Auto-Immunity: Is it time to remember how to love ourselves?
As a Mind-Body Detective, I am always looking at the language of the body to try to determine what messages it is crying out for attention.
The Immune System
The Immune system is a complex collection of systems that are always responding imminently to any perceived threat or invasion. As such, it functions through multiple different cell and organ types - from skin, blood and lymphatics, to the gut and endocrine glands.
Due to the complexity of the immune system, there are many areas of themed minutia that meta health practitioners might begin to focus attention to. As always, how the individual is expressing their particular auto-immune issue is a key aspect to how and where we should focus our attention, not least always asking "what that particular body area, gland, or body function means to the person individually'.
In terms of Meta Health, the blood and its immune factors (immunoglobulins etc) and the lymphatic system are related to themes connected to 'self-worth'. As an overall set of cells that are operating under this larger theme, the tissues connected to the cerebral medulla are exceptional in that they are a group of cells / tissues that will always be 'bigger or stronger' after any conflict or crisis is completed!
In comparison, other tissues in other brain tissue types undergo conflicts which require them temporarily to either increase or decrease (in numbers or function). Always returning the tissue and organ function to its original, homeostatic state at the completion of a full regeneration cycle (i.e. uninterrupted).
However, tissue of the cerebral medulla will always complete the regeneration phase in a stronger position than before the conflict began. Evidencing either more tissue/cells or a higher/better capacity to function.
In this sense, the conflicts that affect this tissue type are always playing a 'longer end game'!
The purpose of the conflict is to make the whole organism 'better and stronger' than before the conflict originated.
The blood and lymph of the body serve to nourish and oversee the welfare of every individual cell within the whole body. No cell is unimportant. No cell goes without nourishment, food, hydration and the cleansing ability of the blood and lymph to retrieve waste products from the cell. The blood and lymph serves to keep every aspect of the body in connection with the whole. Giving it what it needs, and taking away what it no longer needs. This interaction between individual cell and the whole is dynamic, and it brings harmony and balance to the individual and the whole. Each relying upon the other in a symbiotic dance of love, appreciation and completeness.
So what happens when the body begins to 'attack itself' (as the current allopathic medical profession claims is the case in auto-immune conditions)?
Currently, allopathic medical doctors believe that when the immune system has become 'overactive', that it has lost its ability to auto-regulate. That some flaw has entered into the immune system and it no longer knows how to function correctly in one particular aspect of immunity.
As I have already said, immunity is an active process that is constantly happening in multiple tissues and organs throughout the whole body. Therefore would the dysfunction of a singular area be lightly, when all other areas of immunity within the body continue to work appropriately?
Could it be that the observation of a particular area 'overacting', or 'underacting' might be due, in part, to the doctors current limited abilities to understand what is happening on a complete body level?
I pose questions to antagonise, and to question assumptions - but it is also due in part, to the nature of my questioning in relation to meta health principles.
In meta health, we look at every function in the body as an intelligent response to a conflict that the body is perceiving in that moment.
As such, the body is always making adjustments, as a whole, to find the best approach - the best solution possible in that moment - in order to keep the whole system alive, and return it to a state of wholeness, of balance.
This aspect of 'survival' by engaging the best dynamic approach to solve the immediate conflict issue is part and parcel not only of our ability to survive, but of our overall ability to evolve over time. Both biologically, through physical adaptation; mentally, through developing strategies, beliefs and understandings; emotionally, by calibrating positive and negative experiences, relative to their impact upon our overall energetic healing vibration; and spiritually, through the ongoing adaptation of the whole system (in all its parts - physically, mentally and emotionally), to become a better and stronger version of itself.
This understanding of the overall process of evolution then, gives us a little hint at the importance of the tissues connected with the cerebral medulla, their cellular adaptation and the importance of their 'end game' (in being better or stronger overall), may be reflected in their role within our ability to achieve an individual and collective improvement upon our condition - which we might call, our ongoing evolution.
When looking deeper at any autoimmune issues, we need to begin the process of refining our focus, and assessing the individual aspects of the immune system involved in any individuals symptoms.
For example T-cells and B-cells share a heritage in their origin and general function, but they become specific in their adaptation to achieve that function - so we should always search out what these specifics may relate to for the individual, and their overall program of 'symptoms'.
Self-Love
In nature, there is an inbuilt system within the biology of every organism that can identify if that cell, or aspect of the overall organism is fulfilling its role in a healthy and complete way, or if it has somehow become compromised.
The immune system is essential in identifying cells that have become infected with viruses for example, and will identify and then tag that cell. Sometimes, when a virus has occupied a cell and replicated its DNA within the host, the original host cell has the ability to identify itself internally as no longer 'the same' as its original DNA, affectively choosing to 'commit suicide', sending out a warning signal to the rest of the community and finally sacrificing itself to the immune system. It appears to do this for the greater good of the whole to which it originally belonged, and to which it remains as self-identified.
On a deep level, when a cell identifies itself as 'hostile', as no longer 'of itself', it no longer sees itself as serving its original inbuilt purpose. It loses its purpose and its function and no longer is able to identify itself as operating to the benefit of all. There is an innate loss of connection to the cells 'origin'. Its recognition that a 'foreign body', such as a virus has entered within its protective shell, and that it can no longer identify itself as 'self' is the beginning of its self-destruction.
How might this conflict on the cellular level be a manifestation of a conflict that is occurring in the mind-body-spirit of a person then?
Self-love is linked with our greater sense of purpose, and how we see ourselves in relation to the group, the family or the society within which we live.
Self-love is nourished when as children we are loved unconditionally by our parents and our careers, for just being 'what and who we are'.
If we are nourished and nurtured well, we have a golden period within our childhood years to uncover, discover and develop the innate gifts that we have been born with, and we begin our life-long journey of exploring those, and finding ways that they are of use to the community within which we live.
As we develop our innate skills and enjoy the process of self-discovery, we find that others love us all the more for who we are and what we bring to the table. Although this may sound a callous way to think about love, it is natures way of helping us to select what is 'good for us', and what is 'good for the whole'. Being loved conditionally is not to belittle the importance or profound impact that being or experiencing love has on an individual. There are many layers to what is 'loveable' about a person: This can be the laughter and fun they bring to many situations, or a loving disposition tat they display for those in the community who are unwell; it may be a concerned attitude that inspires them (and others) to bring equality and justice to all, or it may be the ability they have to help solve complex cerebral intellectual issues. As we discover our inner workings and abilities, we learn to love what and who we are. Simultaneously others are drawn to us and love us back. This interaction between the individual and the whole is dynamic, and it brings harmony and balance to the individual and the whole. Each relying upon the other in a symbiotic dance of love, appreciation and completeness.
What aspects affect this natural balance?
Qualities of love are changeable in different people and in different circumstances.
Cultures and communities may change their ideas about what is acceptable or loveable over time. We may find our individual gifts and talents are not easily assimilated into the community we are living in. We may not have been given the time or opportunity to discover the gifts within us. perhaps it feels too dangerous to allow them to be seen, or allow them to take hold in the very cells of our being? Perhaps it is safer to destroy those cells and all the information they hold, than to let them take hold and spread across the whole body - particularly if it is not safe to let them be expressed.
Self-love is about self-recognition, who and what we are at the very core of us - down to our very bones!
Epigenetic may also play a guiding role in self-evaluation on this cellular level, as the immune system holds catalogues and holds the memory of past immune activity in our ancestors. This should not be overlooked - particularly if working with B-Cell immune issues.
Aspects for the Mind-Body Detective to consider in auto-immune issues:
Self-Defence - the protection of the whole over the importance of the individual cell
Auto-Regulation - the rebalancing of the whole biology within a larger program of adaptation
T-Cell production - issues around self-love and self-worth within ones own unique life purpose
B-Cell production - issues around ones own inner strength, as drawn from the individual's own complete system, or through the DNA/memory of epigenetic connections
Self-Love is the deepest and most profound love for all of us to learn.
A love of self that is based on the greater good of all, but that recognises the value of self on a deep level.
Looking at how we might accept ourselves for who and what we truly are - without judging ourselves as somehow 'tainted' or feeling that our contribution is 'less' or somehow 'flawed' may be a common theme that we can remain mindful of when helping those people who may present with immune issues. This self-devaluation conflict may well be on a deep level.
Along with directed focus on specific organs and tissues that are being affected by the immune response (note: it is not a dysfunction), mind-body detectives can assist change-making specific to each individual.