The Path Less Traveled

and finally announcing the Great Work of my Life. My ask: Please share with every woman you know who has Multiple Sclerosis.

I’ve been in Nosara for eight months now, synching with the rhythm and intelligence of nature. Coming to terms with all that was. I’ve been meeting within me, my willingness to heed the calling to connect with my deepest self. To meet my courageousness. To immerse myself in the vibrant wellness culture of Nosara as I committed to seeing my transformation process through with intention.

It’s a big commitment to challenge oneself to sink into their own healing in the most devoted way. I’ve been doing so in a rich community of healers that dedicate themselves to come together, offering and blending their own eclectic wellness offerings. Here in Nosara, there is every type of healing modality you could ever imagine. Cocoa and rose ceremonies, ecstatic dance, every type of physical modality you could ever want, somatic experiencing, shamanic massage, plant medicine, nervous system alignment, the list goes on.

And all these beautiful humans live here, travel here and hold space with events within this community - healing and sharing wisdom between themselves, and all those who come here to heal. Myself among them. Between the sun and the sea, and the wild jungle, the energy and vibration of this community is very potent. An added element is the nature of those who come to heal. Often, healers themselves. Deepening into their healing gifts by devoting themselves to their personal healing path. It is definitely a powerful vortex.

Without intention, my daily rhythm of self-nurturing led to me immersing myself in nervous system regulation. That was a divine accident though. I thought I just needed a deep rest and wanted to cleanse myself of the intense stress I’d been under for years. Through an extraordinary mentorship program I’d undertaken in this direction, I learned to create an entirely new relationship with my nervous system. Which gently, naturally, began to unwind and align, amazingly of its own intrinsic accord. So fascinating for me to then experience more full circle healing of my Multiple Sclerosis, which funny enough, wasn’t even on my radar upon arriving here. In the resting and allowing, I was also able to more naturally come into my own truth. And from that place, alignment happens, and as Gabor Mate notes in the Myth of Normal, “When you align yourself, healing happens automatically.”

Acting from deep inner alignment channels energy with fewer distractions. And just like the intelligence of nature and the timing of the seasons, I am coming into a new season of my life as well. There’s a very important book that I’ve had by my side for over a year. It’s called “The Great Work of Your Life” by Stephen Cope. It’s been my resource and bible as I’ve been moving through the challenges of the past years. Desiring deeply to be of continued service to the world, but then not certain what shape that would take.

Learning to trust that my work to the world transcends food. I am not a chef / restaurateur first, I am a teacher and guide first. For me, the work I do in the world is a natural extension of myself, my values and where I am in my own healing process. I had to come to terms with how I ended my restaurants and my subsequent life. That was a reckoning. It was very very difficult, but also it’s clear now that it was past time for me to shift how my healing gifts could best be of service in these times.

Life is now asking me to guide differently. This process of mine whereby I moved through an intense transformation process that was borne from deep within, (distinctly separate from my mental hesitation and disbelief this was happening to me) has been a catalyst to help me shape the way I desire to be of service moving forward.

And so, just like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, my emergence is coming. I am deep in a place of creation. The work I desire to do has been in front of me all along, waiting for me to be ready. And so, I am now eagerly embracing the culmination of my life of healing.

Holistic Transformation Guide

I am alchemizing my past and personal transformation process to initiate a new path.

As such, I am in the process of creating my website, announcing my path as a Holistic Transformation Guide, acting as a health guide for women with Multiple Sclerosis.

The use of the word Guide is very deliberate as I desire to guide women with MS through a months long mentorship back to themselves, and their truth, so they can begin to trust in their own wisdom and trust in their ability to heal themselves. I’m not teaching how to be me or do the things I did. I desire to guide women on their own journey to authentic health. This is not a coaching program with defined goals and milestones to achieve, as the needs of each woman with MS is very individual.

This is my most personal work yet. Rates of autoimmune disease are rising, and women with Multiple Sclerosis are being diagnosed in higher numbers and at younger ages. I know so deeply and truly that my own healing of Multiple Sclerosis is not anomalous to me. I don’t have a “mild form” of MS. It’s all the same. Really a name to label an extreme dysregulation of the nervous system. Symptoms of MS arise from the dysregulation. Yet, it is within every woman (and man) the ability to heal herself and thrive in the fullness of our only life.

Modern medicine’s answer to Multiple Sclerosis is a long roster of pharmaceutical drugs that do not address the root cause. Societal and medical belief in self healing are condescended and circumvented. Many wellness modalities offer strict adherence and complex strategies toward better health outcomes that are oftentimes unsustainable or short lived, creating further stress on your system without a deeper inner knowing of what your body is asking for and trust in its guidance.

Once you are given a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, expending energy toward that diagnosis is inevitable. You get to decide how you want to spend your energy to treat yourself. There is a well worn path that supports the Western medicine model of Multiple Sclerosis treatment. By instilling deep fear in your future, removing personal agency and arming you with expensive pharmaceutical drugs, complete with side effects, lifetime adherence and entire industries to support your inevitable health complications.

I would like to offer another path, should a woman feel called to bravely expend her energy toward sustainable and lasting health. To journey into becoming healthier than they were before before their diagnosis. I am creating a journey into learning their whole body and how to listen to their nervous system. To create a new relationship of safety and trust within herself, her body, and her wellbeing. An offer to step into inner truth and our inherent birthright to thrive in the fullness of health.

If anything, my secret sauce is that I see ability and opportunity where others see disability and disease. I desire to offer a mentorship wherein I guide women and weave in my intuitive knowledge and wisdom of 20 years utilizing nervous system regulation, somatic embodiment, whole food cookery, holistic health and lifestyle modalities, in addition to spiritual and mindful insights to help a woman move past limiting beliefs and begin to cultivate a new relationship with herself and her body’s inherent desire to heal.

How will this affect The Fresh Life? It lives! As a continued free service to supplement and support my work supporting those on their healing path (Though I welcome and desire every paying subscriber). This has been quite the journey for me. I have shared incredibly vulnerable and difficult parts of. myself and shared very personal path since I closed Fresh Thymes. I deeply hope that my personal journey is able to inspire other women on their own journey to better wellness.

And so, phew…. Coming full circle. Thank you for reading all this. Thank you for your continued support of my journey, my words and my work to the world.

My next post will outline more of the process I desire to help other women through. I will also continue to comment on the process of nervous system regulation and its connection to MS. Of course food will be woven in, always.

Sending news of my website launch - JUNE 5! and my deepest wish that you share this information with every woman you know who has MS and desires to heal more authentically.

Whoever travels without a guide needs two hundred years for a two day journey - Rumi

With so much love and gratitude again for your enduring support.

Humbly yours,

Christine