It has been almost a year since my last newsletter. In September 2025, I experienced some health challenges that resulted in an 8 day hospital stay. It has taken me many months to fully regain my energy and drive. At the time, I was overwhelmed by a stressful deadline but I had convinced myself that I could keep pushing myself and the impacts of the stress would just magically disappear once the deadline was met. Well, I was wrong. The deadline was met and two weeks later I was in the hospital because my body had given out. I have Lupus, an autoimmune disease and, for the first time in 21 years, I experienced a lupus flare that impacted my health and wellbeing.
In hindsight, the deadline in and of itself should not have resulted in such a dramatic stress response. I had three long months to stress about this deadline and that kept my body in a state of chronic stress.
We are built to adapt to change; it’s only when we don’t have the energy or resources to adapt to that change that we experience stress. If we are unable to adapt, we resist change and this resistance has both physical and emotional implications. Physically we can hold resistance with our bodies; it shows up in the way we hold ourselves, the tension within our muscles, the way we breathe and the energy that we carry. Emotionally there is a tightness in our hearts, an unwillingness to feel anything new or anything at all.
Our bodies are sending us messages all the time but we usually don’t pay attention until the signal becomes one of pain or disease. The body and mind are not separate, but far too often we become preoccupied by our external condition and neglect to pay attention to what is going on inside us. My body was “stuck” in a defensive state as a result of prolonged stress. Communication between the brain and the body was hindered and the body was unable to effectively transition from stressful sympathetic activity to a more relaxed parasympathetic activity.
I am now in a much better place, thanks to the help of my rheumatologist and Network chiropractors. I am paying more attention to my body’s needs and have reconnected to myself more fully.
“Change challenges your willingness to brave the discomfort of the unfamiliar in exchange for experiencing the fullness of life.” – Dr Julie Doobay
Copyright Dr. Julie Doobay 2026
