Nothing catapults us into living our life purpose more than being given how much time we have left to live. Doctors every day are diagnosing diseases and declaring projections of how long people can expect to live.
Several of my family members have been given life expectancy time frames due to a terminal genetic, familial version of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. My father lived far less than his expectancy, my sister Annie passed almost exactly within her expected range, and my brother, Kevin, far outlived his maximum projected timeframe of 30 months and lived on for almost seven more years.
Despite the medical community offering no cure for ALS, Kevin vowed to ignore this end date and took on a whole new life purpose. He said, “Maybe I will be the guy who beats this disease?” He went into research mode on the internet, called doctors offering any kind of hope and spoke to various patients who were progressing slowly to find out their protocols, which he found consisted of primarily holistic and alternative therapies. Kevin shared his inspiration of hope in videos and in the book he co-authored, A Seekers Harvest…A Life and Legacy with ALS. As his need for material things subsided, his longing for love and life purpose increased.
After my second sister was diagnosed with ALS and dementia, and my third little sister was told she also carried the genetic ALS C9 gene, stuff suddenly got serious. We started connecting the dots with extended family members and realized the full genetic link to this disease within our family tree. What are the chances of me having the ALS gene, or developing into the symptoms of nerve loss and total body malfunctioning? I have followed ALS forums on Facebook and read about entire family systems falling to this 10 percent familial version of ALS!
Despite my showing little sign of nerve or muscle weakness, I must say the fear would creep up on me when feeling my feet twitching, legs cramping, or numbness in my extremities. It always brought me back to Kevin’s wisdom when he had me watch YouTube videos by Bruce Lipton on Epigenetics and the “Biology of Belief.” I found myself repeating affirmations: “I am safe. I am strong and full of vitality. I am healthy and all is well.”
From Kevin’s example, I became an active versus passive participant in my life choices. I choose to take a proactive, holistic approach to my health to prevent my genetic predisposition from expressing. As for my diet, I started modeling the “Intuitarian Diet,” paying attention to my body signals and cravings, and assessing how food affects the state of my body, mind and spirit. I regularly detoxify and take natural supplements to boost my immune system. I make time to spend in nature and prioritize my life to fill it with family, friends and activities that bring me joy. I also make time to just be with myself in quiet meditation and reflection time.
I am often reminded of Albert Einstein’s quote: “The most important question you can ever ask is if the world is a friendly place.” We are bridging science and spirituality, and learning about the effects of childhood trauma, perceptions and ancestral patterns on our DNA. We are literally creating our reality by our beliefs.
It is not the destiny of humanity to be plagued with uncurable diseases, pain and suffering. It’s easy to feel victimized, but if I go within (instead of looking to the illusions of the outside world), I feel the Universe is always conspiring with my body, mind and spirit to provide optimal health, vitality, abundance and peace.
Being part of my particular family and transforming the cycle of disease within every cell is part of my life purpose. Whatever becomes my destiny is all part of my fate and free will, and so far I am loving the opportunity to learn, experience and share. Witnessing death and experiencing its grief in my life and in the world provides the greatest catalyst to my life purpose, which is to open my heart to the greatest expression of giving and receiving love.
