My story in 90 seconds… ish!

My life had been an exhausting performance for as long as I could remember. Baker, archaeologist, town planner, corporate strategist - always achieving, always pushing, always becoming whoever I thought the world wanted me to be. But I never stopped to ask: who was I really underneath it all?

The corporate world was brutal but intoxicating. High-stakes strategy work for global tech companies, constant travel, impossible deadlines, no room for failure. The pressure was immense, but it felt like purpose. I was good at it, people needed me, I felt valuable.

But my home life was falling apart. My marriage was dysfunctional and unhappy, so I threw myself even deeper into work. Work became my drug - the place I went to feel wanted, needed, important. I was a textbook workaholic, but I called it ambition.

I was also dealing with trauma I'd never properly processed. I lost my dad to cancer when I was 17, and despite therapy, the grief and pain were still there, buried under layers of busyness and achievement. I turned to substances and alcohol to numb what I couldn't face.

I was a sensitive person trying to live like I wasn't. My body and mind needed care, but I was completely blind to it. I just kept pushing through.

For years, my body had been sending me signals. Gut issues, sleep problems, constant stress, but I ignored them all. I thought pushing through was strength. I thought my sensitivity was weakness to overcome, not a gift to honor.

Then came December 2020.

I contracted a severe bout of shingles that didn't just give me a rash - it attacked my nervous system. The nerve damage was extensive and devastating. My face, scalp, eye, ear, jaw, and neck were on fire with pain like nothing I'd ever experienced. There were times I didn't think I could survive another hour.

The viral infection left me with total brain fog. I went from being sharp, strategic, always on - to not being able to get out of bed. Simple tasks like filling the washing machine became 5 or 6 hour ordeals. I was completely broken.

After a month of waiting for improvement, I was actually getting worse. My doctors didn't have any plan for me. It became clear that if I wanted to get better, I was going to have to figure this out myself.

That's when everything shifted.

I believed that if you give your body the right conditions, it can do miraculous things. But as I sat there, broken and desperate, I had to face a devastating truth: most of my life wasn't contributing to making me healthier - it was slowly destroying me.

The high-stress job that made me feel valuable was actually killing me. The marriage I was trying to save was draining my life force. The way I was living - always performing, never authentic - was unsustainable.

I realized I'd been living as someone I wasn't for so long, I didn't even know who I really was anymore.

I made a promise to myself: I was going to do everything in my power to get better. I hadn't gone through my divorce and made all these positive changes just to spend the next 60 years as a vegetable on the couch. Everything was on the table, nothing was off-limits.

I researched obsessively despite having zero energy and constant brain fog. I designed protocols and systematically changed every piece of my life, bit by bit. But the real work wasn't physical - it was emotional archaeology.

I had to go back and find every moment where I'd abandoned my authentic self. Every time I'd chosen what others wanted over what I needed. Every time I'd pushed through when my body was screaming for rest. Every trauma I'd buried instead of processed.

The childhood moments where I learned it wasn't safe to be sensitive. The relationship patterns where I gave up pieces of myself to keep others happy. The career choices that fed my ego but starved my soul.

It was brutal work. Facing decades of self-abandonment while dealing with chronic pain and fatigue.

But something miraculous started happening. As I reconnected with who I truly was - not who I thought I should be - my body began to heal. Not just manage symptoms, but actually heal.

The improvements came in waves. First, I could think more clearly. Then I could walk further. Then the pain started subsiding. My energy returned. My gut healed completely after 20 years of issues.

But the biggest change wasn't physical - it was finally feeling at home in my own life.

I returned to work after 7 months and did some of the best work of my career. But this time, I wasn't abandoning myself to achieve. I was working from my authentic self, which made me more focused and effective than ever.

The person who got shingles and the person who recovered are completely different people. I'd shed decades of conditioning and finally discovered who I actually was underneath it all.

Something profound had shifted. I understood why only 5% of people with chronic illness fully recover - because recovery isn't just about healing your body. It's about healing the emotional ruptures that made you sick in the first place.

Most people spend years trying to manage symptoms while never addressing why they got sick. They're treating the smoke, not the fire.

I'd found the fire.

What’s it like today?

I love my life. Not because everything is perfect, but because I'm finally living as myself.

I've healed more deeply than I ever thought possible, and I'm still going. I still have some nerve damage, especially around my eye and scalp. This is improving all the time though.

But I'm no longer life-limited by fatigue or pain.

The funny thing is, even with remaining nerve damage, I'm healthier now than I was before I got sick. Because now I respect my body. I honor my sensitivity. I live authentically.

It was the hardest thing I've ever done - facing decades of self-abandonment while barely able to function. But it was also the most important thing I've ever done.

I wake up every day knowing I'm helping others discover their authentic selves too - without the stress and pressure of having to figure it out alone.

You can do it too.