A Journey of Healing

I remember when the Doctor told me that I had Ulcerative Colitis in 2001. It felt like my life was over. I was told this was an incurable chronic disease that I would be living with for the rest of my life. It took me eight years before I discovered the tools to heal myself. Western medicine and traditional psychotherapy have a very limited understanding of the process of healing, and spend much time covering up the symptoms, rather than addressing the underlying cause. Each one of us has the power to heal ourselves when we take the time to understand what is out of balance within. I'm blessed and grateful to now share with others what I know regarding the process of healing.

My healing began as I came across some powerful spiritual practices of self reflection and mindful awareness. These practices directed my attention inward, and I began looking very honestly at the thoughts in my mind, my ego, and the emotional patterns I was continually repeating. As I did, I began to see the bigger picture of why Ulcerative Colitis was manifesting in my body, and how there was no single cause for the disease, but rather a systemic imbalance between my mind, emotions, body, and spirit.

My illness was partially a result of repressed emotional and psychological pain from throughout my life. By holding this negative emotional energy within my body, I was living in an anxious and uncomfortable state, and my body began to manifest this tension as disease. Even more alarming was seeing how my diet and lifestyle were reflecting this repressed emotion. I had developed patterns of soothing myself through eating certain foods, and living a lifestyle that was not actually in alignment with my heart.

This repressed emotion expressed itself as patterns of subtle negative thinking and negative emotions (anxiety, annoyance, frustration, worry, depression, judgements of others, judgements of myself, and a general uneasiness about life) -- which eventually manifested as dis-ease in my body. I now understand that a co-factor of all dis-ease is negativity being held in the body (usually unconsciously). This negativity perpetuates unhealthy habits of living, eating, and interacting with the world around us. Through this honest investigation of Self a natural decompression began to occur for me. As I gained greater self awareness, I began to release repressed emotion, and my body began to relax again, returning to its natural state of health and wellbeing.

Over the course of this process I began to realize greater depths of my True Self (that which exists beyond thought and emotion) and began to feel the Life energy within my body and how I was directing it. During this process I also began to see how I was using food to cover over these emotional wounds, and how, even though I was eating a healthy diet on account of my U.C., I was still very much an emotional eater. As I began to uncover more self love through the practices of mindful awareness, my relationship with food and my body changed as well. I adopted a more specific diet free from gluten, dairy, and sugar, learned about different cleansing and detox processes, and slowly learned to tune into the true needs of my body.

Over the course of two months my symptoms went away completely, and I felt a joy, love, and peace return to my life that I had not experienced in a long time. I have been completely symptom free since 2009, and am in better health than I've ever been.

I now have a greater understanding of the interconnectedness of the body, mind, emotions, and spirit. The process of healing extends far beyond removing physical dis-ease from the body, but rather, reflects a greater journey of growth and expansion of consciousness on the path that each one of our souls embarks upon during this lifetime. Bringing love and compassion to ourselves during our journey is one of our greatest tools for growth and positive change. I now offer counseling for those who are seeking this kind of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual healing within themselves.

Through my own path of healing I discovered how natural healing happens when we align our minds, bodies, and emotions with the energy of love from within our hearts. Greater holistic health is available when we seek to better know ourselves and honor the call from within our hearts.

What is Ulcerative Colitis?

Ulcerative Colitis is a chronic auto immune disease where the immune system continually attacks the intestinal lining of the digestive tract, causing internal bleeding, cramping, weakness, fatigue, and depression. Western medicine does not know the cause or have a cure for U.C., and colitis treatment involves daily doses of medication to suppress inflammation in the digestive tract. The symptoms of U.C. were quite challenging to live with and limited the enjoyment of my life. It seemed like I tried every U.C. remedy on the market. I eventually began to dig a little deeper, realizing that healing wasn't going to be a quick fix.

Western medicine does not know the cause or have a cure for Ulcerative Colitis, and colitis treatment involves daily doses of medication to suppress inflammation in the digestive tract.

There are so many natural remedies for colitis, and natural remedies for healing in general, that it can be overwhelming to know where to start. I tried acupuncture, counseling, a specific colitis diet, regression therapy, meditation, herbs and vitamins, chakra healing, sound therapy, saw a spiritual counselor, and went to a Reiki master. While many of these approaches helped, I was never able to get to the root cause of my dis-ease.

Mica Akullian M.S. is a holistic therapist in the Bay Area, serving Oakland, Sebastopol, Berkeley, also offering skype counseling and phone counseling.