Many times when people undergo treatment for something, they experience getting worse before getting better. I’m not talking about the obvious chemical poisoning like with chemo therapy. I think most people realize why they get worse before getting better. It’s literally poison.
What I’m talking about is when you start doing things that are good for you; adding purity and sufficiency into your life.
To understand this, you have to look to the nervous system. The nervous system coordinates EVERYTHING in your life. Every second of every day your nervous system is organizing life to keep you functional and going. It doesn’t matter if you’re awake, asleep, happy, sad, drunk, or in the middle of running a marathon.
Your nervous system is organizing and coordinating how to best respond to temperature change, oxygen levels, heart rate, pulse, neurotransmitters, nutrient assimilation, waste excretion, communication, and thousands upon thousands of other stimuli each and every second of the day. All this is happening subconsciously; you don’t have to think about any of it. All this is happening while you’re consciously reading this post.
Pretty freakn’ amazing, right? As conscious as you are of life’s busyness, if you had to juggle what your nervous system juggles consciously, we would all be in a mental wards or no one would live past the age of 5 because we would probably forget some major function to coordinate.
The more we add more stimulus from physical, chemical, and emotional inputs, the more our nervous system has to juggle. No wonder people can’t concentrate, can’t sleep, and medicate themselves to ‘just keep going.’
This is why people experience getting worse before getting better. Your nervous system organization is like a closet. The faster things get thrown into the mix, the faster your nervous system chucks it into the closet. As long as the door can open and close, it’s all good. Then one day you notice you aren’t as rested as normal, it takes 1 more cup of coffee to get going, and you seem to ‘catch’ every cold your kids bring home.
You realize you need a change and start the process of doing just that. The problem is that the nervous system likes routine. It likes you to be predictable. This is often seen with medications. The body gets reliant and comfortable with the chemical dose of whatever you’re trying to control, especially with antipsychotics, antidepressants, and hormones meds. You take it away cold turkey and bad things happen.
As you make changes, you just took that poorly organized, yet functional closet, and dumped it all over the floor. You just created a perceived bigger mess than was originally there. This is the part where you feel worse or your labs look worse though you are getting better.
The good news is that the more intentional you are about your choices, the better your closet gets organized. Not only will you have a functional door that can open and close but you can actually reach and locate the item you’re wanting to use without the risk of 10 other items falling down.
This closet reorganization is not only seen with mental and hormonal conditions. It can also be seen in physical conditions. Your shoulder may be the ‘symptom’ and as that starts getting better and clearing up, your opposite hip or ankle may be flaring up. It’s possible the shoulder was a compensation pattern for an injury or poor mechanics years previously in another part of the body.
The nervous system is ALWAYS in a frame of organization and you may have to spring clean often to make sure your brain doesn’t turn your body into a hoarder’s house.
Where do you get started? Get started with testing. See where your closet is disorganized and start the process of uncluttering it through the Kalus Method. It can be challenging in the beginning but as you create a new routine with better organization protocols you will age slower and more comfortable than all your counterparts of similar age.