I was born with a very severe case of eczema.
Right from day one & throughout my childhood, teenage years & a
good portion of my adulthood, 65% of my body was covered with horrible, itchy,
maddening sores. Eczema is a debilitating immune system disorder that
causes your body to attack itself ... all of the time.
Those of you who have or have had this terrible
condition will know what I am talking about.
For those of you who have
not, let me just say you feel trapped, always itchy, always scratching your
skin raw, waking up every morning with your face stuck to the pillow &
going through the day in agony & watching people react with looks of
disgust or sympathy.
The doctors of the day said “There is nothing
we can do for Flick. His condition is genetic. He’ll have it all
his life.” Can you imagine having to live your whole life knowing
that you would never get better?
The idea that ‘nothing can be done’ simply was
unacceptable to me. I went looking for ‘out of the box’ solutions
& my journey took me to a whole new world of unorthodox thinking &
faraway places I would never have explored otherwise. Wonder of wonders,
I discovered that there were indeed solutions for me. They were just not
where I had been looking.
They had to do with MY BRAIN.
My first big AHA! moment happened at the ripe
old age of 19 when I met my first Yoga Teacher. She taught me some
powerful breathing exercises that helped calm my nerves & to lessen my
skin’s unhealthy response to stress, fear, anxiety, pressure. For the
first time in my life, I started to feel normal. My skin was healing &
I was hooked. I searched more & came across more skills
to add to my repertoire of healing tools.
I discovered I could send this horrible
condition into remission indefinitely by facing & resolving my feelings of
panic, self-doubt, fear, anxiety & helplessness. I understood that it
begins with reprogramming my brain. That realization became the guiding
principle upon which I based what was to become my 40-year career in applied
neuroplasticity.
Long story short I got rid of the excema. It’s
gone. I know now today with absolute certainty that NONE OF US ARE STUCK &
while we may not have a ‘cure’ for everything, we have the ability to rewire
our thinking to live healthier, happier, more fulfilled lives & combat
depression, fear, stress, anxiety, addictions & so many of those constant
miseries that grind us down & prevent us from being the amazing human
beings we know we can be.
