Chapter 1: The Shipwreck
The Book of Autoimmune Rituals
Imagine awakening in the midst of a voyage along the coast to find yourself shipwrecked and lost on nearby land. It immediately begins to rain with no sign of slowing, and you discover the ghosts of a smoke-fire hovering thickly through the air in the distance a few miles ahead. You're unable to locate a sure path forward and must find your way through the congested, thick, and magnificently twisted jungle bush standing, rather intimidatingly, before you.
Determined to clear a pathway forward, you take to it with sheers in hand—pruning steadfastly until you're able to begin flowing wildly through the path—eventually walking without disruption for miles and miles, barefoot, on its rainy, lush land.
Without barrier your headiness calms in the pure relishing of this land's raw and gritty landscape—from humming earth to milky moon. You find that as you flow farther into this stranger land, you become at home among its vibrating roots. You hear its silent sounds. You learn its grounding rhythms. And come to feel its shifts, tiny and large.
Now let's shift back to the present moment and turn this story inward— inside your own body. Perhaps you've been shipwrecked. One minute you were floating well enough along on water, then suddenly, in what seems like the very next, inexplicable second, you've become ill, off-balanced. In the wreckage of symptoms you've found yourself lost on strange land, unsure how to move forward because the very paths within you have become blocked and disrupted—whether emotionally, energetically or physically. All you know is that something is off. Your rhythm has been changed. While the various symptoms may create some tell tale signs, you're unsure exactly where the fire is coming from.
Because this bodily chaos has come to cause a deep-rooted disruption to your rhythm and being, you must now embark on an internal discovery to find a way to clear it and create a balancing flow state again.
What is flow? Flow is an ongoing movement, a renewing rhythm taking place within the body that supports a number of functions responsible for our maintenance and nourishment. When it's intact, we experience harmony and feel our best. When it's been interrupted or blocked, it requires intention and intuition to free it again in energetic, emotional, and physical forms.
This concept is not new, of course. The ancient, revered practice of healing energetic flow is the very foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda. And the concept of flow as it relates to the transfer of physical matter through the body's lymphatic, digestive, and circulatory systems is a common thread whose importance translates across Ayurveda, Eastern medicine, and Western medicine.
In this book, when I refer to "flow", I am focused on all aspects.
The energetic, emotional, and physical currents within; understanding flow as an underlying pulse of give and take, which exchanges both physical and energetic matter throughout the body's meridian pathways. This matter could be anything from electromagnetic energy and chi, to fluids and toxic waste.
The state of flow is where you'll find balance and promote healing.
The process of flow promotes optimum functioning of the mind, body, and spirit connection due to its cleansing, renewable nature. This continuous current has the ability to nourish the body and mind through the transfer of life: fresh energy, blood, nutrients, and water; as well as clear the body of death: toxins, blockages, and symptomatic clutter affecting various meridian pathways and the chakras within.
We are meant to flow. Flow is a foundational pillar to maintaining homeostasis within the body. Without flow, there is no clearing. Without flow, there is chronic blockage that wreaks havoc and leads to chronic symptoms.
Without flow, we are not ourselves. We feel stuck. We become like a dried up brook. We experience a chronic constipation of the emotions, lymph, energy meridians, and the nervous system—which in time, demands attention from us through many common, modern symptoms that often lead to autoimmunity due to the build up of chronic chaos.
What exactly is the body clearing through this process called flow?
Pockets of excess fluid, stagnant energy, built up inflammation, unhealed emotions known as trauma, toxic clutter within the cells that create illness, and compounded physical stress & tension living within your tissues. This is why flow is one of the most essential functions for restoring balance within the body.
Have you ever been shipwrecked? Had your flow interrupted? I have. And chances are, if you're reading this you probably have too (or know someone who has).
In 2017, at age 30, I suddenly lost my footing on everything that I knew to be normal life due to my health getting knocked off balance. I was exposed to a chemical coming from a neighbor’s wall for the better part of a year on a daily basis that had been wafting into my Brooklyn apartment.
This constant overexposure eventually halted my flow and created an autoimmune condition known as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.
This condition materialized through persistent symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, swelling, bloating, nervous system disruption, low mood, multiple food intolerances, environmental allergies, and chemical sensitivities to fragrances, cleaning agents, violent organic compounds, and toxic ingredients. Then came the imbalanced thyroid. I didn't feel like myself. I didn't look like myself. And I just didn't feel well, overall.
It was the most inconvenient time in my life for this shift to take place, of course. I had been working toward a promotion at work for the last two years. After a year of going back and forth to numerous doctor and naturopathic appointments in an effort to get down to the bottom of and manage whatever was going on inside of me, I decided to quit my job—resolving to get by on my 401K, freelancing, and renting out our second bedroom on Airbnb. I devoted myself fully to finding a path forward after becoming overwhelmed by the intense symptom overload that made it impossible to function on a daily basis near the level that I had in the past.
Throughout a rocky three year timeline, filled with a lot of research and experiments along the way, I slowly started to find my footing again. I finally found myself at the beginning stage of being able to manage my autoimmune symptoms, which had gotten progressively worse during that three year time period of discovery. Once I discovered that I had Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), I inherently came to understand that managing this illness would require ongoing diligence in learning to correct and protect my flow.
Through it all, I divested from toxic products and gravitated to the concept of flow through earthing, non-toxic living, and anti-inflammatory wellness rituals. And as a result, I began to feel my body awaken again. As I grew more discerning about my body and what it needed, I got to know my flow, and came to understand it as one of the most essential functions for restoring balance within. And I am writing this book to share what I've found.
I'm not claiming that tapping into flow is some miracle cure for autoimmune conditions. I could never touch on such complexity. However, I am confident in flow's ability to create an ongoing regenerative environment within the body that will help you manage symptoms and set you on a path to feeling well again if you lean into it.
I hope you'll come to know this book of rituals and yourself well enough to reclaim the most possible version of natural order and balance within your body. I'll warn you that it's going to take some rugged individualism, as life tends to require of us for the most worthwhile outcomes.
I write to enlighten you about the very function of flow. In the chapters to be released ahead, we'll talk about how to access it and how to slow down and feel it. I'm going to give you examples of the types of tools that embody flow that can be transferred to you. And, ultimately, inspire you to continue to explore the catalysts of your own individual flow.
May you emerge from this shipwreck resolving to move through this strange land you may have found yourself in. And as you embark on the worthwhile journey of internal discovery, may you come to feel at home again within your body's vibrating roots. Hear its silent sounds. Learn its grounding rhythms. And come to feel its shifts, tiny and large.
~
About the Author
Fegan Carter is the founder of Wilderness Club General and the author of The Book of Autoimmune Rituals. In her daily life, she is an artisan of earthing goods and a non-toxic living guide with a focus on capsule living, energy healing, and wilderness medicine for MCS symptom management.
(Image featured at the top of this post is a copyright free image from pexels.com)