by Dianne Trussell, BSc Hons, science & health educator & writer

How often do we think about our thyroid glands? Probably only when something goes wrong. Me too, but looking back, ever since puberty or earlier, my thyroid gland has probably been a little bit sluggish. Not pathological, just ‘not firing on all cylinders’. I used to need a lot of sleep, feel the cold, had cold hands and feet, poor digestion, put on weight easily which I found difficult to shift, plus my hormones were out of balance… these are all signs associated with low-ish thyroid activity. Ironically I had enormous amounts of energy for my high levels of physical and mental activity, from waking to bed-time, in contradiction to the pattern of low thyroid, which usually goes with poor energy levels. I was evidently getting my energy from somewhere else – and in retrospect I’d say it was nervous energy that kept me going.

Seemingly unconnected to these low thyroid signs, I did not want to eat broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower or beans. Something in my body didn’t want them, and I did not like the smell or taste of these foods, so it was easy for me to not eat them. That is still true today, and they make my body very uncomfortable for a few days if I consume them.

Fast forward to recently when I discovered that these foods are known to suppress thyroid function! So for me (not necessarily everyone) with my low-ish thyroid, they may not be suitable as regular dietary choices. Obviously my body knew this, even way back as a child, maybe even before scientific research brought us this information.

Apart from the continuous confirmation that our bodies really do know what’s right and not right for them, there is more to this thyroid story than the scientifically known chemistry and physiology.

A recent experience really expanded my understanding of how choices and energy impact the physical well-being and medical conditions of the body. Not long ago I felt as if my energy had drained out through the floor. I was tired all the time, falling asleep sitting at my computer by mid-morning, needing naps during the day, could barely manage a fraction of my normal activities, and trying to push myself to keep going only made it worse. This was so ‘not me’! What’s wrong with me? There were lots of ‘suspects’, such as an enduring parasite that was inflaming my intestines, a degenerate lower spine in pain all the time and headaches. These things made me feel drained and cranky about not being able to do all the things or work at the racehorse pace that I used to and felt I wanted to. But those other symptoms had been going on well before this abnormal bout of extreme tiredness – a level extreme by comparison with anything that had gone before.

My doctor had the inspiration to test my thyroid function. That’s a normal, appropriate response by the doctor – medicine sees the correlation of low energy and low thyroid. But modern medicine doesn’t take it deep enough, because ‘causes’ can just be the effects of something even earlier. My thyroid had tested as being at the low end of normal about 3 years before. But now it showed as abnormally low. My doctor was very concerned, and wanted to put me on thyroid drugs for the rest of my life. Now that option is not one I usually take up straight away, and I’ll try every other less invasive option first. So I asked her to give me a month, then we’d re-test and take it from there.

I wanted to get to the bottom of the cause of my low thyroid. I researched the literature and found plenty of physical causes, most of which I could rule out in my present situation. Regarding energy causes, theories abound, but what is true?

One spiritual new age theory is that thyroid problems are related to how we express.

Now for some scientific testing of that theory! Is low or suppressed thyroid anything to do with low or suppressed expression? Let’s see if there’s a correlation. However it’s important to be aware that even if there is, it might not be a causal relationship. When I got home from the doctor I ‘tuned into myself’, and asked myself this question: “In what ways have I been allowing my expression to be suppressed?”

This ‘inner experiment’ would be called unscientific by the mainstream. But the mainstream is missing a lot of truth and only has a part of the picture. I decided to be totally honest with myself, as truth is very important to me. I discovered that a ‘biggie’ blocking my expression is an old pattern: speak truth – get slammed; see truth and expose that which is uncomfortable for someone else – get attacked; stand in the fullness of who I am, without hiding, lessening, or sympathising with other people’s feelings of inadequacy – get rejected, belittled, punished.

The program this set up in my body was anxiety – as soon as I would see or feel truth and intend to express it, either in words or with my whole being, up would come fear and dread of rejection and aggressive reactions and repercussions, and I’d allow this anxiety to stifle my expression.

Then I’d react by either withdrawing from the person as quickly as possible, or silencing and shrinking myself, calibrating my expression down to let them stay in their comfort zone. Oh yuk! I now know that, apart from harming myself, that harms the other person by denying them the opportunity for greater awareness. How irresponsible! Withdrawing from a situation and not expressing was an understandable reaction ‘back in the day’, but now’s the time for clearing old patterns and getting on with evolution.

What we’re talking about here is energy: not the calories, kilojoules, metabolism type of energy, but the energy behind and from our choices. The energy we choose to let run our thoughts and actions, and the way we are in our bodies, can lower us into emotions or elevate us to a greater, truer form of expression. I learned this from Serge Benhayon, and found from my own experience that it is true. However modern science rejects the energetic science of the Ageless Wisdom. The New Age movement has not helped this situation, with its careless use of modern and ancient science, sometimes containing a seed of truth, but not going deep enough nor being discerning of energetic integrity and is thus often misleading. Nor does current medical science have the full picture. The study of energetic root causes for illness and disease is a relatively new field requiring open mindedness, not dismissal. In this situation, it’s imperative to seek deeper for the truth and not skip to conclusions.

So…. OK me, on with the experiment, and time to stop suppressing my own expression. On with it, even if it means a rocky learning period in how to stay open and be all of myself in situations that could lead to people rejecting, reacting or attacking me. Challenge, yes. Impossible, no. It starts now. Only a few hours went by until an opportunity arose to put my new commitment into practice. And it worked! In fact, the more I choose to connect with myself and hold myself in the fullness of love and understanding, stay open without sympathising, and let go of the fear, hurts, and programs, the more the other person is able to choose true expression instead of reaction, which supports me right back. A positive feedback loop. In the endless ‘mirrors reflecting mirrors’ human situation, this new response to new expression reduces the anxiety that arises from fear of being attacked, which then makes it easier to express fully, which reduces reactions and attacks, which makes it easier to express fully… and so on.

This is a turning point in my life, and can’t be under-estimated.

At the same time as doing this essential bit of work with my energetic awareness of expression and connection with myself, I felt it would be a good idea to do a few things to physically support my thyroid too. I increased my consumption of dietary phytosterols (which help with hormone balance) by taking a supplement, and I researched what foods I’m eating that might suppress thyroids. I found out that as well as the aforementioned broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and beans, phytates are a problem. I already soak my almonds and cook my dark leafy greens to reduce phytates, but there are high levels of them in sesame seed hulls. And I was eating a lot of unhulled tahini made from sesame seeds! So I switched to hulled tahini. These were the only physical changes I made, and I had another blood test quite soon after.

After my little experiment, off I went back to my doctor for the results of the follow-up thyroid function tests. She was gobsmacked because the result was normal! She said that ‘never happens!’

Sounds great, hey? Then another doctor, refusing to accept the science of energetic choices, said low thyroid can sometimes reverse and I must have “just dealt with my stress”.

But the stress level in my life had not changed. Thus I skipped too soon to the conclusion that the rapid reversal of my low thyroid function came by simply looking at my expression honestly and putting the resultant awareness into practice, plus a little bit of dietary tweaking.

But hold on – is poor expression the cause of thyroid problems or only a correlation? I obviously had low physical energy but what caused that? I eat well, sleep well, exercise, do esoteric yoga… and my level of stress was not obviously more than usual.

The esoteric explains it this way: “Hypothyroid issues are a fourth stage kidney issue [from lack of commitment to life] and not a direct result from a lack of expression issue. The process is low kidney life force -> low adrenals -> stimulated nervous system then thyroid problems.” – Serge Benhayon.

(Note, according to esoteric medicine, it is the kidneys that that are the energetic centres of our life force).

Applied retrospectively to my situation, this makes sense. It is going deeper for the truth of causes (which is ‘good science’) to the pre-physical origins of the illness. Is it possible that by withdrawing from a life situation – which in my case was accompanied by holding back my expression – I was reducing my commitment to life and thus choosing an unsupportive source of energy and stressing myself without realising it? The sequence above would naturally follow, and thyroid problems would be a predictable consequence. It also explains the ‘running on nervous energy’ component, which is exhausting below the radar of day to day busy-ness. It also explains the historical sluggish thyroid symptoms associated with holding back out of anxiety.

And so how about my healing? From my personal experience, I can’t deny a link between the healing of my thyroid and my commitment to heal and express in full. When I made the commitment, I was facing up to the life situation, bringing all of me to it and thus renewing my commitment to life and evolution. Up would come my kidney life force energy, followed by the re-balancing of the whole system, and quickly too! Now that is true medicine, and true science!

Thus the important thing here in the healing was the fact of committing to life.

Naturally, each person with thyroid problems (or adrenal or nervous problems) may have a different way than me of not committing to life. It may not be through under-expressing but some other choice altogether. Although modern medicine has great diagnostic and disease management tools, it tends to treat the ‘end of the line’ effects instead of tracing back to the energetic origins of illness. Thus a significant heads-up from my thyroid case is the importance of considering the energetic consequences of choices before jumping to the ‘one size fits all’, physical-based treatment of symptoms (effects). Propping up the thyroid pharmacologically would of course help the person get through each day, but not solve the underlying problem which could then rear up in another way.

Medicine and science have a great deal to learn from the Ageless Wisdom indeed!

Read more:

1. How many hoops will the food industry jump through in order to get to our purse…
2. Before and After: Sharon Gavioli
3. Anxious much?