Category Archives: Diabetes

Replacement Word for Healing

I don’t think the word “Healing” is working for us nowadays. I believe it has become corrupted and, therefore, is highly misunderstood.

I think that, at the core, is a battle over who are the healers. Western Medicine is predominant in our society/culture. Every other approach has been labeled “Alternative.” In Western Medicine healing is usually not the objective but rather a potential outcome. In many of the strong alternative approaches healing is the objective.

I have been in several volunteer group efforts within the Type One Diabetes community. Often times there will be a mix of perspectives from Doctors, Nurses, Certified Diabetes Educators, Parents and People who have the dis-ease. On more than one occasion I have been cautioned by a health care provider within the Western Medicine Model not to talk about healing or curing. We are here to offer ways to “manage the condition.”

I have had extensive experience with Alternative approaches to health and wellness as well as being fully ensconced in The Western Model.

What I would like to do in this post is make an agreement with you that we drop the word healing as description of what the goal is and replace it with another word.

Continue reading Replacement Word for Healing

TABOO

So, I’ve been trying to stay on this planet while injecting insulin as a human with T1D (Type One Diabetes) for a long time.  There are so many factors to consider in the “systems and procedures” involved in surviving and staying healthy enough to stave off complications.  And staying healthy does not even guarantee that The Sword of Damocles is, for whatever reason, is not released .  

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and had that familiar feeling of dryness and thirst from running high.  The sensation brought me back to when I was first diagnosed as a kid.  I think I drank a six pack of soda in 30 minutes and I was still thirsty.  I soon realized that whatever went wrong in the physical was a “single point of failure.”  In systems lingo that means the malfunction brings the whole system down.

I know y’all have thought about it.  What if I can’t get insulin into my body?  What will happen?  We are able to survive but it requires replacing a new manual component (injecting insulin) in place of the beta cells that were destroyed .  But, as you know, that is only part of the new manual system that must replace a perfectly running auto-pilot system that is standard in a normal body.  If we can’t figure it out then we suffer and put ourselves in dangerous ‘ranges’ of blood sugar levels which affect all other areas of existence.  It is not easy.

I know most people struggle.  I know some people have discovered how to do it, however, they still struggle.   I have compared the task of managing this new manual system required when beta cells fail and injectable insulin is required to flying a plane.  

In this post, I won’t go into “pilot training”. However, I will introduce what I believe to be, the single most important component to the system…….The Spiritual Aspect.  If interested in inquiring further see my latest post in my website entitle “Taboo.

So, as most of you know, I am a member of a social network site called Beyond Type 1. It is for those who have Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) as well as parents, friends, healthcare workers…..

The site recently did an upgrade. Prior to this upgrade one could “tag” a post one wished to share with a “topic.” Some of the topics were, ‘Newly Diagnosed, ‘Mental Health’ , ‘Parents’…etc. There was an interesting topic tag I used a few times which was ‘Taboo.’ It was kind of a warning like a movie being R-rated. Not subject matter all would resonate with.

Well, with the upgrade, the choice of topics is no longer there. So, I have decided to write a post here and link it in the Beyond Type 1 site….

The subject is Spirituality. More accurately it is Dharma. What is Dharma? Well Dharma are the laws of nature. It is Truth. It is The Way, The Path, The Tao. There is a quote……”The Tao that can be spoken of is not The Tao.” It is elusive. It is universal. It is, in the end, the essence of who you are.

I went to a month long intensive Yoga Teacher Training in 2006. At, the time, I had some money, was transitioning to the pump, had been going to Bikram yoga classes every day for over 4 years and I wanted to deepen my yoga practice. I wasn’t interested in becoming a yoga teacher per se.

Then, a year later, I went to a 10 day Vipassana Meditation Retreat. Wow, that was hard.

I study Integral Theory, The Transpersonal psychologists, Christianity, Yoga Theory, The Buddha, Kabbalah, Spiral Dynamics and other “Maps of The Territory.”

Consider the attached video an introduction to Dharma….

Depression

A Young Adult in her 20’s posted on one of the on-line support group sites I follow. She said………“Having a horrible bout of depression the past few weeks. Really at the breaking point.”

I responded to her post with this and a link to a blog I published last year about the grief process.

Ahhh.  Depression.  It is the hardest time when it sets in.  I had a bout of it in my 30’s when it set in deep and I almost couldn’t crawl out.  Having T1D just makes us more susceptible to it and harder to dig out.  However, because we live in a world of duality …. everything that arises does so with its polar opposite.  This is not my opinion….this is scientific fact!  And we also know this…..everything is impermanent…….anything that arises is bound to pass away.  

You did not ask for advice and I am not giving advice…..I am sharing with you my experience.  When depression sets in, everything narrows down to its worst possible outcome and, at the same time , things seem to solidify; movement slows and sometimes stops all together.

The way out is two fold.  First, move…….walk, run, clean the house, do anything.  Second, remind yourself that there is a “bigger picture.”  There is always a bigger picture.  

Laird is right! (referring to comment previous to this).  You are awesome.  You have taken on a journey with a difficult cross to bear.  But, perhaps, before you came down into this body that your soul is traveling in, you made the choice to experience this..  And your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to keep moving forward.  Sometimes, like the days we find ourselves in today, we must. employ…..”Certainty without Reason.”  This is a deep spiritual concept also called Faith in many circles.  Have Faith that this is temporary and that there is a bigger picture.  Choose the path of The Matrix Warrior and keep chipping away until you see the code and can become “The One.”

I wrote a blog about the grief process.  It may help.  I hope so.  (Search for my blog entitled “From Denial to Acceptance.”

From a spiritual perspective, all of us are on a journey back hOMe.  Sometimes, it is dark and sometimes it is not.  Either way, we will all return some-a-day.  Namaste, Michael.🙏

Anxiety

I am a member of an on-line community for people dealing with diabetes. A mother of a child asked the community how we deal with anxiety. This was my response:

The anxiety can be, at times, overwhelming.  You asked for what to do with it so I am going to share with you what I have done, both good and bad, throughout this experience of injecting insulin for the past 45 years.

Read more: Anxiety

1.  Do Nothing: Let it Fester….not a good tack for me.  The feeling of anxiety is letting me know to move some how.

2.  Engage in vigorous physical workouts.  It is my experience that this is one of THE BEST ways to dissolve the anxiety.  The problem here is that it takes a tremendous amount of commitment and discipline.  There was a six year period in my life when I really did it.  I lost a few pounds.  I was strong.  I felt great.  I ran 3 miles a day.  Lifted weights a few days a week and did Hot Yoga everyday.  

3.  Alcohol and Drugs.  These things work great in the short term but don’t resolve the problem in the end.  Kind of just hides the symptoms while the cause continues to grow.

4.  Psychological Therapy.  Nope.  This includes anti-depressants, as far as a long term solution.  I have an interesting perspective on psychology and therapy.  I went to graduate school and studied this subject.  I can talk more on this subject privately but no more here because it will trigger too many people, especially the psychologists and especially the behavioral psychologists.  With this said, I think support groups are good.

5.  Alternative Health Approaches.  Acupuncture is very effective for me.  Cranial Sacral Therapy has been profound.  Some Chinese Herbs work wonders.  Rescue Remedy taken orally reduces anxiety in the short term.

6.  Yoga.  I know people think this is a form of exercise and it is, partly but it is much more.  I am actually a certified yoga teacher and have been teaching small groups both in person and on-line for over 10 years.  Yoga has been a bedrock in my approach to survival and staying healthy.  

7.  Meditation.  This, for me, is the core work of all that I do.  Advanced yogis know that we do the yoga postures and flows so we can sit in meditation more comfortably and for longer periods of time.  The purpose of meditation is not to relieve stress or to calm the mind.  The purpose of meditation is to increase wisdom.  I attended a 10 Vipassana Meditation Workshop where I reduced my basal rate by 50% during the work…..When the retreat ended it went right back up.  I thought I was on the road to The Cure.

Anxiety can be described, at least partly, as a feeling that is a result of wanting things to be different than the way they are.  Diving deeper,,,, it is more accurately, wanting things to be different than the way we perceive them to be.  Hopelessness and Helplessness arise when anxiety is not addressed productively leading to depression and deep feelings of loss and grief.  

The solution is not to change the way things are.  The solution is to change our perspective, or at least, be willing to explore and inquire into the validity and usefulness of our current perspective.  This is the only Free Will we have; the way we see things.

The “turning point” for me was when I changed my perspective from poor me, why me, victim to 100% response-ability; A Matrix Warrior.   From a spiritual perspective this means accepting and knowing that I chose to be right here right  now.  And Now.  And Now….And Here.  And Now…

The Reality (Not my opinion but proved by the science of quantum physics) is that everything in our world is impermanent.  Everything that arises is bound to pass away.  As the Buddha said,” Everything is ablaze. ”  Meditation is about having a direct personal experience of The Nature of Impermanence (Annica in Sanskrit).  When we do this on a consistent basis we are able to heal the ruts of reactivity (Sankhara) that block THE LIGHT of Fulfillment.

This T1D is a bitch.  I have always known it is harder on the parent, the loving sibling than the diabetic……sometimes.  It takes courage to confront such a difficult task.  The grief is from loss.  When our soul journeyed from hOMe we all experienced this loss.  THE GOOD NEWS is we are on a journey back hOMe.

The Essence of The Problem….T1D

If there be a blessing of having to deal with this condition for the past 45 years it is that it guided me onto the spiritual path in search of answers, truth and a cure.

So, what is the problem?  In my quest for understanding, revelation and liberation I have come to believe that everything is spiritual at the “seed level.”  And, furthermore, the physical material world is not only a very small percentage of all that is………. it is also the last manifestation; it is a result.  

I think everyone who comes in contact with this dis-ease whether that be child, adult, parent, sibling, friend, doctor, CDE’s, Nurses,  …… whoever…….is dealing with a condition that is one of The Adversary’s most favorite due to its’ insidious nature and because it blocks THE LIGHT so efficiently. 

Before the invention of insulin some 100 years ago the prognosis was death within a matter of days or weeks.  The method of death, a starvation process.  I don’t mean to be morbid but to find solutions to the problem one must inquire into the truth and essence of the problem.  

Without insulin the cells in the body cannot receive the glucose necessary to sustain life.  As most of you know, insulin is a hormone whose purpose is to act as a “key” to unlock the cell door so that the glucose molecule may enter.  Without the presence of insulin the door is closed and the glucose accumulates in the blood which leads to chaos throughout the whole system.  

So, what is the problem?  This is where it gets kinda cool, in my opinion.  Type 1 diabetes can be seen as a metaphor for the experience that the soul endures when it separates from Source.  The primary ‘spiritual’ issue with respect to diabetes is one of abandonment and a longing for hOMe.  

No matter how much technology comes out to manage this condition I know that I am here to awaken to the spiritual lessons it provides.  A matter-a-fact, I am starting to become more and more apprehensive and suspicious of the current and future technology.  We are getting a little too close to trans-humanism for my taste. I want to know the true reason for human being in Universe before we move on.  

I am certain we are close to a solution to the problem.  In the meantime, it is important to engage as a warrior in the milieu of duality, division and delusion.  

“Everything is dual, everything has poles, everything has its pair of opposites, like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet;  all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.” –The Kybalion