Creating a Healing Trajectory ~ Parts 1, 2, & 3
- Jun 11
- 11 min read
PART 1
If you are in the middle of a health challenge right now, this is for you. And if you know someone who is struggling, please pass this newsletter along to them. A healing trajectory is available to anyone, at any stage, regardless of what they have been told. |
When a doctor gives someone an unfavorable prognosis, they are presenting them with an illness trajectory. This is the doctor's projection of how the illness will develop in the body over the coming days and months. You must know, this is a projection not a prophecy! The information they are presenting is drawn from data collected from thousands of patients, many of whom came to that illness carrying other burdens alongside it: unrelenting stress, unresolved fears, anxiety, years of poor sleep, little support, grief that had never been properly tended to.
The prognosis a doctor presents to someone reflects the results that can happen when they stay on the same path that led to their illness in the first place. It does not account for what becomes possible when someone consciously decides to change direction. |
A healing trajectory asks a different question than the one most medical conversations are built around. Instead of focusing on where the illness is going, it asks: where are you going? It moves your attention from prognosis to possibility, from victim to creator, from hopeless to hopeful, from passively watching your health unfold to actively participating in your own recovery. Creating this trajectory means building a real, livable plan for how you are going to get well, not just how you are going to fight disease. The difference in how you frame it matters because fighting against something is exhausting, while expanding toward something desirable is not only sustaining, it’s energizing! And when you are healing, your energy is one of your most precious resources.
The first area we will look at in creating your healing trajectory is your physical body. |
The most fundamental layer of any healing trajectory is the body itself, and the most fundamental things you can give it are also the most basic: sleep, real food, movement, and time outside.
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These might seem like small and simple things, but they are in fact, foundational. Below is a short writing exercise (10 minutes) which will ask you to reflect on where your body is in this moment and help you begin to turn your healing trajectory into an actionable plan. |
1. Reclaim Your DirectionInstead of asking “What’s happening to me?”, gently shift the question to:“Where am I going?” Write down 1–3 ways you want to feel in your body and life over the next few weeks and months (e.g. calm, energized, supported, peaceful).
2. Choose One Foundational SupportLook at the three foundations (Sleep, Nourishment, Movement/Time in nature) and ask yourself: “Which one of these does my body need most right now?” Then choose one small, doable action you can begin today.Examples:
3. Make It RealComplete this sentence: “Today, I am choosing to support my healing by…” Keep it simple and kind, and most importantly, keep it doable. |
This is your first conscious step in a new direction. In my next email I will be going deeper into something that is often overlooked but may be one of the most powerful parts of healing: your emotional world, your mindset, and how you relate to your care.
Much love, Anita |
P.S. Once again, if you know someone that this message could help, please share it with them and if you'd like to find out more about my upcoming Healing Retreat in Sedona, click here. |
PART 2
In the first email, I shared the idea that a prognosis is not a prophecy — that while we may be given an illness trajectory, we also have the power to consciously choose a healing trajectory.
Today, I want to explore something that medicine often doesn’t address directly, but which I believe can be one of the most powerful aspects of healing: Your emotional world. |
This is the layer of healing that medicine rarely addresses directly, and yet it may be the most consequential. Emotional pain that has not been acknowledged or worked through holds the body in a state of quiet emergency. Grief, loneliness, fear, fractured relationships, the feeling of not being safe or genuinely seen: these are not abstract experiences. They are biological events. Chronic emotional stress suppresses immunity, disrupts hormones, disturbs sleep, and keeps the nervous system locked in a survival mode that leaves very little room for repair.
I would invite you to sit with some questions, honestly and without rushing toward answers. Writing them down often helps, because something about the act of putting words on a page makes the inner world more legible.
That last question is one of the most powerful you can ask yourself, and I want you to take it seriously. Whatever arises in response to it, begin moving toward it now. Not after you recover. Not when things settle. Now. Start living as though your life has a future, because it does, and living that way is one of the most genuinely healing things you can do. Stop organising your days around the illness and start organising them around the person you are becoming.
People who have something to move toward, something that gives their days a sense of meaning or quiet anticipation, tend to heal more fully than those who feel indifferent to their own future. If that sense of forward motion has gone quiet for you, finding it again is not an optional extra. It is part of your plan.
If this reflection reveals that your emotional world is genuinely depleted right now, please seek real support. A compassionate therapist, a counsellor, a group of people who understand what you are going through. There is no weakness in this. In many cases, it is the most direct path through. |
Next week, in Part 3, I’ll be exploring Your Mind and Your Medical Care — including how fear influences healing, how to build a healthier relationship with your medical team, and how to become a more empowered participant in your own wellness journey.
Until then, be gentle with yourself. Healing is not just physical, but emotional, mental, energetic.
With all my love, Anita |
PART 3
Over the past few weeks, we've explored how healing is about so much more than a diagnosis or prognosis. We've talked about caring for the physical body and tending to the emotional world. Today, I want to focus on another important piece of the puzzle: your mind, your relationship with fear, and your relationship with the medical care you receive.
While none of us can control every outcome, we can become conscious participants in our healing journey. And often, that begins with examining the beliefs, fears, and choices that shape our experience every day. |
Your Mind and Your Medical Care
The way we think, the fears we carry, and even the people we choose to surround ourselves with during a health challenge can have a profound impact on our healing journey. That's why it can be so valuable to pause from time to time and look honestly at the choices you're making, not to judge yourself, but simply to understand what is driving them.
When you're facing uncertainty, fear is a natural response. Every one of us experiences it. But fear has a way of narrowing our world. It keeps us focused on what might go wrong with worst-case scenarios, while trying to protect ourselves from an unknown future. Love, on the other hand, has a very different quality. Love expands. It moves us toward what nourishes us, supports us, and helps us feel more fully alive. So when you notice yourself feeling overwhelmed or caught in a cycle of worry, see if you can gently ask yourself, "What would the loving choice look like here?".
This same principle applies to your relationship with your medical care. The people supporting you medically play an important role in your healing, and it's easy to underestimate how much that relationship affects your overall wellbeing. A good doctor, regardless of their specialty, should leave you feeling more informed, more supported, and more capable of navigating what lies ahead. Of course, difficult conversations are sometimes necessary, but if you consistently leave appointments feeling frightened, defeated, or hopeless, it's worth paying attention to that. Chronic stress places a tremendous burden on the body, and healing becomes much harder when anxiety is constantly being reinforced. You are allowed to ask questions. You are allowed to express your concerns. And if a relationship with a provider consistently leaves you feeling unseen or unsupported, you are allowed to seek a different one. You deserve care that genuinely feels caring.
The same is true when it comes to tests, scans, and monitoring. While these tools can provide valuable information, they can also become a source of enormous anxiety for some people. If you find yourself spending days or weeks in distress leading up to every appointment, have an open conversation with your provider about whether there is flexibility in the schedule while still remaining medically responsible. It's important to remember that your experience of your own body matters too. The way you feel day to day, your energy levels, your clarity, your ability to be present in your life, these are all meaningful forms of information. Your body is communicating with you constantly, and learning to listen to those signals can be just as important as learning to interpret the numbers on a report.
Perhaps most importantly, I want to encourage you not to spend precious energy looking backward and asking what you did wrong or what you should have done differently. In my experience, that question rarely leads anywhere helpful. It often becomes another way of carrying blame, guilt, or regret, and those are burdens you do not need to add to an already difficult journey. Health challenges happen to people from every walk of life. They are not a punishment, nor are they evidence that you somehow failed. What matters most is not how you arrived here, but how you choose to move forward from this moment. Your energy is needed for the path ahead, not for endlessly revisiting the past. |
Tracking Your Progress ~ An Exercise in Emotional Energy
As you move through this journey, you may find it helpful to keep a journal, not as a record of test results or symptoms, but as a gentle record of your experience. How are you feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically? What is shifting within you, even in small ways?
One of the things I have learned is that healing often begins long before it becomes visible. Sometimes it shows up as a little more energy than you had last week. Sometimes it's a moment of peace where there used to be anxiety, a conversation that feels lighter, or a burst of laughter that catches you by surprise. These moments can seem insignificant when viewed in isolation, but they matter. They are often the first signs that something within you is changing.
When those moments happen, write them down, not because you need to analyze them, but because it is easy to forget how far you've come when you're focused on where you still want to be. Looking back and seeing these small shifts can remind you that healing is happening, even when the clinical picture has not yet caught up.
The truth is that healing rarely unfolds in a straight line. It doesn't always follow the timelines we expect, and it often progresses in ways that conventional measurements cannot fully capture. Yet there is a wisdom within you that recognizes when something is changing. You can feel it in the moments when you feel more present, more hopeful, more alive, or more at ease in your own body.
Trust those moments. Trust those stretches of genuine wellbeing. They are not insignificant detours on your journey; they are part of the journey itself, pointing you toward what is possible. |
As we come to the end of this series, I want to leave you with something I hope you'll carry with you long after you've finished reading these emails.
You are not your diagnosis, and you are not your prognosis. You are a whole person with a body that is doing its very best, living a life that still contains meaning, purpose, and possibility, and you have the ability, right now, to begin moving in a new direction. No matter what you have been told, no matter where you find yourself today, there is always a difference between predicting an outcome and living a life.
A healing trajectory is not a promise that everything will unfold exactly as you expect - but it gives you hope, and a commitment to yourself and to the life that is still waiting to be lived. It is a decision to stop relating to yourself as a passive observer of your health and to begin participating in your wellbeing with greater intention, compassion, and trust.
The most important thing to remember is that you do not need to have all the answers. You do not need a perfect plan, and you do not need to transform everything overnight. Healing, like life itself, unfolds one choice at a time. One loving choice. One supportive action. One moment of presence that leads to another.
So start where you are; work with what you have; and trust the small steps that feel aligned for you today. They may seem insignificant in the moment, but they have a way of carrying you farther than you can imagine.
And above all, be gentle with yourself. The fact that you are here, reading these words and seeking a path forward, is already evidence that something within you is moving toward healing. Trust that. Trust yourself. And trust that there is far more possibility ahead of you than you may be able to see right now.
Thank you for allowing me to share this journey with you. |
Much love, Anita P.S. If this resonated with you, or if someone you love is navigating a health challenge right now, please pass it along. Sometimes the right words at the right moment make all the difference.
My hope is that it serves as a reminder that no matter what challenges you are facing, you are never powerless. There is always a next step, always a new choice, and always a way to move toward greater wellbeing.
Click here to join my healing retreat in Sedona this Summer. |
