🌁 The Trip Back Home

This newsletter is going to get really personal.

One thing I don't talk about too much is how the neurodegenerative prion disease CJD has affected my life & family for the past 20 years.

I could bore you with the details of how it's genetic in my family, what we've had to go through, and yadda yadda. But there's a lesson here to unpack. Several, in fact.

The main lesson here is that time passes and you need to build the thing anyway.

Even though it will take a long time and dedication, if it's on your heart, you need to DO IT.

Because now, we're talking about CURES

There could still be disappointment ahead, but we are now talking about possible clinical diagnoses and treatment options for the first time!

20 years ago, I had hope but no promise of either.

What does this have to do with mind-body wellness?

Everything.

🦄 You will meet your destiny at some point. And it won't be sunshine and unicorns.

It may SUCK. It may break you, challenge you, melt your mind, and batter your heart. At that moment, where will you pull from? Where will you find your strength? What framework will guide you calmly through the hard times? What belief system?

Don't be a hero; you don't have to go it alone.

🏠 You'll endure the trials of life much better with a strong foundation.

For me, that's yoga, meditation, Reiki, and personal development. It's having both a strong mindset and a solid meditation practice. It's hitting the mat to do yoga—while also taking my yoga off the mat. It's building a life full of purpose and meaning.

I dove into yoga at the time my mom died in 2004 and it was the thing I leaned on to get me through.

Now, it's 20 years later and I'm a yoga teacher talking about the CURE for CJD. I'm also participating in it! 👇

Talk about time passing and building the whole way through... Wow! Just wow! 🤩

I wish I could say I'd reached that sage level of Santosha, or contentment while enduring this battle for 20 years.

I wish I could say my on-the-mat yoga practices were blissful, graceful, and beautiful like those 20-something Instagram yogis make them out to be. (Instead, they're sweaty, awkward, clumsy, and limited daily by the boundaries of my spine).

I wish I could say I relax into hours of meditation, slipping into "the gap" with ease like a Himalayan monk.

I wish I could say my life coach mindset was pure and perfect without a single doubt creeping in.

But these wellness practices are just that—practices.

They've made all the difference for me through all seasons of my life so far, even as imperfect as they are. For that, I am grateful.

How do you begin?

And now, the practice of yoga.

On my trip, I was able to practice yoga in the TSA line which felt like a cattle chute. I was able to breathe my way through a spinal tap, the mapping of my eyeballs, and a long trip into the MRI machine...

And for 20 years, I have somehow held an optimistic mindset that we will cure this thing.

Yet I didn't make it my purpose. I didn't blow up my life to do this. That was a conscious choice. I do know people who blew up their whole lives to cure this thing and I have nothing but respect and admiration for them.

But I knew that wasn't for me. I knew I had a different purpose (and set of purposes) to live out on this Earth.

This is where you begin.

You begin by finding your purpose(s). This is a journey in itself. This is where the wheel of fortune turns and purposes are ever changing.

You are ever-changing.

My purpose in 2007 is hardly what it is now in 2024. This is a beautiful thing.

If you feel down about life, unsure of your purpose, and sort of lost—I promise it will get better. It always gets better. The time will pass anyway on your journey out, so use it to build.

I'm here to help you with my tools: yoga, Reiki, & meditation.

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