As a society, Americans invest most of their time working from without (the physical body) rather than working from within (mental, emotional and spiritual). One of the things we forget to realize is that our physical body is a 3 D representation of our mental, emotional and spiritual bodies, and the root of most internal dysfunction is the inability or lack of awareness there is amongst our society in identifying our personal stressors. We, as a society, have lost our focus and live each day trying to escape reality. The human body as an entirety was designed to deal with entirely different kinds of stress than those we are confronted with today. The body is a master at creating internal imbalance when these stressors are multiplied day in and day out. One very common, yet disruptive and often undiagnosed source of imbalances is fungal infections. In this article, we will tackle how you get a fungal infection, why you get it, how you might benefit from it and how to eradicate it.
How do we get it?
Though many of us are unaware of it, the fact is that we are multi-dimensional beings…a system of systems. It is absolutely 100% impossible to affect one system of the body without affecting another! What this means is that although a fungal infection will represent itself as a physical problem in its many symptoms, there is an emotional link, which in most people is more often than not the root of the dysfunction. The sooner we are able to embrace this idea the sooner we can begin to take more responsibility and make better choices in regards to our personal wellbeing.
Each and every day we are bombarded by stresses – financial, career, family and relationships, nutritional, mental and emotional, environmental, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on! Over 80% of our stressors that lead to decreased vitality and disease ARE WITHIN OUR CONTROL! When left unmanaged, these stresses continue to multiply leaving our subconscious or autonomic nervous system busy creating ways that will allow our bodies to adapt to them, as life must go on!
So what exactly is the relationship between Candida and our emotions? Well, as mentioned, depending on how we are able to process our thoughts and feelings our emotions are one of the several faces of stress we are presented with on a daily basis. Too often we find ourselves internalizing our emotions, fearful of the shame we may feel by expressing how we truly feel. When we internalize our emotions we provide Candida with the ideal breeding ground as it thrives in warm, moist places like the orifices of our gut, eyes, and mouth. This in turn creates an ever-growing ball of negative energy that assists all the toxins, bad bacteria, etc in your body to grow.
The body doesn’t differentiate between stresses – it has no way of distinguishing between internalizing emotions or being chased by a tiger. Part of the stress response is to force the blood to move away from the organs into the extremities while completely shutting down all digestive processes. Moreover, according to Chinese Medicine, the Lung (yin) is paired with the Large Intestine (yang) and often times when someone is prone to holding things in…internalizing emotions…they will experience constipation. Anytime the body is unable to eliminate waste it will allow for bacteria overgrowth as well as an ideal breeding ground for Candida.
Co-dependency, often leading to lack of “self” or “I”dentity, is another common cause of fungal infections. Unfortunately the common household is ridden with divorce and obscured by a false sense of “self”. Unhealthy coping skills coupled with unhealthy relationships are creating a world full of young adults marrying their moms and dads, so to say. As we grow up we become products of our parents, programmed to see the world as they do, hear it as they hear it and feel it as they feel it. We learn to always focusing on the past and future, completely avoiding the present. Candida, aids as a smoke screen perpetuating our inability to stay present.
According to Karol Truman and Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, Candida overgrowths are secondary to:
-… doubting self, resentment multiplying on the inside, inability to claim ones own power, unresolved negative feelings, continually blaming others, inability to let go of past, allowing the past to dictate the present and holding onto old concepts.
Where you get it?
If we look at it from a Chinese Medicine perspective:
Mouth: flower for the SP/ST (over-thinking, worry, lack of sympathy/empathy)- muscles
Nose: flower of the LU/LI (sadness/grief, not being able to let go physically and emotionally, righteousness, disorder)- skin
Tongue: flower for the HT/SI (arrogance, impatience, over joy, lack of peace and intuition (trust in self))- blood vessels
Sex organs: fear, lack of fluidity, not living one’s legacy, lack of sense of self and direction
Ears: flowers for the KD/UB (fear, lack of fluidity and willpower)- bones
Eyes: flower for the LV/GB (mental activity, nerves and anger)- nerves and nails
Why we might benefit from it?
Everything in life, whether we want to believe it or not, teaches us a lesson, meaning along with the good, the bad experiences we endure each have meaningful purpose. We, as humans, have our “ego” that allows us to avoid and escape our own realities due to our many fears (intimacy, owned belief of self worth, etc.). This creates the spiritual wounded human being that starts to develop muscle tension in all bodies. In order to escape this pain, we anesthetize (intoxicate) ourselves… we live in a drunken stupor. This is how our body benefits from Candida! It teaches us the pieces and parts we need to heal and do not want to heal.
How to treat it?
From my perspective, most people’s Candida overgrowths are secondary from a fear…a programmed fear, a co-dependency fear or a fear of oneself. The question we have to ask ourselves each day when we see, feel, hear, smell, and taste reality, when we judge others and self, is whose thoughts or fears are they really? There are always 3 truths in life, your mother’s, your father’s and YOURS! In order to figure out why you have Candida, you must begin to realize YOUR truths!
Works Cited:
Truman, Karol K. Feelings Buried Alive Never Die…. St. George: Olympus Distributing, 1991.
Josh is the owner of EastWest Healing and Performance, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life for those individuals who are suffering from physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and/or nutritional and lifestyle dysfunctions. He takes a holistic approach to exercise, nutrition and lifestyle coaching, which allows his clients optimal healing, health and vitality. Josh is also a Faculty member of the CHEK Institute, a CHEK 4 and HLC 3 practitioner. For more information on Josh or to set up a free consultation, please visit www.eastwesthealing.com.