Sometimes you can try REALLY HARD to make changes to your IBS, and still feel like there’s no progress ahead. You summon up your courage, take two steps forward – and slide three steps back.
If this happens to you, take heart. You may be closer than you think!
Two steps forward, three steps back
There is an interesting phenomena that I have observed that crops up EVERY TIME you think you are finally getting somewhere.
You make some sort of change, and are starting to take a few steps forward with your IBS.
You even start to feel HOPEFUL… And then, suddenly, everything seems to slide.
It feels like you are failing with your IBS – or doing something wrong.
At that point your brain registers the message that “you’ll never manage it” or “it’s impossible to change”. And you feel that painful twinge of despair.
And if this has been a nagging doubt that you’ve had all along, it can stop you in your tracks. You stop, give up and wonder “What was I thinking?”.
I did this SO many times (and had so many IBS symptoms).
UNTIL I learned what to do instead.
IBS: The sign that there’s progress ahead
If you want a different result, you have to try something new.
But if the pattern of two steps forward, three steps back is familiar to you, this is what you need to realise: It’s a common pattern of change. It means that there’s progress ahead!
It’s a pattern that few people know about. And it can trips you up!
Imagine you have decided to release your IBS, you’re making headway – and then you get a flare-up.
That flare-up is like an old painful yet familiar friend, tapping you on the back, saying “Are you sure?”
Expect it.
Wait for it.
Observe it.
Then powerfully reply “Yes, I’m damned well sure! I’ve DECIDED!”
And keep going.
What can unfold if you stay your course
What often happens – if you can stand walking through the doubt that “It will NEVER get better” – is that those 3 steps back can operate like an archer’s bow.
Like an arrow being drawn backwards BEFORE suddenly the arrow releases and is thrown forward, you actually start experiencing a LEAP FORWARD of positive change.
So keep going. Keep trying. Don’t stay stuck.
And if you’re really sick of IBS, why not work with me and reverse your symptoms?
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