As many of you know, after almost three fastidious years of lockdown, masking and social distancing care, I came down with a severe case of COVID in December 2022. In the first quarter of this year, I also started to show symptoms of long Covid. Most significantly it affected my memory, sometimes in hilarious and somewhat tragic ways.
For example– five minutes after I wrote a specific date on the document I could not remember what date I had written or if I had given it out to my students.
I found that I could still teach exceptionally well, but COVID was affecting my organizational brain – a brain that was typically excellent at logistics.
Long COVID also created fatigue – not the devastating fatigue that I meet in clients – and I know has affected those around me. I know that I have been lucky. But fatigue nonetheless – a kind of dulling of my capacity. It is fatigue that also fed into by the drain and isolation of being a COVID refugee.
So, I took some radical steps for a workhorse like me and initiated a 6-month break from crafting and teaching programs, work that is a great love of my life.
I thought I would write and report on how this recovery is going, and share some images of my life below.
I reduced my workload to four days a week from the six that I had been regularly working. I put my auto-responder on and restricted my availability to email.
I disappeared into the garden and continued to turn this barren half-acre of earth into something my mother calls, “a plant jungle”.
So, for most of my days off from my working life, this is where I have been, building the microbiome of the soil, growing vegetables, planting flower beds of hardy yet sunny plants because I live in one of the driest places on the planet.
I have planted beds of Australian natives: Grevillias, Kangaroo Paws, and Silver Princess, while bringing back to life 40-year-old roses to their former glory. I have to admit, they do look stunning. I have also shared some photographs below of my garden adventures.
It was also obvious to me that I needed to nourish my creative spirit in different ways if I was not going to be writing so much.
🪴So I enrolled in pottery classes. I have built dinnerware and begun to learn the scary art of the pottery wheel. Somedays I feel I don’t know what I am doing, and other days I surprise myself that what emerges from the wheel is a bowl or a mug and not a wet, slimy blob. The clay has become my teacher.
I have also had infinite snuggles with my fluff-ball-puppy, walked in nature when I have had the energy, and I am about to return to swimming in the currently freezing local outdoor pool.
All of these things have helped with my recovery from COVID. I do want to add some other things because I know people will read who are also on this journey.
Here are some other things that have helped me:
🌿 The biggest most important things that I have used to address long Covid were very strong liquid herbs created by my naturopath. These included large and strong doses of Oregon Grape Root, Golden Seal, Gentian and other immune-boosting antiviral and antimicrobial herbs. As soon as I started to take these herbs, there was an immediate improvement in my brain function. It was as if someone had turned the light on again. I remain on them.
💊 I also took a supplement called Panaxia Aviix Long which had a blend of amino acids and Traditional Chinese Medical herbs. These also helped immensely.
For the recovery of my energy, I took a very high dose of Ubiquinol, and something to support ATP fuel (which is the fuel generation capacity of cells and the mitochondria within them).
🛏 I also made sure that I slept. I probably could do so with even more sleep.
Significantly I reduced the complexity of my life, which feels so good, but I wonder if I ever want to return to complexity as it was in the past. I asked for help when I needed it from family and from friends. I accepted when I was not strong enough to dig that hole in the garden, and I asked someone else to do it for me.
👼🏻 Of course, I also worked with my Spirit Team on this experience, especially the energetic component of COVID along with the physical, and they have been brilliant, using all the tools of Spirit Magic.
🙏🏻 Finally, I surrendered even more deeply into the emptiness of awakening. I allowed deep quietness and I listened intently to the spiritual tasks required of me during this recovery. This was not always easy. The spiritual demands were intense yet deeply rewarding. Each time I met the demand there was a significant improvement in my health at all levels. Letting go allowed my well-being to come through the cracks that my surrender created.
🍃 I continued my pre-existing plant-based diet primarily being Vegan with a little wild-caught fish for its oils and protein.
This combination has woven a successful web of healing around and through me. I no longer feel exhausted, tired after expected effort but not physically devastated or finding it hard to get out of bed. The deep reservoirs that COVID drained are being replenished and my spirit is beginning to feel delightfully nourished.
If long COVID has affected you, you are in my heart. Long COVID ranges from mild to devastating.
May this sharing be an inspiration to you on your own healing journey.
If you have struggled, healed, or are still wrestling with long COVID or chronic illness please share your experiences and any helpful tips below. We heal together.
10 Comments
First, I’m so sorry you experienced this unfortunate virus with all it’s draining effects. Thank you for the wonderful healing flower images and suggestions for helpful herbs. I’m very happy you wove the most beautiful pathway forward. I shall share with friends who need this now.
Much Love,
Joanne
Thank you dearest soul sister Joanne for your heartfelt words and lovingness as ever. I love connecting always and am weaving your words and love deep into my heart.
Treasuring you!
Big love,
Myree x
Hi Myree,
Thank you so much for sharing about your journey with long Covid. I am so happy to hear that you are feeling more like you.
Thank you for your loving words Deborah and I reached out to you,
Big love,
Myree x
Oh my dear Myree. I am heartbroken to hear you have been unwell with long Covid. My husband has been very sick with long Covid for nearly 2 years and has been unable to work. It is a difficult time for all. I wish you well always and may you continue to recover . Love and big hugs. Xxx
Dearest Lina,
Ohhh I too am heartbroken to hear this news of your beloved, that is devastating. I am so sorry he has both had Long Covid and that it has been two years of affliction. It is really very tough and I think it is only if you have had it or been a carer that you really see and understand the impact. I am holding you both in my heart!
I am working with two amazing Naturopaths, one in US where I loved in Oregon who is an expert in Long Covid, and one in Melbourne, so happy to share details with you. Just email me.
Big love,
Myree x
Lovely photos and sense of calm from your journey. Lovely and great share
Thank you dearest Katherine, sending you brightness, floral beauty and the soft fragrance of early summer to you and Mr Hobo!
Big love!
Myree x
Dear Myree,
Thank you for sharing your journey. I hope you continue in your recovery. I have had long Covid for nearly four years now. The sentence that stood out for me was when you wrote, ‘ I wonder if I ever want to return to complexity as it was in the past.’ I too realised that I didn’t want to go back to level of intense work and approach to life that I had lived before. I needed a new ‘normal.’ It’s really important to embrace what your body needs right ‘now’ and to accept where you are in your recovery. I have needed tremendous patience and had to let go of my career and most of my creative and cognitive activities. Letting go is a key word. I’m still untangling the gripped, conditioned personality that was the display of me. I understand that my brain (the fright/freeze) system has locked me down and doesn’t want me to go back to the crazy way I lived my life before. I’m having to show my brain that it can trust me again by being calmer and more compassionate towards myself. I’ve been pretty much house bound and only able to carry out very basic functional and house hold tasks with lots of rests. My social life is pretty non existent. But I am slowly healing and I don’t regret having long Covid now. It was two years ago during meditation that I had my awakening and I am continuing to develop and grow both inside and outside of my meditation practice. I have learnt that I and everyone have infinite stillness, wisdom and love inside of us which has been really comforting. For me recovery has been accepting me as I am and learning to remove the conditioning (much helped by my awakening) which has caused and continues to cause me great exhaustion. I am feeling more hopeful and I know I need to follow my body, be kind to myself and others and to be patient. Much love to you and all
Dearest Kathryn,
Thank you so much for sharing this! It’s beautifully articulate and full of love and wisdom. It’s so heartwarming to me when people share like this on the public forum because so many in the community can see the varied experiences of others without having to be in a class. It’s so precious how we connect out here! I feel grateful that you took the time to give such an authentic and involved response. I feel like you let me witness your journey in how it mirrors parts of my own.
Big love,
Myree