Stage 1: The Immune System

The immediate goal here is to pattern interrupt the rampant immune dysfunction. We must flush out and eliminate the majority of hidden pathogens, thereby decreasing the body’s need for chronic inflammation, and ultimately get the immune system running more efficiently.

Most therapies that interact with the immune system are designed to either suppress or boost it.

In complex chronic conditions, both of these uni-directional approaches will ultimately do more harm than good.

The only way to get the inflammation down for good is to work *with* the immune system by using methods to create a smarter, more organized Immune Response.

We reduce inflammation, not by suppressing it with anti-inflammatories, but instead activating pathways in the body that help the immune system to actually resolve the inflammatory cycles.

This means the protective systems of your body become more efficient. Pathogens get attacked and eliminated, with much less collateral damage.

How do we do this?

In Stage 1 we use herbs and practices that have been shown to:

Decrease Inflammation

Enhance Immune Specificity

Be Antifungal

Be Antiviral

Be Antibacterial

Kill Spirochetes

Counter Mold Toxins

Interrupt Viral Replication

Regulate Gut Bacteria

Increase Lymphatic Flow

Dissolve Biofilms

Regulate Liver Enzymes for Detoxification Pathways

Additionally you are trained to use specific breathing patterns to regulate gasotransmitters such as Nitric Oxide (NO) for a more effective immune response.

An added benefit here is that in the future if you ever feel a flare coming on, you can use these techniques to mobilise your own immune response right there on the spot, using nothing more than the air around you. It’s truly remarkable.

In Stage 1 we are actively working on balancing the immune system, in essence patching the protective roof, walls and windows of our house. This is a crucial first step towards real healing. Creating a safe internal environment.

Typically 2-3 weeks into Stage 1 we know changes are taking hold by observing the following signs:

Wandering Pains Decrease or Go Away Entirely

Energy Level Improves

Sensitivity to Weather is Decreased

Energy level Improving

Body Temperature Begins to Regulate

Improvement in Mental Clarity is Common Here as well.

Many people that we work with have such low grade inflammation that they always feel like they’re coming down with a mild flu. Those flu-like symptoms typically resolve in 2-4 weeks during Stage 1.

In cases of heavy pathogen load, such as Lyme, a Herxheimer response is possible in the first two stages, and serves as a great signpost that we are on the right track.

You may notice increased bowel activity as your liver and large intestine begin to flush out pathogens. Some people experience pathogen venting in the form of a mild skin rash. This is an excellent sign.

Remember that the skin is the largest organ, and the pores are an effective means of elimination for the body.

Typically the rashes only last a few days if they come. Try not to scratch them.

• Personal Growth*

The immune system regulates the boundaries of the body, defining our sense of self and other. Interestingly, as people complete stage 1, they often find their interpersonal boundaries becoming more defined and healthy.

The way they interact with others begins to change for the better, and loved ones begin to take notice of the newfound sense of power and self respect

Stage 2: The Digestive System

The connection between digestion and complex chronic conditions is now finally getting the mainstream scientific attention that it deserves.

In light of the mountains of research on gut health, most digestive strategies out there aim to colonize the gut with probiotics. You’ve probably tried this. Most people have.

You can buy the most expensive, beautiful houseplant, but if you place it in the wrong environment, for example drop it in the desert or the middle of antarctica, it won’t survive long and you’ll be buying a new plant very soon.

The same is true for probiotics. They’re alive. They need to be placed in a suitable environment. If your digestive tissue is inflamed or full of virulent pathogens, the probiotics won’t be able to take root. And you’ll be needing another bottle very soon. Forever.

Because we are following a proven process in a specific order, by the time we begin working with the digestion, a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done to secure the immune system.

This means that the changes we start to make in the gut microbiota will actually have a chance to stick, without needing to compete with excessive pathogens, or develop in a hostile, inflamed environment.

Better yet, we accomplish all of this without probiotics at all. You can take them if you want, but they’re not required.

There are now personalized microbiome tests that you can order to have the gut flora analyzed. These can be interesting, and you’re encouraged to always be learning more about yourself. They are not necessary for this stage however. You can learn alot about the state of your gut bacteria by looking at your tongue.

The bacteria in our body uses slime to protect themselves called biofilms. As it turns out these biofilm layers are not just in your intestines, they reach up through the entire digestive tract all the way to your tongue.

When you see a slimy coating on your tongue, that is a direct snapshot of what’s going on deeper into the body.

Based on the thickness, moisture content, and color of the coating, we know what types of bacteria are dominant in your system and how to restore balance using specific herbs.

An ideal tongue has a slightly moist, pink color, with a very thin, clear-white coating.

Once the coating becomes thick, dry, greasy, chalky, white, yellow, green, etc, we know there is an issue in the microbial makeup of the gut flora.

Additionally, the tongue shouldn’t be too puffy, as that is a sign of pathological fluid retention, and often hidden pathogens. If there are scalloped marks on the sides of the tongue that means it is too swollen to fit in your mouth, and the teeth are pressing into it. You're likely retaining water all over your body.

Stage 2 is vitally important to correct this.

Digestion and brain fog.

Your brain, like every other part of your body consumes fuel and creates waste. At night when you sleep, your brain effectively flushes its waste products in a process called Glymphatic Drainage. This healthy process allows for cognitive function, memory, focus, good mood, and all of the other attributes we usually associate with positive mental health.

Your brain is protected by a boundary called the blood-brain barrier. This semi-permeable layer is designed to protect the brain from pathogens.

When we have too many pathogens, chronic inflammation, leaky gut, or a combination thereof, the blood brain barrier will tighten down to protect the brain even further and restrict movement. This defensive mechanism is meant to keep pathogens out of the brain (great!) but has the side effect of blocking the nightly glymphatic drainage that our brain needs in order to eliminate metabolic waste (not so great...).

The resulting lockdown causes waste to build up, and we experience a sense of brain fog. Difficult short term memory (“now what did I walk into this room for?”), trouble focusing, malaise, low energy, and low motivation to do even seemingly simple tasks.

Trouble sleeping deeply can also prevent the brain from being able to give itself the much needed "deep clean" at night.

When we do it right, moving steadily stage by stage, we first balance the immune function and pathogens, and then correct the digestion, including “leaky gut.” This allows the blood brain barrier to normalize, and the glymphatic drainage to resume at night. And that’s how the brain fog starts to lift in Stage 2.

It’s an incredible feeling to regain cognitive function.

Another approach that is common in alternative medicine for helping the digestion is to add digestive enzymes into your system. Again these can be helpful in the short term, but the law of the body is “use it or lose it.”

When we provide too many enzymes from external sources, your system has no incentive to make its own. Over time your endogenous production will downregulate and you’ll be eating bottle after bottle of enzymes just to break even.

We bolster the digestive system, not by launching probiotics at it or flooding the system with external enzymes.

Instead we use herbs and practices to train your digestive system to be more resilient, dependable, and stable. Creating a natural environment for beneficial bacteria to thrive.

How do we do this?

In Stage 2 we continue and enhance the work of the previous stage by using herbs and practices that have been shown to:

Dissolve Biofilms

Regulate Gut Bacteria

Tighten Gap Junctions (repair “leaky gut”)

Decrease Food Sensitivities

Encourage Lymphatic Flow

Encourage Glymphatic (Brain Waste) Drainage

Increase Internal Enzyme Production

Have Antiviral, Antifungal, Antibacterial Properties

Regulate Peristalsis (Intestinal Movement)

During Stage 2 you will continue your self care training and learn new techniques to further regulate gasotransmitters such as Nitric Oxide (NO) for a more effective immune response, and balanced gut microbiome.

You will also learn how to optimize your digestion by taking advantage of the circadian rhythm that nature provides us.

We do not require any radical dietary changes.

Most of the people we work with have already tried diet changes, and have seen some benefits, but not enough.

The less processed food you eat, the better you’ll do in general. However our protocols have been designed to work in the real world, not an ideal fantasy land of 100% perfect clean eating.

Remember, this program is designed to increase your resilience and options in life, not shrink your world even further.

The majority of the immune system is in the gut itself. Stage 2 builds on that foundation while simultaneously sealing in the immune system work from stage 1.

During Stage 2 we know changes are taking hold in your digestion by observing the following signs:

Fixed, Dull, Aches Decrease or Go Away Entirely

Energy Level Continually Improves

Appetite Regulated

Bloating is Gone

Food Sensitivities Decreasing

Feeling of “Brain Fog” Dissipates

Mental Focus and Clarity Improve

Decreased Cravings and Night Time Snacking

Often in Stage 2 we will see regulated bowel activity and a decrease in IBS-like symptoms. However in cases where bowel irregularity is primarily due to chronic stress we will often see that shift in stage 3 when we address neuroendocrine function more directly.

Personal Development

Your digestive system is often referred to as your center. And as we improve that center, many people find themselves feeling more mentally stable and, well, centered.

Additionally as the digestive system becomes more reliable, we notice many people develop more pronounced intuition and “gut feelings.” Interestingly enough, as your core gets stronger, so does your sense of self.

You feel as if you've got a strong set of legs under you, and a deep connection to the earth.

Stage 3: The Neuro-Adrenal System

Stress is a gift.

We are resilient creatures designed to grow and get stronger as we interface with the world.

When the world challenges us, we adapt and evolve. This is part of our journey as humans in this life.

"Stress" is an overused word that has a bad reputation it doesn't deserve.

A life devoid of stress would be unbearably boring. Imagine a movie or a book with no conflict to drive the story.

What most people actually should be minimizing isn’t stress, it's trauma.

One can become the other, and it's vitally important that we understand the difference.

A little bit of stress gives us a seed for growth and development.

Stress becomes trauma when it is either too intense (high amplitude) during a short period of time (a traumatic event), low amplitude but too frequent without allowing for recovery in between stressors (burnout), or too intense and too frequent (severe compounding traumatic events).

When stress becomes trauma, our neuroendocrine system tries to adapt to the burden, and in the process many symptoms emerge including headaches/migraines, poor sleep, muscle tension, IBS-like issues including bloating and constipation/diarrhea, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, anxiety, palpitations (feeling your heart thump in chest), irritability, malaise, and eventually depression and exhaustion.

Conventional medicine really doesn’t have much to offer in this realm. Antidepressants can be helpful for some patients, but many find themselves dependent on them over time.

Sedatives and anti-anxiety medications are non targeted, meaning they sedate the entire brain, not just select areas. So side effects like poor focus, poor cognition, and difficult memory often make patients feel like they’re losing vital parts of themselves.

Our brains have ingenious ways of processing new information, one of which is during deep sleep. When we are able to generate REM stage sleep (REM = Rapid Eye Movement, dreaming states) our brains rearrange information in various ways to try and find new connections between ideas, as well as helping to contextualize and make sense of our experiences.

It’s like a literal brainstorm.

However, in the case of past traumas, often times the memories are so powerfully charged, that the brain can’t handle working with them. So we will automatically have trouble sleeping. It’s as if the mind knows that when we sleep, all bets are off and it may have to re-experience the traumas. We see this in extreme cases in recurring dreams and PTSD cases. Every night the mind re-lives the experience in an effort to contextualize and make sense of what happened.

So a common symptom of neuro-endocrine overwhelm is difficulty sleeping. Which leads to a vicious cycle of fatigue, weakened immunity, and more stress.

It’s important to understand that there are many reasons for insomnia, and in this case it is being self inflicted by a brain that isn’t ready to process traumatic events.

Conventional, and alternative medicine often use sleep aids in one form or another to try to force the system to sleep. And while they do technically work, meaning your duration of sleep increases, the actual depth and quality of sleep does not, since the mind is still blocking itself.

So you will wake up after 8 hours of “sleep” still feeling exhausted, wondering why you can’t seem to get your energy back.

Additionally many sleep aids create dependence. Including some of the natural ones like melatonin. These can be useful in the short term, but the danger is becoming habituated to the point where you lose the ability to fall asleep without them. That is the opposite of medical independence.

For people caught in this cycle it can be terribly frustrating to feel like you have no control over your sleep cycle. Hopefully this new information helps you understand the deeper mechanics at play.

Carrying long term stressors and traumas eventually takes a toll on your energy reserves. Fatigue is incredibly common. Caffeine is commonly used to offset the fatigue. Again, great in the short term, but long term use depletes future energy stores.

Alternative medicine has begun to embrace a paradigm known as Adrenal Fatigue. There are different stages of severity, but the general situation consists of a system that has burned out its resources and can barely generate enough hormones to keep itself going.

The usual strategy that most practitioners use is to directly supplement the adrenals, which can give short term relief. As is typical, we can evaluate the long term efficacy of an intervention based on the level of independence it brings.

Without addressing the underlying deep systematic causes of the “Adrenal Fatigue,” the best we can hope for is a lifetime of supplementation.

Often what we find is that pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, mold, and viruses have taken advantage of an already weakened immune system and are hiding throughout the body. One of the survival strategies of these pathogens is to mimic body tissue to confuse the immune system.

This can cause the immune system to create collateral damage in the body as it tries to hunt down the invaders.

Adrenal glands can be caught in the crossfire (especially in conditions such as Addison’s Disease), and the damage they take contributes greatly to the fatigue.

When we move through the stages of treatment in the proper order, Stage 1 refines and balances the immune system while helping to eliminate the majority of pathogens. Stage 2 builds up a healthy gut microbiome to out-compete future pathogenic invaders.

Often times once these underlying conditions are in effect, adrenal supplementation isn’t even necessary, as the body is coming back online and able to self-regulate as it should. Medical independence here we come!

Another effect of chronic stress and trauma in the body has to do with physical tension.

When we receive stressful stimulus, we are evolutionarily wired to do one of three things.

And they all start with F.

Fight, Flee, or Freeze.

Depending on your constitution, you may have a preference for one of these over the others, but make no mistake the majority of this behavior is instantaneous and registers too fast for the conscious mind to control it.

To really understand this, you have to be willing to think like a caveman.

Fight:

People with a tendency to fight will immediately tense and activate their shoulders and necks in preparation for battle. The shoulder tension prepares the arms for punching and clawing. The neck tension ripples up into the jaw so that we can bite. In modern people, this type of stress response tends to cause tight shoulders, TMJ, and migraines.

Flee:

People with a tendency to flee will immediately tense and activate their lower back and hips in preparation to run away. This gets the legs ready. In modern people this type of stress response leads to low back pain, sciatica, and possibly reproductive issues due to lack of blood flow.

Freeze:

People with a tendency to freeze will immediately tense everything, and in an effort to seem small and go unnoticed, the breathing will become very shallow and quiet.

In modern people this full body tension will decrease blood flow leading to a cold feeling, and the shallow breathing will negatively affect immune, digestive, and neurological function.

Of course therapies like massage and acupuncture can be helpful to decrease the stress burden on the body. However, unless the other systems (Immune and Digestive), and the underlying causes have been attended to, you’ll get temporary relief from these palliative therapies.

The autonomic neuro-endocrine system subconsciously controls the majority of bodily function, including organs of digestion, detoxification, respiration, circulation, immunity…

Stage 3 helps us to tune our autonomic neuro-endocrine system to support the work from the previous stages as we move into the future. Taking this journey step-by-step in the proper order is the key difference between short term relief and long term transformation.

How do we do this?

In Stage 3 we continue and enhance the work of the previous stages by using herbs and practices that have been shown to:

Regulate Sleep and Circadian Rhythm

Release Muscle Tension

Increase Fascial Flexibility

Metabolize Stored Stress Hormones

Promote Healthy Nerve Function

Balance and Regulate Cortisol Release

Regulate Liver Enzymes

Support Healthy Digestion

Promote Parasympathetic (“Think, Rest and Digest”) Nervous Function

Reduce Oxidative Stress

Decrease Menopausal Hot Flashes

Regulate Gut Bacteria

Regulate Melatonin for a balanced Circadian rhythm

During Stage 3 you will continue your self care training and learn new techniques to further regulate gasotransmitters such as Nitric Oxide (NO) for a more effective stress response, balanced gut microbiome, and efficient immune system.

You will learn methods to enhance your living and working environment to be more conducive to neuro-endocrine healing.

During Stage 3 we know changes are taking hold in your Neuro-Endocrine system by observing the following signs:

Electric and Tension Pains Down

Energy Level at Healthy Levels

Balanced Stress Response and Mood

Mental Clarity and Focus Return

Libido Regulated

Emotional Releases

Sleep Cycle Regulated

Waking Feeling Rested and Ready for the Day

A Deepening Sense of Inner Peace

Personal Development

In an effort to protect us, our subconscious mind will store traumas in the body and not let us process them. Especially when our system is already weakened due to chronic illness and inflammation, this strategy is meant to keep us from being overwhelmed.

What we often find is that after having done the work in Stages 1 and 2, the subconscious realizes that your entire system has become strong enough to handle the processing, so it starts the release. Vivid dreams, as well as spontaneous crying have been commonly reported during Stage 3 as you lighten your relationship to the past.

Within our program we include support and strategies for gracefully navigating this part of your process.

Deep emotional release may be uncomfortable at times, but we would encourage you to lean into it. Don’t judge yourself, accept what comes and move through.

None of us can run from our past forever, and the fact that your subconscious knows you’re strong enough to handle it is a huge show of confidence.

This aspect of healing yourself is fundamental for long term transformation. When you can begin to truly let go of the attachments to your past you will naturally evolve into a different calibre of person.

Life gets much easier, and graceful, once you’re on the other side of this process.

Thanks to the work from the earlier stages, you will have the strength and stability to get through.

Stage 4: Regeneration and Repair

In order for our bodies to heal at all, there must be adequate blood flow. There is no way around that.

Our body is made of cells, and those cells constantly consume nutrition, create waste, and even use gases for cellular respiration.

Our blood brings fresh nutrients and vital gases, and shuttles away the waste products so that our cells can grow and heal without being mired in their own metabolic filth.

In many cases, healing is impeded by poor blood circulation. Let’s take a look at why that happens, how to correct it, and what can go wrong if we do things out of order.

The heart wants to pump blood and create movement of fluids to feed our cells. When we have pathogens in our body, our immune system does its best to isolate and eliminate those pathogens. But with every beat of the heart, there is movement of blood, movement of fluids, and movement of pathogens. Sometimes the pathogens can actually get driven deeper into the body, where they hide for years.

Additionally, when there is inflammation, increased circulation only spreads more inflamed blood around the body, setting off cascades in other areas.

In this situation, the immune system and the circulatory system must find balance. When you get an acute cold or flu, often times you’ll lose the desire to exercise, and feel like just lying down to recover. This sense of fatigue is actually a protective mechanism from your immune system to keep you from being too active and causing further circulation of pathogens.

The same thing happens in complex chronic inflammatory conditions. The inflamed blood, along with the latent pathogens that are present in 99% of cases must not be allowed to circulate and go deeper.

So you feel fatigued while the immune system tries to work out what to do.

Sometimes this can last decades.

This is why it is so vitally important to go through the entire process in the correct order. The first thing to do is to get the immune system cleared up. Those flu-like symptoms subside, and then the whole world opens for us.

If we force circulation too early, we will pay for it.

This happens when we “push through” the fatigue and exercise anyway, and then feel a flare up come on right afterwards. Or the exertion wipes us out to where we have to “recover for a few days.”

Similarly, a circulatory or deep tissue massage may feel great for some pain relief, but if it’s too vigorous and pushes blood circulation beyond where it should, the pathogens and inflammatory compounds will make us feel sore, achey, flu-like and tired afterwards.

It would be a mistake to call that a healing crisis.

The unhelpful symptom flare is simply the consequence of intervening out of order.

When there are pathogens and inflammatory compounds in the body, and the circulation is slowed, another symptom is cold hands and feet.

Since there is a limitation, your body prioritizes blood flow to the brain and internal organs over the extremities. This is especially true for females, whose bodies are designed with a wisdom that always prioritizes core temperature (vs. hands and feet) to protect the uterus and ovaries.

Another cause of decreased circulation has to do with traumatic injuries. A car accident, sports injury, a fall, a surgery, even a sexual trauma...

Wherever there is physical injury there will be some damage to the blood vessels. This damage can lead to deep bruising, scar tissue, and poor circulation in the area.

This is a recipe for chronic pain, and it’s usually sharp and stabbing in nature.

People experiencing this usually say things like:

“My ankle has been bad ever since the skiing injury”

“Ever since that car accident my neck hasn’t been the same”

“My bad knee.”

Unfortunately, many women who have been sexually abused often develop decreased circulation around the uterus and ovaries which manifests as very painful periods, heavy bleeding, endometriosis, ovarian cysts…

(Just to be clear, not everyone with those symptoms has had sexual abuse. There are other factors that contribute.)

You can very quickly check the quality of your blood circulation by looking at your tongue. Your tongue is a muscle that we can see directly. When we examine that muscle we can then infer the state of the bloodflow to the rest of your muscles.

If the body of your tongue is purple that is a sign that your circulation is blocked. A particularly pale tongue can also be a result of poor circulation.

If you look underneath your tongue, you’ll likely be able to find two veins running underneath it. These are called the sublingual veins. In healthy individuals these veins are not particularly bulging or dark. However if yours are swollen, and/or purple, that is a clear sign that your blood circulation is being blocked.

In fact purple anywhere is a sign of stagnant blood. Spider veins, bruises that won’t heal. It’s all poor flow, and there are reasons for it.

I’d encourage you to take a photo of the top and bottom of your tongue.

As you get healthier you’ll be able to see direct changes to the color, coating, and sublingual veins.

It’s an excellent way to stay in tune with your state of health.

In Stage 4, we stand firmly on the foundation we’ve built during the previous three stages.

Because the immune system (Stage 1) is balanced, inflammation is down, and the pathogen load is low we can begin to actively improve circulation without causing further problems.

Because the gut microbiome (Stage 2) is balanced, and our food is being absorbed more efficiently, we know that as circulation improves, all of our cells are receiving more of the fresh nutrition that they need to repair themselves.

Because the neuro-endocrine system (Stage 3) has been rebooted, we can increase circulation without worrying about recirculating old stress hormones throughout the body.

Now that we have worked so diligently to remove blockages, it’s time to open the flood gates and let the circulation flow.

It’s time to focus on cellular repair.

Living with complex chronic conditions and low grade inflammation takes a severe toll on the body. The slow burn becomes a smolder that is especially damaging for nerves.

In Stage 4 we work to increase microcirculation, in both the periphery (fingers and toes) as well as the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).

New capillaries will form to bring precious blood to areas that have been closed for for quite some time.

Most complex conditions, especially if there’s a pain component, have accumulated nerve damage. In conventional medicine, there is no treatment for damaged nerves. They consider it intractable and degenerative.

However we know that damaged nerves can either be dead or dormant. And given the right environment, dormant nerves can wake back up.

How do we do this?

In Stage 4 we continue and enhance the effects of the previous stages by using herbs and practices that have been shown to:

Promote Blood Circulation

Increase Formation of New Blood Vessels

Decrease Platelet Adhesion

Encourage Neurogenesis (Nerve Repair)

Protect the Central Nervous System (CNS)

Enhance Libido and Sexual Function

Promote Macrophage Activity at Old Injury Sites

During Stage 4 you will continue your self care training and learn new techniques to further regulate gasotransmitters such as Nitric Oxide (NO) to viscerally and palpably increase systemic blood circulation.

Imagine being able to cycle your breathing to create pulsations of blood in your fingers and toes at will.

During Stage 4 we know changes are taking hold in your circulation by observing the following signs:

Decrease or Absence of Fixed Sharp Pains

Energy Level Should be 90-100%

Warm Hands and Feet

Mental Clarity Better than Before

Desire to Exercise

Visibly Brighter Eyes (as the central nervous system is restored)

Increasing Sense of Inner Peace

Improved Libido

Future Forward Planning (travel etc)

Old Injuries “Waking Up”

Reduced Morning Stiffness

Often in Stage 4 we will start to observe a desire to exercise naturally emerge. Once the inflammation is down, the gut is restored, the neuro-endocrine system has rebalanced, and the circulation begins to flow, inspiration hits and many people start getting back to activities they used to enjoy before falling ill.

It’s a great sign when you have the confidence to join a local gym because you know you’ll have the energy to use the membership.

Once we hit this point we absolutely know that you are becoming more independent in taking charge of your health.

Additionally, we often observe old injuries “waking up.” Once we are at this point in the process, your body will often make up for lost time and start taking care of old neglected areas that had been injured in the past.

You may notice some soreness, or even itchiness at old injury sites. This usually only lasts a few days as the macrophage activity kicks up in the area. Your body is smart, and finally has the resources to truly take care of itself.

Personal Development

When we balance the immune system (Stage 1) we develop healthier boundaries. When we restore the gut microbiome (Stage 2) we develop a stronger center. Once we have boundaries and a center, we have defined ourselves in space.

Once we have defined our space, next we define our orientation to time.

When we reboot the neuro-endocrine system (Stage 3) we find ourselves clearing out our past, and feeling less and less frozen and encumbered by old events and patterns. When we shift the focus to blood circulation and tissue repair (Stage 4) psychologically we start to become much more open to a bold future.

People in Stage 4 often feel as if they’ve just woken from a spell. All of the dreams that they’ve had to put on hold while sick suddenly become real possibilities.

“I feel like a brand new person!”

We really can’t do anything remotely interesting without feeling some stability in our health. Once we have that stability we feel confident to start fully living life again.

International travel plans (like dream trips to New Zealand or Europe)...

Creative projects to channel the reclaimed flood of inspiration...

Even something as seemingly simple as making dinner plans to finally catch up with your greatest friends…

The future opens up, and you are ready to create your own story again.

During Stage 4, with our clear eyes we tend to develop a larger perspective on the entire process we’ve been through. We are able to look back and understand the highs and lows of our life so far, and see a grand picture. In many cases we even develop gratitude for the entire journey and the lessons learned along the way.

At this point many people are driven by a desire to give back to the world and often begin volunteering, mentoring, or in other ways being of service to others.

At this point you’re free.