The Hero’s Journey

Your Illness is Your No-Guts Filter

March 26, 2013
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Your Illness is Your No-Guts Filter

I have a friend who suffers from chronic cluster headaches.If you’re unfamiliar with cluster headaches (and hopefully you are), they are like migraines on steroids. Debilitating, stop-you-in-your-tracks, please-stick-a-need-in-my-eye intolerable pain. A few days ago, I was with him when he had one. Today we were talking and he said he wished I hadn’t seen that because it’s ugly and dark and scary and he thinks anyone who witnesses it would, and probably should, turn and run the other way, fast. I told him he’s been blessed with a very effective no-guts filter for use...

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You Are Okay, Right Now

February 17, 2013
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You Are Okay, Right Now

This blog is about healing. The coaching work I do with people is about healing. I call myself “The Self-Healing Coach”. And yet, I have never addressed the frequent and fundamental confusion regarding the word “heal.” “Healing” often gets confused for “curing.” But these are not the same thing. While they are used interchangeably quite often, they are, in fact, galaxies apart. A person can be “cured” of their illness and still need healing. And a person can be “healed” but still be symptomatic and “sick” by medical standards. I know that everyone wants...

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The Meaning of Life is 47

January 31, 2013
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The Meaning of Life is 47

Today someone told me they admired my altruistic dedication to working with people living with chronic illness. I laughed and replied that there is nothing altruistic about it. I am a selfish creature. We all are. My desire to help others and be of service is real and true. But when I delve down to the core motivation for this, I am primarily driven by my own need to feel that my suffering has been meaningful. That I haven’t been sick on and off for 16 years without reason or purpose. If I can...

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Could Thermography Be the Key to an MS Cure?

December 19, 2012
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Could Thermography Be the Key to an MS Cure?

I am standing naked in the middle of a cold room. The doctor at the thermography center stands in front of me, holding a lightweight sensor that will measure the temperature of 120 different points on my skin. A few moments ago, with my clothes on and in a warmer room, the temperature of these same points were measured. When we’re done, the variances will be decoded with custom software that can identify pathological patterns in my body – patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed with other types of scans. An hour later, in...

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If Guido Was Living With Multiple Sclerosis…

December 10, 2012
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If Guido Was Living With Multiple Sclerosis…

I am 9 years old. My nose is cold and so is the metal of the seat belt as I pull it across my chest. It’s 5:30, already dark, and my mom, my sister, and I are driving to McDonald’s for dinner. The McDonald’s is across the street from the Marlboro Motor Lodge, where we live, and it’s cheap, so we eat there most nights. We’ve been living at the motel for two weeks, ever since things got uncomfortable at her friend’s house, where we’d been staying in their semi-finished basement for the five...

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Your Stories Are Your Path To Healing

November 16, 2012
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Your Stories Are Your Path To Healing

It is the stories we carry that tell us who we are. It is our stories that tell us how to see the world. When we step onto the path of healing (whether it be with the goal of healing an illness or just trying to be a happier person), our stories are our greatest clues. The stories that live in our psyches, that come forth, asking to be acknowledged, are where our work begins. It’s important to ask ourselves why, of all the millions of events and memories we have experienced, are these...

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Dating Superman

November 10, 2012
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Dating Superman

So I’ve started dating this guy, and I think he might be Superman. He doesn’t sleep. He regularly stays up for three days at a time, welding and sawing in his shop, building these amazing custom tables and benches and funky metal wind chimes and wrought-iron bed frames, without so much as a cat nap and without the assistance of any drugs, energy drinks, coffee, or even a cup of green tea. I checked his kitchen for signs of artificial assistance. Nothing but fruit punch. I keep saying, “But you have to sleep,” and...

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I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff and I’ll Blow Your House Down!

October 30, 2012
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I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff and I’ll Blow Your House Down!

I just saw footage of Hurricane Sandy blowing away the entire facade of an apartment building in Manhattan. As in, one minute your apartment has a wall, the next you’re living in a life-sized dollhouse with 100-mph winds blowing into your living room. I debated whether or not I should actually write this post, because it’s almost too easy, too obvious. Could there be a more perfect metaphor for what it’s like to live with multiple sclerosis? One day there’s a wall. The next day it’s gone. One day you’re fine. The next day...

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Yup, I’ve Got MS. And I’m One Hell of a Catch.

August 7, 2012
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Self-Portrait, 2001

That’s right, you heard me. I’ve got MS. And you should be so lucky to get a piece of this. That’s truly how I feel about the role my illness plays in how attractive I am as a romantic partner. I think it makes me more attractive. Not in the “ooh it’s so hot the way your legs are numb today” sorta way. More like, “wow, look at how you’ve absolutely f@#*cking refused to let your MS be anything but a tool to move you closer to becoming your most authentic, fully expressed self.”...

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The Warrior Path

February 16, 2011
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The Warrior Path

I got an email today from an acquaintance who was just diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes chronic inflammation of the joints and other organs in the body and is considered progressive and degenerative. I’m really excited for her. I know this sounds counter intuitive, even cruel, but let me explain. Pity and sympathy only make sense for those operating within the paradigm of western medicine. Because for those people (the majority of the U.S. population, especially doctors) so-called “degenerative” diseases only have one course, and that’s downhill. That’s why when...

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    • Karen Gordon is an author, blogger, and health coach at The Self-Healing Coach.
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