September 29, 2025 • 18 mins
What if your deepest struggles could become your greatest source of strength? In this deeply personal story, Jen shares the raw and authentic story behind the creation of Exalted Health and the stumbles it took to get where she is today.
Join us on a journey through the challenging landscapes of chronic illness, a cancer, Lyme disease, and a nervous system stuck in fight/flight.
You'll hear about the pivotal moments that led to the discovery of inner healing and somatic tools, and how these powerful approaches transformed a path of struggle into one of profound healing and hope. This is more than just a story; it's an invitation to feel seen and a testament to the resilience within us all.
If this story speaks to your heart, please subscribe to the Finding Your Peace: A Nervous System Regulation Podcast and share it with someone who might need a message of hope. Together, we can build a community of support and healing.
Virtual Inner Healing and the Nervous System Class:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Welcome back to the Regulate Your Nervous System
podcast.
Um, this is the second episodefrom the rebrand.
And I woke up this morning justabsolutely bursting from the
seams, uh, feeling like I neededto just come on here and share
my story again.
Because in my quiet time thismorning, I was just blown away
by all the Lord has done in mylife the last decade or so, but
(00:26):
specifically the last handful ofyears, and how much regulating
my nervous system has not onlychanged my life, but the the
lives of my entire family andjust so many people around me.
And so I just really wanted tojust come on here and just
share.
Um, if you haven't listened toany of my other episodes and
(00:46):
don't know my story, I hadsuffered with chronic illness
for pretty much my whole life.
Um went undiagnosed and for avery long time.
Um, when I was uh 20, I hadnon-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is
a very aggressive form ofcancer.
Um, was given a terminaldiagnosis, wasn't really
expected to live through that.
(01:08):
Um by the grace of God.
Uh I'm still here.
Um, I had an incredibleoncologist, an incredible team
at the Mayo Clinic that thatreally saved my life.
Um, I did some experimentaldrugs at that time that um were
really to brand new to cancerpatients, and it really did save
my life.
But I walked out of chemo stillsuper sick.
(01:32):
Um, chemo is very hard in thebody.
I had been battling, you know,chronic illness that had gone
undiagnosed for my entire life.
And that was really when Istarted discovering um holistic
health and holisticpractitioners way to really
support my body and support theorgans of my body so that I
could decotox correctly.
Um and throughout the course ofthat, it really changed the
(01:55):
trajectory, but I stillstruggled.
Um, then when I was 32, I uhcontracted Lyme's disease along
with my youngest son.
Um, and that that was reallyhard to um imagine having two
little kids.
Um, both of my kids were reallyyoung at the time.
My youngest was only 18 months.
Him and I both had Lyme'sdisease.
We caught his right away.
(02:15):
Um, although he still had somemajor complications and
co-infections and side effectsfrom that.
Um, in my life, I wentundiagnosed for three years.
My symptoms were completelydifferent from my son's.
Um, and I think it was his wasso acute and chronic that we
were so busy taking care of himthat mine kind of crept in
slowly and then began uh like a13-year battle with just being
(02:43):
really, really ill.
That's not quite accurate, butmaybe more like a 10-year battle
because the last couple of yearsI've been doing really well.
Um, but during that time Idiscovered functional medicine,
which is just a little bitdifferent than holistic
medicine, um, and found afunctional medicine doctor that
really saved my life and myson's life and helped repair a
lot of our organs, helped repaira lot of the tissues within our
(03:04):
bodies.
Um, but what I would find isafter that, um after we'd gotten
out of the chronic phase, isthat um we'd kind of treat one
area of my body, say my pancreasor my gallbladder, and then all
of a sudden my liver would beacting up.
And it just kind of kept movingaround my body like that.
And it was during that time umthat I had a friend introduce me
(03:27):
to inner healing.
And what inner healing is isdealing with the emotional
aspects that can have physicalconsequences.
So, for instance, unforgiveness.
Unforgiveness can very much livewithin the physiology of your
body.
And if you have unforgivenesstrapped, uh, you can it can have
physical consequences, right?
(03:48):
And even science knows this.
This is outside of even thefaith realm, they know this, but
it's very common within thefaith.
And so I started learning aboutinner healing.
Um, I had walked most of my lifewithout the Lord.
Up until this point, I wasn'tsaved until I was uh 26.
And so I had a lot of healing todo.
(04:10):
I had a lot of things that I hadparticipated in that had um
consequences, right?
When we we live in sin, there'slots of things that can open the
doors to um the enemy to justreally kind of wreak havoc in
your life.
And so when I started learningabout inner healing, I started
getting a lot of those thingsshut, going through my own inner
healing process, going throughmy own forgiveness process,
(04:33):
dealing with anger, dealing withall of those yuck that can keep
us really sick, right?
Because we know that the spirit,soul, and body are all deeply,
deeply connected.
Um, and about this time, youknow, I had gone through a lot
of inner healing and I'd seenmassive improvement, especially
just in my mental state and myhealth.
But what I found is that I stillfelt like I was in fight or
(04:57):
flight all of the time.
Um, my family had been throughsome really, really hard things.
And, you know, I was raised in ahome where I maybe didn't feel
um like I was able to expressemotions all the time.
And so my only coping mechanismwas to just kind of shove
everything down.
And it became apparent that um Ineeded something beyond the
(05:20):
inner healing because I wasstill felt dysregulated all the
time.
I still felt on the verge ofanxiety all the time, I still
felt stressed all the time, Ididn't sleep well, and I felt
like that was really a keycomponent to keeping me sick.
And I knew all about the nervoussystem before this, um, just
from my own undergrad degree.
My son had been through somejust really severe sensory
(05:44):
things from just some things hewas born with from the Lyme's
disease, from developmentaldelays.
We'd been through a lot ofoccupational therapy.
That was what my undergraddegree was in anyway.
So I had a lot of knowledge, butno one was talking, you know,
five or six years ago about howto regulate your nervous system
and how much of a role thatcould play in overall health.
(06:07):
And so it was about this timethat the Lord started talking to
me about my nervous system andhow it was time to really take
control.
Um, I had been, we 2020, thiswas around 2020-ish in that
area.
And we, I know the whole worldwas stressed at that time, but
we had some pretty intensepersonal things going on and top
of that that were really causingme to live in a constant state
(06:30):
of anxiety.
And uh, even though I had healeda lot of the chronic stuff, I
was sick all the time with likecolds and flus and just never
felt good.
I was always run down, chronicfatigue syndrome was thrown
around.
Um and I really just foundmyself uh sitting with the Lord
and just asking him, okay, Lord,there's more to this.
(06:53):
How do we heal the nervoussystem?
And so I started digging in umto the nervous system and how it
worked and what was involvedwith um just being at peace,
right?
I was walking with the Lord bythis time, and I would notice a
distinct difference betweenpeople that really lived out the
peace that scripture tells usabout, and people that kind of
(07:16):
just dabbled in it or felt likefor my personal story, I felt
like I had to work so hard toget to peace and I didn't know
how to maintain it.
And so I started digging into umsome different tools um called
somatic tools that really helpregulate and release a lot of
things from the nervous system.
(07:38):
And I started applying them tomy own life.
I started um digging into all ofthe awful ways I communicated
with my own body.
Um, if you have followed me forany amount of time, you know
I've written a book called BlessYour Body, that is really a
40-day journey on how to changethe language on how you
(07:59):
communicate with your body.
For me, I had a horrible bodyimage that was not only
contributing to how I felt aboutmyself externally but
internally.
And that was contributing to alot of factors.
I also had a lot of bad habits,um, striving, trying to perform
people pleasing that kept mereally going a thousand miles
(08:21):
per hour all of the time, allwhich can wreak terrible havoc
on your nervous system.
In addition to that, um, ifyou're never taught how to feel
your feelings or that feelingsare bad or wrong, um most of the
time we just shove them down andwe don't know how to process
them.
Even though I'd done all thishealing to that point, you in
(08:42):
inner healing, you are withanother prayer minister and
they're helping you walkthrough.
So I'm like, okay, how do I takethis and apply this to my own
life?
And don't get me wrong, there'sa season for that.
That is a lot of what I do nowis that assisting other people
and walking through, but therehas to become a point where it
becomes a lifestyle.
And so when I started becomecombining inner healing with the
(09:03):
somatic tools and just reallytaking care of my nervous
system, and then later on addedneurofeedback in order to
increase the capacity of stressmy nervous system could carry
without sending me feeling likeI was going off a cliff.
All of these things haveresulted in me being in a place
(09:24):
where I actually know andunderstand what it feels like to
live in peace now.
And that was not something thatI had ever experienced more than
a passing glance of until just ahandful of years ago.
And so I really started applyinga lot of these tools to my life.
I started digging in toscripture to figure out where it
(09:44):
applied in scripture because theLord was really showing me that
this was the key for a lot ofpeople.
It is not the answer foreveryone, but those of us that
have maybe had childhoods wherewe weren't really taught how to
process things or we didn't feelsafe in our own homes, or we had
trauma at a young age, or eventrauma as an adult, um, we can
(10:05):
send our nervous system straightinto fight or flight, and then
we can get stuck there.
And what happens when we'restuck in fight or flight is that
we end up spending all of ourtime overwhelmed, stressed out,
full of anxiety, panic attackscan occur.
And if we never return to thatplace of peace where our body
(10:26):
can reset, where our body canheal, where our body can think
clearly, that's when chronicillness can start to take place.
Now, don't misunderstand me.
I'm not saying that this is theonly reason for chronic health
problems, but it is oftentimes acontributing factor.
After I started uh doing bodywork a handful of years ago, so
I've been a coach for severalyears, I started integrating um
(10:49):
body work, which is a lot of thesomatic tools with the inner
healing and helping women justwalk through a lot of this
stuff.
What I started to notice is thatthere were trends.
And the Lord really kept openingmy eyes.
People that had long-termchronic illness or more than one
chronic illness were in aconstant state of fight or
flight.
And then when their body was tooexhausted, they would go to a
(11:10):
place called hypoarousal, whichwould look look more like I
can't get off the couch, I can'tfunction.
My brain doesn't feel like it'sworking, I feel like I'm in slow
motion.
And that is literally your bodyshutting down and saying, I
can't live in fight or flightanymore.
And so for years, I wouldoscillate between fight or
flight and this hypo arousal orshutdown, and I would blame it
(11:33):
on my chronic illness because Ireally thought that it was the
chronic illness.
And although that might havebeen a contributing factor, what
was happening is they both werecontributing and it just kept me
sick all of the time.
And so I started learning andapplying all these tools to my
own life and got to a placewhere I really was living in a
place of peace.
(11:54):
And then some more lifehappened.
Um, again, if you've beenfollowing my story for any
amount of time, that you know mydad died very suddenly in 2022.
And um, my mom was left uhliving in in Texas, and we live
here in Minnesota, and we had tofigure out a way to get her
home, and it it was really amess.
(12:15):
And shortly after that, my momgot sick.
Um, and we spent 18 months umreally, really just trying to
keep her alive um before shepassed.
And she was very, very sick umwith lung cancer, and it was we
were in a constant state ofcrisis throughout that time, and
so within two months or twoyears' time, both of my parents
(12:39):
died.
Uh, and I had to take a lot oftime off to take care of my mom.
And what I was able to do is Iwas able to maintain um some
level of peace.
Now, in those really heightenedsituations, of course, I had
some anxiety, of course, I hadsome stress, but I was able to
apply all of these real-worldtools during the hardest season
(13:03):
of my life and be able tocontinue to function.
I was able to continue to workwhen I wasn't taking care of my
mom.
And then after she passed, youknow, we were able to take care
of all of her estate andeverything.
Uh and even just a handful ofyears before that, I wouldn't
have been able to handle one ofthose things without shutting
(13:24):
down.
Um, and I was able to handlethat whole season without
shutting down.
Now, that's not to say I didn'trest.
It's not to say I didn't takecare of myself, but part of
those tools are learning toapply a lot of these things.
And so what I've done is I'vebeen doing bodywork for for a
(13:45):
few years now, and that's reallyhelpful for a lot of people.
However, what I found in thatjourney is I and I think that's
always going to be relevant.
I think people are always gonnaneed one-on-one help, they're
always gonna need one-on-one umcare.
But what I found was missingfrom that is I can only do so
much education when I'm likeworking with people and
(14:07):
mentoring with people.
What they really needed was aplace where they could go to
learn to apply these tools sothey could apply them to every
area of their life, so theycould start to walk in that
peace that I've experienced too.
Because, you know, our bodiesaren't looking for us to push,
push, push through.
(14:28):
Like our bodies need a softerplace to slow down, to be loved
in community where we can learnto regulate.
And so last month I created andstarted a group mentoring
program to help individualslearn to regulate their nervous
system, learn and apply thesetools.
(14:50):
So when we're out there livingin the real world, when we get
triggered, when life happens, wehave tools that we can apply in
real time without judgment,without judgment of going
backwards, so that we cancontinue to move forward.
Because what usually happens iswe get triggered, life happens,
(15:11):
we don't stop to slow downbecause we're in crisis mode
working through it.
And we don't think straight whenwe're in that that place, right?
We forget everything we know,every tool that we've used, and
then we end up right back wherewe started, feeling completely
unhealed, completely feelingcompletely dysregulated and not
(15:32):
able to function the way thatGod designed our bodies.
So if we can learn and apply thetools before the crisis happens,
or even during, right?
Um, so we meet twice a monthover the lunch hour.
It's a really quick call, it's40 minutes.
And my co-coach and I, um hername is Britney Wagner, and
she's wonderful and lovely andknows so much.
(15:54):
She's just so wealth ofinformation.
But what we do is every weekwe're teaching our community how
to apply these tools, how toapply things when we get
triggered.
How do we rewire our brains toalign with what God's word says,
so that we're not living in aconstant state of overwhelm and
stress, so that we can live inhomeostasis or peace or whatever
(16:18):
you want to call it, that placewhere we feel clear, where we
feel present, where we feel likewe're able to connect with our
family and friends in the waythat we want to.
And it's been life-changing forme.
And that's why that's why wecreated this mentorship program.
So there's no pressure to join.
Um, I just want you to knowthat's available.
(16:39):
You can find all of theinformation in the show notes,
no matter where you're listeningto this podcast.
But even if you don't join us,if you gain something from my
story and you're not quite readyto join the mentoring program, I
also have an upcoming course.
Um, this is a two-hour longcourse where we go just a little
(17:01):
bit deeper in how to regulatethe nervous system.
I provide a couple of tools thatyou can help use.
Um, and so that's coming up onOctober 22nd.
We're gonna do a virtual one.
I try to go back and forthbetween live and virtual because
not everybody lives in the twincities of Minnesota and I want
(17:21):
to be able to serve peoplewherever they are.
Um, so that one's also coming upon the 22nd of October.
Um, that will be recorded ifyou're not able to attend live.
So know that that's available.
Otherwise, if either one ofthose options isn't the right
fit for you, that's okay.
Just keep coming back here andlistening to different ways.
We'll always be providing waysthat you can regulate your
(17:43):
nervous system on this podcastand the ways that it can just
benefit your life.
Because I will tell you what, Ihave been able to teach these
tools to my children, to myhusband, tons of friends, nieces
and nephews, right?
My brothers-in-law, mysister-in-law, and everyone uh
tells me over and over again howmuch it can just change your
(18:06):
life when you just have a toolat the ready when you need it.
Because life is never gonna stophappening.
Because we live in a fallenworld and we live in a world
where it's stressful.
So if we can make that a littlebit easier, we'd be happy to.
So thank you for joining me andwe'll see you next time.
Welcome back to the Regulate Your Nervous System
podcast.
Um, this is the second episodefrom the rebrand.
And I woke up this morning justabsolutely bursting from the
seams, uh, feeling like I neededto just come on here and share
my story again.
Because in my quiet time thismorning, I was just blown away
by all the Lord has done in mylife the last decade or so, but
(00:26):
specifically the last handful ofyears, and how much regulating
my nervous system has not onlychanged my life, but the the
lives of my entire family andjust so many people around me.
And so I just really wanted tojust come on here and just
share.
Um, if you haven't listened toany of my other episodes and
(00:46):
don't know my story, I hadsuffered with chronic illness
for pretty much my whole life.
Um went undiagnosed and for avery long time.
Um, when I was uh 20, I hadnon-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is
a very aggressive form ofcancer.
Um, was given a terminaldiagnosis, wasn't really
expected to live through that.
(01:08):
Um by the grace of God.
Uh I'm still here.
Um, I had an incredibleoncologist, an incredible team
at the Mayo Clinic that thatreally saved my life.
Um, I did some experimentaldrugs at that time that um were
really to brand new to cancerpatients, and it really did save
my life.
But I walked out of chemo stillsuper sick.
(01:32):
Um, chemo is very hard in thebody.
I had been battling, you know,chronic illness that had gone
undiagnosed for my entire life.
And that was really when Istarted discovering um holistic
health and holisticpractitioners way to really
support my body and support theorgans of my body so that I
could decotox correctly.
Um and throughout the course ofthat, it really changed the
(01:55):
trajectory, but I stillstruggled.
Um, then when I was 32, I uhcontracted Lyme's disease along
with my youngest son.
Um, and that that was reallyhard to um imagine having two
little kids.
Um, both of my kids were reallyyoung at the time.
My youngest was only 18 months.
Him and I both had Lyme'sdisease.
We caught his right away.
(02:15):
Um, although he still had somemajor complications and
co-infections and side effectsfrom that.
Um, in my life, I wentundiagnosed for three years.
My symptoms were completelydifferent from my son's.
Um, and I think it was his wasso acute and chronic that we
were so busy taking care of himthat mine kind of crept in
slowly and then began uh like a13-year battle with just being
(02:43):
really, really ill.
That's not quite accurate, butmaybe more like a 10-year battle
because the last couple of yearsI've been doing really well.
Um, but during that time Idiscovered functional medicine,
which is just a little bitdifferent than holistic
medicine, um, and found afunctional medicine doctor that
really saved my life and myson's life and helped repair a
lot of our organs, helped repaira lot of the tissues within our
(03:04):
bodies.
Um, but what I would find isafter that, um after we'd gotten
out of the chronic phase, isthat um we'd kind of treat one
area of my body, say my pancreasor my gallbladder, and then all
of a sudden my liver would beacting up.
And it just kind of kept movingaround my body like that.
And it was during that time umthat I had a friend introduce me
(03:27):
to inner healing.
And what inner healing is isdealing with the emotional
aspects that can have physicalconsequences.
So, for instance, unforgiveness.
Unforgiveness can very much livewithin the physiology of your
body.
And if you have unforgivenesstrapped, uh, you can it can have
physical consequences, right?
(03:48):
And even science knows this.
This is outside of even thefaith realm, they know this, but
it's very common within thefaith.
And so I started learning aboutinner healing.
Um, I had walked most of my lifewithout the Lord.
Up until this point, I wasn'tsaved until I was uh 26.
And so I had a lot of healing todo.
(04:10):
I had a lot of things that I hadparticipated in that had um
consequences, right?
When we we live in sin, there'slots of things that can open the
doors to um the enemy to justreally kind of wreak havoc in
your life.
And so when I started learningabout inner healing, I started
getting a lot of those thingsshut, going through my own inner
healing process, going throughmy own forgiveness process,
(04:33):
dealing with anger, dealing withall of those yuck that can keep
us really sick, right?
Because we know that the spirit,soul, and body are all deeply,
deeply connected.
Um, and about this time, youknow, I had gone through a lot
of inner healing and I'd seenmassive improvement, especially
just in my mental state and myhealth.
But what I found is that I stillfelt like I was in fight or
(04:57):
flight all of the time.
Um, my family had been throughsome really, really hard things.
And, you know, I was raised in ahome where I maybe didn't feel
um like I was able to expressemotions all the time.
And so my only coping mechanismwas to just kind of shove
everything down.
And it became apparent that um Ineeded something beyond the
(05:20):
inner healing because I wasstill felt dysregulated all the
time.
I still felt on the verge ofanxiety all the time, I still
felt stressed all the time, Ididn't sleep well, and I felt
like that was really a keycomponent to keeping me sick.
And I knew all about the nervoussystem before this, um, just
from my own undergrad degree.
My son had been through somejust really severe sensory
(05:44):
things from just some things hewas born with from the Lyme's
disease, from developmentaldelays.
We'd been through a lot ofoccupational therapy.
That was what my undergraddegree was in anyway.
So I had a lot of knowledge, butno one was talking, you know,
five or six years ago about howto regulate your nervous system
and how much of a role thatcould play in overall health.
(06:07):
And so it was about this timethat the Lord started talking to
me about my nervous system andhow it was time to really take
control.
Um, I had been, we 2020, thiswas around 2020-ish in that
area.
And we, I know the whole worldwas stressed at that time, but
we had some pretty intensepersonal things going on and top
of that that were really causingme to live in a constant state
(06:30):
of anxiety.
And uh, even though I had healeda lot of the chronic stuff, I
was sick all the time with likecolds and flus and just never
felt good.
I was always run down, chronicfatigue syndrome was thrown
around.
Um and I really just foundmyself uh sitting with the Lord
and just asking him, okay, Lord,there's more to this.
(06:53):
How do we heal the nervoussystem?
And so I started digging in umto the nervous system and how it
worked and what was involvedwith um just being at peace,
right?
I was walking with the Lord bythis time, and I would notice a
distinct difference betweenpeople that really lived out the
peace that scripture tells usabout, and people that kind of
(07:16):
just dabbled in it or felt likefor my personal story, I felt
like I had to work so hard toget to peace and I didn't know
how to maintain it.
And so I started digging into umsome different tools um called
somatic tools that really helpregulate and release a lot of
things from the nervous system.
(07:38):
And I started applying them tomy own life.
I started um digging into all ofthe awful ways I communicated
with my own body.
Um, if you have followed me forany amount of time, you know
I've written a book called BlessYour Body, that is really a
40-day journey on how to changethe language on how you
(07:59):
communicate with your body.
For me, I had a horrible bodyimage that was not only
contributing to how I felt aboutmyself externally but
internally.
And that was contributing to alot of factors.
I also had a lot of bad habits,um, striving, trying to perform
people pleasing that kept mereally going a thousand miles
(08:21):
per hour all of the time, allwhich can wreak terrible havoc
on your nervous system.
In addition to that, um, ifyou're never taught how to feel
your feelings or that feelingsare bad or wrong, um most of the
time we just shove them down andwe don't know how to process
them.
Even though I'd done all thishealing to that point, you in
(08:42):
inner healing, you are withanother prayer minister and
they're helping you walkthrough.
So I'm like, okay, how do I takethis and apply this to my own
life?
And don't get me wrong, there'sa season for that.
That is a lot of what I do nowis that assisting other people
and walking through, but therehas to become a point where it
becomes a lifestyle.
And so when I started becomecombining inner healing with the
(09:03):
somatic tools and just reallytaking care of my nervous
system, and then later on addedneurofeedback in order to
increase the capacity of stressmy nervous system could carry
without sending me feeling likeI was going off a cliff.
All of these things haveresulted in me being in a place
(09:24):
where I actually know andunderstand what it feels like to
live in peace now.
And that was not something thatI had ever experienced more than
a passing glance of until just ahandful of years ago.
And so I really started applyinga lot of these tools to my life.
I started digging in toscripture to figure out where it
(09:44):
applied in scripture because theLord was really showing me that
this was the key for a lot ofpeople.
It is not the answer foreveryone, but those of us that
have maybe had childhoods wherewe weren't really taught how to
process things or we didn't feelsafe in our own homes, or we had
trauma at a young age, or eventrauma as an adult, um, we can
(10:05):
send our nervous system straightinto fight or flight, and then
we can get stuck there.
And what happens when we'restuck in fight or flight is that
we end up spending all of ourtime overwhelmed, stressed out,
full of anxiety, panic attackscan occur.
And if we never return to thatplace of peace where our body
(10:26):
can reset, where our body canheal, where our body can think
clearly, that's when chronicillness can start to take place.
Now, don't misunderstand me.
I'm not saying that this is theonly reason for chronic health
problems, but it is oftentimes acontributing factor.
After I started uh doing bodywork a handful of years ago, so
I've been a coach for severalyears, I started integrating um
(10:49):
body work, which is a lot of thesomatic tools with the inner
healing and helping women justwalk through a lot of this
stuff.
What I started to notice is thatthere were trends.
And the Lord really kept openingmy eyes.
People that had long-termchronic illness or more than one
chronic illness were in aconstant state of fight or
flight.
And then when their body was tooexhausted, they would go to a
(11:10):
place called hypoarousal, whichwould look look more like I
can't get off the couch, I can'tfunction.
My brain doesn't feel like it'sworking, I feel like I'm in slow
motion.
And that is literally your bodyshutting down and saying, I
can't live in fight or flightanymore.
And so for years, I wouldoscillate between fight or
flight and this hypo arousal orshutdown, and I would blame it
(11:33):
on my chronic illness because Ireally thought that it was the
chronic illness.
And although that might havebeen a contributing factor, what
was happening is they both werecontributing and it just kept me
sick all of the time.
And so I started learning andapplying all these tools to my
own life and got to a placewhere I really was living in a
place of peace.
(11:54):
And then some more lifehappened.
Um, again, if you've beenfollowing my story for any
amount of time, that you know mydad died very suddenly in 2022.
And um, my mom was left uhliving in in Texas, and we live
here in Minnesota, and we had tofigure out a way to get her
home, and it it was really amess.
(12:15):
And shortly after that, my momgot sick.
Um, and we spent 18 months umreally, really just trying to
keep her alive um before shepassed.
And she was very, very sick umwith lung cancer, and it was we
were in a constant state ofcrisis throughout that time, and
so within two months or twoyears' time, both of my parents
(12:39):
died.
Uh, and I had to take a lot oftime off to take care of my mom.
And what I was able to do is Iwas able to maintain um some
level of peace.
Now, in those really heightenedsituations, of course, I had
some anxiety, of course, I hadsome stress, but I was able to
apply all of these real-worldtools during the hardest season
(13:03):
of my life and be able tocontinue to function.
I was able to continue to workwhen I wasn't taking care of my
mom.
And then after she passed, youknow, we were able to take care
of all of her estate andeverything.
Uh and even just a handful ofyears before that, I wouldn't
have been able to handle one ofthose things without shutting
(13:24):
down.
Um, and I was able to handlethat whole season without
shutting down.
Now, that's not to say I didn'trest.
It's not to say I didn't takecare of myself, but part of
those tools are learning toapply a lot of these things.
And so what I've done is I'vebeen doing bodywork for for a
(13:45):
few years now, and that's reallyhelpful for a lot of people.
However, what I found in thatjourney is I and I think that's
always going to be relevant.
I think people are always gonnaneed one-on-one help, they're
always gonna need one-on-one umcare.
But what I found was missingfrom that is I can only do so
much education when I'm likeworking with people and
(14:07):
mentoring with people.
What they really needed was aplace where they could go to
learn to apply these tools sothey could apply them to every
area of their life, so theycould start to walk in that
peace that I've experienced too.
Because, you know, our bodiesaren't looking for us to push,
push, push through.
(14:28):
Like our bodies need a softerplace to slow down, to be loved
in community where we can learnto regulate.
And so last month I created andstarted a group mentoring
program to help individualslearn to regulate their nervous
system, learn and apply thesetools.
(14:50):
So when we're out there livingin the real world, when we get
triggered, when life happens, wehave tools that we can apply in
real time without judgment,without judgment of going
backwards, so that we cancontinue to move forward.
Because what usually happens iswe get triggered, life happens,
(15:11):
we don't stop to slow downbecause we're in crisis mode
working through it.
And we don't think straight whenwe're in that that place, right?
We forget everything we know,every tool that we've used, and
then we end up right back wherewe started, feeling completely
unhealed, completely feelingcompletely dysregulated and not
(15:32):
able to function the way thatGod designed our bodies.
So if we can learn and apply thetools before the crisis happens,
or even during, right?
Um, so we meet twice a monthover the lunch hour.
It's a really quick call, it's40 minutes.
And my co-coach and I, um hername is Britney Wagner, and
she's wonderful and lovely andknows so much.
(15:54):
She's just so wealth ofinformation.
But what we do is every weekwe're teaching our community how
to apply these tools, how toapply things when we get
triggered.
How do we rewire our brains toalign with what God's word says,
so that we're not living in aconstant state of overwhelm and
stress, so that we can live inhomeostasis or peace or whatever
(16:18):
you want to call it, that placewhere we feel clear, where we
feel present, where we feel likewe're able to connect with our
family and friends in the waythat we want to.
And it's been life-changing forme.
And that's why that's why wecreated this mentorship program.
So there's no pressure to join.
Um, I just want you to knowthat's available.
(16:39):
You can find all of theinformation in the show notes,
no matter where you're listeningto this podcast.
But even if you don't join us,if you gain something from my
story and you're not quite readyto join the mentoring program, I
also have an upcoming course.
Um, this is a two-hour longcourse where we go just a little
(17:01):
bit deeper in how to regulatethe nervous system.
I provide a couple of tools thatyou can help use.
Um, and so that's coming up onOctober 22nd.
We're gonna do a virtual one.
I try to go back and forthbetween live and virtual because
not everybody lives in the twincities of Minnesota and I want
(17:21):
to be able to serve peoplewherever they are.
Um, so that one's also coming upon the 22nd of October.
Um, that will be recorded ifyou're not able to attend live.
So know that that's available.
Otherwise, if either one ofthose options isn't the right
fit for you, that's okay.
Just keep coming back here andlistening to different ways.
We'll always be providing waysthat you can regulate your
(17:43):
nervous system on this podcastand the ways that it can just
benefit your life.
Because I will tell you what, Ihave been able to teach these
tools to my children, to myhusband, tons of friends, nieces
and nephews, right?
My brothers-in-law, mysister-in-law, and everyone uh
tells me over and over again howmuch it can just change your
(18:06):
life when you just have a toolat the ready when you need it.
Because life is never gonna stophappening.
Because we live in a fallenworld and we live in a world
where it's stressful.
So if we can make that a littlebit easier, we'd be happy to.
So thank you for joining me andwe'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!