Transcript…

In this episode, you will learn:

Where I am now on my healing journey and why it excited me to learn I have more to heal
My biggest takeaway from each episode
Where all of this could lead for us in the future
An action item you can take with every guest I’ve spoken with

Episode 27: Turning Expertise into Action

Katie Wrigley 0:01

This is the pain changer podcast, episode 27. Over the last few months of episodes, you have heard from several experts within their fields, all focused on what you can do to help yourself if you are experiencing chronic pain, stress or any other type of chronic condition. Today, I want to share with you what I’ve taken from these episodes and continue to share my healing journey with you. Then I’m going to walk you through the highlights and help create actionable items you can take into your own life, so you can start to feel relief now. I invite you to grab your favorite pen and notebook, and join me.

Before we dive into this week’s episode, I would like to call out the listener of the week. This week’s listener of the week is from WhiteWitch64 who says: Chronic Pain can be changed

Katie Wrigley’s own story is inspirational, and she does an amazing job at sharing everything she knows and gives that information freely about all sorts of healing modalities. If you or anyone you know suffers from any type of pain, there are gems of wisdom and so much help available here.

Thank you so much for your kind words and your feedback WhiteWitch64! Please send me a DM on instagram to @coachktdubs and let me know that you heard me give you a shout out. I will send you a gift as my personal thank you for listening and helping to spread the word that chronic doesn’t have to mean permanent.

As we get into this week’s show, I want to remind you about one very important fact. Nothing on this show is meant to replace medical advice or expertise. Always consult with your doctor before you try anything new. I am not qualified to diagnose or treat any specific condition. My role is to help you heal the stress around your condition, help you learn how to manage your symptoms by tuning into yourself and your body so that you can better understand what your body wants from you. You can and will start to tap into your body’s natural abilities to heal itself. As a result of that focus, you can and will impact your experience with your chronic condition, whether its pain, illness or another long standing condition.

Now that the housekeeping is out of the way, let’s dive in, shall we? You have heard from doctors, holistic practitioners, coaches, sleep experts, naturopaths, therapists and diet experts. At this point, you may feel a little overwhelmed or unsure of where you want to start. My hope for you in this episode is that you find one clear course of action where you can start to dig in and directly impact your experience.

Each expert spoke about similar subjects, with some variance. Going inward. Being still. Nourishing the body with a diet your body actually WANTS. Finding the root cause. Healing your past. Many of them said that their way was the only thing you needed to do to help yourself, and several had different ways to do that than the way I coach, which is exactly why I wanted to have them on my show, and why you heard me agreeing with them, even if my experience was different. They are all correct and they have seen evidence of that within their own experience and the experience of their clients. Each of you are unique human beings though, which means your journey will be unique to you. Cognomovement may not be for you, for whatever reason, or you may not like it. I really wanted to give you choices and ideas of what is available for you, outside of my own offerings. While Cognomovement is my favorite way to heal and grow and I use it daily, I do also employ other healing methods into my daily life too. A key with Cognomovement is being able to feel whatever it is you’re focusing on. Some things you can’t really feel via Cognomovement, such as adrenal fatigue. It’s not like you find out that you have that by thinking “wow, my adrenals sure feel spent today”…that’s not how it presents. But you can feel any stress in your body, which will lead to adrenal fatigue over time, and eliminate the stress feeling with Cognomovement to help your adrenals and your overall health.

Having a chronic condition is a complex thing. There isn’t just one factor that influences it, there are several factors, and more often than not, there are also several layers to work through as well. The one thing that literally everyone said in some way or another: you hold the key to relief. Your mindset is going to be your biggest asset, or worst enemy on your journey. You may not have had a choice to wind up wherever you are right now, but you do have the choice of what you do with it, and whether you choose to heal or not. This has been very true in my own experience…you have more choice than you realize.

I wanted to share more of my story of healing with you, and what’s been happening as I’ve been listening to the interviews I’ve done over the last few months, then I want to pack it up into actionable items you can take into your own life. Since I am a big fan of doing the work myself and I really want to experience as much as I can in order to give recommendations to my clients, I have been following up with some of these experts. As I share my experience, I invite you to look at where it may look similar to your experience, before we dive into the action items I have for you.

During all of this, I wound up getting covid and I am going to do a separate bonus episode around that experience, since I got stuck with the virus in my body and I was actively sick for 3 weeks. I’m mentioning it now because it really stood out to me…how in the world did I get sick not once but TWICE this summer, after 5+ years of no illness? I had already started to work with a naturopath, I had been struggling with perimenopause symptoms, mainly hot flashes and bursts of irrational rage…you know, the super fun stuff. Thanks to the work I’ve been doing for years, the rage was easily controlled by me simply saying when I felt it start to boil “hmm…this may not be a rational response right now. Sleep on it.” The hot flashes were trickier, but now also in my past.

I decided that I wanted to explore my health on a deeper level, especially after interviewing Magic Barclay and hearing how she works with her patients and digs deep into the root cause, and utilizes PNEI neural pathways to help resolve a lot of issues. I think you know me a little better by now, my trusted listener, so anytime someone is utilizing neurology to find answers, I am most likely going to be on board! My results were shocking! While I am overall very healthy, I do still have issues falling asleep, staying asleep, and I don’t bounce out of bed with a ton of energy in the morning. I pretty much have to motivate myself to get moving…a task that gets more challenging in the upcoming dark, cold winter months in Maine. While my overall energy has really improved the last several months from changing my diet and adding some natural supplements that activate my body, holding a high level of energy for the day has continued to be a struggle. My naturopath doctor and Magic’s root cause analysis helped me understand why. My doctor diagnosed me with extreme adrenal fatigue. Her exact words were “I don’t want to say you have the WORST case of adrenal fatigue I’ve ever seen…but it’s bad.” We both commented that we would have hated to see what that looked like before any of my healing had begun. The way my adrenals function right now is vastly lower than they should be during the day, but then when my cortisol levels should be going down to aid in sleep, they are actually going UP. Hence the sleep issues! Honestly, it was a relief to hear that there is a physical cause, because holy cow my listener, I have been really focusing on sleep hygiene this year!

The bulk of the adrenal fatigue is from the trauma that was running in my body and still healing today…and in the interest of full transparency, my former recreational drug use, especially cocaine, certainly added to the situation. It’s important to me that I own as much of the story as I can, and my former addictions added to the time I need to heal. I’m not beating myself up about it at all, simply acknowledging I have played a main role in all of this I’ve experienced. There’s a chance I may also have ADHD, and I have been diagnosed with it, but I’m not sure about that. I’m starting to really see that a diagnosis is just a label, and I can choose what I do with it. I have been labeled a lot by my health, and the symptoms of ADHD and healing PTSD are very similar…and ADHD can also BE A symptom of PTSD. So I am still unsure about that…but regardless of where that lands, I know I’ll turn it into something that works for me.

Magic had the other pieces to the puzzle. She was able to see I have an active infection that pops up when it feels like it. My immune system is a bit stuck, and it’s pretty much doing whatever it wants. That’s why I went so long without being sick, and why I got sick twice in the last few months. Plus I have some mold and other issues still lingering in my body, so I will be working with Magic over the next months, following her protocols, to get rid of the mold and up my level of health even more. While I cannot diagnose you, if you find yourself randomly crying for no reason as you drive down the road, or as you just sit and relax…mold may be the culprit. I had seriously been curious what the hell that was about too. You should have seen me as I recovered from Covid…holy emotional release batman! I was bawling as I watched Dr Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet one day. BAWLING…not just having empathy for the animals, it was a flat out sob fest with everything that was kicked up in my body that day. It’s hilarious in hindsight, but it was a tough day at the time.

Learning that I have more work to do to heal myself, and more work than I thought I had, really surprised me. In large part, this is due to my mindset. My body feels so good these days, and my mental state is close to an all-time high, if not at the all-time high, that I was really surprised that there was that much still available to me to heal. I have done so much Cognomovement, and I have put so much focus on gratitude, being positive, and really owning my own power in my health…that is the biggest reason I am so functional today. According to my doctor, my energy levels should be so low that I would want to be in bed all the time, but that’s not the case at all. I drag in the morning, but it doesn’t last long, and even if energy isn’t consistent, I have enough to run full weeks filled with a lot of progress in my life. So I am super excited to see how much more I can do when my energy levels increase! I’m also working with my Cognoball around my potential ADHD and discovering how I feel about it, and how I am going to use it as a superpower if that is part of me. I’ll keep you posted of course.

So that’s where I am…and I have also chatted with Coral Simpson, Leann Stickel, Steve Barton, Lynne Bowman, Kathy White, and Annie Miller about their various areas of expertise so I could explore more within those worlds. Please know I hold each guest in high regard, they wouldn’t be on my show if I didn’t respect their work. Just in case you are curious why I’m not mentioning every guest, it’s only due to being in a place I am not in need of their services, or it’s a service they can only offer to me if I live in another state, due to various regulations. I haven’t yet started Kathy’s joint renewal program, but I plan to jump in next week when my schedule will allow. Lynne’s cookbook Brownies for Breakfast has quickly become my favorite…if you haven’t yet tried a healthy donut, I encourage you to give them a shot. They are all a whole new level of delicious. Coral and Leann were both special guests for my Become Unstoppable program, sharing their wisdom with my students. Steve and I are starting to collaborate together, his Game of 10 with my Cognomovement. I’m excited to see where all of this will go, and how many people we can help as a result of these collaborations.

Now for your action items, my dear listener. I would like you to consider the 4 areas of impact as we go over these. These 4 areas are the core of the methodology I use along with Cognomovement, to help my clients shift their experience with chronic issues, and the areas are Mental, Verbal, Physical and Emotional. None of them are in silos, they all overlap just like the various systems in your body overlap. These areas are where I found it easiest to start to raise awareness, so that you can empower yourself to make the decisions that will serve you as you heal. Please choose just one of these to begin with! Both to avoid overwhelm, as well as to be able to determine how any changes you make are impacting your experience with pain. If you try 5 new things at once and you feel better…how do you know which helped you the most, or to what degree they helped? So step in more slowly and measure your progress. Journal about where you are now, today, before you embark further on this journey. This is the easiest way to measure your progress, and it’s really gratifying to see how far you have come.

Both Lynne Bowman and Coral Simpson gave you the same suggestion: let go of sugar. Cut it out of your diet completely. Sugar and other chemicals make things cravable, meaning they wreak havoc on your system and create false hunger. Diet is a huge part of the Physical area of impact. If you are putting inflammatory foods into your body and expecting relief, you are going to be disappointed. Treat food as it is: fuel for your body. Eat real food. Whole grains. Leafy greens. Your action item if diet is where you want to begin: either buy Lynne’s cookbook, or reach out to Coral directly to chat with her about diet and wellness.

Annie Miller and Rebecca Morrell both gave you great tips around sleep hygiene. Sleep is going to be part of all 4 areas actually. Proper sleep helps your body rest and restore and gives you vital energy for the next day, both aiding in the mental and physical areas. Maintaining adequate sleep will also help you learn how to control your emotions and allow you the ability to feel those demanding to be felt, with a lot less resistance. Winding down 1-2 hours before you want to go to sleep. Minimize social media or other stimulating activities. Use the bed just for sleep…and sex. That is one I am still working on myself. Not the sex part…get your head out of the gutter. But sitting or laying on something other than my bed as I wind down, that I am actively shifting as I write this. Your action item if sleep is where you want to begin: listen to episode 22 again where Annie is giving awesome tips for sleep hygiene, or reach out to Dr Morrell to schedule a session with her if you live in Maine.

Both Steve Barton and Leann Stickel talked about mindset and the power of positivity. Josie Warren talked to you about the importance of normalizing your experience and stress. Steve gave you a mantra from his game of 10 which is meant to immediately calm your racing mind and help you see what is right in the world. Leann took her diagnosis of aggressive multiple sclerosis and decided to become a triathlete…something that wouldn’t be possible if she had chosen to stay stuck feeling sorry for herself. Josie was able to heal from 8 different autoimmune diseases, addiction and an eating disorder simply by focusing on building her resilience. A positive mindset will help you in both the mental and emotional areas of impact, as well as verbal with the words you choose to talk to yourself. Mindset is huge…and overall this is probably the biggest factor in your overall outcome. What you choose to do with what you have been given is going to be huge for you. You can absolutely stay stuck if that’s what you want, but I hope that you choose a different option. Your action item if mindset is where you want to start…and here I’m giving you 3 options. Go to TheGameof10.com and download Steve’s book, reach out to Josie at thehasimotofix.com to work with her and get information on her program, or send Leann an email and let her know you want to improve your level of positivity.

Kathy White shared with some detail about how she used yoga to help her heal her deep grief over losing her first son, and developing her own joint renewal program from a new style of yoga she had learned called Kiutt yoga. Kathy is a great example of shifting her experience, and using movement as a way to help her heal. When yoga wasn’t touching her joint pain as she got older, she found a way to modify it so that it DID help her experience relief. As a result of her perseverance, there is now a program to help you with crunchy joints. Yoga is going to aid in the physical, mental and emotional areas of impact, and verbal to a degree too. Yoga will help release stuck energy and emotions, and it also helps you go inward, which allows your parasympathetic nervous system to kick in and will help you soften your words too. Your action item if you want to move more is to go to kathywhiteyoga.com and sign up for her free joint renewal system.

Dr Steadman and Magic Barclay both talked about the importance of including the nervous system into your healing. A lot of the pain reprocessing that Annie Miller spoke about is focusing on neurology too. All 3 practitioners offer assistance virtually, although Dr Steadman can also offer more if you live in or can visit the state of Colorado, and Annie Miller is in a similar position with DC, Virginia and Maryland. Dr Steadman mentioned receiving feedback from a remote patient that someone’s neck pain had resolved and he hadn’t even touched the patient! He had helped him alter diet…and poof! The pain was gone. You never know what key is going to unlock the bulk of your pain, and it will be different for each of you. My biggest key was Cognomovement, Dr Steadman’s client’s key was his diet. All of them help in the mental, physical and emotional areas of impact. I say this to encourage you to reach out to them and see if they are a fit for you, and not decide that they don’t offer what you need if you are too far away to work with one of them in person. Contact info is in the show notes with each guest. Your action item if you want to focus on your neurology, is to email Dr Steadman, sign up for Annie’s virtual program on her website, or schedule your complimentary root analysis with Magic.

Regardless of where you chose to start, stick to it for at least 3-4 weeks. Make it a habit before you add to it or change what you are doing. I wish you the best of luck, and all the healing in the world, as you embark on this phase of your healing journey. If you would like to chat with me and see if we are a fit, I am currently accepting new clients, and I invite you to go to my website and book a complimentary virtual chat. It would be my pleasure to get to meet you and talk more directly, to see if I can help, or refer you to someone else if we aren’t a good fit.

As always, I appreciate your time today, thank you for joining me. Next week, I’m coming back with another amazing guest! Lauren Fonvielle, an EFT practitioner, is going to be joining me to talk about EFT and what it’s done for her personally, as well as for her clients. It was a really fun episode to record, and I hope you’ll join me again next week to hear from Lauren. Until then, never forget that you can accept the diagnosis, without accepting the prognosis.