I am no stranger to health Challenges or...

Lydia's Cancer Journey 2024

I am no stranger to health challenges or dis-ease in the body. I seem to have been born with illness attached to me like a nametag…but…I was also born a healer. A strong desire to help others is what drove me to become a registered nurse and later to seek further training and certification as a board certified health coach. 

My desire to help others in their own healing journeys comes deeply from my own and learning what it takes for a human to heal on a deep level: body, mind, and spirit. I recognize that healing is more than being free of illness or dis-ease. 

It means being deeply connected to the core of who we each are and moving through life with confidence, love, radiance and peace. It involves living from a place of authenticity, wholeness, and connectedness. My last health battle taught me so many things. One of the greatest was the importance of using my voice, speaking up when something wasn’t right, sharing my story and challenging outdated and deeply conditioned ways of thinking and being.

I also learned to connect deeper to my own emotions and through that I came to see that tough emotions are normal and acceptable to experience. Having highs and lows is part of being human and that is all a part of living on this planet in a human body. All of our experiences teach us and grow us in various ways. Life is the greatest teacher when we choose to see it that way and listen to the lessons we get to take away from whatever we encounter.

Experiencing tough or heavy emotions is nothing to be ashamed of. Where we get ourselves in trouble is shutting down our emotions, numbing them, or ignoring them. I did this for many years, decades even. It separated me from deep, authentic connections with others and limited me in working through the things that were so painful from my past. We were created as beings that experience and feel emotions. Emotions are what help us connect with and form bonds with each other. 

Empathy is a gift and compassion is a noble quality. 

Our emotions are what separate us from computers. A human without emotions is a robot, a droid or a being devoid of it’s humanity. We must learn to identify, express, validate, and get curious about our own emotions first in order to connect deeply with others in the same. It takes great courage to show up and declare who we truly are to the world. When we live from a place of authenticity and vulnerability, we show that we are connected to our humanity and the core essence of who we each are. That is a practice worth pursuing to add meaning and understanding to life.