Episode 14. How Manifestation Can Help You Live Better with Chronic Illness.

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Hey there, Teisha here, and welcome to episode fourteen of Wellbeing Interrupted. This is going to be a short episode because I think maybe some people might not really like this topic. Other people may be a little bit intrigued and think, "Okay, I'll give it a go." Other people will be right into it and probably know more about it than me. I'll say one word: manifestation.

So, be honest with yourself, what do you start feeling when I say this episode is going to be on the power of manifesting or manifestation? I don't know exactly how to say it; I’m no expert, but what I want to share, as I've been doing in these solo episodes, is my experience with manifesting and how it sort of, I guess, evolved in my life with an illness, first MS and now I'm getting better at it now with cancer.

And as I said in last week's episode when I was talking about trauma, I'll definitely have guests on Wellbeing Interrupted, and I have someone in mind who will be great to chat to so she can explain it in more detail as to how to go about it. But I want to share my story and encourage you to be open. In episode eight, which if you haven't listened to it I encourage you to do so at the end of this episode, I talk about the first step to healing is embracing change with an open mind. And that's my challenge to you.

So whether it's a topic like manifestation, have an open mind because when we have an open mind, that's when healing can start happening.

Discovering Manifestation in My Health Journey

As I've shared, when I was in my twenties, first dealing with MS, the relapses were increasingly frequent and really aggressive. I spent many months at times in hospital, unable to move. When I was twenty-five in 2000, I spent so long in hospital, but then I've talked about how I gradually did get better. And when I returned to work, I remember sitting at the desk and thinking, "Is this job worth getting sick for?" And I thought, "No, absolutely not." So I decided I needed to make some changes.

In my twenties, all of my friends were starting to travel. They were doing the Australian thing of getting your UK working holiday visa and heading over to London. And I really wanted to be part of that, but unfortunately, because of my MS treatment—to get better out of this aggressive relapse—I'd had to have chemotherapy. Part of that was every three months I needed a dose of chemo. So I thought there's no way I can go away for a year; I just didn't trust my body and I needed to follow the advice of my neurologist.

But then things started to shift. My treatment was going really well; I had two chemotherapy treatments, and already the results were really impressive. I remember being presented to a roomful of neurologists, and they couldn't believe how much I had improved. So the thought was then, let's hold off on the other six doses of chemo because long term they can impact your heart. And if I needed them down the track, which I ended up needing in '06 and '09. But for now, let's just keep going with the daily injections, which is a different treatment I had. And I no longer had to be around for a chemotherapy infusion every three months.

So that started me thinking, and it created a bit of freedom to enable me to start dreaming. So I'm showing my age—I started looking at Lonely Planet guides for the United Kingdom. And I did; I started to dream of the possibility. And it was going to take a lot of courage because I had an amazing job; I was so blessed to have an employer that still paid me the entire time I was in hospital. And I remember getting advice from a financial adviser saying that I'd be crazy to leave Telstra because as an employer they offered a really good pension for if you ended up with a permanent disability. And I was risking that if I was to go overseas. But I thought, "I'm only twenty-five; I don't want my life to be dictated by MS."

And I decided I'm going to quit my job. So I went into the office. I was going to meet with the manager, but we were all called into a meeting. And it was announced that our whole department was closing and everyone would be offered a redundancy package. And I remember the manager started walking towards me, and I thought, "I know they're gonna offer me a different job just because they're really nice and wanted to make sure I was alright." And I said, "I'm going overseas next year." And I thought, "Whoa, where'd that come from?" But I said, "I'm going overseas, and this is just such good timing, I'll definitely take the package."

So I was a bit nervous, but I thought, "Good decision. It's time to make some significant changes and hopefully kiss goodbye the nightmare year that was 2000 and have some incredible new memories overseas." Next step, we were renting; two other friends and I were renting this amazing apartment. And we thought, well, we need to break that lease. My flatmate, he was off to Ireland, another flatmate was happy to move on. But instead of us asking to break our lease, the next day a letter came in the mail. And we were told that the owners want to move into our property and they offered us two months' rent because they were breaking the lease. So all of a sudden, this process of really envisioning me travelling around, everything started falling into place. And without realising, that was really my first experience of manifesting. My experience in 2000 and then 2001 was really about setting the intention and having a dream of travelling. Then creating the momentum for that to happen. And for me, that momentum was starting to read about travelling, feeling it, getting excited about it, and then having all of these things happen, which enabled me to hop on a plane and have this amazing experience in Scotland for the year.

Manifesting a Healing Space Amidst Health Challenges

Hopefully, you're still with me, and this is not too much woo-woo. As I mentioned in episode eight, having an open mind is where our healing truly starts to happen because we're open to new ways of thinking about not just our illness, but our life overall. So, now fast forward to 2022 and being diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. I knew that to heal, I needed to make some changes in my life. And Andrew's health hasn't been great as well. He also sensed that a change was really needed. We didn't know what change, we didn't know exactly when or where, but we actually just started to take some drives to get out of the house and to sort of, I guess, escape and have a change of scenery.

So we called it making sense of what was going on with my breast cancer diagnosis. Part of me, if I'm completely honest, was thinking, if this doesn't turn out well—if I was to pass away from cancer—I wanted Andrew to be back in a region where he felt more connected. So we're down at the beach, and Andrew grew up on a farm. And although we're not quite near where he grew up, it's still the same sort of people and energy around. So we just started taking drives.

This same process started to happen. We thought, how amazing would it be if we could find a property and somehow afford it? We kept dreaming about this. We kept going on drives. We kept imagining ourselves on a property. We even wrote down and drew what type of property we'd love to buy. And it was really only a few months after that Andrew and my nephew went and saw this beautiful block.

Anyway, the time came for putting in an offer. We didn't do that. Then the real estate agent a few weeks later called to see whether we were still interested. So Andrew and I went for a drive, went to see this block, and I knew as soon as I reached the gate that this was the place that I needed to be and we both needed to be for our healing.

And here's where the woo-woo stuff comes in. We were met at the gate by this massive swarm of dragonflies. Dragonflies represent transformation. As we drove around the property, this big swarm of dragonflies followed us. And I said to Andrew, "Whoa, there's something in this. I'm sure this is a sign." He still laughs that we bought the property because of the dragonflies, but we've never seen so many dragonflies again over the last twelve months at the property.

Regardless of whether you believe in symbols like that, that property I know was meant to be for us. No one else around us, our new neighbours, no one even knew that it was for sale. There was no for sale sign. I just happened to come across it online. And that, for me, is what manifesting is all about. It's having that dream, setting the intention, feeling it, getting excited about it, and then being open to how that dream may become a reality.

Dreaming as a Tool for Health and Healing

Okay, so now I've shared two personal stories of how I've come to use manifestation in my life. Back when I was in my twenties and travelling around the world, having this amazing time. But now, when faced with breast cancer and stage four cancer, how I still use this same approach to creating change in my life with this new challenge.

And what I really believe is that manifesting, dreaming—however you word it—is so important that we do that in our lives when living with an illness or significant health challenge. When I was first diagnosed with MS, I was filled with such despondency. Because all of a sudden I thought that dreams I had for my future would never come to fruition because I really thought that each of them assumed good health, and good health—given those now dealing with MS—was no longer a given.

So, what was the point of dreaming? I thought holding on to my dream was like tormenting myself. It was like a form of torture. It's like, this is what you wanted, no way you're going to get that now that you have a health condition. So my life really spiralled at that time into darkness because I just couldn't see a way out.

And that's why I think manifesting or dreaming is so important when we're living with a health condition because that creates the momentum we need to keep moving forward. And things won't happen; we won't attract good things; we won't have these new experiences when we stand still. I truly believe if Andrew and I didn't start this whole process of getting excited about this massive change in our life, the last two years would have been absolutely dominated by the fear and anxiety I had when initially diagnosed with stage four breast cancer.

But now, my focus and my energy are all about this new adventure, and I am so excited.

Be Open to Manifesting: Summary and Quiz

So, the takeaway from today's episode is that next time you hear someone talking about manifesting or manifestation, don't be quick to dismiss it but be open. And then take it a step further. Start doing some of the things I have over the years. Start dreaming again. Start setting intentions. Start living and breathing the excitement, start imagining what that might feel like. And by doing these things, you will start creating the momentum you need to make changes in your life. And in living with an illness, that is so important because the worst thing we can do to ourselves is to feel stuck and overwhelmed and unsure how we can possibly make any changes in our life. But by manifesting, by starting to dream, that truly is when unimagined possibilities happen. And that's another term I'll chat about another time. Because I'm very strong in this as well.

But for now, have an open mind. And when you finish this podcast, get a piece of paper out or have a blank screen on your iPad or on your computer or phone and write down some intentions or some dreams you have. Don't worry about the detail of how they're going to happen, but start imagining some amazing experiences that can still be part of your future.

And remember, the quiz—over the last few episodes, I've been talking about the healing journey quiz. And really, this is about the growth zone or the new beginnings. This is about the hope that we can still create in our life—that yes, we're dealing with so much. But there is still hope for a future that is filled with unimagined possibilities. And I know that's what keeps me going and that's what gets me excited about tomorrow.