This is the story of my incredible journey with BodyTalk. A few years ago (2-1/2 to be exact), I found myself with some interesting dilemmas. I was a 38-year-old mother of 9 with a full-time job, a part-time job, and a few failed businesses under my belt for the record, and I was living under a cloud of a significant depression that felt like I wasn't me. I had no idea whatsoever of what to do about anything. I was struggling, more like panicking, to keep my head above water. I didn't have the time I so wanted to spend with my family, and my relationship with my husband was becoming more and more negative. I kept telling myself that if I could just solve the money issues, everything in my life would be fixed.
I didn't really think of myself as being in poor physical health, but I was at least 30 pounds overweight and completely unable to lose more than 5 pounds... EVER... no matter what. I NEVER had time to work out, I got rated up for a life insurance policy because of elevated cholesterol, my thyroid was low-functioning and, due to PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), my hormonal system was so wacked out that I had to use progressively more fertility treatments to get all of my babies after the first one. I was a picture of perfect health. NOT!
It was about this time that I experienced Divine Intervention in my life. By some quirky fate, my husband ended up going back to school to finish his degree. Since he had a full class load and a full-time job, he couldn't always attend all of his classes, so I frequently attended in his place to turn in papers and take notes, etc. I found myself in the midst of a class taught by Barbara Lockhart called Mind, Body, Spirit Wellness. She brought in several guest speakers on different alternative modalities, and I was intrigued that they all swore by their particular modality, yet they were all different. I started to wonder what they had in common, and realized that the bottom line was energy.
In discussing what I was learning with a dear friend, she suggested I go see her sister who "does BodyTalk." Since I was super intrigued by what I had been studying, and not having anything to lose, I decided to give it a try, mostly in the spirit of trying to be open-minded about something completely foreign to anything I had learned growing up. I remember that day like it was yesterday, and it changed my life profoundly forever.
Some of the first issues that were addressed in those initial BodyTalk sessions were related to grieving the loss of my ideal life of being able to stay home with my children after realizing I was going to likely have a job until the day I die, as well as anxiety and fear related to when our house was in foreclosure. Anger over my current situation was a big problem for me that I had previously had no way to deal with before BodyTalk. The practitioner that I was seeing was incredible, and I began to learn about intuition as I observed her work. As I drove away from her house, I felt a sense of relief, as if a huge burden had lifted, but I was curious to see if it would last or if it was just a transient mood change. During that following week, I was surprised to notice that I felt more like me again. It had been so long since I had been able to think clearly, that was so relieved. My husband even asked me why I was different. Those first BodyTalk sessions were literally crisis management as we began the process of peeling off the layers of faulty belief systems that I had, over time, adopted as truth.
Once the initial crisis had been averted, my BodyTalk sessions shifted to more of a health maintenance theme, as I managed carpal tunnel symptoms from my transcription job and leg edema from sitting all day typing. We continued to peel away emotional and mental baggage, going deeper to the root causes of my physical symptoms.
After awhile, my practioner mentioned that she felt like I was really ready to start making some BIG changes. I thought that was pretty funny because the progress I had already made was still hard for me to wrap my brain around. I invited her to bring it on, though, as I was curious to see what would happen if we pulled out all the stops. I had NO idea.
Priorities like insulin resistence started to come up, and I started to learn more about nutrition. Since I had worked out many of the emotional reasons that I ate badly, I was able to completely change my diet without any difficulty whatsoever and make the lifestyle changes necessary to improve my health. Over the course of a few weeks to a few months, I dropped the 30 pounds like a rock that I had struggled with all those years, since the underlying reasons my body held onto that weight were no longer issues for me. Within 5 weeks, my cholesterol dropped in half, and my thyroid kicked back in. I felt like I was living a dream as I watched with my very eyes my body heal itself as we addressed the emotional stresses in my life one by one.
We also began exploring why I thought like I did about money and what was keeping me from being able to succeed at the different things I had tried. As we worked out some of those kinks in my brain, things started to shift in that area as well. I realized what a workaholic I had become and that I was compulsive about always having my time completely filled. I gradually started getting my life back, as well as my ability to function as a wife and mother again.
Since I was feeling better, I started to run around my block and then around my neighborhood. The thing that surprised me was that I didn't hate it. I actually kinda enjoyed it. My husband suggested I run a 5K, which is about the last thing I had ever thought I would want to do, but I DID IT!!! And I didn't die. My sister called and asked if I would want to run the Ragnar Relay on her team, and I said, "Absolutely not!" But then I began to wonder if I could do it. So I DID IT!!! With my new feeling of well-being and my new overall level of fitness, the old me was fading fast.
Then I had the surprise of a lifetime. One morning I felt a lump in my lower abdomen that I thought was kind of weird, though I was still getting used to my new body and what it was like to live in it. With my history of infertility, I brushed it aside, realizing that I hadn't been sick at all, and I wasn't tired, so it was highly improbable that I could be pregnant; however, I also acknowledged all the other aspects of my body, mind, and spirit that were seemingly righting themselves, so I finally took THE TEST. It was positive! It was such a miracle!
Around this time, I decided to start taking some of the classes for certification as a BodyTalk practitioner, mostly so I could help take care of my own family. I began practicing on my immediate family and then my extended family. As I approached certification, other people started coming out of the woodwork with issues they needed to resolve, first friends and then people I didn't even know. In all of their cases, the challenges were complicated, and BodyTalk was their best shot.
Today, I am continuing my own journey to wellness, always curious about what will come next. I also love being able to help teach other people about health and the roles that the body, mind, and spirit play in achieving optimal well-being. Every day I thank my Divine Intelligence for His hand in my life at just the right moment. I am so grateful for my challenges because they are what have helped me to learn and grow. Without them, I would not have been looking for and would not have found this wealth of knowledge I have gained and that can bless the lives of many, many others.
