I can’t believe it’s been almost three years since I’ve written on my blog and been actively involved on a regular basis with Embracing Health.
The time has passed both in a flash, and in some ways it feels like forever and that Embracing Health was in a previous life. And in some really significant ways, it was. I’m not the same person I was in 2016. For a long time, I wasn’t sure if I would pick my business back up again, and I thought I might walk away from naturopathy and healing work forever. Since I was very young, I’ve been passionate about natural medicine, detoxification, healing, personal development, mind-body medicine, spirituality and the integration of all of these to assist in overcoming disease and living the best quality of health and life possible.
I’ve worked with thousands of people over the years, mainly in retreat settings where we get to go deep, and to witness the results – at times miraculous results – has been nothing short of amazing. The courageous people who embark on a healing path that is not easy and takes willingness and dedication, is inspiring and humbling. It is a privilege to be involved in sharing life-changing experiences with people, and the hundreds of glowing testimonials I’ve received over the years gives me the confirmation that the work I do is worthwhile.
My personal journey has not been an easy one and those that have attended the Embracing Health Retreats or heard my talk on The Emotional Aspects of Healing, know that there have been many challenging patterns in my life that I’ve worked hard to overcome. And in so many ways I did! I had a wonderful business that allowed me to travel and do work that I love with fantastic people, a loving and endlessly supportive husband, great friends, a niece and nephew I adored, financial success, a beautiful acreage to develop into a food forest and an exciting future to look forward to.
Then 2017 happened. I had four major life-changing events occur within a short period of time, that completely took me out. Most people would only have to ever deal with one of these in their lifetime, so for the convergence of four highly stressful and traumatic events to happen the way they did – there was something pretty major going on. I’m not ready to write about these yet. I will soon, as I believe that what I’ve gone through has the potential to touch a lot of people, but there are few loose ends I need to tie up first before I am at the point where it feels like the closure is complete and I can share.
To be honest, I’ve been in survival mode for over two years, and for a long time I didn’t really know whether I would survive or not. That sounds very melodramatic, but the trauma was that deep. Part of that has been clearing ancestral patterns and breaking lifetimes of generational trauma – when I say that I’m not the same person any more, that is not just a figure of speech.
Now I’m at the point where I feel like I’m “in recovery” and that is a really positive place to be. Although I don’t have any major health issues, I don’t think anyone can go through the stress that I’ve been under, without having the physical body affected. To that end, I have some level of fatigue – it’s not too bad considering, but it means I need to pace myself when it comes to exercise and getting myself back in shape after two years of sitting behind a computer 16 hours a day and not moving. Of course, my adrenal and thyroid systems have been challenged, and the most obvious change is weight gain. My digestive system isn’t perfect, and I have some inflammation in my body – but these are all reversible and I’m at the point where I am starting to relish the challenge of healing myself. My passion for healing is coming back tenfold, and my first (and most difficult, lol) patient, is myself.
So, what does my recovery look like? Basically, it’s just getting back to the roots of what I know works and making my health the priority over other aspects of my life.
Food-wise I know what works for my body and that is a plant-based program that is high in fruit and greens. The goal is massive nutrition and nutritional saturation, and the elements needed to heal and move waste out of the body are those found in plant-based foods. I won’t be juice fasting for any extended amounts of time, just short three-day fasts and then high quantities of living foods, green smoothies, juices and superfoods to support the healing processes.
My digestion hasn’t been the best with lots of bloating and I can almost guarantee I have some type of parasite… Seeing as I kiss my dogs, horses and birds all the time (!) chances are that something is going on! I will do a stool test to find out exactly what I’m dealing with, but regardless, I’m starting a 100-day parasite cleanse that also deals with mold and bad bacteria. The 100 days will take me right through to my November Retreat in Bali which is perfect timing! If anyone wants to join me on that 100-day parasite cleanse just let me know and I’ll send you a protocol of what I’m taking over this time. Colonics will also be part of this program to really get the bowel clean.
I’m also taking some supplements and herbs. I don’t want to overload myself during the parasite cleanse, but there are a couple of areas that needs support – such as being high in copper and low in zinc which is an imbalance that needs correcting. I’m also oestrogen dominant which has changed my body shape and been a contributor to my weight gain – likely left over from the high dose hormones I injected when I was doing IVF a few years ago. I’m taking specific supplements to help detox that out through the liver. And then I’m adding in a couple of things like turmeric for inflammation and some thyroid support.
Yoga has been a turning point. The first thing that I did when I knew I was ready to dive into my recovery, was to start doing yoga again. I found a hot yoga class not too far from where I live and I’m doing three mornings a week there, and then in-between I’m doing some Synergy Yoga sessions at home. After being pretty sedentary for a long time, yoga has been the best thing to do to get back in touch with my body and to ground in to feeling what my body needs to heal. I can’t recommend yoga enough on the path to health.
Part of my regime also includes getting in my far infrared sauna on a regular basis and skin brushing to stimulate the lymphatic system.
We have a gym at home, so as I improve over the coming weeks I’m looking forward to getting back in the gym and increasing my fitness. This is the one thing that might take a bit more time as with adrenal fatigue, exercise can flatten me for a few days if I go too hard. I regularly walk our dogs around our property and some of those hills are steep so that is challenging enough for the moment!
And I spend a lot of time with my horses – we have four horses now with a foal due in two weeks. I bought a gorgeous big warmblood mare to ride and she’s about to spend few weeks with a wonderful trainer to do some work with her to make sure she’s ready for me to ride. Although I have a lot of riding experience, I’ve hardly ridden at all since my twenties and my confidence is gone! Once Bria has done a few weeks of intensive training I’ll go out and have some lessons and get a feel back for it. Once I’m confident again I’ll be riding several days a week and I can’t wait! We can ride for miles and miles where we live and I look forward to early morning rides to start the day.
So that’s what my recovery program is looking like at this stage 🙂 If I put my naturopath hat on, I can make a realistic estimation that to get back to a high level of health it may take me a year or more, but the exciting thing is that I’ve started, and it’s only upwards from here. In three months, I run my next Embracing Health Retreat in Bali, and I cannot wait to see how far I’m able to come in that time. My reward for making my health a priority is two weeks in beautiful Bali to top off all the good work I’ve done.
I’ll be sharing details of my journey on my blog, with information on the practices, foods, supplements, protocols, and lifestyle changes I’m implementing along the way.
Naturopathy has been my life for decades, it’s nice to have it back.
Leisa
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