DISCLAIMER: I am not a Doctor or Medical Professional and this is not to be confused as Medical Advice.
KATRIEN’S VERSION
Reading the Indicators and Signs of Your Body allows You to confidently Self-Diagnose.
There’s a List below that shows You where to look in order to get an idea of what is happening viscerally, on Your insides.
The list is a guide to cultivate Self-Awareness in a purposeful manner, allowing You to form relationships between the changes that are happening inYour Body so You can learn to recognize the patterns.
These Patterns are like codes, decipher the code and You know the Root Cause, know the Root cause and You can implement the right Solution.
Overtime You won’t need the list as scanning Your Body becomes second-nature.
Practice makes Perfect and You will get better at an exponential rate, cutting down Your turn-around time, offering Yourself solutions and reliable ways to test them and giving You Clarity, Confidence and a Means of building Self- Connection.
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THE ARTICLE
Body Reading sounds pretty simple right? If something feels off You know it. Soon You identify the Problem and then find Yourself a Solution.
Eezy-Peezy.
Nothing to it.
Except most of the time that Cake Walk isn’t full of Cake.
It happens to have a lot of twists and turns with tables lined with Strudels and dead-ends full of Muffins. And occasionally You get fooled by the Cake-Mimics.
Like that pesky Fruitcake.
In other words, most of the time something feels off but You can’t put Your finger on it.
You’ve got some good guesses. You might even have a few reliable leads, but when it comes to confidently implementing a solution it tends to only hit half the mark at best or fall flat at worst.
Referring to Dr. Google and You get 1000 symptoms for 100 different causes. Bacterial Infection, Leaky Gut, Micro-fracture, Loss of REM Sleep, Pinched nerve, the list goes on. This is paired with a lovely list of Tests, Panels and Scan’s to try and start ruling out some options. Salivary Swabs, BUN Tests, MRI Scans, Stool Panels, Bloodwork, soon You’re running from Lab to Doctor to Functional Medicine Practitioner just to get some clarity.
Now I’ll happily be the First to say that I am eternally grateful for the Cornucopia of Self-Quantification and Diagnostic Tools we have access to. The diversity of technological advancements that can take a full-blown analytical lab and bundle it into a box the size of a pack of pencils is so impressive it’s deliverance sits quite gracefully alongside the Horn of Plenty. And in this Day and Age, many of these things can conveniently be shipped right to Your Door.
But it’s not the Tests that are the problem, it's knowing which Test to take, (if You even need one), instead of taking a Handful and knowing what next steps to implement in a matter of minutes or days rather than waiting weeks or months. Speeding up Your turn-around time can certainly get You on the Road to living a happier, healthier, more joyful Life and get You away from twiddling Your thumbs as You keep Your fingers crossed that You’ve actually landed on a solution.
Having a good grip on Body Reading means You don’t have to “wait for it to pass”. Instead You can feel confident about Your self-diagnosis and begin making concrete changes and building supportive habits that are sustainable, life-nurturing and efficient.
Plus every “read” is an extra play in the Playbook. Each new embodied interpretation offers up an opportunity to experience something new, reconnect and gain deeper insight into who You are and what Your Body is communicating. The path of Self-Diagnosis & Body Reading is intuitively designed to forge a more integrated Self. Through cultivating Awareness and connecting it to a level of Understanding. You end up becoming Your own Doctor, Healer and Practitioner, designing Your own Labs, tests and observational experiments so You can confidently make the right moves under the right circumstances. Steering Your Health in the exact direction You choose.
Essentially You become an Interoceptive Ninja, and that kind of Self-Empowerment feels good!
In this 2 Part Series I’m going to:
- (Part 1) Give You a Practical Self-Assessment Sheet that will give You all the right clues to look for.
Allowing You to begin detecting changes and connecting the dots to come up with a plausible diagnosis.
- (Part 2) Explain how You can figure out what caused the change and in what time-frame it occurred in.
This way You can make sure the changes You make will support You for the rest of Your Life rather than just being a temporary fix.
This is Part 1, so Buckle Your Helmet and prepare for takeoff because we’re going to launch straight into the stratosphere..
THE SHEET AND HOW TO USE IT.
Below You will find the sheet. Now to cut straight to the chase the first stages of Self-Diagnosis doesn’t always come easy. But You can Bet Your Buttons that You will get better at it over time. Once You lay a good foundation of Awareness Your ability to diagnose builds at an exponential rate. In some cases You know something’s going to be off before the impact even has a chance to manifest.
(Hint - Practicing Self-Diagnosis is one way to begin linking Interoceptive feelings to tangible outcomes, building Your Intuition)
In the beginning it may feel feeble, futile or like You're always fumbling the ball. It can feel like You have no idea what’s going on and even feel like You have imposter Syndrome in trying to understand Your Health and what drives it.
Which is a bit of an Oxymoron because it’s Your Body.
But I digress.
This list will give You every place to look to start painting a general picture of what’s happening on Your insides. Observations are meant to be rough estimates, as Your brain begins to imprint a foundation and begins to familiarize itself with a “Home Base” for the Recognition of Your Features things will begin to smooth out.
Another way of putting it is once You know what You’re looking for Your Brain will automatically scan for that feature when You ask it to, detecting changes at a rate that is almost instinctual. So instead of scouring every inch of Your Body or spending an hour looking in the mirror, eventually You’ll get so good at it You’ll be able to note a difference as You pass by Your reflection in the window.
HOW TO USE THE SHEET
Step 1: Follow the Questions and note what You see.
Set up a Foundation by checking frequently. Or when something obvious changes, (i.e. all of a sudden the bottoms of Your feet begin to get dry and crack) then do a full scan and see what else turns up.
Step 2: Discover a Pattern.
Make note of any changes. Everytime there's a shift in Your Body there will be multiple indicators. It’s understanding the pattern and relationship between these Indicators that well let You efficiently Self-Diagnose.
Step 3: Find the Root-Cause
Once You’ve noticed a trend now You’ve got some decent data. You’re looking for Common Points, where symptoms or changes converge around the same time frame. A root cause isn’t called a root cause for nothing and once You have a list You can start seeing where things begin to line up.
Dr. Google is now Your Best Friend. Be clear and certain of Your changes before You start, plug in Your symptoms or find a decent website and look for most things to start matching on Your list.
Step 4: Cross-Reference
Combine Your changes with Your Mood, Thought Patterns, Energy Levels, Healing Time and Sleep Quality and You can begin to pinpoint changes in Your Lifestyle to the symptoms You’re seeing.
Step 5: Test and Retest
Change one thing at a time and see how You feel. You’ll feel better before it shows up. SO ride it out for a while and see if things start to get better, however small.
There’s 2 things You can do here:
- Use what You feel as guidelines and confirm with what You see in Your Self-diagnosing sessions.
i.e. If Your sleep latency has improved over the last 3-4 days then great! After a week You feel less sore after Your workouts and Your skin is not as dry? Even better! It sounds like excess Cortisol Production might be dropping.
- Use what You feel as guidelines and then change back to old patterns, habits or lifestyles. Do the old feelings come back? What about when You reimplement Your changes? Do they go away? This is a Retest and gives You a pretty quick idea if You’re on the right track.
I.e. Instead of eating while You’re driving on the way to work, You’ve been sitting down and eating Your food 30 mins before You leave, smelling it before You dig in. When You go back to eating and driving You notice You start to feel frustrated again, Your stomach hurts and Your rash gets worse. When You return to sitting down and smelling Your food, Your stomach pain drops by half and Your way less cranky.
This would be a positive retest that tells You You're on the right track.)
Here’s a Sampler:
Let’s say the first time You do a check You notice Your Skin is a little saggy, dry and the blood flow is kind of slow (when You press it it takes 6-7 secs to go from white back to its original color), Your Nails have some horizontal bands and Your Eyelids are droopy than alert throughout the day.
Your Energy levels dip and dive and Your hair seems dry or frizzy without product and You’re often feeling kind of “bleh”.
Your diet is clean but You a fruit smoothie in the morning, yogurt and honey for a snack, a small rice bowl for lunch and potatoes, homemade pizza or spaghetti for dinner. Sometimes You feel like You have serious food cravings and Food is all You think about.
If You type in these symptoms 9-10 Your going to find out You have High Blood Sugar and might be on the road to diabetes. If You notice that Your Eye whites start to Yellow, Your Urine starts to go dark and almost Brown or Your Sweat starts to smell like ammonia. It’s high time You dip over to the ER because Your High Blood Sugar Levels may have just progressed to Kidney Disease.
In both cases You have prevented a potential catastrophe to Your Health simply by being aware. And when the effort becomes Second nature You’ll begin to feel like Your in Control of Your own Safety, Energy and Life. It’s an Empowering Feeling and makes you feel like a Physiological Genius to boot.
THE LIST
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WHAT TO EXPECT
Everybody’s Journey is different. Sometimes it comes easy and sometimes You have to work at it. But regardless You are going to create a deeper relationship with Yourself and develop a greater Appreciation, Understanding and Foundation of Knowledge for Your Health.
At the start You might only get half-way to a confident diagnosis, having a handfull of guesses of what changed and what caused it. But the more information You have the smaller Your Window of Potentials Drivers becomes so You can take action Quicker and wiith more Accuracy leading to a more Effective Result.
Experientially no one knows Your Body as well as You do, when You link that to Understanding, Mechanisms and Making Meaning You become a Serious Powerhouse.
SUMMARY
So know that You know where to look, what to look for and what steps to take to confidently begin Self-Diagnosing what have You noticed? Do You notice a Pattern? Do You want some help confirming or understanding what the Root Cause might be? Keep Your Eyes peeled, there will be more posts coming! Alternatively reach out through Social Media or the Intake Form below, I Love to Help.
