Cart is emptyI was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes December 20, 2022. By November 2021 I was medication free. The diagnosis was a shock but also a huge motivation to change my life.
I set a goal to make the lifestyle changes necessary to become medication free. My response to my diagnosis is set out in my book “Prevent and Reverse Naturally Type 2 Diabetes.”
I succeeded in my response and I “owned” that response totally. Everything that went into it, good or bad, was completely mine.
Owning my response to my diagnosis brought other issues to the surface. I realized I had to forgive myself for all the past dietary and consumption errors. Forgiveness is important. Not to forgive yourself means a lot of energy, mental, and emotional frustration being wasted on things we cannot change.
Forgiveness they say is like a muscle, the more you flex it, the easier and quicker you can forgive and move on. I learned to forgive myself for what I perceived had brought me to my diagnosis.
Along with forgiveness, compassion, is muscle that needs regular use. The more frequently you can exercise compassion to yourself and others, the easier it is to apply and move on. I learned to show compassion for myself and not to criticize myself so harshly for my thoughts and deeds.
In a discussion with my doctor on July 2, 2024, the final brick fell into place. She made the comment that I would always be a diabetic, it was how I managed the condition that would be important. I am managing it through diet, perhaps the most important pilar of the Lifestyle Changes I had made.
On that date, I took “ownership of my diagnosis.”
To take ownership of a number of “rules” by which I had lived my life up to then had to end. Whether we realize it or not we live our lives by a complex soup of rules inherited from parents, family members, relatives, friends, neighbours, schools, religious leaders, politicians, spouses, police and others.
Lean about Diabetes, hydration and how these rules subconsciously control our lives, beliefs and actions. How they need to change to allow a new dynamic of care to enter your life and help you manage this condition with greater freedom and worry.
