered incorrectly on the questionnaire when I said no to being on any medicine. I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.
The more I use this medicine the better I feel in my body. It has been an ongoing experiment but the results clearly show how well prescribed this form of medicine has been. I am looking forward to discovering more of what it is to truly feel well and lovely in my body all the time.
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
“how I enjoyed not having the mental tennis match of will I or won’t I have a corn chip now?” Oh my, I know this one well. A loving work in progress for me to end that game.
What a confirmation that listening to our bodies and honouring what we feel has a huge impact on our health and wellbeing.
The effects of food on the way we feel is absolutely massive – I have been experimenting recently with different kinds of food and after eating some food my clarity has gone, my focus has gone, the skip in my step has gone and I feel heavy for hours. Could certain foods not just be an innocent indulgence but have an actual harmful effect?
It’s great to have the awareness that our every choice has an impact on the body. Our choices can can be supportive and in harmony with the body resulting in vitality and lightness, or not supportive with all the accompanying uncomfortable symptoms. It’s actually a really beautiful partnership.
‘… too much and I would feel tired, too late and I’d wake up feeling whacked, too fast and I’d over eat.’ It’s really interesting the understanding you had when observed closely the way you ate. I take note of it, because even though I take care of my diet and generally know the effect of food on my body, what you share here helps me to reflect even deeper in how I approach it. Thanks Adrienne.
Medicine – so much more than just a pill box, the way I lie here, the way I move, every food and exercise choice, the way I put myself to sleep, the way I wake up in the morning – basically every choice we make is either contributing to or hindering our health and well-being.
Our bowels are like other parts of the body we ignore until something goes wrong with them. Building a relationship with them and getting to understand the language of the bowels is so beneficial to our overall well being, along with not blaming them when things slow down, stop or move too quickly.
Julie I love what you’ve shared here about “the language of the bowels” and building a relationship with them. I’ve also been focusing on feeling my bowels through the day, the ascending, transverse and descending sections and understanding what they symbolise in esoteric medicine, as well as generally listening to them and feeling what may be impacting this part of the body. I’m also aware of other parts of my body, including my neck and the language it has for why things do or don’t feel great, and other parts of the body. It’s fascinating to build this relationship and be so aware of what the body symbolises and communicates and how my daily choices impact on it.
Well said Julie, we ignore most of our body until something is wrong, but it’s really worth taking note of every part of ourselves and what is actually happening – rather than waiting for something big to go wrong.
We often think that we get off scot-free when we mindlessly consume foods without worrying about the after effects but eventually, those choices do catch up with us; be it with excessive weight gain, sluggish bowels, feeling dull when we wake up and generally being low in energy. I have recently taken to reviewing my foods and have found that there are many things of which were not helping me to feel vital.
Medicine is so much more than pills and surgery, it’s how we live and when you consider that this is almost all of life, it shows how our relationship with how we live and our bodies is vital. And it can be as simple as eating from our body and not from taste, a great reminder that we are so much more than our mouths!
I agree our daily life is a form of medicine because every choice we make is either harming or healing and the key is to know the difference by building a relationship with our body, and through that we know what supports us and what does not support us.
So true – the way we choose to live is a medicine, either good or bad, and recognising it as the medicine that supports our well-being is a great way to appreciate it, and that in itself is a part of the medicine.
Every time we feel and honour what our bodies are telling us, we confirm our innate wisdom that is available to us at any time.
There’s nothing like the feeling of having your bowels working as they should, in contrast to when they are sluggish and struggling. Having a closer look at our diet does help, along with what we are not dealing with in life and letting go of those things.
So inspiring to read. I too can relate to the effects of eating too late and how certain foods leave you feeling heavy, bloated, tired, racy, congested and being constipated. I am still in the process of exploring what foods to choose to eliminate. I find a stubbornness around letting go with certain foods due to wanting comfort.
I love how are bodies are so sensitive that they keep up with the nurturing choices we make for ourselves taking the opportunity to rid themselves of accumulated toxins and continually readjusting and showing us how to make the adjustments in our diets that will continue to nurture ourselves further.
We often do not consider any of this in our day to day lives, and it is inspiring to read of the simplicity “…my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” We complicate life so much, in essence what you share is what we could all be learning and maintaining from childhood. Illness and disease rarely arrives suddenly, its path to being shown in the body comes from a line of choices we have made previously, life style diseases are an epidemic and they are growing and so conversely ‘Life is Medicine’ If we choose it to be so.
That is staggering and something that will only continue to increase while we rely on getting fixed rather than maintaining our health to the best of our ability. There will be times when we require support and it is vital we get it, however there are so many ways we can support ourselves in day to day life.
“…. my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.”I love this. Yes, our life is medicine – not just the what we do , eat etc, but the how is as important, and whether it is harming or healing us.
“I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” So true – I concur Adrienne. A lot depends on our definition of words, which can mean different things to different people.
Amazing proof that our bodies are an incredible science and every little choice we make affects the balance and homeostasis of them, it’s simply about learning to refine our choices, diet, exercise, sleep, communication so we don’t interfere with this beautiful equilibrium.
When you look after your body consistently for a while you can get blasé and think you can do what you like. But as my body reminded me yesterday it did not heal and improve just so I could abuse it again but to go deeper with the way that I live – thank you Adrienne.
I love the idea that we could fill out a form and acknowledge the way that we choose to live is our best form of medication. I will take this to my next consultation.
“I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.” Reading this has helped me to recognise and appreciate this is my measure of wellness too. I have not been feeling vital for a while now and am taking steps to change this, but hadn’t appreciated the massive changes that have already occurred in my body due to the medicine of my choices that I now live by.
It is great to put the bar of feeling well up to a level where we say ‘I am not sick but also not feeling well’. I noticed whilst reading how some foods and especially over eating gives me a discomfort in my stomach area after eating and that I accept this a just the way it is. Yet I feel inspired now to experiment with this and see if I can find out what it is that causes me this discomfort to eliminate it.
I’d love to see ‘living medicine’ or ‘how i live medicine’ on the list of medications that we take as you are so on the money, it is our commitment to living in a way that loves and nourishes you that is our daily living medicine.
There’s something very wholesome about your blog and about making life our daily medicine. It means every day we have the potential to make small adjustments that have ginormous effects on our health, all it takes is some willingness to investigate and experiment to see what truly works.
Our everyday life choices effect our body, and I have learnt that in order to look after myself I need to make loving choices that support me and therefore my everyday medicine is down to each and every choice I make.
This is beautiful Adrienne , its so wonderful hearing about a person taking responsibility and knowing its not a burden , but a huge pay off in how our life is . It must also have been inspiring for the medical staff to read your chart and the answer you gave to medical questions.
Wow this blog has really inspired me, what an amazing way to approach life and your health with making constant little adjustments and the utmost care for your body and well-being. It’s remarkable how a few little tweaks can make the biggest difference.
“I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day” – this is very inspiring and makes me really value and appreciate the way I live as medicine as well. Thank you, Adrienne.
Beautiful realisation Adrienne, we offer ourselves the greatest complementary medicine to any ailment when we start to live medicine in our every day.
Life can indeed be a medicine and I love the way you have experimented with food and different things in your life, to see how it may affect the body. It is quite remarkable that so many of us have illness and disease yet we are not making those simple life style adjustments in order to do our part when we arrive at the doctors. Western Medicine generously provides such a support in this country but we cannot continue to abuse the system, a patient like you, is an ideal patient not because your bowel was healthy but because you were willing to adjust what is needed in order to make sure that it stays healthy.
It’s very inspiring to read of your story Adrienne, although it seems you looked after your health well, you have taken it to another level. It shows that while we might measure our health as normal against the normal, doing so is a dangerous thing as the only normal is really what is right for us and each passing day that changes and might well require a different level of care.
I love the way you reconsidered what medicine actually meant for you. Wouldnt it be great if we all started making this claim when visiting health professionals? 🙂
A beautiful testament of the miracle effect when we live our own medicine. If this was the first point of call when we felt ill or not quite right, we would take a lot of pressure of the medical system.
It is gorgeous that a little self care can have such a profound effect on our well being. These choices are indeed an integral part in taking responsibility for our health and the basis of a powerful combination in marrying the principles of Universal Medicine with conventional medicine… a foundation that could undoubtedly revolutionize medicine as all these testimonies show, for the part we play should never be overlooked.
If we wait until we are actually sick sometimes we miss all the symptoms of not being well that has got us there.
The way we live is medicine, the most important one we can ever administer – everything else, albeit very important, comes second.
This is such a profound message you share here Adrienne. How often do we consider that how we choose to live is medicine, that our lifestyle choices are healing or harming, and the way we are with ourselves affects us greatly? For this highlights the responsibility we all hold, in the quality of life we live and the state of well-being and vitality we hold in our bodies, as a result of every choice we make. And when we bring awareness to what we are choosing, why and how it feels in our bodies we are guided by an intelligence that has our best interests at heart, all day long.
A beautiful reminder that my body is giving me a very clear message to pay closer attention to what my body is communicating and that my delicateness needs confirmation in how, what and when I eat so I will feel the power of this beautiful quality more and more.
Great sharing Adrienne, how we live is definitely reflected in our body, and taking the time to look after ourselves and make self-loving choices definitely pays us back.
A great chronicle of how paying attention to our health results in significant changes to our health – and how prevention via awareness, love and care for our bodies and our being is possibly still the best cure.
So true, everything we choose that supports a relationship with our body is medicine,”I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.” This is a game-changer for me, it makes total sense. There are days when I don’t feel right – I don’t need to go to the doctor or the hospital but I do need to do a check-in with myself, assess what I have been choosing and if anything needs a little tweak – then act, no drama.
‘signs that my body wasn’t enjoying what my mouth was.’ We convince ourselves that we like or even love certain foods and drinks but it’s really all in the head. Were we to ask the body it would be a very different story. We really know we are putting a lot of pressure on our bodies to manage all that we ingest but do we care? It is only when we begin to truly care that our bodies can begin to make their way back to the healthy, vital and harmonious state that we would like them to have/be.
‘although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine –’ Of course, how we live is our medicine and in a sense a medicine for others too. How important it is to keep on changing the medicine and the dosage as we ourselves change, keeping a close eye on what our body truly needs is doing everyone a favour.
The observations about food here makes it clear that we can use food to both support our body as well as to numb and dull it down. “Too much and I would feel tired, too late and I’d wake up feeling whacked, too fast and I’d over eat” … it is so specific. I have also noticed that different foods can have different impacts on my body. It is immensely loving and supportive to observe and wisen up to how we might be using food in our daily lives.
A beautiful confirmation that the way we live and the choices we make can be the best medicine we can offer ourselves.
Everything is medicine and the question would be, do we want to heal or harm ourselves? And from this answer I will choose how to live my life.
We have let our taste buds rule our bodies. I know I have, I used to eat anything that had a sweetness and certain texture that satisfied my taste buds but not my body and like you Adrienne, my body started to tell me that it was time to start listening to what it had to say instead of the 5 seconds of satisfaction that my mouth demanded. I would get unexplained pains and cramps after eating certain foods that my body could no longer cope with. It took me a while to accept this, as I would look at everyone around me who seemed to eat everything with no problem….I used to think: Why me? I now listen to my body, and I no longer have the pains and I feel healthier and have more vitality and I am truly enjoying life for the first time in my life, so for me listening to my body is simply the best medicine.
A lovely and inspiring sharing of how we live our daily life can be true medicine.
Thank you Adrienne. I know the battle of what my mouth wants to eat versus what my body wants to eat all too well. Your experience helps me to understand that letting go of foods that my body does not respond well to is a joy not deprivation.
I too am noticing the impact of eating too late. It really does affect the way I wake up the next morning. Now I’m eating earlier, I wake feeling rested and more ready for my day. There is so much we can do to support ourselves, and the choices we make have such a huge impact, either positively or negatively.
Our life is our medicine and like you we can prescribe ourselves a loving diet and daily rhythm that supports our general health and well-being. Enlisting the support of the medical profession where necessary but being willing to do the ground work ourselves. I am still exploring this with my bowels and digestion and being open to what is unfolding with my stubbornness to let go of certain foods e.g. nuts that I have plenty of evidence interfere with the smooth flowing of my bodily functions.
When we look at how we medicate ourselves beyond just taking medicine we really need to be honest with ourselves as there are endless ways we do this everyday. What does that say about the quality we are living in our bodies?
Adrienne this was a super blog to read. I like that you didn’t wait for the colonoscopy but actually started to make changes for yourself in the meantime. You are so right that our daily lives are full of medicine, and in that there is much power because our choices are in our control.
‘I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.’ Your words reminded me of the reflection our body gives us and how we feel either heavy or light, from the choices we make everyday.
The way we choose to live, making healthy and supporting choices for our body is true medicine. The choice to get things medically checked when they don’t feel right is part of this true form of medicine, taking the body seriously and supporting it in every way possible.
To feel how a choice is a form of medicine for the body brings even more purpose and dedication to the smallest of choices.
This puts a whole new meaning to what is and is not medicine, and reading this proves there is so much we can do for ourselves which would be so helpful to our well-being.
I have been paying closer attention to the foods I eat and particularly when I eat and how it affects me. I have noticed I can wake up with a ‘food hangover.’ It’s when I have eaten a heavy meal the night before and wake feeling groggy, heavy and sometimes with a headache. I am really enjoying feeling how my body responds and learning what really works for me.
Yes Adrienne I have filled out similar forms and also questioned my dismissing of all the supportive choices I make in my day that support a vital, symptom free body. It’s not considered ‘normal ‘ to be living with such a level of honouring the body and being able to respond and adjust as the body requires. It’s going to be written up next time I am asked as I feel it’s also to be shared.
How beginning simply by watching what we eat and how we feel from eating it and feeling what our body wants rather than what we think we want is huge. It can change everything , as it did for you Adrienne. I love feeling your commitment and dedication; it is very inspiring. This form of medicine which is really lifestyle in its truest form is ever evolving and evolves us, if we let it.
To live a life that is medicine to us is the way to go and I can imagine that I would make the nurse in the hospital smile if I write this on the questionnaires that have to be filled in about our medical history as she, like us all, knows that that is true and our natural way of being and with that recognises this in herself too. That said it is important to show the world that there is another medicine for living life which simply is reflected by a healthy body we move around with.
My GP’s comment to me, ‘ You’re not one of our frequent fliers’ reflected my choice to take responsibility for my own health and well-being and to do so with love, care and attention..
‘My daily life is actually full of medicine’ – True medicine is indeed the way we live and choices we make to support and nourish our bodies.
‘ what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.’ This is not always the responsibility that we want to admit to or adhere to but it is true all the same…and what a difference when we start to treat our bodies with this much care and respect and to treat ourselves with more regard than ever before.
How we live is also medicine, as you say Adrienne, ‘my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.’
I love how you took the time to appreciate all the changes you have been making Adrienne, especially having a whole new marker of what health and vitality means. When I don’t take my daily dose of appreciation I am noticing the effect this is having on me like never before. This is a new marker for me.
Such a supportive blog for me right now as tomorrow I am heading to the doctor for the start of some investigatory procedures. The thought of it is uncomfortable, however what is much much more squirm-inducing is the exposure of how I have not been looking after myself as my body needs and has been asking me to do. Facing my irresponsibility is definitely the most uncomfortable thing about it. But I am also in awe of my body and they way it is communicating to me. I am being shown exactly what needs to be addressed and changed.
This is my medicine for today Adrienne, reading your story! Just reading the changes you made and how light you then felt in your body, has brought home very clearly how heavy my mid section is feeling at the moment i.e. stomach area, and how this is affecting me overall. I can feel how many choices I have made, and not just food choices, contribute to this bloated heavy feeling. When I feel light, I look, feel, taste, observe, listen in a whole different way than when I am feeling heavy and bogged down… so interesting how this than transpires and plays out in all areas of our lives.
You raise a good point Adrienne, that true health is not simply the absence of disease. It is a way of living that sees our every move as medicine – the way we walk, talk, eat, sleep, behave etc. True medicine is not simply a potion to alleviate the symptoms of our suffering from a life lived in disregard to the well-being of our body. It is our openness and willingness to live once again true to the essence of who we are by deeply honouring the rhythms that best support our body and the being within it – an ever unfolding process.
“I enjoyed not having the mental tennis match of will I or won’t I have a corn chip now? “ It does get tiring doesn’t it? I love that twist about not being on any medicine and in truth making life about Medicine – choosing foods from our bodies – literally a no brainer, well at least not the usual brain that keeps wanting those corn chips as a reaction to what we are feeling.
I’m feeling a bit like the before paragraphs in this blog at the moment. No coincidence I opened this page today. Great reflection and inspiration. I had already booked an appointment with my doctor but this has offered a deeper perspective and understanding.
“I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.” Amazing! Truly living! My normal upgrades to a ‘new normal’ constantly. Of late I have certain ‘parts’ that I become aware of through pain. This I astutely take note of and I visit the doctor if needed, seek esoteric healing sessions to support with what behaviors I am choosing for my body to be in dis-harmony, see my esoteric naturopath; and from all of the above consolidate the information and feel from my body what will best support it and be consistent with it. Healing the whole being is universal medicine.
The way we live can be the best medicine or the worst poison for the body. Learning to listen to the messages our body gives us is the best consultation and prescription we can have.
Exactly. In addition, those changes are sustainable and have been for me. Yay!
A great way is to feel our body and to see how our diet changes from there. That kind of change is sustainable which is currently a rarity in diet related matters.
The Universe is our medicine chest and our bodies naturally know this – it is up to us to tap into it.
I love that, we are our own best medicine. Listening to our bodies really changes so much about our outcomes. I learn daily about what my body likes and dislikes. I learn also how I can be pulled off kilter by little things that I might have called innocent but have long lasting consequences sometimes days later.
Everything we do that supports, nourishes and honours the body is great medicine. It doesn’t come in a bottle but through the choices I am willing to make.
“I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” How awesome to know this, live it and confirm it. It’s a revolution in medicine.
Great to re read Adrienne. What a difference it makes when we take the time to lovingly self nurture by checking out our bodies to see just where there may be some issues, as you say we don’t need to have something seriously wrong to do this.
It would have felt great to put a stop to the tennis match of ‘will I, won’t I’ and just listen to the body rather than fall for the gratification hungry mind and its mouthpiece, the mouth.
Brilliant Adrienne – the way we live can be the best medicine of all if we choose to actively take gentle nurturing care of ourselves and listen to what the body (not the mind) wants.
Adrienne, to check in what is going on with our bodies when we’re not actually what we’d previously termed sick is a huge thing, and one that not many of us do, but we do know when we’re feeling a bit off and to actively decide to take care and take the steps as you did to see what this is and what is actually going on and how we can support ourselves is such a loving and supportive step. You remind me of the steps I’ve taken in this and how it’s changed my life and further steps I feel to take to support me in my body now, and how I’m going to do so, not feeling ill, but because I can feel there is a lack of vitality there and I know that is vitality is normal for me and my body.
The most effective treatment we have is the way we treat ourselves, by honoring what feels right for the body
What an amazingly refined thing our bodies are that their innate harmony can be affected by such apparently minor events in life. Choosing to live in alignment with this harmony rather than disrupt it with our lifestyle is a revelation worth exploring further in my view. Perhaps the true vitality we long for is in evolving this relationship rather than relying on our taste buds for guidance.
““Hey, I’m not sick sick, but I don’t feel well either.”” Adrienne , like you I have learned that is precisely the time to step in and see a doctor and look at things, rather than ignore them and let them build up to something major. I did the ignoring for so many years, coming to believe that it was normal as I was ageing to have more and more debilitating effects gradually building up in my body and way of being. I was in my early 40’s and felt like a ‘write off’! You have clearly shown that is not necessary nor the way. I am now in my 60’s and like you, having taken responsibility for myself with GP check ups and lifestyle changes, I no longer suffer pain or the conditions that were building. Fit as a fiddle and truly enjoying life. There is a lot in this blog to support and inspire people.
“I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” Pure gold – thankyou.
” I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.” Beautiful blog Adrienne. Yes, good health is not merely the absence of disease – yet how many of us can say we are truly healthy – with the obesity and diabetes rates soaring world-wide?
The more I live, the more I am touched by how much we settle for ‘just enough’ how we accept and turn a blind eye to difficulty, restriction, and struggle. But our body and life, if we are open, is constantly showing us there is more, there is a more harmonious way. Wow – imagine if we all opened up this door, as you did Adrienne and saw that not sick, sick was still sick, sick, sick and something possible for us to heal.
Thank you Adrienne, I really enjoyed reading your blog, how amazingly simple is the medicine we have at our fingertips, the best medicine in the world. These words sum it up and it is accessible for all by choice. “my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.”
I loved re reading this blog Adrienne! Just the attention you gave your self in relation to how you were feeling is confirmation of the quality of your relationship with you. I particularly felt inspired by this comment, ‘I had started to master choosing what to eat from my body’s perspective and not my mouth’s.’
Adrienne,
I am returning to your article today and I am super stoked in how real and practical what you have shared is. How simple life can be if we but take a moment to really consider our bodies and honour how they feel.
I think everyone pretty much knows what a TRULY healthy lifestyle is – to a certain point. The real question we need to ask is why do we avoid making choices that are so obviously good for us? The answer is obvious – that there is a tension to life that all of us feel. But why the tension? Is it really just the stress of life? If so, then why do people who have nothing to be stressed about still feel a dis-ease with life. Worth considering….
How amazing it is when we take responsibility for what we put into our bodies and see that our bodies are only highlighting to us how we treat it. I love this Adrienne and the very real practical changes you made with incredible results. How we go to the toilet tells us a lot! Having a colonoscopy myself was like medicine in itself, as the specialist gave me insight to why I had symptoms my whole life. There is a real love and respect in having a checkup.
Understanding that food really is a medication shouldn’t be that hard… It is glaringly obvious when we look in the food trolleys see the buckets of crispy cream doughnuts being consumed at the airport, the extraordinary rise in diabetes, there are so many signs here for us that we are not using food and the way it should be used… Simply to sustain us while we make the most use of this human body and do what we are meant to be doing.
Yes, it is interesting to observe the way people buy all sorts of foods and consume them without really considering that this behaviour is such a foundational step in their health outcomes. It’s like everything is running parallel with people knowing what’s healthy and unhealthy but then still feeling entitled to consume what they want to anyway! As Adrienne has shown through her blog, there is a tremendous amount we can do to support ourselves if we are prepared to honestly tune into our bodies.
So true cjames2012! And what I have been observing lately is how when someone wants certain comfort foods that they will bring it to share with everyone at work or with their families… to make it okay that they are feeding it to their bodies. Then I see how many gravitate to these ‘gifts of food’ and can’t stop eating it as well. It’s interesting how as a human race most of us try and influence each other to make poor unhealthy decisions.
Imagine if there were labels or names put on the top of donuts, cakes, lollies, chips etc. like tired, lonely, sad, hurt, rejected, stressed, stimulated, angry… the list could go on and on. Would we then pick up the one that relates to how we are feeling and living? Or would it make us stop, and in that stop allow ourselves to feel it instead of shove it back down? Or better still imagine all the amazing qualities sitting in a bowl side by side to the treats and picking one of those instead!
Honouring your body, as you did Adrienne, I agree is true medicine. Thank you for sharing this playful and inspiring blog about your beautiful bowel; I really enjoyed reading it.
Medicine is everything we do. How healthy our body is, reflects if our medicine heals or poisons us.
Thanks Adrienne for sharing your experiences. I certainly notice the protests from my body much more these days than in the past if I lose awareness of what is happening at the time. I wonder how many people dismiss these medical type questionnaires without another thought, yet they actually offer us a time to review and reflect on how we are/aren’t taking responsibility for our choices and to adjust our lifestyles as required.
“I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed”. A beautiful reframing of what medicine is Adrienne. Next time I am asked what medications I take I will remember your words, thank you.
The bowels are something we don’t often think about – as always with our body parts as long as they function without complications. Isn’t it interesting that we tend to only develop awareness of things once they get out of wrack? That way we struggle to keep up with the present from our ill unaware past choices. We are a simple choice away from living in an awareness that tells us how to be healthy from the future if we choose to be aware of all our body every day.
Going to our GP can be the first steps we take to self care and self love ourselves back to well-being. It was great that even though you weren’t ” ‘sick’ sick ” you still went and discussed how you were feeling with your GP instead of what many do and that is to keep driving their body on trying to ignore the symptoms. Our body tells us so much and if we listen it gives us all the clues in life. I love that you now see as well as going to the GP, medicine is also how you live each day and the choices you make for yourself, from food/drink, to exercise, to sleep, and the quality of the way you are in all you do. Such an empowering approach to our well-being. Thank you
A wonderful reflection that the way we live life itself is either good or bad medicine, and that if we live in a way that continually honours ourselves, then this is the best medicine of all.
By listening to your body’s signs and signals you have written your own prescription here Adrienne as well as seeking the professional support that you obviously needed. This is the ultimate medicine – acknowledging that we need help and not burying our head in the sand but also taking full responsibility for listening to and responding to what our body is communicating to us. Life indeed itself, including all those daily little choices we make, is the best medicine!
Really enjoyed re-reading this Adrienne as I got to feel just how much the choices and way we choose to live can act as a poison or medicine in our lives.
What beautiful medicine, and it doesn’t incur a massive cost.
Love this Adrienne. Especially the fact that you have clocked that the way you live is medicine. I also love that you have written about bowels in a way that gives me a whole new appreciation for this part of my body.
I love the playfulness in the actual possibility of listing all the good medicine we live each and every day on the doctor’s form – this is my medication. I wonder how they would respond?
Awesome blog Adrienne – so relatable too. I feel super-inspired to book in for a health check as I’m all too aware that I have been tolerating feeling very heavy in my body for some time. Tolerating not feeling true vitality is very abusive to ourselves.
Great point Lucy Duffy and this leads me to consider a playful analogy about intolerance. We talk about our bodies being intolerant to certain foods but have we talked about the fact that our bodies could be intolerant to our choices?!
Not so much a playful analogy as words of truth and wisdom Andrew. It seems crazy when I consider that my mind would deliberately make choices that sabotage my body, so this then begs the question, where do these self-sabotaging choices come from? If they were from me, it makes no sense, so this confirms to me that my thoughts are not my own – they are fed to me from one of 2 sources – self-destructive or self-loving. The only choice I have is which one.
Great point andrewmooney26. How many choices are we making in a single day. Everything is a choice from the moment we open our eyes from sleep and how we choose to move from our bed and put our feet on the floor, to how we choose to brush our teeth, dress ourselves, sit down, type on the computer keyboard, speak, prepare food, how we move through our day in all we do, and how present we are in all of these things. Our body is feeling everything and the quality of how we make each move. And the amazing thing is it is speaking to us the whole time. Are we listening?
We tend to believe we are healthy if we do not have any major physical symptoms, but what if true health was feeling that vitality every day and anything less is actually ill health?
I feel this is the true definition of health Andrew. As a society we tend to measure health by what the majority experience, so as most of us cannot claim to wake up full of vitality every day, the bench mark for health has taken a nose-dive. There is a pervading tolerance and acceptance of many common symptoms which if we were truly honest about, would mean we would need to accept that our health was actually not that great. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard people brush off aches, pains and other complaints, as being a part of the ‘ageing process’. Accepting means this is what we become – and it is a shadow of the potential we have to live full and vital lives until the day we pass over.
Thank you Adrienne, a great blog showing how the choices of food we eat can be our best medicine and our bodies, if we listen to them, are our best teachers.
Thanks for the reminder Adrienne, that food is medicine too! This is something I need to do, that is closely look into my diet and eliminate some foods that I know are not that great when I eat them. Especially when I am in a hurry and don’t take the time to cook for myself.
Yes Adrianne our life choices can be our medicine if we choose to listen, which in turn supports our body’s vitality and clarity. Why would we choose anything less than feeling this way!
Why we would choose less than vitality? That’s an easy one, that I knew to do as a kid already: When I didn’t want to do something I would have played to be sick, have a fever… We as adults have perfected to be exhausted and not vital. The next question is: What do we not want to do?
Revisiting this blog Adrienne what struck me is the fact you wrote “that it is not so ‘normal’ to not drink alcohol at all or to not be on any type of medication.” when you filled in the questionnaire in the hospital. This is actually alarming, we could feel proud to not use any of these substances, but the majority of the people in society just use them as a normal part of their diet. What state of living we have entered as a society that we need these substances so much? Do we use them to medicate the misery we feel life actually is, if we live our life disconnected from the grandness we are actually part of, disconnected from the universe or from God? A better way to medicate ourself you have given to us Adrienne, where you write “my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” A grander medicine I cannot imagine.
Adrienne, It’s great how you went to your GP when you weren’t ‘really’ sick but still knew something was up. Paying attention to these earlier symptoms catches things before they get further down the line, more ingrained and harder to heal.
The awareness you brought to what you are eating Adrienne was very inspiring to hear about. Choosing from your body rather than what it tasted like, and also paying attention to how you felt after eating the food to whether it supported you or not, thank you for your awesome blog.
When we go to our doctor for a tune up, rather than when we are sick its possible to take our health to a new level, rather than from sickness to functioning. This is really an amazing support we can give ourselves.
Yes this is what I’m feeling after reading Adrienne’s blog Thomas. Not feeling vital and alert is the first sign of illness and disease in the body so it makes perfect sense to go and ask for support from a qualified professional. I work in the Health and Beauty department of a whole food store and the majority of customers coming in seeking support and advice are doing so because they feel tired all the time. I typed this into google one day and it’s actually a ‘disease’ all of it’s own – TATT!! Surely this must be ringing alarm bells the world over? If so many of us are going to see our doctors about being tired all the time, that it now has it’s own acronym and list of symptoms, this is showing us without question that the way the vast majority are living is not working. Taking responsibility for our health and accepting that it’s the choices we make on a moment by moment basis that will determine the quality our health and wellbeing will turn the TATT into VATT (Vital All The Time)!
A great marker. In today’s society we hear so many complaints being made about our health and well being. To share levels of vitality and alertness with another is often met with reaction rather than an amazing reflection of how we could all be when we choose to be responsible with our bodies and seek support if things don’t feel great.
It was both inspiring and confirming to read your blog Adrienne, with you going the extra mile with your health and care for your body. Also confirming for myself in the changes and commitment I have for my own body, which gets better and better with the daily choice I make to listen to the messages it’s telling me.
Adrienne I love how you describe your daily choices as your daily medicine, that’s such a great way to see things. It’s amazing how when we start listening to our body, honour what it likes dislikes, how automatically the body starts to respond and change internally and how quickly the bowels regulate. Our bowels are amazing in what they communicate. Being trained in colon-hydro therapy and working with people with bowel problems, I find the bowels are fascinating in what information they provide about the body and how easily they can change with simple changes in choices we make.
“I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.” How powerful to hear and know that it’s true – we all deserve to know this true health too. Thank you Adrienne, I never imagined reading a blog about bowels would be so beautiful.
This sentence resonates with me to Joseph. Having that lovely alive feeling and the pure joy of being in such a body is the most beautiful way to awaken each day. I very recently have been paying much closer attention to the amount of food that I am eating, stopping when I feel full and finding in doing this that I too wake feeling beautiful and smile each morning with the joy of waking this way.
I am just learning that Life is Medicine, Thank you Adrienne for your personal sharings- I love it.
The awareness and commitment that you chose to bring into your life and the way you eat is truly inspiring. The effect that our relationship with food and the way we eat has cannot be underestimated, for the body is very particular about what it wants and is very loud about it at times. How we respect and honour that is indeed medicine.
I love this Adrienne, you took the very best medicine in the world – enormous measures of self care, self love and self responsibility. What a powerful potion!
The miracle cure for most of our ailments. I agree it is great to state it.
I love the sentence: “It was only later that I discovered I had perhaps answered incorrectly on the questionnaire when I said no to being on any medicine. I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” What you share is a testimony of a big turn around in our view on what is medicine. This new attitude feels so profound, life-changing and healing itself. Recently I read in another blog, that the word “medicine” comes from the Latin “ars medicina” and means the “art of healing”. Your article and this comes beautifully together like a prediction of a new attitude and access to what medicine and healing is. Should I have to fill in a form and would have to answer this question, I will remember your blog and will fill in all the life-style-choices, that are true medicine to me…
Great to read, I can feel how much I still choose to eat things based of what I would like to eat, and not what I truly feel supported by. And its beautiful to realise that the way I choose to live is my medicine, in becoming more and more aware what effect everything I do has on my body.
‘I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…’ absolutely Adrienne, this is true medicine.
What a great testament to true medicine being the choices we make about the way we live – there is no escaping how we are with our body – so every choice does indeed matter. To make constantly loving choices is good medicine – thanks for bringing living proof of this to light.
“…my body wasn’t enjoying what my mouth was.” I love this quote Adrienne. So often we eat based on the experience of our mouth overriding what our body is telling us. I have found that I feel much lighter, healthier and energetic when I listen to my body in relation to my food choices.
I love this too Lee. How we over ride our enjoyment of food to the detriment of what the body needs to be nourished and support us with our levels of vitality.
Living life in connection to our bodies and listening to what it requires is good medicine, the more I commit to this on a daily basis the more Joy and harmony is felt in my body everyday and that feels amazing.
It isn’t normal being well in a unwell body, I was hospitalized some years ago and the nurses said that I was the healthiest sick person that they met! With all the good medicine that you described Adrienne – food, nurturing, preparing for your day, not stressing etc., is amazing medicine. And I have been well since.
Understanding that most of us, if not all, need to check the box that says “are we on medication”, as Adrienne says. If we turn to food when we’re sad, happy, depressed, need a lift, if we drink alcohol in the same way, in fact if we consume anything other than simply to fuel this amazing body then we are medicating.
I like how you put the word ‘suffered’ in inverted commas. Writing it this way feels to me that even though the presence of ailments such as eczema, asthma, bronchitis are definitely not pleasant, we actually do have a part to play, we do have a responsibility to look deeper into our lifestyle and choices and emotions that we experience to find the connection to the symptoms. It takes the victim mentality out of the equation, empowering me to get support from medicine and from other treatment modalities that complement, leading to a well-rounded, thorough sense of well being.
A process of loving and honouring your body Adrienne and yes this is true medicine. Taking responsibility for the quality of living by every day choices.
Good one, Adrienne! You’ve inspired me to include choices as ‘medicine that I use’ next time I have to fill out a form. When I see doctors I usually let them know that I don’t consume alcohol or other drugs, have a very healthy diet, exercise, and ‘work on my stuff’ to reduce stress, etc, but don’t usually go into more detail than that. Now I will, because I feel that it’s great for them to know.
This really is a great point. I have only ever seen medicine as a ‘cure’ – something you take when something is not right. This totally turns it on its head, that medicine can be the things we do to keep us healthy – the different aspects of our life – expressing love is great medicine.
I totally agree Kristy – ‘expressing love is great medicine’ and it would be great to put that on the Doctor’s forms we are asked to fill out 🙂
Thank you for sharing Adrienne – “I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.” There’s nothing I would rather have than a body that feels lovely, vital and gorgeous to wake up to and be in each and every day too 🙂
I was feeling the same Dianne – I am inspired to share my awareness of what medicine means to me. We can’t keep such treasure to ourselves.
Adrienne I love how you ended your story by saying that you are looking forward to continuing to feel and refine what is for you, your medicine. I agree that once begun it is a never ending exploration.
Yes Alexis I have felt the same. We all have our own set of medicine that supports our body and the best fit that brings us back to the true sense of the word living with vitality.
Ah yes, the humble but amazing bowel, suffering all the slings and arrows of outrageous eating. Its output is a real reflection of the quality of ‘garbage in’ and more deeply, provides a great marker of our true level of wellness. Much overlooked, dismissed and dishonoured, we ignore its regular feedback at our peril.
It’s amazing in fact, considering what we put into our bodies, that it tolerates as much as it does before we finally get the message that we need to pay attention! Is it simply that we have become masters of over-riding the messages in the first place, and that as a result, instead of whispering we wait until the body is shouting?!
I love the way you playfully show us the importance of paying attention to our bowels Cathy. Thank you.
Yes Cathy “at our peril” indeed and it is not only our “outrageous” eating we need to correct but also holding on to any reaction and hurts as stories we cannot let go off can cause havoc with our bowels.
So true Kathleen! It’s not just the physicality of our bodies and what we do to them that affect our health and well-being (including our bowels!) but also our emotions and how we are feeling (ie stressed, anxious, angry, resentful etc).
Yes, Angela, I agree. Holding on to anything, any issue, any grudge, any feeling for another whether good or bad, any expectation, any material items for sentimental reasons has to be detrimental to our health. In short, keeping a tight grip on anything past its use-full date is inviting bowel problems.
I was reminded when re-reading our comments Angela about that old saying “Don’t get your knickers in a knot” and it came to me that perhaps it may be symbolic for getting our bowels all tied up when we get all emotional!
”I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.”
That is just a new way of looking at health! I like it. How about: health is being and feeling vital in the body, including absolute self-care and attention for what our body needs, choosing foods that are beneficial for body & being. etc. etc. That would just make up such better health model, as we would all aim to be healthy, meaning not just the absence of illness and or disease, but actually feel vital, powerful, lovely and nurtured.
Having a mental tennis match about the will I or won’t I of the everyday choices that continually presents themselves to us in life…and the reality of getting smashed when we make choices that aren’t so loving for our body. Love the analogy Adrienne!
I can feel how important it is what you share about what true medicine is. I have seen it all my life as something outside of me (pills, operation, following diets etc.).I come to realise that all of my choices (which add up to how I live my life) are actually forming my path of medicine. If I choose to drink no alcohol as I can feel this messes up my whole flow in my body – I can say that this is my medicine. So do I have many daily examples that I am choosing, without some times being even consciously aware of them. Good to feel that medicine is not just conventional medicine but is much more, as Universal Medicine so beautifully represents.
You’re so right Adrienne. How we choose to live is absolutely a form of medicine as it either supports us or does not. I had never looked at it like that. In this case, I am keen as mustard to load up on this kind of medicine if it means my vitality levels are going to increase and my self appreciation develops further.
You make it seem soo simple to choose our health Adrienne! Which, in Truth, it is. Thank you for the reminder (and the prompt to drink more water!)
Thanks Adrienne your blog inspires me to refine my diet more.
The fact that you began to measure your wellness according to how you felt instead of the lack of illness is something that I have also done in my life. This revelation and change in perception is the key to a life of true well-being.
How powerful taking care of yourself is Adrienne, from loving yourself your health problems disappeared by listening to your body’s communications through symptoms and changing what food you were eating. I too have had profound changes in my health from listening to my body’s messages, it’s really worth doing.
Going to see a doctor when you are not ‘sick sick’ is already a big step ahead of most of us who would wait till it becomes necessary, and how you kept deepening the level of self-responsibility and fine-tuning how you listened to your body throughout is very inspiring, and it really is a medicine itself. Thank you for sharing, I am inspired.
Beautiful blog to read Adrienne, I love the beautiful bowels.
This beautiful blog makes clear the level of constant refinement that we need to attain regarding food. As the questionnaire reminded you, your general options are not mainstream. Yet, the bowels were not as they could be. It was your level of awareness because of how you live that led you to refining of the less and the more acquiring of stillness regarding food (no more ongoing battles over the corns chips). Without the livingness this could not have been possible.
Commitment to self care and self responsibility is certainly powerful medicine! Thanks Adrienne for sharing so much wisdom.
Indeed Adrienne, I don’t think we talk about our bowels enough! They are such an important reflection of how our body is functioning as a whole, and definitely do respond to subtle changes we can make. What you’ve written here is such a beautiful reflection of how we can look at life and our medicine – as being how we live – and seeking medical attention when things are clearly not right, as you felt. I love this blog Adrienne, thank you.
Beautiful, “my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.”
A great testimony to paying close attention to what the body is saying and living from here, it’s so simple yet so often I know I’ve ignored that point. What I really loved in your blog is where you share about measuring wellness not from how sick you are but from how vital and healthy you are.
Our body is a marvellous communicator and our bowels and our stomach are one of the best messengers! I love feeling that how I am living my life is a form of medicine- mostly good medicine for me I think, but never the less so much more empowering than the medicine from a bottle!
Adrienne this inspires and helps me to pay closer attention to my bowels well being, thank you.
Such a beautiful blog Adrienne. How we live is medicine – reading your blog has helped me understand how our day to day choices and livingness is our true medicine. But it helped me go even deeper – it has taken the pressure off to be in ‘perfect’ health but to understand it is an ongoing journey of making choices which support the body to feeling more and more vital. Thank you Adrienne.
Lovely story to read Adrienne Ryan and it inspires me to put more attention to the way I eat and live my life as this is all medicine for me.
That’s pretty cool Adrienne how you changed what your perception of wellness meant. For me I know more now that how my body feels is a great sign of my wellness, but reading this blog makes me wonder if I have truly sat back and appreciated that just two years ago I would have never considered if my fingers were icy cold that something was wrong with me (I couldn’t even feel my fingers back then). Rather than just sick / not sick there is so much more to ‘being well’ or ‘well-being’ than we have considered in the past.
I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine, such clarity and truth you bring Adrienne – all the medicine we need is held within our wise bodies.
The way I choose to live my life is the best medicine ever it is this quality of being in everything that I do that creates this knowing on how to go about everything that I do in a way that is beneficial and harmonious to my body.
What I love about what you have expressed here Adrienne is that you have taken ‘lifestyle choices’ and made them yours, with the detail that you have shared. The fact that you sought professional advice for yourself, to see where you could make some adjustments, but the real adjustments came with your honest observations of your body in how you were living and then following that up with changes. It really is medicine.
Thank you Adrienne. You say “signs that my body wasn’t enjoying what my mouth was” made me realize that I often choose food to please my mouth and expect my body to deal with it. I am inspired to listen more lovingly to my body rather than cravings of my mouth.
I love how in this article Adrienne offers her bowel the same loving care and attention that she would offer to her hair or to her face. The bowel is one body part, I feel, that is often totally disregarded because of its function; in this article the bowel is equal to all other bodily systems. I really like that!
This line I found to be totally inspiring:”I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness, but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.”
What an awesome measure of wellness and one to which it is lovely to aspire.
A beautifully inspiring blog Adrienne – I feel you have offered us all an insight into how we can truly become more self-caring and to attend to the detail of each moment as we live our lives more fully and lovingly.
Awesome Adrienne, an inspiring example of how our medicine is how we live. Being aware of our food – what truly nourishes our body, the quality of our sleep that rejuvenates, our exercise that supports the body rather than running it down, and just generally living gently with ourselves.. can make the world of difference. So simple. And from that foundation of self-responsibility, how great a support for our doctors would this be if we were to help them out in this way – so they are then able to help us more effectively . They might even become less stressed and overwhelmed themselves :).
Adrienne, thanks for sharing regarding this very relevant topic. Bowel health needs to be openly talked about as it is a common condition. I can definitely relate to bowel problems and the issues of non-acceptance in some areas of my life. It makes perfect sense that the body will respond to this ‘hanging on’ through digestion and elimination processes. I especially noted your words ‘… my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.’. What a great way to take responsibility for self healing. Thank you!
‘I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine’ – what a beautiful and powerful claiming. Thank you for sharing this truth Adrienne. And I love how you have reflected how inspiring it can be to appreciate ourselves and our improved well-being through the loving choices that we have made. I too have been learning how there is so much more joy to experience when we honor our bodies and appreciated that our daily medicine is the way in which we choose to live life.
It is interesting that when things are out of sorts within our body and we pay closer attention to the reasons why, there is a new level of understanding there waiting to be discovered. For instance when I was having bowel discomfort and took myself to the doctor for investigations I suddenly became more interested in looking at bowel health and delved a little deeper with regards to how the food I was eating was helping or hindering the situation.
This is such a beautiful reflection Johanna, as I read I could feel that sweetness in you, how it was always there, how you hadn’t allowed yourself to feel it – and how this relates to myself and everyone else equally. There is a sweetness there in each and every one of us, this is more obvious when we are a child, but I am also realising that it is still there no matter what. Thank you for the reminder and for sharing your sweetness.
I love your blog Adrienne.
‘I had started to master choosing what to eat from my body’s perspective and not my mouth’s.’ This is a powerful way to choose what we eat and how we live every single day. Allowing the body to be the master takes our food choices to a whole new level. One of responsibility and true care.
It was a truly a Joy to read your open frank and at time playful blog, it made me feel held and safe and relaxed, as I have often excessively worried about my digestion and health in general. Thank you so much Adrienne for sharing your story and natural humour.
Thanks for this post Adrienne and more people need to read this.
I have always felt that there is a direct correlation between letting go of our emotions and our bowels.
Holding on to our stuff is clogging up our bowels. How I know this is because my bowel issues cleared once I committed to dealing with my deep buried issues which were my hurts.
Adrienne a very empowering blog. We should all take a leaf out of your book and consider the truth you state that medicine is the way we live, the foods we eat and the loving choices we make in regard for our bodies health.
Thank you Adrienne for highlighting for me that as well as WHAT we eat it’s also WHEN and HOW that determines how we feel.
What a great point you make Adrienne, the way we live is our best medicine. Imagine if we all went to our doctors and shared this with them, the best medicine is the self-loving choices that I make on a day to day basis. Now this is the medicine that we should all take and it has no side effects.
What I love about this article Adrienne is that it reminds us that what we accept as healthy and vital could be limited to all that we have experienced so far. Continually exploring and questioning our daily vitality is super honest and very healing if the choice to change is made.
Wow, feel that! Medicine is our everyday choices. Now this is very empowering and also very exposing of our unloving and irresponsible choices.
Stunning article Adrienne! Love the way you present the simplicity and the power of the best medicine we can prescribe ourselves – the way we choose to live in each moment.
I loved coming back to this article Adrienne and these words jumped out at me during this reading: “I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.” Just imagine how the health of the world would improve if all of humanity had this presented to them from young!
Hi Adrienne, great blog. I love this bit – ‘my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.’ I too am waking up to the fact that how I live and conduct myself each day is my medicine.
Agreed Debra, that line means so much. So often we think of medicine as being something that is imposed upon us and that is remedial in nature, which is quite limiting. True medicine is so much more.
“What I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine”. I completely agree. Everything we do has an impact on our bodies and either supports us or harms us.
Very inspiring this blog, our life is our medicine, how we live on a daily basis and all the choices we make. Next I have to fill in a questionnaire and I am asked about my medicine intake, this is what I will answer!
I agree Mariette, an inspiring blog by Adrienne and a great response to a questionaire re partaking of ‘medicine’ – yes, I feel also from the inspiration of Serge Benhayon and the presentations of Universal Medicine that our daily living, our livingness is the best medicine available.
Everything we do in our lives is indeed medicine, and it is so important because everything we do that goes against what we feel is hurting our bodies as well.
So true Benkt. Really feeling the truth of the Maxim. That everything is either ‘Healing or harming’ has changed my life and sky rocketed the awareness of my daily choices.
I found your blog inspiring Adrienne and just the support I need to refine my own diet more. I know there is more to observe and address to increase my vitality, and there are things I am eating that are getting past the radar. More attention required.
Yes, the process just keeps going on. Types of food, quantities, timing, they all need to be considered or just felt in the body and acted upon and if we don’t do that we need to see why.
Rinse and repeat.
Ha ha – I love that line ‘Rinse and repeat’. Our food choices (and in fact all of our choices) can simply be just that… a constant refining and adjusting with wherever we, and our body, is at!
Adrienne, from what you have written here it feels like you are taking wellness to a new level. “I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.”
Adrienne how perfect that I read about your experience with listening to your body today as something in my body is not quite right. Like you I am not sick but I do not feel vital. Time to pay more attention to what’s truly needed for my body to feel the vitality and joy that I know is it’s natural way.
Adrienne, I am perhaps your greatest fan, I’m always popping by to re-read this! Each time I harvest a little more that expands my awareness. This time I’ll be focusing on what, how and when I eat and how it may lead to tiredness. Lots of inspiration here!
Adrienne your blog is soooo inspiring. I love the way you are refining the way you live to support a high level of health and vitality. And I agree with Suzanne, your blog belongs in a doctor’s surgery. What if all those out-dated and trashy gossipy magazines in the waiting room were replaced with inspirational stories like yours.
Adrienne, this blog should be in every doctor’s surgery. There is such wisdom in your approach to wellbeing, being not the absence of disease, but rather the presence of vitality, joy and lightness. This turns the medical world upside down, in a good way. Medicine is not about quick fixes, but a conglomeration of people working together – doctors, patients, complementary practitioners – so that we all can choose behaviours that will leave us full and light, with lovely poos!
Great article Adrienne and I love how you bring it back to the medicine of our daily choices 😉
This is such a sensible article Adrienne, and so simple really isn’t it! I have also been on this journey – and still am because when I ‘slip up’ I realize I have lost that true connection to myself and what I really need is not food but to come back to bringing my awareness into my body.
Great to read this again Adrienne, being a nurse, bowels are often on the discussion list with my patients, however I had never really paid any attention to my own. Through the Universal Medicine presentations and the inspiration received from so many of the students, observing and caring for my body is now part of my daily reflection and responsibility towards myself. It makes such a difference to me and my daily living and I feel in the long run it will save the health system enormous amounts of money.
Your blog reminded me of how much I have changed over the past 11 years or so. About 15 years ago I went and paid £360 for a total check up at a Bupa clinic. I answered the pre examination questionnaire as honestly as I could, putting down that I smoked up to forty cigarettes a day and drank beer and wine in large quantities on a daily basis. The doctor who came back to me with all the results, which were surprisingly normal, said to me: “You are a healthy specimen Mr McHardy, so why are you trying to kill yourself?”
This question, although I did nothing about it immediately, struck a chord and it was from about that time that I started to put on weight from the drinking and the smoking started to take is toll. I have to say Universal Medicine came along at the right time for me and being shown by example a better way to live, I can now tell the doctor I smoke no cigarettes and have no units of alcohol. Not to mention my far more healthy diet and waist line.
Great post Adrienne. By your honest approach to reflecting on what and how you were eating was not acceptable to your body, and being willing to take responsibility and make the changes that were necessary to allow your body to be more alive and vital, gives those who read this the opportunity to reflect on their own diets and what they could perhaps choose to feel healthier and more alive. Imagine if we were all willing to take responsibility for our own health, which includes still having regular check-ups with our GP, and being aware of our emotions and how they affect us.
I really enjoyed the connection you had with your body and the level of detail you focused on with your diet and the way you ate to see what suited your body. The body is truly amazing if it’s communicating so much and through such adjustments we can enjoy even greater feelings of health and wellbeing.
This comes at such a great point in my life to remind me of my food choices, lately I have been over eating for reasons other than nutrition, sometimes to reward myself and sometimes to stop me feeling what there is to be felt. Your blog serves as a great reminder it is never to late to change our choices and it is ultimately our own responsibility if we wake up feeling clear and vital or racey and heavy.
The body is truly the marker of wellness – all we have to do is get the head out of the way. Thank you Adrienne for bringing ‘the choices’ we make to our attention.
What a beautiful prescription for life Adrienne. To feel what support and love our body need to support itself vitally.
Hi Adrienne you clearly have the right prescription for your body, feeling which foods nurture and which do not and honouring that. Brilliant.
Very inspiring Adrienne – thank you for sharing as I feel to ponder on my bowels especially cutting back on the too much that my body has been gently telling me.
I love the way you present what some may consider a rather daunting procedure in such a light and lovely way. It may inspire others to approach their colonoscopy with more confidence and trust, and maybe like you consider that how we live life is also medicine.
When I first read the title Adrienne, I did wonder, 🙂 and then it was lovely to read about your process of reconnection to your body, to the point where you were able to appreciate the beauty of you, all of you. This is an essential point of what Universal medicine presents. How inspiring.
‘I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.’ This is so inspiring Adrienne and your blog is a great example of taking responsibility for your own health and wellbeing with the support of different medical professionals.
Love it Ariana – ‘Feel it rather than Feed it.’
Thanks Adrian, a beautiful reminder of taking loving care of ourselves from what our body is sharing with us. You made me reflect on my own bowel movements (not something I say often to people) but it gave me time to assess my movements and food choices. I was also inspired by your choice to get a colonoscopy and something I would also consider so that my bowels remain beautiful! : )
You are very right Adrienne, everything we do is medicine, what we eat, how we eat, drink, work, sleep and how we live is our medicine. Awesome reminder, Thank you.
Serge Benhayon presents that “The way we live is the best medicine” and in light of current research indicating that approximately 80% of major diseases like heart diseases, cancer and diabetes are related to basic lifestyle factors, like diet, lack of exercise, alcohol and drug consumption, it makes so much sense.
With a title like ‘beautiful bowels and beyond’, how could I resist reading? Your story just confirms how much power we have to change our health and wellbeing. I loved the way you kept experimenting with small changes and seeing how your body responded. We can all be our own scientific experiment and get data, if not proof, that perfectly fits us.
Hi Adrienne, your blog is simply inspiring. ‘I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.’ What a beautiful reminder of how our bodies constantly reflect to us what is truly needed and that when we listen our daily lives can be ‘actually full of medicine’.
I loved reading this as I could feel the care and attention to detail you paid in addressing how our body was feeling. It is inspiring to read how this involved you, your doctor, a naturopath and the choices then made. I can feel the ease in “cutting back on the too much and increasing the too little” and will look at this for myself. Thank you, Adrienne.
Adrienne, I am loving the “medicine” I am taking as well as I choose what and how much I take depending on how I feel each day. How empowering is that!!
Hi Adrienne reading your blog again has made me take a look at the parts of my diet and daily routines which I have let slip and let old ways creep back in. I needed that wake up call. Thanks.
My daily life is full of medicine. I just love that line. This is exactly what I experience that life is. It is all about the choices we make. I am now making a conscious choice every day i.e. today ‘I choose to slow down and enjoy my pace’. It is not that I am rushing through life, but I can see my body can relax and enjoy the day more, if I pay more attention to it. So I do and see what it brings me. Just an exsmple of another dose of lovely medicine.
So lovely to feel the level of self care you are practising with such an attention to detail, which simply feels inspiring.
“The more I use this medicine the better I feel in my body”. Adrienne, I too, have felt the difference it makes to my body when I act responsibly towards it. That is true medicine.
Isn’t it wonderful to be able to put a whole new perspective on medicine? Not making it about the pills that we take with the hope that they will cure us without us having to do anything, but making it about the way we live, the way we move, the way we eat and the way we love ourselves. As you discovered, taking responsibility for ourselves and nourishing our body in many simple ways is the best medicine ever.
Very cool Adrienne. It’s a great remark to remember; ‘that your daily life and choices are all medicine’.
Thank you Adrienne, for a great blog, showing how our daily rhythms supports our health and wellbeing, simply, great medicine.
I love this blog Adrienne, I’ve read it a few times now. You’ve inspired me to continue feeling into how foods are affecting me and to take greater care of my digestive system.
I love what you share about your way of life being your medicine. We may not have the huge increase in illness and disease that we have today if we all took the same reponsibility for our health and the way we live.
Thanks you Adrienne, I love how responsible and pro-active you were with your health, working with the medical field, complementary medicine and the wisdom of your body. That’s indeed true medicine!
An inspiring blog thank you Adrienne. I agree the choice to listen to the body and make deeply caring and loving choices day to day is medicine and a very powerful medicine that comes from inside of us… no prescription required.
This level of self care is inspiring. How you lovingly took action with something that did not feel right and continued on with this awareness, listening to what your body was telling you. AND even when you were starting to feel better STILL continued to have your health checks that were booked. You saw it right the way through to the end : ) .. with beautifull bowels.
Thank you Adrienne for sharing your unfolding story – I found it to be revealing, apart from the possibility of being told we have ‘beautiful bowels’ but more to honestly answer the question as to what medicine do you take – and having the awareness that our daily livingness, our moment to moment approach to all that we encounter in our day, and how we address all those issues that come to us can be termed as’ medicine’ and I now see it is our choice as to the quality of that medicine – is it going to support our body in its’ fullness or otherwise.
hi Adrienne, I love the sound of your daily dose of medicine!
Great blog Adrienne. I love the way you went to the doctor not because you were sick but because you were simply not right and how this process led you to making some simple choices which resolved the issue and left you with ‘beautiful bowels’.
Beautiful Bowels, a great title for a blog bringing our attention to this very important part of our bodies which can often be ignored or the messages it gives overridden. Our bowels and their activities or lack of, are very strong indicators of our health and how we are treating ourselves. Having beautiful bowels that work well feels amazing and indicates a healthy and vital body, we should all have beautiful bowels. And if not use that as a marker to explore what we are doing that does not support us.
Thanks, Adrienne. As you say – how we choose to live our whole lives is ‘medicine’ in itself.
A very honest blog Adrienne. How we live is true medicine.
What an inspiring blog Adrienne. It is a great reminder to continue to feel the effects our food choices are having on our whole well-being. This is what I consider to be life-long learning, as what our body requires is consistently changing.
Yes – I love how Adrienne also shares how the quantity of food, the quality of consumed food AND the quality in which one eats the food, are all part of the equation for sustaining a healthy digestive system and body.
Adrienne the glorious thing about this type of medicine is that the refining of it is a continuous process. Indeed I am wondering out loud if medicine is another word for evolution ? Certainly the two are intertwined and both continue forever.
Neat point you make there Alexis, medicine and evolution being intertwined and both continue forever, I like it.
When I first started making loving choices to change my life it was a bitter pill to swallow, but after a while the benefits started to be felt and I wanted more medicine and it tasted good, I think we all agree here, life is the best medicine and it doesn’t cost the NHS (National Health Service, UK) a penny.
Though there is a time and place for conventional medicine, it does feel like this type of ‘medicine’ puts the ball firmly back in my court and not just swallowing some pill or other.
Good work Adrienne, your honest blog has been a good reminder of some of the observations I’ve been choosing to ignore – had I been asked recently to write them down, I’d honestly be able to give myself some feedback! Thank you.
Love this Adrienne, as you say it is the way we live, our food, our daily choices, rhythm and routine, these are our medicine.
Said it all in a nut shell Jade. The way we choose to live is our medicine.
Beautifully shared in a few words, the way we live, our food choices, routine and rhythm all of these are our daily medicine.
I love it Adrienne, I never thought I would see the words beautiful and bowels in the same sentence.
I agree – and here they fit together beautifully!
Hear, hear to beautiful bowels.
Adrienne your article is inspiring and reflects my experience too. I totally relate to realising the body showing signs that it was not enjoying eating what the mouth was when I simply pay attention.
Yes, likewise, it is totally clear when what I am eating is not supportive to me, whether I choose to listen or not is a different matter.
I love your blog Adrienne, and how true medicine supports us in our daily life. You have inspired me to be more honest with the foods I am choosing and to eat according to how my body feels and what it needs – Thank you!
Yes how and what we eat and drink, how we are in our day etc., is all medicine that will support us to wellness! Great blog!
Such a great sharing Adrienne – I loved the way you expressed “Signs that my body was’nt enjoying what my mouth was” this is so true for me. Taking more responsibility for what I put into my amazing body to nourish rather than feed a need – the results are very evident.
Indeed, body says (or tells) it all! Thank you Adrienne for writing this.
The medicine of daily life and every moment I choose to lovingly is such a blessing. Living a loving and responsible live is better medicine that anything anyone can prescribe.
Absolutely loved this blog Adrienne. ” My daily life is full of medicine.” That’s all I needed, total magic.
Thankyou Adrienne for your inspiration. Truly choices to live our life in full, in our light and love, is medicine we can all take without sugar.
How wonderful to be able to assess your health on, ‘I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.’ I agree, that is a true marker of wellness.
“My daily life is actually full of medicine”. Beautifully expressed Adrienne. There is pure medicine to be had in every moment, down to finest details of life in which one simple choice adds a load to the body to deal with OR brings in a stop to consider just how the body is feeling first.
What an inspiring way to care for yourself; naturopathic support, the colonoscopy and your choices to observe you and respond accordingly.
I love your blog Adrienne, especially the part…
“my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed… is all medicine”
How true this is… Our choices and how we live our day really do have influence our health, vitality and wellbeing. The presentations by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine certainly have brought back to life the true meaning of medicine
” I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” This is definitely the best medicine of all.
“..choosing what to eat from my body’s perspective and not my mouth’s.” – I have found choosing to eat from my body a revelation, it still requires commitment and her are slip ups – especially when my brain is in cahoots with my mouth egging me on to eat something for a purpose OTHER than to nourish my body. Sometimes its a case of “my eyes were louder than my stomach” – not bigger.
Bowell health is something that a lot of people tend to overlook or not want to talk about – so well done for broaching the subject in a blog Adrienne. I experienced bowel trouble for sometime and by addressing it, I actually healed a myriad of issues that I hadn’t been truly aware of. I know many do not want to go down the road of a colonoscopy, but after having one myself and also receiving the all clear, I recommend the over 40’s schedule one in to their overall health check ups.
Adrienne this is a great reflection, I can relate to this and am inspired to feel into how I choose to eat. I love what you have said here “I became more aware of the part of my diet that was based on instant food gratifications that tasted great but left me feeling buzzy, heavy, fuzzy, tired, bloated, itchy, congested, dull or depressed afterwards – signs that my body wasn’t enjoying what my mouth was”. Thank you for your shared experience Adrienne.
Beautiful Adrienne, thank you for sharing your wisdom this is pure pure gold. I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine
Thanks Adrienne. I love how even though you sought professional assistance with your health, from a range of practitioners, you were also your own practitioner and scientist, making observations, doing experiments and making changes. To then having all the love and dedicated work that you did confirmed with “you have a beautiful bowel”.
It’s great when we hear that you went to see the doctor because you were feeling unwell as so often we put up with this feeling thinking it’s going to go away instead of lovingly making an appointment to get checked out.
Adrienne your words hit the mark so well and offer great healing whatever our state of being “….wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day”.
Great blog Adrienne, it feels like such a gentle and healing progression where each moment you look more and more care-fully at what your body needs. The vitality and appreciation at the end is a lovely counter to the heaviness and concern at the beginning.
I loved reading this blog reminding me to live true medicine. It’s so inspiring to read of the joy and vitality that is felt when we honour our body in these ways.
‘The way I live is medicine’ would be such a foundation of truth for children if they were offered this wisdom!
Very true Judy – we most certainly are the ones that can choose true medicine through the way we live. The world could probably eradicate many of the major long term conditions if our children were shown this wisdom.
Thanks for sharing how you have taken the steps to start really listening to your body and what it needs, and also going to get some advice when you felt you needed a bit of extra help. I like how you say you answered the question incorrectly about taking medicine – it’s true that the way we live is medicine!
This blog deftly shows how changing our diet of what, when and how much we eat, is a true form of medicine. Thank you Serge Benhayon for showing us another way.
I agree Steffen that is a great quote. Thank you Adrienne for the realness in the sharing, it flowed beautifully to arrive at a fresh take on what we consider to be medicine. There is genius in the notion that how we live can be good or bad medicine – it sounds so obvious now but it was actually compelling to hear Serge Benhayon introduce it and talk about it at length – it is still sinking in for me or rather – I am still taking some bad medicine.
Adrienne, I really appreciate the way you brought not only the food, but the quantity and how and when it was eaten, into your medicine cabinet.
Great quote:
I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.
Beautiful Adrienne, thank you for sharing this feeling of how we live, the choices we make being our own medicine, and how lovely to feel your changes. Very inspiring.
Adrienne, I really enjoyed reading about your relationship with yourself and how this unfolded through your choices. It’s a really beautiful blog about self love and I will be reading this again a few times to take in more of the wisdom and loveliness expressed. What also stood out to me were the little miracles – the changes you made (however simple) through listening to your body resulted in better function! Very inspiring.
Wow, what a great GP you have, and also what a fabulous approach you have to taking care of your body. I loved the inclusiveness of it, how you went to the GP but did not hand over an issue and say, ‘here, please fix it’, how you played your part and adjusted your food, and you also went to a naturopath but, didn’t then exclude your doctor, but still followed up with the medical tests that had been suggested. Your body must have been singing and dancing with joy to have received such care and to have been listened to and honoured.
Reading this again Adrienne I admire and value your ongoing endeavour.
Remembering that ” life is medicine “, a great reminder for me.
Enjoy continuing to discover what it is to ” truly feel well and lovely in your body all the time “.
Yes Adrienne and Wendy this is a great way to remind us that Universal Medicine gives us the tools to cure ourselves.
I love this line “…I enjoyed not having the mental tennis match of will I or won’t I have a corn chip now?”
it is great to hear how you have made such simple healthy changes to your lifestyle and how they have affected you. It is also interesting to be able to make the changes and stick to them naturally because you want to eat and live this way, rather than trying to do so for a goal.
True medicine is the way we live as prescribed by the choices we make and not always or only what we put in our mouth from a bottle or pill as dispensed by the pharmacy. I love it.
So true Adrienne that life is actually full medicine – each time we make a choice that supports the body. What I eat and drink, how I rest and exercise all have an effect to build health and welbeing. I love the way you include the way ” I …prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” It is all the obvious and all the not so obvious parts of our lives that have the potential to be healing.
My favorite line and one I can well relate to is: As the weeks passed I began to let these foods go and noticed how much easier my food choices were and how I enjoyed not having the mental tennis match of will I or won’t I have a corn chip now? Not having anything to nibble on is the answer for because as soon as I have one, I want 100! I love not nibbling now, I too feel lighter, clearer and loads more energised!
This is inspiring, the fact that after your first appointment with the doctor you decided when you got home you were going to change things with your diet is very empowering, normally we would wait to do this after the results! Also as you said, to note that currently with a medical questionnaire it is not ‘normal’ to not drink alcohol and not be on any medication. This says a lot about our health and where we are now, we have so much to change.
” My daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.” I love this – it is so true. Choices, choices – and it is us who can choose……Very self- empowering.
Awesome blog, Adrienne. I love how you say: ‘I realised that although I am not on specific medication, my daily life is actually full of medicine – what I choose to eat, drink, how I rest, exercise, prepare for the day to not be rushed or stressed, conduct myself gently through the day, the way I end my day and how I go to bed…is all medicine.’ I agree with you: all the choices we make, the things we do and the quality we do them in is medicine. And it is great to start the conversation about this with the realization wellbeing is not the same as the absence of sickness.
What a wonderful blog – it was medicine for me this morning as I read it! It felt very confirming and supportive to read, as I am feeling my way through how I eat and my motivations for putting the food inside of me. So much of my relationship with food has been a way of comfort and distraction, so listening to my body has begun a process that will now last throughout my life. It feels great to have a more intimate relationship with my body and to start honouring the way it is always supporting me to make the right choices – all I need to do is listen.
I love what you have shared Adrienne. Thank you. Confirming the power of simple daily choices that truly support the body. As you say this is true medicine. Individualised and refined to what your body presents at any given time, I also love how you describe how you stopped playing ball with the mental tennis of the should I or shouldn’t I game. By calling it out you can choose differently. It’s something I allow to continue by not allowing my awareness to go there. Thank you for going there and sharing your experiences.
Your openness is refreshing – not many speak so openly about their bowels! Listening to our body, choosing foods that support it, all great medicine and the results speak for themselves, Thank you for sharing.Adrienne.
I love the idea of listing all the “medicine” that I am on next time I am asked to complete such a form. That will be fun and offer the medical staff an opportunity to look at the meaning of medicine in a different light. I will probably have to ask for a separate page because I expect the box will be way too small!
This is lovely Adrienne. “I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.” What a difference it makes when we shift our perception to this. Life takes on a whole new meaning…we are not just surviving and recovering, but truly living and feeling well.
I have found that committing to writing out a food diary with sleep hours and energy levels has helped me to really connect the whole thing – how food, sleep, exercise affects my energy levels and general well being. Congratulations for your beautiful bowels! Always wanted to say that 🙂
This is great Jinya. A great way of connecting the pieces. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you for sharing your discoveries as you are becoming more aware of your body. I really connected to this quote “When the nurse checked my answers with me I realised from her comments that it is not so ‘normal’ to not drink alcohol at all or to not be on any type of medication.” I agree, I remember having check ups and the doctors being surprised I did not drink. I can feel the difference of getting to know my body and taking care of it more, I am enjoying the experience.
I like the way you phrased that Stephen, ‘eating from the whole body’; that it is the body telling us what to eat and not the tastebuds. One of the best tips ever for a healthy and vital body.
I agree Rosanna, more and more I am enjoying food, not for how it tastes, but for how it feels, both as I eat it, and as it reaches my stomach
Adrienne, your blog shows that your wellness is more than just the absence of illness and disease in the body, but a mark of actually feeling very well, vital and energised. This is something we all deserve and is attainable through our choices. Not eating from the mouth but the whole body is one place I have personally found it is great to start with.
I love your article Adrienne and this realisation….. ‘I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day’…..is gorgeous to read. Your lived experiences are indeed Good Medicine, thank you for sharing.
I love this take on medicine. It’s so true, it’s like pure gold for our bodies and soul. True medicine before the need for counter prescribed medicine!
The medicine that Adrienne partakes of by the way she lives is indeed ‘true medicine’. ‘True medicine before counter prescribed medicine.’ Well said Jenny.
One day there may be a box under ‘what medicine are you taking’ which says ‘true medicine’ 🙂
This is a fantastic sharing Adrienne, I too have started to look more closely at what my body needs from me to eat rather than the mental tennis of what my mouth likes the taste of! Simple is definitely the most rewarding for my body.
I agree Ariana, I really loved the way the article rounded up the whole nurturing of ourselves and our bodies in that way. It feels like it is a combination of what we choose to eat and listening to our bodies, and how we choose to live our day. Both are part of the same nurturing, and our bodies love it! Then we feel that sense of well-being and vitality.
Great blog Adrienne, and 2nd read too, and it inspires just as much! Today I can feel my own heaviness in my body and how I’ve been today, and I know I’ve been allowing my mouth to rule rather than my body and I know the difference now which is awesome, but more care and dilgence is needed, as I adjust my daily medicine. I like how you put it ‘ I had started to master choosing what to eat from my body’s perspective and not my mouth’s.’ and it’s opportune to read this again as I recognise how taste can rule me and not always in my body’s favour and how big it can be for us all. How we eat certain things but have to dress them up in order to do so to fulfill our taste buds, so more to explore with this.
Adrienne thank you. Your article shows how we live our daily lives can be great medicine and by listening to our body and the guidance it is giving. I have made many changes from listening to my body, the foods I eat, how I wash and dress, exercise, live my day and how I prepare for bed and have really noticed the beneficial changes this has brought to my health, energy levels and life generally.
I found this very educational Adrienne so thank you, it is amazing how simple it is to listen to your body but very important to bring our awareness to it as you have so clearly expressed.
I’ve come back to your blog again – still a great read and this time particularly struck by the way your marker of your own health and vitality changed in response to you adapting and adjusting the timing, quantity and speed of your eating. That lightness you describe – I’ve experienced it too, when I’ve listened, experimented and reworked how, what and when I eat. It’s a respectful, humbling familiarisation process that isn’t influenced by external eating norms but simply by how the body itself feels at any given moment, depending on our food choices. It’s fascinating to me that the body provides us with an in-built feedback mechanism on our health and vitality levels in this way, if only we choose to notice.
I should have learnt at a very early age that I should feel first what to put in my body. I remember every Christmas feeling so ill, as it was the time there was no limits to what we ate or how much we ate. The taste sensation although out of this world was not worth what I would go through afterward with my body having to deal with all that cheese cake, pavlova, turkey chicken, christmas pud, ice-cream new potatoes,chocolates potato chips etc. etc. etc, the thought of eating all that now at one sitting is enough to make me barf. This is the extreme scenario but one to be looked at for me on a daily basis. On Sunday my daughter wanted pizza and our local Pizza Express does gluten free pizza, this triggered old memories of how I used to love pizza even though my body didn’t. I could feel or I just knew this wasn’t a good idea for me but we went and did it anyway. Bad move brother! I can home with stomach cramps and had to lay on the couch all afternoon and no it wasn’t just to get out of the housework Vanessa.
The old saying We are what we eat, I make this right.
Great blog Adrienne, so true that our daily choices of food and drink, our daily interactions even the exercise we take, can all be medicine for our bodies.
So true Jane. It really is amazing!
This is what should be on the front page of magazines and newspapers, this is remarkable in a world where it is so normal to be ill. To mark yourself by a lack of vitality is our true marker. Great blog!
Hi Adrienne – a beautiful and inspiring blog to read…..and such great medicine!
What a great Blog – its great to have such a simple journey to choosing a way of being with your body that you can feel improves your everyday life and is your daily medicine. Its obviously been enormously rewarding for you.
Hi Adrienne, I Iove your ‘self prescribed’ medicine – great to hear about your experiences, thank you.
It has been inspiring to read about the journey you have been on, and the changes you have made in your life, and how these changes were appreciated by your bowels..
I love that, Adrienne, your beautiful bowel! When I read that I have such a different feeling in my own body. I think I have been treating my bowel like an enemy, but now I can feel that appreciation when it does work flowingly, and pay more attention to that than when it doesn’t. I know when I choose to abuse it, and then, of course, it tells me what I already know! I am going to develop a loving relationship with it, thank you for the inspiration.
Adrienne, your blog reminds me how important it is to pay attention to not only what I eat, but when, how and how much. I know I eat sometimes just out of habit or boredom without really looking at if I am truly hungry. You express it so well when you say ‘I had started to master choosing what to eat from my body’s perspective and not my mouth’s.’ This is something I am working on now.
Life is Medicine. Such a great way to look at it. It means it’s in our hands – and that it’s our responsibility how we play it, eat it, sleep it, breathe it. A great sharing. Thanks, Adrienne.
So true Cathy. It’s in our hands and how empowering is this!
I really appreciate this article and came back for a second read, thanks Adrienne
Adrienne, thank you for sharing – what a great dose of daily medicine you have! It is great to see the changes in the way you are feeling as a result of making more loving choices in line with your body, and what’s best the medicine is free and we can all have it!
I can really relate to what you have expressed, Adrienne. Everything including the over eating less and the less eating more!
Beautiful article Adrienne. I love how you have claimed every aspect of your life as your own form of medicine, and it is wonderful to read how easy it was for you to further your body even more by combining convectional medicine with your own self love and livingness.
I love this blog as it confirms that whilst we may be eating ‘healthily’ at certain stages particular foods may not be what our body needs. Great that mineral salts, hydration and cod liver oils were suggested as supportive supplements.
Thanks Adrienne, I agree wholeheartedly – truly listening to our intuition and looking after ourselves is medicine. Great how you also combined this with seeking help from conventional medicine.
This is such a lovely light but poignant blog on the importance of self-care. I love the responsibility you took of seeking support when things were ‘not bad’, but you knew that your body could feel much more vital. Thank you very much Adrienne…
Hi Adrienne, this is a timely reminder as I currently redefine my diet and it’s the detail like you said – eat to fast and you overeat. Feeling everything around how, why, when. Thanks for the prompt to go further with my own development.
Awesome blog Adrienne. Thanks for reminding me that every self-loving act we do for ourselves is ‘medicine’. Good to know you have a healthy bowel!!
Beautiful blog Adrienne, it was lovely to return to it. Wow, I like how you put it, yes you are taking medicine, it’s life – that’s brilliant and definitely the way to live. Thank you, it’s reminded me of all the choices we can make to truly support us in how we live.
“I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day”. I loved this line too Debra .If we lived the medicine you have shared with us Adrienne, we would relieve the health services of the burden we put upon them by expecting them to cure us from our choices to not listen lovingly to our bodies.
A great read Adrienne. Your life is your medicine. How fabulous is that. It’s very inspiring to hear how the choices you decided to make had such a beneficial impact on your health and how you felt. Taking responsibility and combining our own self loving choices with conventional medicine is a win win situation. I love the line where you say ‘I had begun to measure wellness not on the absence of illness but on the presence of a body that felt lovely, alive and beautiful to wake up with and be in every day.’
Inspirational blog Adrienne. I can certainly relate to what you described about feeling the effects of the foods we eat, the way we eat in the way we are feeling.
Thank you Adrienne for sharing your medicine as your life and the story of your beautiful bowels ! it is great inspiration to really feel our bodies and what we put in them and to treasure and look after ourselves as are bodies are here to be our guide in our life and and how we live is our medicine as one . Amazing and a great reminder .
Lovely to read this Adrienne, especially about developing the relationship with your body and what to eat from your body rather than the mouth. It’s great to pause and realise just how “different” the choices you made are when you talk about the questioner in hospital. Very inspiring to re-look at areas in my life.
This is a great blog and I can totally relate as a former sufferer of IBS, looking at what I was eating, when and why has changed my life and that of my bowel health. Thank you for sharing Adrienne.
I love this blog Adrienne, as it illustrates so beautifully how much our body appreciates and responds to us connecting and taking care of it.
Yes Janet, it is so good to see how responsive our body really is to our choices.
This clearly shows that we don’t have to feel helpless and in the dark about our health!
I love here the possibility of saying to a medical institution, “yes I am taking medicine, it’s called ‘my-life’ “.
Love that Shami.
This is so beautifull and gives what we see as Medicine a whole new perspective. Very inspiring, thank you.
Thankyou Adrienne for this open sharing of all that you are learning from your body and your beautiful bowels. I could so relate – especially to the eating too fast and then over eating . I especially love how you know medicine is so much more than taking pills for a bodily symptom. That its about all the day to day choices of how you live in your body – what a healing for us all .
I can so relate with what you have written…our bodies are always lovingly talking to us.
‘My daily life is medicine’ now that just says it all. A great sharing thank you.
I love this Adrienne! Well, maybe not so much the sharing of your bowel movement consistency (!), but the overall level of self love evident. You’ve given a great step by step account of feeling something’s amiss, what to then do, what can be changed, and what has then changed. You’ve shown that patience, care and questioning are all part of self medicating. I hope you show this blog to your GP 🙂
Yeah the level of love for yourself, commitment and responsibility to yourself is inspiring
Adrienne, by sharing your healing, it becomes our healing. Thank you!
Awesome blog Adrienne, thank you for sharing.
A beautiful blog Adrienne, thanks for sharing. And I love your lightness and honesty with which you share it. Very inspiring.
Adrienne, this writing felt so powerful. What you described what medication SHOULD be, it brought tears to my eyes. I really appreciate that you shared this so much. Thank you.
Absolutely gorgeous blog Adrienne. How wonderful that your life is your medicine! Very inspiring.
Thank you Adrienne for such an inspiring blog. I particularly like the way you said that your body wasn’t enjoying what your mouth was, it’s a great reminder to listen to what’s going on in the whole body.
Adrienne, thank you for sharing with such lightness. I can feel your love and self nurturing strongly from your words. It is a joy to read.
Thanks for sharing the journey of your beautiful bowel and body with us – I can relate to a lot of what you have said.