GUEST POST: 3 Tools For Transformation
(By Sarah Ariela)
This story is painful to recount… because this is a story about being dependent on a wheelchair. Fortunately, I stepped out of the wheelchair using three tools and walked away with a key for transformation.
For over 15 years, I was in and out of different types of wheelchairs because of Dysautonomia. Dys- wha?! In layperson’s terms, my blood pressure plummeted whenever I stood up.
I could not maintain an upright stance. I frequently fell to the floor; gravity was my obsessed fan.
It wasn’t just walking that was a challenge. My ability to talk, chew, digest, and circulate blood flow seemed to be limitations that might last forever.
It would be stirring to say that I always had a clear goal of triumphing as an upright human. In actuality, my vision for the future was fuzzy at best. It looked like a bleak Instagram filter that might be titled “Positional Despair.”
I had heard of people supposedly “getting better” from chronic illnesses, but the concept seemed illusory. Getting better wasn’t something I truly believed would ever happen to me.
In March 2023, I had spine surgery for a complicated herniated disc – yet another physical disruption! After the surgery, I was still in severe pain, my muscles were atrophying daily, and my Dysautonomia was still a loyal constant companion.
Post-surgery, the only activity I was permitted was aquatic physical therapy. Forget walking ON water – it was going to take a miracle for me to walk IN water (in the pool).
My aquatic physical therapist was confident I could make progress, even though he told me my progress was much slower than most snails he has treated. (No wonder the exam table was so sticky…) I nodded and smiled at him, trying to buoy him, but it felt like my strength and mobility capacity was limited to moving one pinkie toe, once every other week.
I did not believe that progress was possible.
THE LONG ROAD TO SUCCESS
I patiently continued with physical therapy, and also diligently continued taking a medication for Dysautonomia (the only effective med out of 50 meds that I tried). For anyone in or out of the pool who is fighting with gravity: the medication is called Droxidopa.
The physical and the pharmacological approaches were helping, but my progress was painstakingly slow.
Then, something shifted. I saw Jeffrey Allen’s ad on YouTube about his Mindvalley Quest (personal development course). He reassuringly states that we often take all the right physical steps. To see results, it is just a matter of honing one’s ENERGY.
I wasn’t sure I even knew what energy felt like anymore. I could have won two Guinness World Records for napping frequency and napping duration. Jeffrey Allen seemed so encouraging though, so I gave it a shot.
I devoured every Mindvalley Quest I could ingest daily. Somehow, the YouTube algorithm noticed my growing enthusiasm and started flooding my feed with other Mindvalley authors. With some resistance and trepidation, I started listening to Marisa Peer’s hypnotherapy audio tracks on YouTube. (Now I am addicted to these tracks.)
At the end of six months post-surgery, I was finally starting to feel some pain relief.
A MOBILITY SUCCESS
The next step I took was working intensively with a brilliant movement coach (Greg Chaplin, DPT, CSCS), who teaches mind-body tools for chronic pain.
Chaplin, DPT, CSCS, asked me one question: “What kind of person do you want to be?”
I decided that I wanted to be a person who shattered my mobility limits.
I invested time in physically-oriented action steps PLUS mindset work.
At first, I could only walk 3 minutes a day. Then, I started walking 8 minutes a day. Then, I was amazed that I was walking 30 minutes a day.
I had thought that was impossible.
With a new orientation toward life, I started walking up stairs, walking DOWN stairs, and even began driving at the age of 34.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY EXPERIENCE
I zealously tried so many treatments, diets, exercise plans, breathwork, and meditations when I realized…
You can do less and get dramatic results.
Even doctors say that it is best to be moderate: I have consistently heard the medical advice to be on fewer than five medications at any given time.
We don’t always have to be busy doing 500 things for our health in order to see changes.
Instead, you can try these 3 tools for transformation:
1. PRACTICE PERIPHERAL VISION… FROM THE RIB CAGE?
Practice Peripheral Vision
Peripheral vision holds immense potential for expanding our awareness. By consciously practicing peripheral vision, we train ourselves to take in the entirety of our surroundings.
To practice peripheral vision, soften your gaze and allow your awareness to expand outward. Seeing the bigger picture (literally) can create a sense of internal safety. The safer we feel, the easier it is to heal.
Put Your Attention In Your Rib Cage
Looking out from the rib cage (instead of from the head!) allows the body and mind to operate more easily and effectively. This is especially effective when exercising and when communicating.
Are you used to being in your head? Overthinking everything? Dropping your awareness down into your rib cage offers a paradigm shift. By centering our attention in the rib cage, we tap into a more intuitive connection between body and mind.
2. KNOW YOUR ENERGY
If there are only two things in this world – energy and matter – and matter is made from energy… then are we all just infinite-potential energy bundles? If thoughts/emotions/bodies are energy… and cat cafes and K-Pop and ketchup sandwiches (?!) are energy… perhaps it behooves us to learn about our personal energy and how it is channeled.
I remember hearing about energy meridians from Traditional Chinese Medicine, but for many years, I thought of them just as pathways for acupressure or acupuncture. Then, I read a book by Mike Mandl titled “Meridians: Maps Of The Soul.”
Mandl lays out each of the 12 meridians as distinct personal development guides. I love thinking about their disparate strengths as resources for growth.
One doesn’t have to use meridians to learn more about one’s energy, but I have found meridians to be a helpful framework. Meridian personality types are accessible and memorable.
I think of Lung Meridian as a beefy gym-rat, who is an inner motivational coach. Spleen Meridian is a beauty and self-love maven. Kidney Meridian is the version of us who is brave, bouncy, and up for anything.
This may be nonsense – but what if it is HELPFUL nonsense?
3. DON’T OUTSOURCE YOUR COMFORT
I used to spend so much time searching for a body position that felt comfortable. Then I gave up and tried to find a feeling of internal comfort even when my body positions were excruciatingly painful.
Even if we find a position that feels comfy, it’s usually the context of the situation, the mindset, and the emotional approach to the position (more than the position itself!) that facilitates comfort.
Be the source of your own comfort. In the throes of chronic pain, the quest for physical comfort can often be consuming – an endless search for the perfect body position, chair, or pillow. It finally dawned on me that inner comfort can transcend any context… and almost any chair!
Even in pain-racking body positions, I learned to find ways of generating positive emotions.
Yes, positive people used to annoy me, too. But when I started utilizing positive energy, it helped my body, and amazingly, it even helped the people around me.
May you be positively energized – even in un-comfy chairs!
UNLOCK YOUR FREE COURSE
If you want to discover more tools and learn about meridian energy buddies, check out my free course: Meridian Mastery.
A REQUEST
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Bio
Sarah Ariela was diagnosed with Dysautonomia in 2008. Sarah spent 15 years honoring strange requests from her body (no standing/walking for years, no sitting for years, no speaking for years). She underwent intensive treatments including plasma exchanges. Sarah has now remembered that if she is a human (which is questionable at times), she is also a healer. She runs the YouTube account @MeridianHealer. She enjoys being in her body even when it is very loud in there.
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