DITRLI #2 Holistic Healing 11.11.24
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Kelly Jackson: [00:00:00] Welcome to Dreamed It Then Real Lifed It, the podcast where we dive deep into the journey from vision to reality. I'm Kelly Jackson, your guide on this path of self discovery, transformation, and intentional living. Here, we explore everything from mindset shifts and personal growth. to spiritual alignment and entrepreneurship, sharing insights, stories, and actionable wisdom to help you live a life in harmony with your dreams.
Every episode we'll dig into what it means to not only dream big, but to actually consciously create the life you envision. Let's turn your [00:01:00] dreams into real life.
Hello, and welcome back. I'm really excited about today's topic, holistic healing. This is near and dear to my heart. It is a huge part of why I'm even here today on this platform, sharing my story is because I have lived life both ways. If you listen to that first episode, when I was reading that transcript from the false launch three years ago, then you I heard a little bit about my health, kind of like the before and after, right?
And y'all, the reason that I feel so called to share this story is because if I can do it, you can do it. If I can do it, [00:02:00] anybody can do it. I have lived both ways. I've been on both sides of the health thing. I have lived in a body. That felt broken, that did not feel safe, that, and in a body and in a mind, that just was not healthy.
And I've relied on medical intervention and Western medicines and all of these things to try to fix, quote unquote, all of these broken parts of myself and, you know, all of that. And then also I've been on the other side of it. And I have embodied this holistic healing journey for the last eight years and I'm older than I've ever been.
Aren't we all? And I'm in the best health that I've ever been [00:03:00] in too. And this, if I can do it, you can do it. If I can do it, anybody can do it. And that's why I'm here because I want to share this story and I want to raise awareness and break down some, um, myths, misconceptions, limiting beliefs. Who knows what we might find in there when we, when we start chatting.
So let's dive in. Let's start with this. What is holistic healing? Because honestly, back When I was living that lifestyle where it was the pain and the injury, illness, disease, all of these things manifesting in my body, I don't even know that I knew what holistic health or holistic healing was at the time.
So before we dive into it, let's just start there. Holistic healing, it's this [00:04:00] approach to health and wellness that looks at the whole person. Okay. mind, body, spirit, and the emotions, and rather than just treating specific symptoms or ailments. The idea behind holistic healing is that all parts of a person are interconnected and affect each other.
So true healing involves addressing all of these areas to restore balance and harmony your life. So the main components of holistic healing would be the mind, which is mental well being. That's key in holistic health. This includes practices to reduce stress, to build mental resilience, promote positive thinking.
And this could be methods like therapy, meditation, [00:05:00] mindfulness practices, or like cognitive exercises. And then it would be the body. Physical health is essential. So holistic approaches encourage a balanced diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, and sometimes natural remedies like herbal medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic care, things like that.
Spirit. Your spiritual health, that can mean different things to different people. But in holistic healing, it often involves finding meaning and purpose and the sense of connection with yourself and the world. And these practices would be meditation, [00:06:00] yoga, or time in nature to foster a sense of inner peace and fulfillment, right?
And, finally, emotions. Your emotional well being is important to address in holistic healing because unresolved emotions can manifest as physical symptoms. And so emotional healing techniques such as journaling and emotional release practices, working with the therapist, something like that. This can help people process and let go of negative emotions because I'm sure you've heard this, there's even a book, The Body Keeps Score, right?
Our body holds trauma, our emotions. If we don't process these emotions, if we don't, these unresolved emotions, if we repress them, if we push them down, if we pretend like they're not there, if we ignore them, if we don't [00:07:00] do anything with them, they will manifest in our body as a physical, an injury, an illness, a disease.
An infection, an inflammation, this can be a manifestation of emotions that are stuck in our body. So the goal of holistic healing is to empower individuals to take charge of their health and to cultivate balance in all areas of life for long term wellness. Okay, that's just a brief little summary of it.
And now we're gonna, now we're gonna Let's dive into it, okay? Really dive into it. I want to start by giving you a little bit more about my own personal story and maybe you'll see yourself in some of that, okay? And um, and let's go from there. So [00:08:00] at 11 years old, so maybe around seventh grade, I was diagnosed with two things, with IBS, that's irritable bowel syndrome, and with depression.
I, I have this early memory of being a child, it was a gymnast and another parent had to pick me up after gym and take me home that day. And I remember when my mom came to pick me up in the driveway, the other parent saying to my mom, what's wrong with her? She walks around looking like her best friend just died.
And I also remember. My dad was an artist, caricature artist, and he, you know, it's, when he draws people in the character things, it's his sense of humor, maybe his, it's his art. I [00:09:00] remember, though, this drawing he had done. And it was included me and my sister in it when we were young, and we were back to back, and our arms were crossed, and our lip was poking out, and we were angry, and we were mad.
And this was all taking place at a car show. We grew up going to car shows, so there were, he drew all the other things. He was an artist at car shows. It was actually, uh, We would grow up going to the car shows and he would set up his tent and he would, you know, he would draw pictures of the guys and the gals with their hot rods.
And um, yeah, so we grew up, my sister and I grew up going to those car shows, but I remember that drawing and I remember that. I was not perceived as a happy child, perhaps because I wasn't, but what I didn't know then was what I know now. And so let's just go to this. So, Middle school, seventh grade, [00:10:00] I had to get glasses and contacts because my vision was bad.
I couldn't see, I couldn't see the board. It was real blurry. And I, they said, you have a chemical imbalance and your body doesn't produce enough serotonin and you're gonna have to take this medicine to, you know, be normal or whatever normal is. And, um, and. All these issues in my stomach, I was having all of this digestion and like gut health problems and having to go in and get this testing that was really uncomfortable, especially being a child, like what, drinking this like really uncomfortable or really gross, um, liquids and, you know, to get the x rays and then having to have like the bare amina and things like that.
Like, I just, it was not, There weren't pleasant memories or experiences, right? But it was always like there was something wrong with me. [00:11:00] There was something wrong with me. And again, I didn't know anything about holistic healing at the time. And another thing that happened growing up, and, and this will all come into play, you'll, you'll see how it all ties together.
But I had moles on my body. Still do. I still have them. And the thing is. I think it's so amazing with the beauty of social media. I've been able to see, I've actually seen some accounts and some women who they've like gotten on there and speak or they'll, and they'll, they're like, I love this mole on my face.
It's so beautiful. I love this mole on my neck. It's so beautiful. And it's like, I'm in awe because my. experience and relationship with moles was very different. They were, my mom was always really scared of [00:12:00] them. And I had a lot of them. So I was always being checked for my moles. And we need to go to the doctor.
And we need to have that one removed. And we need to make sure that that's not trying to kill you. And, like, I was so ashamed of my moles. I was so, afraid of my moles. I was like, what is wrong with my body? I have all these moles and they're these things that are going to kill me and they're so bad and I need to be ashamed of them.
And not once did I ever look at a mole and think it was beautiful. And because my association with them, right, is going to the doctor as a young child, taking your clothes off, having to have somebody look all over your body and touch it, and sometimes having them cut off and sent to labs and anxiously awaiting the results.
Is it going to kill me? You know what I'm saying? And so that all played into the experience of it. And, and my mental health associated with it and all of this kind of stuff. And the other thing was, I grew up in an environment and in [00:13:00] America, and it was, Where, if something was wrong, it was what's wrong, what are you feeling, and take a medicine for it.
Right? Because, and I get it, and especially think about, you're a parent, and you don't want to see your child suffer. You don't want something to happen to your child. And if they have all of this medicine that's been created, then why not take it? It will help you feel better. We're going to circle back around to this about have a different perspective now, but let's keep going so after that so taking medication for the Um, the depression, right?
And then still as a teenager, then it was like the anxiety came. And so there's medicine for that. And then it's, um, ADD, you know, problem focusing in school and everything. And so [00:14:00] there's medicine for that and all of these things. And then, so now we're kind of getting to late high school into college. And I had.
The rotator cuff that it was just, I could really, it was, I couldn't do much with it at all leading up to the surgery. And at the time, the, the left was bad. It wasn't as bad. I could do things, but I was actually thinking that I was going to have to have that one done as well. They won't do them at the same time.
Obviously they're for obvious reasons. You, if you've ever had or seen someone who's had a rotator cuff surgery, your arm is a challenge. Attached to your body with two straps for six to eight weeks. So, You couldn't do both arms at the same time because you, yeah, you need at least one arm. If, if you are fortunate to have both arms to begin with, then they're going to limit it to only doing one at a [00:15:00] time.
And in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't do both because I didn't need it. But there was a time when I thought I did. I believed that I did. So, uh, around that time, the rotator cuff surgery was happening. The gut health issues are back and they're back and I mean we're talking, this is, I was going days, sometimes a week, without having a bowel movement.
That was pretty common, pretty regular and it was pretty regular to not be regular for me and it blew my mind that there were people who were like having bowel movements every day. And even like twice a day sometimes, I was like, wow, people really live like that? Because days, like I said, sometimes a week and yeah, it didn't feel good because it would become constipation and I would have cramps and gas pains and things in my stomach that were so severe that [00:16:00] it became where I couldn't even work.
And while all this is happening. But keep in mind, I'm getting sick regularly, and it was kind of like I expected it. I mean, I'm getting, you know, I'm getting the flu twice a year, but like, doesn't everybody get the flu twice a year? And I'm getting sinus infections a couple times a year, but like, doesn't everybody get sinus infections a couple times a year?
And you know, all of these little things that are happening. And now. I had also, through that period of time of late teen, early adulthood, gone through the, what they called adult onset acne, because it didn't happen when I was like a preteen starting puberty. It happened later. And so that became unmanageable for me.
And it's still, it's still there. was affecting my already low self esteem at the time, and it was just kind of this [00:17:00] cycle. So I did a couple rounds of Accutane for that because of course I'm, I'm going, I'm looking at all the external things. What can I use? What can I put on? What can I treat it with, right?
And I was doing this for everything when I got a cold, anything I was doing. It was like, what medicine do I need to take? Go to the doctor, get the cortisone shot, get the, this, get the, that take the antibiotic, do the thing. And it was never looking at what is my environment look like? What does, what are the relationships in my life right now?
What is my workload look like? Like, what is my mental health? Like I was never, Well, part of my mental health, the things I was treating was my mental health, but I wasn't looking at all of these other things like what we talked about. So I would just continue to do what was around me and do what had been taught to me and do what I knew to do.
And mind you, I was, the things I [00:18:00] was eating was a lot of processed foods. I think, I want to say, um, Yeah, well, a lot of processed foods, just a lot of, I didn't know how to cook. I did not, I never learned, uh, I didn't, now my mom cooks just about every night now. Growing up, that wasn't the case. She did, she worked two jobs, like my parents, both.
My mom was an educator and they, she worked multiple jobs and my dad, like they, they, she, she wasn't cooking back then, but we, we had. I remember a lot of frozen meals and she was doing the best she could. This isn't, I'm not calling mom out guys. I'm really not. I'm telling you how it was though. And I'm saying now, just like I've changed, mom's changed, right?
Like mom cooks home cooked meals every night now, but let's go back to what it was then. So you got to look at the whole picture, [00:19:00] this holistic health. So even from that young age, the things I was consuming were lots of frozen foods, fast foods, packaged foods. You know, food in a can, the Lunchables, the, the Chef Boyardee's, the just things that you probably can't even pronounce a lot of the ingredients on the labels, right?
And butters and mayonnaises and just all of, all of the things and probably lots of it. And so that was one of the things, And so then, but then even as I got out, as I got out on my own, I just, I didn't know how to cook and I wasn't learning how to cook. And so I was eating frozen meals and things like that.
And even though I would make what I considered at the time to be the, quote, healthy choices, right? It was like I was, instead of the hot pockets, I [00:20:00] was eating the lean pockets. That's what I'm saying. But like you're doing the best you can with what you know at the time. And I just didn't realize the effect that not just that, but all of these different things, these contributing factors in my life, I didn't realize the effect that they were having on my overall health, my mental health, my physical health, my emotional health, and my spiritual health and how it's all interconnected.
And so. I'm having the back pain. So as all this, so, so now we're like, we're into early adulthood and the, the back, the chronic back pain is immobilizing. And to the point that I am, they've diagnosed me at this point with scoliosis, got piriformis syndrome. herniated disc. I think a lot of these are the same, but things I would hear over the years, bulging disc, slip disc, herniated disc.
And I was [00:21:00] doing all of these different things. So I was taking medicine for the muscle spasms. I was taking medicine for the inflammation and I was taking medicine for the pain and I was getting cortisone, cortisol, whatever shots into my back every like three months. And I was doing, chiropractic care weekly, a couple of times, but then I'm doing PT and electro STEM and traction and, you know, walking around smelling like bio freeze 24 seven.
And I'm wearing a back brace and I'm, I have this custom back, this backrest seat thing. It's like this cushion that Had a part you sat on and then the back part, and it was like this custom made backrest I had to have that I would take with me to put in whatever chair I was sitting in that would support my lumbar and the way it needed to be supported.
And like, I would have to put it in the car if I was driving or put it in my [00:22:00] chair if I was working. I mean, this was my life. And they had told me, you can't wear high heels anymore. And if y'all know me, I love high heels. I always have. One of my favorite memories of elementary school was listening to the teachers that wore high heels when they like clicked when they walked down the hall.
And I couldn't wait till I could wear high heels. And now they're saying you can't wear high heels and you can only wear a cross body purse or bag. And so all of these restrictions that were starting to, and I just lived in with chronic pain and you know, and I'm, and I'm so young. And I was. I was taking medicine to try to help it, and I was doing things to try to help it, going to different practitioners, trying different modalities.
And again, what I [00:23:00] didn't realize at the time was how interconnected all of this other stuff was. And I didn't even know at the time what holistic healing was or what a holistic approach to healing would even look like or mean. And I, when I, now keep in mind too. Um, when I had become a workaholic, so when I was going through this, you know, after having the girls and I was really a workaholic and wearing busy like a badge of honor and I was running on fumes, I was not prioritizing my sleep.
I mean, I was maybe four hours a night, maybe five would be a good night. Regularly skipping sleep, like having nights where I just pulled Allnighters and I would just go and go and go like this. And, and, and then of course I was getting sick. My body was getting run down, [00:24:00] but I wasn't ever putting the connection or I wasn't doing any, I wasn't making any changes.
I just kept going and I just kept going. And when I, when yoga discovered me, so. Around this time of year, so it was fall of 2016, and I had been living in this apartment for a year, the girls and I. Um, we. We moved, when we left the house we were living in, we moved into this apartment that's on my parents property.
I mentioned generational living in that first one. So we're on the same property as my parents. And my sister lived in this apartment at one time, before the girls and I did, her and um, my [00:25:00] nephew. And so she had left, there was like, Four books that she had left there. And when I had moved in, I had seen these books, never opened them.
I just moved them around a couple times and moved them around. I kept them with my books on the bookshelf. They just, they kind of got moved around, but I never opened them. And this day, it was just like, I'm going to open this book. And it was a book about yoga. It was a yoga book and I just opened it and I just started reading it and it went through some poses and I remember the first one I did was a seated twist and it unlocked something inside of me and I was curious.
And so from this place of yoga finding me and I discovered this [00:26:00] online community. online Instagram yoga community that was like doing challenges and stuff. And I was like, what is this? And I was, I was drawn to it. And I, that athlete that was dormant inside of me was like, what is this? And then that artist that was still very much awake inside of me was like, what is this?
And I saw. the way that yoga was presented to me initially, right? Or I say that it was presented to me. First, I had the book, but then when I was seeing it was really drawing me in, was seeing all of these beautiful expressions. of self through Asana and through posture. And, and it was like self expression and it was art.
And I was like, they're creating by their art with their body. And that's what [00:27:00] drew me in at first. And then, then the practice of yoga as it unfolded and I discovered what it really was and what it was doing for me, opened up the door to this new way of being and this new, way of seeing the possibility.
And it wasn't just with yoga, but keep in mind that as all this was happening at the same time that I was discovering yoga, that yoga found me, it, I was learning about meditation and I was starting to have this daily meditation practice and learning about like, epigenetics and upregulating your DNA. And I was, you know, into some Dr.
Joe Dispenza stuff and I'm going, wait, what is, what can, what can we do? And we can heal our body. And [00:28:00] so I'm doing this and I'm discovering yoga and I'm moving my body. And I'm doing, I'm practicing meditation and I'm learning about breath work and all of these are new things. And these all are kind of coming into my life at the same time.
So fall of 2016, I begin a daily yoga, meditation, and breath work practice. Now, keep in mind, this is a home practice, this yoga practice, this is happening. I'm reading books. My sister had left two yoga books, so I'm reading books and then I'm starting to go onto YouTube and Kundalini was the first thing that I was really drawn to and that I kind of opened up to as far as like, um, yoga online, following along and online yoga with a teacher.
And then. [00:29:00] It moved into Ashtanga, a little bit of that, and There were so many other different branches, you know, that I was inspired by, but this was the first two things I was watching. And then of course, like I just said, Instagram yoga, Instagram yoga, I'm calling that the challenges. And like, I was learning about things through that different yoga teachers all get together.
They put on these challenges where it lasts for this long. And Each day, this is the pose for that day. And then they teach you about the pose. They teach you about the alignment, how to get into the pose, but then also just a little bit more about it. So I was like, but then there was the creativity aspect of it, which I loved.
And so I was drawn into that. And
here's what happened though with yoga. A year and a half. This was a home practice. I [00:30:00] was practicing just like that, but I was practicing every day that so I wasn't going to classes. And that doesn't mean every day. It was getting on and doing a full 30 or 60 or 75 minute yoga class some days. A daily practice looks like fun, five sun salutations.
Some days it looks like five minutes on my mat, but it's the commitment and the dedication and the discipline to show up every day to, to move your body and to do this and to connect with your breath and to connect with yourself. And so the breath work, a daily breath work practice. So I started. I was learning how to regulate my nervous system, something I realized I didn't know how to do.
I had a very dysregulated nervous system, which contributed to a lot of the things that I was just listing that was going on with me because I like, if you, if you walked into the room and I didn't see you, I would jump out [00:31:00] of my skin, I would come out of my skin. I was so easily startled, which is definitely a sign of a dysregulated nervous system.
I mean, So easily startled guys, amongst other things, right? And so the breath work helped with that helped to learn how to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and to self regulate and to bring yourself to a place of centeredness and calmness. And then on top of this, so there's the meditation and visualization.
So you're, you're
learning how to focus. And this is what's interesting. So I want to, I want to say all this, I'm going to keep going with this, but I want to say, um, all of this, I just told you it's been over six years since I've even taken a Tylenol or an aspirin, like anything. [00:32:00] My health now, it's, it's. 72, 72 hours I've felt unwell in six plus years and have, and I'm not taking any kind of medicine at all.
And so this is a huge drastic and if, whether or not you've seen my yoga practice or my contortion practice or the acro practice or any of those things I have, now I'm doing something like. Let's say a full wheel, which is some of you may know what that is. Some of you go look on my Instagram. You'll see what it is.
What I'm saying. This is like my body. My back is completely bent completely backwards where my hands are now grabbing my ankles. Right. And this is the girl that was wearing back braces and special back rest and getting caught like shots into my back every three months [00:33:00] and told I couldn't even wear high heel shoes, which now I teach dance workshops in high heel shoes.
Okay, Feminine Energy Dance Workshops, oh my gosh, and I love them and I teach them in high heel shoes. Guys, if I can do it, you can do it. I want you to hear me. If I can do it, you can do it. And so
I, on the one hand, I kind of feel like I'm all over the place here and on the other hand, it's all connected. I just got to bring it back to center. This is essential and I want you to hear it. So six months after the yoga meditation breath work, the daily practices, I just started like this is who I am now.
I'm doing these things every day and I was journaling at the time. So I started journaling. Daily journaling as well. And I also decided that I don't, I didn't want to [00:34:00] be the one who was sick. I didn't want to take all this stuff. I didn't want to have to take the medicines. I didn't to be happy or to feel whatever.
I wanted to be able to do it naturally. And what I learned was like holistically and I was reading books and watching people and learn and following stories. And I was learning that it was possible. I was learning that people are doing this. They're doing it. They're doing it with meditation. They're doing it with breath work.
They're doing it with yoga or other somatic exercises or practices. They're doing it. And if they can do it, I can do it. Just like I'm here saying, if I can do it, you can do it. And so I set out to do it. And I started by changing my beliefs. And I went from saying I used to tell, I remember specifically, I would tell my [00:35:00] mom, I can't function without my Adderall.
I have to have it. I could not function without it. And that was my belief system that I couldn't function without it. And I quit saying that because I wanted to quit believing it. I wanted to believe that I am capable of being a really successful and productive entrepreneur without Adderall. Adderall.
Or without labeling myself as ADD or ADHD, like I, I, I don't think I've ever really learned how to focus and through these intentional practices, I've discovered that I, I actually function really well and I can focus really well. And, um, there's this. Monk Dandiya Pani, who was influential to me at the beginning of this journey.
And one of the things he said that I loved is that we're good at what we practice. And if we [00:36:00] practice distracting ourselves, then we're going to be good at distracting ourselves. And that like resonated because I was really good at distracting myself. And now I've learned how to be really good at focusing.
It's a, you can, it's a practice and you can, it's a muscle and you can, um, you can make it stronger and that's really fun. So let's see where we're at. Um, okay. Six months later, so I'm doing all these practices and then I had been getting the signs. I had been getting the signs and I was resisting. I was resisting.
I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Not me. No way. Never, never, never. And what I was resisting was transitioning to a plant based lifestyle. plant based lifestyle. I kept getting [00:37:00] these really, these like signs, these little snippets, these little, you know, flashes that would be like, feel like it's, telling me, just, Kelly, time to become vegan, and I was like, no, oh, no, not me.
I, my sister had been vegetarian for ten years, and I'd watched her and was like, oh, I could never, I could never. And it's funny, because it's like never say never, because what ended up happening was, six months ish after yoga, meditation, breath work, I did. Stop resisting and I leaned in and I transitioned.
Literally overnight. I have a blog post about it. I can link it. You can read it. I transitioned to plant based. And look, I'm the only vegan in my family. My children aren't vegan. No one, my sister is still vegetarian, but no one in my family is vegan. This is like a me thing. This is a choice I make for myself.
[00:38:00] And I do think though, and not only just the plant based, in the very beginning when I decided overnight, um, Um, I didn't, I still didn't know how to cook and I, it was kind of an overnight decision. So I was doing the, uh, vegan meats, the, the plant based meats, the things that were like already made in the store that were plant based.
Um, and over the course of the next six months, um, Two things happened. My body, I realized that the processed food, that was like not for me and I was going to have to come up with a solution because I really was committed to the plant based lifestyle. However, I could not do, I didn't want to. Um, be relying on these processed foods to be my source of [00:39:00] protein or food that it needed to be whole foods from the earth.
That's what felt aligned. So it was time for me to learn how to cook. I mean, in all honesty, it would have been a nice skill to have, you know, for the 20 years leading up to that moment, but like here we were and now I was ready. And so I got one of those plant based, um, meal prep, meal places that send you the food it's already done.
I was even overwhelmed to go grocery shopping, guys. Like, I didn't know about spices, I didn't, I really didn't know much about anything when it came to cooking. And, um, This helped me learn. So I did one of those things. They would send the box every week and it was the ingredients were there. I didn't have to shop.
Um, the recipe was there and I was learning as I went because they were saying words like [00:40:00] that. I didn't know how to do like I don't even know that I knew the difference between dicing and mincing when I started. Right. And so I learned and started cooking and realize that I enjoy cooking these sorts of meals for myself.
It feels good. And I understand that there's love that goes into it. And this is all part of the holistic healing to the energy work, the energy that goes into things. And now I'm prioritizing my health and I'm prioritizing what I'm consuming and what I'm putting into my body. And it even changed again, the way that I'm feeding my daughters and the things that I want to do.
To feed my girls and the way that I. The things that I want to provide for them in my home for them to consume, like I have a whole nother perspective on that than I used to because now I [00:41:00] understand the importance of how this is all tied together and the quality of the foods that we consume and everything that we consume, um, all affects our wellbeing.
And again, That's the things that we're watching. That's just all of the things. So here we are now, I'm having this daily practice of yoga and I'm meditating, breath work, eating, you know, way less processed foods, like keeping that, trying to keep that to like a, like a. Um, if you, if you look at an 80, 20 lifestyle, you know, like a 20 percent or under that you're doing things that are bought and trying to really focus on having the majority of everything that you're consuming being things that are whole foods from the earth and have ingredients that you know, you, you can pronounce the [00:42:00] names of.
And for me, that's also organic foods and staying away from things that are, um, have all of this. genetically engineered stuff going on. And guys, through this practice and through this intentional and through the mindset and all the stuff, again, it's a complete, complete change. I, the health, the mobility, the flexibility, the strength, the mental health, the clarity, the emotional health.
This comes with doing the inner work. So doing the shadow work. Um, as many of you know, part of this journey, when I said I was going to, I mentioned this in the first one as well. So the seven, seven plus year celibacy journey that I [00:43:00] embarked on that I was on, right. In that time of doing the inner work and saying, I'm going to become the right person for me and I'm going to become an expert on self love because that was something I just did not know anything about.
And I was like. No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna learn because I realized that so much of this healing journey, this health journey comes from the self love journey. Honestly, it does. And the way that you think about yourself, the way that you feel about yourself, the way that you speak to yourself, all of this stuff matters.
And loving yourself enough that to show up for yourself, to keep the promises that you make to yourself, to, to care about what you consume and to move your body every day and to Realize, have the self awareness to recognize that you may have some beliefs, not even, [00:44:00] they're not even yours. They're other people's beliefs, right?
And they've been conditioned to you over time or whatever, but you've got this belief system, this certain set of belief system or a way that you were raised, whether that's around food or medicine or treating the symptoms, just putting like a bandaid over it instead of getting to the root cause. Like if that's how you've been living, because that's how.
Generations before you lived, and it's just how it's done, and the people around you I get it. I get it. I get it. It's fine. And if you're ready to embrace a whole different paradigm, like to, to have a paradigm shift and to lean into this idea that like, you know, what those things that, for instance, I look at when I was a child and di diagnosed with depression and [00:45:00] I'm able to see now.
Knowing what I know now, and look, this is one of the beautiful things too about choosing generational living and being able to have spent the last nine years living in the proximity of my parents. So my children have gotten to have that, you know, me and then their grandparents. And then there were even times when.
My mom's dad lived with us on and off for a year, the last year of his life. And, um, and I will say that his life did end from melanoma. And so, you know, mom's fears, I don't mean to laugh at that. I'm saying mom's fears, always me, my moles growing up, like that manifested itself. ultimately ended up being the thing that, you know, took my grandfather, [00:46:00] transitioned out of this world and onto whatever is next.
And, um, y'all thoughts are powerful. And, you know, that's all of those things. Thoughts become things and words create worlds and all of this stuff. And so, um, Part of what I decided was that for me to be healthy, that I was going to have to speak health into my body and that I was going to have to reprogram the beliefs that told me that for one thing, you know, almost everyone, if not every member of my family that I know of that has passed on has passed on to some form of cancer.
And I was like, um, uh, Not, not how I want to go. And for a while, there was this fear of cancer inside of me, um, prior to this journey, because why not? Because everyone in my family, grandparents, or the, the, [00:47:00] of them, my dad had even had cancer as well. Which, fortunately, I didn't. You know he's still here, but I'm saying that cancer is like all in my family, and I was like yeah I don't I don't want to go I don't want cancer And I want to do something that nobody else in the family is doing like I don't want the same I want a different lifestyle and so Um, I learned from a dear friend who also went through cancer and while they were going through it, the doctor had told them that not to eat meat.
And I didn't understand at the time, this is before, this is when I was even still married, right? So not to eat meat was one of the things and I learned because at that time because of the acidity in it. Now I hadn't even, I didn't even know about yoga yet. That wasn't even on the radar, but this was just something that like filed away in the back of my mind, right?
That, that meat. Especially red meat's acidic, and that, you know, [00:48:00] cancer thrives more in an acidic environment. It can't really thrive in an alkaline environment. And so, filed that away. It wasn't until years later that it came back up when it was like the transitioning to plant based thing came up and I was thinking about my health and I was on this journey already, this intentional journey of self and this self love journey, self discovery, self awareness, self actualization, and was saying that like, I used to have this mantra that I was like, cancer cannot exist in my body.
And I was like, but I'm still focusing on cancer. I mean, it was to the point I was like saying this mantra every day. And I was like, no, no, no. And that was where the shift happened for me was, it was like, well, then plant based made sense for me. If that was something, and if I can have a mostly alkaline diet, then I'm creating an alkaline environment inside of my body.
And that's not [00:49:00] conducive to Cancer cells thriving. So I'm like, let me just focus on what you want. And I want to have, I want to have an environment that's, I want to have a body that's more alkaline. So I'm just going to eat more plants, right? And so that's what I'm doing. And I love it. And my body, and so that also, vegan plant based mint.
No more dairy or any of that for me. And I can't specifically say any one thing that contributed because I'm telling you, I did all these things. Again, holistically as a whole approach, my gut health, and I'm also, I'm doing the inner work. So I'm journaling. I'm doing the shadow work. I'm doing all the things right.
And and look, I'll tell you another thing too, because this just popped into my head. Another thing I was really dealing with back again, the teen years, the, um, into, into early adulthood and just in [00:50:00] beyond and into that was feminine. The feminine reproductive, all of this stuff. So I was having my menstrual cramps were so severe.
And I know, um, even as early as in college, I would sometimes not even be able to go to class because the cramps would be so bad. And I was often getting, uh, urinary tract infections, bladder infections, or BV, or any of these other sorts of things that were going on, yeast infections, things that are not pleasant.
If you're a female and you've had one, you know it's not fun to have. And I was getting them, I feel like, often. And also, if I think about the time between, you know, graduating high school and then the two years. Before I met who I would go on to marry and have children with before divorcing, those two years when I became [00:51:00] really promiscuous, because again, I had no self worth, no idea of self love, and I just, that was who I was at the time.
And so, All of that stuff, again, I'm not making the connection at the time that these things manifesting in my body are also just look at my lifestyle and look at the environment, look at what I'm creating, right? So when you, when I, made all these adjustments and started looking at the whole picture and changed the way that I'm, you know, how I'm protecting my own energy, setting boundaries, journaling, meditating, breath work, yoga practice, walking, being in nature, doing all the things and right.
And changing these limiting beliefs into realizing that I don't have to know I can survive without these medicines. I don't have to have them. And. Y'all it's happened. And so [00:52:00] now happier and healthier than ever haven't taken anything in over six years. Again, like 72 maybe hours of feeling unwell and six and a half years.
My I have such a healthy relationship with my womb. Now, my cycles are regular. They're beautiful. They're pain free. They are wonderful. I'm not having any of the female issues anymore. I'm not having any of the chronic back pain. I've got, like I said, practicing contortion now and all of this flexibility that is just heart opening.
And it's electrifying in my body when I am able to Go into a full wheel and grab onto my ankles and then ground down into my heels and press my hips forward and straighten my legs and lift my heart. And I'm [00:53:00] imagining it as I'm doing it and lift my heart and open my heart. Oh my gosh. When, when that connection happens and when I'm able to open up that space, it is like, It is electrifying the way that I can feel all of the energy in my body moving around in this body that there was a time I was just felt restriction and I felt pain and I felt anger and I felt mad and I felt sad and I felt anxious and and I felt trapped and I felt all of these things and now I feel freedom and I feel health and I feel space and I feel relaxed and it's, [00:54:00] it's a really beautiful feeling and I want you to know that this is possible, that it doesn't matter how bad you think you are in this Point, like how much you're hurting, how, what your diagnosis is, what your, doesn't matter.
You, 100 percent in this amazing, incredible Phenomenal, mind blowing, exceptional human body that you have that is capable of healing itself and that is capable of doing things that you really can barely even wrap your mind around. Y'all, you can do it. You can do it. And you, There is light on the other side of this.
So if you're feeling pain, if you're feeling discomfort, if you're feeling like [00:55:00] whatever, if you're, you're feeling, if your health isn't the best in whatever, I just want you to hear this, that look at the whole person, look at the whole thing, look at the mind, look at the body, look at the spirit, look at the emotions, look at the environment, look at everything because it all contributes.
And if something manifest in your physical body, that is. is letting you know that there is some sort of imbalance in your emotional or energetic body. And it is trying, your body is trying to get your attention and your body is speaking to you and listen to your body and And understand, don't get angry with your body.
Listen, speak to your body. What are you telling me? What do you want me to hear? What do I need to know? And listen and take action. And there might [00:56:00] be some things that you need to cut out of your life. Maybe some people, maybe some foods, maybe some drinks, maybe some substances, maybe some habits, maybe some, I don't know.
You do though. There might be some things you need to cut out of your life. And if you resist doing this, and it's what. needs to actually be done. Whatever it is, the, on the other side of that, however, that's manifesting in your life, you not getting rid of it, it's going to, it's going to persist. It will continue to show up until you cut out that thing that you need to cut out.
And on the other side of that, there may be some things in your life that you need to add. Maybe you're not Going for those morning walks or evening walks, or maybe you're not getting out into nature, or maybe you need to add meditation, or maybe you need to add journaling, like maybe there's [00:57:00] something you need to add.
Or maybe if we're talking about taking away, maybe your space is cluttered. Maybe you need to declutter the space because it's cluttering your mind. Like as above, so below, as within, so without, like, like it, it's, there's, it's, the answers are all there and the answers are all within and you already have the answers and you can heal your body.
Not if you don't believe you can. But if you believe you can, you got to start there. You got to start with the belief that I am ready to believe something new. I am ready to experience something new. I am ready to heal in a brand new way. Your body's capable. It's kind of just waiting on you to be like, all right, let's do something new.
Let's [00:58:00] rewire those, you know, brain neuro pathways. Let's like get some new stuff going on. Let's get some new energy flow and let's get some new thoughts thinking. You can do it friends. So I'm going to. I don't know. I think I've been talking a little longer than maybe I thought I would when I hopped on, but I hope that you got something out of this because this is really important.
I know we're going to be diving into this more later. I'm sure having some incredible guests who can support what I'm saying here in one way or another, and it's going to be great. I've got blog posts on this. I've got Instagram posts on this. I talk more about this quite often. Maybe I'll link some of it down here in the show notes.
And I hope that you got something out of this, friends. And, uh, I'll I'll see you next time. Bye. [00:59:00] That was a story, right? We went deep with that. We went far back with that. We went everywhere with that. And guess what? I remembered something after I wrapped it up and I wanted to throw it in there because I feel like it's relevant.
Two things, actually. One thing that I was truly suffering from for a while there, years, was something called like dermatillomania, which is basically skin picking. But I was doing this, this is a condition where you're like compulsively picking at your skin and the injuries from it are usually a cause of stress or mental disorders or anxiety, things like that.
And I was doing it on my scalp. I was picking my scalps, sores all over, like, and it hurt. And I was embarrassed to go get a haircut [01:00:00] or anything like that, right? Because it was like all under my hair, my whole scalp was covered. And I just picked and picked and picked and picked and picked and picked at it.
And, and it was, it was compulsive. And I was, Always picking at my skin and creating these sores and then just picking at them and reopening them and all that kind of stuff. So that is something that I was also suffering from that is no longer a thing in my life. And another thing, you know how I mentioned that in seventh grade.
So around the age of 11 is when I first started wearing glasses and contacts. And they say that as you get older, your eyesight naturally is going to get worse anyway. And I am where you can see close up, but I needed glasses or contacts to help me see far away. [01:01:00] And what I was always told is like, naturally your, your eyesight's going to As you get older, it will naturally become worse.
And here's the thing, here's the really fun, exciting, amazing thing about the human body and everything. I decided again that I wanted to heal my body holistically and take this holistic approach. And for the last four years in a row, When I have gone to my annual eye doctor appointment for my checkup to get a new prescription, whatever, guess what?
My prescription has improved. It has gotten better every year for the last four years in a row. The first year, one I improved. The second year, the other I improved. Caught up, then they were on the same prescription. And [01:02:00] the next year, I no longer needed a prescription for my astigmatism. And then the following year, both eyes improved, not at the same rate.
One improved more than the other. Here we are. That's four years in a row. I'm excited to go back this year. Like, I don't have expectations. But I'm like, wouldn't it be fun to be five years in a row? Right? Wouldn't it be fun? So I'm just, I want to mention that because it's important and it's, I want you to hear it.
And I forgot to mention it while we were recording. I'll put everything else in the show notes. See you next time. Bye.
Thank you for tuning in to Dreamed It Then Real Lifed It. I hope today's episode sparked something powerful within [01:03:00] you. Remember, every step you take towards your vision counts, no matter how small. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please take a second to hit that subscribe button or leave a review.
That would be amazing. Or share the podcast with someone who's ready to bring their dreams into reality too. And if you're looking to dive deeper, connect with me on social media at dreameditthenreallifedit or at B E underscore what you want, or visit dreameditthenreallifedit. us for more resources on aligning your life, business, and dreams.
Until next time, keep dreaming and keep manifesting your dreams into real life. [01:04:00] Love you, friends.
