This post provides a reflection on suffering.
Table of Contents
Who is Betsy Leighton?
I’m a writer, blogger, and healer dedicated to helping individuals reconnect with their innate peace and wholeness by healing nervous system dysregulation. My personal experience with chronic illness called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) shapes my work, and my content offers tools to empower those with chronic illness to improve their well-being and take charge of their health.
I created the Sacred Self-Healing Method and am a trained and certified Safe and Sound Protocol provider, an author, blogger, and A Course in Miracles Teacher. I hold a Master of Divinity in Spiritual Counseling and am a trained spiritual mentor, with certificates in sound healing, aromatherapy, nutrition, and Sacred Deathcare. I offer a self-study certificate program in the Sacred Self-Healing Method, provide spiritual counseling and coaching, courses, and supported subscriptions for the Safe and Sound Protocol.
What is MCAS?
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. It can cause severe, disabling symptoms every day, including potentially fatal anaphylaxis. MCAS often occurs with other chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Managing MCAS is challenging because many healthcare providers are unaware of it, and diagnostic tests can be unreliable. Treatments include antihistamines and mast cell stabilizers, as well as avoiding triggers. Check out this post on managing MCAS.
Intention
Sacred Self-Healing relies on intention and frequency. Intention directs frequency to bring about healing. The universal formula for healing is:
Intention + Frequency = Healing.
In this expression, “frequency” refers to the specific healing modality being applied. Setting an intention is particularly beneficial when utilizing self-healing methods such as frequency and forgiveness. This post covers more information on the power of intention.
Beneficial Frequency
Beneficial frequency refers to natural vibrations that synchronize biological and Earth systems, to support overall harmony. For instance, visible red and blue light from the sun are beneficial frequencies because they regulate circadian rhythms. Likewise, Earth’s Schumann resonance is a naturally occurring frequency that aligns internal and external rhythms for health. This post discusses beneficial frequency in more depth.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness, like love, is seen as a high-frequency energetic state connected to compassion and gratitude. In contrast, emotions such as resentment and anger are thought to have lower frequencies, constricting rather than elevating well-being. Forgiveness helps elevate energy, promote emotional healing, and support physiological balance. Science hasn’t measured the frequency of forgiveness, but studies show that forgiveness can improve heart and brain patterns and help the body work more smoothly. Forgiveness brings balance, healing, and peace—both emotionally and physically. This post delves deeper into forgiveness.
Seeing my kids suffer
Seeing one’s children suffer through illness causes heartache, while the uncertainty, fear, and exhaustion of caregiving bring their own level of pain. As the caregiver of a child with chronic illness, I have found much solace in the poetry of Ruth Krall. [i] Krall, a professor of religion and psychology, writes about her personal struggle with debilitating chronic illness. She says, “In the moment of acceptance of our situation exactly as it is … our sorrows and our losses become our transforming powers.” Her poetry examines the archetypal story of the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna’s descent into the underworld and her rebirth.
Inanna’s journey
Krall sees Inanna’s journey as a metaphor for coming to terms with physical limitations, fear, and pain, and for finding a way through suffering back to life. Here is part of her poem:
“I have crossed through a gate I did not see.
I have passed under a portal I did not know existed.
Innocence has been mauled
Simplicity has been assaulted
Contentment has been attacked
Vulnerability has been abused
There are secret corridors here
There are chaotic labyrinths here
Harmony has been corroded
Trust has been disrupted Joy has been buried alive
Abundance has been plundered” (p. 53-54)
I have reread Krall’s poetry over and over in the dark days of caring for my daughters’ illness, and each time I read about that moment of transformation and rebirth it touches me with hopefulness, and strengthens my faith. Krall says, “We open inner doors of the spirit – doors we previously had no knowing of – and find new spaces in which to create and live our lives.” Here is another section of Krall’s poem:
“It is said that suffering makes us wise
And becomes our truest teacher.
It is said that suffering is a result of sin
And by repenting we can stop its ravaging of our spirits.
It is said that suffering is due to our attachments
And all we need to do is to let them go.
It is said that suffering is inevitable
And by accepting our fate we can live honorably.
It is said that suffering is karmic
And by this life we redeem our past.
It is said that suffering is what makes us most human
And that we can offer it our thanks.
It is said that suffering is caused by our weakness
And by choosing to be strong we can grow beyond it.
It is said that suffering is our rite of purification for rebirth
And by embracing it we are transformed.
It is said that suffering connects us most deeply with others And by drinking from the well of suffering we learn, at last, compassion.” (p. 85)
Letting go
The therapeutic value of acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go can be key to transformation. Krall writes about accepting suffering as our “most reliable guide through the wilderness …” The notion of accepting suffering as a guide through pain and forgiving it has sustained me and has transformed my pain again and again. Here is another section of the poem that touches me:
“The woman who decides,
However it is that she decides such matters,
To conceive and give birth to a new self,
This woman rushes inward
To congratulate herself on her wisdom.
She shouts with freedom at her liberation.
A woman who decides,
However a woman makes such a decision,
To give birth to herSelf,
Rejoices that she has thought of such a thing at all.
She stands under the new moon,
Flexing and rippling her birth muscles.
She stretches like a Persian cat just awake from sleeping.
And, afterwards,
She flings her body upside down and somersaults joy.
In the full moon’s voluptuous light she skips a path into being
Between cosmos, rosemary, and fragrant lavender.
Catching fireflies,
Tugging at spider webs,
Teasing a ground beetle,
She whistles with a blade of grass between her teeth.
Coming to a moment just before the moment of her birthing
She squats in the time of the dark moon
And ponders what she has done.
In that fertile darkness of brooding silence and waiting
She enters the night sky to divine the signs.
With awe and reverence she weaves herSelf
A bright red ribbon to wear around her left wrist.
She crochets an indigo silk sleeping cap
To protect her from hostile winds and
Embroiders a cashmere dreaming blanket to shelter her fears,
To comfort her times of aloneness.” (p. 91-92)
Here is the link to Krall’s entire poem.
[i] Krall, Ruth “Inanna’s Way” in Chronic Illness, Spirituality, and Healing: Diverse Disciplinary, Religious, and Cultural Perspectives, Stoltzfus, Michael J., Green, Rebecca, and Schumm, Darla, eds. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
The bucket theory
The bucket theory simplifies understanding symptom reactions with MCAS. Imagine your body as an empty bucket you don’t want to overflow. Reactions to various stimuli fill the histamine bucket at different rates, forming the total histamine level (how full your bucket is). More histamine means more symptoms. By managing triggers, reducing exposures, and taking medications and supplements, you can control your bucket’s level.
Know your typical symptom progression
Understanding your symptom progression during a flare is key to developing your rescue plan. This post discusses how to recognize symptom progression so you can be prepared to address them.
Get my free ebook, symptom log, and meal plan!
Want a tool to easily track your symptoms?
Check out these circadian health tools!
I’m an affiliate with Bon Charge, a company that makes tools for circadian health, and you can receive 15% off your order with my coupon code BETSYL.
Bon Charge offers tools such as yellow– and red-tone blue-blocking glasses, red light therapy devices, PEMF mats, infrared saunas, and EMF-blocking products.
Sign up for the SSP!
I’ve found the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) to be the most helpful bottom-up healing strategy if your nervous system has been overloaded with toxic exposures, including mold or non-native EMFs, chronic infections, concussions, stress, or trauma. The SSP is a passive listening therapy based on Polyvagal Theory that helps heal nervous system dysregulation. Many people with MCAS and other chronic conditions have nervous system dysregulation stemming from infections, toxic exposures, concussions, and trauma. The SSP is an easy-to-use app that lets you listen to specially filtered music for 30 minutes each day as part of a 5-hour cycle. Studies show the SSP has a profound effect on mental health and chronic conditions. Here’s a short podcast describing the Safe and Sound Protocol.
You can sign up for the SSP here!
Heal your mind!
While the SSP is a bottom-up, somatic therapy for healing the nervous system, the Sacred Self-Healing Method I offer is a top-down nervous system-healing modality that focuses on cognition, attention, perception, and emotion, using the mind’s higher functions. The SSP and the Sacred Self-Healing Method complement each other and together produce lasting results. Here’s a short podcast on my self-healing practice.
I provide one-on-one in-person and remote chronic illness and caregiver coaching, as well as Sacred Self-Healing Sessions based on the Sacred Self-Healing Method, a proven, novel co-creative healing modality detailed in my Books.
Order my books!
Here’s a short podcast highlighting my five books.
My latest book, Living In The Light: Healing with Forgiveness, Sound, and Light, is all about the tools that have been most helpful for me to heal: forgiveness, sound, through nervous system retraining using the Safe and Sound Protocol, and light, through entraining my circadian rhythm with the energy of the sun. Living In The Light is available here!
Rocks and Roots chronicles my solo backpacking journey on the Superior Hiking Trail and my efforts to overcome nervous system dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome symptoms to complete the 328-mile hike successfully.
The Sacred Self-Healing Method ebook is available here and in most ebook retailers!
The Sacred Self-Healing Workbook is available for purchase here!
Betsy’s first book, Sacred Self-Healing: Finding Peace Through Forgiveness, is available here
Companion Recordings
The companion audio recordings of chants, guided meditations, and sound healing demonstrations that accompany the Sacred Self-Healing Method are available for free on my YouTube channel here
What do you think?
I’d love to have your reply below!
Disclaimer
The preceding material does not constitute medical advice. This information is for information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cure, or treatment.
