Healing isn’t about pushing harder,
it’s about listening deeper.
Kindness as Biology: How Self-Compassion Helped Me Heal After Years of Chronic Illness
Living with chronic illness can feel like you are constantly trying to manage a body that never quite settles, but true healing begins when you learn how to work with your nervous system rather than against it. After a cascade of medical and emotional crises in 2017, I began discovering what regulation actually meant and why I had been stuck in survival mode for so long. This post shares what I learned on that journey, how self compassion became a turning point, and simple practices you can start today.
Why Traditional Stress Management Doesn’t Work for Autoimmune Disease—and What Does
Tired of just "managing stress"? This post reveals why, for autoimmune health, managing your feelings (Emotional Regulation) isn't enough. The real battle is controlling your nervous system's physical state (Physiological Regulation). Learn why the "busy, busy, busy" of your daily life is a fight-or-flight response, and how body-based practices like restorative yoga are your most powerful tools for calming inflammation and finding true, lasting rest.
The Quiet Mid-Life Shift: Finding Our Rhythm When the Body Whispers "Rest"
When you're in the busy "Middle Chapter" of life (teens, partnership, aging parents) and navigating an autoimmune disease, the guilt is immense. This post isn't about productivity; it's a conversation on releasing the shame attached to low energy. I share three honest reflections on redefining "enough," cultivating joy when housebound, and how setting boundaries becomes an act of self-preservation.
The Museum of Me
For decades after surviving massive pulmonary emboli, I lived with unrelenting chest pain I assumed would never change. Somatic Experiencing revealed that my body wasn’t broken—it just needed a new message of safety, and the pain dissolved. That experience fuels my passion for helping others rebuild their brain–body connection with compassion and gentle curiosity.
Confessions of a Recovering Wannabe Vulcan
I used to live my life like a Vulcan. I was convinced emotions were unnecessary. On the outside, I was high-functioning and didn’t look sick. On the inside, my body was screaming, constantly. I learned to ignore it. It was necessary for survival. But this disconnection, this tuning out, has a significant cost. I lost my relationship with myself.
Finding North When Your Body Feels Like a Foreign Land
For decades, I searched for answers, clarity, and support in a world that offered little more than false promises and quick fixes. This post shares how that long journey led me to create The Autoimmune Compass, a practice-based, sustainable approach for anyone feeling lost in their own body. If you’re craving direction and compassion—not another cure—you’re in the right place.
Learning to Live in the Pause
Living with autoimmune disease kept me in constant reactivity, making rest feel foreign and uncomfortable. When I finally learned to pause—through restorative yoga and gentle somatic movement—I began to listen to my body instead of fighting it. In that pause, I discovered ease, safety, and the beginnings of real healing.
The Hum of 'Too Much' and the Path Back to Connection
There’s a particular hum to modern life, isn’t there? It’s the vibration of to-do lists and the quiet, persistent feeling that you aren’t doing enough. I’ve realized that the constant hum of “too much” in my life is actually my nervous system stuck in high activation, something I once treated as normal. Through Somatic Experiencing, I’m learning to ease that intensity with simple resourcing moments that help me return to my body and reconnect with myself. These small practices slowly rebuild my capacity to be present with myself and with the people I care about.
When Your Body Becomes the Battleground: Living with Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune diseases turn your body’s defenses against itself, causing pain, fatigue, and unpredictability. In this post, I share how living with Crohn’s taught me the power of rest, self-compassion, and tools like somatic movement, yoga, and art journaling to find hope and healing.
Healing Through Movement: Reconnecting with My Body
I spent years believing that healing meant pushing through, but my body taught me a very different truth. Gentle movement, restorative yoga, somatic exercise, and mindful breathwork helped me rebuild safety, strength, and trust after trauma and chronic illness disconnected me from myself. Now I move in a way that honours my body, and I help others do the same.
Creative Play as Medicine: How Art Journaling Became Part of My Self-Care
Keep playing and learning. Your growth will be transformative.
When My Body Forced Me to Listen
I used to ignore my body’s whispers: tight shoulders, shallow breath, racing heart. I was too busy volunteering, leading activities, and “doing it all.” Then, after a pulmonary embolism and major surgery, my body screamed. It was exhausting, humbling—but necessary. That’s when I started to really listen.