Not only has Cheryl changed the biochemistry of my life, she has changed the way I see the world, how I experience and interpret my reality and for the betterment of humankind. I have never been so calm, appreciative, connected, faithful and trusting in the universe in my life. I can notice the changes in my anxiety, before any sensory feeling, any feeling at all that I would have in my stomach or back which were just my body’s sensory receptors, I would instinctively associate and determine those feelings as anxiety. So with the label, and the negative connotation that anxiety brings to my mental field I would become even more depressed and anxious as I continued to keep interpreting my body systems to be experiencing these unwanted feelings. Which made it even harder because I was now anxious, that I was experiencing anxiety. As Cheryl calls it the monkey mind, this is something that was a big problem for me, because I literally did sabotage everything good, because of fear, wrongfully interpreting my body and being completely disconnected.
The stigma of being labelled having bipolar disorder changed my life and focus, creating a larger gap of disconnection. I was preoccupied with researching on my disorder and my medication and the pills just became a reinforcement to me that I needed these pills because my brain and biological functioning would be inept without them. And ultimately knowing that without them, I would be in serious trouble because my doctors would not let me go off them, therefore my natural state of being prior to medication was something that needed to be medicated for the rest of my life. Therefore my disorder and my medication became a powerful part of my self concept and the hardest part became that I had no power of it. And lost my own power. I feel that the diagnosis and the medication take away a fundamental part of human nature, as in all aspects of life, health and healing require self work! This empowerment leads us to feel better about ourselves, to be able to experience life with our own unique sense’s of purposes, that we can decide our destiny.
Our brain registers on a much higher level as we make the right choices for ourselves, fills us up with confidence and positivity. I had learned helplessness, where I was stripped of my self confidence, sense of purpose, where I became passive to a drug and had no power or voice in my own life. I am so completely blessed and thankful to have Cheryl do the remarkable work and pass along with me so much wisdom, love and kindness! She has changed my life!
L. Dickson