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I suppose my story began with some eye problems at 17.
I had always been a fussy eater and then when I started working, a smoker and drinker too. A hairdresser by trade, meant late nights, early mornings, coffee, on my feet all day and I LOVED IT!
But it didn't like me.
Uveitis, I was told by the Consultant, was an autoimmune disease. (My eye had flared up. Painful, red and sensitive to light.) He said "It may never return or it will continue to, for the rest of your life." That's it. No explanation as to why this was happening at such a young age.
Return it did. and it kept returning until eventually I had such a bad attack at 23 that I lost the vision in my left eye. Then a cataract??? Surely that was an old person thing, yes? Apparently caused by a huge amount of topical steroids and steroid injections. Nice!
The GP and Consultant didn't seem that interested in how to support my health other than to give me drugs and interventions.
Time for action!
I started researching...
Stop smoking
Eat better
Sleep better
Reduce stress
So I did. I got healthy. I began to discover Reiki and Holistic Health. Read a lot of books and particularly Louise L. Hay - You can Heal your Life. She succinctly explained how our emotions and thoughts can create dis-ease in our body. Fascinating stuff to me!
Little did I know it, my journey had begun!
Life kept spinning. The stress thing was the hardest EVER to get to grips with and whenever something happened I'd hit the bottle. I was SO good at that. Despite all I had learned, I always chose the easy option.
I constantly dipped in and out of healthy practices. A splurge and purge type lifestyle, so things were very up and down. Big periods of illness and then a complete turn around. I worked too much, I wasn't looking after my relationships, I was preaching but not practicing.
Fast forward a few more years. Huge fall out with family. My Dad died. Depression that I totally ignored. My solution....BOOZE of course! Silly girl.
My life unraveled. Marriage issues. Arguments. Anxiety. More depression and more booze.
Until I bagged myself another autoimmune disease. A big one this time. Knocked me off my feet.
Racing heart
Anxiety
Fatigue
Tremor
Weight loss
More eye issues
Muscle weakness
Mood swings
I once heard it described as PMT, dementia and personality disorder rolled in to one! My then Husband agreed. Because, you guessed it. My marriage later broke down too.
It changed me as a person. I was angry, irritable, aggressive, forgetful, tearful, fatigued, not coping. At one point I even had a tick and a stutter. I couldn't process my thoughts, emotions, anything.I was in total overdrive, It was not easy living. Time to reset.
I was lucky enough to take time out from my job to get sorted. I took my life and health on as a project. What wasn't I seeing? How could I improve? What could I do to get better?
AIP protocol
Rest, And lots of it
Walked
Read.
I wrote words again and created stories.
I took photographs.
I reconnected to my childhood self. I returned to what made my heart sing. I simplified my life.
What happened after that? My choices became more conscious. I took decisions based on my own health and well-being. I began to live my life for me. I discovered what I loved again and I began developing a Spiritual practice. Yoga and meditation.
Those moments in the stillness of the morning became my sane place. I began conversations with myself via journaling, pulling oracle cards and generally leaning in to my inner guidance. This led me to deeper and richer experiences. I began attending women's circles and meditation events.
Then I was called to Kundalini Yoga. Out of nowhere this practice hit me. Everything I had been missing.
The inner fire
The confidence
The release.
It was absolutely amazing!
I filled my cup. I absorbed all I could and I went for the training.
A whole year of self-study and boy did it change my life! Such deep and powerful release. Slowly and with subtlety my life began to change.
Some people I know would say I took the wrong road, the hard route. That I was selfish in my decisions, that yoga had "changed me" I even got told that it was like being in a cult! But despite the sharp changes and twists and turns, I was happy. it felt like I was on the right road.
I was stronger.
More myself.
Able to speak more strongly and clearly.
Since then, I have been able to take more risks, I have trusted my inner guidance, I have connected to my Soul and forged along it's path, not the one of my ego.
I am not at all saying this is the path for everyone, What I am saying is, we need to listen.
We need to go deeper in to the ROOT causes of our dis-ease and state of mind. We need to reconnect to our deeper self to start to understand ourselves better.
In my work now I use all the tools I have at my disposal.
Reiki
Massage
Breathwork
Kundalini Yoga
Yin Yoga
Restorative Yoga
All sorts of meditation techniques
When I work with someone, not only do I listen to what they are telling me, I listen to the things they aren't telling me.
The things people DON'T say are often the most important.
I use my own experiences of illness, addiction, depression and recovery to tune in and help guide a process for healing and restoration for my clients.
Why? Because I wish I had experienced this type of guidance when I had started my journey.
It has been a long, and often difficult road. It doesn't have to be that way.
With the right tools and guidance, life can become more in tune, in flow, more aligned to your Soul path, without pushing against the tide.
My aim is always to:
Empower you to make conscious decisions for your own life
Create balance and inner strength.
Help to connect you to your authentic self
Support you on your Souls journey.
With light and divine love
Emma