This chapter contains some true stories from people around the world who have used visualization as part of their journey to recovery from illness. These stories were kindly sent to me by people in the spirit of wishing to help others – in the hope that their use of visualization might give some hope or insight, or inspire belief or confidence, in people going through something similar. I’m deeply grateful to those who shared their stories.
As you’ll see, in most cases visualization was used alongside other modes of treatment, just as with the visualization studies described earlier in the book. None of the stories has been medically verified by myself: I’ve received them in the spirit in which they were sent to me, in trust, and in the hope that they may be of help to others in their lives.
I’ve grouped the stories together under the headings of each illness or medical condition: cancer, Post-polio syndrome, psoriasis, ME/CFS, cardiovascular conditions, inflammation, travel sickness, verrucas/plantar warts, lupus, hay fever, weight loss and underactive thyroid.
December 2013 started with an enormous shock! Me… grade 3 breast cancer?!!! And that was just the start of my huge emotional rollercoaster ride. My life (and my health) were now suddenly being controlled by others! What could I do to keep myself strong, heal, and get myself through this?
The first step was to take back my power and learn to ‘let go’ – that was lesson one! The next lessons were: to trust in myself and listen to my body; to tap into my own healing power, knowledge and wisdom; to not listen to others’ horror stories and their negativity surrounding the situation. I needed to wrap myself up with positive people and positive thoughts wherever possible, for protection!
So, I tapped into my inner self and came up with some ideas. I chose the colour yellow as my ‘support’ colour (yellow flowers in the house, a yellow purse, a yellow piece of material in my bag, etc., etc.) – all reminding me of the warmth, power and colour of sunshine.
After my surgery, I envisaged myself clean, healthy and fast healing. To me, the offending cells that had represented my old life had been removed. I was being cleansed and starting life afresh.
When I started my chemo, I envisaged the syringes emptying healing, golden liquid love into my system. At each treatment, I gave healing love and Reiki directly into the syringes as they lay prepped on the tray. At first the hospital staff thought I was a little wacky, but I didn’t care as it was important to me and my healing. At each treatment visit, the staff couldn’t believe how well I looked and it wasn’t long before they started to know my routine and believe in it also, as they could see the evidence! I also stipulated that the staff were only to use positive words around me; some found that easier than others, but I do believe the choice of words was so important!
I learned to love myself when I lost my hair. I was a bald adult baby at the start of my new life! I wasn’t to be governed by how my hair looked each day. It was actually really liberating and saved me a fortune in shampoo and hair appointments!
After the chemo, it was time for the next stage of my treatment – radiotherapy. I envisaged the radiotherapy as the warm sun healing me as I lay there, not allowed to move, listening to the lovely music the staff played for me.
My partner of only 18 months was so loving, supportive and strong; he helped me put together a playlist of music that I loved to dance to, music that brought a smile to my face and made me feel happy – that was important. He made sure I ate properly and healthily, cooking everything from scratch for me.
Every day I repeated positive mantras, like ‘Every day I get better and better,’ ‘My body is healthy, happy and healed,’ etc. I showed appreciation and gratitude to everyone I met on my journey, for those who had helped me and were there for me, for the treatments themselves and the science behind them, and all the people who made my healing possible.
I took about 10 days off work in total during the eight months of treatment. Work was a big distraction, but amazingly I was fit enough to work! I was very lucky to have a good support network around me and I learned to ask for help when I needed to. I found out who my friends were – that was a tough insight!
I believe that the main healing points were my self-belief, positive thinking, gratitude, support, visualization, homeopathy, hypnotherapy, Reiki, etc., alongside the traditional medicine.
Also, only having positive people and positive words spoken around me, and of course, importantly, my loving, supportive partner, who is now my husband!
Obviously, it wasn’t always easy: at times my confidence was knocked, my femininity was shoved out of the window from a great height and my still-new relationship with my partner was challenged at times. But, you know what? I’m grateful that I went through it all! One of the most amazing things was that I hadn’t had a sense of smell for 15 years. I couldn’t breathe through my nose, yet three days after my first chemo session it all came back! I smelled roast dinner and cut grass for the first time in years!
I’d grown into a new me. I’d been a cygnet, and now I emerged out the other side as a beautiful swan, and I’m eternally grateful.
In December 2008, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, stage 3, and positive nodes in axilla. In 2009, I had a mastectomy, reconstruction, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
In 2010, I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time at the Haven in London, and met David Hamilton for the first time, attending his ‘How the mind can heal the body’ workshop. At the time I was fascinated and inspired and thought that if I’d heard him speak before my chemotherapy, I would have had a totally different mind-set; as it was, I couldn’t see past it being a poison that my body found very hard to accept. Unsurprisingly, I’d had pretty severe side effects.
In August 2012, I celebrated my 50th birthday and being three years clear of cancer. But, during April 2013, I was on holiday in Morocco and struggled to climb up the hills, feeling extremely breathless. At the time I wasn’t sure if it was damage from the radiotherapy or my just being generally unfit, but it planted a seed in my mind.
In July 2013, as well as the breathlessness, I had a small amount of discomfort and went to the hospital to ask for a scan. The results showed a shadow on my lung/chest wall. On having a video camera inserted into my chest it was discovered that I had 2 litres (3 pints) of fluid almost totally crushing my lung and seven sites of tumours, the largest being the size of an egg.
I spent nine days in hospital to recover and was draining constant fluid. I was sent home with a tube that came out of my chest and every day or two I had to attach it to a special bottle and drain off the fluid that kept forming. After it being there for a couple of months, I realized that I had to become proactive and take control. It wasn’t enough to just will it away.
This is when I began visualization. Every day, I would lay on the floor with my feet on a Chi machine – you rest your feet in the machine and it rocks quickly from side to side, sending a ripple through the body. When it stops after around 15 minutes, you place your feet on the floor, and in the stillness, you feel a rush of Chi flow through the body.
Having seen a photograph of the inside of my chest I had a very clear visual of what my tumours looked like, and so I imagined that the Chi was healing light energy flowing through my body. I focused on the large tumour and visualized the healing light melting it and the bad cells flowing into the fluid and out of my body.
I constantly spoke to the tumours and the fluid and said thank you for the lessons that they had brought, and that I was a happier and better person for having them. I said thank you, but I didn’t need them anymore, and so it was time to say goodbye. I thanked the fluid for cleansing the tumours and allowing the cells to be released. I thanked the tube for being the means of removing the cancer from my body.
One day, I could feel that the large tumour was gone and so I focused on the smaller one. When that was gone, I focused on cleansing the chest wall, my lungs, and my whole body.
Nine months after having the tube inserted, I had it removed. There was a moment of fear when I realized that with no tube it was up to me now to keep the fluid away and so I carried on with the cleansing visualization.
Now, in 2017, I still have scans every three to four months but for the last three years there’s been no activity. To begin with, the doctors said there was ‘No change’. Eventually, when pushed, they admitted that from the scan there was no visible sign of tumours and I’ve been classed as in remission.
Every day, I give thanks to my cancer for waking me up and forcing me to make changes; the most important ones were to learn to love myself and not to be scared. I give thanks to my body for being healthy; I thank myself for having the strength and confidence to deal with it in this way. I give thanks for the love and support I receive from my family and friends and the love that I have to share with them.
I give thanks that my journey has helped me to be a better person and I use all that I’ve learned and discovered to help and treat the people around me. I know that I’m a happier and more multifaceted person than I was pre-cancer. I give thanks that I’ve been guided towards the people, books and workshops that have been life-changing and life-saving for me. David, thank you from the bottom of my heart!
When I became unwell in January 2015 while living in Italy – I had difficulty breathing, fatigue and a constant cough – visualizing myself healthy was instinctive. The illness was a mystery that took months to solve. Over the six months it took to reach a diagnosis, I practised speaking kindly to myself and listening to my body, resting as needed. I believe that your mind is your most powerful tool and I’m careful about what I feed my mind.
I returned to Canada in late May 2015 and received a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, diffuse large B cell, primary mediastinal. Immediately upon hearing the diagnosis, I visualized what I was hearing. There was a 9cm (3in) mass in and on my left lung and I visualized it as a large orange in my chest. I kept my sense of humour and laughed about not being a human fruit bowl and that the orange could leave at any time.
During chemotherapy, I visualized sparkles travelling throughout my body, escorting the chemo drugs to the cells they were targeting. The sparkles worked to protect all the other cells, organs and tissues in my body. I let my creative imagination have fun with the scenarios and changed them as side effects presented different issues.
I made a commitment to make no internet searches and used books to find pictures to enhance my visualizations. Visualizing healthy pink lungs, veins, nerves, hair follicles, and the components of blood as my neutrophil levels dropped. Creating and practising visualizations to meet my body’s changing needs for comfort and healing on a daily basis.
As chemo went on I visualized sparkles and the chemo drugs working together to shrink the orange to the size of a mandarin orange at the halfway test point! The size had been dramatically reduced and was similar to that of a flat mandarin.
I continued to visualize the mass shrinking to a tiny wild blueberry that would blow away. In December the final PET scan result was no remaining active cancer cells. Not even a wild blueberry! Some scar tissue remains that I continue to visualize encased in sparkles to keep it safely contained.
In January 2016 I began radiation and I stepped up my visualization scenario. While in the radiation machine I visualized five green beams as the radiation and animated sparkle shields in my chest to protect the vital organs and skin while directing the beams to the remaining microscopic cells. The 15 rounds of radiation went well, with no visual effect on my skin at all.
I’m happy to say I’m now two years-plus on the good side. Visualization helped during treatment and continues to assist with side effects. I used it as needed, several times a day, to deal with the changing issues throughout treatment and post-treatment healing. Throughout my journey, I shared my story on my blog, www.cinziasadventure.com, which has become the basis for my self-published book, Sparkle On! One Woman’s Creative Way of Reclaiming Her Wellness and Living Life. In addition to the book, I’m planning workshops and speaking engagements to share the message of using a creative mindset and visualization to deal with life’s challenges. My website is www.sparkleon.ca.
I used visualization when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Soon after that diagnosis, I just kept visualizing myself fit, healthy and very much alive.
I had to receive chemotherapy, so every time I had a session I visualized a big blast zapping at my cells. I used to say, ‘I’m going in for my blasting session.’
Every time I described chemotherapy, I used those words, ‘blast and blasting’, so it had more of an impact. I continually visualized this every day.
I think visualization is so powerful and so I’ve completed a course on creative visualization and hope to embark on a career teaching it. I’m so grateful to have survived breast cancer and see it as a blessing rather than a curse as I never take anything for granted and I’ve changed for the better as a person.
I was diagnosed with inoperable breast cancer over 10 years ago. I was only given a 15 per cent chance of survival. The cancer had spread into my lymphatic system and into my neck. I had chemotherapy and radiotherapy to shrink the tumours and then if anything was left in my breast it was to be surgically removed.
While I was having my treatment I visualized a rabbit, whom I called ‘Pure Health’, jumping into my body and eating all the cancer cells. The cancer cells were food for the rabbit and he loved eating them. They didn’t harm him because they were his food. He looked so healthy and had a really glossy coat. When he was full up he jumped out of my body and ran off into the woods where, at a certain spot, he excreted all his waste products. At that spot, in time, a beautiful tree grew. Everyone who saw the tree, or sat under it, felt great peace and wellbeing. It was called a healing tree.
I did this visualization at least two or three times a day and every time I had my treatment. At the end of my treatment the doctors were amazed at how well I’d responded to it. The cancer had disappeared, and I didn’t need an operation.
Another visualization I did was to see the cancer cells as balloons and to see, two or three times a day, the balloons popping. The empty shells were then flushed through my body and came out as waste products and were sent into the earth to be changed to positive energy for the good of all.
The third visualization was for me to stand under a shower of pure, healing water. The water entered through the crown of my head and flowed down the inside of my body, flushing all the cancer cells out. The water came out of my feet as black, thick liquid at first. This gradually changed to a brown, thinner liquid and then to clear water when the cancer cells had been removed. This water went down the drain to the earth, again to be changed into a positive energy. Then I visualized a pure white healing light filling the spaces in my body where the cancer cells had been.
Also, every night I say to myself before I go to sleep, ‘I have a wonderful body that is glowing with perfect health,’ and ‘Every single living cell in my body is whole, normal and perfect.’ I also visualize my body full of pink healing light, as this is the colour for love and harmony. Another thing I do is to chant ‘Om’ into my left breast, and at a certain note I can feel the tissue vibrating. I’m sure that all this has helped me, as I’m still alive and well more than 10 years later. The doctors and nurses still marvel at the fact that I’m so healthy.
Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had very large tumours in my abdomen and groin. I was scheduled for chemotherapy but was told to wait for five weeks to see how my disease was going to evolve. It was believed to be a slow-growing type but because the tumours were really large it was thought that the cancer might be about to mutate to a more aggressive form.
During my wait, I did a lot of reading and had reflexology three times a week. I’d started to train as a reflexologist so I knew it could help. My reflexologist told me of the real dangers of chemo – something I’d not been made aware of. To cut a long story short, I decided not to have any conventional treatment and relied on an organic diet and vegetable juicing, long walks in nature and lots of laughter with friends. I also gave up teaching.
But I did use visualization to focus my cells on getting rid of the cancer. First of all, I told myself my body was not my enemy, but that some of its cells had lost their way somehow. I drew a picture representing my cancerous cells as grey blobs without much shape or substance. I then drew my T-cells as little piranha fish – they had very focused, friendly eyes and very sharp teeth!
None of the grey blobs stood a chance! I visualized them taking great big mouthfuls out of the cancerous cells, and vacuuming them up into their little stomachs… they obviously enjoyed their food. I even ‘heard’ them go, ‘Miam, miam, miam!’ as they ate (that’s ‘Yum, yum’… I’m French).
At first, I had to make a point of going through this visualization several times a day, but very soon it became part of my every waking moment. It was as though I had a little TV screen in the corner of my mind that was constantly showing the same cartoon. It made me smile a lot.
I also used affirmations, which varied. At the very beginning, when I still had a lot of anxiety about being diagnosed and dying, I made one up, a variation of ‘Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.’ Mine was: ‘My immune system is very strong and every day my cells are getting cleaner and healthier, my immune system is very strong.’ Somehow the repetition seemed to be necessary in order to imprint on my brain.
It worked, because whenever I woke up during the night in the grip of panic, my affirmation would kick in and I’d be able to go back to sleep after focusing on it for a while. Then the next night I’d wake up again and, this time, virtually as soon as my eyes opened, I’d hear the words in my brain and go back to sleep immediately, reassured that, even in sleep, my body was still working for me.
After a while, I’d barely open one eye and hear my head filled with my affirmation: the tape was on without my having to switch it on, so to speak! After I realized that, I never woke up during the night again.
I’d also played with the affirmation during the day: I’d take a mirror and pretend to be talking to somebody else and say, to the mirror, ‘My immune system is very strong, you know!’ and more often than not, I’d end up laughing at the thought of somebody walking in on me while I was having this demented conversation with my mirror.
I also used affirmations to tackle certain emotional issues that were at the root of my cancer. The very simple one suggested by Louise Hay – ‘I love and approve of myself, all is well’ – proved impossible at first. I couldn’t look at myself and say, ‘I love and approve of myself,’ without either crying or laughing hysterically… Still, using Louise Hay I looked at the affirmation to do with cancer as being a deep hurt – a long-standing resentment, etc. – and it hit home. So, I also did my best with ‘I lovingly forgive and release all of the past.’ I still use this one today and feel my heart open up as I say it.
I was diagnosed in April, on my 45th birthday, and by December my cancerous tumours had decreased by 70 per cent. By the beginning of the next year they had all disappeared. You can check all these facts: my consultant at the Vale of Leven Hospital (in Scotland) is Dr Patricia Clarke.
Here’s to a life of no limits!
Author’s note: Cathie has since written a book about her experience: Rabbits Don’t Get Lymphoma.
Eleven years ago (2007), I was diagnosed with Post-polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease. My life came to a screeching halt.
I was at the height of an award-winning career as a VA (Veterans Affairs) social worker, yet was told that if there was any ‘hope’ of stabilizing the symptoms as they were, I needed to quit my job and be prepared to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair, possibly needing a feeding tube because I would aspirate my food due to weakness on the left side of my oesophagus.
I was weak and in chronic pain, anxious and depressed. I got still and asked for Divine Guidance, and I began writing poetry in which I imagined myself being whole, healed and free in my body. My first poem was ‘Running the Race’ – yes, I know, pretty incredible, as I sat in a leg brace using a cane and at times a wheelchair for mobility. I went on to run the 2009 Boston Marathon as a mobility-impaired runner!
In addition to using poetry as a vehicle for visualization, I meditated several times a day, imagining God as my master electrician, rewiring my neuromuscular system and healing the effects of both childhood paralytic polio and severe childhood trauma that manifested as Post-polio syndrome.
Three years ago, my left knee ‘blew out’. I was pushing myself way too hard in my running without cross training. An MRI indicated an atrophied gastric muscle, bone spurs, degenerative changes due to osteoarthritis and multiple knee surgeries, shredded cartilage and a fatty lipoma. I was told to stop running and prepare to need a total knee replacement in a few years’ time.
I returned to visualization and found my way to a wonderful chiropractor who supported my use of it; I also had a ‘goals, not limits’ philosophy. The chiropractor was also a personal trainer who prescribed exercises to support me as a runner. We used Kinesio tape and the power of visualization to heal my knee and grow a new gastric muscle.
I upped my game in terms of time spent in meditation, using visualization that harnessed the power of my mind and the Divine within and around me. In January I crossed the finish line of my third Bermuda half-marathon in as many years.
Now, at the age of 64, I’m not in a wheelchair and I’ve not had a total knee replacement. Instead, I live a full, vibrant life through the power of visualizing myself from illness to wellness – claiming my birthright to be healthy.
The visualizations came to me as I wrote poetry, and initially they came in the cadence of Dr Seuss. The significance there is that after I contracted paralytic polio as a child, my physical therapist (who was my Earth angel), given my parents’ drug and alcohol addictions, read Dr Seuss to me before every physical therapy session and then had me recite back to her in tandem so that I wouldn’t be focused on the pain of the treatments. Pretty advanced for the late 1950s and early 60s!
So, the visualizations included running and splashing in puddles and seeing myself as whole and free and healthy. I visualized myself dancing again as a ballerina. All with the rhythm and cadence of Dr Seuss rhymes that I know inspired me to heal mind, body and soul. I had a pen and paper with me at all times to write down the visualizations. I had literally no pain when I visualized myself free and happy without my leg brace… I was there completely in the moment.
For the knee, I pored over the MRI results to understand what needed to heal. I imagined the bone spurs dissolved. I imagined surgery that would repair the torn cartilage, even though the doctor said there wasn’t enough good cartilage left to repair and grow new cartilage. I’d watched my own arthroscopic surgery for a torn meniscus, so I had a wonderful mental image to use. I imagined the Kinesio tape my chiropractor used stimulating healing.
My chiropractor suggested I read You Are the Placebo by Dr Joe Dispenza, a book that built on my beliefs about my body’s ability to heal with love (I’d learned those beliefs from the writer and retired surgeon Dr Bernie Siegel – especially from the story of Evy McDonald, who healed her life and healed her body from the degenerative neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS).
So, I used Dr Dispenza’s meditation suggestions to heal my knee. I also used a meditation from the healer and teacher Dr Mitchell May, saying ‘I am a child of God – this is easy for God to heal,’ and I’d imagine myself in an MRI machine being beamed with healing love and light, making everything new.
When I wasn’t writing poetry, I meditated several times throughout the day. God was my master electrician and I imagined my body as a house that needed to have the loose connections repaired. God came in with all of the tools that an electrician uses to strip damaged wires and reconnect them with a soldering iron. I imagined myself as a brand-new house with a new structure to support the new wiring.
I now meditate at least twice a day, journal when I need to, and if/when I feel pain during the day, I pause to visualize myself as healthy, whole and healed.
When I was 17, I developed persistent itching on the back of my scalp. After a few months, I could feel that the skin had thickened and the little ‘patch’ that had formed was expanding. A doctor concluded that it was psoriasis, which is a condition in which skin cells divide seven to 10 times faster than they’re supposed to, making the skin thicker, red, scaly and itchy. I was also told it’s a genetic condition that’s (supposedly) incurable. ‘Well, there you have it, then,’ I thought.
In the years that followed, the patch kept expanding. Eventually, it ended up covering the back half of my scalp, but it stayed under the hairline. After that, I guess I just got used to it being there. It itched, so I scratched. It flaked, so I got used to brushing skin flakes off my shoulders all the time, so people wouldn’t wonder if I had a severe case of dandruff and just needed to look after myself better.
In the years after the diagnosis, I tried every treatment on the market – ointments, creams, shampoos. Some soothed the itching a bit, some reduced the thickness of the skin a little, but nothing really got rid of it – which is what I was hoping for on some level, in spite of the ‘incurable’ factor.
Some years later, as I was prescribed yet another ointment, I looked up its side effects: it was a corticosteroid cream that could allegedly cause some hideous side effects, including making the psoriasis worse! I was fed up. I’d had enough. I figured that I’d rather just have psoriasis! So, that’s when I decided to give up. No more creams. No more greasy ointments. No more expensive shampoos. Just get on with it and live with it. It just seemed like a lot less hassle.
I’d always had an interest in alternative healing methods, and as time went on I learned more and more about holistic approaches to health, and about the mind–body connection. Twenty years after the initial diagnosis, I came across David Hamilton’s book How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body (1st edition). It was like I’d found the missing piece of the puzzle. He talked about the placebo effect, which I find immensely interesting. It was like this gave me a nudge, and I finally realized that I was ready. Ready to send psoriasis back to where it came from. Not in an angry way. Not in a resentful way. But in a peaceful and knowing way. No resistance.
In the book, David shares stories from people telling how they cured themselves of serious health conditions and diseases such as cancer. Thankfully, my psoriasis isn’t a life-threatening condition, although some forms of it can be very serious. But I realized I could use these same methods, these tools, to accomplish what I’d set out to do.
Some years before I found David’s book, I’d heard a story of a child with a terminal brain tumour who, instead of having to undergo invasive (and futile) treatments, was asked what he enjoyed doing. (Perhaps I’m making up some of the details here, but it gets the point across.)
He said he liked to play Space Invaders on his computer, so that’s what he got to do. As he was playing and shooting the aliens, he was told to imagine he was shooting at the tumour in his head, which would crumble down, bit by bit, just like the aliens in the computer game. Some months later, the boy announced that the tumour had gone, and he wasn’t ill anymore. Lo and behold, this was confirmed by the doctors after they ran their tests.
I loved this story. The visualizations described in David’s book were of a similar nature, although each person had a different way of approaching it – some used forceful methods (such as shooting at their tumour, chipping away pieces of it), whereas others used more gentle ones (such as embracing the tumour cells, thanking them for the point they were making and asking them nicely to leave).
So, I made up my own version. I decided to visualize myself small, standing on my own shoulder, and talking to the skin cells on my scalp. I told them that I appreciated them, that they’d worked really hard, but it was now time for a vacation – to stop working so hard. At the time, to say it felt silly was an understatement. It felt downright ridiculous, in fact. But I just laughed at myself and stuck with it.
One day, I was visiting my Reiki Master and I told her about the visualizations I was doing. She gave me another piece of the puzzle. I’d gotten so used to having psoriasis that all the habits surrounding it (such as brushing the flakes off my shoulders) had become almost subconscious. She suggested I take the ‘reverse’ approach. By brushing my shoulders, I was giving my scalp an excuse to flake! That made me realize that the visualizations were only one (important) part of it.
The other part of the equation was to get myself in a conscious attitude of ‘I used to have psoriasis’, rather than the habituated subconscious attitude of ‘I have psoriasis.’ So, I had to stop brushing my shoulders. I had to stop being conscious of skin flakes. I had to feel, do and be as if I didn’t have psoriasis any more.
I think this was what took the biggest effort. Breaking a habit of 20 years wasn’t easy, but as it turned out, it wasn’t impossible either. Every time I caught myself brushing my shoulders, I forced myself to stop. Every time I noticed those skin flakes on my clothes, I just left them there. It was difficult and frustrating – it felt almost alien, somehow – but I persisted and gradually broke the habit. That, in combination with a loving approach to self-healing, enabled me to say after about 12–18 months of visualizing, that ‘I used to have psoriasis’ – and it was actually true.
I’ve been psoriasis-free for about three years now. In addition to visualizing, I also started using clay (rhassoul clay from Morocco) during that time to wash my hair. My hairdresser said it’s made my hair thicker and healthier, and not having to fight its way through that thick skin is definitely helping! I still use the clay now – it’s ideal for problem or sensitive skin, and I love to use it as a body wash too.
I feel that this experience has given me a glimmer of insight into the power of the mind… we don’t know half of its true potential. But I hope that visualization will become an important part of modern medicine sooner rather than later, so that potentially harmful treatments are a plan B rather than a first choice. Here’s hoping!
I was diagnosed with an autoimmune illness called generalized pustular psoriasis (also known as von Zumbusch), a rare form of psoriasis that can be lethal. The only country in the world that’s done any sort of research on it is Japan.
In February 2014, the entire illness started with a throat infection. The T-cells started to push up through my skin instead of going around my bloodstream and doing their thing. This was the start of guttate psoriasis, which is not common in women, particularly those over the age of 30. Guess what? I’m a woman over the age of 30.
In March, it got out of control on my skin and the doctors thought it had turned into plaque psoriasis over my chest, stomach, back, arms and legs. In June, my skin started to look and feel as if it had sunburn, when I’d not been out in the sun. This is known as erythrodermic psoriasis (all the skin is red, inflamed and painful).
In July 2014, on top of the erythrodermic psoriasis, pustules started to form (they look like small blisters or severe acne). They were full of fluid. Instead of the skin renewing itself every 30 days, it was now renewing itself every two hours. The pustules cycled on my skin every few days, and at the point where I couldn’t touch my arms (due to the pain), I was admitted to hospital. I knew that if the illness got to the lungs and heart, there would be very little chance of recovering from it, and it can also kill through dehydration.
In August 2014, I was put on the immune suppressant methotrexate. Just over two years later, in December 2016, I found out through one of David’s workshops that the brain can’t often tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not, so I started a daily routine of my own prescription, and after a hospital appointment I came off the immune suppressants.
The visualization that I created and have been doing is as follows. I imagine that I knock on the doors of my immune system and big bouncers come to the door. I ask to go to the T-cells and I’m taken to what looks like a cave and they all appear to be minions. I tell them that they need to do something different and they just need to go around the bloodstream and that’s all – they don’t need to push up through the skin.
The T-cells all reply in unison: ‘Oh, the old ways!’ One of them has a plastic dinghy and he jumps inside it and starts to go around my bloodstream. Finally, when he gets back, he shouts, ‘That was fun,’ and the cells all start to cheer and line up to go around my bloodstream. They all jump in the dinghy and start to go around.
It’s March 2018 as I write this. I was told that I’d get a flareup while coming off the immunosuppressants. I didn’t! I was also told that I’d be hospitalized at least once a year. I haven’t been! I’ve hardly had any of the pustules on my skin, even though I’ve had some plaque psoriasis. I’ve not taken any immunosuppressants for over a year. I’m not cured, but I believe that with a bit more time, I will be.
I was diagnosed with moderate to severe ME/CFS in January 2012. I had very little energy; I was debilitated and unable to do much. At 47, I had to retire from my wonderful career, and was dependent on my partner for many aspects of living. There was/is no treatment for ME/CFS.
My partner came across David Hamilton’s book How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body (1st edition) in December 2013. I completely got it! My background in nursing and complementary therapy of over 20 years provided a baseline of understanding. I completely bought into the concept. Nothing else was working, but I believed this practice would work for me.
On 11 December 2013, I started with an hour of visualization. As it was close to Christmas I visualized that all my cells, throughout my whole body, were lit up just like Christmas tree lights. They shone so, so brightly, a beautiful white glow. At the same time, I imagined the white glow in each cell to be my energy. Filling each cell with deep, strong energy, like a fully charged battery. I could feel and sense the energy. I saw my whole body lighting up as soon as I closed my eyes to visualize, lying on my bed, slowly breathing, calm and relaxed.
It took three days of one-hour Christmas tree lights visualization to shift the balance from ‘illness to wellness’. There was a certain synergy, harmonizing my whole body – it was just incredible! I felt a definite change on the first day of visualization, and by the third day, I felt the ‘black shadow’ had lifted. I tested it! Wearing only my swimming costume, I jumped into the sea on Boxing Day, known as the ‘Boxing Day Dip’. I checked… no ME/CFS symptoms. No symptoms the next day, none the third day.
I used this visualization technique every single day for two months for approximately 20 minutes at a time. Throughout these days I’d sing, ‘I am Fit; I am Well; I am Full of Energy’ as a Christmas carol. At times it was a melody of chorus as my partner joined me and sang.
I did this affirmation every single day for well over three months. I lost count of how many times a day. The words sprang to my lips as I woke up, as I cleaned my teeth, as I dressed, as I walked the dogs. The words were there consistently and persistently throughout this period of time in my life. During the following months my energy levels consistently recharged with sustained energy. I was able to live again, enjoying a more balanced lifestyle. The rest is history!
I bought the first edition of How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body when it came out – in fact, I feel like I’ve been reading mind/body and visualization books incessantly since my teenage years – starting with Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life – and now I know why!
I got married in my early thirties and planned to start a family immediately, but it didn’t happen for us. But I could ‘see’ my children and I had vivid dreams about them preparing to arrive!
I was absolutely thrilled to get pregnant and I gave birth to a scrumptious son a little after my 40th birthday. It was an anxious pregnancy, and I lost a lot of blood at the birth and was taken straight into surgery. I spent the first few days in the high dependency unit, where my heart was beating too quickly and I had difficulty breathing.
I was diagnosed with idiopathic cardiomyopathy – a condition where the heart is unable to pump blood around the body efficiently. I was in severe heart failure. I was put on a medication programme and received excellent care, but was told that it was ‘highly likely’ that I wouldn’t make it past the next 12 months.
I knew I had to get my heart’s ‘ejection fraction’ up to the normal range of above 55. I’d imagine turning a dial up to above this figure. I pictured it as often as I passed the heating dial in our house. It’s at the bottom of the stairs, so I’d visualize at least twice a day. It would be very quick though – imagining that it was the dial that turned my ejection fraction up. In my mind, I’d see the 55 and quickly turn it around past that number. People would tell me that I looked far too well for someone so poorly.
I also pictured the cardiologist telling me that I’d achieved this number and I visualized being vibrant and healthy. This was more of a protracted daydream rather than structured sessions where I’d imagine the conversation with the cardiologist and also telling friends and family afterwards, which felt more animated/emotive. It’s tricky to do anything structured with a baby/toddler so this was more when I felt inspired to, but also to counteract the times when I did feel worried/negative/panicky. I’d say that I did this about once a week.
I did David’s ‘I Heart Me’ online programme and I took time to talk to my heart and show it some love. I regularly bought my heart red roses!
Just over a year after diagnosis, I was here to celebrate my son’s first birthday, and an MRI revealed that my ejection fraction had surpassed 55 and had gone from severe to normal! In fact, my last MRI reading was 62.
I’m currently using visualization to upgrade my health further, and I’ll always believe that if we can see it, we can be it! I’m not out of the woods yet with my heart – it’s still enlarged so I’m working on it being more compact and, also, I often imagine mini workers in there making it more efficient!
I’d finished working on my PC in my bedroom and had got the ironing board out. In those few seconds, my right thumb became completely swollen and solid.
My immediate thought was that this could be a thrombosis and the last thing I wanted was for it to dislodge and end up in my brain or heart. I went straight to my local hospital’s A&E department. By this time my thumb had started turning blue, which added to my fear.
I was referred to a local GP (I was told a referral from him back to the hospital would be quicker than waiting). He was very thorough and examined my fingers and eyes, told me I had a fever and said that he could hear a heart murmur. Putting all these together, he thought I could have a heart valve infection, which was potentially very serious and might involve me having to have valve replacement surgery.
He explained that bacteria can form on the valve and that bits of it break off and can cause clots (which is what he thought was causing my blue thumb). He telephoned the hospital and told them he was referring me immediately. By this time, my thumb was completely blue and still swollen solid.
Walking back to the hospital, I thought about how our lives can change in a matter of seconds. I became very aware of my mortality (not necessarily a bad thing but, wow, can it bring on lots of anxiety and raw fear!).
After further tests in A&E, the doctors there concluded that it could well be a heart valve infection. I was admitted to hospital very late that night, with an echocardiogram and chest X-rays planned for the next day.
It was difficult to sleep and I lay there thinking of the things I still wanted to do in my life and how I didn’t want to have major surgery with the possibility of dying. The more I thought along those lines, the more frightened I became. My fear fed on itself and grew, until I suddenly shouted ‘Stop!’ to myself in my mind.
I reminded myself that there was an alternative way of responding to this situation. I made an agreement with myself that it was OK to acknowledge my fear rather than suppress it, but it would do me more harm to let it develop into a downward spiral of negativity. I decided I wasn’t going to need heart valve surgery and that I could heal myself. I wasn’t going to die and I wasn’t going to allow my fear to have a negative impact on my situation. I started to talk to my body, reminding it of how wonderful, powerful and strong it was and how it has amazing abilities to heal itself. I encouraged it to get into ‘super-heal’ mode!
I suddenly got a visualization in my mind that was so spontaneous and clear that it surprised me. I was inside my heart, looking at one of the valves. I saw the three parts of it that open and then close together to form a seal and I saw the bacteria on it.
I then saw that I had a pressure hose in my hand, the kind you use to clean paths, and I knew I was about to blast the bacteria off my heart valve. But I realized that if I did that, bits of bacteria would then be free in my circulatory system and could cause further clots. Suddenly, I visualized big blobby immune system cells forming a protective line a little distance away. I knew they would envelop and absorb the bits of bacteria that would be blasted off and would prevent them doing further damage.
I started the pressure hose. Having used one before, I knew how it felt, and about the kickback when the pressurized water hit something. I worked the blast of water over my heart valve and watched bits of bacteria flying off, to be swamped by my blobby cells.
I drifted off to sleep, but whenever I woke up (which was frequently!), I’d replay the visualization, along with talking to my body in really positive and powerful ways. I’d encourage it and tell it I had faith in the massive amounts of energy and healing abilities it had. I felt a determination to be totally healthy and vibrantly alive and remain so for many years to come.
The next morning, I was examined by a consultant and a team of doctors. Interestingly, I no longer had a fever and my thumb was less swollen and had started to soften. I then had my echocardiogram and chest X-rays, which both indicated that I have a great heart! There was no sign of bacterial infection.
I cannot, in all honesty, say that I definitely had a heart valve infection before my visualization. However, no consultant or GP (at the time or in follow-up appointments) has been able to provide an alternative explanation for the symptoms I displayed. At the very least, my visualization enabled me to get into a positive frame of mind and eliminate my fear. At most, who knows? It might just have saved my life.
Two weeks ago, I was told that my baby had an irregular heartbeat of 167 beats per minute (bpm). After doing healing work every day (going into the cells of my baby’s heart and putting in pink hearts with angel wings on them to represent love, and the words ‘Normal regular heartbeat’), I was told yesterday that the bpm had come down to 147 and that the beat was totally normal and regular. I’m not sure whether it was all the love and healing that did it, but I’d like to think it was.
About nine years ago I was quite unwell and thought I had bowel cancer. All the tests were negative, but before the test results were known, a blood test showed that I had a dangerously high cholesterol level and a blockage in the left carotid artery. The trouble with the bowels had been because of the amount of cholesterol in my system!
One of the doctors had been sounding my heart and around the neck area, which I thought was rather weird at the time. He later told me that when he decided to practise in Scotland he’d always check for heart/stroke potentials. It was thanks to him that the blockage in my carotid artery was found. This was why I was having dizzy spells.
At that time, I knew nothing of cholesterol problems but, as is my wont, I read everything I could. My cholesterol reading was 11 and I was put on statins. I had a vegetarian diet but was very fond of cheese and butter and cream, so they were all cut out and I lost a stone in weight.
After about nine months, during which time I was telling the doctor about the muscle pains and tiredness, etc., to no avail, I was taken to hospital with a suspected stroke. I’d woken up with no movement in the left side of my body. Thank God I’d not had a stroke, but my muscles had been paralysed by the statins.
The doctors wanted to change the drug type, but I refused any more. I was a great follower of Louise Hay and positive thinking, so I set to with my visualization exercises. I pictured my carotid artery with the blockage. I thought it was probably not a good idea to blast it, as I didn’t want bits floating along the arteries.
Many years ago, the very first computer game my daughter had was called ‘Parkie’, in which you were the ‘parkie’ chasing round the flowerbeds to catch these ‘things’ before they gobbled the flowers. (They were like a yellow ball that opened like a mouth and ate the flowers.) So, I pictured the blockage dissolving slowly and good cells, just like the ‘gobblers’, coming along and sucking up the dissolved cholesterol, taking it out of my system and disposing of it safely.
It worked. I no longer have a blockage. I now control my cholesterol by positive thinking and diet and exercise.
Since I was a child I’ve suffered from travel sickness on buses. I’ve tried travel sickness pills, but to no avail. I often travel to Iona (a tiny island off the southwest coast of Mull in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides) but dreaded the bus journey across Mull.
Then someone recommended sucking crystallized ginger – and it worked. But one day on the ferry from Oban to Mull I realized I’d forgotten my crystallized ginger. I dreaded getting on the bus. However, once on the bus, I imagined getting some crystallized ginger out of a bag, putting it in my mouth and sucking it. I got all the way across Mull without feeling sick.
Eventually I was able to travel on buses without even visualizing and on one occasion when the train from Oban to Glasgow was full, I did the journey by bus with no travel sickness. Now I’ve no problems on buses.
Somehow, I developed a verruca on the inside of my right big toe, towards the top. It showed all the typical signs – a raised area of skin with a black centre where the virus that caused it had taken hold. I was tempted to use one of the freeze kits you can now buy at the chemist; however, the location of the verruca, on a sensitive part of my toe, made me squirm.
So, I decided I’d try a visualization. I sat down and closed my eyes and relaxed. I created an intention of a visualization that would be appropriate in this case. Almost immediately I had a clear picture in my mind of being underneath the verruca. I could see the black centre of it above me.
Suddenly the lower area resembled a building site! A crisscross mesh of protective skin formed between the verruca and the skin below. The mesh looked like the metal framework around which concrete is poured to strengthen it. There was a clear inner intention that the virus would never be able to penetrate this protective mesh of skin. In fact, this layer was slowly moving up, to push the verruca off my toe.
Although I had this visualization only once, it was very clear and powerful, with a feeling of intention behind it.
About a week later, after my shower, I wondered if anything had happened. To my disappointment, the black centre of the verruca was still on my toe. However, to my delight, when out of curiosity I put my fingernails either side of it, off it came! The skin is now almost healed.
I had two giant verrucas on my feet. The one on the left foot was taking almost the whole surface of my big toe. David told me that I could heal them with visualization. I did so and they disappeared! Wow! I’d had them for five or six years and I’d tried everything (I burned them, took drugs and herbs), and now they’re gone. Now I will go and have a foot massage – hehehehe!
First, I imagined that I was burning them with acid. Sometimes I was just brushing them with an acid brush and sometimes I had a gun that fired acid and I fired it on my verrucas. After one week the results were impressive. After that I tried also to visualize my feet and toes without any verrucas, just nice skin, and sometimes I imagined that I was burning them.
Ah, yes, the best part – I had on a regular basis (a couple of times a day) a victory dance in the toilets at work or at home or in the car. Good fun.
I also noticed that, in the past, I was always negative about the verrucas. Every time my girlfriend told me to try to do something about them, I’d say, ‘No, it won’t work.’ So, thank you very much – 100,000,000 times.
In December 1978 I had the flu. I didn’t like having it because it rendered me useless, aching and feeling thoroughly miserable. I made a vow that I’d never have it again! And I never have! I’ve managed this with the use of visualization and affirmations; each year, I state that I have no use for being laid up with influenza and that I’m healthy.
Each year since 1978, upon feeling what might be the beginning of a simple cold or flu, I’ve visualized my immune system as my own personal army. In the beginning, ‘Lynn’s Army’ was equipped with bows and arrows, but over the years they’ve evolved into an army of light fighters using beams of red light to annihilate the attacking enemy, followed by blue light for healing and green light for regeneration. I visualize myself inside a bubble that alternates between blue and green and all the shades in between.
However, this didn’t prepare me for another illness, diagnosed on Christmas Eve 2002. I was admitted to hospital suffering from kidney failure and a biopsy revealed systemic lupus erythematosus, or lupus. This is an autoimmune disease that’s caused by the body’s immune system turning against itself. My troops had turned mutinous!
During my four-month stay in hospital I was too ill to do anything other than sleep. I was being treated with a toxic cocktail of nuclear drugs, including chemotherapy, and had to spend four hours, three times per week, on dialysis.
I’m a very spiritual person and during this time I felt as though I was surrounded and protected by angels; I guess this was how my subconscious interpreted the feeling of trust I learned to have in those who were in charge of my care and wellbeing. During my waking hours, I was convinced there was an aura of rainbow colours around me, healing me and protecting me, and I never doubted that I’d recover from my ordeal.
When I was eventually discharged from hospital, I couldn’t walk due to muscular apathy. I hated being confined to a wheelchair and this resulted in a recurring dream in which I was enjoying the freedom of being able to run with the wind in my hair. Considering that all my hair had fallen out due to the effects of chemotherapy, this was a rather positive dream!
This dream started the deliberate visualization of seeing myself walking, followed by actually carrying out the task and walking further each week until I was finally able to get rid of the wheelchair. I’m still a long way off being able to manage the daily walk of 12km (8 miles) I enjoyed before I became ill and I’m still registered disabled. But with the use of visualization, I remain hopeful that my ability will improve.
Coping with the lupus forced me to review my use of visualization. Mutiny is the result of disharmony amongst the troops. I began to see my illness in a different light; lupus is a Latin word meaning ‘wolf’ and I guess my interest in mythology played a big part in learning to deal with my affliction. The following is taken from an article I wrote for Lupus UK’s official magazine, News & Views, which I entitled ‘The Beautiful Beast Within’:
For many years, since childhood, I’ve been fascinated with mythology, particularly the legends of shape shifters: humans who can take on the shapes of animals, birds or fish. I’ve spent most of my adult life in some form of spiritual training, which has included walking the shamanic path and learning about power animals.
I met my power animal many years ago. She appeared to me in the form of a beautiful wolf with silvery-grey fur. We have travelled together and she has taught me many things. In the Native American Indian tradition, Wolf is teacher and Rudyard Kipling used this description in his Jungle Book stories. Arkela is the alpha male wolf who finds the orphaned Mowgli and rears him as his own. This is why the Scout movement adopted the name for their pack leaders.
In Celtic mythology, Wolf is the mentor. Wolf is seen as the companion of the God of Nature, Cernunnos, and also the Goddess of Childbirth, Bridget; both are thought to take on the shape of the wolf and walk between the worlds. For the wolf, communication and community are of the utmost importance. The alpha male and female are chosen for their abilities to teach and lead the others, so co-operation is of vital importance amongst the members of a pack. These qualities are things that most people regard as vital in a society that wishes to live harmoniously.
For me, lupus is much more than a disease. She is the beautiful beast that resides within me. Just like any wild animal, I have to be careful how I approach her; she needs special care and consideration, but is happy enough to accept the offering of steak every so often! If I’ve overworked her, she howls and makes me suffer for my inconsideration, and I know to step back and leave her in peace to rest for a day or so.
Sometimes, I step back and take a good long look at her; she is wild and ferocious, yet she is beautiful and wise and I know she has something of the greatest importance to teach me and those working in the field of learning about lupus. Despite the scars I carry, accredited by my own carelessness in dealing with her, I love her. She is a part of me and I’ve learned that we can only walk side by side if I learn to consider her needs as well as my own.
Visualizing my illness as an alter ego has helped me to cope with having lupus. Six months after I came out of hospital, my consultant remarked on how well I was, considering that I’d been so devastatingly ill. Now, four years on, I’m off all lupus-related drugs and enjoying remission.
I have a genetic condition called Ehlers Danlos syndrome Type 2 (a connective tissue disorder) that has also triggered an autoimmune condition called Behçet’s disease, which is in the same family as lupus. These cause considerable widespread pain and inflammation in joints, internal organs, eyes, ears, mouth etc. It’s a constant daily balancing act to keep myself functioning, and I use visualization all the time and have done for years.
A good example of a definite improvement linked to visualization happened 18 months ago when my left eye became inflamed. My whole eye was swelling up and I could hardly see. (This has happened many times over the years but this was a particularly bad flare-up: the inflammation was spreading into my face and left ear.)
I can’t take antibiotics without going into hospital and having an IV drip, and my optician was concerned that the inflammation was spreading towards my cornea and other areas where it could permanently damage my sight, so I was sent to the eye hospital that day. I saw the specialist and he wanted to operate but said there was too much swelling and inflammation to do so immediately; he sent me home with an antibiotic cream and instructions to see my optician daily and to return to the hospital in a week, unless things deteriorated further before then.
The swelling was pressing on my eyeball, he told me, and it would set hard and have to be cut out once the inflammation around it had reduced.
I was determined that things were not going to deteriorate, so as well as following all the advice given, I also spent an hour a day (sometimes longer) massaging the area and visualizing the cream entering the skin and dissolving the crystals in the lump around the eye. I also imagined drinking magic water that would make any medication work more powerfully, and to stimulate my own immune system to calm down while switching on all the cells in my body that needed to start work to heal this area.
I repeated the affirmation ‘I have complete faith and trust in my body’s ability to heal itself.’ I imagined any infection being flushed out of my feet into the Earth to be transformed. I could see all the cells switching on happily, whizzing into action to heal me.
Not only did the inflammation go down but so did the lump – to the point where I was querying with my optician whether to go back to the hospital. We called the specialist, who said that it needed to be cut out, so I returned. When the doctor saw me he couldn’t believe it. He said that in all his years of practice, he’d never seen this type of lump disappear without being surgically removed.
He had a good look internally and agreed that it had all but completely gone and surgery would just cause other issues. His exact words were, ‘Well, I don’t know what you’ve been doing but keep doing it because whatever it is, it’s working.’ I told him what I’d been doing and he said he’d never heard of this, but something had worked. After a month there was no sign that a lump had ever been there.
Two weeks ago, I had a flare-up of the same condition and so I started straight away with the visualizations. This time I had one check-up with the optician on the Monday and by Friday my symptoms had disappeared completely, no hospital visit necessary.
Last week I saw a specialist nurse who asked how I managed with all my different EDS-related issues, and I told her, meditation and mindfulness. She said, ‘This is what’s keeping you going.’
I had terrible hay fever for years and had to take antihistamines daily. I decided to try visualization and after doing it once or twice I’ve only had to take an antihistamine two or three times in the last eight months. I’ve had no hay fever symptoms for the rest of the summer.
I saw a little ‘Me’ going towards my immune system, which I imagined was made up of hundreds of little people. As I was going towards them, I couldn’t see them properly and vice versa – they couldn’t see me too well as there was quite a bit of fog. Because of this, my immune system was attacking me, fearing that I was an enemy. However, as the fog cleared, my immune system and I saw each other and I said, ‘Hey, it’s me, there’s no need to fight. Just chill out and do only what you have to do to keep me healthy. Take the rest of the day off.’
I then saw the head guy shout to all his troops, ‘Hey, it’s just Elizabeth – we don’t need to fight.’ His troops let out a cheer and started to play tennis and lie down on beds to sunbathe. I hugged the head guy and then walked off.
I’ve struggled with being overweight all my life. It’s my – sorry, it was my – safety net, the barrier to keep the hurt away, and finally I made the solemn decision that I didn’t need the extra weight anymore.
So, I started, a few months ago, to visualize a Pac-Man type of being eating away at my fat cells. I’ve lost about 6kg (1 stone) since January (three months ago). It’s a long process and, aside from the unconscious changes in my eating habits that I sometimes notice, nothing in my lifestyle has changed – it’s still as hectic as before.
I manage, on average, to do the visualization five times in a good week, mostly every night before going to sleep. I have breaks in between where I don’t do any visualization. The visualization consists of some Pac-Man beings eating the fat in particular points of my body and then just exploding and disappearing into thin air.
Some others then actually transport the fat from the thighs and waist to my breasts (as you probably know, the first part of the female body to go down during weight loss is the breasts, but I gained half a cup instead by doing it this way; it’s just marvellous!) and then I try to visualize my skin tightening up. I finish with a whole-body scan/healing to raise the metabolism and check for parts that may not be in tune with the rest.
The results so far are: weight loss 9.5kg (1 stone, 7lbs) in around four months; I’ve gone from a tight size 22 to a comfortable size 20; I’ve gained half a cup on my bra size; I’ve gone from needing at least eight hours sleep to being comfortable with only six and not being tired; and I’ve no new stretch marks at all!
I eat what I want when I want, when I’m hungry – takeaways included (very busy life) – but it seems that I’ve lost interest in things like chocolate and sweets in general, and I feel fuller sooner when I eat. The brain and the mind are two amazing tools!
A few years after the birth of my second child, I started to feel progressively unlike myself and I was sure that I had an underactive thyroid. I was experiencing a myriad of symptoms, such as hair loss, very low mood (totally uncharacteristic for me), constipation and severe bloating, nine urine infections over a one-year period, weight gain (despite a very healthy diet and exercise), eczema, joint pain, occasional limb and facial numbness, nasal drip, severe fatigue, constant hunger.
I repeatedly attended the doctors’ surgery, only to be told that my thyroid was still within the parameters they expected so there was nothing they could do. At this point, I was wondering if I potentially had something like ME, fibromyalgia or MS, but as the doctors said there was nothing that could be done, I continued to live like this. However, I was struggling to accept how unlike myself I felt.
A couple of years later, during my over-40s health check at my GP surgery, the phlebotomist tagged on a thyroid check as he could see it had been tested before. When the test came back, my thyroid was underactive. I was so pleased to have a diagnosis and was promptly prescribed levothyroxine – what I thought would be the magic pill, the solution to my health dilemma. Now this is where my case gets interesting.
The tablets worked for about three months: I had energy back, my hair was growing again, and I lost all of the extra weight I’d put on. But then three months in, things seemed to slow back down again, and in my mind I believed the tablets just stopped working. Having read How Your Mind Can Heal your Body (1st edition), I knew what a massive impact my thoughts could have had on my thyroid function and of the effectiveness of the tablets.
I realized that, over the years, I’d done my thyroid function no favours by constantly affirming that it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, and then subsequently believing the tablets had stopped working! I realized that if my thoughts were that powerful, I could really turn this around myself by putting in place a visualization, as so many others had done.
This is what I did. On a daily basis (sometimes multiple times a day) I’d visualize my thyroid as pulsing (like the heart pulses) and vibrant. As it pulsed I’d imagine a beautiful golden thyroxine flowing all the way around my body.
To further enhance healing, I added in other aspects, such as imagining my intestines pulsing and a blaster gun firing out silver sparks and clearing blockages – all moved along by a mini snowplough. I imagined the silver sparks dissolving the extra weight I was carrying around my middle and then I’d zoom along and scrape the fat away with a cake smoother (as used to smooth icing on cakes).
I added in affirmations too. Each morning as I showered I’d affirm over and over, ‘My thyroid is functioning 100 per cent effectively, my thyroid is functioning perfectly, it’s now safe for me to lose weight.’ As I affirmed, I’d imagine my thyroid pulsing with golden thyroxine flowing around my body and smile. I’d keep affirming throughout the day when I had time. I followed this routine for nearly two months.
I first noticed results three weeks in; my energy was returning and my weight started to decrease, and this continued over a period of two years. Whenever I felt my body slowing down again, I’d bring back the visualization and affirmations and within a day or two, I’d feel back on track. I was amazed and so in awe of what positive thought and intention could achieve.
In February last year, things slowed down again and I was unable to get back into this positive position using the same visualization. I think as soon as your mind believes it doesn’t work, you need to try something new, as the negative beliefs outweigh the belief that you can change things. I found out I had a very low iron level, which affects the functioning of the thyroid, so I set about amending my diet to counteract that and saw a homeopath to help with adrenal fatigue.
After attending one of David’s seminars, I’ve now put in place a new visualization. As I meditate on a daily basis, I’m imagining dissolving the negative belief that my ‘body cannot get back on track’ by sanding down a plaster ball. As it gets smaller and smaller I blow the dust away, until I’m left with a flat disc which I finely sand down to flat, finally dissolving all negative belief.
I’m then focusing on positive affirmations: ‘My thyroid is working perfectly, my hormonal system is in perfect balance, I’m safe.’ As I affirm, I’m imagining little happy, positive, smiley faces on my thyroid, adrenal and pituitary glands. The smiley face on the pulsing thyroid gland turns up a little switch and golden thyroxine starts to flow around my body.
All the time, I have a smile on my face and imagine this is really happening and really working. Once again, I’m affirming regularly throughout the day that my body is in balance and that my thyroid is functioning perfectly. I’m confident I can get back to that good place again by simply focusing on the positive, and I know that the power of my thoughts can bring about the changes I want to see in my health.
These stories show the different ways that each person used visualization – ways that were personal to each of them. As I wrote earlier, there’s no ‘correct’ visualization, only that which feels good to you.
In most cases, at least with serious conditions, each person used visualization as part of a treatment modality they were undergoing. As far as the research presented earlier would suggest, I’m convinced that the visualizations helped them. At the very least, visualization gives hope, and in most cases a visualization session is a time to relax and so can reduce stress.
Throughout the book, I’ve done my best to present the science of the mind–body connection in a simple and down-to-earth fashion, to convey the different ways that the mind impacts the body. One of the main reasons I’ve discussed science is so that, if you find yourself using visualization, you might have some faith in yourself and the belief that what you do might make a difference.
Visualization can change the microscopic structure of the brain, expanding and contracting brain maps. It can impact the immune system and, in many cases, perhaps therefore even change the course of disease. Placing your attention on your breathing, in the case of meditation, impacts over 1,000 of your genes. Thinking of someone you love dilates arteries, reduces blood pressure and gives the immune system a little boost.
If you can do all these things, I wonder what else you can achieve!
I don’t think we should ever underestimate what we’re capable of. I don’t wish to give false hope, but at the same time I wish to create hope, especially for people who need it. I guess it’s up to each of us as individuals to decide how we wish to use our mind.
Maybe, much of what we can achieve is down to what we’re willing to believe.
If you’re a religious person, you might then take comfort from the words of Christ. When he healed the blind, he said, ‘According to your faith it will be done to you’ (Matthew 9:29). And I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that he said, ‘According to your faith!’ I believe that what we call miracles start in our own minds.