So I’ve got this weird issue with my right leg.
Squatting heavy in the gym aggravates it and later on that day, I’ll feel a pain in my ankle while walking around.
The earliest I can remember having it is 2015, back when I was living in Medellín, Colombia, and it’s come and go since then depending on how much I exercise.
It’s not a huge deal… but it’s also pretty damn frustrating.
Why?
Because I don’t know what the REAL problem is… and therefore, I can’t fix it.
Is it the ankle or the foot?
Maybe the knee?
The hip?
My back?
Or hell, the fact that I didn’t eat my broccoli last night for dinner?
It’s SO damn frustrating.
I have a set of symptoms but I don’t know what the underlying problem is so I can’t fix it.
This is how I felt way back before I discovered the nervous system approach to healing.
My “symptoms” were normal and fairly common:
- Endless procrastination (let’s check Facebook ONE more time and THEN I’ll get to work…)
- Lack of purpose, meaning and fulfilment (is this it? like seriously, IS THIS IT? Isn’t there more to life? oh well, at least when I drink, I forget about the purposeless of life…)
- Negative thoughts (I’m not cut out for this. I’m not good enough. Not smart enough. And Jim from the hike totally thinks I’m a dick head after that comment the other day. How could I have been such a flustered hamflower?)
- Up and down energy (Wheeeeee I’m so HIGH I could run a marathon… Shiiiiiiiit where did my motivation go? I feel like a hungover, dehydrated slug who is stuck in the mud…)
Shit like that 😑
Problem was…
Like this thing with my leg, while I knew what my symptoms were, I didn’t know what the root problem was… and therefore, I couldn’t fix it.
That didn’t stop me from trying though.
Zen meditation, gratitude lists, life coaching and talk therapy, on and On and ON it went.
Some of my friends even said I was addicted to self-help and just needed to “suck it up and get to work”.
But none of these common “solutions” worked for me.
Sure, I’d feel better for a couple days… but I’d always wind up dealing with the same shit.
Like this thing with my ankle/leg/hip/BROCCOLI, it was SO frustrating.
Then I discovered the nervous system approach to healing and all of a sudden, a lightbulb the size of Jupiter turned on.
All of a sudden, everything made sense.
All those pesky, sticky symptoms were the result of something called “nervous system dysregulation”.
I wasn’t broken.
Nothing was wrong with me.
It’s just that my nervous system was cluttered up with a bunch of old survival stress.
The clutter blocked the “pipes” of my nervous system, and since the autonomic nervous system controls breathing, heart rate, skin growth, digestion as well as the ability to focus (and so much more), it was causing all these seemingly unrelated symptoms.
It was the ROOT CAUSE.
It’s impossible to overstate the benefit of this perspective (that the problem was in my nervous system… not in my mind).
It was a total game-changer (AND a complete 180 degree flip on how most people look at the various issues they’re dealing with).
You’re not broken.
NOTHING is wrong with you.
Your nervous system just needs a good scrub with a pink loofah, some fancy purple soap and some heavy, hard rock n’ roll music.
That’s where Rageheart comes in.
If you’re a member and in the mood, hit the sign in link and get Raging:
https://app.rageheart.co/login/
If you’re NOT a member, well… you’ll need to wait until it opens again 😉
Cheers,
John Wood
P.S. If you feel an impulse to share (Rage 9), hit reply and tell me what “symptoms” you’d like to shift with Rageheart and the nervous system approach to healing.
I’ll let you know if I think the nervous system approach will help.