It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when Ryan Strong’s symptoms began. Probably during the few weeks, he spent at a spiritual retreat on the East Coast –– a ritual he does every year. This time was different. When he returned to his Sacramento home, his joints, and muscles were unusually sore. His knees, hands, jaw, and joints were inflamed, and his surroundings seemed unusually gray and cloudy. Something was off.
One morning, four or five months later, he opened the refrigerator searching for the carton of milk he had recently bought. Bewildered, he asked his stepdaughter where it was. She reached past him and pulled it out; all along, it had been directly in front of him. “Right here”, she giggled sheepishly. This was the moment he realized something was wrong. He decided to get help.
Strong went to his doctor and took a series of tests. They all came back negative. Scans showed severe arthritis in his joints. His doctor said he would no longer be able to do his yearly hikes. For Strong, nature is commitment and intimacy. He had to find another solution. Strong sought second and third opinions and he got a diagnosis: Lyme disease.
Yet when that doctor’s remedies failed, Strong decided to heal himself. He spent the next few months creating an Ayurvedic protocol that combined herbal medications, meditations, visualizations, and lifestyle and dietary changes.
His first decision was to no longer identify with being sick. “When you’re dealing with a chronic illness that is hard to pin down,” Strong observed, “it can be difficult for loved ones too. They love and want to support you, but at some point, they experience compassion fatigue. They start to look at you differently. They start to think you’re crazy.” In the Ayurvedic tradition, the mind is extraordinarily powerful––it plays a central role in our well-being. Many believe that when we stop speaking about the symptoms, we stop giving life to them.
He extended his meditation practice by incorporating visualization exercises. He began to envision what it looked and felt like to be healthy, vibrant, and symptom-free.
Then he became firm in making the dietary and lifestyle changes necessary to address Lyme disease at its root. These types of changes are never easy, but Strong was determined.
It took Ryan Strong two years to become symptom-free, and 2.5 years for the joint pain to subside. He has been free of symptoms since 2013.