Focus:
Moving from illness as an identity to living as a person who has no illness.
Repetition:
My cells are healthy. My body is well. I am free. I am love.
You Have Been Doing the Work
You have been doing the work. Week after week you have changed what you eat, how you live, and how you move through the world. Your cells are regenerating, your microbiome is being restored, and your body is healing, whether you can fully feel it yet or not.
Now we arrive at one of the most important and most overlooked parts of this whole protocol: who you believe yourself to be. Chronic illness has a way of becoming more than a condition. It becomes a story, a lens we look through at every symptom, every conversation, and every morning. Over time, without meaning to, we start to build our identity around what is wrong with us.
We say “I have anxiety” instead of “I am experiencing anxiety.” We say “I am sick” instead of “my body is healing.” These are not small differences. Language shapes our neurology, and identity shapes our biology, and this week we begin to shift both.
Say your repetition out loud. Say it when you wake up, before meals, and whenever the old story tries to pull you back. Say it until it is simply true, because on a cellular level, it already is.
Why We Let Go of the Identity of Illness
The nervous system is a prediction machine. It does not just respond to what is happening; it is always predicting what it expects to happen, based on the patterns it has been trained on. When we have been sick for years, the nervous system learns to expect sickness. It builds pathways around pain, fatigue, and limitation, and once they are built, they run on their own, like grooves worn into a hillside by years of rain. This is not weakness or failure; it is simply how the brain works. And the wonderful news is that the brain is neuroplastic, so it can build new pathways and be retrained.
Healing the identity of illness is not about denying what you have been through or pretending your symptoms are not there. It is about refusing to let your past decide your future, and starting to practise, in your body and your mind, being the person you are becoming.
Research in psychoneuroimmunology has shown that what we believe about our health affects our immune function, our inflammation, and our hormones. The placebo effect is not imaginary; it is a real, measurable, biological event. So is its opposite, the nocebo effect, where believing we are sick, or will stay sick, holds healing back. Identity is not separate from physiology. It is physiology.
Bilateral Tapping
One of the most powerful tools for shifting identity is bilateral tapping. It is a somatic technique that works on the same principle as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), one of the best studied trauma therapies there is. Bilateral stimulation, alternating between the left and right sides of the brain, has been shown to soften the emotional charge of stored beliefs, help the brain integrate, and help new, healthier thought patterns settle in.
The way we do it in ARP is simple and needs nothing but your own hands. The right side of the brain tends to hold emotional memory, felt sense, and our life story, including the story of our illness. The left side is more connected to language, logic, and building a new story. When we tap back and forth while speaking, we make room for the old identity to loosen and for the new one to take hold.
Please see our interview with Melanie Cross on YouTube to understand how tapping really works!
How to Practise Bilateral Tapping
- Find a quiet place where you can sit or stand comfortably, and take three slow, deep breaths into your belly to settle your nervous system.
- Place your fingertips at your LEFT temple and begin tapping gently and rhythmically, slowly moving your fingers from the temple, along the side of your head, to the back of your skull.
- While tapping the left side, say out loud the thing that is NOT YET TRUE but that you are choosing to claim: “I am completely healed and well.” Say it as a declaration, not a wish. Your nervous system does not need you to believe it yet; you are planting a seed.
- Now move your fingertips to your RIGHT temple and tap gently, moving slowly from the temple to the back of your skull again.
- While tapping the right side, say out loud something that IS ALREADY TRUE, something your nervous system accepts without any resistance: “My name is (your name).” Say it with the same weight and conviction, and your brain registers it as solid, known, and real.
- Repeat the cycle, the left side with your new truth and the right side with your established truth, for 3 to 5 minutes, once a day or as often as feels supportive.
- Close by placing both hands over your heart, taking a breath, and saying your repetition three times: “My cells are healthy. My body is well. I am free. I am love.”
This is not magic; it is neuroscience applied with love. You are using the way your body is already built, with two sides of the brain, to make space for a new identity to take root. Do not be discouraged if it feels strange or even emotional at first. Strange is the feeling of a new groove being carved, and emotion is the old story releasing. Both are signs it is working.
Feeding Your Birth Microbes: The Foundation Foods
The microbes that first colonised your gut at birth, and the foundational strains that were meant to be passed to you through the birth canal, breast milk, and skin to skin contact, are the builders of your immune system, your nervous system, and your hormones. Many of us lost them early, through C-section birth, formula, early antibiotics, or the modern diet. Part of ARP is actively restoring these foundational organisms and feeding them the foods that sustain them.
Below is a guide to the foods that feed each of your birth and foundational microbes. Feed them well, and they will make the biochemistry of health, immunity, joy, and calm for you. I have left out potatoes and rice on purpose, because their heavy starch load feeds pathogens first and unsettles the terrain we are working so hard to restore.
| Birth or Foundational Microbe | What It Makes for You | Foods That Feed and Restore It |
|---|---|---|
| Lactobacillus reuteri (birth canal, breast milk, skin) | Oxytocin signalling, reuterin, vitamin D absorption, a strong gut lining, and the biochemistry of social bonding | Raw fermented dairy (24 hour fermented raw milk kefir, raw yoghurt, raw cultured butter and cream); raw sauerkraut, fermented beets (no vinegar), and fermented green beans; grass-fed liver, heart, and kidney (rich in glycerol, which L. reuteri ferments into reuterin); bone marrow and long-simmered meat stock; local, unheated raw honey; raw bovine colostrum (carries L. reuteri directly); traditionally prepared fermented cod liver oil |
| Lactobacillus crispatus (vaginal microbiome, birth canal) | Lactic acid for vaginal protection, keeping Candida and BV in check, support for clearing HPV, and cervical and vaginal immune defence | Raw kefir (A2/A2 if possible), raw cultured cream, and clabbered raw milk; pasture-raised egg yolks, raw or very lightly cooked; lacto-fermented sauerkraut, cucumbers, and asparagus; tallow, lard, and duck fat; raw colostrum; grass-fed liver (its B2 is critical for lactic acid bacteria) |
| Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis (infant colon, seeded by breast milk) | IgA, sealing the gut barrier, preventing allergies, calming cytokines, fuel for the colon cells, and teaching immune tolerance | Raw breast milk or raw colostrum (the only foods with intact HMOs, which B. infantis feeds on exclusively); raw bovine colostrum (the closest bovine match to HMOs); raw A2/A2 kefir fermented 24 hours or more; sauerkraut brine and kvass (beet, or bread kvass from ancient grain); raw honey; meat stock with cartilage (glycine and gelatin support the mucosal layer); slow-cooked organ meat stews |
| Bifidobacterium bifidum (mucus layer, infant and adult) | A strong mucin layer, SIgA immune defence, preventing food sensitivities, protection from Clostridium, and calming allergies | Raw kefir, raw yoghurt with live cultures, and raw aged cheese; fermented sauerkraut, carrots, and cabbage; raw honey and local bee pollen; low sugar pectin foods like slow-cooked quince, a small amount of tart green apple in season, and slow-cooked pumpkin or squash in season; liver and tripe (tripe is the stomach’s own mucosa and feeds mucus-layer bacteria directly); meat stock with cartilage; fermented goat milk products (A2 casein, easier to tolerate) |
| Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (small and large intestine) | Preventing diarrhoea, crowding out pathogens, supporting tight junctions, keeping Candida in check, and protection during and after antibiotics | Raw kefir (especially long fermented, 48 hours), cultured raw butter, and raw viili; sauerkraut, fermented dilly beans, and lacto-fermented garlic scapes; traditionally fermented wild sardines, gravlax, and fermented herring; raw colostrum; wild-caught salmon, mackerel, sardines, and herring (their omega-3s create the gut environment L. rhamnosus loves); raw honey; small amounts of inulin foods like chicory root tea, raw Jerusalem artichoke (small and well chewed), and raw dandelion greens |
| Akkermansia muciniphila (mucus layer of the colon) | Repairing the gut barrier, GLP-1, metabolic balance, insulin sensitivity, healthy weight, calming inflammation, and keeping tight junctions strong | Whole pomegranate with seeds (its ellagitannins become urolithin A, which feeds Akkermansia directly) and unsweetened, traditionally made pomegranate molasses; raw or lightly cooked unsweetened cranberries; a small amount of wild blueberries in season; chicory root as a coffee alternative; raw dandelion greens and root; wild-caught fatty fish; an animal fat rich diet overall (Akkermansia thrives in a low sugar, high fat terrain); time-restricted eating (Akkermansia grows well while fasting); grass-fed beef tallow regularly |
| Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (colon, the most abundant calming bacterium) | Butyrate to fuel the colon cells, protection against IBD and Crohn’s, preventing depression, and lowering inflammation throughout the body | Inulin foods like chicory root, raw Jerusalem artichoke (small and well chewed), raw dandelion greens, raw garlic, the white part of raw leeks, and raw asparagus; the fibre in sauerkraut and kvass; meat stock with marrow; pectin from slow-cooked fruit like unsweetened quince paste and sour cherries in season; grass-fed liver and kidneys; raw honey; wild fatty fish (F. prausnitzii rises and falls with omega-3 status) |
| Roseburia intestinalis (colon, butyrate maker) | Butyrate for the colon cells, healthy gut movement, protection for the colon, support for tight junctions, and calming inflammation | Sprouted and fermented ancient grains, like einkorn or emmer in a 72 hour sourdough only and only if tolerated, and a small amount of sprouted oat bran; the white part of raw or lightly wilted leeks and spring onions; one clove of finely minced raw garlic daily, added after cooking; thin raw or lightly blanched asparagus; very small amounts of Jerusalem artichoke (start slowly, as it makes gas while this microbe is restored); legumes cooked from scratch if your terrain allows (soaked 24 hours and slow-cooked, never canned), like Puy lentils or black beans; lacto-fermented vegetables; grass-fed animal fat |
| Streptococcus salivarius K12 (mouth, seeded at birth) | BLIS K12, which targets strep and ear and throat pathogens, plus immune training, fresh breath, and protection from cavities | Raw milk and raw fermented dairy (S. salivarius lives in raw milk and is killed by pasteurisation); local raw honey eaten slowly and held in the mouth; raw colostrum; warm, mineral-rich meat stock, sipped; soft-cooked egg yolks; avoid chlorinated tap water, fluoride toothpaste, alcohol-based mouthwash, and refined sugar, which all devastate the mouth’s microbiome |
All fermented dairy should be raw, from grass-fed animals, and A2/A2 when possible. All fermented vegetables should be lacto-fermented with salt only, with no vinegar and no heat. Introduce new foods slowly, especially the inulin foods, to avoid temporary bloating as your terrain shifts. That bloating is a Herxheimer-like response, and it is a sign of restoration, not harm.
Your Practice This Week
Say your repetition out loud every morning before your feet touch the floor: “My cells are healthy. My body is well. I am free. I am love.”
Practise bilateral tapping once a day for 3 to 5 minutes, with “I am completely healed and well” on the left side and “My name is (your name)” on the right side.
Choose three foods from the birth microbe table that you are not eating yet, and add one new food every two days.
Notice, without judgment, every time you describe yourself through the lens of illness, and gently replace it: not “I have anxiety” but “I am healing,” and not “I am sick” but “my body is wise and it is restoring itself.”
Spend at least 20 minutes outside with your bare feet on the earth or grass, saying your repetition, and let the earth hear it too.
My cells are healthy. My body is well. I am free. I am love.