GAPS Guidance: Don’t Set a Time Limit on Healing

When I was reading the GAPS book for the first time back in early 2017, preparing to begin, I remember reading how GAPS should take about 2 years. So in the back of my head sat that two year mark. I sort of set my sights on it and committed to that as my time frame for Raleigh’s healing.

Two years came and went and Raleigh wasn’t fully healed. He was still healing. The changes we saw from 2017-2019 were staggering and absolutely incredible. (You can read all about them in my earlier blogs if you haven’t already.) However, there was still an intense sadness I felt at the realization that he wasn’t ready to come off GAPS yet.

I let myself mourn what I felt like was a loss but really, reflecting back, I now see how important the rest of our journey was and how I should have never set a time limit on the healing journey to begin with.

I always try to encourage my clients to do the same: trust the journey, don’t set a time frame. I do believe they almost always disappoint. The body has innate wisdom and healing takes time. We really can’t set a time limit on the process, we must simply trust the process and be faithful to the task.

As we waded into the third year of healing, Raleigh went through much deeper healing. Much of his eczema had cleared by year two but what we didn’t know was he had multiple, necessary healing crises that were waiting for him to be strong enough to handle. Had we stopped at the two year mark he would not have gone through these difficult, deeper healing events. I’ve blogged about them as well.

Dr. Natasha talks about how healing is like peeling an onion. The body in it’s innate wisdom knows what to work on. It begins with the outer layer – whatever that may be – and peels away layer after layer, going deeper and deeper into healing the gut. It takes a long time to get to the inner-most part of the onion. It takes patience and a long suffering to see the journey to its end. No one can say when the end comes, it will be different for each individual.

The two year mark recommendation has a great deal to do with making sure the body and gut is strong enough to begin moving off of the GAPS diet. Some people will see full symptom reversal before the two year mark but are encouraged to stay on full GAPS until two years have passed. This will only strengthen the integrity of the gut.

But if you’re like Raleigh, and the two year mark has come and gone and more healing is needed, I would encourage you to stay the course. Be faithful to the task. The body will lead the quest. I’m so glad I didn’t throw in the towel because I had set two years as our mark. He needed more and that was okay. The journey is a teacher. Healing isn’t linear and sometimes it is better to not set a time limit on such things.

After I reconciled my mind to the idea that we didn’t have a designated time limit I was able to embrace the journey in a new way. I was able to trust the process a bit more and realize that many things worth doing really don’t need such parameters. Raleigh’s healing journey was teaching me to let go of my expectations and lean into the process a little more.

Raleigh has officially come off the GAPS diet at this point. He still eats very GAPS-y, we all do, but he is more officially a Weston A. Price eater now. The journey has been transformational not only for him but also for me. Trust the process – let the journey be the teacher.