Dr. Erin Hayford [00:00:02]:
So the big question is, we know spontaneous remissions and so called miracle cures exist. We also know they aren't so spontaneous after all. I'm living proof of this. Having cured my quote unquote incurable illness, there's something to how this happens. So how do we, as humans with chronic symptoms, tap into this so called miraculous healing capacity? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Doctor Erin Hayford, and welcome to the sacred illness podcast.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:00:36]:
Before we begin today's episode, just my standard medical disclaimer. This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only. The content should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:00:52]:
Regarding any medical condition concerns. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Sacred Illness podcast. I'm here as your host, Doctor Aaron with Orianna, our new lovely co host, who will be joining us for the foreseeable future. Today, we're talking all about the medical paradigm and how this sort of mind body separation and dualism got started and how we find ourselves where we are today with the current medical system being what it is. So to kick it off, I am someone who always likes to take kind of like a force for the trees approach. So what that means is looking at kind of the big picture, like, how did we get to where we are? And then going down into the nitty gritty details. So, just a really, really brief history lesson for those who are not aware of how, you know, how we ended up where we are with our current medical paradigm, essentially back in the 17 hundreds, we believed that the soul, the spirit was the body. Like, we, you know, we believe that they were inseparable, that our spirit and our body were one.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:01:51]:
And so that prevented a lot of ability to understand disease and illness more completely, because we believed that if we did surgeries or if we, you know, did any sort of invasive procedures on the body whatsoever, it would harm our soul and therefore harm our afterlife. And so we were very, you know, very intertwined with spirituality and with the church and those sorts of beliefs back in the day. And so then this french philosopher, and I think he was a surgeon or some sort of medical professional, Rene Descartes, and I might be saying his name wrong, came along and basically had, like, through a series of conversations with the pope, and just in general, helped to separate the mind and the body, where he was saying, no, the soul, the spirit is in the mind, and the body is separate. And so that allowed us to start to do surgeries and dissections and basically led to all of the medical knowledge that we have today. Because in order to understand how something's happening, we have to kind of, like, measure it and digest it and dissect it and look at it. You know, we have to get our hands on it and get it in a lab and put it under a microscope and all those things. So, like, pretty much literally everything we understand about disease today and a lot of the procedures we do, the lot of the surgeries we do, et cetera, like, came from that separation that happened. So, obviously, I was one of these people where I used to be like, that damn Rene descartes ruined everything for us.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:03:12]:
But really, it was necessary, we really needed to have that separation happen in order to acquire the medical knowledge that we have and the anatomy knowledge and the pathology knowledge that we have. All of the diseases we now know and have understanding of and understand how they happen. Well, parts of how they happen or what's at least physiologically going on in the body, we needed that. And as Oriana and I were talking about before we started recording today, we feel, you know, it's not really a secret that the usefulness of that separation has run its course, because as we're seeing reflected, at least here in the United States, but I think pretty much, you know, across all developed nations, we're seeing a rise in chronic illnesses, autoimmune conditions, cancers, heart disease, diabetes, like, just these conditions that develop and just go right and really wear down on quality of life even less, like, definable illnesses like chronic pain or mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. We just see people being generally more and more unwell, despite having the most medical knowledge we've ever had, right? So there's just sort of this, like. Like, how does that make sense? Right? Like, how does it make sense that we understand things more, better than we ever did before, medically speaking? And yet people are more sick. So that's where this question mark comes up of, like, what are we missing? What are we not getting about health and wellness that is allowing for disease to actually progress and get worse rather than get better, which it should, if the system is correct. Like, if it's the correct solution for the problem, things should only be getting better.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:04:46]:
And so this is where, again, that mind body separation, that mind body dualism has essentially run its course. Because the reality is that the putting the mind over here and ignoring the impact of it on the body is at a great detriment to physical health.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:05:08]:
One of the things that's important to define as we move forward is what even is the mind? Because when we think about mind body separation, what exactly was it that we separated? So, one of the major things to.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:05:20]:
Think about is the body does include the nervous system.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:05:24]:
But truly the mind is the nervous system. The mind is the brain, the spinal cord, and all the nerves that emanate.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:05:30]:
Off of it, which are.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:05:32]:
It's physically wired to everything in the body. This mind physically is attached to every cell, every organ, every tissue. And how the mind is perceiving the world is going to have a significant impact on how the body is functioning. So we do, of course, have neurologists, right? We have people who work with the quote unquote mind, but more from this, like, neurology, nervous system, nerve tissue standpoint. So, you know, they're focused on pain, they're focused on brain injuries. That's still sort of a more physical exploration of the nervous system. And when we are talking about the mind body connection, we're talking more about the thoughts, the emotions, and the beliefs that the mind holds. That, again, that is the part that we separated out.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:06:21]:
We said, that's spirit, that's soul. That is unrelated to physical health. So when we say we separated the mind and the body, we didn't just ignore the nervous system, but we ignored the, I would argue, most important part of the nervous system, which is what tells the nervous system how to behave. So if we are thinking certain thoughts, if we hold certain beliefs, if we are experiencing certain emotions, if we experience trauma or live in chronically stressful situations, none of those are things that we can measure per se, right? But yet they are essentially the inputs that tell the nervous system, the physical nervous system, how to physically function. But we missed that part. And that is what the separation of the mind and body did. We said, you know, those inputs, that's soul, that spirit, that's woo, that's over here. We can't measure it, therefore it's not real.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:07:12]:
It doesn't matter.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:07:14]:
We're going to look at the physical stuff that's happening in the body. We're going to look at what we can physically see with our eyes, what we can measure with a lab, what we can test, what we can quantify, and that is illness. So we really became focused on this more physical definition of illness, again, versus this more, if you want to call it esoteric or woo or whatever unmeasurable aspect of humanity. And so that is what we teased apart. And that's an important distinction, because when we think about the mind being the brain, again, we're not ignoring the brain. Like, there's lots of people who work with the brain. We're ignoring the inputs into the system that influence the system, which then influences everything downstream of it. And that matters because, again, the nervous system touches every single thing that is in the body.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:08:05]:
And so those inputs are really what we need to get back to. We need to get back to understanding what are the inputs that are influencing this physical nervous system, which is then influencing the physical body that's causing illness. Those inputs are influenced from childhood.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:08:25]:
And really, we focus a lot on.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:08:27]:
Childhood, childhood trauma, programming, conditioning, because we know from lots of advances in the mind body medicine field and neuroscience that the ages of zero to seven have the greatest impact on how the nervous system is going to function on a daily basis, because that's where we are picking up a lot of how to survive in the world, who we are, you know, what state, what's not safe, and so on and so forth. Those early programs are the inputs that then influence that system and how it's going to influence the physical nervous system and the physical body. So what exactly is happening when we are experiencing anxiety or depression or an emotion like anger or sadness or grief, or having a thought like, I'm not good enough, or, oh, my gosh, I'm such a failure, or, what is wrong with me? Why can't I do anything right? Or I don't deserve love, I don't deserve good things? What's happening inside of us when those sorts of things are happening? To back it up for a second, the nervous system really serves this ultimate purpose, which is to keep us alive. Its one and only job and goal is to keep us alive, to keep us safe, to keep us healthy, to keep us functioning. And to do that, it's constantly surveying the world through our five senses. Are we safe? Or is there a threat present?
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:09:47]:
Are we safe?
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:09:48]:
Threat, safe. Threat. So, again, through the five senses, what can we see? Does everything look okay? What do we hear? Do we hear anything threatening? What do we smell? Does everything smell okay and safe? Or is there a smell that we associate with danger, etcetera? And then depending on what comes in to that nervous system, again, those inputs that come in are going to elicit thoughts, beliefs, behaviors based on past programming. And then from there, the downstream effect is, if we're safe, then our body stays in a state of regulation and safety and engagement. If one of those things that is brought in through those inputs is considered a threat, then that's where everything changes in the body, and we shift into this mode of survival, because, again, the body is wired for survival. And so it shifts us into a physiological state where everything downstream functions differently in order to help us get through that threat, this is where we really start to see the impact on physical health. So if we are in a state of threat, in a state of survival because something was picked up as a threat in our nervous system, our gut is going to be suppressed, our immune system is going to be suppressed, our body is going to be contracted, and our muscles are going to be ready to run or fight, and our immune system is eventually suppressed. There's lots and lots of changes that are happening because our body is assuming the threat's short term.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:11:17]:
We just need to get through it.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:11:19]:
Once we survive and get out to the other side, then we're going to be okay. The problem is that in our world today, many of the stressors that we face are chronic. And or if we face traumatic experiences in our past and or our present, our nervous system is sort of more chronically altered, more chronically shifted into a state of survival, which means all of those changes to our organs and our body systems are also going to be altered. So what does chronic suppression on our digestive system look like? Gas, constipation, diarrhea, slow transit, heartburn. What does constant chronic suppression of our immune system look like? Allergies, autoimmunity. It can also be things like susceptibility to chronic illnesses like Lyme disease, mold illness, environmental illnesses, even long COVID. There's a correlation between traumatic experiences and long COVID. What does long term contraction of the musculoskeletal system look like? Pain, chronic headaches, fibromyalgia, these sorts of conditions that we think of as chronic and often having no cure or no explanation or are difficult to treat, you know, because everything we throw at it is not working, really starts to come back to, how is the nervous system functioning? If those systems are all turned off because the nervous system is focusing on survival, then, yeah, anything you throw at it is not going to work, it's not going to help.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:12:51]:
And so we really start to see how this separation of the mind and the body is, again, detrimental. We're ignoring the fact that underlying anything, functioning or not in the body, is how the nervous system is oriented. And how the nervous system is oriented, whether it's toward threat or toward safety, depends on the inputs that are coming in. And what determines those inputs are things that were programmed in childhood. Again, the ages of zero to seven being the most impactful, and then eight to 25 years old being also impactful, but not as much as zero to seven. So if we're not looking at those inputs, if we're not looking at what was programmed in those early ages, if we're not looking at the beliefs that were picked up, the emotions that were determined to be bad, then we want to avoid anything that is going to get in the way of our survival. We start to avoid things that get in the way of us receiving our basic needs, like food, food, shelter, love, and those things become threats. So if we are ignoring those inputs in the mind body connection and we're just focusing on, well, your gut is shut down.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:13:57]:
So here's a motility agent to get you pooping again. It doesn't matter. You're going to have to take that for the rest of your life because the reason the system is not working.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:14:05]:
Is not being addressed.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:14:10]:
I was reading about how, you know, I don't know if this is still true of medical schools. I didn't go to like a traditional medical school. I went to naturopathic medical school. So obviously it's different just in general. But I was reading how they used to basically be, you know, they're kind of trained to avoid hope, like to give people hope because they, I mean, really what it comes down to these days is like liability, like cover your ass kind of thing. Like, I don't want to tell you you're going to get better and then if you don't, you're going to sue me. So, like that's a whole layer too, of just like withholding, holding hope and just like a bigger perspective. And that obviously feeds very much into our beliefs.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:14:45]:
Like if we like the mind, one of the strongest mind body things that we know now is what you believe about something is going to impact how that thing works or doesn't for you. And I might have quoted this study before, I don't know, but, and I quote studies because I'm not someone who thinks you have to measure something for it to be real. Like, I kind of push against that because I think that's a very limiting worldview that we've fallen into. But it's always helpful when there's a study to back it up because then it's like, for the skeptics out there, here's, here's some research. But essentially there was a study done around morphine, which is, you know, for those who don't know, a very powerful opiate pain reliever. And the study was done on belief of efficacy of this drug. And so basically there was, I don't know if there was two patients or multiple patients, but there was kind of two subsets of, like, people who believed it would work, who were told, like, this is a very powerful pain reliever. It's going to take all your pain away.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:15:38]:
They believed it, and it worked as it's supposed to. Then there was another subset of people, or again, maybe it was one individual who had the belief of, like, nothing helps me, no one helps me, nothing, you know, I'm never going to get better. And was given morphine, and it didn't really work. Like, it didn't really touch their pain. And to me, that's just such a powerful example of, like, what you believe. Like, the hope you're given from your providers, but also, like, what already exists inside of your own self based on conditioning and what you witnessed as a kid plays a big part. And, like, that is why we have to start there, because for several reasons, if we're starting from a place of disbelief of nothing and no one can help me, that is going to be your story. Like, if morphine's not going to work for you, then nothing's going to work for you.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:16:23]:
That's kind of my new barometer of, like, if we can have such a strong belief that, like, a powerful drug like, morphine can just be useless, then what does that say for, like, thyroid medication or, you know, something like, simple, like, in theory, right? Um, so that's, number one, is like, what is your conditioning and programming that you're coming in to the medical field with already? And then. Yeah, like, what else? What are your experiences and expectations of the medical field? I know I definitely grew up with, like, I don't know if this was kind of the. The general mindset of the time, but, like, my grandparents were very anti doctor. Like, just didn't trust them, didn't believe they could help them, and they never did. Right. So, again, it's like one of those things where it can feel like it's. And this is a tricky line to walk where it's like, doctors can be very unhelpful, for sure, you know? And if we're going in with that expectation, it tends to be self fulfilling in its own way, because we are not only, you know, not only is there just sort of some, like, resistance in that relationship in general, but then there's the physiological resistance in our body to receiving any of the medicine we receive that could be helpful. And so that's kind of those two things.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:17:35]:
And then, of course, also if there's things going on in your life, like you were saying, if they're not looking at the whole life and you're living in an abusive situation or you are low income or you, you know, whatever it is that there's just some constant stressor or like a significant trauma history or whatever, that's going to matter, too. You know, like, that's going to, like, just initially, like, overall shift your nervous system into a place of survival. And when you're shifted into that place of survival, your body's not taking in medicine in the same way. Whether it's like mental, emotional medicine, physical medicine doesn't matter, right? Like, because your body's in a different state physiologically when it is in a state of stress. So it can't receive medicine in the same way. So I think that is, again, one of the big detriments of the separation of the two is we just start, you know, it's kind of like we move up six rungs on this ladder and we start with the physical stuff and then from there, like, there's nowhere to go but up. Like, well, that medication didn't work. So let's go up in potency and up in, you know, severity, so to speak, of the treatment you're getting and then maybe surgery.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:18:40]:
And then that's where we find ourselves in these chronic illness cycles where we're not starting at the foundation, we're not starting where it matters most, like what is the soil out of which this plant is growing. We don't look at that like doctor.
Oriana Broderick [00:18:53]:
Joe Dispenza says, you are the placebo effect. So if you have that belief structure that. And if you don't know who. I mean, if the people listening don't know who doctor Joe Dispenza is, he's a chiropractor who was severely injured. His back was severely injured in an accident with him riding his bike in a triathlon. And he then dedicated his life to how our bodies heal because he refused surgery. And they said he'd never walk again if he refused surgery. And so he wrote a book about how we.
Oriana Broderick [00:19:25]:
How that belief, how those, that other piece of it, our mind piece of it plays a big role because if we don't believe that we can do something, then we can't. No matter what modality you go to, there has you. If you don't have your own power and you don't have your own beliefs and you haven't started that foundation, then chances are you're going to be, you know, spinning your wheels totally.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:19:47]:
And I think this is where, like, you know, in my mind, like, I really see, like, things just, like, things just fundamentally have to change. Because as you're saying that, I'm like, it's. It's almost like a privilege at this point to have that perspective, you know, to see it through this lens through which we see it, because that is not the lens that we're grown up in. You know, that's not the. That's not the predominant domineering paradigm. And so most of us come from this place of, like, yeah, illness is bad. It's a physical thing. You have to take medication.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:20:17]:
The doctor's the only one who knows. Like, that's the majority, again, like, predominant, like, world and mindset that most of us are in. And so it, like, we have to. We really do have to, like, change the system, which is, like, you know, obviously easier said than done. But I think that's why we wanted to have this podcast and have this work that we do and have these conversations is to, like, just the more of us who have that mindset, the more of us, you know, we can be that change. Like, the grassroots, you know, ground up kind of change. Because if more and more of us are just, like, not participating in the system in the way that it is, the better. And you see this happening in the medical field sort of slowly but surely.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:20:56]:
Like, lots of doctors are exiting the insurance model and doing, like, concierge type services and just cash based services, right. Or whatever, sliding scale type services to make it. To make it different. Because the folks who are more conscious, the doctors who are more conscious of, like, the holistic nature of humanity, like, they're seeing, like, yeah, I can't help anyone in five minutes. What's the point of this? You know? Like, I go in, I basically, like, it's just like a. It's an exchange of, like, data. Like, this is. These are your numbers.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:21:27]:
This is your dose. Have a good day. You know, like, that's not medicine. It's prescribing. But that's, you know, that's not medicine. Like, true medicine is. Is that holistic looking at the full person, looking at the full picture. And if we're not doing that, we're not really practicing medicine.
Oriana Broderick [00:21:43]:
Yeah, I 100% agree with all of that. I think if you chose to be in healthcare in any capacity, that there is a space that's opening now that's saying, you have to do better, you have to do better. We have to step up and do better because people are getting sicker. And I think there's more doctors than there ever have been. And what. I mean, at some point we would. I would ask a question. If I was a doctor, I would ask myself a question.
Oriana Broderick [00:22:14]:
I think that there's now this group of people that are kind of standing here going, what in the heck is going on? And how can we do something different? Because it's not. This is absolutely not working. And our bodies are these beautiful things that are meant to heal. It's what they do. They want us alive. They're not like all these different bacteria and all these things going on in there thinking about, how can we make you sick? That's not what's happening. That's not what's happening in there. If that imbalance happened within all of these different systems that are going on without us even thinking about it, then there's a reason for it.
Oriana Broderick [00:22:52]:
And how can we get to that reason versus how can we just stop it from happening until, you know, the next thing comes up or whatever? Because that's generally what happens, is we stop it and then something else comes up. And it's often louder. That's.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:23:07]:
That's really, like, at the heart of this work is like this reclamation of self, right? It's like the reclamation of, like. Yeah, our self love, our self identity, our authentic authenticity. And in that, like, you know, creating a sense of awe and wonder of these incredible things that carry us around in this life. You know, that, like you said, perfectly. Like, our bodies are wired for survival. Their number one goal, their number one aspiration at all times is to keep us alive. And sometimes that mechanism goes awry because of trauma and stress that, you know, it's really not meant to encounter in this chronic, ongoing way that they. That we encounter in this world, right? Because of.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:23:52]:
I think this is my, like, frustration with looking around the world today is like, there's so much self. Like, man. Man created human created trauma. Like, all the systems that we've created, including the medical system, is like, we've created these systems that were. That worked maybe for a time, but they're. They're all failing, like, all at the same time. And it's overwhelming. But it's also like, you know, we're not meant, like, there's so many memes about this now, right, where it's like, I'm not meant to work 40 hours a week behind a computer.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:24:20]:
I meant to be, like, out in a field, like, picking berries and talking to my community. We're not meant to do this, to exist in the way that we are. And so I think there is a natural separation from the magic of our bodies and our beings. When we think of the body as the means to the end. Like this is the thing that gets me to my job, that eats the food, that puts me to bed. And it's just sort of like we just use it as a tool that is, rather than seeing it as this magical, incredible like container for so much more magic and beauty.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:24:59]:
Hi everyone, Doctor Aaron here. So by now you're starting to get an idea of some of what the sacred illness paradigm is all about. The sacred illness paradigm is all about this question of what is your illness inviting you to become? What is it that lies within each of us that allows some of us to acquire so called spiritual spontaneous healing or remissions? And what is the key to unlocking that innate self healing capacity in each and every one of us? The sacred illness blueprint is something that I developed as a guide to help you walk through this process step by step to learn how to move deeper and deeper within yourself, to find these layers of dysregulation, of trauma, of limiting beliefs of things that you're holding within your system that are keeping you small, small, stuck and sick. Ultimately, if we ignore the mind body connection and are not exploring the ways in which our nervous system continues to be dysregulated or in a chronic state of activation and stress, any healing modality that we put into our body from the outside in is going to be less effective, if not effective at all. So if you are currently feeling stuck, lost, confused or disillusioned in your healing journey, feeling like you have tried so many things, you have tried so many modalities, you have worked with so many providers, and you're just not seeing the results you want. Know that this is normal. And of course you're not, because this foundational mind body connection is often, if not always, missed in all of these modalities. And just like we can't build a house on top of sand, our healing cannot grow and blossom and be strong and successful if the foundation is not laid first.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:26:35]:
So rather than doing something different, but similar to everything you have tried before and expecting different results, I encourage you to consider doing something different altogether. This is where I invite you to explore the sacred illness group coaching program. This is a low cost monthly membership option that I have created. It's constantly open, constantly enrolling, where you can begin to explore this completely different way of engaging in your health, in your body, in your illness and in your healing process. What is provided inside this group coaching program is the blueprint that lays the foundation and lays the path out for you to follow, to begin to explore these deeper aspects of health, to truly get at the root of what is causing your illness and from there, allowing all other modalities to blossom so that you can actually start to see the changes and the healing take place in your body that you have been expecting and wanting all along. If you're ready and want to learn more, head on over to aurorasomatic.com. And at the top of the screen, click on group coaching where you can read all about it and become a member. Today.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:27:35]:
I can't wait to see you on the inside. And for now, let's get back to the podcast.
Oriana Broderick [00:27:44]:
One thing that is important to know when you're thinking about what is good and what is bad in your body, where did that, where did those beliefs come from? And when you're talking to yourself about, you know, your depression or your anxiety or whatever your other physical symptoms are, and you're saying that they're bad and, you know, I hate them and I wish that my life was this way. Where did that self talk come from? Because it came from somewhere. And if you continue to talk to yourself that way, you are 100% missing the message. We're never going to have like, this nervous system that's just like, you know, we're just floating in air. That's not what our nervous system is. But we are supposed to be able to ebb and flow through it. You know, something activates us and we should be able to come out and, you know, come back to that place of peace. And I think all of these things, there's so many layers to all of this that all of these things keep us in this.
Oriana Broderick [00:28:38]:
Like, this is the way I have to behave and this is the way I have to show up every day. And, you know, it's just so unrealistic. It's unrealistic to the point of we are trying to be unhuman. Like, humans don't function. Like that's a robot function, to get up and do the same thing and act the same way and like, you just can't, that's not real. So of course our bodies are like, hello. Like, what are we doing? You know, and that can come out in so many different ways. And if, and if we don't, I feel like if we stigmatize, continue to stigmatize mental health, we are continuing to tell people that they're supposed to operate as robots instead of you are allowed to have deep emotions, you are allowed to be really depressed.
Oriana Broderick [00:29:21]:
Like, you are like, yes, the stuff that you have going on, yes, this is a normal reaction to life and what you have going on in your life, the healing journey on any realm, wherever you're at in your symptoms or mental health, is that coming back to yourself?
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:29:39]:
Yeah, and I think that's like, like, ultimately the, there's like, you know, there's two things. There's the reality of the world, right? And these systems that are in place. And the, the other side of that is the change isn't going to come from the top, so it has to come from within. And the more we start to connect with ourselves and our intuition and the more of us who say no and who push for change and who find our voice and find our, like, unique place in the world, you know, there's, there's more of us than there are them, so to speak. Right? Like the people who are kind of in charge, whoever those, whoever those, those forces may be. And so, you know, the reality is, is that the more pressure there is from the masses for things to change or the more we take power back and just say, like, I'm not participating in that system anymore. I'm not showing up in my body in this way anymore, then, you know, change has to happen because there's no one participating. You know, it's like if no one goes to a store, it's going to close.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:30:32]:
Like, if we stop participating in that system, it's going to change. And I think that's why, you know, from the healthcare lens, like, there's many systems that need to change. And this, this conversation is about healthcare in particular. And, you know, I kind of feel like this is one we have actually more control over because we already have what we need inside of us to shift that system. You know, it's different from like, money or, you know, things that, like, are outside of us. Like, when it's something outside of us, it's harder to obtain, like, you know, like political stuff or whatever, like, that's harder to obtain because it's like we don't have this direct inner wisdom or capacity by healthcare. We have it in our bodies right now to heal. And so we, the more of us who learn these foundational elements of health and find how to do that, how to take that power back.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:31:24]:
And again, this is stuff that we offer in our work. You know, like, you can do this at home. It's like, you can do it at home. You can do it right now. Like, go take our course. You can do it at home. Like, you don't have to go spend a $100 on a new specialist, or, you know, at this point, like, dollar 500 or whatever. Like, these are things that exist inside of you right now, and you have that capacity to tap into them and find them.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:31:45]:
And I think the hardest part, kind of what you were talking about, is it does cause us to have to question things. If there's. Again, it's so interesting how it doesn't matter what you're doing. You could be the healthiest person on paper and have all the chronic illnesses in the world, or you could smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and be a joyful, healthy being who lives to 105. So, to me, it's always that question of why? You were saying, it's a child who's always like, but why? But why? But why? It drives us crazy. But it's like, good question. Let's go deeper. Because there's always a deeper thing.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:32:21]:
And that was my whole journey with Crohn's disease. It was like, okay, yeah, the physiological why is that? My immune system was attacking my intestines. But why? Why would my immune system do that if my body is wired for survival? That seems like a very bad idea, but apparently my body thinks it's a good idea, like, it needs to happen. So why? You know, and that's where. That's where that took me. And so I think it does take that. That courage, really, it's courage to. To start.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:32:54]:
To look inside and to start asking those questions and to start looking at those layers that have separated us from who we are and who we. Who we came into the world being and who we are now. And, you know, again, the current medical paradigm does not do us any help. Does not help us in that. In that way, because it starts us at a. It looks at the outermost layer and treats that when really, we need to be peeling back that outermost layer, like, that outermost layer of how we're showing up in the world right now with our current way of thinking, our current way of being, our current way of, like, what we're eating or what we're thinking or what we're believing. And then the symptoms that we have, those are all. Those are all results of something.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:33:37]:
Like, they are the most visible thing above the star surface, but, like, what's happening under the soil, right? And then when we start to peel. When we start to say, but why? And peel those layers back, then we're getting into that core. But anyway, the point being, like, the medical system is missing that capacity to go into those deeper layers. It's treating that outermost layer. When that doesn't work, it has to go further. It goes further out. It doesn't go further in, it goes further out. And that's the problem, because every time you go further out, you go further away from yourself.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:34:06]:
And really, the source is inside of you. Like it's inside of you right now. Again, the kind of like, takeaway or the message of this current podcast is about, you know, the medical system. We are where we're at for a reason. We had to kind of do what we did to understand disease and, you know, the body and all the things that we now understand from a scientific perspective. We had to separate the mind and the body in order for that to happen. But that disconnect is ultimately now, you know, at a huge disservice. Because the reality of, like, the mind is that it's the nervous system, and it's, you know, the nerves that come out of the nervous system.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:34:44]:
And that nervous system, how it's programmed and how it is influenced by your world, is going to impact everything, health wise. And, you know, I think, too, to bring in spirituality. Like, I think it's time to bring the soul back into the mind and the body. Like, you know, to, like, re infuse, like, purpose and, like, authenticity, authentic self. Like, why are we here? What is the. What is the bigger meaning of all of this? Bringing that back in as well is part of bringing those two things back together, if that. If that, you know, resonates with your worldview. Because I think the other thing that happened when we separated the mind and the body is we made things feel pretty pointless, you know, and, like, pretty bleak and pretty, like.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:35:24]:
Like, that was. That was my thing when I got sick was like, this is not my. I refuse for this to be my existence. You know, like, I'm not going to just be someone who is sick, who takes medications, who, like, you know, barely gets by every day, like, I expect, and I want more out of my life, and I think we all should. And I think that, you know, we kind of get robbed of that birthright of, like, expecting more. Like you were saying about, like, pursuing your dream and, like, stepping into who you're supposed to be. We get disconnected from our intuitive selves, our, like, innate beings, when we separate that mind and the body. And we get conditioned through childhood and life and culture.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:36:00]:
And so it really is about going back in versus going further out. And so my advice, for what it's worth for folks who are listening is to take a moment to examine, like, who's on your team right now, like, who are you working with? What are your current treatment modalities? How are you engaging in your health? What are you engaging with from a kind of like a therapeutic standpoint, but also, like, you know, relationally, how are you engaging with it? Do you feel good about it? Do you feel empowered? Do you feel, like, does it resonate in your system? Do you believe it can help you? Do you want it to help you? Like, all of you starting to ask those kinds of questions? And if there's no one on your team who is currently asking you to go deeper within yourself, who's looking at that bigger picture of, like, well, who's in your life? And how do they make you feel? And, like, what was your childhood like? And what beliefs do you carry and what's your relationship with what's going on in your life? And what emotions are you feeling and what ones are you not feeling? You know, like, if no one is looking at those layers, like, I'm. It's almost like good news for you because it means that's the missing piece. Like, that's what you're not doing, and that's probably why you're feeling frustrated and stuck in your care. So that's, you know, again, kind of a plug for doing mind body work, doing somatic work in particular. Um, and if you have interest or curiosity about what that looks like, you can look at our resources and the work that Orianna and I are doing and provide. Um, but that is, I guess the takeaway for today's podcast is to really start to marry those two back together. And you have what's in you.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:37:35]:
What. What you need is inside of you right now to heal. And you don't need to see another specialist. You can start that work now. And from there, you know, other modalities, other doctors, other things start to become more efficacious, more beneficial, because number one, your body can actually receive the medicine when it's in a more regulated state. And number two, if you're believing that it can help you, like, it's. That's going to, you know, make it more efficacious as well. And then number three, you are more connected to your intuitive self and therefore can, like, more intuitively advocate and find the people who are going to help you in your journey as time goes on.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:38:13]:
So thanks for listening, everyone, and we'll see you next time.
Dr. Erin Hayford [00:38:18]:
Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of the Sacred Illness podcast. If you find this information shared here, inspirational and educational, please share it with those you think would benefit from this work. To take this work deeper yourself, check out our website, www.aurorasomatic.com, where you can explore our coaching community and community course options. And don't forget to subscribe to this channel where new content is coming out all the time intended to inspire, awaken and help you deepen your relationship with yourself, your life and your world. We'll see you next time. Bye.
