Magic Valley NLP

Yesterday I did it; I cleaned up a corner of my classroom and came upon two boxes of graham crackers that I always kept nearby for times when my blood sugar dropped.  I took those two boxes into our kitchen area and donated them to the children.  When was the last time I had had a blood sugar drop?  It had been a long time.  I recalled the days I would look down at my hands and they would be shaking from low blood sugar.  Then there were the days when I never felt well because my sugars were too high.  Blood sugar, up or down, it was a constant concern in my life.  I had diabetes and the doctor had told me I would have it all of my life.  What changed me?

My road to diabetes started for me in 1989 when I was pregnant with my last child.  She was a large and beautiful baby and the doctor said that I had Pregnancy Onset Diabetes, and that I would likely be a diabetic in five to ten years. 

The years passed and I thought nothing of it.  I was battling liver disease and it was the major conflict of my life. 

My oldest boy joined the military and the “poor kid” got stationed in Hawaii. Of course I could not let him go to Hawaii without a visit from his mom, so I went.  We had a great time, but I panted and puffed, overweight and just not feeling as good as I should. When I returned home I went to school to “burn a little midnight oil” to prepare for the New Year and as I tried to punch in the security code I could not remember it, I just blanked out.  Worse yet I could not remember my name.   About then the principal happened in and punched in the code for me.  I had had bits of fuzzy memory before, but nothing like this. So I made an appointment with the doctor. 

A few days later the doctor sat me down and informed me that I had diabetes and I needed to start taking medication.  I thought about it.  I had liver disease.  Any medication I took would affect my liver and the quality of life I had left.  Still I had already begun to experience what diabetes was doing to me.  Sometimes my vision was a bit fuzzy.  I had a difficult time remembering things on occasion, I was tired a lot, and my blood sugar would drop and leave me shaking.  I did not realize it then, but it would be too high and leave me with incredible thirst and then innumerable trips to the bathroom as well as the unusual tiredness.  I already had Diabetic Ketoacidosis and didn’t even know it.    

I told the doctor I wanted to control it myself.   I was not going to take the “little white pills.”  He was incredulous but could tell I was serious and so he said, no one does it, you can’t do it, but I will give you six months. He also gave me a prescription to see a dietician. 

The dietician was great. She gave me lots of ideas to keep my blood sugar stable.  Daily it would drop mid morning and mid afternoon. She recommended graham crackers because they are high in fiber and do not have much sugar.  They became a mainstay of my diet. She encouraged me to lose weight and by keeping my blood sugars more stable, I did, forty pounds.    

I read on the internet that exercise would provide a key to open the doors to my body’s cells so that they could get the insulin in.  I made it a goal to get 4-6 miles of exercise a day and learned how to convert swimming, aerobics and biking into miles so I could track it.  I made a goal to reach one million miles.  I reached my goal and set a new goal, to walk the number of steps it would take to make it around the world.  I haven’t reached that goal yet but I am enjoying being over half of the way there.  I started biking or walking to work.  I purchased an exercise bike at a yard sale and put it to work.  I made exercise a priority.

I contacted Doctor Wilcher, a naturopathic doctor in Boise, Idaho.  He didn’t seem too concerned and his gentle disposition gave me courage to keep trying. He prescribed herbs and supplements that made a difference.   If I forgot a dose I could soon tell by the way I felt and I knew they were making a difference.

At the end of six months I returned to the medical doctor triumphant.  I had my blood sugar down into the 130 range.  I felt better.  I looked better.  I had done it without the “little white pills.”

Interesting to me, I would tell people I was going to beat diabetes and they would almost jeer.  Why don’t you just take the pills?  It is too much work.  I would never do that.  The pills are so much easier and then you don’t have to do all that work.   Why bother?

But this was me.  I didn’t want to be tied to “little white pills” for my life.  I wanted the optimum and liver disease was still present and causing its problems.  “Little white pills” did not figure into my idea of optimum living.  Still I just couldn’t seem to get my blood sugar any lower for very long. It was like I had hit a dam and couldn’t get over it. I decided to keep doing what I was doing and be content. I had beat diabetes, after all, and I knew of no one else who had done the same.

 Some years back my little daughter had an experience that resulted in her needing some counseling.   We took her to a counselor in our area and after a session or two; he called me up and told me she needed a woman counselor.   I recalled that a friend of mine did some kind of counseling but I didn’t know what. I had been interested but she never seemed to talk much about it.    I gave Sharalee Clawson a call and yes, she did that kind of counseling and told me to bring my daughter in. 

After a couple of sessions we talked about her health. She had had multiple sclerosis in the past and I vaguely remembered her dark days.  She had looked so down, but now seemed to have no evidences of it.  “How are you doing with multiple sclerosis?”  I queried.

“Well, it seemed to have left.  Some people would say it is in remission,” she said and added.  “If so I would invite it to stay in remission for the rest of my life.”   As she said that I noted that she looked very healthy.  Other people I knew with MS were using walkers or in wheelchairs. She did not look like any of them. 

I started thinking.  I couldn’t think of liver disease, I knew at that time that it would eventually take me home, but I had diabetes and the process of dying of liver disease would be much nicer if I didn’t have diabetes.  I knew the symptoms of diabetes were impacting my life and compounding to the problems I had with liver disease.  I was doing much better and I thought, what if?  I had nothing to lose.  I asked, “Did you ever work with diabetes?” 

“Yes, I have.”  She replied.  “Does it feel like you are, (pardon my French,) damned?”

“It sure does but spelled different, dammed.”  I wrote in my journal, “Exactly!  Something is stopping me, damming me, as it were, from utilizing insulin.  I detect it in the core of me.  So I am ready to begin my journey.”

Again from my journal, “I did not know what to expect, but I see clearly on Sharalee’s countenance that she is excited to take the journey and has no fears. So the road ahead, though it has many twists and turns, must lead to an exciting vista.  Her look reminds me of my children when they beat me to a mountain top.  ‘Come on, mom. You won’t believe this.’  I was never disappointed.”

The first session we did the SWISH program.  It was the weirdest thing I ever did.  She had me imagine that diabetes being drawn out of me and taking an imaginary form.  Much to my surprise, it did. It was a swirling ball similar to Japanese lanterns and the swirling was like the artist drawings of the outer planets.   Then a gold band emerges gently wrapping it.  As I gazed, suddenly the blue and swirling ribbons of color part for just a second and I noticed the interior was a glowing, fiery, burning red.  It scared me.  I had never had anything like this happen to me before.   She asked if I wanted to explore it.  “No, it might hurt.”   I wanted it to go away. I was frightened.  Even as I wrote the words I could feel the fear.

Sharalee then helped me construct a second me, an anima of me in the space in front of me.  She taught me the SWISH. 

Looking back I think I must have been the weirdest client she ever had. I had a question for everything.  What is it?  Who is this me? And most important, “Well, where does the ball go when I SWISH it.”  I have done the program with others and they just SWISH, but not me.  Then I think that is the way I have always been.  I want to know how and why things work and it was that questing for knowledge that lead to me want to know more and eventually lead me to studying NLP at NLPU with Robert Dilts, Judith DeLozier and Susi Smith.  It was that questing spirit of me that lead me to wanting to create NLP curriculum for my students and share with them some of the empowerment, the magic of NLP.

 I went home.  I felt good.  My blood sugar levels went down, but more important, I felt good.  The very next day I began to notice that my blood sugar was down, and I felt so good inside.  It was a wonderful, freeing, intensely happy feeling and I liked it. 

Now you are probably wondering how it has been after six years.  My blood sugar is still nicely down in normal ranges.  I just had an A1C done and it was in normal range.  For those who don’t know, an A1C shows how your blood sugar levels have been over a period of time of about three months. 

This is what I am doing and have done over the last six years.

Working with Dr. Wilcher I have reduced the natural supplements and herbs I take.  I do still take some, and interesting to me; I have become sensitive to them knowing which ones I need for support.  It is like I can feel what I need.

I have done many NLP programs to heal my past, to heal issues that have caused me anger.  I have also learned NLP programs to help me learn to handle anger in a more resourceful way. 

II have used Tim Hallbom’s wonderful Forgiveness Audio process.  You can find it at http://www.nlpca.com/    It is such a wonderful audio, and it is free.  (Tim also has a superb training organization and will soon be bringing their training to Salt Lake City.  I would highly recommend it.  My NLP coach, Sharalee Clawson, trained with Tim and with Suzi Smith, another excellent trainer that I have trained with.   It may be nearer to many of you I know and will be a more economical option for those in Idaho,  Utah, and the rest of the intermountain region. )

Suzi Smith’s healing CD’s - I cannot say enough good about them.  I still listen to them all the time. They can be purchased at http://suzismith.net/?page_id=90  This is exciting.  She now has them for digital down load.  I recommend the entire group of them, but if you can only afford to purchase one at a time, I recommend Healing Yourself over any others.   I have used it for diabetes, liver disease, calcium deposits, colds, flu, intestinal flu, sore throat, blurring eyesight, and depression - anything that comes along. Sometimes I just listen to it because I like the way it makes me feel inside.  Healing Yourself  has affirmations and they resonate well with me. I love to hear the words, “Trust God.”  “You can do it.” “It’s like the Serenity Prayer,” and “You have the courage to do what you can do.”   Tim Hollbom and Suzi Smith’s gentle voices help me, sooth me, and entreat me to heal and to stay healed.  It is an entire NLP session on a CD and for only the fraction of the price. 

I make wise food choices.  I do eat and enjoy sweets, but in moderation. I also continue to work towards being my perfect weight. 

I continue to get 4-6 miles a day or the equivalent in exercise.  I believe that my body is a temple and that as such I have a stewardship to take care of it.  Feeding this temple and providing this temple with exercise are important to keeping my temple at its optimum.

I practice yoga and meditation.  I play beautiful music.  I have renewed my love for poetry and dance.  I do a bit of art.   I have returned to my roots.  These nourish my spirit. 

Diabetes has been a gift. It has gifted me with knowledge about myself.   I understand that I want my soul, the melding of spirit and body, to be whole and complete.  This wholeness means that I will take care of my all of the aspects of me; physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and intellectual.  I am a multifaceted being.  I am a jewel.   There are millions of us joining together to shine and sparkle. 

So I take the crackers to the classroom kitchen, what was once a symbol of fighting for control of  blood sugar now becomes a symbol now of freedom from diabetes. 

A little story to explain how I look at diabetes. This is no way scientific.  Metaphors are such a great learning tool, however, so here is my diabetes metaphor.

Your cells use sugar, as you know, to provide you with energy.  Imagine each cell has a little door to let the sugar in.  The door is locked so the sugar cannot get in unless the door is unlocked with a little key. 

The pancreas is an organ that makes the key to that door. The key is a hormone called insulin. 

When you need more sugar your pancreas makes more insulin and the insulin goes around opening the little cell doors to let in just the right amount of insulin.  When it works well, it is a beautifully balanced system.

Sometimes the locks get a bit rusty.  They may not let in enough sugar. Then you have hypoglycemia.  It comes and goes and when it comes a person gets dizzy feeling. They crave a sugar fix fast to kick the pancreas into gear. But it really does not work well.

In hypoglycemia the cells get too much sugar and do not feel good. The cell doors open too wide. Often the body gets too stressed and people go from one extreme to the other.

Eventually diabetes sets in as the body tires of the stress and the locks get rusty. Even though there may be enough insulin keys, the cells cannot get the insulin  because the locks are rusty. So the sugar that the cells need floats around in the blood unused and makes the sugar high and the person does not feel good. The body wants to get rid of the sugar so the person craves water and the urine is sweet tasting because the sugar washes out of the bloodstream and into the urine. Hence for hundreds of years  the best test for diabetes was to taste the urine to see if it was sweet tasting.

So what is most important to preventing diabetes and turning it around.  Opening up the locks on the cells so the insulin can get in.  Guess what cleans those rusty locks?

EXERCISE! 

As you exercise the rusty locks get cleaned up and then the insulin keys can open them fully. When the doors are open the cells get the sugar they need to run efficiently and you feel great because you are running like a well-oiled machine.

Now that comes to the next thing, eating well.  You get those little doors open, but if you've just eaten a donut or something else, the blood is flooded with more sugar than needed and the pancreas makes more insulin keys and the cells get more sugar than they want and you feel like the pits.

So get exercise and clean the locks so they are nice and shiny bright letting in the keys and opening the door to the sugars your body needs for energy.  Then eat good food choices so the cells aren't flooded with so much sugar that they can't handle it.