impRAWvise 

I sometimes, many times, wish I would be and could be more in tune with my body, be less in my head all of the time, and more in my own body. It’s just amazing how the benefits start to kick in immediately as we allow ourselves to just be present in the moment and embrace it fully and consciously. But, unfortunately most of the times, we remain in our heads, overthinking, overanalysing, overindulging in the things that do not really serve us in the long run. Still, as we pause and reset, we get a chance to choose again, choose to be living our lives with more awareness and more presence on a moment to moment basis. Sometimes it’s ok to just let go of trying to make it all make sense, and just allow things to settle in their own timing and in their own unique way. I remember when I first started to embrace the vegan and raw vegan lifestyle, which I absolutely love and adore still to this day, after almost 16 years since my own journey started, I was very rigid and with a very strong perfectionistic tendency to just make it right, no matter what. This certainly put a lot of stress on my body, as well as on my mind, and it only made things more difficult, instead of just embracing the progress that I regularly made as it became a part of my life on a constant basis. Now, it’s definitely way better, I am still a work in progress, as I consider myself a life long learner, but I am definitely better at celebrating progress, not perfection along the way.

I can not really remember when I started to have digestive issues, mostly pain, at some point a medical diagnosis of Gastritis, which I have written about it here on the blog at that time as well as about the struggles that I dealt with at the moment, and for almost 3 years, its been pretty well, pretty quite on this matter I would say, until just recently when I got a new episode of seasonal Gastritis, this time it was way worse than the last episode, but, the fact that I was mostly informed and prepared for it, definitely changed my overall perspective as well as coping mechanisms. It started with shivers and a state of dizziness, at first I thought it was caught a seasonal cold, or maybe it’s just that I am stressed and tired. Unfurtunately, when I woke up the next morning it got worse, way worse than I could even imagine. I could barely stand up, I almost passed out two times, I was at home so it was good that I didn’t hurt myself, I just got back into bed and waited for it to pass. First day I couldn’t eat anything, especially from the gastritis specific symptoms, mostly severe abdominal pain and the general state of illness, second and third day things started to slowly but surely improve, I was eating but very small quantities of food, and then with the fourth day I could experiment a shift, as I was eating almost as I would on a normal day, just avoiding specific foods, and I did start to feel better.

What I have learned from this recent experience is that the body has its own ways of showing, the psychosomatic aspect of it, its own truth on the matter and has its own reactions and manifestations to the stresses that we deal with in our lives. Sometimes the message is more discreet like a subtle sense of disconfort, but some other times it gets really lousy as it is asking us to perhaps pay more attention to what’s going on in our lives on a day to day basis. After this episode, as I was feeling better and was able to get out of the house and not get dizzy after 5 minutes, I did manage to go to an excellent doctor, we did an ultrasound, it all looked healthy and perfectly normal, which was definitely a relief, but what I really liked and admired about this woman, was the fact that we also discussed the stress and lifestyle factors that could have contributed to this health problem and not just the medical aspect of it. I think that having those kinds of conversations with medical professionals really opens the doors for us all to be more present in our bodies as well as in our day to day lives in order to recognise the signs of distress in time so we do not, ourselves contribute to the worsening of the symptoms. Sometimes, just a simple check in with ourselves can make all the difference in the world, if only are we open to listen and explore what our amazing bodies as well as our minds are trying to communicate to us. It’s just such an amazing blessing and a gift to be a human being, truly and fully.

As a self proclaimed life long learner and explorer, I just love and adore to keep myself informed at all times, to better understand my own functioning as well as the rules available for us all when it comes to the functioning of both our amazing minds and bodies. At the moment I am focused on rediscovering the medical psychology topic, its a fascinating subject, and it just gets more and more captivating as we learn more about ourselves as human and as we get to better understand ourselves as a part of a colective consciousness as well as unique and amazing individuals. What I love the most about bringing together mind and body, as well as the spiritual side of the matter, is that they are interdependent and as modern science learns to accept that we are a part of bigger system, not just separate body parts or body organs, we can all get amazing benefits, both as patients for getting a better and more profound understanding of not only the biological functioning but also of the interconnected processes of the human body, but also for the professional community, its a huge difference to practice healing in a more holistic way. Or like doctor Mark Hyman calls it (w)holistic way. The functional medicine approach that he and other doctors are practicing and raising awareness over it through their own channels for spreading this wonderful message, is gaining a lot of traction in the latest years and that is just amazing for us all. Better care of the patient leads us then to better understanding of the context and the symptoms that arise in that specific context, which leads us all to better results in the long run.