A bit more about my story…
First, A turning point…
A turning point for me was making an appointment with a naturopath. This was a big step for me as I had grown up in a household and a society where western medicine was the place to seek help for health concerns. When I decided to see a naturopath I had decided I desperately needed an insight into wellbeing from a different perspective because I felt I had been unable to be helped. I had had a long history since childhood of pain and fatigue and was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease before I was a teenager. I was sick and tired (quite literally) of not being understood.
In the lead up to this turning point, I had (somehow) recently run a marathon and felt very depleted, it was not only a struggle to run, but a struggle to do most things. I realised I had completely run myself to the ground. What concerned me the most at this point though, shortly after this marathon, was the acute physical reactions I was having in all sorts of situations (I will spare the details here).
Up until this point I didn’t let my health get in the way of my life. I pushed through the signals my body was trying to tell me, I persisted when I was in pain, I persisted when I was exhausted, I persisted when I was stressed. Running a marathon was just one extreme example. I had in fact been putting myself in stress-provoking situations throughout my life. At work for example, I spent a lot of time amongst environmental burdens including carbon monoxide, a huge array of chemicals, a variety of dust that wrecked havoc on my delicate system. I lived in mouldy houses and worked in water damaged buildings which also made me sick. However I don’t recall staying home to rest when I was sick. I hardly had a sick day during school, university or work. I even went to training sessions for representative sport when I was sick so as not to let the team down!
After my first visit to the naturopath I was given hope that I could actually be well, as in truly healthy. From this point, I have continuously been exposed to a huge array of health and wellness modalities that combine wisdom and science. I have found this to be fascinating and my innate curiosity about the extremely broad topic of health and wellbeing has kept me afloat. There were times when I felt that although I was willing and open minded about the various protocols suggested to me (by naturopaths and integrative doctors etc), implementing many of the dietary and lifestyle changes wasn’t easy. I thought that one day I could be some kind of assistant in the wellness world and support people to implement unfamiliar and ‘out there’ changes to improve their health. What if I could help people transition into better health?
During maternity leave with my second child I came across the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I learnt that there was a school that trained health coaches! I had heard of life coaches and sports coaches of course but not health coaches. This is what I was missing on my journey after being introduced into integrative medicine and natural health. Making the decision to sign up for this course was easy and I am so glad that I did. The topics I learnt about were diverse, and the open minded approach was so aligned with my ‘enlightened’ way of thinking.
I am still thoroughly enjoying this health journey, and I am continuously learning how precious and clever my body is and exploring different ways to respect it’s needs. I have focused a lot on supporting myself with whole foods and stress management tools such as Yoga Nidra and gardening. I am finally learning to let go of the tenacity that has been in my driver’s seat for so long. Being a holistic health coach is not only serving me and fulfilling a passion, it is my way of contributing to a healthier community and ultimately a healthier future for the generations to come.