The Incredible Journey of How Alison Petty Discovered The Lightning Process and Went From Bed Bound To Mountain Biking & Rock Climbing
Overcoming Fibromyalgia
Alison Petty’s journey is truly inspirational.
Find out how, after 24 years of being predominantly bed bound she overcame her diagnosis of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia and is now living the active lifestyle she always wanted.
A Little Bit About Alison Petty
Alison Petty’s journey to coaching began in 1992 when her Doctor gave her a diagnosis of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia. She then went on to spend the following twenty-four years predominantly bed-bound, often in a wheelchair and living daily with chronic bone, muscle and joint pain, extreme fatigue and cognitive processing struggles.
Her transformational journey, though, began in 2016 when she attended an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) based training program. From the very first day of attending that course she never sat in a wheelchair again and has spent the years since rock climbing, mountain biking, working and fully living her life!
And now due to her extraordinary journey back to full health, she is using her life experience and expertise as an Advanced Practitioner of NLP, Coaching and Hypnotherapy to help others remove the mind blocks that are holding them back and stopping them from full living their lives so that they can move forward with passion and purpose!
The article below is a summary of the interview.
Please watch the full interview for all of the valuable information that Alison shares.
When Everything Changed
As a teenager Alison was healthy, fit and active and was on a path to becoming an outdoor pursuits instructor. She experienced a particularly bad flu virus when she was 16 coming on 17. She also tried cannabis for the first time whilst in her second A Level year and had a nasty reaction afterwards which compounded things.
This was when everything began to fall apart. It was like her body just broke down over the following few months.
One evening as she went to bed as a normal and healthy teenager she experienced a rushing sensation which quickly developed into an intense chronic muscle, bone and joint pain throughout her body that stayed with her for the following twenty four years.
Alison saw different Doctors and hospital specialists in the hope of finding an answer to what was going on with her body but was often told ‘you’re just depressed’. Both Alison and her family knew though that this was not the correct diagnosis. Eventually she received the diagnosis of M.E./CFS and Fibromyalgia. This was 26 years ago when very little was known about the condition. At that time, you underwent lots of tests and if they all came back negative, M.E./CFS and Fibromyalgia was the given diagnosis..
Trying Lots of Different Treatments
Throughout those twenty four years she tried many different medications that often left her with nasty with side effects or waning benefits over time. She also tried many alternative therapies that had helped friends and other people with the same condition such as Nutrition, Chinese Medicine, Reflexology but she never found any kind of treatment that had any long lasting positive effect.
As the years passed her by it felt more and more like it was truly game over. Daring to dream of a healthy life was beyond painful for her but she never gave up hoping and searching for an answer!
The Tipping Point
During a major four year relapse that started in 2012 where she was predominantly bed bound in a dark room living with daily chronic pain.
Alison distinctly remembers a day where she heard a loud voice in her head that said “I am done…” followed by “What haven’t I tried?”
Her friend Phil came to mind so she got in touch with him remembering that he had recovered from M.E./CFS after attending an NLP course called The Lightning Process. Phil’s partner had also attended the course with the same diagnosis and had also made the transition from life in a wheelchair to full recovery.
Continuous Improvement
Alison worked on the NLP techniques and processes that you learn during the course and put them into effect on a daily basis – the result being the healthy and full life that she now happily and gratefully lives.
The frequency of how much you need to practise the techniques diminishes over time but the commitment to the consistency is an essential part of the process. Dedicating a few months out of your life to practising the techniques in order to be able to live the life you aspire to is a small price to pay for the rewards you gain.
You can read more about NLP and The Lightning Process and how it works here: https://alisonpetty.com/alison/.
It’s a huge thing to suddenly be able to go out to the shops, the park and be more physically active after years of chronic illness and one needs to build up one’s strength after having been bed ridden for so long. So you are taught the tools to help you adapt to another world or new experiences.
It is a new experience to be active without the negative payback that would have happened previously and that is the polar opposite to what you will have experienced in the past. Happily, the brain over time gets used to these positive experiences of the new normal.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, change is always possible.
The important thing is that you need to be ready for change.
You need to be in the right place.
You need to be open to the idea that change is possible and you need to be committed to doing the practice after learning NLP to create the permanent change.
When you are in the right place it is the best work that you will do.
If you’re not quite ready for the Lightning Process then you can work with a practitioner to help you to mentally get into the right place.
It is a very supportive community both before, during and after the course.
No Looking Back
From being on that course, Alison hasn’t looked back. She never sat in a wheelchair again and more significantly, she never relapsed again and has spent the years since rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, travelling, working and fully catching up on many years of lost time.
She is now living her life to the full in amongst the mountains of North Wales working with clients from around the world as a Mindset Coach.
How Life Has Changed Following Fibromyalgia
As a result of her history and life experience Alison Petty has trained as an Advanced Practitioner of NLP, Coaching and Hypnotherapy so that she can help others to live their lives to their full, healthy and happy potential – visit her website to find out more.
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