June 2018 Upate

Hello Humans,

Wow! It's hard to know where to begin, there is so much going on in my life. Mostly good, somewhat unexpected and often challenging. Welcome to June! Let's jump right in…

Thomas broke his leg. The technicals are that he has a small fracture right in the center of his right tibia and will be on sick leave for about 6 more weeks. Thomas isn't in much pain, he just has to stay off his leg all the time. This accident has catapulted me into a position of responsibility that I haven't had since before my limbic system injury over three years ago. More on what I mean by that in a minute, but the point I'm trying to make in this paragraph is that I get to do everything around the house and all the errands now. As some of you know, I haven't really left the house by myself in three years and Thomas has been doing all the chores since I've been so tired and weak. Not anymore! Now I'm the driver, I'm running errands by myself and it feels pretty good. I'm getting stronger! Not to say it's been easy and I certainly didn't think I could do it, but I'm doing it and it's having an impact of the rest of my life.

Most importantly, the more I do the more I want to do. I’m trying not to push it, but there is so much to do! My body is noticing the changes, which it mostly interprets as danger causing daily panic attacks, but what's a girl to do? Well, the Dynamic Neural Retraining System of course! I mentioned that I now know that I have a limbic system injury and the impairments from that injury include Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Limbic system injuries can be caused by a variety of different traumas and create a lot of different symptoms of illness. Mine was brought on by chronic stress and exposure to harmful toxins. Annie Hopper’s Dynamic Neural Retraining System teaches you how to identify the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that reinforce the illness or injury and helps you to challenge and replace those experiences with positive ones. This program can not only help me desensitize from toxic chemicals as well as calm my PTSD, hypervigilance, depression, anxiety and many of the other unpleasant states I’ve experienced on a daily basis for years. Thomas is also using the program to overcome his childhood trauma which has resulted in his low self worth and core belief that being successful means disobeying his parents. He had a messed up experience like so many of us have, but today we are feeling hopeful and I am very grateful that we are healing side by side.

Check Out Thomas’s Daily Posts on Instagram - @offworlddreamer

Sapient House! Okay, I didn't know how to transition there, but that's still the next topic. So… I'm coordinating a healthy, supportive and affordable live/work solution for people with chemical sensitivity and some of our fragrance-free allies. Since starting Annie’s program my thoughts on this project have changed somewhat and I don't have all the words, but basically I want Sapient House to be a demonstration of a lifestyle in alignment with what all chemically sensitive people learn in their battle for life. Namely that the products humans use on a daily basis in our homes, offices, yards and factories are EXTREMELY TOXIC. I was talking with the FDA (yeah I talk to the government now) the other day and they confirmed that because there are no laws to regulate ingredients in most industries, we just don't know what's in the products and there's no reason for companies to tell us. Sapient House will be a place where we use the safest and healthiest products from our favorite brands and show others how to do the same. However, now that I am hopeful of a way to heal MCS I don't want to think of Sapient House as a forever home, but more of a place to live while I continue to heal and for others to do the same. This work is nested in the much larger conversation, namely the homeless crisis in Washington.

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Sapient House will be the way we begin the conversation, but we hope to open it up to the larger issues at hand. Presently, I am putting together the plans for an event. It will take a little while to put together but the idea is to invite people from housing authorities and green building companies as well as investors, community focused humans, policy makers, educators and students to participate in one discussion. I believe that if we can get representatives from all of these areas to come together under one objective we can make a real plan and begin helping people now. There are many reasons why someone could be homeless or struggling to find or keep affordable housing. For me, homelessness and dependance on my family stems from brain injury and disabling symptoms. For others it could be anything else. I will always advocate for the safe housing of injured people like me first, but truly I want to live in a world where everyone is safely sheltered and the risk of future limbic system injury be it from pollution or trauma is diminished or eliminated entirely.

Thank you for reading my extra long update this month. There is so much more to say I could go on forever. I hope to create more videos on my YouTube Channel and post more content to my Blog in the coming days and weeks. With so much going on I can barely keep up, but in general it feels like no matter how chaotic, I'm headed in the right direction.

If you have any questions, comments or want to get involved in any of my projects please let me know. Take care of yourselves and I hope to hear from you soon!

Rebecca