How I healed my autoimmunity

Many years ago I had thyroid autoimmune issues. First, I had an under-active thyroid, then Hashimotos disease. Next came a serious case of Graves disease - overactive thyroid. 

I had difficulty sleeping. I was hot all the time, and my eyes started bulging, too.
 

I started drugs to suppress my thyroid hormones, and the medical folks suggested killing the thyroid and taking thyroid drugs for the rest of my life.

Since I grew up in a holistic house, with a mom who is a homeopath, the idea of taking drugs, much less killing my thyroid, was pretty much anathema to me.

I had to take the drugs or I couldn't function. But I was determined to heal naturally. (Manager parts with a plan!)

I tried so many things: many herbs, acupuncture, homeopathy, frequency machines. I worked really hard at a clean, strict diet for years. (Manager parts being 'good', following rules, trying to fix.)

This all helped reduce my symptoms, but didn't completely fix the problem.

I spent hours in therapy lamenting my inability to change this autoimmunity. My body attacking itself. (Manager parts confronting their inability to force health.)

I felt embarrassed and shameful for having a disease. (Exile parts, the most vulnerable parts, feeling humiliated and powerless.)

With the help of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, I eventually gave up a need to control the situation, and focused on my inner emotional healing. (Self energy showing up.)

A few years later, my thyroid returned to normal and I haven't had any thyroid symptoms since. 

I attribute most of my healing to IFS therapy, where I allowed the energy to move through my throat chakra (where the thyroid lives) through talking, crying, laughing, singing, sobbing, and screaming. 

IFS therapy is so fantastic at welcoming all parts of a person, bringing voices and aspects and energies into conscious awareness and allowing them to speak or share in any way that works for them.

This is energy work. It's allowing our energy to move and flow through the vehicle of our inner parts. It is trusting our body and inner knowing about what it needs to process and release.

My specialty isn't physical disease - but attending to all the emotional issues in a person is. Sometimes these emotional issues cause or contribute to illness or dis-ease. 

Love for all of us at this continuing intense time. 
Marta

More about IFS here.

During wild times, the heart is the beacon

In this crucible of upheaval, we need your tender heart. We need courageous hearts, unafraid to be seen, unafraid to love expansively. 

These extraordinary times call for more heart. 

We hold back because of so many wounds - childhood, many lifetimes, ancestral burdens. 

Our hearts take a beating from this intense world.
Many experience a broken heart.
There is more though - energetic heart walls, heart cracks, heart holes, frozen hearts, numb hearts, shadow side of the heart. 
Heart enmeshments, entanglements, projections, cords. 

All of these imbalances hold stories and needs, leading most to seek more protection, more coverage, more control.
Which often becomes blame, othering, shaming, separating. 

Understandable, especially for sensitive folk. 

If you consider yourself sensitive or highly sensitive, you might feel the traumas of the world in the air we breathe in a way that isn't logical. From conception or birth or early years, you sense the world's anguish. You were born into a world filled with wars and starvation and brutality - and you feel it on some level.

You need to protect your heart - because walking around with an open heart hurts too much. And it's really hard to function with your heart hurting all the time. 

But, we can heal those energetic wounds to the heart, restore it to its full health. 

And then you can be sensitive and strong.
Tender and courageous. 
Caring, deeply feeling, yet steady in your own self. 
Accepting of yourself.
Unconditional love.
In flow with true abundance.

Your heart knows the way. Wiser than our brains, a liberated and energetically healthy heart leads with courage. Your heart can flow with mistakes and ouches, process grief, and become the beacon for your more fulfilled life. 

Ask your heart what it needs today so that it can be free, so that it can serve you and those around you. 

The push-pull to perform and create.

I believe all of us have performer and creator desires, and performer/creative wounds.

Our very nature as humans is to share our gifts and talents. And yet, all of us have been met at times with criticism and rejection of our offerings. From young ages, throughout school, from peers, from teachers.

And then if you are pursuing the creative arts as an adult, you probably are putting your gifts on display for auditions, submissions, the socials, newsletters, entrepreneur endeavors.

It’s a big deal.

Especially for sensitive folks.

At heart, that is all of us.

(Maybe that sensitivity is buried under a lot of layers for some.)

Seeking mastery has a blurry line regarding helpful feedback vs criticism that creates wounds. Sometimes our guides and mentors truly are mean or even abusive. Sometimes it’s in the eye/body of the beholder. I know I was sensitive to feedback of all kinds for most of my life - taking it all so personally.

Some of us end up holding back, over-analyzing, self-criticizing, or giving up. We shrink. We self-censor our inspirations.

Rep Rallies are an opportunity to free yourself from these wounds and have a safe space to explore your performing and creative desires.

Usually, musicians come to the Rep Rallies, but I envision this format working for anyone who wants help with their creative flow. Could be for writers, painters, actors, public speakers.

Wherever you need to create something, and you feel held back, bring that project to a Rally. Everyone gets 10 minutes of spotlight time - and you can use that to do any artistic pursuit. You can receive energy work during this time, or accolades from the group, or feedback. It’s all your choice.

Rep Rally

Sunday, Feb 2nd, 3-5 pm

~ 10 minutes spotlight time per person

~ group energy work, often some personal energy work as well

~ releasing trapped emotions/imbalances regarding past auditions, procrastination, deep fears, etc.

~ $40

~ 6 people max

~ NW of Chicago, near Lawrence and Milwaukee

Register here

Didn’t I heal that already?

Dear Ones,

"We have to deal with this issue again?" 
This is such a common sentiment when circling around the spiral path of healing and growing. 

In this video I talk about how normal this is. I have this response in myself too, and some shame. When my core issues show up, I always want to say, "I did my homework! Do I have to do it again?"

In case you don't like to watch videos, here's the summary.
1. This is SO normal and common to feel frustrated when the same old issues come up time and again. Especially when you know the content of why you have the core wound.

2. What is fresh about it in this moment? What needs to be witnessed and gotten on a new level now? You're a different person now than last time it came up. 

3. Get to the essence. Maybe you don't need to talk about it anymore. Maybe you don't like talking about your feelings. Can you feel into the essence, into the core of this core issue?

4. Muscle testing expedites getting to the essence. There may be a hundred factors at play with a core wound - what aspect needs attention now? 

The addition of muscle testing brings relief for people, as we get laser focus on your body and subconscious' top priorities. Sometimes we find the trapped emotion or trapped imbalance, and validation resonates, tears flow, softening happens, and the next layer of dissolving or evolving commences. 

My belief and wish: as you tend to the old wounds, more of you is present in this here and now to tend to whatever changes and growing comes your way.

Your ability to stay present to yourself, and in yourself, is important as fires rage, political establishments change, and people experience all sorts of personal changes.

Staying present to yourself, and your whole wide range of feelings, brings more personal power to be with what transpires.

Sending my sacred heart's wishes to you, and love for the journey,
Marta

Tis the season of many feelings

December primes our emotions and patterns to rise to the surface. 

* Feeling worn out by your family and friend patterns?
* Lonely and feeling like you don't have enough community?
* Overwhelmed and struggling with how to say no?
* Feeling obligated to give and give and give - whether that's presents, hosting meals for people, going to all the parties and events?

Whatever way you struggle, it often amplifies during this time period. 

Hugs to us all!! Everyone is trying their best within a broken culture!

Maybe you turn to self blame. "if only I had chosen [xyz] I wouldn't be feeling this way now. if only I were different then I wouldn't be so miserable." 

Or perhaps blaming others - "if my family were just better then I would love this time of year. If they were different I could enjoy myself."

There's no simple answer to whatever you face this month. For many, our deepest wounds become so available at this time, and deep wounds take a lot of care and attention. Not to mention the deep wounds and fractures of our families, societies, structures, and brokenness of so many kinds. 

And then we have habitual ways that we respond to these hurts. These patterns try to be helpful, but they may not actually help as much as you hope. Maybe it's time for an upgrade, new possibilities in how you interact with yourself, your patterns and this heightened time of year. 

 I'm offering a group energy session on December 22nd to bring awareness to our patterns. Bringing relief, insight, potential for changing patterns. Leading to more ease and choice. 

One thing that I'm enjoying about these group sessions is that we don't have to carry the same story or feeling, but whatever is addressed seems to help everyone in their own unique way. 

Revealing and Releasing Patterns
Sunday, December 22nd, 1 pm CST
Approx 60-75 minutes
$25
Free if you've had a paid private session with me in the last 30 days! (You'll receive a separate email from me with the discount code.)

Register

More info here.
With love and good wishes for each one of you,
Marta

It’s the ancestor time of year

Friends, and the ripples of your ancestors,

You come into this life and take up the family legacy backpack, filled with both gifts and burdens. There are many ways into communing with your ancestors - and this is the perfect time of year for it. (Halloween, Samhain, Day of the dead, All Souls, etc)

With Body Code and Inner Artistry, we tune into ancestral issues for potent contact and help. Sometimes we know about the ancestral patterns, sometimes we don’t even know until we find them through muscle testing. The relief from the energy work brings gifts to you, all your ancestors, and anyone who inherited the pattern.

Some things we've addressed regarding ancestry in personal sessions lately:
- a family belief that "if we didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all";
- inherited patterns around grief, abandonment, addictions, emotions, money, abundance, feeling invisible and unseen;
- ancestral mothering lines;
- how and why our ancestors arrived in the United States;
- the incredible resilience and gifts our ancestors want to share with us.

Being with people as we tune into the burdens our ancestors went through humbles me. Every family has a story. Every family line has burdens, some excruciating. I bow to these ancestors that carried immense griefs of their own, and piled up from their ancestors too. And yet, we can transform and release these burdens lighter and easier with Body Code. Freeing you to receive the gifts and blessings from your ancestors.

I completed my certification in Body Code two weeks ago and went through a portal of expansion. This surprised me because usually I have parts that feel rebellious towards certifications. (I don't need an outside authority stamp of approval!) I felt pushed and pulled - I went through a threshold and expansion at that moment. 

And maybe it has something to do with the time we are in, which has a lot of pushing and pulling, and yet great power for growing and expanding. 

Body Code + Internal Family Systems = Inner Artistry
Personal sessions are amping up in their effect. Read more here.

And I get that individual sessions are expensive. Fortunately, I'm LOVING group work. Here's what's coming up:

• Intro to Welcoming Your Big Bold Self -
  Tuesday, October 29th, 3:30-4:30 
  Altar Community. Part of Bring Your Soul to Work day. FREE
   

• Rep Rallies -Group energy process to Liberate your Creative Spirit (open to all humans, not just performers! Limit 6 people.)
  Nov 10th 2-4 pm - $40
  My home, near Lawrence and Milwaukee
   

• Welcoming Your Big Bold Self
  Anne's Haven
  5629 W Irving Park Road
  Combining Internal Family Systems + Emotion Code for your inner freedom.
  Nov 16th, 4-6 pm - $35/two for $60

Thank you for being here, thank you for connecting through this email. We are asked to give our attention in an absurb amount of directions. As I roll out the carpet of these words and ideas, I bow to receiving your attention and sharing energy together in this way!

With gratitude,
marta