Pain As Your Sacred Messenger

PAIN

AS YOUR SACRED Messenger DURING YOUR MENO(PAUSE) JOURNEY

DR. SHARON STILLS PROVEN NATUROPATHIC TOOLS, ASSESSMENTS + APPROACHES TO ADDRESS AND WELCOME THE SACRED MESSAGES OF CHRONIC PAIN

PAIN

AS YOUR SACRED MESSENGER DURING YOUR MENO(PAUSE) JOURNEY

Publisher & Author Dr. Sharon Stills

Copyright © 2022 Dr. Sharon Stills All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

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Pain: Your SacRED Messenger contains general medical information. The medical information is not advice and should not be treated as such. Medical Assistance You must not rely on the information in this book as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you have any specific questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you think you may be suffering from any medical condition, you should seek immediate medical attention. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice or discontinue medical treatment because of information in this book.

Don't get lost in your pain, know that one day your pain will become your cure.

- Rumi

PAIN

AS YOUR SACRED MESSENGER DURING YOUR MENO(PAUSE) JOURNEY

TABLE OF CONTENTS EXPLORING YOUR PAIN

5

MINDFULNESS AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN THE GUEST HOUSE

8

THE GUEST HOUSE (REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS) PAIN AS TEACHER

7

9

10

YOU ARE NOT YOUR PAIN

10

WHEN PAIN GOT PERSONAL

11

YOUR PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALING

13

UNDERSTANDING THE RED PHILOSPHY REINVENT YOUR HEALTH

14

15

EXPLORE YOUR SPIRIT

15

DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE

16

CREATING YOUR PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP TRACKING RESULTS PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS MENTAL SYMPTOMS

16

17

18 18 19

UNRAVEL WHAT YOU’D LOVE LIFE TO LOOK LIKE 20 GOAL SETTING & PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

21

GOAL SETTING & PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT CONTINUED 22 NOURISHMENT FOR BODY, MIND & SOUL ABOUT THE AUTHOR

25

LEARN MORE AT DRSTILLS.COM

24

PAIN

AS YOUR SACRED MESSENGER DURING YOUR MENO(PAUSE) JOURNEY

EXPLORING YOUR PAIN Pain is something that we all experience at some point, and it's traditionally thought of as a fairly horrible experience, but is it?

Or is it something more?

A sacRED messenger?

There are so many different types of pain… emotional pain, mental pain, physical pain, even toxic pain. There's the pain of heartbreak, where you go through a breakup and lose a significant partner. That is pain. Your brain perceives that loss, just like it would if you were in a car accident and had your leg broken.

And so pain is part of the human experience, and in it is the opportunity to grow from that pain - emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

We are so quick to wanna put away the pain. At the onset of it we jump into the act and gobble down a pain reliever, but in doing so we miss the conversation. We miss the invitation from the pain to explore the messages from our bodies. We miss the opportunity to be in a relationship with pain and to welcome it.

These are the philosophies I learned from Jon Kabat-Zinn, who is the father of mindfulness in our society. One of the earliest experiences on my journey of being a physician was when I started training and teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction to cancer patients in a local hospital. These were patients dealing with some of the most extreme forms of pain, i.e. bone cancer. And I don’t know if you have ever been given something like morphine before, but the medication wouldn’t even touch the pain. They were in agony.

Our goal was to help them embrace the pain, cope with it and employ mindfulness to move through it effectively.

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Mindfulness is all about being present, exploring the pain, feeling the sensations of the pain, the colors associated with pain, the emotions associated with pain.

Think about if you have a headache. most likely your initial reaction is to recoil, curl into a ball, contract, be aggravated and not wanna deal with it.

But what if instead of that movement and reaction, you breathed.?

What if you said, "I have a headache and this is what it feels like"?

What if you sat with it and sensed the colors associated with it and explored its vibrations, temperatures, and dimensions?

As you begin to explore the pain, sense it, feel it and move through it, the hold the pain has on you releases. I know it may sound a little crazy but trust me it works!! And It's the same with emotions.

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MINDFULNESS AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN

When discussing or lecturing on the topic of pain, I am often reminded of a wonderful poem by Rumi, called The Guest House.

Rumi is a 13th-century Persian poet, whose work widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the Muslim world. By the 20th century, his work became a global phenomenon, crossing religious, cultural, and societal boundaries. His work reflects on and influences the practice of mindfulness.

I'd like you to read The Guest House and have included it on the next page (it's short, but you'll find it very powerful).

Once you read it, there is a reflective worksheet on the following page which will allow you to pull your life experiences into awareness so you can embrace them as a welcome guest that can be used as a powerful messenger and guide for growth and healing.

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THE GUEST HOUSE This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

-A Poem by Rumi

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THE GUEST HOUSE REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS Take a moment. I want you to sit with the poem and reflect on how it speaks to you.

I want you to write down your emotions and responses to reading The Guest House.

What are the first 3 adjectives that come to mind when reading the Guest House?

How did the poem make you feel physically?

What images or memories did it conjure in your mind?

What images or memories did it conjure in your mind?

How does it feel when you experience the memories as a guest?

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PAIN AS TEACHER This specific work by Rumi is a reminder not to resist the thoughts and emotions passing through you but to meet them with courage, warmth, and respect.

Pain, heartbreak, sorrow, anger, sadness… these are all ways to cleanse. These seemingly unwelcome “guests”, will work to remove everything untrue or unhelpful, if you let them.

These feelings, these emotions are just visiting. They are just guests for a temporary stay, and like all guests, they will depart on their own time, taking with them that which is unneeded and leaving room for new delights.

It is a reminder that pain can be a powerful teacher, a giver of perspective, and offers us a chance for renewal and change.

YOU ARE NOT YOUR PAIN

In working with other practitioners when discussing mutual patients, I often cringe when I hear something to the effect of, “oh, my cancer patient” or “oh, my pain patient”. I am mindful to not identify patients by their diagnosis. I may have a patient who is dealing with cancer or who is dealing with pain, but they are not their pain.

You are a spiritual being and you're having the experience of pain. This experience is meant to be your sacRED messenger. Be it, a runny nose, sore throat or chronic pain, these symptoms tell us something about the different areas of the body and can relate to different things, energetically.

Pain doesn't actually start in the physical, its starts energetically. It reminds us that we, perhaps, have an underlying issue that we are ignoring. So if we are not paying attention to poor relationships, the imbalances in our parenting skills, the stressors in our lives… whatever it may be, the pain says, something must change.

Pain is a sacRED message from our body. It is telling you that you're not changing your life, you're not making a shift and because of this, that emotional pain is going to become physical...

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The current medical system has been ingrained in us and it is because of that indoctrination that we do not naturally open our minds and listen to the different ways of approaching the pain we are experiencing. Without it, we would not pay attention to the imbalance in our lives.

Not very many people wake up in the morning and go, I feel freaking amazing. So let me get on the phone and call Dr. Stills and get an appointment because I wanna keep feeling like this.

It’s only when we wake up and we have a little headache and we go, ugh, but I gotta get to work. So we pop some pain pills because we have to get stuff done!

We ignore it, push it under the rug, mask it with pharmaceuticals until one day it gets to be too extreme to handle. The pain has to enter into our physical body and has to become so extreme because it wants to get our attention.

That's what makes us slow down.

WHEN PAIN GOT PERSONAL

At the age of 24 or 25, my children were still very young. Picking them up from their Montessori school, I was informed of something I wasn’t ready for. They had chickenpox.

I thought to myself, “Oh my! I have never had chickenpox.” If you are not familiar with this diagnosis, chickenpox is an infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus. It causes an itchy rash with small, fluid-filled blisters. Chickenpox is highly contagious and extremely harmful to adults who are exposed to the virus in adulthood.

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For my children, they had a few spots and a mild fever, but for me, the symptoms were much worse. I can’t even begin to describe where the blisters showed up. Yes, they were even down there... They started on my chest and the rash rapidly became itchy, fluid-filled blisters that eventually turned into scabs. They covered my body from the top of my head to the base of my feet. They were everywhere… Around my eyes, my mouth, you name it.

For an entire month, I was stuck in bed with painful itching and unbelievable discomfort.

Next came pneumonia. Coughing, fever, sweating, shakes, difficulty breathing, stabbing chest pain.

It kept me in bed for another month.

This is all happening while I was a single mother, living in a one-bedroom apartment, working on my undergraduate degree, trying to earn enough money in my massage therapy practice to support me and my family, and now I couldn’t even function at all.

Then the chronic fatigue kicked in and as I moved into the third month of being the sickest I had ever felt in my life, literally forced to lay on a futon for months on end, something dawned on me…

I was super unhappy.

I was doing everything to advance my education, actively pursuing my career goal of becoming a naturopathic doctor. I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing too, including the green juices, the organic foods, and supplementing with vitamin C and lomatium… But, I just wasn’t getting any better.

My kids are the most important thing to me and I never got to see them. Each morning they would go off to school, I would go to school and work at the massage clinic. We were like passing ships in the night and lying there, I thought this is not what I wanted. This was not what I wanted the memories of their childhood and my mothering experience to look like. I knew something had to change.

So I had an idea… an idea that was so monumental, I went from horizontal, lying on that futon, to vertical and ready to engage in my life again. I was gonna homeschool my children, I was gonna move my massage practice into the back room in our apartment, and I was going to shift my studies to night school.

This was my cure. This was the moment I started to move the needle back to healing and health. My pain, my suffering had nothing to do with what I was taking, or eating… It had to do with not being true to myself, my needs, and my desires. I had been starving myself spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.

The pain of this infection was the wake-up call I needed, And it gave me the personal firsthand experience to know that this, too, needed to be a part of how my patients would find their own healings.

YOUR PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALING

As a naturopathic physician, I do have a DEA license and I do have a prescription pad which makes me licensed to prescribe, but I never use it for medication. I use it to write write things about making positive changes in our lives. Everyone's "prescription" is different. Maybe yours is to quit a job that drains you, leave a marriage that's emotionally draining, take that trip you have been dreaming about, or launch that business that you have been putting off. These are examples of the types of prescriptions that can really make a positive impact on your life.

In working with patients for over 20+ years, I know that pain that can exist before the diagnosis of sickness or dis-ease.

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e k a M s e g n a h c e v i t i s o . p . . e f i l r u o ! in y Y A D O T g n i t r sta

You are probably like most patients I see when they come into my practice. You have been taking care of everyone else in your life before you take care of yourself. This would include your partners, your offspring, your nieces and nephews, your friends, your co-workers, even strangers!!! And let's not forget as you get older you then have to begin to take care of your aging parents, too! Somewhere we learned it was selfish to put ourselves first.

There is a reason they tell you on the plane to put your oxygen mask on first. You can’t possibly support the life of another if you aren’t breathing yourself. So around here, I am all about putting yourself first and embracing how much you matter.

Rather than just thinking about pain as something to banish, I want you to start thinking about it as a sacRED message and a time to pause in your life and evaluate where you have been and where you want to head.

UNDERSTANDING THE RED PHILOSPHY

So you might be asking yourself, why does sacRED have the RED capitalized?

What’s up with the RED???

I love color - I utilize it in my healing sessions with patients. I have a ton of RED hair sitting on top of my head which growing up as a child I used to hate and then as I got older and learned to embrace all of myself and learned to love. I realized RED is powerful, passionate, moving, exciting, loving, committed and a force of nature to be reckoned with so I wanted it to be the acronym for how I helped patients move through this amazing transition back toward health & healing. Here’s what it stands for…

Reinvent your Health, Explore your Spirit Discover your Purpose

RED SELF CARE CARDS A wonderful way to begin your RED journey is with the exclusive RED Card Deck. Based on my medical knowledge, philosophy and experience working with amazing women like you, the RED deck is essential for starting your transformation.

ABOUT THE CARDS

REINVENT YOUR HEALTH Dismantle the absurd belief that as you age things fall apart.

It is true that as you age things will fall apart if you don’t take care of yourself, eat a bunch of shit, never move your body, rely on pharmaceuticals, etc. but if you embrace a Naturopathic healing lifestyle and let me guide you with the correct testing to understand what is happening in your body then there is no reason for things to fall apart. As a matter of fact, for the first time in your life things might begin to fall together. We need to start understanding that the ridiculous yearly exam that traditional medicine uses to give us a false sense of security is so outdated. How is it possible that an EKG, Blood Pressure Reading, CBC and Lipid panel can tell the whole story? Where is the inflammation testing, the nutrient testing, the toxicity testing, the hormone testing, etc.? If you really want to find out what’s going on in your body you need these tests that will explore the root causes of health and dis-ease. So R is for realizing, remembering and embracing that at any age and at any time YOU can REINVENT your health. I can honestly tell you that I am so much healthier at the age of 53 than I was at 33 when I was just out of medical school. I can honestly tell you that so many of my patients have slowed down and even reversed their aging process and you can too!

EXPLORE YOUR SPIRIT It’s not enough to just look good on the outside and have organs that are functioning properly. We MUST address our spirit to fully heal and shine our brilliance. If you are eating a pristine organic diet but are still pissed off at your ex for hurting you then that is going to interfere with the benefits of that pristine organic diet. There is an interconnection between our emotions and our physical body. Did you know that a congested liver can create anger and on the flip side unresolved anger can create liver issues? The same goes for grief and the lungs, fear and the kidneys, control and the colon, worry and your spleen.

Almost 95% of your thoughts are subconscious so this means you may think you aren’t angry but there may be some unresolved issues that are running your show.

You are wise. Often though our little inner child is still running the show. We make decisions about the world around us as scared angry little children and this is an amazing opportunity to go back and heal that little one inside us, so the king/queen that you are can step up and take charge.

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DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE

Once we have reinvented our health, and explored and healed our spirit, we get to be clear on our purpose, our passions and what we want to contribute to the world. We get to embrace our purpose. And what is meaningful & fulfilling for you may not be what it is to me or anyone else. Purpose is much more than a the things you own, what you do for a living, or how others view you. Purpose feeds the soul. It's how you connect with others, how you think, how you engage, and whatever else you want it to mean.

It’s an individual definition and you get to define what it means for you.

CREATING YOUR PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP

Helping patients heal and get out of pain is at the core of my practice, and is why I developed the RED philosophy. In using these principles, I was able to make the changes necessary in my life to get off the futon and create a life for me and my family. A life full of purpose, love and joy... without pain or fatigue. It gives us a chance in your life to:

Reinvent your Health, Explore your Spirit Discover your Purpose

It’s time to redefine what you want from life.

How do we do this?

The first step is to press Pause & Evaluate your life:

Are you happy?

Is this where you thought you would be 10, 20, even 30 years ago?

Are you still caring for others and leaving yourself on the back burner?

Do you feel fulfilled with your current “status quo”?

What do you want from your life after pain?

Is it travel, is it connection, or something else?

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CREATING YOUR PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP I created the Personalized Medicine Map Guide to help you identify your pain and start processing and addressing your pain in a meaningful and actionable way. I have included that guide in the following section.

Using the personalized medicine map we can begin to see where we can make changes in our lives and create a plan, with the help of your physician, to address the root cause of your pain.

As Socrates claimed "An Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living" - that's a bit harsh, but inner-work is key to outer health.

THE PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP GUIDE

Tracking Results We will look deeply at what the actual health status of your body is and set goals for where you want to go and the changes you want to make.

Identify areas on the figure to address in your treatment

Physical Symptoms Fatigue Low Sex Drive Decreased Stamina Decreased Flexibility Loss of Strength Decrease in Muscle Size Infertility

Aches & Pains Heart Palpitations Dizziness Low Blood Pressure Frequently Feeling Cold Headache Hot Flashes/Night Sweats

THE PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP © Dr Sharon Stills 2022

Mental Symptoms Apathy Depression Increased Forgetfulness Feeling "Stressed Out" Poor Sleep / Insomnia Anxiety / Irritability / Nervousness

Female Symptoms Bleeding Changes / Heavy or Irregular Period Tender Breasts Vaginal Dryness Acne Increased Facial hair Uterine Fibroids Acceleration of Appearance of Aging Ovarian Cyst Endometriosis Infertility

Additional Symptoms What additional symptoms and pain are you currently experiencing?

THE PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP © Dr Sharon Stills 2022

Unravel What You’d Love Life To Look Like So before we go integrating and creating your plan, I want you to pause again and gain clarity about what you want to ACHIEVE in each of the key areas of your life, including: Health, Romantic Relationships, Family & Friends, Self, Career, Religion/Spirituality, Movement, Volunteering, Education, Purpose and any other area that is important to you. Fill in each section of the chart below with how satisfied you are in each area of your life. Each ring represents 20%, but you can change the percentages to fit what resonates deeply with you if necessary.

Health

Selfcare

Religion/ Spirituality

Family Friends

Romantic Relationships

Eating & Nutrition

Career

Movement & Exercise

Notes:

THE PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP © Dr Sharon Stills 2022

Goal Setting & Personal Development So now that you understand WHERE you are at in each area of your life, use the boxes below to list 3 changes you can make in each area of your life to begin making the changes you need to move past pain.

Health

Selfcare

1

1

2

2

3

3

Religion/Spirituality

Movement & Exercise

1

1

2

2

3

3

THE PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP © Dr Sharon Stills 2022

Goal Setting & Personal Development (continued) Career

Romantic Relationships

1

1

2

2

3

3

Eating & Nutrition

Family Friends

1

1

2

2

3

3

Notes:

THE PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP © Dr Sharon Stills 2022

Your Personalized Medicine Map Action Plan Now that we have our goals set, it time to create our plan. Take your goals and enter them into the chart below to begin planning what you would like to accomplish in 7 days, 30 day, and 90 days. You can use this form during your appointments with me or your healthcare provider to help keep you accountable for the changes you are looking to make in your physical, emotional and spiritual health.

7-Day Plan

30-Day Plan

90-Day Plan

THE PERSONALIZED MEDICINE MAP © Dr Sharon Stills 2022

NOURISHMENT FOR BODY, MIND & SOUL So often pain starves us of the nourishment we need to survive and thrive. I’d like to leave you with perhaps one of the most important things in health, focusing on nourishment. Of course fresh, organic, greens are one of the most beneficial things you can eat to support your health. But nourishment is so much more than what we eat. So I invite you to pause and reflect on ways you nourish yourself and areas you may need to work on.

FAMILY

FRIENDS/TRIBE

TEACHERS

MOTHER EARTH

SEXUAL EXPRESSION

SILENCE

MOVEMENT

FURRY FRIENDS

CO-WORKERS

NEIGHBORS

SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY

CREATIVE ENDEAVORS

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AND DON'T FORGET THE FOOD YOU EAT!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR | DR. SHARON STILLS, NMD Hi, I’m Dr. Stills and I’m grateful you are here exploring what you can do to have a pain free life. Perhaps you are struggling currently with a dis-ease process that has turned you into a seeker. Perhaps you have overcome a dis-ease and just want to make sure you continue to stay on the path towards health. Perhaps you are feeling healthy and strong and understand the power of prevention and just want to learn as much as you can, as often as you can, to continue to perform at your optimal state. By the time you are finished with this ebook, I know that you will have learned more about how to embrace your pain and will also be able to institute some of the at home tips to start loving your life again.

As a Naturopathic Medical Doctor I help patients pause and evaluate life so they can live their story stronger, healthier, and pain free while aging backwards. Using my 20+ years of experience and extensive training and background in European Biological Medicine, anti-aging therapies, and Bio-identical Hormone Replacement, I have successfully helped thousands of patients transition gently through pain with all natural methods. I am passionate about spreading the word about RED – the philosophy I developed for you to Reinvent your health, Explore your spirit and Discover your purpose so that you, too, can create and live the life you desire and deserve! I founded and ran one of the largest and most successful naturopathic clinics in the country for a decade and am the host of The Science Of Self Healing podcast. I am an expert physician for the Women’s Health Network and I educate other physicians as the Co-Lead North American lecturer for the Paracelsus Academy in Switzerland. Patients work with me in a variety of ways: through telemedicine consults and my life-changing retreats for individuals or small groups in healing and rejuvenating locations around the world. Some of my patients will even fly out to see me or fly me in just to get the chance to work, one on one.

LEARN MORE AT DRSTILLS.COM

PROVEN NATUROPATHIC TOOLS, ASSESSMENTS + APPROACHES TO ADDRESS AND WELLCOME THE SACRED MESSAGES OF CHRONIC PAIN

Pain is something that we all experience at some point, and it's traditionally thought of as a fairly horrible experience. But is it?

Or is it something more?

A sacRED messenger?

There are so many different types of pain… emotional pain, mental pain, physical pain, even toxic pain.

It's part of the human experience, and in it is the opportunity to grow from that pain - emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

Dr. Sharon Stills founded and ran one of the largest and most successful naturopathic clinics in the country for a decade and is the host of The Science Of Self Healing podcast.

She is an expert physician for Women’s Health Network and she educates other physicians as the Co-Lead North American lecturer for the Paracelsus Academy in Switzerland.

LEARN MORE AT DRSTILLS.COM

PAIN

AS YOUR SACRED MESSENGER DURING YOUR MENO(PAUSE) JOURNEY