My Story

 

For as long as I can remember, I've had an affinity for health related topics.  My sister reminded me of a time when I was 4 years old. I told her that the dark circles under her eyes were there because she didn't eat enough green food.  

I knew, early on, that healing energy flowed through me whenever the intention was there.

 

I spent my childhood playing barefoot in the summer with 6 other siblings.

 

One night, as my dad was leaving for work, I felt DREAD. I KNEW THAT I WOULD NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN. As the door closed behind him, I raced to the window to watch him walk down the porch steps. I ran to another window to watch him get into the car. Then another to watch him pull away. Then I raced upstairs to my bedroom. I dropped to my knees and begged GOD to spare him. "Take me instead," I prayed.

 

That next morning the call came. The sheriff picked my mother up to take her to the hospital. My father was killed in a car accident. I was 13 and couldn't wrap my head around all the unexplained knowing around his death.

 

As a teen, I became a long distance runner. I ran in high school and college.  Being a competitive athlete honed my skills and curiosity around peak performance.  Though I didn’t have a name for it at the time, I learned to do visualization and yoga postures to prepare my mind and body for races.   I experimented in the kitchen too.  I was the gal that peddled her signature wheat germ muffins.  Everyone that engaged in what I was up to had great poops!  

My early 20s were pretty dark. I abused drugs and alcohol and experimented with MANY risky behaviors.

By my mid 20's I managed to graduate with honors with a degree in nutrition and dietetics.

I felt back on track.

 

By the time I was in my mid thirties, I found myself a single mother of 4 children.  I managed 150 employees as a government department head in Parks and Recreation.  And, juggling all the tasks associated with keeping a house and caring for children.  

 

At 42, I crashed.  I crashed hard. I experienced weird episodes where I would pass out. My heart rate dropped and stayed below 30 BPM. I had only enough energy for my vital systems to keep me alive.  I literally couldn't talk during some of these crazy episodes.  

 

Western medical professionals were perplexed.  Myriad tests didn't reveal what was going on with me. I looked healthy.  One doctor told me to eat more salt.   Of course, that didn't resolve my problem.

 

The issue was an amalgam of stressors that had me severely depleted.  My batteries were empty. My body and mind, overwhelmed.  It seemed that overnight, my muscles turned to flab. I was sick!  But I didn't know how to turn things around.

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I was used to using coffee and exercise to "squeeze" more energy from myself. I abused alcohol as a way to stimulate adrenaline and to check out for a while. I used crazy depleting diets to control my weight. Thankfully, I found a couple of brilliant healers that worked WITH me. That's when I was able to start the slow, steady climb back to health.  

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I gave up most of my possessions. I didn’t have the bandwidth nor the finances to hold onto my 4-bedroom home.  I rented it out and found a small apartment that I could manage.   I relegated most of my children's care to their father.  It was a difficult time, physically, emotionally, and financially.

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I quit my job and worked full time as a yoga teacher.  In this role, I could work less and do something that I loved.  

Through trial and error, I found out how to grow my energy and how to deplete it.  I learned that my recovery was truly holistic. Anything that brought on too much stress for me sent me to the bed for 2-3 days. Everything mattered.

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If I ate anything that was artificial in the form of additives or preservatives, I crashed.

Processed food crashed me.

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I learned that there is a true hierarchy when it comes to sweeteners. If I ate anything with high fructose corn syrup or white sugar, I crashed. Honey and maple syrup in moderation seemed to be okay.

Real, organic, mostly plant-based foods had a healing effect. I got on a raw food kick and experienced how much energy can come from food. I enjoyed sharing this with my students and clients. They got massive benefits from eating this way too.

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I used supplementation. Part of my issue was a nutritional deficiency caused by a fad diet I used to control my weight. Thankfully, my background in dietetics allowed me to figure out what herbs, vitamins and minerals that I needed.  

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During my recovery I had to watch my thoughts.  I had to learn how to shift out of negative thinking and turn my thoughts around. I'm so grateful for this skill now.

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Movement was important. I had been in chronic low back pain since I was 25. I used therapeutic yoga practices to get out of pain.

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Navigating the fine line between doing enough, but not too much, was difficult. I needed to do enough movement to create "stress hardiness," but not so much that I would crash. Walking in nature was the best medicine.

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I adopted a daily mindfulness practice by setting an intention to ‘have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’  My practice included sincere gratitude for all that I am and all that I have. I do this simple practice everyday, even now.  

I was apprenticing with a shaman and he taught me simple practices to draw my leaky energy back to me.  A skill that I teach my students today.  

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The strong desire to thrive again kept me moving forward.

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There were many days that felt like I would take two steps forward and one, two or even three steps back.  

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At the age of 45, I was in a terrible car accident.  

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I was driving down a two lane highway and a car pulled out in front of me.  I hit that car at 60 miles per hour!  Ouch!!!

 

The next day, my energy gave out completely and I flatlined.  My heart stopped.  The shaman I was apprenticing with was with me. He pulled me back.   While I was "out," I experienced another world.  It was nothing like I've ever experienced before.  “Is this what it's like to leave your body,” I thought.

 

As the months passed, I had to figure out how to teach yoga without demonstrating the poses.  Verbal cues became honed. I became super skilled at giving instruction.  Necessity, as the mother of invention, had me seek out ways to enhance my clients’ experience. I was able to give them MORE tools to go deeper with their practice.  It took months of a very subtle yoga practice to get MY body back to full function.  I learned a TON from this experience. 

 

One morning, I was standing in my tiny apartment thinking about how I could support my clients even more.  Suddenly, a book on Ayurveda "leaped" off the bookshelf and landed at my feet.  "How perfect," I thought (and how weird).  Ayurveda takes all the stuff that I'm totally nerdy about and puts it into a holistic perspective.  Diet, movement, habits, herbs, mindfulness, philosophy.  I signed up for a year-long intensive to certify in Ayurveda that very day.  

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I started incorporating Ayurvedic teachings right away to enhance my students’ experience.  They loved it!

 

Ayurveda was instrumental in my healing process.  I was able to take this wisdom tradition and apply it to my own recovery.  As I adopted the practices, I watched my energy soar, my digestion optimize, my mind shift into a state of positivity and possibility.  For the first time I was able to stabilize my weight without dieting.  Ayurveda is a true gift.  

 

Fast forward a few years.  I'm sitting with a client. He's describing a debilitating anxiety that he's struggled with for over 20 years.  He shares with me about when he first experienced this anxiety. As he's sharing, the feeling that I had when I flatlined came flooding in.  

 

I knew then that there was something different with his anxiety. I knew that the source of his anxiety was "other" worldly, not from his own biology, fears, phobias, and mindset. When I got home from that appointment and got settled, I sensed a non-corporeal being. Some would call this being disembodied, a ghost, disincarnate.  It freaked me out at first. Then, I shooed it away.

 

The next time I met with my client he was elated.  He said to me, "You won't believe this Kat, my anxiety is completely gone!  It just disappeared!" (I TOTALLY believed him...😁).

 

I was sharing this story with my massage therapist (observing anonymity of course), and she recommended that I call her shaman.  So, I did.   I knew that I needed to understand what had happened and HOW to work with these energies.  She invited me to study with her.  She taught me shamanic practices for the next 3 years.  

 

Again, I started incorporating what I learned to support my clients. NOTHING helped them more than these shamanic tools. I was watching clients heal. Sometimes instantaneously.

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The unseen influences that used to perplex me were now obvious and easy to clear.

What used to take months or years was now being resolved in just a few sessions.

Shamanism created a synergy that allowed yoga, Ayurveda and western science to work better.  

 

Though my path has been wrought with struggle, trauma, and life circumstances, (I have so many more stories), all of it was worth it. I have found my calling.

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The wow factor of watching my lovely clients heal has made this crazy journey worthwhile. I find myself crying with joy and gratitude for the amazing gifts of Ayurveda, Yoga and Shamanism.  Gifts that allowed me to experience my own radiant health.  Gifts that I am able to utilize to help so many others thrive. Life is such a great teacher. Being open to all the lessons, allowed that healing energy that I was so acutely aware of as a child, to now be used. I am passionate about helping others end needless suffering so they can have the vibrant life that they deserve.