Overcoming Chronic Disease

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Overcoming Chronic Disease

This interview took place on July 29th, 2003 with Carrie S. Fischer, MA, L.Ac. Her transformation story is amazing. She is the survivor of an incredible personal healing journey, and this interview is the first in a series about the process of intending transformation and change while coping with chronic disease that we will be publishing.

TandC: Tell us a little bit about yourself

Carrie: Well, I am an acupuncturist, herbalist, dietary councilor, a singer, a personal coach, and a sound healer.

TandC: Singer / Sound Healer,.. what a combination.

Carrie: Yes, it's amazing. Sound is a complete and powerful healing modality that is pretty mind blowing.

TandC: So, would you say you are a healer?

Carrie: Well, yes, definitely.

TandC: How did you get started down that path?

Carrie: I was always a singer, but the healing path definitely chose me, it was not something that I felt like I chose for myself. On some level, I think I romanticized the idea of being a "healer" and went to massage school to start that, but from there this path of service definitely chose me in that 3 or 4 years after being a massage therapist, I came down with a severe form of eczema which covered pretty much every inch of my body. It was very inflamed, swollen, red, ripping skin that cracked with every movement, and itched like nothing else I have experienced, and so, I had to find a way to heal my body.

TandC: So you romantisized the idea of becoming a healer, and then the flood gates of,...

Carrie: Exactly (with a laugh), I had no idea what I was getting into. And of course while I cursed this situation for about five years of my life of literally not being able to be within my own skin and not being able to sleep, I mean, I slept for one hour a night if I was lucky for almost three years. And so, there were many layers of what was happening with my body.

TandC: You got taken into the depths.

Carrie: Yeah, very much so, and even though I was hating it at the time, I definitely, even then and even more so now, realized that you cant be a, "healer," without having gone into those depths. Maybe you can be, but you definitely are not going to be as powerful and as knowing about the whole process and what that whole journey is about and all that it takes you into and all that you need to know and understand if you are going to be on your own healing journey. So, I saw it as a huge gift, and I learned more from that experience than from any kind of training in school could ever teach me.

TandC: So, it sounds like it was pretty transformational.

Carrie: Oh, yea, definitely

TandC: Wasn't there a instant cure available at the local market?

Carrie: I had been on that path my whole life, you know, the "instant cure", but by the time my skin was that bad, no. When it is that deep, there is rarely an instant cure. It was the instant cure that got me into the situation in the first place. You can only cut away, suppress and numb for so long, then it all catches up with you.

TandC: So did certain things come up that you realized that you needed to change in your life?

Carrie: (Smile and a big laugh), I pretty much needed to change everything in my life. I needed to stop eating the foods I was in love with, I needed to stop partaking in certain substances such as tobacco, and alcohol. You know, all of the things that we look towards for vices and distractions and addictions. They were all definitely present in my life, and I had to let go of all of them and sugar, and coffee, and all of the things that I loved to eat. You know, the only things that I ate in my diet were pretty much the things that I needed to let go of, and learn how to start eating healthy, and what healthy meant and Chinese Medicine taught me so much about not just what is healthy, but .... I think that there is a huge misconception about what is healthy. Something that is healthy for you might not be healthy for me, therefore, the energetics of food become very important. So, I had to learn about that, and fall in love with eating the flavors that my tongue didn't naturally gravitate towards.

TandC: Did you find it was difficult to change?

Carrie: Very difficult to change, and I resisted it, and was so angry and resistant and I was mad at god, and the universe, that I felt like I was the only one that had to go through something like that while I was watching all of my friends do what ever they wanted to their bodies and with their bodies and suffer no consequenses. So, if was very transformational, and it was not just about the physical body, but it really opened me up to my whole spiritual path. It was the flood gates for me of entering my spiritual life, and that journey of course never really ends. It was just the beginning for me, and it was as if the whole universe nailed me down to be quiet and to open up and to say," here, this is the direction".

TandC: I think that it was Carolyn Myss that spoke of that in her series, "Spiritual Madness," that when you ask to have a more spiritual life you are asking to have all of your distractions taken away from you. That is powerful.

Carrie: Yes,...well, that is exactly what happened.(laugh)

TandC: So with all of this experience, do you think now that it is possible to transform any situation?

Carrie: Yes, I do. I believe that every single disease, imbalance, situation can be healed, every single one, and I believe that there are probably an infinite number of healing modalities for an infinite number of ailments and diseases. Some people might approach it from an aspect of cleansing, and others might approach it from an aspect of prayer, and other people might approach it from an aspect of meditation, journalling, and painting, and other people might change their diet and drink herbs. In my case, I had to explore everything I could find, and I still believe that in many cases it is a combination of approaching healing from many different angles: physical, emotional, and spiritual, that ultimately works best. I think that everything works and mostly it has to do with faith and trust, trust in the process and that whatever it is that you are going through in your healing journey, it is not only about the end result, but what is opening up for you within your heart and your soul.

TandC: So, what should one have faith in?

Carrie: ...,well, I think that the best way to say it is faith in the infinite source, god, the universe, the powers that constantly keep the universe in perfect harmony and balance. And faith in your own intention, or I should say, faith in the highest power, through your own intention to know and understand what it is you need to learn and understand to heal.

TandC: So there is some sort of learning process and meaning that is there for people that one needs to be seeking out.

Carrie: Oh, absolutely, don't you agree?

TandC: Yea, of course! I just know that a lot of people have problems with the concept of faith in a higher entity or in god when they don't even have the ability to believe that there is anything other than the physical world that we live in and experience. And what if one is mad at god, it is hard to have faith in some entity that "loves us," yet makes us suffer so. For these people, perhaps it is better to have faith in the learning process.

Carrie: Well, if someone doesn't believe in god, I would say that even just to have faith that whatever they are going through is teaching them,. . . I mean even if we don't believe in god, we all learn lessons in this life, whether those lessons are about communication or about trust or about self expression, or about realizing what our issues are and you know, those lessons are infinite, and come in many forms. Even if someone doesn't believe in god or a higher source, we are still, through everything that we go through, but especially the healing path, learning things. I believe that if we don't learn lessons about how to become a better human being, through every experience that life brings us, we are just going to have to keep going through bumpy, rough times until we do learn them. So my experience with healing is that, yes, we are supposed to learn how we can be more open, how we can be more loving, how we can be more self expressed, how we can be more trusting, how we can just know that everything is in its perfect form, and that everything is working out, everything always goes back to balance.

TandC: So, would you say that life is a school, so to speak, and if we just pay attention?

Carrie: Some people would disagree with that, you know they might say there is no purpose, we don't have to learn a specific lesson in order for our lives to be a certain way, or to move on to the next plane so to speak, but,.. I approach my life that every opportunity is an opportunity to learn and grow. For example, to be more in my own power, or more in my own heart, or more able to access my own higher self. Every opportunity that we encounter in life can teach us something.

TandC: So, with all of this, how is your skin now?

Carrie: It is beautiful. (she smiles with a laugh of joy and thanks)

TandC: Do you ever have any outbreaks or any time where it starts to come back?

Carrie: Not really, there are moments when I realize that oh, there's a little itchy piece of red skin here, I just take those as little signs from my body to get back in balance with myself whether through my diet, exercise, or back to the things that nourish my soul.

TandC: So, your diet still isn't "perfect"

Carrie: (Laugh) No way, it's a constant dance. It's a constant ebb and flow just like the tides of the ocean.

TandC: It can take a while to change.

Carrie: It can take a while to change. I would say that my whole life is pretty different now. I used to live on pasta and wine and pizza and sugar, so now I might have some pizza once in a while, and I might have sugar a few days in a row, and then realize, ... "oh, I have to get back to the healthy ways that keep me in balance. It's a constant dance.

Posted by Mark at July 26, 2004 07:50 PM

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