Lyme Disease Tip Summary:

Writer and chronic illness advocate Christina Kantzavelos offers a powerful mind-body Lyme hack: train your brain to recognize healing, not just danger, by activating your positivity bias.

1. Understand the Dysregulated Nervous System

   • Chronic illness keeps the body in a stress response state: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.

   • Illness itself reinforces this dysregulation by making your brain constantly search for threats and symptom triggers.

2. The Limbic System and Negativity Bias

   • When you’re sick, your limbic system looks for danger, replaying symptom flares and trauma.

   • This creates a snowball effect that keeps the body in survival mode and slows healing.

3. Activate the Positivity Bias

   • Start looking for “glimmers”—small signs of progress or moments of peace.

   • Examples: walking a few extra steps, tolerating sunlight, feeling slightly less pain.

   • When you notice one, affirm it:

     “Thank you, more please.”
     “Thank you, more of this please.”

4. Rewire for Healing Possibility

   • Consistently focusing on glimmers tells your brain:

     “It is possible for me to feel better.”

   • This shift retrains your nervous system to support healing instead of anticipating harm.

“You are exercising that positivity bias now to start looking for glimmers… It is possible to heal. And you 100% deserve that.” – Christina Kantzavelos

Watch Video:

Video Transcript:
“If you are healing from chronic illness, you are likely in a dysregulated state. Fight or flight, fawning, freeze response. You likely were before you got sick, and then the act of being sick is extremely dysregulating, not feeling well in your body, and all of the things that come with that. What’s happening is your limbic system, or your negativity bias, when you’re sick, is looking for for danger, for triggers, things that have historically exacerbated your symptoms or just made you sick in the past. And this is a snowball effect, and the only way to really kind of get at it or reverse it, is to start exercising the positivity bias in your brain. So, basically what we’re looking for are glimmers, and that could be things within you or outside of you. So like, if you are noticing that you have a bit more energy today, you’re able to walk a few extra steps, stay in the sun a little bit longer, your pain level is .5 less than it was an hour ago. Thank you, more please. Thank you, more please. If you see someone you know who’s also healing who had a reduction in their symptoms, thank you, more of this please. You are exercising that positivity bias now to start looking for glimmers. And the more and more you do that, basically what that’s telling your body is, it is possible for me to feel just a little bit better. It is possible to heal. And you 100% deserve that. Love you.” – Christina Kantzavelos