When did your journey with Lyme begin?
My journey with Lyme began long before I ever knew I was even on a journey with Lyme. I think in some ways, my whole life was leading up to it. But my first symptoms appeared in around 2001.
Was there a turning point in your journey?
My huge turning point was when I became aware that Lyme wasn’t my fault, but it was my responsibility. When I turned inward and became fully willing to make changes at a core level instead of searching externally for “the cure,” everything shifted and started moving in the right direction.
What are some of your favorite tools for healing?
A few of my favorite tools for healing are Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), grounding, having fun (we often stop doing “fun” or “extra” things when we become hyper-focused on illness), chanting, working with the chakras, and essential oils (Well Scent’s Pause for Peace is my favorite).
What’s one thing you wish you could tell individuals who have just been diagnosed?
This journey is about much, much, more than bacteria or disease. This experience is a vessel to becoming who you really are. It can be a hugely transformative blessing, and if you flow with it rather than fight it, you will heal a whole lot faster. You can learn to be in this seemingly horrible place (experiencing this disease) and still grow and learn to find peace anyway. We all have a part of us that we can connect to that just knows we are safe, loved, and all will be well.
What’s been your biggest obstacle in your healing journey?
My biggest obstacle was in “letting go.” It was so hard for me to stop trying to control every single step, researching each and every possible cure, and just trust that I could heal no matter what. But I eventually realized all the researching and obsessing was pushing me further away from my healing; not bringing me closer. We all can reach our healing and there are lots of different roads to take to do that. It’s important to understand that so you be lighter about each decision you make. Nothing is the be-all-end-all. You aren’t missing “the cure” by not being online looking for it all the time. The cure is already there, unfolding for you. You just need to keep showing up in the best way you know how and allow it.
Do you have a spiritual practice? How does that help?
I do. My spirituality is quite varied. I do anything and everything that connects me to myself and to the Universe as a whole. I love to lie in the grass, read, chant, visit Buddhist temples, practice Donna Eden energy techniques, listen to Smokey Robinson, use sage and incense to clear energy; anything that brings my mind and body to a calm, happy, or balanced place.
What has been your biggest victory in your healing journey, and how did you overcome that obstacle?
My biggest victory has been learning to love and accept myself just as I am. And it came through lots and lots of practice. But as I moved closer to being my true self, my healing came closer and faster, too. So it helped me keep it up even when it was hard. Loving and accepting oneself doesn’t mean everything is all love and light all the time. Ha! It’s more a process of accepting your humanness, even during the meltdowns and such. And then picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and being light with yourself about it all.
What are your hopes and dreams for your future?
I want to reach more people. I’ve written four books (the next one is the one I’m most exciting about – How To Heal Yourself When No One Else Can – which is out in January 2016). But I hope to do more public speaking because I know that’s where I’m meant to go next. Now that I’m truly well, inside and out, I am proud to speak my truth loud and proud. And my truth is your truth, too – that you are good enough, that you can heal, and that the world needs your light exactly as it is.
What are some of the things you have learned as part of this experience?
That we have so much more power than we think we do, that our realities are often a reflection of our thoughts and feelings (for better of for worse), that it’s ok to just throw your hands up and surrender sometimes, that it’s totally fine to feel anything and everything because we’re human, and that life is more beautiful than scary.
Bio
Amy B. Scher is an author, energy therapist, and leading voice in the field of mind-body healing. She believes that our ultimate wellbeing is born not from self-help, but self-love.
With a history of chronic illness, Amy found herself on adventure to discover the foundation of healing. Why do some people heal from emotional or physical issues, while others don’t? Through extensive research and her own recovery experience, Amy found the most important piece for her own healing–the impact of unprocessed negative emotions on our physical bodies.
Amy has been featured in publications such as CNN, Curve magazine, Psych Central, Lyme Times, Elephant Journal, The Good Men Project, the San Francisco Book Review and was named one of Advocate’s “40 Under 40” for 2013.
Most importantly, she lives by the self-created motto: “When life kicks your ass, kick back.”
She is the bestselling author of This Is How I Save My Life (January 2013). Her next book, How To Heal Yourself When No One Else Can (Llewellyn Worldwide) is out in January of 2016.
Author & Energy therapist
@amybscher (Twitter)
