Pain and inflammation came in like a wrecking ball, limiting movement, disrupting sleep, depleting energy and rendering me nearly disabled. This was 2016 and my introduction to rheumatoid arthritis autoimmune disease.

The onset was so quick and debilitating, I wondered if life would be worth living again.

Thoughts turned over in my mind: “Is pain and suffering what life had come to? What about plans to travel? What about the freedom years?” I don’t know exactly what day it was, but one of those rock-bottom days, curled up in pain, I MADE A DECISION: I was going to do everything I could to get my life and freedom back again. Disability and pain were NOT how I wanted to spend my life!

Blending Science & Spirituality

Being an engineer, I put engineering problem solving and project management skills to work and began researching how to heal rheumatoid arthritis as naturally as possible. I knew that meds and the side effects that went with them would be an absolute last resort.

Knowing stress had been a big trigger, it made sense to evaluate stress in my life. Also knowing that food had the power to harm and the power to heal, I experimented with what I ate and how I ate. Stories of healing became my inspiration. New lifestyle choices were made, and symptoms were monitored, tracked, charted and graphed, trusting my body and my inner wisdom to guide me in the right direction.

Week by week I began to improve. Knowing that there was something I COULD DO to help alleviate the symptoms, moved me from feeling like a victim to being in charge of my healing. What a feeling of empowerment!

My Healing Journey

Over the next weeks and months and years, I continued on my quest for health, trying different changes, tracking symptoms, and healing. I discovered functional medicine and got down to root causes. Mind-body medicine and neuroscience were fascinating to me and I began to harness the incredible power of the mind in healing. I realized how a lifetime of perfectionism and people-pleasing had impacted my health, physically and emotionally. Old habits and thinking had to be released.

I am still a work in progress, but as long as I listen to my body and provide the right environment, I am pain-free and vibrant … with no medications!

During my healing journey, I became so passionate about helping other people that I decided to become a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach and a Certified Yoga Teacher.

My journey was a long one, but now I KNOW how to simplify and speed up that journey. I have a system that can help people to calm inflammation and pain faster and with more clarity so that they can get on with living the life of freedom they dream of too. Helping other people is my new passion and purpose.