I've always been a bit of a wellness geek. Wellness in its many forms, but especially ocean swimming, yoga, meditation, nutrition and all things outdoors. I've befriended plants since I was old enough to explore the woods surrounding my childhood Northern California home, and I strive to foster that symbiotic relationship to this day. I also hold a forever fondness for food. I love growing it, preparing it, sharing it, and of course eating it. That is, until I got sick.
Being sick changed my relationship with many things, and the first of them was food. I couldn’t metabolize anything. My body went into long-term ketosis, even while there was nothing left to burn. I was forced to change my (already) healthy diet, exercise, and everyday activities, and my mind became fully occupied with doctor appointments, samples and tests, procedures and seemingly shot-in-the-dark diagnoses. I went from wanting meditation to needing it, sometimes for hours at a time, in order to control the pain. I couldn’t perform basic tasks like picking my kids up from school or going to the farmers market, let alone the larger and ongoing demands of myriad life hats. I had to stop being a perfectionist and start asking for help. I felt useless and helpless and scared, while depression and anxiety made themselves at home. If it weren’t for the love and support of my family, I don’t think I would have gotten out of bed for a solid year.
Before this all started, I hadn't consulted a physician for decades, excepting the routine well checks and occasional flu shot. I certainly hadn't explored the endless labyrinth of medical specialists - the blind spots, the intersections, the false starts and dead ends. I needed a crash course in insurance authorization, emergency room benefits, and inevitable waitlist navigation. I quickly discovered that most doctor visits chalk up to about 5 minutes of face time after 45 minutes of lobby time after weeks if not months of scheduling time. So I crafted and re-crafted a 60-second synopsis of symptoms, triggers, theories and diagnostics - a haystack of information reduced to a single straw, recited time and time again. It was draining in all the ways - physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually. And to think that we experience our broken system of healthcare when we need it most - when we are already in a state of compromised health. It's exacerbating and confounding, to say the least.
It was during these years that I dove deeper and deeper into complementary medicine. I had always promised myself I'd do post-graduate work once my kids were in high school and college. Given my lifelong interest in natural wellness, further underscored as I experienced health challenges myself, nutrition and herbalism felt like the obvious path. I began taking baby steps. I became a certified Culinary Nutrition Expert, dove into myriad herbalism and botany courses, renewed my decades-old Yoga Teacher Certification, and began to explore in-depth modalities I hadn't even known existed. Only then did I commit to completing the years of required coursework, clinical hours, mentorships and board exams that have formalized my credentials.
And that, my Sage community, is how I got here. I hope by putting myself and my story out there, that you’ll be compelled to enlist me in your own journey to whole-person health. Thank you sincerely for visiting.
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