Living with Gentleness and Grace

Like so many of my clients, I have just had Covid and, after isolating and resting, I have finally fully recovered. Having an unexpected illness that forces us to stop all our work and plans is a reminder of how important our health is. It is also a reminder of how important it is to look after our bodies during the healing and recovery stages that are so necessary for a full and speedy recovery.

Two things are most important for me right now: gentleness and grace. We don’t take easily to recovering and once we begin to feel better we want to leap out of bed and back into all the things we were doing before we were ill. But our bodies are not energiser bunnies and we sometimes need to give extra time to be gentle as they fully recover.

In generations past the idea of ‘convalescing’ was very common, but today we no longer think about that important stage of recovery. I am learning how to be gentle with my body and realising we don’t need to power on through physical illness or emotional pain.

Gentleness is Time – take things slowly and allow for healing.

Modern medicine is amazing in that we have a range of antibiotics that can target and kill specific diseases, but medicinal drugs do not heal the inflammation in our bodies and do not mean we don’t need time to heal. I am taking time to allow my body to heal and I am making sure to keep up a steady supply of extra nutrients. I am taking vitamin C throughout the day, along with Vitamin D and zinc. I am making nutritious meals and sipping on bone broth made from free-range chicken bones. I am conscious of immune disorders so I am giving my body the time it needs to heal.

During times of healing, it is interesting that we may sometimes have a physical, emotional, mental or spiritual blockage. Our healing process can sometimes involve facing our wounds, traumas or emotions. It might be the case that we have a physiological reaction to internal emotional stress. Or it might be the case that our thoughts, feelings, and responses to suppressed memories are stored in our body.

Gentleness is Listening – listening to what our bodies are saying.

One thing that makes healing difficult is that while you are convalescing, you have a lot of time on your hands to think! Our minds are often very busy and they don’t stop being busy when we are ill. In fact, it may get worse as we have lots of anxious thoughts like ‘What if I don’t get better?’ and ‘What if I have to cancel all my plans for next week? And the week after?’

Sometimes we need to allow our mind to settle and quieten, and we need to stop listening to negative thoughts. One powerful way to do this is with your breath. We take breathing for granted, until we are having difficulty when we are ill (or when we have done too much exercise!). But we can change our physiology and our mental states simply by changing our breathing patterns. You may notice when you are ill that your breathing changes and becomes more shallow and fast, especially if you have asthma or a chest infection that makes breathing painful. If that continues, we form a bad breathing habit and it take time to undo the bad habit.

I have consciously used my breathing to gently bring a sense of calm and ease. One of the simple things I do is to breath in the shape of a square, inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts, inhale for four counts, until I have drawn a square in my mind’s eye. Then I do it again, and again.

I have found this kind of rhythmical breathing in and out slowly through my nose with my mouth closed really helped me to remain peaceful, calm and relaxed. It is amazing the difference and if you have trouble sleeping, it is also incredibly effective in getting you off to sleep! I have written a blog on breathing which you can read here.

Gentleness is being patient – we need to be patient with the healing process.

My experience with Covid really brought this home to me as I found I took longer than I hoped or expected to fully recover. It was such an encouragement to me that friends had gone through this exact experience and could tell me that they had gone through the same thing, so I would like to share what it was like for me in the hope that it will be of some help to you.

My Covid experience

I felt mild flu like symptoms for three days and during this time I was in and out of bed each day listening to my body when I needed to rest. On day four the aches and general fatigue ongoing fatigue left so I felt 80% well for about 70% of the time. For the next ten days I plateaued with feeling well most of the time but having these disconcerting bouts of absolute exhaustion after any form of exertion, and often after a meal. The only thing I could do to overcome this was to lie down for about an hour. Although I didn’t sleep, the action of lying down was enough to recharge my batteries. I was going to bed very early, and allowing myself to sleep on in the mornings.

My Covid Blood Analysis

On about day 10 of feeling unwell I decided to do a blood analysis on myself to see what my biochemistry was doing (see below). I was able to see that potentially my vitamin B12 was low due to having some large and some small red blood cells (red arrows). Consequently, I added chicken liver to the chicken soups I was having daily and the exhaustion I was experiencing began to diminish. My red blood cells also looked like targets (yellow arrows) so I added a Lactoferrin supplement in to boost my iron and support my immunity.

I had worked hard on making sure that my blood sugar was balanced by avoiding starchy carbohydrates particularly while I was ill so was pleased to see very little fermentation in my plasma (blue arrow)! Balancing blood sugar is vital for optimal immunity.

Another interesting thing was that when I counted my neutrophils in an lower magnification (green arrow) and lymphocytes (types of white blood cell for immunity) they were very low compared to the last time I did the blood analysis. This is very common when one is fighting an infection. Consequently, I upped the amount of beta-glucan’s I was taking to support this. I was already taking optimal levels of vitamin D, vitamin C and zinc, and had added in Echinacea and Olive Leaf Extract when I became ill.

Recovery challenges

There were several days towards the end when I wondered whether I was ever going to get better and this made me feel anxious. I was also having bad dreams and tormenting night thoughts during this time. Good friends told me this was normal and part of the healing process which I found a great comfort.

After two and a half weeks, family asked me out to supper. I was afraid that I would have a bout of exhaustion on one hand and on the another hand, as an extrovert, was frustrated and slightly depressed about not seeing friends. I decided to go and although I felt tired the following day, it gave me such an emotional lift that it was worth every moment. Sometimes we have to choose what will be good for us emotionally even if we have to pay for it physically for a short time!

Suddenly, after exactly three weeks, I had a whole day full of energy! It was as if someone just ‘flicked a switch’. I knew I was well. That day, I took our dog for two fairly long walks and spent the whole afternoon catching up on the gardening and it did not cross my mind to rest or to go to bed. The following day was the same and I realised at last I was fully well!

Grace is from God

Finally, to end the blog, I want to focus on Grace. Living with gentleness and grace is what I want to do. Sometimes, when I become impatient or anxious, I remember that there is another source of gentleness, and that is from God. One verse from the Bible speaks of clothing yourself with ‘compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience’ (Colossians 3:12). I love this image of being clothed with gentleness in this way, because it reminds me that I have to put gentleness on every day! It is something we have to do, because it doesn’t come naturally during times of illness or stress.

I hope this helps you in your journey towards full health after an unexpected illness like Covid and please do make an appointment to see me if you are feeling a bit stuck in your recovery to full health.

With every blessing,

Emma

Emma Maitland-Carew – Registered Nutritional Therapist

Dip.ION, mBANT, CHNC Registered Practitioner,

Metabolic Balance® Coach, HeartMath Coach, Accredited Wellbeing Coach.