ABOUT

I used to live like many people around me—going, going, going. Doing, doing, doing. From the moment my feet hit the floor to the moment I fell into bed at night. A flurry of activity. If ever there was the hamster wheel, I was on it and spinning hard. Squeezing the marrow out of each day. I thought that is what living is. Live life to its fullest. But...​that left me feeling exhausted and burned out, and a million miles from myself.  

 

In addition to my jobs, between 2-3 and up to as many as 5, I was a competitive athlete and used to pushing through the kind of pain most people think is crazy. Yup, that's what I did for fun. Instead of listening to my body's signals, I trained myself to tune it out and I kept on going.

 

After about 15 years of this lifestyle, I began to have chronic injuries that wouldn't heal, so I patched them up with tape and therapy and acupuncture, and modified my training.

And. Kept. Going.

​

Then came chronic infections. Always the same formula, that would level me for weeks. Fatigue. Nausea and GI symptoms. Sore throats that felt like swallowing barbed wire. Brain fog. Body aches.

But. I. Kept. Going. 

​

Then came multiple stressors: losing my dog and mom to cancer and my sister to suicide within 1.5 years, followed by being laid off from my job, a couple head injuries from unexpected car accidents and adopting a crazy puppy (I chose the puppy...).

 

For the first time in my life, I could not keep going. I pared down. I cut work in half. I stopped riding my bike. I stopped doing social things. I shrunk my world to the bare minimum. But that wasn't enough.

​

Eventually, I was unable to work. Unable to drive. In bed most days a week. I had trouble tolerating basic activities of daily living. I lost my spirit. I lost belief in my body's ability to heal. I lost hope. In life. 

​

It was in the depths of my despair, that I found a lifeline. A lifeline I created. Everything I had tried up until then (and I had tried A LOT OF THINGS) seemed so prescriptive, they were missing the most critical piece—ME.

I had to find a way to believe in myself, and that had to come from me. Honestly, most of my life I doubted myself more times that believed, so this was new. 

​

I started a morning practice and I started to peel back the layers of stories and beliefs around my illnesses. Feeling at times like I was in the belly of the beast. I started doing research, both in the literature around belief and the practices that I was adopting, and research on myself—going inward. I experimented with lots of different things and forged a path forward. And I started to hope. And then I started to heal.

 

This process began to build upon itself and things started to flow, so I started to uncover the stories and beliefs hiding out my whole life and directing my daily thoughts and choices. I opened up to acceptance and being vulnerable with myself, offering self-compassion and love to the parts that made me feel less than. 

 

What emerged through this three year process—which is still unfolding—is a foundation of belief in myself I refer to as my UnshakableMe, capable of all possibility. I have found freedom from the prisons of my mind. I replaced isolation and despair with joy, more joy than I have ever experienced in my life—and I've had a great life. I have found a deeper connection with myself than I ever imagined and it has strengthened my relationships in so many ways, even the challenging ones. I have found my voice—and I want to use it. I want to shout it from the mountaintops that we all have an UnshakableMe inside of us. It just may be hard to find. 

​

I am a completely different person than I was 10 years ago, 5 years ago, even than 3 years ago, and I am excited about what I am creating in this world. I don't need to go a million miles an hour. I don't want to be on the hamster wheel. To me, that isn't living.  I now slow down and savor this life where I have found such a deep connection.

 

I am a different kind of leader now than I was with the thousands of patients I helped heal from the physical, emotional, and psychological effects of injuries in my 25 years as an Occupational Therapist. I lead people to find their power in a world with so many forces wanting to take it. I help people connect to themselves so we can all connect to each other and this beautiful but sometimes brutal world we call home. I want to help people live with more joy and freedom and possibility.