Valerie Hickman

when you breathe there is more right than wrong in your body

Valerie Hickman overcame symptoms of covid long haulers after she attended a cinical trial in Harvard based on mindful practices. her story vividly demonstrates how healing is possible whrn you teach your brain new pathways and when you trust your body's ability to heal. amazing lady with a beautiful story

 

 


 

It all started at : 

january 2021.  I suffered of covid long haulers for eight months with many symptoms. i also had mast cell activation syndrome, pots, acid reflux, gastritis, dizziness, migraines,  chronic back pain and  blood pressure issues ( go up and down). I didn't take medications because I am very sensitive and reactive. There was time that I was reacting to everything. Almost any food. I was only on five types of food.

Dark night of the soul: 

there was a time that I was basically suicidal. I wanted to die. It was a time that I had to go and live with my parents so they could  take care of me. I couldn't take care of my children. I couldn't be a wife. I had to quit my job. It was really the darkest time of my life.

Change in the plot: 

the modality I tried was  a clinical trial that was initiated in  Harvard by Dr. Danino. It was done for covid long haulers. It was an eight week program of mindfulness, meditation, mindful eating, breathing, inner child work, and other natural modalities in the mind body realm.

The turning point was three weeks into the program

The turning point was three weeks into the program. I noticed that I could tolerate more food and my hives and migraines went away. We also did lots of journaling and writing our emotions. You make it raw, unedited version: you say everything you don't want others to hear and you put it on paper to release all these stuck emotions.

The doom of the past versus the glory of my present life: 

When things started to shift. I could go back to eating and I was off medications. I still have back pains now and then. But all the other symptoms, like blood pressure issues, the dizziness. The vertigo has vanished.

My relationship to pain: 

the thing that has changed is in my relationship to pain is that before this journey I was terrified of pain. I was so scared to death of the pain. Now, I'm not scared anymore and I treat it just as a sensation. I'm not entering any more to the what if scenarios and the worst case scenarios. When something is starting to ache, I go to my feelings. I ask myself, what are the my current stressors and I write them down.

How to cultivate a sense of safety?: 

I create safety by breathing, actually just noticing my breathing. when you breath there is more right than wrong in your body

My best advice to fellow sufferers of chronic conditions: 

My tip to fellow sufferers is: trust your mind and body. believe your autonomic nervous system is acting  to protect you from your emotions because it is sensing them as dangerous. The issue here is reaching a state of total belief. personally, it took me time to get there to really believe that nothing is wrong in my body and that the brain is creating the pain and the symptoms.

My other tip to fellow sufferers is listen as much as you can to testimonial stories. for me it was huge because I would say to myself, if they could do it, I can do it too. My body is no different.  Another modality that was very helpful for me was somatic tracking by Dr. Alan Gordon

 

when you breathe there is more right than wrong in your body

recommended book: 

I have two books to recommend. One of them is Mind Body Prescription by dr Sarno. i loved this book because I could see myself in every page there.  another book that I recommend very much is Childhood Disrupted by Donna Jackson.

Healing Methods that worked in this case

  • Healed with body mind therapy

    dr David clack talks explains what is exactly body-mind therapy  body mind therapy works. i know it from my clients. I'm a gastroenterologist, and I first learned about the ability of the mind to create physical symptoms in the body in 1983 with a patient who was severely ill, had been for two years, had completely baffled two different universities, and I stumbled on the fact that she was dealing with a severe stress in her life, and it dated back to when she was a child, and I didn't... read more here

  • Healed with Dr sarno's method

    Dr. John E. Sarno's work in treating body pains: pain is felt in the body but its origin is in the brain So much of the TMS or the mind body world is focused upon repressed emotions. That was Dr. Sarno's original theory. He believed that the brain was creating the pain to protect or distract us from overwhelming, scary and even perceived as dangerous repressed emotions. As a result, we've got decades worth of professionals, therapists, doctors saying you have to go find those... read more here