I had always thought of myself as pretty healthy: I went to the doctor for my annual checkup; I wasn’t overweight and had regular blood pressure; I rarely caught the flu. I thought the symptoms I experienced were normal, just part of life.

• My period pain was debilitating. My cramps were so bad they would make me vomit; I would have to leave work or class to go home and lay in my bed curled in the fetal position for a day, sometimes two.

• I had heart palpitations. My mom said the “flip flop heart” just ran in the family.

• I had tinnitus, which I chalked up to my college years spent on the front row at rock concerts. 

• My nose ran and my eyes watered most of the day; I always had a crumpled tissue in my pocket.

• I dreaded the sound of the alarm in the morning because I never felt like I had gotten enough sleep. I struggled to get to work on time because I hit the snooze button until the last possible minute. I couldn’t imagine a morning where I felt rested when the sun was just coming up.

These may seem like minor complaints, and they really are compared to what so many others experience. But it wasn’t until I began making subtle changes to my lifestyle and my routine and all these symptoms went away that I realized how much better I could have been feeling, and that these symptoms didn’t have to exist for me.

I am establishing a more consistent morning and evening routine, carving out more time for movement and meditation, and cleaning up my diet and the products I used both on my body and in my home. I am making energetic changes to my home that make it a place of nurturance and support. I use present tense here because they are not actions I did once or already perfected. Wellness is a daily journey; I am continuously applying new knowledge to my own life. 

Now my periods are regular, light, and painless. I no longer have heart palpitations, tinnitus, or allergies. And while I still have occasional bouts of insomnia, I can pinpoint the events that trigger them and wake up with the sun most mornings feeling energized, and that energy lasts me through the day.

What got me here? What propelled me forward to make these changes?

My life’s work, since childhood, has been rooted in my Christian faith that expresses itself in a drive to better care for the earth, others, my family, and myself. This spurred a deep curiosity around what drives our health and how to be a helper to others.

The Care Bears themselves couldn’t have built a better resume, working the past twenty years for organizations called “Interfaith Care Alliance”, “The Samaritan Center for Counseling and Pastoral Care”, “Texans Care for Children”, “The Children and Families Council”, “The Center to Eliminate Health Disparities”, “The Center for Global Health Education”, and “The Department of Family Medicine”.

And yet, it has not been my education or work experience that has shaped my life the most or that has helped me help myself. My true superpower is manifesting and visioning the life I want to have and the way I want to feel. My jobs, home, husband, hobbies, and travels all started as doodles, prayers, and wish lists.

But let me be clear. My symptoms did not go away because I wished them away. They went away without my even noticing at first, the more I deeply desired and leaned about how to care for myself. It has been a continuous process of examining and refining, accumulating and letting go, making small changes, and biting small pieces off the next big goal.