I believe that too. I feel it already is happening in so many ways. I say this with confidence only from personal circumstances in that I hid my own severe illness for 20 years until o couldn’t hide it anymore.
I’ve been on a monumental healing journey since. I stopped hiding. I stopped looking away. My body demanded visibility (by me). M…
I believe that too. I feel it already is happening in so many ways. I say this with confidence only from personal circumstances in that I hid my own severe illness for 20 years until o couldn’t hide it anymore.
I’ve been on a monumental healing journey since. I stopped hiding. I stopped looking away. My body demanded visibility (by me). My body and my needs insisted on taking up space. It took me a few years to stop saying “yeah I’m good thanks” and being entirely honest with how I was feeling.
By year 5/6 I was putting all my available energy into being my true authentic self (and didn’t spend it with anyone where I couldn’t be that way). I was able to fully process and understand the horror of what I’d lived with and endured all that time.
Leaving me spending the entirety of last year wondering what significance of being my true authentic self had with my ever improving health. I’m still not at the bottom of it but I’m certain there is big one. And none of it came from anyone around me changing, I had to be that change myself. (The most challenging bit)
What does this mean? What's your true authentic self? Telling everyone how shitty you feel all the time or showing them your open sores? I don't know where you live but I don't see chronically ill people being pushed into the shadows. I'm very confused. If you have a chronic illness that isn't visible (like you are in a wheelchair), how do you become 'visible'? You go around telling all your coworkers how sick you are all the time? I'm not sure this would lead to what you think it would lead to.
They are really good questions. It’s a lot to sit with.
For me, I didn’t tell anyone what I was living with for 20 years. I kept it hidden. It was only when I was physically unable to get out of bed to go to work anymore that anyone found out. Only to find no one (including the medical professionals) were recognising the severity of it even at that extent.
That’s when things started changing for me then. But not by anyone around me, it all started happening from within.
It’s a lot to put in a comment as the questions you rightfully ask are such big questions. I did write a blog called invisible me the other year about some of the ways in which I was making myself seen:
I believe that too. I feel it already is happening in so many ways. I say this with confidence only from personal circumstances in that I hid my own severe illness for 20 years until o couldn’t hide it anymore.
I’ve been on a monumental healing journey since. I stopped hiding. I stopped looking away. My body demanded visibility (by me). My body and my needs insisted on taking up space. It took me a few years to stop saying “yeah I’m good thanks” and being entirely honest with how I was feeling.
By year 5/6 I was putting all my available energy into being my true authentic self (and didn’t spend it with anyone where I couldn’t be that way). I was able to fully process and understand the horror of what I’d lived with and endured all that time.
Leaving me spending the entirety of last year wondering what significance of being my true authentic self had with my ever improving health. I’m still not at the bottom of it but I’m certain there is big one. And none of it came from anyone around me changing, I had to be that change myself. (The most challenging bit)
What does this mean? What's your true authentic self? Telling everyone how shitty you feel all the time or showing them your open sores? I don't know where you live but I don't see chronically ill people being pushed into the shadows. I'm very confused. If you have a chronic illness that isn't visible (like you are in a wheelchair), how do you become 'visible'? You go around telling all your coworkers how sick you are all the time? I'm not sure this would lead to what you think it would lead to.
They are really good questions. It’s a lot to sit with.
For me, I didn’t tell anyone what I was living with for 20 years. I kept it hidden. It was only when I was physically unable to get out of bed to go to work anymore that anyone found out. Only to find no one (including the medical professionals) were recognising the severity of it even at that extent.
That’s when things started changing for me then. But not by anyone around me, it all started happening from within.
It’s a lot to put in a comment as the questions you rightfully ask are such big questions. I did write a blog called invisible me the other year about some of the ways in which I was making myself seen:
https://open.substack.com/pub/warriorwithin/p/invisible-me