111: You Can Heal You Too, A Testimonial with Liz Carlson

Liz C 

[00:01:14] Chazmith: Welcome to our powers within a weekly podcast to inspire you to take your power back and realize that you are the healer that you have been looking for all along. We are capable of healing in Mind, body and Soul, and I am your host Chazmith. Before we get into this week's challenge, I do wanna take a moment to read one of the latest podcast reviews on Apple.

Carrie says, if you have ever experienced chronic pain or illness, this is a wonderful podcast for you. Cha Smith does a great job exploring all the various facets of chronic conditions and the ways for us to take our power back and support your own healing. Yes, absolutely. Thank you Carrie, so much for taking your time to leave this review for future listeners and if you have found any value in any of the episodes from this podcast and have yet to leave your review, would you please consider pushing Pause right now and taking a moment to do that?

Thank you so much. Okay. With all that out of the way, I am so hopeful that 

you guys got all the giggles out of your system and have been having so much fun laughing this past week. 

As for this week's challenge, we are gonna, we're gonna change it up a little. We're gonna do something different that we've never done before.

We're gonna be silly and fun and playful, and we're gonna be. Open to trying something new and we're gonna tap into our inner creative and we're gonna write a ha coup. Okay? I know there are probably some of you out there listening write this minute saying to yourself, but I'm not a writer, or I'm not artistic, or I'm not creative, or I don't know how to write a ha coup.

And that's okay, because honestly, I had no idea how  to write a haiku either until a few minutes ago when I Googled. I knew, like I had an idea, but I wasn't absolutely sure. Yeah, so we're gonna just make this little challenge to myself and all of you to sit down, let's say at some point during this week for 10 to 20 minutes, when you wanna just maybe have a few ti like few minutes to your.

And play around with it. I don't know. I think it can be about absolute anything at all, and I think it will be a really fun brain game. And who knows? It might make you laugh more and you might discover an unknown talent or passion. Okay, so to hold myself accountable to also doing this, At some point before the next episode, or on the next episode, I will share my haiku with all of you.

And I would love love, love to hear yours. So if you're feeling shy and you don't wanna share it with the world, send it to me in the DM or email. But if you are feeling bold and courageous, write it. Screenshot it and then share it on your Instagram story and tag me at our power is within so that I can have some fun this week reading all the wonderful little gems that are being created and put out into the world.

It will really make my day. Yeah, and I guess I should probably tell you what a haiku is or how to write a haiku per Google so that you know what to do. Okay. So it's just gonna be this little poem. It's. It is a Japanese poem, if you will. It is going to be three lines long and it is based on syllables.

So the first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables again, so it's gonna be three lines, 5, 7, 5 syllables. And technically it's not supposed to rhyme. I don't know if that will make it easier or harder for some of you out there. I think for me it will be harder.

Sometimes when I try to be silly and write little silly jingles, they always tend to just naturally rhyme. Very silly. Silly. Also anyways, enough with the silly. Never enough with the silly. 

Okay. For real though, you guys, I'm excited to announce our guest today. Some of you may already know her or be familiar with all the wonderful resources that she is providing in the brain retraining community and in just the entire chronic pain and illness community.

She has her own video podcast on YouTube called Heal with the Liz, where she shares healing and recovery testimonials, as well as has some really neat other guests on her podcast. So if you haven’t already been familiar with her, go ahead and check that out. There's some really great interviews and stories on there.

And I am referring to Mrs. Liz Carlson often, like I said, known as Heal with Liz, on the YouTube podcast. All right, so here's the thing. She is always interviewing everybody else who shares their stories, and I get to interview her to share her story with us today. And I am so excited because this is definitely an inspiring story.

So let's get into it. 

Liz, thank you so much for being here with me today and having a willingness to share your story.

[00:06:39] Liz: Yeah, I'm so grateful for the opportunity, Chazmith. I'm honored to be on your beautiful podcast. Just to give others hope. Yay. 

[00:06:52] Chazmith: I generally love to just start out, we obviously hear you're sharing a recovery story with us recovering, I believe primarily from chronic fatigue syndrome, but perhaps as you're sharing with us, you might let us know if there was anything else that was like a main thing that you were recovering from as well.

I'm curious too, was there ever this overarching moment that some people referred to as a perfect storm where things really began to shift rapidly for you or for you, was it more of a gradual shift in gradual change over time?

[00:07:23] Liz: Yeah, so my perfect storm, I did have one, and it was in 2016, shortly after my 30th birthday.

And it was bad jet lag, a flu-like virus that gave me a two-day fever, then my E B V reactivated, and there was an accumulated stress buildup of working crazy hours at a soul sucking job and the year leading up to it. But what I would find out two years later when I got more thorough testing was also continued mold exposure. What's E V B? Mono Glandular fever. 

[00:08:12] Chazmith: okay. Is that something you had in the past?

[00:08:14] Liz: So I think I got it when I was 18, but after. This jet lag and flu-like virus that I got, it seemed to reactivate Mihai acute antibodies, anti my chronic antibodies were elevated. The doctor at the time, the infectious disease doctor at the time, he said it was inconsequential.

[00:08:41] Chazmith: Interesting. So you said you had a perfect storm. Yeah. Was it literally just one day you felt like you were able to grind and do the things and do life and and then like right after all of this, was it just like complete fatigue where you just felt like all of a sudden you just couldn't muster the energy to do the things you wanted or needed to?

[00:09:02] Liz: Looking back, I can see over the course of six weeks, I had many opportunities to steer the course around, but I would have to ultimately learn the lessons the hard way. So I, it was up and down for that first six weeks. And I didn't know what was going on. I didn't get answers from my doctors and so I was just pushing through.

And in the very beginning, I actually after the two day virus, I started to work again and I was on vacation and I was working again, and then I would collapse in the Brussels airport. So I spent a couple day days in the Brussels hospital. And then right when I got back home I started to push myself again.

[00:09:58] Chazmith: Yeah. So you were finding yourself, like not accepting the fatigue and pushing too hard right from the get go and then ending up crashing? 

[00:10:07] Liz: Yeah. I would feel 90% better. And then I would say use all that energy to catch up on. And then I would crash. 

[00:10:19] Chazmith: Typical, isn't it?

[00:10:19] Liz: Yeah. And I didn't have any answers from the doctor because I got my heart checked out and they said there was nothing major. My E B V levels were very high, but, the doctors believe that illness, that infections have a beginning and an end, and I didn't get any answers for them.

In fact, they told me I had heartburn, so all my organs were in pain. I had extreme fatigue, I had pots, but I didn't know the term for pots. 

Also, my crazy cardiac symptoms. I struggled to breathe and extreme flu-like symptoms, but it wasn't a runny nose or a cough.

It was just that day, one of the flu feelings. It was like when you just feel that, like just where you feel like you can feel something's coming on and you're just feeling under the weather and Yeah. Not yourself. 

Chazmith: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so tell me a little bit about what life was like pre perfect storm.

[00:11:37] Liz: Yeah, so those who know me, I am a bond Viva.

I'm lover of life. I dance in front of the mirror every single evening and I was just the funny lady who started the party started the dance floor, but I was also killing myself at this. That I had for five years, but I actually did quit the job in January before my health would collapse in May. Yeah, so Christmas 2015, I had saw a poem that my mom hung up in my room.

And it was a poem I had written in the first fourth grade, and it says, Elizabeth, prompt, curious, questioning, thinking, hardworking, serious girl. Working always on the computer. Special person. Smart. That's so cute. And that Christmas Eve, I pulled an all-nighter working on some international project. And I literally saw that poem as a cry for help from my fourth grade self coming back 20 years later trying to warn me.

Serious girl working always on the computer. Yeah. So when I flew back home, I told myself I'm gonna quit my job, but,  I actually didn't immediately be before I did. I had a health scare that sent me to the ER in early January and then after that I really quit my job and, but I had written a new poem for myself.

So the new poem says, and I wrote this on a pink post-it note and hung it on my mantle and it. Liz Carlson, observant, creative, listening, greeting, making things, funny woman enjoying life, walking down the street, fearless dancer, happy. And that was the new poem that was gonna be my New life. So after the health scare, I would quit my job, and then I was writing out all my ideas for the creative passions that I wanted to.

And what did I do? The voice inside me saying, oh, you're a failure. You can't do that. You need to just get a job. Two weeks later, I got another job for doing a similar role, not my passion, and this company with a lot nicer. They were great, but it wasn't my passion, and I do think that. There was a lack of direction in my life.

There was a lack of alignment, and so that was the foundation for then when the flu virus, the mono, and then the mold all came together and knocked me to my feet. 

[00:14:49] Chazmith: Do you see, can you see, looking back now, how it all relates? Do you think there's a relationship to the illness? 

[00:14:56] Liz: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. Looking back, it's, I can see how this almost was an opportunity to change course in my life. Of course, it was three years of hell and I wouldn't redo it, but I did have a lot of opportunities early on to change the course. But I think the universe, Took me to learn the path of learning things in the hardest way possible.

[00:15:24] Chazmith: Cuz a lot of times we get the soft, subtle cues. Like you got the poem from fourth grade and you got these insights and then you even took an initiative and quit that first job, but then you like turned against. What your soul was asking for you to do and went and got another job.

So it's I feel like sometimes we don't take the subtle cues and then the universe is like, all right, you know what? I love you so much that I'm gonna make sure that I help you actually really take a shift here. Like really make a shift and a change no matter what you have to go through to do that.

[00:15:53] Liz: Yeah, it's, it sounds so beautiful now. I just remember how hell it was truly hell. But I can see the beauty in it now, but I do wanna acknowledge the people listening. It was absolute hell.

[00:16:13] Chazmith: Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was gonna say, like when you can look back now and see the connections, but like when you were in it, you probably couldn't see, oh, this is for me, it's gonna help me to redirect my life into a better place.

Like you were just like thinking, I feel like fucking shit, and this is awful. Am I gonna be better again? 

[00:16:29] Liz: Yeah, but when I actually began to see it as an opportunity and when I began to surrender and make peace with the situation, that was one of the shifts I had on my recovery journey that I think helped me to where I am now.

So yeah, that was actually one of the epiphanies I had that was key for me to begin seeing as an opportunity and. Yeah. 

[00:16:58] Chazmith: So speaking of that pivot in your recovery journey, when do you feel like you really started experiencing healing at a true or deeper level? Because my guess is you probably, it sounds went to many doctors and had many tests done and all this stuff that a lot of us do.

But where did you actually really have the moment where you're like, oh my gosh, healing is actually happening. This is it. This is going to help me. 

[00:17:30] Liz: Okay. So I should probably say what helped me get to that point. And before I had any transformation, I think diet did help me build a foundation, so to speak.

Though it wasn't the way out for me, but switching to a healthier diet, cutting out sugar, caffeine. It did stabilize me. It got me out of a severe period of severe ME/CFS and severe IBS. It was actually triggered by a colonoscopy. After that colonoscopy, my health took a turn, and so diet actually helped me get out of that.

And for me, that was mostly paleo diet and a bunch of supplements, but that ultimately wasn't the way out for me. But it did provide some stability. So I have to give diet some credit, but it wasn't the full way out. But one. I would say I didn't experience healing immediately from this, but it was probably the biggest turning point that ultimately led to healing.

And that was learning about the law of attraction. That was and I don't wanna say positivity, but at the darkest depths, there was a wonderful woman. Her name is Cindy Edelson. She's now a reverend, a senior reverend at a spiritual church. And her journey, she was, had her own powerful story and she's a wonderful woman.

She's about 60 years old. This lesbian, Jewish, but spiritually Buddhist woman who brought so much, so much of her soul into what she taught me and she taught me meditation and introduced me to all these books. And this was at like the darkest time. And the reason I found Cindy was because my doctors had told me, oh, this is just an anxiety about your congenital heart condition.

I have been living with a congenital heart condition. 30 years at that point and wasn't completely incapacitated. So they had recommended me to see a psychiatrist, so I saw this psychiatrist, but I didn't have the energy on some days to go to this psychiatrist. I would crash just walking to my car on a rainy day to get to the psychiatrist, just walking up the incline of my street to go see her. And so I told the psychiatrist, I don't have the energy to see you. This was 2016. People didn't offer zooms. No, that didn't exist. I was begged them if we could do phone calls or zooms and no doctor at that point was doing them. They were like, hipaa, blah, blah, blah. It's easier if you come in.

I was like, I can't, I don't have the energy. But Cindy actually came to me And we meditated and she gave me these books and it was the beginning of a shift. So I also read on my own Michael Singer, I think it's Michael Singer, the Untethered Soul, Eckard Toll, The Power of Now. And then Abraham Hicks, the Vortex and The Vortex is very woowoo and the chapter on illness is very self-blaming, but I just overlook that part.

And Yeah, and I did, it was a shift for me because before then I was very, I wouldn't say I was like a very social justice warrior type person and was fighting against stuff. And then I realized that energy of fighting that I had also brought to my, this illness of fighting against my body pushing through, wasn't helpful for healing, and it wasn't helpful for living either.

And it shifted. How can I focus on solutions? How can I be grateful for what I have? And I was looking through old journals and I think it was like April, 2017. This was at like when I, my, I was probably about 15, 20% functionality. Just had an, another terrible crash and I saw that, that I had written in a journal what I, who I was grateful for.

My now husband, my best friend and I think I wrote Cindy, and it just makes me smile when I think about it because I was going through absolute hell. Yet I was able to write what I was grateful for and I can see now how that has w was very helpful for not only my recovery, but now that I, that my health is back for me to able to really be present in this life and actually enjoy.

[00:22:36] Chazmith: That's huge. That's really awesome. So this was your starting point for towards healing. Yeah. What's, what happens next? Did you ever follow any programs? Did you do any brain retraining, any nervous system regulation? What was your kind of journey through all of that?

[00:22:50] Liz: Yeah, so I had given up on doctors about, I would say 1.75 years in, I think I gave up on doctors, but then, About two and a half years in I, I was like, I should see a specialist just to be confirmed that I do have CFS and just to give myself peace of mind.

And I saw a specialist and she ran all these tests and then one of the inflammation markers came back extremely high. It was the c4, an inflammation test, and she was like, 90% of the time, this is mold. Mycotoxins, that's why it's elevated. 10% of the time it's bacteria. And I was like my doctor said I didn't have mold, so I don't need this.

And she's trust me on this one. So I pee in the cup. Sure enough, do the Great Plains lab test. Sure enough, I have 107 times the safe limit of one of the mold mycotoxins. So we move out of our 110 year old home, which had, turns out there was like a chunk missing from the roof, 10 leaks.

And we got out of there and found another place moving wasn’t easy but yeah. And so a couple months later, after I had felt so much relief from getting out at the mold, but I crashed again and it was just from a little bit of stress and a brief mold exposure from something and it set me back and to needing a wheelchair to go through the airport.

And so that Christmas 2018 I was like, I don't have the energy to fly to see my parents. The past two Christmases have been utter, total disaster, nightmare, dying on the bathroom floor, the situations with symptoms and just, yeah, just not good at all. So we decided, I'm in the Bay Area, let’stake a quick trip to Palm Desert and I was going to just read a book and do nothing, and just go in the sauna there too, so I could sweat out the rest of the mold and I was just gonna do nothing. And so I'm in Palm Desert and the day I get there  my mom calls and she tells me that grandpa died and my grandpa Johnny V, he's he's the best man that ever lived.

He is just, So amazing. And I couldn't get on the plane to go see him because I barely made it to Palm Desert. I was in a wheelchair just to get to the gate, and on the day of his funeral I was randomly on Twitter and I had gotten off Twitter at that point, but I just checked Twitter and there was a link to the Toxic Mold Conference and there's all these detox professionals listed on there, but I saw NLP and then brain retraining, and I click on it. It's Annie Hopper's profile and then I go to DNRS and then I read Connie's story, she's the one with the CIRS and I didn't even know CIRS was the term, but I realized that I might have it.

I had very extreme inflammatory responses. And fit all that criteria as well. I think I was actually diagnosed with it, but the, from the specialist, it seemed like she had marked, I had everything wrong, so I don't even remember what was on that sheet. It was so long, but, Connie's story really spoke to me and I'm like, this is me.

And yeah, I think my grandpa Johnny V was looking over me when I found that. And I did DNRS in the desert and I had this funny book with me at the time, and Yeah, I experienced so much healing in that desert and three weeks of we were originally just going for a week and then I extended it to three weeks and I came back three weeks later and I was able to walk easily off the plane. My now husband had gone home earlier for work and I was able to, on my own, with my luggage, walk an a mile cuz the airport is really big. San Francisco airport and walk all the way on my own. So yeah, I had experienced a lot of healing in those three weeks. Of course, I wasn't fully better. But by April I was able to start swimming again, and that was beautiful too.

Chazmith: Yeah. Was swimming something that you really enjoyed doing? 

Liz: Yeah, it was something that I had done a lot of visualizations on. As many listeners might know, DNRS involves calming your limbic system. Also visualizations and basically making the visualizations come alive. Not just in your mind, but the feeling in your body.

And yeah, my first visualization, I couldn't remember stuff and my imagination wasn't that great, but I had a great imagination as a child. And the more I did it, the better I got. And so when I started swimming, it was great. And the day I went to my community pool, They were playing seventies disco music and that's the way I like it.

And it was these seniors, just like this diverse group of seniors just jamming out in the pool and in the, and two, they had took two of two of the lanes doing that. And then I was just smiling and laughing. And then I was swimming in one of the other lanes, just, yeah. And then I started out Five laps or maybe 10. And then I eventually got up to 40 laps. So yeah.

[00:29:16] Chazmith:  That’s amazing. So did you, as you started getting better, getting your energy back and healing through using the use of brain retraining, did you have the typical cycle of I'm getting better and I might do too much and then I crash again, that a lot of people suffer from with chronic fatigue?

[00:29:35] Liz: Let me tell you I am engaged. At this point, I'm planning a wedding, and so I'm like, I need to get in the best shape ever or what have you. So not only am I swimming 40 laps, I'm also doing the elliptical and walking for two to four hours. And mind you, I have a, I was born with a heart condition, which makes it, my heart has to work.

Probably about double as much as the regular person, let's say. I have a few heart. Unique heart valves, but I was exercising at a very intense level and there was a wedding seating char drama. It sounds trivial, but it actually was something intense and triggering. I don't wanna get into that.

But just, yeah. And. And then my older sister had me on the phone and she was like, oh, if you really wanna be great at your, we survive your wedding. You needed to do at least 45 minutes on the elliptical. And so the elliptical and the little mini tiny gym in our apartment complex was like actually really intense.

So I just overdid it and with all this stress too. Now I'm more, now I can see there was like a, there was a stress creep, so there's that emotional stress or psychological, and when we're doing that, we need to balance it out. But I had stopped DNRS at that point because I was in such good shape.

I'm like, I don't need to be doing my hour of rounds. 

[00:31:12] Chazmith: So you did have a little setback. I don't like calling it setback, but like a little kind of chronic fatigue crash or, yeah. Was that the only time or did you have any like minor, because I know a lot of people really go through like even minor like kind of crashes.

Not full blown like back in bed, but just minor little crashes as far as their energy levels and the fatigue.

[00:31:30] Liz: Yeah. I would have a couple minor ones after that. And I remember looking in the mirror and saying, This is the opportunity because for me, my early symptoms, it was flat. The swollen lymph node, all that stuff, and some other ones, I don't want to trigger anyone, but those symptoms came back.

That was pre-crash symptoms and I was like, Liz, this is the opportunity. My body is strong. And my immune system is strong and my body can easily clear what it no longer needs. And look, this is the opportunity. Yeah, so the blip happened in around June, 2019, but then I would say by November, 2019, I was back and that was my honeymoon.

So my wedding, I was still not a hundred percent, but adrenaline got me to dance the night away. But I was back by November, 2019, and on my honeymoon night, paddle boarded for an hour. Easily and I didn't fall off. And in my visualization, which I did a hundred times for this moment, I did fall off and I climbed back on the board.

But my, the real thing was even better. It was just amazing. 

[00:32:52] Chazmith: Yeah. That's really cool. I wanna ask a question. When you had those little moments where you could feel the pre-crash symptoms come on, and you said, you looked in the mirror and said, Liz, this is your opportunity. What did you take that as for healing and overcoming and rewiring the brain's false messages for chronic fatigue?

Did you take that as, I'm going to rest right now and let my body recuperate, or was it more of a self-talk, like I'm strong, I have a good immune system, like you said, and I'm just going to keep doing life. 

[00:33:25] Liz: I would say I never pushed through, so that's something I didn't, don't think I covered yet but in that moment it was more that in my ability to bounce back because after all, CFS, it's not what you can do, it's what your body can recover from.

So for me it was just the sense that I can bounce back from this. I can bounce back from anything. I know what it takes. I have the resilience to ha be in any hole and to bounce out of it. So for me, I didn't push myself and start exercising. I had a more. I guess it was an intuitive approach. I didn't, of course, lay in bed.

I just took it easier and just trusted and did my visualizations and started doing my rounds again, and, yeah.

[00:34:26] Chazmith: So you just eased off on doing too much activity and then reincorporated your tools to help get you through it while trusting that your body would come back even stronger.

[00:34:36] Liz: Ya and I do wanna talk about the activity because some people applied brain retraining a little bit differently than I did, and I didn't ever push through. When I was doing DNRS I didn't do incremental training around movement necessarily, but some might say, looking at it, I did because I did a little bit more each time, but it was only because it felt easy. So basically the gains I was getting in my nervous system body from brain retraining. 

Then my body was able to do more and then I did more. It wasn't super careful. It was just very intuitive at that point. And I had gotten to that point because I had, so I had a few come to Jesus, come come to terms, moments where I knew I couldn't push through any longer. And that I think, Is so important.

And I think it's underestimated and underrated about the lesson that pushing through doesn't work. And I had crashed many times because, any social event I would crash because I felt like I had to be the fun friend. And even if I only had 45 minutes of that of energy, I've struggled to say no or not know how to end the conversation and I remember this the morning after I had, each month I would save up my activity, my energy levels rather for one activity or something. And then I had crashed after this evening out, and I was telling my husband, I'm like, why didn't you see that? I was ready to go? And I was like, why aren't you giving me a permission slip to leave?

And then he was like, and then we had this epiphany moment I can write my own permission slip. So I  had this concept of the imaginary permission slip. So whenever we were social again or whether we had people over, It was like, use your permission slip, Liz. And so I had this imaginary permission slip that would free me from needing the perfect excuse to do what I needed to do, whether it was on my own and I needed to take a lift two blocks, or whether it was in a social situation and I needed a piece out.

But I think that was key for me! 

[00:37:04] Chazmith: It sounds to me like that was a really big element where you learned how to like, honor your own boundaries and take your power back and decide that you could honor and whatever you needed, regardless of needing someone's permission to do that. 

[00:37:15] Liz: Yes. I don't think brain retraining would've worked for me had I not set those boundaries because I think my body wanted me to say no for once in my life. I think my body needed to have a sense that I was finally looking out for it, so it didn't have to shut down. So I think that was a key step before brain retraining for me, and that's why I think it worked out so well for me because I had already those healthy boundaries.

And I had also taken the pressure off. I was, I had read those books about surrendering and accepting myself and being present and yeah, so that's why I think it worked out for me.

[00:38:01] Chazmith: Yeait sounds like it. Now, did you end up ever pursuing any deeper layers of healing beyond brain retraining or was that really the catalyst for you and then after that it was just more just getting your life back?

[00:38:14] Liz: I was getting my life back, but then I did some deeper work. I did primal Trust with Dr. Cat, the level two, which is more self exploratory, and that's more, look, merging your patterns of resistance with your true self. So it's not just turning away from your triggers. It's understanding. The resistance to us ha us living our lives more fully and also figuring out who we wanna be.

So it was an interesting course on, on self-discovery her level two mentorship. Yeah, so I did, so I participated in that. But we can take all the courses we want. We had to implement it, don't we? 

[00:38:58] Chazmith: So how is your life different today from back in the day? Because we talked a lot about how it used to be, but what's different now?

What are you up to now? How have you reintegrated like a career or work life balance into the mix these days? 

[00:39:13] Liz: Yeah, so a lot of what I'm doing now is been for free, honestly, and it's, I'm trying to find ways now that align with my values and align with what brings me joy to tie that to making money.

But right now I am doing most of this for free, honestly. It's just like a labor of love, but, Yeah, I am. My husband supports me yeah. But it's interesting because I had such an identity around this, I was making good money. I had $60,000 in the bank before I lost it all. And yeah, so I had my ego die during this journey, but now I'm at the point where I do wanna be contributing more to my family, so I'm thinking about that.

Also my husband and I welcomed a wonderful son via a wonderful surrogate because of my heart condition. So we're thrilled. And yeah, my husband's looking after him right now, but yeah. Aw, how old is he? Three months. Oh my gosh. 

[00:40:27] Chazmith: It's brand new like this experience of being a mama. 

[00:40:30] Liz: Yes.

[00:40:32] Chazmith: Congratulations. And what are your laborers of love that you've been invested in these days? 

[00:40:37] Liz: Yeah, I guess, I have an a channel where I share recovery stories, heal with Liz. I do mentor some people, but I am probably not gonna be taking on more clients. Helping them through their recovery journeys.

And I have been for the past six months, oh my gosh. I've been have a major project with Lindsay Vine. She has the post viral podcast. You may know her, but we've been working on a guide analyzing all the programs. So we have 22 p  Holistic programs. We have brain retraining programs, we have somatic programs, and we have the self-discovery programs, so 22 of them.

And we've spoken to dozens of people, the program creators, and we're putting together a guide and yeah, I don't know how much money we're gonna make cuz we wanna be accessible to people. It's been quite the labor.

[00:41:44] Chazmith: That's awesome. And that will be so helpful for people because I do think a lot of times when people are just finding their way into this community and realizing that there's more options and solutions than doctors, a lot of us like suffer from brain fog or just like the, a limited capacity to.

Focus or perhaps, and we're, and then just making decisions can be challenging and overwhelm and then we're like overwhelmed with so many options and trying to like navigate all these options and do all of our own research to find the right direction for us to go can be a lot. So it can, I think that's really cool to have it all laid out for people.

Boom, here you go. You don't have to do any research beyond this document. 

[00:42:29] Liz: Yeah. And with the medical component I have some resources on my site for people looking through that route. And one of the toggles in my resources section, I'm healwithliz.com, but It doesn't include medical information.

It just, the programs and all the programs were created by people who healed from CFS. Except Annie Hopper, the one I did, she had multiple chemical sensitivities and fibromyalgia. But it's my understanding that the root of all these is the same. And that's nervous system dysfunction. 

[00:43:05] Chazmith: Yeah. That's really awesome. When is that 

program gonna  be available?

[00:43:06] Liz: It's going to be available hopefully this December 2022. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting though, yeah, and I just wanna acknowledge, I know a lot of people listening might be dealing with a lot of anger like I was around being gas lit by the me medical community saying that there's nothing wrong with you. And I know that on the opposite end, you might have had doctors say that there's everything wrong with you and that you're broken. And it can be so infuriating. The former and the latter can be so disempowering.

But I just wanna tell people listening. Yes, there is power within you and learning from those who have been on this journey. There's a lot of good programs out there and I'm not pushing any single program. I believe we are all unique. A lot of the things that got us out are quite similar, but I hope that the guy can help empower people to start taking the steps to healing because that 99% of healing.

Usually is outside the doctor's office. Getting outta that moldy home that was helpful for me. But I didn't wanna live a life where I was walking on eggshells, avoiding mold. And with my seven foods and 40 supplements, I wanted a greater life for myself. Absolutely. And that is possible.

[00:44:53] Chazmith: Absolutely. So that program sounds amazing. Yeah. I'm really excited that's gonna be something available for people. I think it's a, yeah, it's gonna be a gift for sure. 

[00:45:02] Liz:  Yeah, it's just a pdf, it's like an ebook, of all the different programs. It's about two to four pages on each program and readable font and organized clearly, so hopefully people can make the best decision. 

[00:45:19] Chazmith: Yay. That's awesome. Good job doing that. Great idea. 

[00:45:21] Liz: It's still not finished. It's 99% finished.

[00:45:33] Chazmith: Yeah. What other ways is your life different? Because it sounds like you decided at some point you made a decision that you weren't going back to the old life in the old career and all that, and it looks like you're really trying to navigate some alternative options for you to pursue in the realm of making money.

You have a new baby, but what do you feel overall, I guess now has shifted in your, in just your mindset overall and how you approach life these days? 

[00:46:03] Liz: Yeah, so it's interesting it continues to shift. I wouldn't say I have one set mindset. The thing I noticed when I first. Recovered those like 2019. 2020 was how much I really was grateful and appreciate the moments of life.

And I noticed recently I've been going back into some old patterns with, digital patterns working later, like for this guide. So it is a journey, but I would say, Just knowing my own power and appreciating all the good in my life is something that I have really carried with me. But yeah.

[00:46:52] Chazmith: What nowadays do you do as any kind of daily rituals or practices? Do you have anything that you consistently commit to, or is it more just as needed? 

[00:47:02] Liz: Yeah, I do wanna say thanks for asking this question, because I think ritual daily rituals are so important for our healing and continued thriving. So that was a key part of my recovery.

I would say 50% or more of recovery goes down to your routines. And that's like what? Are you on Twitter all day or are you just journaling and meditating? What are you doing with your extra time? Yeah, is so important. So for me, I do meditate. I'm not doing my rounds anymore, but I might get I still have a buddy that I do rounds with this wonderful man, the A DNRS buddy and we do rounds, but we now do the Primal Trust version cuz he did primal trust.

The ABC rounds, they call him, but. Yeah, I would say I avoid screens late at night, but to get this guide out, I've probably been a little bit, but yeah, I still eat relatively healthy, but I was eating seven foods for most of my journey, so I have a full diet now. I don't eat a lot of gluten.

That's the one thing that. One rewiring I opportunity. I have, but I am living life. 

[00:48:21] Chazmith: There's some opportunities to rewire certain things, but at this point you're just choosing to live life and let things be for right now. Yeah. 

[00:48:27] Liz: Yeah. We get to pick and choose our battles. Yeah.

[00:48:31] Chazmith: Or what we accept, like maybe you could rewire it, but you're like, Hey, I don’t actually really want it on the regular anyways, 

[00:48:38] Liz: Yeah, it's cuz probably I read too many of the. This is what gluten can do to the body. And then I got test results. That said, it's showed some off the charts things, but I also know people who were able to reverse tests.

Just like my own tests. I had that said this turned on and this inflammation said this, that then later came back negative. So it just, yeah I'm just not. Eaten it right now, but I'm having chocolate, I'm having cheese, I'm having crackers. Seed crackers and I'm having all these foods that I wasn't having before yeah.

[00:49:19] Chazmith: Do you exercise these days? 

[00:49:21] Liz: Yeah. I'm I'm exercising. I, because I have a heart condition, so I've never ran except in when I was like five and they were like, that's probably not a great idea, but. I do go on walks. Yeah, for sure. And in, in the summer I swim, so yeah. All right. My 15 pound chunky son is full workout, like carrying him around.

I do use the Bjorn a lot and my husband's like really good, really an active dad. So I do wanna acknowledge though, so if you're a parent listening to this I wanna acknowledge. That this road might be more challenging for you. And just sending you a hug because I know, I don't know how I would've done this when had my son during this, during the time where I didn't have energy, but just know that the best thing you can do for you and your family and your kids is just to accept yourself where you're at now, and trust that.

Being the best parent you can be, and that maybe that means saying no right now, so you can say yes to your family in the future and that you're doing the best you can. 

[00:50:43] Chazmith: Thank you for saying that. Cause that's so true. I could not imagine. There's days I can't even, there's been days in my life where I'm like, oh my God, how could I have a child?

I can't even take care of myself today. So yeah it's hard work for sure. I wanna ask you, my final question that I ask everybody, you probably know what it is, but if you only had one message that you could share with the world for the rest of your life, what message would you wanna impart into the world?

[00:51:10] Liz: It's the fall right now, and that makes me think of nature. So seeing this as a journey, and sometimes when we crash or when we have setbacks, we think of that as a failure. But just know that all the seeds you're planting will be there and they will grow into beautiful. Flowers, beautiful trees.

It can seem like a setback, but all is not lost because you've planted so many seeds and there's gonna be beautiful flowers one day waiting for you. So just trust in that, and trust in, in, in the, in that, in the cycles sometimes of life that it can throw us back. That you've got this and you've planted so many seeds and yeah.

[00:52:14] Chazmith: Thank you so much and ways to connect with you. I have YouTube at Heel with Liz and Instagram at Heel with Liz. Are there any other ways for people to connect with you? 

[00:52:22] Liz: It's my Instagram is @HealwithLizC. YouTube is Heal with Liz

[00:52:34] Chazmith: And yeah, for anybody who's listening, she has an amazing, organized, very thorough and very resourceful website. I am so impressed with it. 

[00:52:43] Liz: Oh, thank you. 

[00:52:44] Chazmith: Yeah. You just are such a resource for people in this community, which is really beautiful, and thank you for being that resource and giving so many gifts to everybody in this community so that they have access to a little More of that really valuable information that we all wish we had early on.

[00:53:02] Liz: Yeah, and I just wanna say, Chaz, what you're building is so wonderful too. I think you're at how many episodes now? A lot. 

[00:53:12] Chazmith: 1 0 9

[00:53:15] Liz:  Yeah. And I just love what you're building and I also wanna say I follow you on Instagram at Our Power is Within and I do your  Chaz challenges.

Everyone's this week was earthing, and this morning I was walking on my grass just in my socks. I keep my socks on, but that's close enough. And I was just really it connecting to the earth and. Yeah. Getting out in nature when we can.

[00:53:45] Chazmith: Yes. We are about to have a hurricane here and I still had to make sure I got outside now, yesterday I got a lot of grounding as I was barefoot getting soaking wet, running around, picking up all my potted plants and stuffing them in the garage oh, liz, it's been such a pleasure. 

[00:53:58] Liz: Yeah, thank you so much, Chaz. This was wonderful. I'm just glad to share my story with others today, so thank you.

[00:54:07] Chazmith: I hope you enjoyed getting to know Liz today and hearing her story. You can find again her link to the YouTube to watch her testimonials on her channel in the show notes, and also stay tuned for that program guide that she will be releasing in December.

If you have not done so already, click subscribe in the upper right hand corner and follow along to the podcast so that you have every new episode waiting for you in your podcast library each week when it. I cannot wait to hear some haiku's this week. I hope you all have the most wonderful holiday.

Enjoy the time that you get to spend with your family if that's what you're doing. And if you're opting out of family time this year for whatever reason, enjoy the time that you get to spend with yourself or maybe connecting in nature and tapping into your inner haiku creative. Thank you so much for tuning in.

Until next time, make this week great.