The Tortoise Wins the Race

We live in a world that promises quick fixes and instant relief from pain, whether it’s a pill, a click, or a swipe. But what if the fastest solution doesn’t lead to real healing?

When I first met Tracy, she couldn't make the fifty-foot walk from her front door to her mailbox. She'd become housebound. Her knees, swollen to twice their normal size from Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), refused to bend. Any attempt to stand sent lightning pain throughout her body. The wheelchair wasn't for doctor's visits or errands. It was for moving from her bedroom to her bathroom.

I did everything my rheumatology fellowship had trained me for. I followed the RA guidelines. Built on thousands of patients in clinical trials, peer-reviewed, and evidence-based, I prescribed Tracy medications I'd learned about during my fellowship.

Tracy didn’t get better. Her joints and knees remained stubbornly swollen.

I went back to the protocols. Consulted the algorithms. The expert guidelines were clear: if Drug A fails at 12 weeks, try Drug B. If Drug B fails, move to Drug C. It was a checklist and systematic approach that was tested on hundreds of people.

But Tracy was a population of one. And she was still in that wheelchair.

I kept adjusting, switching, and combining. I tested the limits of what the evidence allowed. Each follow-up visit, I'd see the hope drain a little more from her face as I explained the next medication, the next trial period, the next twelve weeks of waiting. The protocols provided guidance on what to do next. They had no answers for why nothing was working.

One of the biggest challenges in medicine is that we don’t know what we don’t know. You analyze your options. But the confirmation bias leads you to gather self-serving information. As a doctor, how could I draw from a different well? My research into consciousness and intention to heal the body enabled me to navigate a major paradigm shift in rheumatology. I didn't ditch conventional (and she was by now on powerful biologic medications), rather, I asked myself what could amplify and augment traditional rheumatology, AND help her thoughts of fear of the future?

I invited Tracy to join my course, 5 Keys to Living Well with Rheumatoid Arthritis. In this course, she hit her stride. All outer conditions were the same at the outset. She took the singular thought in my course, “Please heal my fear based thoughts,” and she had an inner shift. Remember the story about the tortoise and the hare? It is the persistent, consistent, steady inner work that takes you to the finish line.

Tracy had been taking the biologics, but part of her was rebelling against them the whole time. What if I get an infection that my body can't fight off? What is this actually doing inside me?Will it harm me long-term? The fearful thoughts looped constantly, a background hum of dread with every injection.

Fear can come from countless thoughts, and paying attention to them can be exhausting. Over time, I realized it was more about the feeling of fear itself. People are emotional, and it’s important to recognize how much our emotions affect us. “Please heal my fear-based thoughts.”

You don't heal the thoughts. You heal the fear underneath them.

Tracy did that through surrender. When a fearful thought arose, this biologic could harm me, she didn't fight it, analyze it, or try to convince herself. Instead, she surrendered it and the fear went with it; she handed it over to something larger than her own spinning mind. To consciousness itself. To a higher power, whatever that meant to her. Surrender wasn't giving up. It was finally letting go of the fear.

In that surrender, something shifts. Your consciousness is the primary power that brings order and coherence to all parts of you. It requires the directive you give. Every cell, every nook and cranny of you, has communication with this great power. With every letting go of fear, chemical and enzyme changes occur. For Tracy, it was an incredible journey of awareness of her freedom.

Tortoise is not about speed and quick fixes.

Tracy's story isn't about a miracle cure. It's about the tortoise. Slow. Steady. Consistent. Unglamorous. She didn't sprint to the finish line. She surrendered her fear, showed up every day, and kept going. Week after week. Intention after intention. One small release at a time.

The hare promises you speed: quick fixes, miracle drugs, instant relief. The hare burns out.

The best part? Tracy was able to augment her biologic benefits and reduce her injections from every two weeks to every seven weeks. Unbelievable. Her rheumatologist didn’t believe it either (we forgive him, he doesn’t know the power of consciousness). When he chastised her to get back to a two-week schedule because “your RA will come back with a vengeance,” Tracy went to her car after her appointment and “dumped the thought. It doesn’t belong to me.”

That’s the inner freedom Tracy lives with now. Oh, and she is walking her new puppy every day. More than two years after she overcame her fear, she is a happy, thriving wife, mother, and dog lover.

The Rheumatoid Relief course is open on a case-by-case basis because this work is personal. I need to know you're ready for the tortoise's path and willing to show up consistently, surrender your fear, and trust the process even when progress feels invisible. I read every response personally. Let's talk about whether this course is right for you.