Shelli's story: getting her life back from 2 years of fibromyalgia

I met Shelli again on Friday, just over a year since she came and did the Lightning Process with me. A year ago she had pain in her muscles and wasn't able to move easily, or exercise for more than 5 minutes because of fibromyalgia, a condition which can cause a lot of pain and fatigue. Her work was restricted, she had cognitive difficulties or 'brain fog', life was very difficult and had been that way for 2 years.

After the first day of the Lightning Process seminar she started to change all of that! In the last year she has achieved so much... including a 5 km run in her best ever time! As she was and is, so keen to help other people know that it IS possible to get healthy again from fibromyalgia, I will be putting the impromptu video clip I recorded of her testimonial  onto u-tube this week! What she has also done is to deal really well with some very stressful situations in the last year, and to remain healthy throughout... she has even just set up her own recruitment business too!


It is so fantastic to see how much people can make a difference using the Lightning Process tools!

Kirsti: years in a dark room and then the Lightning Process...

Kirsti has sent me her story to help inspire other people about what is possible... It certainly got me a little emotional when I read it and recalled those days. Particularly the first visit when I couldn't see her at all and could only whisper quietly into the darkness... and then the absolute joy of the whole family to see her out of the dark prison, and to be able to hug her for the first time in over 2 years. Those are such a special memories for me too. Thank you Kirsti!
Heather

Kirsti's Story

      Photo: Kirsti Dahl Johansen as she is today:      

It's been 3 years now! Since I took myself out of bed! Thanks to Heather and the Lightning Process, thanks to my family and to God! To me it was a miracle!

When Heather came to me, I had been stuck in my bed for 2 years and two months. The room was sound isolated and completely dark. I was too weak to eat by myself or to chew, so my carers had to feed me with mashed food. I could not even hold a carton cup of water. They had to hold it for me, as I was lying down. When the carers entered my room, they had to wear socks on their feet, in order to reduce the noise. And because they needed a small light to be able to do the work, I had to put a black bandage over my eyes as long as they were in the room. If there was something they really had to talk to me about, they had to whisper, saying: "Is it OK if I tell you something nice today?” Or: “I need to ask you something, can I do that now?" And very often I would reply: "Not now. It will have to wait." The only food I could tolerate was boiled fish, a special kind of bread and some particular vegetables. Mashed! My eldest son was 25, I didn't have the strength to see him at all for more than 10 months. Each time he came to see me, I was too weak. My youngest son was 21, he was living in the house over periods, and luckily he happened to be there when I was able to receive him. For a few precious minutes, once every 3rd month or so. My daughter was 12 when I no longer could take care of her at all. She was now 14. During this period I had been able to have her in my room for some terribly short, but extremely sad and happy moments, far too seldom. On her birthday, on new years eve, on my birthday and so... I had been sick with M.E for 9 years. After 4 of them house-bound, sometimes walking on crutches, sometimes using a wheelchair, mostly lying on the sofa. The last 26 months totally bed-bound, lying in this horrible, but very well protected room. With no other visitors, no TV, no radio, no computer, no papers, no books. Nothing! I felt like I was buried alive.

People seem to assume that lying in bed like that is like resting, like being apathetic or even being in a sort of coma or at least a kind of sleep. But it was nothing like that! My mind was working full time! And there was very little sleep, especially at night time. There was just a lot of pain and extreme weakness; my legs, my feet, my arms, my fingers, my back and neck muscles simply did not work. They were just aching. So did my head, my ears and my eyes!

I don’t think I’ll bother to mention all the types of treatments and medications I had tried over the years! You name it, I tried it! None of them helped me! Not to mention the amount of money I wasted on it all. By the time when the sound isolated room was built to me, I had given up all kinds of treatment!

My carers were mainly my parents, my cousin and his wife, in addition to some friends. It was very difficult to get the help I needed from the public health care system. Some homemakers and some nurses visited me from time to time, but I needed 24 hours surveillance 7 days a week, so my parents had to leave their home and move in with me! My mother was 71 years old at the time, my father was 81.

Then, after 26 months in this "prison", Heather came! After approximately one hour I put the light on! She was looking so good! So healthy! So calm! So full of energy! And she said to me: "I used to be like you! I was in bed for 16 years! If I could do it, so can you!" And somehow I believed her! Two days later I walked down the stairways and entered my living-room! I hadn't seen it for more than two years! First i hugged my dad! For a long time! Then my mum! Even longer! Then we sat down in my beautiful sofa, around my extraordinary shining table, eating the most wonderful sandwich meal, drinking the best milk I had ever tasted! My father wanted to help me! Pouring the milk! But Heather stopped him! "She can do it herself now!" And I could! I could do it myself! Wow! What a change! As I was reading at the back of the milk-carton, Heather continued to teach me issues from the Lightning Process! But I said to her: "Give me a break! I haven't been reading for years!" Then we laughed! For several minutes we just laughed!

I had to work a lot! Doing the Lightning Process every day for a year! In the beginning several times a day. But I was never back in the dark room. I was never back in bed during daytime! Never back in the wheel chair! Never back on crutches! I was retaking my life, piece by piece. I still am! After some weeks I went back to singing in a choir! I had been missing that for 9 years! A few months later my daughter moved back into the house, to live with me. Last year she and I moved to Gran Canaria, where we spent a wonderful year! Dancing a lot of sevillana together! Before I got sick, I never exercised! After I got up from bed, I have been exercising 2 or 3 times a week. I have never been in such a good shape as I am now! Last Christmas I arranged a big family gathering. We were 17 people! In my house! I was cooking and baking and preparing everything! Just like the old times! Isn't that fantastic?! Yesterday I turned 52! And I am so grateful! That I am alive! That I am healthy! And for all the love and joy I have got in my life! My life is wonderful! I am enjoying every single day of it! 

Thank you, Heather! Thank you so much!

Kirsti Dahl Johansen.

January

After a conversation with a friend, I was considering just how useful the Lightning Process tools are for dealing with those things that happen in life that are not so good. Those times could lure us into imagining the worst possible scenario, over and over, and to live life in fear. The Lightning Process is the tool to deal with things that can happen in life in a way that enables finding the best in whatever life brings. Not only can I celebrate recovering my health through the process, but I have a special kit always with me to use to deal with whatever might come along. A new way of living and engaging in a world which can be full of surprises.

I'm looking forward to my first 'Building Your Future Seminar' for 2011 on Saturday, a chance to see some of the remarkable changes in people months or years on from their original seminar... I hardly recognised some of them last time, particularly one woman in her 40s that I hadn't seen since she did her LP 2 years ago, where she astounded everyone by starting to walk normally after years mainly using a wheelchair. She claims she has more stamina now because of the Lightning Process, than she had when she was in her fit 20s! This despite being housebound with ME/CFS for years in her 30s!

New Year

Happy New Year everyone!! An exciting year ahead with lots of new experiences to be had.
Great to talk to a December 2010 client and hear how after years of CFS, her life is now 'normal' and she can now spend all day looking after her young daughter like a 'normal' mother.What a great thing the Lightning Process is!

 Enjoying watching the u-tube clips from David Hamilton about placebos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL-vmWrly2g&NR=1