EP 128 How I Save My Life with Author Amy B. Scher

Welcome to the Lyme Voice Network. We are chronic illness warriors, caretakers, and advocates who are overcoming illness in all of its many forms. We created this show to inspire, educate, and encourage you on your path to wellness. We're here to help you put the puzzle pieces of healing into place. Join us and our network of Lyme warriors as we discuss how Fighting is a mindset, healing consists of choices, and living is the outcome.

Welcome to Lyme Voice Radio, where we talk about all things chronic illness. Lyme Voice is brought to you by Invita Medical. Over the last 20 years, Invita Medical Centers, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, has become a proud leader in precision-based chronic illness treatment. Chronic Lyme disease testing and treatment. From advanced CLIA-validated next-generation sequence testing for Lyme disease and co-infection identification to treatment of all primary and secondary co-infections using patient-targeted anti-infectious therapy, immunotherapy, and the elimination of infectious neurotoxins. Invita's highly trained medical team and facilities provide the latest in research-based precision for the treatment of chronic Lyme disease and tick-borne associated infections. Helping to transform patient lives for the better. Call to speak to one of their patient care coordinators today to see if Invita is right for you. Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of Wine Voice. With me today is Amy B. Scher, writer and energy healer. Amy, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

So you are an energy therapist, expert in mind-body healing, and bestselling author of How to Heal Yourself from Anxiety, How to Heal Yourself When No One Else Can, and This Is How I Saved My Life. Amy is often lovingly referred to as an accidental guru. She uses energy therapy techniques to help those experiencing emotional and physical challenges to move on and heal permanently and completely. So tell us a little bit about yourself and an overview of your book, How I Saved My Life. And then I want to get into a bunch of the quotes because I highlighted, I think, about a third of your book in, in just loving your writing, but then just also articulating the journey and the struggle to fight for your life when no one believes you or there are no answers and the lengths that we all go through to do that.

Yeah, thanks so much. So I am Amy, as you so beautifully introduced, and I write about humaning and healing, which I think we all experience in many different ways throughout our lives. And I sort of came to my work and my sharing of this work and my writing through my own illness journey with chronic Lyme disease. And I think many of us, when we say we had or have chronic Lyme disease, that for me, that incorporated autoimmune diseases and other conditions. And I had neuropathy and brain lesions and so many other things. But Lyme disease was sort of the umbrella in which it all sort of was under. And I was sick for about a decade and really went to great lengths, like we do, to find out what it was my body needed in order to heal. And at first I set off to see all the best doctors and do all the right treatments. And it wasn't until I got well into my journey that I realized that it was going to take maybe not more, but a different approach, which became sort of a mind, body, spirit approach in which I had to look at who I really was and what patterns in my life maybe hadn't been working in my, my body's favor. And by no means does that mean that anybody who is sick is to blame in any way. I had just gotten to a point where I was like, okay, I'm being diagnosed with all these physical conditions, yet the physical remedies, the physical solutions for them are not helping me as much as I them to be. And so I sort of, not by any heroic journey, I will admit, but I sort of, by lack of knowing what else to do, I sort of went more in the direction of turning inward and seeing what was there that maybe I hadn't recognized before, and trying to incorporate some of the healing of my true self, who I truly am, into the fold. And that was when my entire journey pivoted, and I did actually heal permanently and completely. I've been well for 10 years now, more than 10 years now. And it really— it took all kinds of medicine, and a lot of that medicine was already in me, which I didn't know about. But that's sort of in a nutshell my personal journey.

Awesome. One of my favorite lines from your book is when you said, this was life or death, not Eat, Pray, Love. Yes.

And I love Elizabeth Gilbert, and I love that book. But for me, the journey was like, no, I do not want to go on this, like, spiritual journey to love myself or to change my life. I just I just wanna live and whatever that is, I'm going on that journey.

Yeah, I wanna live, I wanna function.

Yes, I wanna do the little things. People would always say, when you get better, what are you gonna do? And I was like, all I wanna do is like go to the grocery store and not be in pain or like be able to do more than 3 things in a day or 1 thing a day. Like it was never that I wanted to travel the world or do anything grand. And still the things I'm thankful for, Now, even more than 10 years after my journey was sort of— my healing journey was over— is still the thing that's my favorite is that I can roll over in bed in the middle of the night by myself and no pain. That is the thing. That is the thing I still love the most about my life. Not the travel, nothing. It's just rolling over in bed.

Oh, gosh, I understand that. There are so many people listening who are literally in bed or on the couch, and that's a reality. I remember just every movement hurting. Yes. All the time.

I was there. And you can't escape that. I am definitely one to support a positive attitude, a this or that, but in reality, that's really hard to do when you are, when the pain is all-consuming. And so I like to talk about mind-body connection, but we also can't go so far into the mind heals and it's all energy and all of the things I believe to some extent, we can't go so far into that that we forget that physical pain is a physical experience.

Yeah.

And illness is a physical experience as much as it is everything else.

Well, and you said, talked about earlier, you just said, not that anyone is to blame when they're sick, but what is my part? What can I own? What can I change? What are the lifestyle? What is the dysfunction that I've adapted as normal? Because I'm in pain 24/7, because I hurt every time I get up to use the restroom or turn over in bed or my kid hugs me. It hurts. Yeah. And that's a reality. And yet you're also addressing— I know this will resonate with you— there's so many conundrums within this illness, and maybe that's just life in general, but there's so many things that are true. It's true that you did need medicine and healing and were proactive, but you also had to do all this other work internally, right, to come to a place of healing.

Yes. And it can be true that it's not our fault, yet it is still our responsibility to the things we need to do to get better. I mean, that's what it comes down to, right?

And that's a hard concept to come to the realization if you really have been suffering with what you thought was arthritis or IBS for 10 years, or you can no longer work full time, and yet you're like, wait, I'm responsible for this.

And not responsible in terms of, again, it's my fault, but responsible in using every accessible approach to try to shift the experience. And I think that's where it sort sort of comes in, right? It's like I wasted so much time. I will tell you, I have to be super honest about this, but I wasted so much time defending to people and doctors that it wasn't my fault that one day I just woke up and I thought, what if it is my fault? Like, I know it's not, but even if it was, who cares? Like, who— like, at this point, like, what am I wasting all this energy defending myself for? Like, who cares? And when I decided that I didn't care if it was my fault or not, I was like, oh my gosh, there's so much I can do about this. Because I wasn't in the place of resisting that it could be my fault. Again, I wasn't blaming myself, but I just didn't care. I was like, whatever. Like, who cares if someone thinks it's my fault? Who cares if I think it's my fault? Who cares if maybe I did do something? And looking back, I do think I made life changes, life choices, staying in toxic relationships, people pleasing. There were definitely choices I made along the way that stressed my immune system and stressed my body. Not my fault. Again, not my fault, but who cares? And when I didn't care anymore, it was like a whole world opened up to me.

Interesting. Yeah.

And it was worth not caring. It was worth like not being in that defensive place of it's not my fault. And I got bitten by a tick and this is why. And look at, here's my brain scan that shows that this is really happening. It was like, okay, but like that can really be happening. And also, there can be parts of my life or my pat— or patterns or parts of my past that all contributed to, even if in a subconscious, unconscious way, that contributed to the whole. That's okay. Who cares?

You bring up something really interesting. There's the act of taking responsibility for things that are outside of your control, were forced upon you. I got bit when I was 18. Okay, taking responsibility feels like this enormous burden, I think, for a lot of people in general. However, what you're saying is what I have experienced as well. When you do take full responsibility for what's going on, whether it was done to you, it happened to you, you implicated it, or whatever the situation is, but then you deal with the fault side of letting go of that. Taking full responsibility then allows you to say, oh, what's my part in this? Which actually then provides freedom that is unimaginable, right?

And then you're dealing with the solution versus the problem. Like, if I was part of the quote-unquote problem— let's just play devil's advocate— that I was part of, then I also have to be and must be part of the solution. Great, because prior to me realizing that, I was no part of the solution. Nothing was working. I couldn't find the right thing. Nothing. Duh-duh, on and on. I was— I felt so helpless and without control. And then as soon as I was like, who cares if it's my fault? Maybe I have— let me see what I've done here that could contributed, I was like, oh wait, I can like try to undo some of this. That is within my control to some extent.

Yeah, I like that. It's amazing the lessons that come through suffering.

I wouldn't learn them any other way. No, but none of us ever stop our lives on purpose to learn lessons, do we?

I want to read a quote from your book. You said, for the last 7 years, my body has been falling apart, sometimes via a slow decline and sometimes like an avalanche. It has been my full-time job to try, most unsuccessfully, to put it back together.

I think there's a lot of people who probably relate to that, right? It consumes you, completely consumes you.

Yeah.

At some point though, I did shift from the job of trying to put myself back together to just being in the experience and not trying to get out of it every second, and that was hugely helpful for me. Like that in that moment. I was just thinking— Yeah.

Give us an example of that.

Yeah. So normally, and I see a lot of people do this, which I did it too, but I'm in pain. What can I do? What did I eat? What can I, what made this happen? Why am I flaring? What is it? Da da. And what helped me to some extent was sometimes just deciding, okay, well, I don't know what caused this flare. I don't know what to do about it. Why don't I just experience my life in this moment? As I am and not try to fix it right this second. So in other words, surrender to it. Not forever. I'm not— I was never one of the people that was like, I'm just going to be like this forever. And some people find great peace and acceptance and surrender and, and not trying to— not even trying anything else. That wasn't me. I respect that, but it wasn't me. In little snippets and little increments of time, I did say, instead of laying on the couch right now stressing about what I ate wrong or what I should take or what I to do or why this medicine is not working. I'm just going to lay on the couch in pain, and maybe I'll lay on the couch in pain and watch TV, and maybe I'll watch TV in pain, and maybe that'll be fine. Maybe that won't be my first choice, but maybe it will be okay and less stressful than lying on the couch obsessing over how to get out of this situation right now, especially because it's not— unlike, it's not likely to happen. So there was some— a lot of mini moments of surrender that just helped me get to the next thing, get to the next space, give myself some relief, give myself a break, even though I was in pain.

It's really hard, the psychological dysfunction that plays out when your body is reacting to everything, whether it's the new medication you're trying and you have— you're dealing with chronic migraines, and so you take a medication for the migraines and then you are suddenly dizzy or you have vertigo or you have the domino effect of, oh my gosh, what do I do? And then with all the dietary restrictions, a lot of people start to eliminate gluten and dairy and different foods.

You can't eat anything, right?

But that's— call it just like sick patterns when you're sick. Like, my bedroom looked like someone who is on hospice or elderly patient. I had prescriptions everywhere and I couldn't get out of my bed, so I had a tray with a desk and my books and everything. Like, I lived in my bed or lived sitting because of the symptoms. So that psychological Dysfunction really comes because you're trying to be a problem solver, because you don't want to be in that moment, because you don't want to continue suffering and you want to be proactive. Oh, if eating casein causes me to have a reaction, I won't eat casein anymore, or whatever the case may be. Or maybe it's soy. But you can spend that loop, you can spend years in that loop and not even know. And so you bring up a really good point of of, okay, how do I stop the loop right now and just be present in whatever it is, right?

It's not easy to do.

It's not.

But it's not easy to be in the loop either. So it's actually more relaxing when you need a break to be present versus trying to figure everything out in the moment.

Yeah. And there's an aspect of surrender. I had to do it so many times during special events, or, okay, it's my kid's birthday and I want to be present for the birthday. Do I need— and I can barely move and function and get off the couch, and I needed help even to plan the party. Do I need to talk about the fact that I'm in pain? Like, anyone who knows me already knows whether they know or they know, they can see it, right? And I would put these barriers where I'm like, I'm not going to talk about my illness or my pain or any of it for the next day, for the next 4 hours. And so whether it's surrender or putting boundaries around where you're going mentally, it does free you. Surrender does free you to be present even if you're struggling.

Yeah, and I also think that surrender frees up your energy that can then be recycled into healing without you doing anything. Like, your fight so much to not be where you are, that energy could be better used and recycled by your body for actual healing, which I think it really does.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, because energy can be transferred from one thing to another.

Exactly.

Yeah, exactly. I want to read another quote. You said, over the years there have been hundreds of symptoms, some visiting for only days at a time and others making a permanent home in my body. Each of the symptoms has had a part in destroying not only my physical self but the rest of me as well. And what I thought when I read that was it so articulated the mystery that millions of people are experiencing all over the world with Lyme disease. I was just talking to a practitioner the other week, and he works with the Chinese government dealing with the Lyme epidemic in China. And he said 6% of the Chinese population is dealing with Lyme disease.

Wow.

6%.

Incredible.

Someone smarter than me did the math. I don't have it with me, but I'm like, this is not going away. And when you do have symptoms that fluctuate, I would have this. I would have days where I couldn't lift my left arm. Okay, it was muscular, it was neurological, it was arthritic. There were a lot of different things. And then your arm is so heavy for 2, 3 weeks on end, you're like, oh, did I injure it? Did I— what happened? Why does my arm hurt so bad? But you don't have arthritis and you don't have a tear of any kind, and you're— everything looks normal on your scans weeks later. And then all of a sudden your left knee hurts for the next 6 months. That's dumbfounding.

Yeah, it is. But I think it does come back to unless you think it's a medical emergency or unless your doctor tells you it's a medical emergency, not needing to figure it all out because you can't. It's total crazy making. You just can't. And when you become just a witness to or part of the experience as far as like, oh, my arm hurts. Oh, now my knee hurts. Like, who knows why? You know what I mean? Because most of us have the historical data to show that it doesn't work like the more the more we try to figure it out, the better we get at figuring it out. Like, that's not usually what happens. It's just we tire ourselves out. And so maybe it's okay that we have these random, unexplainable things. And I found that the less I engaged in that whole narrative of what's going on, why did it— things would pass more quickly. Those types of things would pass more quickly.

It takes a lot of inner strength to get to that place.

I'm not good at it. I will admit I'm not good at it, but I did it when I could. Even now, if I get the flu or something, you would think I am much less resilient in terms of getting sick now. I mean, my body is resilient. I get over things very quickly, but I am such a baby when it comes to any kind of pain now. Like, you would think I would be like, this is only the flu. I lived through 10 years of, like, some of it being on my deathbed. This will be fine. No. God forbid I get the flu, a headache, I go right back to that old place and I'm worse at it, possibly because I'm not on painkillers and such now. But I am not here to say it's easy because I have a hard time. But it's a practice. It's a practice to be less obsessive or interested in every physical symptom in your body. Again, unless it's an emergency and you do need to— right.

Which, and when you have neurological Lyme, things are an emergency. Your heart is skipping a beat, you lose function in a limb, like your brain quits working. And so they feel— it feels like an emergency. And a lot of times it is.

I mean, that's what I was going to say. It feels like it. But there are some things with, like, I have a heart arrhythmia. I've always had one. When I feel my heart skip beats now, I just go, oh, my heart's skipping beats. The cardiologist told me it won't kill me. I'll be okay. Do you know what I mean? So it's like, once you practice, once Once you know that something isn't an emergency, you tell your body, you can tell your body it isn't an emergency. And there are so many things with Lyme that do feel like an emergency. But again, you go, right, you go to the doctor and they're like, everything looks fine. I don't know what that is. And that's just the reality of what many people have to live with, unfortunately.

Yeah. I want to read another quote. I really did. I highlighted like a third of your book. It's fascinating. The way people articulate this confusion and these unfathomable situations. And then it's also so inspiring to be like, yeah, I can do this. And that's what I love about the work you do. That's why I like being on Lime Voice, is it takes people from a place of I'm alone, I'm suffering, there's no hope, my doctors say this is all in my head, to no, you can do this, right? Like, you can do this. It hurts, There's loss, but you can do it. You can take back control. And says, inside the places that no one knows but me, my heart is split in a million pieces because I am a human being who is lodged in the in-between, in between living and dying. I want to be better than good enough. If I don't move the goalposts of my own life, who will? I want not only to stay alive, but to be alive and live and lead a life. I am more afraid of living in this condition forever than I am of dying from it.

It's so important to talk about. There's so many discussions. I saw a discussion this morning actually on social media about a couple of people were talking about in a thread about how unhealthy it is that we talk about overcoming chronic illness. I do not agree with—

really?

They were— they think it dismisses the chronic illness community by saying you should try to overcome it, you can overcome it. These were people with experiencing chronic illness. And I thought I was smart enough not to actually engage in the conversation.

Step 1, don't engage.

Yes, because, because my age and wisdom has showed me that doesn't usually go well because those people, maybe who knows what's going on, but I don't need to know. I have too much to do to get to lose 4 hours of my life in that. But it's so interesting because this is so true. This is true for healing. This is true for writing. This is true for anything we want to do in life. There's a quote by the amazing writer Anne Lamott who says, nobody cares if you write, so you better. And it's true for healing too. It's true for so many things. Nobody cares. So if you want, and that sort of speaks to the excerpt you just read, which is if I don't move the goalposts for my life, who will? The answer to that is no one. The answer to that is nobody will. And I think we have to come to a place in our lives where we either decide that we are okay where we are or know that we have to demand for ourselves what we want. That's the only way we get it because nobody cares. And I said this about my writing. It's hard to write books and I struggle and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. My friends and family want me to finish my books, but they don't care. I mean, one way or another, it doesn't— I have to care enough to get through it and sit through it and do all that I have to do, just like I did with healing. And we all have to find that place in us that cares, that still cares, because it's hard sometimes. And maybe surrender to where we are in this moment so we don't drive ourselves crazy, but also hold a place for improvement, also hold hope for betterment. Also hold our futures in a higher form than we are now living. It's a very small thing, but for me, I was like, uh-uh, I just can't be one of these people that is sick forever.

Yeah, absolutely. I did a short documentary, it's on lionvoice.com, called Disappearing from Society. And same premise is that if you're sick long enough, no one does care. I mean, your family cares, hopefully, if you have family that's supportive, but you become— it's not like there's a divide, you just become irrelevant because you can't keep up. You've been MIA for 10 years, like, people don't even expect you to come anyways. And I described it, I said I stood between two vastly different worlds, the able-bodied world and the utterly disabled.

Yeah.

And you are, you're in a weird place. You're not living, but you're not dying. And even when I launched Lime Voice, and my coaching program has been Fight, Heal, Live— fighting is a mindset, that healing consists of the choices you make and then living is the outcome, the reward. And I have said that I am, I know I have two things I'm scared of. One of them is existing and not living.

Yeah.

Because of, like you said, age and wisdom. I am here. I have fought like hell to be here. I am gonna live. Yeah. Not gonna exist. Hello friends. Today's podcast is brought to you by these sponsors, Urbane Medical, Urban Medical is a boutique ketamine infusion center located in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. They provide a hospitable environment rather than a hospital environment. They're eager to accommodate your family in any way they can during your time of healing. Ketamine can promote a sense of well-being, decreases brain fog, and reduces chronic nerve pain. I interview the owner Jonathan in episode 109 for more information.. I can attest to what a therapeutic environment they offer at Urbane Medical, and Jonathan Evertson, the owner, makes you feel safe and comfortable and also has some really fantastic playlists available upon request. I have seen with a number of my coaching clients that ketamine is a game changer on a number of levels. So if you are in the Scottsdale area, check out Urbane Medical. All right. Now on to the show.

Yeah, and I think even while in the midst of chronic illness, we can do that in little ways. I always tell people now who are struggling with chronic illness, keep one foot in the world. Don't be— keep one foot in the real world. It's as important sometimes to watch like trashy TV or read some book that's enjoyable, if you can still read, or talk to a friend about something that's not illness versus being on message boards 20 hours a day. Like, you have to keep your footing in life, in a world that you are trying to move toward. You cannot completely succumb to being sick and surrounding yourself with only that, because that is the most dangerous place I think you can go to.

Well, like you referenced even earlier on the message boards, right? We all come out of this community and you do, you can look back on where people are at or they're early on in their diagnosis or, I see people say, oh man, I've been on Doxy for 7 days. I feel horrible. I can't take care of my kids. There's no way I'm going to work next week. When is this going to end? And I'm like, oh my God. Yeah.

You're like, not in 7 days, probably.

You're like, yeah, I'm sorry. You're just maybe getting going. But like you had said, first step, don't engage in that low-level thinking. Don't engage in even the limiting. I'm so cautious. Cautious, so cautious about what I think about, what I say, because— and it's so hard when you are a part of active Facebook groups, and I go in a couple hundred times a month and do different aspects within the Lyme Facebook groups because there's vital information in there. That information has provided me multiple turning points in my life where I learned something from someone else. But you have to dig through so much garbage and toxicity and limiting beliefs to find those nuggets of wisdom. And you may have been in the chronic illness realm for so long that you don't even understand that by saying— by someone judging someone else to say, oh, you can't say that we can overcome this because you're putting us in the place of victims, like, oh, we're not doing something to overcome, right? That in and of itself is a discussion I will never have because it's so low level.

Yes. And it was interesting, this wasn't even— I'm not in any chronic illness or Lyme groups. This was in a writing group. So that was a totally different— they just happened to be on this topic. Book.

It was interesting.

Came upon it this morning, but a lot of writers, a lot of writers, right? We write about the tragedies in our lives and so many people struggle with chronic illness. So I see how it came up, but it was so interesting. And I don't work with clients privately anymore, but I used to tell my clients, it's okay to seek information on a message board, but like go in and then get out, get out. Because I always used to say, if there's any miracle, we're all on there, like looking for the miracle cure, right? The one that And I always say, if there is a miracle cure, I promise you your sister will call you. Your friends who have Lyme will call you. You will not miss it. If there is a one-size-fits-all miracle cure for Lyme, you will hear about it. I will hear about it, and I will call you and tell you about it. But we think we're going to miss something. It's like healing FOMO, right? Fear of missing out. I don't think that I ever found anything on a message board that completely changed the trajectory of my healing journey. Take a quick look, see if there's anything you really need to know, and then get out. Because it can be dangerous to be sucked into that world and you lose your footing in the world of the living, which is what we all want to be engaged in. And we can do it in little ways.

Yeah. Healing FOMO. I'm going to borrow that one. That's hilarious.

Go for it. Take it.

I have FOMO for all of life because I lost a decade too. And I'm like, I don't want to miss anything. It's not even like out of insecurity. I was like, yeah, I want to be there. Wherever it is, whatever you're up for, I'm down. Like, I want to do this. Yes. I want to talk about your trip to India because it was so pivotal for you, and you do a great job of diving into the emotional sides and all that aspect. But let me start with a quote because I know so many people have healed in a variety of ways. I know people who are healing in India, people who are healing here, people who are on antibiotics, people who aren't on antibiotics. Yes. People are healing just across the board. So sometimes it's hard to understand that and know that when you have been sick for a decade, but it's not usually like this, oh, I'm gonna go to this one treatment center and then I'm gonna be healed and restored. It's like, just like going to counseling, like you're building up those emotional muscles and you probably are not gonna see full breakthrough on some levels until you've done more than one massive decision-making. Right moment, right? So, okay, you said, as I said, there was a lot that happened to get me to India, but compared to what felt like the weight of 1,000 pounds I'd carried up to that point, the decision to go was a feather. I needed India. I felt this truth in my bones. India might be my exotic healing miracle, my saving grace, the country that delivered me my long-awaited alternate destiny. Germany, health. After all I had been through, I believed I was truly ready. And if you are not neck deep in this chronic illness community, you may not understand to what lengths people go through to find health and healing. And you may go to Mexico, and you may go to Germany, and you may go to India, and you may sell your house to pay for treatment. And one of the things that people say is to me all the time, because I sold my house to go to treatment in 2013, is, well, I would do it if I knew that it was going to work. Finally, a proven and comprehensive Lyme protocol with no antibiotics, no potentially harmful therapies, and no outrageous prices or hidden ongoing costs. Lyme Laser Center uses their unique technologically advanced laser system and their numerous other supportive technologies to help you gain control of your Lyme disease and overcome the often debilitating effects it has on your body and your life. With a completely free in-house consultation with a Lime Laser specialist, it's easy to learn more about the Lime Laser Protocol and how it can help you overcome your Lyme. Start healing your body naturally. You can hear all the past episodes of Lyme Lime Voice at www.limevoice.com. You can also hear new episodes here on the WGLR radio every Tuesday at 11 AM Central Time. Lime Voice is also available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week wherever you get your podcasts from. Give Lime Laser a call today and tell them Lime Voice sent you.

Welcome to life where you never know what's gonna happen.

And I'm like, there's no guarantees. You can't make that decision. No one knows, especially in the medical world. No surgeon, no one is going to offer you any guarantees, but especially in the alternative realms. But if you believe that, oh, well, I'm only going to go if it works, you have to be at a place where you're like, whether it works or not, as far as complete remission, this is the next best step for me.

Yeah.

And then own it. Like, okay. But I loved how you said, like, it's actually when you've been through so much, it's actually not hard to make those major decisions.

No. And you do something like have the sort of history to look back and go, well, I did that and it wasn't what I thought, but I got that out of it and that led me to there. It's another stone on the path and that's all you need. You only need the next stone to send you in the next right direction. And if you go in the wrong direction, and there'll be a stone over there that reroutes you to somewhere else. So India, for me, I went for an experimental medical treatment. I was the first person to go to India for a stem cell transplant. Essentially, my Lyme doctor told me not to go, that he thought it could kill me. And the doctor on the other side said, I think I can help you, but I've never done this before, so let's try. And I was like, of course. Course. Great. And I did it, though, I think, based on— I know, based on a gut instinct that there was something that I needed to be in India for. Was it the stem cells? Who knows? I don't want to do any spoiler alerts for my book, but there was indeed something in India I needed to be there for that there was no other way I could have found or gotten anywhere else. And that was not the stem cells in the And I am so thankful that I did the stem cell treatment for so many reasons. But the actual stem cells became the smallest part of my journey. And how would I know that? I wouldn't, because there are no guarantees. But if you see everything you do as the next stone in your path, that helps take some of the pressure off of it.

One of the things I thought from reading your book was just how sweet and supportive your parents were. Are. Thank you. Probably are for them.

I can lend them out to anybody who— yeah, yeah. And it makes a huge difference. When I said I was going, they were like, we're going too. And my parents had never left the country. I was a pretty avid traveler before I got sick. That was actually a really fun part of— an unexpectedly fun part of the book to write some of my parents' travel adventures.

Oh, that's awesome. I want to also read the quote of where you said, in talking about going to India— I alluded to it earlier— but, "This was life or death, not pray, love. There would be no epic spiritual crisis to endure, no humorous travel tales to tell, and there was zero chance of falling madly in love. I couldn't hear the universe laughing in my face back then, but I am sure now that it was." It had to have been.

It had to have been. We think we know so much, right? Yeah, I think we know so much. We just have no idea. Thank goodness we have no idea. That's what I always think now. During all of the times that I was trying to figure everything out, it kind of is a joke now when I look back at it. I was trying to figure so much out, and I thought that would be the cure, that I would figure it all out, I would do it all, and that would be the cure. And now looking back, it was like, oh my God, Gosh, that didn't go even close to how I thought it should go. And thank goodness, because I'm healed and nothing went right. Nothing went right. Nothing in my entire journey went right. But to your point that you talked about before, there are so many paths to healing.

Yeah.

There are so many. I know people who healed and didn't go to India. I know people who went to India and didn't heal. I know, I mean, there are so many paths to healing. And it's such a joke when I look back and think that I was trying to figure it all out. Out because nothing went according to plan and everything worked out. Everything worked out. Thank God I didn't— thank God I couldn't control things any more than I tried, because I'm afraid that I would have controlled them right into the wrong places. Sometimes we push so hard and we try to gain so much control that we actually may be steering ourselves away from a more natural path to something, who knows what, but we think we know best, Right?

Yeah. Well, and what's— I mean, what has been so profound for me to come to understand is just that every aspect of our life, every lesson learned, every trial, every struggle, every problem leads back to spiritual aspects of life. Yeah. And so when you're in India and things are falling apart and it's not what you thought and it's a weird place to be and all this stuff is unfolding, you still, in a sense, follow your heart and stay. I mean, I tell people all the time, I'm like, whatever you're going to do, go and do it. Stick with it. Like, people say, oh, well, I did 2 enemas and I just don't like it. And I'm like, try for 2 months.

Yeah.

Or at least 6. Like, I say, in general, you got to kind of try for a long time. And people know their bodies and it's so different. But you're implementing physical things that then impact your spiritual side of for you.

Yes.

And if you're not open to that or you don't understand that, it's a hindrance in your understanding and your journey. Like you said there, like, oh, this is not about Eat, Pray, Love, this is about surviving. But it's about more than surviving.

I'm really thankful that I actually couldn't just get on a plane and go home. There was no way I should leave. I think I knew that I couldn't leave. I think it was just I was there and that's what I was doing, and maybe I would live, maybe I wouldn't, and. It wasn't until several weeks in that I had a turn, like that I turned a corner for the better. Like, thank God. If I would have left on like week terrible, I would have missed— I would have missed everything. I always tell people, you never know when you're about— in every stage of my healing, I turned a corner for the better right after I was at one of my worst. Right at the moment I thought I'm never going to get better or I can't or whatever it was the next day, be the next day or the next week or in the very future. And thank goodness I didn't give up.

Yeah, the whole giving up thing is a huge aspect. It's one of the reasons we did the podcast, because so many people— I've been an avid reader and author now for many years, and I got to the point where I could not read. Like, I couldn't hold up the book, I couldn't cognitively follow along with anything, I couldn't remember who the characters were or anyone. And so Yeah, yeah. The aspect of not giving up and deciding, okay, I'm going to do what I can do, or I'm going to decide to not commit suicide, or the very best use of my energy today is to just implement what I know I can do or what I know I can afford today.

You do it every day. And I was like, I don't have a choice. I just keep waking up and then I just do it. And then whatever, I wake up again. Like, like, but I do think that surrender and that just like, I'm just going to to be in this experience or in the insistence on getting better today does make a difference. It gives you a little break just to be like, today might be really freeing. 'Cause it gives you like a little, try to fight it or fix it. Give your brain a little time to fix and heal.

Yeah, it's kind of like a dance. Yeah. Sometimes you lead, sometimes you—

Yeah, for sure. A klutzy one.

Yeah, for the last few minutes, tell us about your new book about overcoming depression. And you had mentioned just it being such a huge need of the moment coming out of COVID and post-COVID, or we're still in it, I'm not even sure. But depression is a huge factor right now globally. So tell us about your new book.

Depression When No One Else Can basically leads people through the parts of depression they can access and heal within themselves. Just like all of my books that focus on self-healing, I always say that self-healing doesn't mean that you have to do it alone, that you shouldn't go to doctors and practitioners. No, you should do all that stuff. But there is a piece of healing that even the best practitioner can't do for you. And it is addressing who you are, you have, what you want, being attentive to your own life. And this is what my book on depression really focuses on, is that there comes a time— pretty much, I think, in everybody's life, even if we don't hit the sort of clinical depression many people struggle with, that we become buried by our lives and the traumas and stresses of our lives, and we lose the connection to who we really are. This certainly happens during illness, which I talk about in the book and I teach about. This can also happen just when life comes too fast and furiously for us to really catch up with. This can happen because there are socioeconomic factors that affect us. It can happen for so many reasons. But no matter what, there's chemical imbalances and such. No matter what, there's always a piece that we can, and that is uncovering who we really are, letting go of traumas, changing the patterns, changing beliefs like I heal and creating new beliefs for ourselves. Like I can heal. And really where my— this is how I saved my life journey. And I take you through my journey. This is really How to Heal Yourself When No One Else Can is a workshop for your journey. Takes you piece by piece through changing some of these patterns, releasing stressful energy from your body, get you back. I came up with the concept for the book before the pandemic. It applies now more than ever though. It was universal timing or something that I— that book came out just in February.

I thought your subtitle was so funny, A Self-Guided Program to Stop Feeling Like Shit.

I had to fight. I had not fight. I had to, yeah, I had to fight for that subtitle a little bit because the publisher kept saying, do we really want to use that kind of like low-level language? And I love my publisher. They're lovely. And they think of everything. And I said, yes, we actually do want to use that language because that's how, that's real people language. That's how we describe it. Many of us don't pay attention to how we feel because think how we feel or how it's affecting us is not bad enough. Maybe we have anxiety or depression or fears, but we're still functioning, or it's not as bad as our cousin or our friend. So what, who are we to— but depression really happens on a spectrum. It can be clinically depressed and there's everything in between. And it's important to, so that we can address it. Nobody deserves to even go through a long period of time where they feel blue or blah, even if they are still functional, even if they're not a friend or their cousin or whoever, And really why I put that language in the book, because I think we all can identify with feeling like shit and there are tools to help lift us out of that.

Well, and one of the reasons I really liked it is because I grew up in a really religious environment and I didn't cuss. It wasn't even part of my vernacular. I didn't need it. Like, it just wasn't part of it. And I went through treatment, 10 years of loss and stuff and the whole restoration process. And I remember coming to the realization that sometimes shit is the right word that should be used. Yes, yes, yes. Because, and by not— yes, and by not using that word, it's actually either diminishing or invalidating what's going on by kind of coding around it. So I'm sure you did have to fight your publisher to put that on the COVID But they were wonderful.

As soon as I explained why, they went, ah, yes, good, I get it, we get it. But you know, that's one thing you always have to do with the publisher is everybody has all these valid points and they're all right, and you decide what's best for the book. But I was so strong about that the title had the word depression in it. I wanted people to understand they don't have to wait until it feels that, that bad that they would consider themselves depressed in order to pick up.

Yeah. Amy, how do people get in touch with you and read more about your books?

Yeah, so they can find me on my website at www.amybsher.com, which is S-C-H-E-R dot com. I'm also on YouTube. I'm on Facebook and Instagram. I feel too old for anything else, but I can be found on all of those social media outlets.

Awesome. Thank you so much for being with us.

Thanks, Sarah.

It was great. I really appreciate your time and your energy and, like you said, your wisdom.

Thank you.

Thanks so much. Hello, friends. Today's podcast is brought to you by these sponsors: Medical Bill Gurus. The experts at Medical Bill Gurus are dedicated to innovative solutions for any medical billing scenario, which we all have in this community. Oh my gosh. With empathy at the forefront of their daily mission, Medical Bill Gurus is dedicated to being in the trenches with patients and raise awareness for the daily challenges facing them. From medical billing errors to raising awareness for their diagnosis, Medical Bill Gurus takes pride in speaking with patients every day and helping them find guidance on how to navigate our broken healthcare system. Their patient advocates are available to help reduce medical bills and assist patients with navigating a dynamic health landscape. I also interviewed Daniel Lynch, a founder of Medical Bill Gurus, in episode 111. In addition to helping you get money back from your insurance company, if you need help deciphering what health insurance provider to choose— and I have done this several times a year for years now, or you are looking for a clinic that is covered by insurance, they are a great resource for all things related to medical bills, figuring out which insurance provider you could or should have. They're an awesome resource. Again, I use them multiple times a year. Give them a call. Disease is contrary to life. Therefore, wherever disease exists, life must also fight to exist.

Good job fighting, Lyme fighters! Keep it up. We'll see you next time. LymeVoice contains general information about medical conditions and treatments. The information is not advice and should not be treated as such. Okay, Lincoln? Okay. The medical information on LymeVoice is provided as is without any representations, warranties, expressed or implied. Okay? Okay. LymeVoice makes no representations or warranties warranties in relation to the medical information on this podcast. You must not rely on the information on this podcast as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you have any specific questions about your medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. And for you, you consult your parents, okay? Okay. If you think you may be suffering from, from any medical condition, you should seek immediate medical attention. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment because of information on this podcast.

Got it, Lincoln?

Got it.