After experiencing acute or prolonged suffering, particularly in conditions like PTSD, the brain and body become locked in survival states. What neuroscience describes as dysregulation, Scripture describes as the condition of a wounded or hardened heart. But the Gospel does not simply invite us to cope with our wounds. It offers us freedom from all the parts of our hearts that are hurting, through promising us a new one.

When I tell people that I no longer battle with the endometriosis that shaped the first 15 years of my young adult life. And that while I spent years trialling every current treatment on offer to ‘manage’ the ‘incurable disease’, including surgery, it was extended water fasting that healed me. It often begs the question:

"How could fasting heal endometriosis?"

Short answer; Yes. And I am living proof.

Fasting changes the internal environment of the body in ways that support healing, reduce chronic inflammation, kill bacteria through autophagy, and improve many of the physiological processes that become disrupted during long-term illness.

Grief is not a prison, nor a chain,

it is a passage, a rite, a necessary flame,

and when it burns through, the heart remains-

not as ashes, but richer to have lived in its name.