Ali was more than ready for a change when she first met with Eden Energy Medicine Certified Practitioner Angie Sanders. At that point, Ali had been working through the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome between 13 and 14 years. Ali and Angie both wrote to us, sharing Ali’s story of first finding hope there was something she could do to help release the grip of her symptoms, then discovering meaningful help through both Energy Medicine sessions with Angie and following through with her own self-care practices at home.

From Ali:

By the Autumn of 2016, I’d had chronic fatigue syndrome for about thirteen to fourteen years. I had tried various alternative therapies through the years without much success. At home, I used pacing, rest, and meditation to try to control the symptoms. With these exercises, I was able to work in a preschool for twenty hours a week and do some exercise (having built it up very slowly), but there were many things I couldn’t do, and in many ways my life was restricted. Then, in October 2016, I had a major, major relapse where suddenly all I could do was lie in bed. After eight weeks, I managed to get back to working twice a week for three hours a week, but needed to lie down for two hours afterward. Aside from work, I could take small walks, but this was pretty much all I could do. I felt my life was now severely limited and, after a few years of not researching into what could help chronic fatigue, I started considering it again.

I’d known about Energy Medicine for nearly as long as I’d had chronic fatigue, but hadn’t pursued it due to a combination of the Daily Energy Routine not seeming to help, a lack of U.K. Eden Energy Medicine practitioners at that time, and no definite evidence on the internet. In December 2016, I came across Prune Harris’ blog "ME/CFS: Steps to Full Recovery" and decided it was worth a try. The problem was, I could not travel the distance to see Prune because my chronic fatigue was so bad. Luckily, I was put in touch with Angie Sanders who was more local and just finishing her Eden Energy Medicine Certification training at the time.

I had been doing Prune Harris’ suggestions for the eight weeks before I had my first session with Angie: the Daily Energy Routine, the Homolateral Repatterning exercise, Neurolymphatic massage, and balancing Triple Warmer and Spleen meridians. In that time, I had not seen noticeable improvement.

When I first met with Angie, I explained to her how I found many things very stressful: going to new places and talking to people were both high on the list. Consequently, in the first session, Angie took things very gently for me and kept checking in with how I was doing, dedicated to making the session as comfortable for me as possible. Angie asked me to add the Crossover Shoulder Pull exercise to my routine, which I started to do several times a day – and it felt really good to do too! I went away with some Energy Medicine exercises to do at home and a lot of confidence in Angie.

Although I didn’t feel physically any better after that first session, my emotions became much more stable, and this was a real blessing as the uncertainty of what was going to happen to me had meant that my emotions had been all over the place. Angie worked on balancing my systems gradually over four sessions, and although I couldn’t feel any improvement at first, I was encouraged by the weak energies that Angie had previously tested were now testing strong.

By now, I knew in Energy Medicine terms, chronic fatigue is caused by the fight/flight/freeze response being engaged on “high-alert” all the time, and I’d found other CFS sites supporting this concept. It was then I added a visualization to my routine intended to calm the fight/flight/freeze response.

After my fourth session with Angie (two months into treatment), I was planning to go on a very relaxing holiday. On the day we were to leave for the holiday, with the pressure of cleaning and packing up by a certain time – even though my partner was doing most of it – I felt my body get very tense as the stress hormones began to course through my body. I sat down, did the visualization, and the tension lifted. I realized my body felt different from how it had felt the last six months. It felt like the Energy Medicine had begun to work its magic. Three or four days later, I was convinced; not only was the relapse over, it felt like my chronic fatigue was no longer there!

I’ve had three or four further sessions with Angie to help with my side symptoms of light-headedness and queasiness. These are gradually decreasing as I continue to use Energy Medicine techniques and understand more about what affects my body. I’m now back to working my full hours and enjoying doing things I haven’t done for years. I cannot describe how wonderful it is to get my life back!

I am incredibly grateful to Donna and everybody who has trained as a practitioner, especially Angie, for her commitment to helping people get better. It makes so much difference to be living a healthy life. I just wish more people with chronic fatigue syndrome knew how Energy Medicine can help, and therefore I asked to share this story. If you’d like to read more, I’ve written a blog about my recovery “I would have paid ten thousand pounds.”

From Angie:

When I first met Ali, it was good for me that she already understood Eden Energy Medicine, as she had read Donna Eden’s books and been following Prune’s blog about CFS. I was aware I needed to go slowly and not do too much in the first couple of sessions, as someone with CFS can be overwhelmed very quickly by too much intervention. We went through the Daily Energy Routine first, which Ali had already been using. She had added a few extra techniques that I suggested she drop for the short term. I did suggest however that she add the Crossover Shoulder Pull exercise which she liked. I also suggested that her partner could do it on her back! Although several energetic imbalances showed up during the following sessions, they mostly corrected after the Quickie Energy Balancer. Not surprisingly, Spleen meridian tested weak, but it quickly balanced and stayed balanced. I added a few techniques over the months, such as Cover the Eyes, Spooning the Feet, Triple Warmer Reactivity Pose, and later Melanie Smith’s Circulation-Sex Reactivity Pose – as I thought it would be better to creep up on Triple Warmer meridian through the “back door” rather than constantly trying to ask it to calm down!

What was noticeable during the last sessions was that the 5 Rhythms were coming to the forefront, particularly Wood (Liver meridian) in the Advanced Star Protocol. As Ali’s relapse with CFS stemmed from stress, this was not a surprise, and I have no doubt that working on these emotions by holding the Wood Neurovascular points and adding the Blow Out exercise have been of great help.

Angie Sanders is an Eden Energy Medicine Certified Practitioner and practices in Wiltshire, England. You can contact her at [email protected].