There is a big difference between separating your identity from chronic illness symptoms, diagnosis, labels and pretending you're somewhere you're not.
Healthy separation of identity is important.
Healthy separation of identity is hugely important for healing. There is great power that lies within recognising that you may have sensations in your body that are influencing your life right now, but they do not impact on who you are, on your true sense of self, on the things you love and are passionate about, the fire inside you.
To break away from this binding identity is to find a sense of freedom. To free yourself up to find different ways to live and to feel alive, whatever they look like. It all becomes less black and white, less sick or healed, less daunting and more transient and fluid, more explorative, more empowering.
Pretending doesn't feel good.
But...that does not mean you need to 'pretend' you're better than you are. That does not mean you need to communicate something different from your reality.
I did that for so long after taking the Lightning Process. But in my experience when you project and communicate an experience that is different from what you feel inside, your true reality - that is not a good feeling. It's isolating, it's lonely, it generates internal conflict, it's communicating to your body you don't honour it, it puts you in challenging situations and it makes it harder for the people around you to help.
Honouring yourself gives you power.
So do be very mindful about how you relate/attach identity to your body and your experience, do be mindful of your thought patterns, do brain retrain & avoid dwelling for long periods.
But also allow yourself to feel, to honour deeply where you're at, to communicate freely, to be heard, to be understood, to be at one with yourself. That will give you the power to move forward. Sending lots of love, James