What You Should Know About Autoimmune Diseases and Their Metaphysical Meaning
Over the years I have met a number of people that have been challenged by autoimmune diseases, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and MS. The vast majority have been women.
Those seem to be the most common conditions I encounter with people, and I wondered if that was reflective of who I attract or rather universal. So I did some research.
First, I explored some statistics and clinical information, then I meditated to discover if there is a common emotional and spiritual root, or metaphysical meaning behind the illness.
Facts About Autoimmune Diseases
According to Salyn Boyles research for an article in WebMD in 2007: Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) now appear to outnumber men with the disease by a ratio of four to one in the U.S., new research shows.
From a Science Daily article from 2008, we learn that: Fibromyalgia may affect as much as 3-6 percent of the U.S. population. It is more common in women than in men, but the reasons for this difference are unclear.
Mary Shamon, respected patient advocate, author and guest on ABC World News, http://thyroid.about.com/bio/Mary-Shomon-350.htm, states: The majority of diagnosed cases of CFS occur in women, most of whom are 25 to 45 years old.
The three conditions I mentioned are considered to be autoimmune diseases. So what is an autoimmune disease? Here is a brief description from Auto Immunity Research: ‘Autoimmune’ is a name frequently given to diseases characterized by the presence of Th1 inflammation. Patients are still often told there is no known cure, while they are given palliative medications intended to reduce symptoms, without changing the outcome of the disease.
Here is a more detailed medical description from Professor Trevor Marshall’s website on autoimmunity: Th1 Spectrum Disorder refers to the group of chronic inflammatory diseases, which are hypothesized to be caused by the Th1 pathogens, a microbiota of bacteria which include L-form, biofilm, and intracellular bacterial forms. Although the exact species and forms of bacteria, as well as the location and extent of the infection, vary between one patient suffering from chronic disease and the next, the disease process is common: bacterial pathogens persist and reproduce by disabling the innate immune response.
Further, according to Professor Trevor Marshall’s website: Although patients who become infected with the Th1 pathogens are given a variety of diagnoses, there are often no clear cut distinctions between one disease and the next. Rather, symptoms frequently overlap creating a spectrum of illness in which diseases are more connected to one another than mutually exclusive disease states.
Metaphysical Meaning Behind Autoimmune Diseases
I bet you could add a few more conditions to this list that women seem to be experiencing in unusually high numbers, with symptoms that cannot be easily attributed to a single medical condition. So what is going on with these debilitating, life-altering conditions? And why are so many women affected by them? As I got still and listened within, this is what I came to understand. I suggest you be with this quietly yourself and see if the spiritual healing insights I received align with your own inner wisdom:
Women are at war within themselves. We are in a great internal conflict between achievement and the call to stillness. During this time on our planet, there is an urgent need to experience more of the feminine and yin nature of ourselves—to become more compassionate, quiet, able to listen with understanding, move more slowly and with greater consideration, and to heed our intuitive insights.
On the other hand, many women are providing, caring for and raising their children; progressing in their careers; planning for retirement; and making their mark in the world. With a more immediate and pressing need to achieve, women soon find themselves out of balance and disconnected with a vast and significant part of their nature. The sacred and still place within them must also be honored in order to enjoy mental and physical health, and is required for spiritual awakening.
As a result, the toll of being out of balance emotionally, spiritually and physically often results in a cellular attack that we know as an autoimmune disorder. It forces a woman to slow down and to engage her yin nature in order to survive. It forces a woman to step back from her insistent instinct to take care of everyone else, and to consider more carefully when she places another’s needs over her own. It requires she take care of herself. In effect, it is a demand from the soul to create greater balance.
Creating balance is not an easy task. The house might end up being a mess a lot of the time. The kids might have to do more on their own. Partners might have to get used to assuming more responsibility at home. Most of all, as women, we have to let go of the habits and choices we make that allow ourselves to become depleted. If no one picks up the slack, then there are some things that just won’t get done, if we are choosing to be true to our inner call for stillness.
What I Learned As I Healed My MS
I know this personally, because I healed myself from the early onset symptoms of MS. When I asked a spiritual master to help me better understand what this meant energetically, he took me into a vision in which I was racing, without pausing or stopping. That was when I realized my energy body was on a race course that would eventually stop me altogether. That’s when I changed my life, dramatically.
I took my meditation practice into my active life, by learning how to pause within the moment, as I felt my anxiety rise. I put my healing first and all other activities second. (If I had been a mother to some very young children, certainly there would have been times their needs would have taken precedence, but I understood sacrificing my needs consistently was part of the cause of the illness.)
Some chores just didn’t get done, until my husband offered to help me. I created resting times with my sound medicine that were not interrupted. I committed to the stillness within me that restored my inner balance.
As I was healing from the MS, I recorded the steps I took to heal and (because I’m an educator) created a healing program that could help others. I designed my Breakthrough Healing System to help you get to the unique metaphysical roots behind your illness, and establish the kind of balance that gets breakthroughs in healing.
Spiritual Healing and the Need for Balance Between the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine Balance
Throughout my spiritual healing journey, I came to understand the significance of the Sacred Feminine (or as the Chinese described it – the yin energy within us), and the inner loving, stillness that is the very essence of the Sacred Feminine. I recognized how vital it was for me, and for us as individuals, as well as the planet to establish balance for that wonderful and powerful Sacred Masculine (yang energy) drive to achieve. Sacred Masculine is a magnificent energy until it consumes us. Then it ravages our bodies, minds and spiritual bodies. The answer, from a spiritual healing perspective, is Sacred Feminine energy.
A Guided Meditation Discovering Your True Sacred Feminine Nature
Fortunately, there is an energetic cure that any of us can begin accessing right now—inner stillness. After I healed from the MS, I was blessed to receive an ancient Native guided meditation in the Sacred Feminine. It is available for free at my non-profit organization, Sacred Feminine Awakening. It will take you into the very heart of the Sacred Feminine, allowing you to find greater rest and peace in the gentle, quiet, compassionate side of your nature.
If you choose, you can use the understanding of the metaphysical meaning behind auto-immune diseases to inspire you to create better balance between these two vital energies of Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine power.
You will also receive a complementary subscriptions to Misa's periodic Inspired Healing Messages and daily Prescriptions from Heaven inspirational e-cards.
Hi, my name Monica, I am 56, and just been diagnosed with an auto immune disease Lichen Sclerosis . I am scared, I am a Reiki Master Teacher. And I am so disconnected from the sacred feminine Devine. Please help.
Please delete this post
Hi Monica. So sorry to hear about the diagnosis. You might consider joining us for our monthly Full Moon Healing Water Ceremonies and Holding for Healing. Both are available by donation. Just sign up on the home page for the free Holding meditation recording (a fundamental practice many women use) and sign up will put you on the invitation list. Please know you are not alone as you walk through this.
This is a really great write-up Misa. You’re right in all these things. I’m so glad I’ve read this because it made me realized what I need right now, which is spiritual healing. I need to take a break and breathe.
Thanks Aika. Ah, to healing that lives in a breath of spiritual fresh air. 🙂
I have just ordered your book and hope and pray that this will help me! I have been suffering from RA and Hashimoto for a few years. I have tried many things with no success. This make so much sense and I can not wait to get this book! Thank God for Amazon Prime, lol it will be here in 2 days 🙂
Megan,
I’m glad you decided to check out my book. You’ll find lots of ideas and inspiration for you healing journey. If the book speaks to your heart, the Breakthrough Healing System might be a good source for helping you deepen into your inner healing.
Hi my name is Emma, and my mom is suffering from an unknown auto immune problem, she has a rare eye infection that is spreading throughout her body. She has seen many specialists and is in constant pain. Im looking for a natural way to heal her. Crystals, herbs, meditation, anything that will help me help her. Shes never been into the metaphysical like i am but she is so desperate for help shes willing to try it. If anyone has any advice please email me.
Hi Emma, Your care and concern for your mother is truly beautiful. You might start by introducing this article to your mother. https://misahopkins.com/womens-rhythms-and-healing-autoimmune-diseases/ If it resonates with her, then she might find my book, The Root of All Healing, helpful in understanding a metaphysical approach to healing. More than anything, the body longs for us to love it, unconditionally. It’s the unconditional part that is truly the healing journey. (I removed your email from our site, so that spam bots don’t start using it.) Anyone with suggestions can certainly make them here. 🙂
I think what your saying is so true. I got autoimmune disease while going through the ascension. I have full kundalini for 8 years now but i feel i dont have time for myself. Though im detoxing my body and taking supplements. Im trying to rest when i can and go to bed early cause i need quiet time. This is some journey.
Sonia, what I value so much from what you are sharing is that sometimes our minds, bodies, and emotions reel from the amount of energy we are learning how to hold within us. We so often think of illness as meaning we did something wrong, when the root is often far beyond our simple determinations of right and wrong. It is some journey, indeed!
Yes. I was looking at it the wrong way.. i got full kundalini activation 8 years ago and the last 3 years my nervous system has vibrated… ive come to undetstand that this has laid dormant and is now out for healing. Now im thinking of what im going to do the make my life better as im a reiki practitioner too and this work agrees with me.. but im also more accepting and made a lot of changes.. thank yoy
Sonia, it sounds as though you have been in quite a process discovering a smooth relationship between your kundalini activation and your nervous system. Do you have some support from someone local to help you walk through this delicate process?
I don’t know if you will ever see this but I believe this same type of thing has happened to me as Sonia. I had been following Abraham law of attraction meditation and appreciation instructions all on my own. My body started vibrating in fall 2015 and I received full kundalini in spring 2016. I stopped meditating as a result because my head pounds and I have great pain in the nerves of my teeth with energy trying to make it’s way through. Now I’m afraid to meditate plus it is Majorly difficult with my head pounding. My doctor diagnosed it as trigeminal nerve neuralgia and has prescribed medication that helps but I need someone to explain what is happening to me spiritually. I don’t know anyone who knows about the spiritual aspect on what is happening to me and have been suffering all alone. I definitely take lots of time just looking around me being grateful for what I see and have, so this article doesn’t really pertain?? but I’m desperate for education.
Nadine, I’ve experience neuralgia and empathize with the pain you must be experiencing. Kundalini awakening is not my area of expertise. That said, I know what I would do. On a physical level, I found supplements that helped ease nerve pain significantly. A good functional medicine doctor should be able to help you out with that. Spiritually, it sounds like your body is overloaded in yang energy. It sounds like it was more than your physical body was ready for on a regular basis. I would balance it with yin energy. Repeatedly, I have used, and help others, access the darkness and space (Sacred Feminine womb) of yin energy to quiet down an overloaded neurological system. I use the basic Holding meditation that is available for free at this website: https://SacredFeminineAwakening.com. I’ve also seen overloading occur when the crown charkra is wide open all the time, taking in light, and the physical body is unable to get the rest it needs—also a gift of the darkness and yin energy. You might consider softening in the essence of Sacred Feminine darkness and see if your symptoms calm down. Holding you in love.
Thanks for a great article, with which I agree 100%. I recently had an astrology client whose soul’s purpose was to step into her own will, after having had many incarnations of submitting to “other” – only later in the reading did she tell me she had Lupus.
I want to add to the women (and men) out there experiencing these disharmonies, there’s most likely a support group in your community or online; just going on and reading articles like yours, Ms. Hopkins, is so supportive!
All the best,
Sherrill
Great suggestion about looking for support groups! Thanks for your insights Sherrill. 🙂
Thank you. I found your article to be very informative. I truly believe in the spiritual aspect of illness and the messages our body sends us. I have Crohns disease and Type 1 Diabetes, I suffer from severe sweating and really would like to ease the situation I find myself in. Any helpful advice you can give me will be gratefully received. I do know how to meditate as I am a reiki practioner but of late I have found it hard to concentrate and make time for this.
Vaness, I personally believe it is helpful to address the body truly holistically—mind, body, spirit and emotions. My strength is with spirit and emotions; however, there are some fabulous doctors in functional medicine providing us with new insights and cures for autoimmune diseases, like Chron’s and Type 1 Diabetes. Sweating also accompanies some autoimmune conditions. There are two docuseries that could be very helpful in providing a clearer understanding about how autoimmune diseases are created and what can be done. One is “Betrayal: The Autoimmune Solutions They’re Not Telling You” and the second is “The Thyroid Secret”. These will provide a basis for some understanding about what is going on in your body. Then I recommend finding a functional doctor to assist you with your specific needs: https://www.functionalmedicine.org/. Sometimes helping the body get on track makes it easier to get to the activities, like meditation, that get us to the emotional roots and spiritual answers.
I found your article to be interesting. Out of curiosity, I have severe fibromyalgia and honestly I am wondering if one knows they have been exposed to sarin nerve gas and over the years developed symptoms but was always spiritually balanced, I believe fought off the physical pain, but then I reinjured my back. And after that time I have never been the same.
I’m still in a good place spiritually but have gotten worse. I honestly believe my symptoms have increased since moving near the Airbase flight path.
I so want to stop hurting, and have done many things to help my body heal, but knowing that I served in the First Gulf War and we were the experiments of unauthorized drugs to include one that makes something in our body to mutate, I’m kinda giving up the idea of living a pain free lifestyle.
If you have any resources I can look into, please let me know.
Coulette, Sounds like you’ve had a number of challenges, and if indeed you were exposed to unauthorized drugs, it may be difficult to impossible to get a clear diagnosis. What I do know is that the body is not as fixed as we typically believe. The deeper your love and the stronger your belief in your body’s ability to heal, the greater the opportunity to heal. You might appreciate some of the wonderful stories from women I have interviewed who have turned “impossible” situation around. https://misahopkins.com/women-of-power-and-spirit/. I do believe there is a woman of power and spirit inside of you. 🙂 If you want more direct help, my Healing Readings offer insights about your unique spiritual gifts and how you can use them to support yourself in the transition to health and vitality. Holding you in love in your healing journey.
Coulette,
It just occurred to me this evening that you might want to consider the role forgiveness might play in your healing, given the military abuse of soldiers. I know this is not the easiest part of healing. Getting to the place where I could actually forgive the person who sexually abused me was quite a journey, but without, the energy is held in the body and stifles healing. Forgiveness is something more than words, and it requires deep release and compassion to feel. You might find some insights from my Sacred Feminine Awakening book series—the first two. You can find them here: http://sacredfeminineawakening.com/books/. The Divine within you awaits you.
Thank you so much, sorry it has taking a while to get back here. I will challenge that thought of forgiveness, because yes I detest the military, our government, and those that have no regard for human life. Thank you for that insight.
Consider that often when we heal we are often taking a life—whether that be the life of a cancer cell, virus, bacteria, mold, or parasite—something is dying so that you can live. To survive, even when we eat a plant, that plant is dying so we can live. The great cycles of death and birth are what we must find our peace with here on earth. We all enter into that cycle in different ways, with experiences and beliefs we are trying to reconcile. While it is true, we as humans can be quite calloused about the death of another human, there are many more who are trying to protect something—keep something thriving—at the cost of their own lives or another if necessary. Our love and compassion for each of us in the struggle to understand our place and how we want to be in this cycle of life and death can help us to experience greater peace.
I would like to get your newsletter:) Thank you!
Monica, just scroll down this page a little ways to sign up. And welcome! 🙂
Thank you for allowing spirit to speak through you. I would just like to say that in my search for answers I also looked closely at the cause of inflammation since autoimmune dis-ease are attributed to inflammation. I also participated in an active investigation by people (mainly women) who expressed that a traumatic incident happened in their lives and shortly thereafter they started having symptoms of the dis-ease. According to Louise Hayes inflammation is caused by fear, seeing red and inflamed thoughts.
Everyday is not an easy, feel good day, however through searching for my truth I have had better days. My newest goal is to have a feel good day ever day (spiritually, physically and emotionally),
Thank you, many blessings. JoAnna
Joanna, I’m very curious about the research. It would not surprise me at all that people with autoimmune diseases have had a traumatic incident in their lives. I suspect some repressed memories of incidents could play a role as well. The good news is that at any moment, we can decide, as you have, to be the creators of our experiences. We are amazing beings when we open to our grace and love, aren’t we?
Hi Misa, How very interesting that this came along, now. After our summit interview, I spoke with Krystalya about my mystery physical condition, and she mentioned autoimmune disease. It rang a bell with me, now here is your article, which describes the constant doing, the need for a career, even proving oneself, success, making an income, doing well, managing career, home, and being responsible for bringing in constant income, so heaven help if you stop work!
Well I kept going until collapse, unfortunately, but all you said about going slow, having more time has happened. Interestingly enough, I know I am filling my days and hours again to the point of overflow, and I have just reached the point of realising I need to step back, and " live from my soul" before I take on another external self made job. Thanks for your interesting article.
Kerry,
It is so easy to get caught in the traps of achievement, particularly when we look around and see how much needs to be done to take care of ourselves and our loved ones, and our planet. It is lovely to realize that the greatest influences come from the heart of beingness. The more awake we are and the more love we hold, the greater our impact. And doing emerges from our state of grace, rather than from our fear. When we let go, as you have done, and choose to live from the soul, achievements manifest from the grace of one’s clear mind and open heart. I applaud your self-awareness!
Misa, as usual your writing has really hit the spot for me. I appreciate how you're not afraid to combine your intellect with your intuition. I will also say that what you said about your own illness is exactly the trajectory I am following with my own (CFIDS, more or less: you're so right about the overlapping of these illnesses). We do need this yin energy to be manifested in the world, because going at a runrunrun and producing all the time is not just making US sick; it's making the world sick.
Sunday,
I'm glad to hear this resonated true for you too. I've met more than one woman that has made this discovery. And I need to give some credit to my dear friend, Ariann Thomas, http://ancestrallineageclearing.com/, who offered some insights that motivated this article. We were talking about how sometimes we as women, once we do get healthy, fear our masculine "doing" energy because we think we might become sick again. Of course, the key is balance, not avoidance. These are powerful lessons for powerful times. I'm so proud to be part of the depth of awareness I see awakening in so many of us. Keep up the great work, Sunday!
i have rheumatoid arthritis and have been seeking relief.I do find that rest is most productive and a loving positive environment. Any advice would be most grateful.I have also started a course in sound healing.
Ilinos,
So many people suffer from some from of arthritis. I'm really glad to hear that you too have discovered how helpful it is to be in restful and loving environments. The sound healing may actually give you some clues. I've discovered that not only can the sounds give you physical relief from many conditions, but they also stimulate inner awareness. Frequently, after listening to one of my sound medicine CDs, someone will tell me they were guided to the perfect information or healer. My hope for you is that the sounds will lead you to your perfect answer. That said, I'll add this to a list of questions from my readers. Keeper reading, because I will do a meditation for rheumatoid arthritis.