Who am I really? A source of chronic stress that we should all explore
- Silvia Grisendi
- Mar 26
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 28
Something that continues to fascinate me - even more as I delve deeper into studying for my Health Creation Mentorship Diploma - is how profoundly chronic stress affects health and disease.
This is not new, of course. We've known for some time that chronic stress is a major contributing factor to chronic disease development, and increasingly so in a society where we are constantly fed information that spreads division, fear and contrast. But, when we look at the various possible causes of chronic stress, there’s one that is less obvious, more profound and, in my view, systematically overlooked.
What I am referring to is living out of alignment.
What this means is to live in 'dis-connection' from our true nature, our own very personal values and deep desires. Not fully embracing our true, authentic self. Not expressing our true talents, personality, needs (physical, emotional, spiritual), or preferences… sometimes for years, even a lifetime for some people.
This state of detachment from true self can create a type of chronic stress that is subtle, easy to ignore, but persistent. A state where our precious vital energy is depleted, with repercussions can manifest over time in different ways that may involve mental, emotional, and even physical health.
While this type of disconnection is real for many people, I wonder how many have the opportunity to explore it. How many of us, when facing difficulty, illness, frustration, fear, sadness, exhaustion, emptiness, etc. think of (or are supported with) taking time to ask some deep questions, to look inside, to connect within, to dare search for what is meaningful to us, what makes our heart sing, what feeds our soul, imagining a slightly different life, or perhaps a very different one…
What happens in many cases is that we do not dare open the door that may be keeping our natural talents well hidden in order to continue to meet others’ expectations. Nor express our actual thoughts and feelings for fear of judgement. Nor allow ourselves to embrace our creativity because ‘there is no time’ and work, for example, takes all our energy. The list of possible obstacles we put on our freedom of ‘being’ can be long.
If there is anything unexpected that my many years in clinical practice - looking after people’s physical health - has shown me with some clarity and consistency, that would be exactly this disconnection being a real factor for many people who face illness, sometimes severe in nature. Conditioning, beliefs, fears (big or small, conscious or subconscious) that prevent them from living their own Truth, whatever that is.
Something that is being increasingly hard for me to ignore and that I wanted to understand much better and, possibly, help them with.
I can say that, in my own experience and by observing others, the choice of opening 'that' door, looking within and following your true nature can be tremendously uplifting and incredibly healing. I wrote about my dealings with searching my soul and changing direction in life in this post, even though in reality the work is never done, we are all constantly evolving.
The search for meaning is what makes us human, it's intrinsic to our spiritual nature to wanting to find our purpose, our Ikigai (a Japanese concept meaning 'a reason for being').
The questions it poses are simple but radical. We can use these, or other types of inquiry, to identify or getting closer to what we feel has meaning in your life.
And my road is now taking me to add new elements to the work I do with people who trust me with their health and wellbeing. Training with Health Creation is giving me the knowledge and skills to help myself and others to find deep nourishment (in body, mind and spirit) and allow their true self to surface and express. We look at all areas of health, and we learn what questions to ask.
I do the work firstly on myself (with the great help of my fellow students, who are doing the same, and the connection that this creates between us is something beautiful), and I will be soon ready to offer my support for others in a journey of discovery and healing (in the largest sense of the term) throughout 12 Principles of Health Creation.
The principles are depicted here in an example result of the Picture of Health exercise, one of several assessments and activities of the Health Creation Programme created by Dr Rosy Daniel (the founder of Health Creation and provider of the training I am currently undertaking):
So, watch this space, and feel free to get in touch if you want to know more!
Thank you for reading.
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