“Temporary suffering. Permanent healing.” – itsan.org forum response post

I’ve been checking out the International Steroid Addiction Network forums for a few months now and I always feel this strong sense of community and love whenever I check out a post.  It’s great to have others who are going through the same difficulties as you share their experience, knowledge, and just give encouragement to keep pressing on.  We all lift one another up, and this post shows that perfectly.  I was so touched by the beautiful response that was given to a question about being self conscious and embarrassed about TSW, that I just had to share…

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Recipes! – Pumpkin Pie Superfood Smoothie!

pumpkin pie superfood smoothie- eczemaholistichealing.wordpress.com

Autumn is my favourite season, and when it comes around I like to take advantage of all the seasonal produce like pumpkin!  I will turn this tasty squash into curried soups, roast them with sweet potato, make gluten free muffins with it and most recently add them to a smoothie!  This smoothie is insanely delicious, and you really feel like you’re slurping down some pumpkin pie.  I boosted this recipe with some awesome superfoods like hemp seed, coconut oil, bee pollen, turmeric and ginger!

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Inspirational Reading

drdavidj

 

This TSW process can tend to break one down on so many levels, making it hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes, and hard to not fall into the depths of depression.  I’ve found that reading inspirational books have gotten me through the rough times and have changed my whole perspective on this situation and life in general.  I just started reading this book called When Your World Falls Apart – Seeing Past the Pain of the Present by a pastor named Dr. David Jeremiah (what an intense title eh? lol) and he talks all about his trials and tribulations of going through cancer and the lessons that it taught him, as well as stories from others going through rough times.  He likes to call these trials “disruptive moments”.

This passage, quoted from a British journalist named Malcolm Muggeridge stuck out to me: “As an old man, looking back on one’s life, it’s one of the things that strikes you most forcibly – that the only thing that’s taught one anything is suffering. Not success, not happiness, not anything like that.  The only thing that really teaches one what life’s about – the joy of understanding, the joy of coming in contact with what life really signifies – is suffering, affliction.”

The lessons that I have learned going through this TSW experience as well as having Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer a few years back are:

  • That my body is truly my temple and I have to treat it with respect and love, and really pay attention what I’m putting into/on it. That this is a wake up call to always treat my body right, always striving to be as healthy as possible.
  • That my body is amazing at healing and repairing on its own.
  • To have more empathy and compassion for those suffering because I know what it’s like to suffer.
  • I’ve become more spiritual in this process, just really holding onto my faith like I never have in the past.
  • That I am so much more than just my external appearance.
  • And last but not least patience, patience, patience.

*Feel free to comment on what lessons were learned in your times of suffering ❤

-Jen

A little journal entry from last year around this same time…

I had just realized that around this time last year I was finally coming into a break from my summer long flare.  I had been housebound for most of the duration of my flare, and actually moved from North Carolina to New York at the end of August.  From then up until October I had been housebound.  It was so frustrating because I was finally back in my favourite city, and all I wanted to do was be out and about and live my life.  Once I started to see that the hell was ending for a little while I was motivated to feel normal and live my life again.  At the time I was working on this blog, but didn’t have enough information yet to really make it live.  My cousin actually encouraged me to document my experience of “leaving my apartment for the first time” (lol) and to post it on my blog.  It’s hard to describe the experience in words, but I try to in this little journal entry that I’d like to share with you all…

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Early October Update

I had planned to put an update with pics of the month of September, but if anyone is interested, they can check out my pics in the PHOTOS section where I have the progress documented by each month.  So I guess I’ll just go into how I’m currently doing, physically and emotionally as I’m now in my 32nd month of topical steroid withdrawal…

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I Love Nutritional Science: Dr. Joel Fuhrman at TEDx

Such a great TED talk by this awesome Nutritional doctor who specializes in preventing and reversing diseases through nutritional and natural methods.  I’ve seen some of his informational videos before and I love and agree with everything he has to say.  Our bodies are so amazing that they can reverse any disease just with great nutrition, rest and love! ❤

Check out the video: