Hello !
I am here to open up, to be honest, to be vulnerable… I want you to know my story. The best part of being in the natural health industry is you get to be a mad scientist, testing all of the methods on yourself. Once they work for you, you feel amazing and research, theorize & apply until you refine your medical practice. Not many MDs test out the pharmaceuticals, eh?! (or maybe they do 😉 )
Most of us are on a major path to healing ourselves. I, myself, took my first step onto the path when my sister became pregnant while we were young. She wanted to become healthier & I wanted to support her. I’ll never forget when she mentioned going Gluten Free and my response was, “What does that mean? Not eating white bread?” Little did I know, I would be enrolling into Naturopathic School and eating a plant-based diet a few years later.
Medical School is challenging on all levels. I enrolled believing that I was going to find secrets to health, the keys to the locks. Hah! More like a declination of health on the Mind, Body & Spirit Level. I found Yoga to alleviate some of the stressors (shout out to Sutra Studios in PHX & the Mysore Method at Near East Yoga in PDX)
I was exhausted, I was a caged hummingbird, I wasn’t traveling, I was hardly exercising & my dietary choices were failing me. Organic, GF, Vegan means nothing when food is taken with stress and mal-digestion. My community was dissipating. I had to get on medications just to get me through. This was no life of a Naturopath. This was the life of an unhappy woman living the Standard American Lifestyle with a better Diet & Exercise Routine. Yet, my self-care was superficial.
Later, after a transfer to a location that was more for me (whattup Pacific Northwest <3), I decided to take a break. So, naturally, I took off to study Ethnobotany in Peru with Dr. Jillian Stansbury. My sweet parents are always worried for my next move 😉 teheh…
We worked alongside brilliant researchers. We stayed with a tribe that had about 20 folk left in it. We played in Cusco & we had fun late night geek outs coding the various plants in 3 different languages. Her work is BRILLIANT !
Graduating school took everything I had… all of the consuming with very little creating & sharing the knowledge was overfilling me to the brim. I was out. A series of events while I was studying for boards to be licensed –literally, that was a far worse situation than getting shot at than the front lines of Standing Rock. 3 exam days filled with self-depreciation, stress & straight up hitting the floor exhaustion — triggered major inflammation in my system.
Standing Rock was calling. My inner child was not staying quiet. I felt trapped in the business and my commitments to Babylon (the bill payin’ game). I was living the dream:
A practice in the Gorge, a rocking business partner that cared deeply for me, a home on 3 acres in SE
Washington, and my career was ready to take off… Yet, still, my childhood core values were lost: the fight for a better environment, the fight against Monsanto & GMOs, the fight for our children to have clean water & seeds. Simply voting with my dollar was no longer acceptable. I had to go. And boy, did I?
I had anywhere from 18-56 hour work days when the blizzards hit in ND. Everything was set aside… my family,
my dog, my business, my business partner, my bills, my home, my self-care. I was living selflessly and it was enormously uplifting to my Spirit.
50 gallons of coffee, midnight Little Debbie’s, and smoking Camel Light’s weren’t a thing: I was in the moment. My body was non-existent, my Spirit was carrying me through. Creator & God had me. I was with my family & my community, fighting for clean water, for preserving the Original Medicine People’s knowledge, for the future of this planet. I was a part of a medical team that provided $7m of healthcare to 35k people during those months. I had my family & I am the best ally I can be to help give the Indigenous back their voice, their land, their rights.
Fast forward to Eviction Day… exhaustion, paranoia and injuries (physical, emotional, & spiritual). I was in love with a beautiful Indigenous man (hah, surprise!). I went back to his Rez. We fell in love fast in the same pace that we were living at Camp, as if there were no tomorrow. AND we were in an EXTREMELY unhealthy, unsafe relationship… for so many different reasons. AND I had become pregnant (with a Copper IUD, yup…that happens). #*&!
I believe in souls choosing each other, I am an extremely faithful person to my path, but seriously?! I had seen her in a dream before. I was so in love with my first daughter. AND she was also taken from me. I had never felt pain & grief like this before.. I thought I had, and I haven’t. Losing my sisters over a difference of values with Standing Rock was one thing, losing a child was a whole other ballgame.
A major reason I miscarried was due to stressors: An unhealthy relationship, where I was basically going to be a single mother & the daily exposure to toxic chemicals the government sprayed on us at the DAPL Site were a few of them. There were so many miscarriages & stillbirths from Camp. To this day, I do not know one person that had a healthy pregnancy that was conceived at Camp. We were fighting for our children & they took that from us. Simply to build a pipeline that provides very little to the local economy & export Fossil Fuels to China. I was contemplating a detox for my sexual organs (that’s where many chemical exposures affect our health), digestive system, lungs & lymph, but I wasn’t quite there yet.
I found it again… my inner fire, my passion, my joy, my Love, my Health on all levels! I had to approach it with prayer, with meditation, with physical activity and with a serious cleanse & rehab month. I took the steps (really just a month and a half ago) to reclaim my health and myself. It had to begin if I was to continue this work and walking this path of Peace, Love, Joy, and Healing.
I am currently reveling & revering in my full-self, loving my body, my mind, and my Spirit. I am in such gratitude to you guys for your support and to all of those along the way. Everyone we meet plays a major part of our healing path. Some are roots, some are branches, some are fruit, and some are leaves. I have chosen to trim the right branches, to prune, to eat the juiciest of fruits, and to strengthen and feed my roots. And man, the flowers & fruits from this laborious healing path are just beginning to bud and blossom. I am so ecstatic to take this journey with you !
This Cleanse Changed my Life.
Have you had obstacles to overcome?
I am ready to hear your story <3
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