“I would look myself in the mirror and the voice would go: ‘You look horrible,’ And I was like: ‘No. That's not me anymore.’ And when I started hearing those patterns - it changed.”
After a lifetime of suffering with severe eczema, allergies, and asthma, Stephanie hadn’t realized the things she thought about herself - until she started doing the work. As Dr Joe says in this powerful conversation, it wasn't about Stephanie’s skin condition changing; she started to change.
Recorded at the Marco Island Week Long Advanced Retreat in January 2022
More from Stephanie in the comments 2/13/22:
Hi geniuses, let me add some context and answer a few questions:
During my first year of meditation (2019-2020) I was so ill that I couldn’t sit still, deeply stuck in addictive behaviour. I spent hours in front of the mirror scratching my skin and it literally took me a whole year to learn how to sit still without attacking my face and upper body. I scratched off a handfull of skin every day and it looked like it had snowed inside my apartment. I changed my sheets every other day because of blood stains and I had around 30 symptoms at that time. My body was a mess. It had taken me 35 years to get to that state and so it only made sense that it might take a couple more to rewire the brain and get out of the survival mode. I knew it was a matter of WHEN, not IF. I had many, many, MANY dark nights of the soul - but I had decided that this was it.
Getting beyond the frustration and the fear was a big thing for me. I started the work before the pandemic (in November 2019) and was super inspired. After a few months I managed to book myself into an event in Spain, Costa Brava, that was supposed to take place on my birthday (!) in March. That one got postponed twice, then cancelled. Then I moved my registration to London when that event was announced. I felt so held, so seen - given that I live in London. It was all happening for me! HOORAY! And then it didn’t. The world shut down. And I got fearful - was I ever going to make it to an event?! In hindsight, things happened exactly as they were meant to. If I had attended one of those two events, I had most likely scratched my way through them, having a hard time and beating myself up for “failing”. I had to overcome a lot of emotions and lifelong conditioning - just like everyone else.
Also, I had grown accustomed to giving away my power - always relying on doctors, healers, practitioners and therapists to fix me. To tell me what to do. What to eat. How to live. How to think. And for me it was INCREDIBLY healing and empowering to break through and break free on my own. Never question your own power and your unlimited strength.
It doesn’t matter which meditations I did - or anyone else who created change in their life. We all have different preferences. Do the meditations that inspire you; maybe there’s a particular song you like or a sequence that gets you into the void, into nothingness. That’s where the healing sweet spot it. DO YOU and stop looking around. What worked for me might not work for you. ALL of Dr. Joe’s meditations are mindblowingly awesome. They’re made with so much love and care. Follow his instructions and trust the process.
I did my meditation every day, sometimes more than once, but never less. At the beginning I was so hyper that my nervous system didn’t allow me to go very deep and consequently I learned all the meditations by heart. At some point I knew exactly what Dr. Joe was going to say next in all of the meditations I had - and that’s when I got new ones to get me into the unknown. To this day, I love switching them around and do everything I can to surprise myself so that I don’t know what to expect. That’s why the live events are so incredible - you get to experience live meditations where literally anything can happen and where Dr. Joe pushes you to your limits.
And yet, you have access to the same loving intelligence at home if you believe in yourself and do the work consistently. There’s no magic trick. It just depends on how badly you want it and on how much you’re willing to give up in terms of your old self: the limiting beliefs, the old thought patterns and the stories you are addicted to. I’m still in the process of letting mine go and it gets a little easier every day.
Sending love to you all! ♥