Your body is not broken

It's speaking to you.

I got a cold sore this week.

I haven’t had one in probably 13 years.

To say I was disappointed in my body is an understatement.

I eat great. I exercise. I’m mindful—ish. 🤪

I expressed my frustration to my dear friend Jacqueline, and she said to me:

“German New Medicine sees cold sores not as random viral flare-ups, but as the body’s meaningful biological healing program after a “separation conflict” related to kissing, touch, or intimacy. There’s nothing wrong with your body; it’s actually healing.”

I asked ChatGPT what Louise Hay would say is the metaphysical meaning of a cold sore:

• Festering angry words and fear of expressing them.

• Repressed frustration or unspoken tension around communication and intimacy.

• Feeling unable to speak your truth in a situation.

I wanted to jump right to judgment and disappointment with my body… shaming it for its response and expression… instead of pausing, holding, honouring its expression (as it is ME), and asking… ”Was there truth in any of the above emotional correlations to the physical body?“

A resounding… YES.

So while I treat my lip with an ointment with L-lysine, zinc, and a few other things, take oral L-lysine + vitamin C, hit myself up with some homeopathics, avoid foods that feed viral replication… and all the things… I also go into the ways in which I am being pointed to some form of truth that I need to confront.

The body is brilliant… even if it produces pain. The nervous system is brilliant… even if it feels stuck. The mind is brilliant… even if it feels confused and depressed.

I have a friend who was battling cancer and was told to join the “f*ck cancer” movement… to which he replied, “Why would I hate something that is going on within myself?” My lord, such brilliance in the face of stage four cancer… (which he miraculously survived).

Perhaps you’re frustrated in your life with your mental state? Perhaps you’re frustrated with your body? With auto-immune? With an illness?

First off, I want to be compassionate for whatever you’re navigating. In no way am I blaming anyone for their ailments… because sometimes shit happens… Sometimes we inherit really painful patterns and relationship circumstances. Sometimes we’re born into deep dysfunction. Life can be gruesome — and managing our internal environment in the face of life’s challenges can sometimes feel impossible.

So, while acknowledging that our reality is our reality, let’s imagine a world where we can at least heal what is emotionally unresolved, and perhaps that will help change the state of our body, nervous system, and immune system… and help us heal what is unresolved in our being.

Is there a correlation between trauma, inflammation, and things like autoimmune disorders? Why yes, there is.

The ACEs study found that adults with two or more adverse childhood experiences had a 70–100% higher risk of hospitalization for autoimmune diseases compared to those with none.

But now, we also live in a deeply inflammatory world. Processed food is inflammatory. What they spray on non-organic food is inflammatory. Conflict in relationships is inflammatory. Self-censorship is inflammatory. And… what we consume with our eyes and ears on our smartphones… is deeply inflammatory.

You can go from seeing a funny meme to an image of a child missing, wounded in Palestine, to a video about cats… in mere seconds. We justify our need to constantly consume the news to hold the righteous title of being “informed”… while not realizing it’s the reason we’re deeply inflamed.

Recently, I was sharing that I consume the news in spurts. I try not to expose myself to it all the time because it causes me to lose hope in the world and it increases my stress. I find myself getting angrier at the injustice and further and further away from my humanity… to which many people replied, “What a privileged perspective.”

Is it a privilege to decide not to be enraged by what’s going on in another part of the world that I have seemingly no immediate impact on? Is it a privilege to be in a disregulated state and emotionally fragile because something is going on on the other side of the planet?

It seems rather counterintuitive to trade our own sanity and well-being to attempt to restore both of those things elsewhere.

And while I’m not debating that environmental ease is a wonderful privilege experienced by too few people in the world, is trading our own coherence and inner peace in an attempt to bring coherence and peace to the world actually a form of justice?

Your body cannot heal in the environment that made it sick.

Your mind cannot heal when it’s constantly exposed to traumatic imagery, and you’re not listening to the call to get. more. quiet.

We live in a world that is so noisy that we have learned to drown out the voice of our own inner being.

I say all of this because upon reflecting on my own health and this cold sore, I need to be better at being more clear in my communication and boundaries. I need to stop fawning when I have hard conversations with my wife. Since we’ve had our son, I have missed her dearly. I have felt the pressure of provision, and sometimes, because I tend to become an island when I’m stressed, I have felt very alone in my suffering. I recognize that I need to create even more boundaries with technology and implement a full protocol—daily, weekly, quarterly, and annually—to ensure the health of my mind, nervous system, body, and soul.

I need to stop managing other people’s feelings and possible disappointments when it comes to compromising my own capacity.

And I need to make sure that I’m honouring the path my soul is asking me to walk… because I am well aware that the body will express to me when that is not happening… and the Universe will reward me when I am.

I want you to know that you are brilliant. I want to remind you that you have a guidance system built into your being… and sometimes you won’t like what it senses… but you will know that truth doesn’t always feel good… and not every feeling needs to be acted upon… but feelings do need to be acknowledged.

Whatever you’re navigating, turn towards your experience as being one of brilliance… which I know can be very hard in the face of struggles and challenges. What are you being asked to explore? What boundaries are you not expressing? What circumstances of your life are not aligned? What choices are you making that are in violation of your own values? In what ways are you not in sacred communion with yourself?

I’m going to be diving deeper into the physiological and inflammatory nature of misalignment, technology, and their effect on the nervous system moving forward — and I’ll be speaking at Eudēmonia in West Palm Beach, November 13-16. Use the code “mgroves” to save $50. Come join me and let’s hang out!

Sending you love and healing… and that you already know what the next step is. Don’t miss step 1 while looking for step 5.

Much love,

Mark