#MS Insights: Transformed by #Illness

Written on 18th July 2015 by Shulamit Lando

Everything I know and everything I have learned came thanks to the surprise that life had in store for me: MS (Multiple Sclerosis), a supposedly incurable and degenerative disease. All of what I write, even if it is not specifically related to it, came from the broadening of awareness that I got in and through the process of learning to deal and eventually heal from illness.

 

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What matters is not what happens to you, but what you do with your life.

This is the first page of a book I am writing called TRANSFORMED BY ILLNESS — A guide from down-and-out to back on you feet.

It is the story of my illness and the healing process which permitted me to return to a meaningful and rewarding life.

The story begins with receiving an apocalyptic diagnosis and shares the journey which transformed me from victim to a vehicle for helping others.

As I write, many images and voices come into my mind and want to stop me in my tracks.  Who am I to share my small story? What are they going to say? But, who are “they?”  They are all those who suffer and have suffered more than me and that make a huge transformation in the world. How do I dare to set myself up as someone who can teach others about illness and transformation!

I am not suggesting that I can offer a miracle cure. A miracle is something that is completely individually defined. One person may consider an event to be a miracle, whereas someone else might see exactly the same thing as sheer luck or as a total fluke.

However, I have found that often, when people who are not believers, spiritual or even the slightest bit religious experience disease, they start counting their blessings, noticing events and seeing them as “signs”. They begin to perceive the good things that happen, things that they may have taken for granted in the past, as special events. That kind of changed consciousness is itself miraculous to me.

I am writing this book because so many of us who have to deal with diseases that cover the spectrum from limiting, to debilitating, to downright crippling, who might benefit from what I have found on my own journey from illness to wellness. I am convinced that for me, MS or not, it was the journey itself that has been transformational, by giving meaning and direction to my life.

Maybe I was just lucky. Maybe my Multiple Sclerosis (MS) was so benign that there wasn’t really anything to worry about in the first place. True… but then, “maybe” can go both ways. About 50 percent of people with MS eventually enter a progressive stage. I never did. And for that, I want to knock on wood.

Maybe if had not done all the things I did — the mind-shifts and the lifestyle changes that I worked on with so much dedication—maybe it would have turned out much worse. In those terrible early days, when I was in the throes of an acute attack, almost paralyzed up to my earlobes, slow in every way, very weak, my brain and body not connecting, I had no way of knowing if the symptoms were ever going to go away. Maybe I’d never get out of it, maybe I’d always drag my arm or walk with a limp, or maybe —since with the illness affecting my speech I sounded as if I’d just drunk a whole bottle of tequila— I’d never sound normal again. All these things could have happened. Every time I had an attack, there was no reassurance that I was going to recover.

Was I blessed with a milder form of MS?  I surely didn’t know that then and the nightmare lasted for 15 years. Perhaps, had I not done everything I did, I might have become so depressed that my immune system would have shifted my so-called “benign” situation into a disastrous one.

Later, after I was able to recover and to create a new life for myself, some of the neurologists I had consulted for myself started to send their desperate clients to me for therapy. Sure enough, when a person suffers from a chronic or a life threatening illness, the whole family suffers. So part of the help I have been able to offer clients has been also to help their family and caregivers.

Dis-ease, as the word implies, is a lack of ease in body, emotions, and mind. If the mind and the emotions can heal, then the body can also be cured from ailment.

This is a memoir, where I recount what I went through and how I felt with it all and through it. After every chapter, I give a thread of tips to help yourself. All the tips I share are effective and proven approaches to dealing with overwhelming feelings and which will allow healing and clam to come into your life. These tips imply an effort on the person’s part, but they do work. Of course, according to the effort is the reward.

So if you –or a loved one– are suffering from any kind of dis-ease, practicing the tools I share both in my book and in my practice as a Life Coach, as a Medical Coach and as a Therapist will enable you to turn your life around. Go for it with all your might, and you will see results. Your life will be transformed.

 

 

 

Robin Hoffman says:

It seems you’ve found the place, the sweet spot, if you will, where your heart meets Soul
to expand your life’s work… And you do it in a very creative, and inspirational way.
Keep writing, keep healing others, with blessings for the journey.
Beautiful!! …ready to turn the page for more!

Tzippi Moss says:

Shulamit- your story is inspiring and even more so your ability to help others deal with physical challenges and the spiritual and emotional issues that go along with that. May you be blessed to help many others through your story!

Wonderful! More individuals must hear the stories of healing from dis-ease for the healing for themselves, their families and our world! Personal healing is such a powerful force for a life well lived, rather than the “medical option” which for most is in now way healing rather a band aid for a life filled with the daily struggle to survive. Thanks for you great work! 🙂 May your book like your healing journey, positively impact our world.

Donna Cruickshank says:

Looking forward to hearing more. Sharing, inspiring others, that creates miracles! Thank you Shuli for giving of yourself!

Eugenia says:

Qué más puedo decirte que no te lo haya dicho ya?! Bella alma, amiga sigue confiando en tu voz que llega y sana.

Danny Loney says:

Shuli – You have a unique story accompanied by life lessons that must come out for the benefit of the rest of us, whether we suffer from a chronic illness or not. Your
living with MS and how you dealt with the disease in your life is a must read for all of us. The responsibility lies with each reader tailoring your life experiences and lessons to their own lives. I am looking forward to reading each and every word.

Lili Barchilon says:

Hermoso lo que escribiste!!
Lili.

Patricia Barroso says:

Gracias por este maravilloso texto.
Me encanta leerte y me gustaría muchisimo poder leer tu libro completo
Me fascina como escribes y tus líneas me llegan directito al corazón…
Tu expicación del término: Dis-ease, me parece fantástico
Tu sola presencia es curativa. .. Ahora agrégale experiencia , conocimiento , entrenamiento y amor
Qué más puedes pedirte…

Juan Antonio says:

Me encanta tu voz: abierta, “all inclusive”. Y sobre todo me gusta tu fuerza; la fuerza con la que siempre me habla lo tuyo –toda tú. Me doy cuenta que lo que más me llama y me acerca es cuando me hablas de tus retos, de tus dificultades, en todos sus detalles –tan dolorosos como pueden ser o me los puedo imaginar. Hay algo allí, en cómo te me dejas ver que me hace querer seguirte más y seguir escuchando.
Me encanta que hayas encontrado una manera de ofreceer tu libro como un fruto de tu experiencia de vida y no de tus ideas, creencias, etc.
Me gusta y me emociona. Ya quiero leerlo.

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Shuli's Blog

Shuli

One day I found my spiritual path and the next day an incurable illness, MS (Multiple Sclerosis), found me. This brought me my life's greatest lesson: How was I going to find this to be a gift from God, the Universe, The Source, the cosmic soup, or from some higher sphere? What was my new-found spirituality and awareness supposed to teach me with this!?

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