How much of your physical ailments is due to emotional stress, and what can you do about it? When it comes to taking back our power over health and well-being, some of the most exciting research comes from epigenetics and energy medicine. Epigenetics looks at the many factors that influence the expression of genes, including our thoughts and emotions. Many modalities of energy healing help us shift our thoughts and emotions so that we can positively influence our gene expression, leading to swifter healing. One of those modalities is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Dawson Church joins me on this episode to talk about how EFT actually works to provide benefit with many physical ailments, including autoimmune disorders. Epigenetics influences us in every moment, and the environment, including emotions from present and past traumas, has an immediate impact on how our bodies respond at the level of our genes. EFT helps us quickly dissipate the emotion. Dawson leads a short exercise similar to EFT to help experience this shift with a recent difficult memory. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

When does a healing protocol become unhealthy? There can be a fine line, as you take actions to promote healing, between when those actions support healing and when they start to detract from it. If you’ve ever started to see a food as “bad” or become obsessed about what you can (or can’t) do, had emotions such as fear, shame, and guilt accompany your choices, or let your healing protocol interfere with relationships, you may recognize this line. Health coach Angie Alt joins me this episode to talk about how to notice when the actions you take or your mindset about those actions starts to become unhealthy, and how to bring more balance back into your journey, ensuring that it truly is supporting you to heal. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

How do the daily choices you make directly impact your health? With any chronic illness, you are likely to encounter recommendations for dietary and lifestyle changes to improve your condition. Yet what’s the basis for those recommendations, and how do those actions actually impact the cells in the body to create the effect you would like? Dr. Sarah Ballantyne returns to the show to discuss the science (again so us non-science folks can understand it!) behind some of the dietary and lifestyle recommendations made in the Paleo Approach. In the previous episode with Sarah, we discussed the inner workings of the immune system. This time, we expand the discussion to link the macro level of choices we make about food, sleep, stress, and exercise with the micro level of what research suggests happens in the body as a result. Grasping the connection between your choices and your health can provide needed motivation to continue creating a healthier lifestyle. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

What role does emotion play in chronic illness? Culture encourages us to disassociate mind from body, and many of us live most of our lives in our head. The consequence can be an imbalance in our emotions, which results in symptoms in the body. Psychologist and coach Kyle Davies talks about a more recent understanding of emotion that overturns the previous incomplete ideas about what it is and how it works. When we understand that symptoms we experience are feedback from the body, we can unblock emotional flow and live more authentically. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

What dietary factors play a role in chronic pain and inflammation? Many people with autoimmune disorders deal with chronic pain daily. Chiropractor Dr. Daniel Twogood joins us to share how to shift your mindset about what causes chronic pain and disease and how to go about removing the foods that are contributing to inflammation in your body. Based on his thirty years of working with patients to relieve chronic pain and inflammation, Dr. Twogood presents his list of substances to eliminate as well as how to adapt it for your own particular health situation. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

How does your attitude affect your health? With a history of challenging health issues including epilepsy as a child and multiple sclerosis, Mary Ellen Ciganovich has learned the importance of attitude to positively shift well-being. How you take your diagnosis and how you treat yourself even on your most difficult days both impact the way you move forward. Mary Ellen shares tips about living well with a chronic illness, becoming aware of your attitudes and those of the people around you, and a simple action plan to follow that will help you be healthier. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

Returning guest Mickey Trescott joins us to share an action plan for recovering from autoimmune disorders, focusing on a do-it-yourself approach that takes into account the key areas that make the most impact on your health. Mickey outlines some of the steps that helped her recover for those embarking on their own healing journey. Addressing the areas of diet, critical lifestyle changes, and working with medical professionals, this action plan gives you what you need to begin to improve your health today. A continuum of dietary changes from removing gluten to a full elimination diet can begin your recovery. Managing stress in your life, improving your sleep, and incorporating more movement strengthen your ability to heal. Finally, finding the right medical professional to guide you through any testing and medications you need provides important support to get to the underlying causes. Most important is to assess where you are in each area and decide on the goals that will work for you. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

Energy medicine provides powerful yet simple tools to help heal yourself of illness. Psychotherapist and Eden Energy Practitioner Mikel Carmon illuminates the important relationship between the triple warmer and spleen meridians for people with autoimmunity and other chronic illnesses. When triple warmer is continually turned on through stress, it takes energy from spleen and the rest of the meridian system. Healing the relationship between these two critical meridians can create a healthier balance in the overall system. Mikel shares how language affects these two systems and specific, simple, and quick exercises that you can do to calm the triple warmer and strengthen spleen. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

How is the balance of bacteria in your gut impacting your health, and what can you do about it?

Fermented foods offer a low-impact and relatively safe way to affect the balance of bacteria in your gut. Bacteria impact digestion and help to modulate the immune system, a significant portion of which is in the digestive tract. Imbalances in the microbiome can have far-reaching affects on health.

Nutritionist Sarah Ramsden, creator of the Fearless Fermentation series, shares how to overcome the barriers to making and eating fermented foods and the benefits of eating more of them. Sarah offers a simple action plan to incorporate fermented foods into your diet that will have you healing your microbiome through enjoying your childhood favorites. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

When you find yourself in times of uncertainty, as you will if you are on a healing journey, you might notice an abundance of questions. How you question has a lot to do with whether you sabotage your inward journey or dive deeper into it. Are you seeking answers or are you seeking you? On this episode explore the types of key questions that support the unfolding of your process, interrupt the mental structures you’ve created, and generate new possibilities your life. Learn how to live these questions through bringing certain qualities to your experience, exploring the questions in a way that works for you, and bringing them into your daily life. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator/host of Autoimmune Adventures