The most painful part for me during the growth process is grieving the death of an old version of me. In order to grow, in order to become a new person, you have to say goodbye to the current version of yourself. And that is a deeply painful process. Because I love myself, I am proud of the accomplishments I have had and the person that I am and have become. But when you are a person who puts personal growth at the forefront of your life, you can’t stay any one particular person for too long. The process involves growing and changing. So much so, that there are several points in my life where I have felt myself become a NEW person. Grieved the old version of me and felt like my cells were renewed and I was now someone else. The world feels different now. My insides are different and it’s not something that I can fully explain to someone since it is mostly internal. I’ve even felt taller sometimes when I grow into a new version of myself. I’ve had friends that know me well tell me I look different – my skin is radiant, my attitude and mood are different, and they can see that I’ve morphed into my newest version of myself. 

Death

It really is the DEATH of an old version of you that you have to go through in order to create the new you that you are working toward. This is the hardest part of the process. All of my accomplishments, everything that I’ve created, the person who I am and who I love – I have to grieve the DEATH of that person so that I can become the new person I am meant to be. And I don’t think the journey will ever be over. We are constantly changing, new cells are being created, and we are growing if we do it correctly. “Improvement isn’t inevitable. Change is.” Change is happening no matter what, how will you use it to your advantage?

Clients ask me all the time how they can get back to the old version of themselves. The version before they were sick. But the secret is – you can never get back to that version, you can only move forward. And the new version of yourself will be better than you could have ever imagined. You will be a wise person who has become resilient and hopeful despite the situation you had to go through. Without Lyme disease (and cancer, and meningitis, and the multiple co-infections I had and so on and so on!), I would not be the person I am today. I may not have done the personal work I did to process emotions and thoughts and energy in such a way that I could learn and grow and become something greater than I ever thought possible. Someone who FEELS the world in a whole new way now. The world feels easier, safer, and more exciting. But to get here, I had to grieve the version of myself that had Lyme disease. I had to cry and cry and grieve the loss of who I was. I could no longer say “my” Lyme disease or “my” anything related to health diagnoses. My words are powerful and saying “my” was only keeping me clinging to the identity of someone sick with Lyme disease. I had to realize that I could no longer be part of the Lyme community – a community I belonged to for 20 years without even knowing it and then about 4 more years as I went through the long journey of treatment and transformation. 

I am grateful for Lyme disease for it has shown me so much and helped me grow into a different person. A healthy, vibrant person who now has the energy to help others struggling through the same struggle I experienced. The journey can be a LONG, HARD, LONELY, COMPLICATED one – but I know better than anyone that YOU CAN MAKE IT THROUGH. And while I will never be able to get you back to the version of yourself you were before you got sick, I sure as hell can help you get to a new, improved version of yourself. A person free of aches and pains and brain fog. A person no longer tied to your identity of being sick.

If you are ready to DIG DEEP to discover what barriers may be holding you back in your healing journey and want to be fast tracked to results, health, and freedom – working with me may be for you. I have been where you are and my experience in healthcare and functional medicine coaching techniques can catapult you forward on your healing path. Book a breakthrough call with me here: https://calendly.com/christinelymesupport/breakthrough  for more information on what working with me would look like. I have limited spaces available in my 90 day program – Surviving Lyme: Navigate Your Disease and Reclaim Your Health – and I am looking for motivated clients, ready to change their lives! And if we aren’t a perfect fit for working together, I have plenty of resources and tools so you can find the help you need.

Dr. Christine Arseneau, Pharm.D., Functional Medicine Health Coach