How can I nourish myself, now?

This question has become a vitally important to anchor me during these tumultuous times. Self-nourishment feels much more important and accessible than self-care.

Wellness is multidimensional

Spending the last 21 years working in the realm of wellness and performance has given me an unfair advantage to weather this global crisis.

I’ve explored tools and techniques for body-based healing. I’ve learned to decipher the messages of my emotions. Through mindset work, coaching and mindfulness, I’ve become more adept at working with my brain’s fear-based, self-protection programming, instead of letting it stop me. My intuition has become my guide.

Mind, body, heart and spirit together created a multidimensional experience of wellness, bringing depth and nuance to single concepts, resulting in natural growth.

I now use this multidimensional wisdom, my Inner Compass, to help me navigate the challenges I face.

I’m an explorer at heart

I live for grand adventures and deep exploration of both the inner world and outer landscape. I’ve lived and worked in California, Michigan, Florida and Colorado. My professional wellness experience includes spa, clinical and rehab work in Silicon Valley, near some of my favorite hiking spots in the world. I’ve been a life and business coach, while offering retreats and wellness services in Grand Rapids, MI near the sandy shores of Lake Michigan. I kayaked the mangroves and swam near the reef in Key West, Florida while offering exceptional resort and spa wellness experiences. I hiked the mountains of Colorado, but was left in the dust on the side of the incline, by my athlete clients from the Olympic Training Center.

I’m fascinated with human potential to achieve, heal and thrive and I love nothing more than experiencing and guiding exploration and transformation.

Living with the seasons

Nature is a place for me to find peace, centering and some of life’s greatest lessons. Moving my body clears my mind, but it also connects me to the Earth.

The rhythms and cycles of the natural world are a great teacher. The seasons can inform the creation and life cycle of people, projects and business.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

Dolly Parton

We can learn how to become more resilient by understanding the way a tree roots deeply and nourishes itself, being both flexible and stable to withstand a storm. The tree doesn’t have to spend tons of money and time tending to itself. It takes in what it needs and eliminates what it doesn’t. Can you nourish yourself that way?

My journey

My own challenges have been the impetus for much of my learning.

I became a Massage Therapist and Health Educator in 1999, instead of going to medical school, because my own medical issues and injuries left me dissatisfied with our medical system. Initially my focus in wellness was on the physical body and I used bodywork, movement, nutrition and herbal medicine as my modalities.

Despite all I learned, my pain never fully resolved. There was always something wrong or maintenance required to ensure my wellbeing.

When emotions hijack your life

My first real encounter with emotional instability was during the roller coaster of postpartum mood disorder. My body-based practices did nothing to help the anxiety and depression that I experienced.

3 more pregnancies, 1 miscarriage, 2 birth injuries, 1 autoimmune condition and increasingly severe pain and emotional symptoms flipped everything I “knew” about wellness on its head. Discovering life coaching, mindset work and the correlation between stress, inflammation, autoimmune and chronic pain changed my approach to my own self care and my work with clients.

As I slowly rebuilt my life and health, I also became an Integrative Wellness & Life Coach. I spent the next few years coaching overstressed women entrepreneurs.

Sound healing meditation is magic

The spiral of growth and healing

I’ve seen again and again that growth and healing happen in a spiral. An issue you thought was resolved will show up out of nowhere. Anytime I am growing in a new way, my trauma, pain, blocks and limiting beliefs show up. When working to heal these areas, I experienced incredible leaps in my life and advancement in my business.

I now live my life empowered by my understanding of this cycle. I surrender to the healing that my growth requires, instead of fighting it or letting it stop me.

My inner compass is my guide

Now, I use the embodied wisdom of my inner compass in everything I do.

This is my unfair advantage. When storms like a global pandemic come charging like a tsunami for the shore, my practices keep me anchored while nourishment and flexibility build resilience. There is not one right way. My practices change with the times, but they always bring me back home to myself, my body and my truth.