Toxins on the Inside, Toxins on the Outside
Recently I have been interviewed by many on social networks about the fact that I am healing breast cancer naturally. An image that appears for me during these interviews is that of a red STOP sign. The cancer diagnosis stopped me in my tracks. It basically said: Stephanie: STOP! Stop everything you have been doing. Relationships, diet, work, lifestyle, even the city I was living in. It all needed to change. For years I had known I needed to leave Los Angeles, but with the breakdown of my marriage, and being a parent to two boys, I didn’t know where to go. The diagnosis forced me to make changes that had long needed to be made. My spirit was suffering, I was suffering, my body was suffering. As Dr. Joe Dispenza says, in order to wake up, sometimes you need a wake-up call! Cancer was most definitely that for me.
In retrospect, I am grateful for the diagnosis. It hasn’t been easy, no way, no how, but it has given me the life I needed to experience. Before the diagnosis, or “BC” as I like to call it, I was eating pork, sugar, fried foods, gluten, and cow dairy (still), living two minutes away from my ex (so my boys would still be close to me), living in a city (Los Angeles) I had come to loathe for its traffic and poor air quality, working non-stop doing work that I loved, but that took far too much of me. The cost of living was so high in LA I wasn’t saving anything. In addition to my Sacred Business coaching practice, I worked part-time with my superfoods business. I had made a lot of dietary changes, was doing regular cleanses but the old habits lingered. What I have since learned is the whole terrain of my body, within and the outer terrain of my lifestyle, needed a massive shift. The detox had to go deeper and needed to be on the within and the without.
After the diagnosis or “AD” as I like to call it, brought a move north to Washington State to live near family, deep in the heart of nature. While the decision was gut-wrenching as it meant I had to leave my children in LA with their father, I had to prioritize myself in order to heal. I couldn’t stay in LA and heal my body. I knew I had to make a drastic change. The separation and divorce had become acrimonious and I didn’t realize just how much it had been affecting me. I always endeavored to maintain an upbeat vibe but I had to admit, trying to be my ex’s friend wasn’t working, and I was putting energy into a relationship that wasn’t working, even after years of doing that in the marriage.
I stopped my work as a Sacred Business Coach. While I had thrived in this capacity for many years and experienced great success, I knew I had to let it go. I released all my clients, somehow knowing I wouldn’t be back to that line of work and I was right. As much as I loved business coaching solo and mompreneurs, I love the health coaching I do combined with the business strategy for the men and women on my superfoods team, and this has become my main business love and source of income.
My path is my own and it will of course look different for you, would you find yourself with a cancer diagnosis. Bottom line: a cancer diagnosis (or any serious health diagnosis) is an opportunity to take a really clear look at what is and is not working in your life, how you are choosing to nourish yourself and how you would like to go about healing your body. In each of these matters, I encourage you to gather those around you that you trust and that love you unconditionally. Listen to your heart, defer to your own inner authority and find the path that works for you.
