#19 The Empath Who Had to Learn to Protect Her Own Energy

"Today's guest has lived through more than most people carry in a lifetime –

 relationship trauma, chronic illness, a head injury that changed ... how her brain and body worked. 

And somewhere inside all of that, she found the thing she now spends her life teaching other people: 

how to heal on your own terms, at your own pace, without anyone else's timeline attached.

Jess Louisa is a certified wellness and trauma-informed coach, and the author of 4 books on emotional balance and self-healing. 

She rebuilt herself, gently, piece by piece, and what that taught her about supporting other people, especially the deeply sensitive people who've never quite had language for what they carry.

She is such a huge inspiration - I just had to inviter her to my podcast.

Enjoy our talk.

Love 

Sonia 

You can find Jess at:

https://linktr.ee/jesslouisa?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=eace4607-8597-4e67-9a81-153ad37f5785

https://www.instagram.com/thriveagainwellness/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

So hi and welcome everybody. Today I have a very special guest who basically has lived through more than most people have uh carried in their whole life. And she's uh still young. She's going to introduce herself in a second. I just want to introduce her on my behalf and welcome her uh from the bottom of my heart. So I want to welcome Jess Louise. She's um been through a lot, she's been through relationship trauma, chronic illness. She has had a head injury that changed basically how her brain and her body worked. And somewhere inside of all this, all these experiences, she found a thing, her passion, that she now spends her life helping people and teaching people basically how to heal on their own terms and uh in their own pace without anyone else's timeline attached. So that's basically her gift that evolved from within, I can say. That's from what I understand, but let's give her the space to introduce herself. Jess, welcome very much to the Self-Worth Accelerator Podcast today. I'm so happy to have you here. We only met through Instagram, basically, exchanging uh our uh ourselves on posts, and I was fascinated by what you posted and how you showed up and how you spoke in front of so many people about your books. So you've written four books, you're a certified coach now for well-being, for um trauma-informed coach, you are, and especially also with a um passion for for spiritual spirituality. So welcome, Jess, and I'm so happy to have you here today.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Thanks, Sonia. Thanks for the such a warm welcome. And yes, all of that is definitely sums up my my past 10 years of life, really, and um my 20s, and just the kind of roller coaster of health injuries and and health uh illness I went through um early in my 20s, and how I've kind of like transformed that into my own healing, but also into helping others heal as well. Um Tess? So now I'm 33 years old, and so this all had happened uh through my 20s.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah, I want to dive, let's dive right in. I just want to, I'm so eager to introduce you to people because how I see you is like a huge inspiration for for people who have had such trauma or deep trauma or experiences, negative experiences in life. And I think the way you handle that, I just want to go right there, like just take me back or take us and you know back the listener as well to the moment where um where your body said I can't do this anymore, or where you were really at a point where you thought this is it, I'm giving up. So, what was do you remember the time or how how did you experience those moments of really um yeah negative experiences basically accumulating? I think it was m several, and you when you were feeling good again, it kind of you got another um dip basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

So yeah, that kind of explains it well. Like um, I I kind of go up and then down and then up again and then big down again um through my 20s, just with between Lyme disease and then a head injury, and then adding the relationship trauma through all of that. Um yeah, it was it was a lot. Um, and basically like it all kind of started early in my 20s, and you know, as I'm working on my next book now, I just was working on a chapter where I kind of wrote out my my healing journey, and so it's it's nice and fresh on that, which is nice, but excellent. Yeah, I was um early in my 20s, I was training to be a triathlete. Um, so I had just finished running a half marathon and I wanted to take that into being um or into completing my first Olympic um Olympic um triathlon. And Olympic, I mean in terms of like the the length, the distances. I think it's called like an Olympic triathlon or something like that in terms of the distances, but um yeah, so it was gonna be like a big race, and I was training um both on for people who don't know triathlon, it's like uh biking, running and swimming. And I grew up as a competitive swimmer as a runner, and so this was like really a big thing for me. And um, so I was just I was very fit and I was very healthy, like I was quite healthy, but I guess like looking back, I had missed signs, you know, that my body had been kind of showing me over the years that maybe like even though I felt healthy and I was fit and active, um, which to me that meant I was healthy, right? But my body was showing me slowly over the years signs that maybe I wasn't like completely healthy, you know, I'd get chronic bladder infections, um, chronic throat infections. Um, and anytime I got sick, I would get really sick, or if I didn't get enough sleep, I would get really sick. So I just had kind of struggled with my immune system early, like in my teenage years. Um, and then yeah, one day in my early 20s, like I got all of a sudden like so sick that I went from, like I said, training for a triathlon to not even being able to walk up a set of stairs. Like I just couldn't do it in terms of my energy. Um, I was just so exhausted. I'd go to work and then I'd come home and I would just sleep. I would sleep from like 6 p.m. all the way to the next morning because my body just needed that amount of sleep. And like I went to the doctors, I tried to figure out what was going on. Um, the first doctor I had seen had kind of diagnosed me with like mono, um, but it ended up turning into this whole year and a half illness, which eventually got diagnosed as Lyme disease. Um, and to me, they were kind of one and the same illness, Lyme disease and mono from my experience. Um but yeah, ended up being that it took me a year and a half to fully recover from that. It it was about like a year before I got like a Lyme disease diagnosis where I like fully understood what was happening, what I could do to heal. Um, and that itself was traumatic, like trying to navigate the healthcare system, trying to find a diagnosis, not knowing what was going on with my body and getting like sicker and sicker every day. The anxiety that came with that was so hard and so real, like not knowing what's going on with my body, not knowing like if I was gonna die, like do I have cancer and they just can't find it? Um like these were constantly things that I was going through, and it was frustrating because a lot of the tests would come back um with you know slight markers off, but nothing that was like really that is the worst, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

That is the worst time when there's nothing when you you see the symptoms, you feel the symptoms, but you can't put your finger on it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

And the doctors just kind of like that I was seeing was were just like kind of dismissing, you know, because it was like nothing on the tests were showing up. So yeah, it became I had to become my at my own advocate in that sense. Like I had to do my own research, I had to figure out how to heal myself because I just felt like I wasn't finding the help I needed um elsewhere. And so it I really became my own coach and advocate in that way. And I spent it became like a full-time job healing for me, like reading about food. And like from the day one, like I knew food was gonna play such a big part in my healing. I knew I needed to really change my diet because um, like I would say my diet was, you know, not unhealthy before. I thought it was like, you know, decently healthy. I didn't eat a ton of processed foods or fast foods, but that said, I would still have those on occasion. And, you know, I ended up from what I learned in my healing journey, like doing more research and stuff into food, that um, yeah, obviously a whole food, plant-based diet where we're getting more of these more natural whole foods um is really more supportive. And so I ended up changing my diet completely from like the standard American diet to one that was, as I mentioned, whole food plant-based. And that really, really kind of helped me heal and um a big part of my healing journey as well. And I talk about this author a lot on my um my Instagram page, but medical medium Anthony William, his his books were like a lifesaver for me, and it really ties into the spiritual part of my healing too, because I was praying through all of this a lot, and somehow I came across his work and it really just felt like um a divine like uh answer to my prayers. And when I came across his books, it just completely opened a new door for me in terms of healing naturally and using food and like herbal medicine and uh everything that I felt like I needed to understand was kind of like to heal was in his books. And I was just like, oh my goodness, this is so amazing! Like, and I just kind of dove into that because at that point I was only getting sicker and sicker and didn't really have like uh any other options I felt because I was kind of left to heal on my own, I felt through all of this, and and that and all the advice I had kind of been given before was really just making my situation worse, making my my illness worse. So I I really in that moment when I came across as work, decided to shift from going to what I was being told to trusting myself and trusting what my soul was saying, and that was like heal with the food, you know, heal with the natural herbs and natural plant medicines. And and so I went with that and I ended up like slowly improving with my um with Lyme disease symptoms, and at at the worst point in through all of that illness, I think I had like a list of 50 symptoms, so like I was really quite sick. I even had like a near-death experience through that. I I was so sick at one point.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Really?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah, so just like being able to recover um from that is like a huge miracle for me and myself. Like, I didn't ever think I would be back to normal in terms of like making a recovery and being able to go back to my career and like not um like being able to even exercise again, you know. Like that wasn't even like I just wanted to not be in pain anymore. Like that was my biggest thing in that situation and to not die. Like I was like, I'm too young, I still have so much I want to do, you know, and so being able to come out of that and kind of feel empowered through natural healing and self-help books really changed my life and inspired me to become a wellness coach and to help others find their own healing, as you said, like in their own way, uh, through self-help or whatever resonates with them. Um, but one thing I do love about like self-help books is that you know, it doesn't cost you as much money as it does to repeatedly go see an expensive doctor or a specialist, and and you can you can acquire so many of these self-help books that have so much wisdom in them. And yeah, it was just such a life-changing um part of my health journey was coming across self-help book.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

I love that because and um how as much as I love it, I find it also very saddening that um that's the case that we I'm just generalizing here, but the the I'm in you know, I'm in Germany, I'm Irish, I'm live in Germany at the moment, and you're in Toronto, I no, I believe, at the moment. And it's basically, but it's globally that this health system, the the normal traditional school health system here, what people learn, what doctors, professors learn, it just doesn't resonate with uh my learning or what I hear from you right now. Because it's really about what you say, this self-aff because we're all individuals, plus uh it's not taking into consideration how much uh uh power and uh capacity the body has to heal itself if it's given the the space and the platform and if you know we're connected and we're uh feeding it with healthy nourishment and nutrition. That's and that's what you're describing, and I think that's uh so amazing, plus uh what you turned it into now. So l sorry, I just wanted to uh say that. It's just uh amazing how you discovered that for yourself and m managed to implement it into your life but all by yourself. It's fascinating. So please proceed what you what you did.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, so I think I think like um when it comes to chronic illness specifically, so something like Lyme disease, it's I feel like there's at least in my in my specific um experience in my specific case of Lyme, I felt like there was multiple things kind of building up over the the years that had contributed, you know, as I mentioned before, I wasn't always on a healthy diet, a healthier diet, I was on standard American diet. So I think over time these chronic illnesses build up in the body and it shows us signs, you know, and sometimes we're not really in tune to those signs. And um, so I think in in this sense, when you know it's not like a an urgent emergency health situation when it becomes more chronic, that is really when like plant-based foods detoxing and like cleansing and um herbal medicines, like that's when these types of I think approaches can be um helpful because you're supporting your body's natural ability to heal. Um, like I I always say this, and and I think sometimes we we forget because we're only here for a short time in our bodies. Um, but when you think about the human body, like it's been here for years. Like it the human body itself, like separate from you and I, for instance, is so like it's ancient. It has it holds wisdom, you know, in our genes, in our DNA, in our in our body. Like this is get this like wisdom is passed on from generation to generation. And and I think sometimes we're so in the moment and we just think of our body as our own body, living, you know, in this lifespan from like when we're born to you know however long we live. But the truth is like our body is so intelligent, like it knows so much, uh, it's carried so much through these the way that information um is passed on through the body, right? And through generation, through DNA and genetics or whatever you want to call it, but it it holds that that intelligence and it knows how to heal. We just have to be able to listen to your body, and that's a lesson for the soul. I talk about in one of my books to listen to your body. That was the first soul lesson I learned on my healing journey, was I really needed to start paying attention to it because it's it communicates to us in ways like pain, um, illness, you know, disease. Like these are ways our body is is asking us to pay more attention, uh, to care, take care of it more naturally, to integrate more self-care and healing. Um, so yeah, I think like it's my a lot of my healing journey has been learning to trust my body more and to understand that like our body does know how to heal and and it wants to heal and it has the the intelligence to heal. We just have to learn how to listen to it and learn how to to support it in the best way we can.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Exactly. And it doesn't even have to be through pain or or you know, to the extreme of chronic disease. I think even on a daily basis, like people when you're feeling exhausted or when your body says, I need sleep, listen to it. It's okay, you know, it's okay to lie down and uh just rest if if the body claims it, but obviously if it continues and then you know it it can also mean something, so there's something not quite right, you know. But that's what you mean, no? That's exactly what you mean. Listen to it, yeah, act accordingly.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah, and to your point, like maybe sometimes it just needs a quick nap, and maybe if that doesn't work, then it's indicating there's something deeper going on, right? That needs investigation and and support. Um, but yeah, so that was that was a really big lesson for me. And and later through my healing, through my you know, injuries and illnesses in my 20s, I later, um, as you mentioned, went through a concussion injury. And this is where that lesson became very, very hard for me because um anytime I looked at a screen after this traumatic brain injury, my head um would just feel it would feel like someone hit me in the back of the head with like a like a cast iron pan. Like it hurt so much. I I would get so sick and nauseous just from even looking at a screen that had a light on it for like a minute, I would just be completely disabled, like throwing up, like it would just be really, really bad. So for me, um, it became really challenging to learn how to listen to my body um during that time because I really had to respect that it could not look at a screen anymore, that it could not be in like bright lights anymore. And learn to respect and listen to it um at that time was very challenging because it was during the middle of the COVID pandemic. So everything was on a screen. Everyone, like the only way to communicate was on a screen, right? So all of a sudden I found myself very isolated because I could no longer look at a screen. Um and here in Canada, it's quite dark during the winter, so not having light in the winter also was very challenging. So it became, but I I knew anytime I did do that, it was gonna put my body and healing and recovery, you know, back. Um so I did my best to learn how to respect what my body was communicating in those moments. Like if I went on the screen and it it was saying, nope, this I'm not ready to do this, like I had to learn to be like, okay, I will try again, you know, in another week, or I will try something else to better support you so that next time I do look at a screen or am in a bright light, like it's it's not as painful. Um, but yeah, so I think it it really, and that lesson was so important for me in my concussion recovery because ultimately it's really what helped me what helped me heal. And I do feel like it was a lesson for me in this lifetime, you know, like a big lesson, like learning to listen to my body because I'm like a very hard worker and I want to like push past the pain and I want to like push past like everything that's going on because I'm like very driven and determined, you know, and you know, I wanna I wanna get out there to help people heal. And I felt like this was holding me back and not allowing me to do that. And so every fiber in my soul was like, uh, I want to go on the screen, even though it hurts, you know. But um I had to really learn and say, nope, I need to listen to my body. This is the lesson it's going through right now. And and and this is kind of what my book Lessons for the Soul is about, because once you do step into these lessons, then you know, I start to heal and I start to get better. And um, it's it's kind of like once you step into these lessons. You allow your life to open up to more abundance and ease because you're not resisting the lesson. Whereas if I continued to like not listen to my body, like I might have uh continued to go on to that lesson for longer than um, you know, I did. So yeah, it was and that and my book, Lessons for the Soul, really kind of came out of my concussion injury as well. Um, my healing from concussion injury. Because I wasn't able to look at a screen, I was just like really like starting to tune in more spiritually. Okay, like why am I going through this? And I know like we kind of talked about how I went up and down in my 20s. So this is that was the moment like when I uh had my concussion and had to step away from like my career for a second time after healing from Lyme. That was really when I was like, okay, I'm I need to listen now. Like, what are you trying to show me? You know, universe. Like I I just healed, I just went through, and now you and now I'm going through something so difficult again. Um, so I'm listening. Like you, I it literally put me in a situation where all I could do was listen, right? Like I couldn't look at screens. I I was there was no distractions anymore. It was just me.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Yes, but looking back, I mean that is that is amazing. So you so each book or each step or move you made into the direction where you are now was uh derived from a different symptom, or do I understand it correctly? Like every book evolved, you say this one now, especially from the concussion to go inside, and that is in itself. How do you evaluate this? I mean, it it all makes kind of sense now.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Yeah, I think like like obviously when I was in the moment of those illnesses and injuries, and in the darkest point of those, like there were points where I wanted to give up, you know. I I just couldn't see a way forward, but I didn't really have a choice, right? So I continued, and I think like back then I didn't understand everything that was going on and and why it was all happening, and I definitely wrestled a lot spiritually with it, like, and this is where my uh like a lot of self-worth came into this. Um a lot of self-worth healing, and like, you know, obviously, I think a lot of people when they go through like traumatic experiences like this, whether it's a traumatic injury or a traumatic illness where they're very close to to death or they're so injured that they're completely disabled. Like you you ask yourself, like why, you know, why am I going through this? What did I do, you know, to have this happen to me? Did I deserve to have this happen to me? Did I did I hurt someone else? And so now this is happening to me, you know. Like I went through like months of that, like trying to understand why this experience kept coming up for me. And because it um obviously Lyme and the concussion, it was kind of like a pattern I was noticing now. And so yeah, it was very challenging to kind of break through that phase of my healing and and not fall into like a victim mindset because there were times I did, you know, like uh, why is this happening to me? And a a large part of that healing was learning to shift away from that victim mindset into a more like accountable mindset, into a more um empowered mindset where I started to see, okay, well, maybe this isn't happening to me, but instead for me, because now after going through all those experiences, I have gained so much understanding and knowledge and wisdom and how to help others heal. So maybe the reason I experienced this wasn't necessarily, you know, because I did something bad, but it was really to help me learn how to help others. Like sometimes you have to experience it, you know, to really know how to help others. Um, and maybe that was my purpose. Uh, that is my purpose, which I do feel, you know, in my soul it is.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Absolutely. That's exactly the word that just popped into my mind. It was just like, even though it's such a hardship to have to go through, but it is your purpose, and it brought you to to this place through resistance, through feeling, you know, like a victim or pity for yourself. That's all legitimate. And I think we all are entitled to those phases when we feel sorry for ourselves. We need that, you know, let it be a day or a few weeks, or it's it's legit, it's it's fine. However, how how you manage to to navigate yourself back into empowerment, that's why I'm so happy to have you here to be to inspire people, or that's how how you are inspiring people now through your books or through your your coachings or your classes or your sessions. Um that is that is so powerful, exactly. And for myself as well, the the biggest growth always happens through being rock bottom, through being challenged, being confronted with um the opposite to ease when it's hard, when we when there's resistance. And the thing is that the there are people who who give up, who don't try to get through this resistance, but the people who do, like you and like I did in the past, it's it's when you go through this resistance and you come out on the other side stronger, more empowered, and having found your purpose. And that's that's where the power lies. And that's that's so so so beautiful. Do you wanna do you wanna share with us a bit about how you coach or how you now how you help people actually, how you practice your yeah, so um a big part of uh obviously I did some education in coaching wellness.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

I I did two or one to two years, I think, at Wellness Coaching Australia. Um, but mostly where I really learned, you know, how to coach was through my own experiences because there was a time in all of that where I literally like I couldn't um afford to go get the help that I needed, the the coaching that I needed or the you know counseling that I needed through all of that. So I really, as I said previously, like kind of had to become my own advocate and um kind of learn how to navigate these difficult situations on my own. And um there's a couple turning points along my journey during one of my concussion um appointments with the doctor. Um, he mentioned something about like locus of control, and this is essentially where you um are able to become more aware of how you can make choices that can influence your future and your outcome. It's essentially really um being able to come out of that victim mindset and into a more empowered mindset where you really instead of focusing on everything you can control, you start to focus in on more, okay, what can I control about this situation? And so this really was a moment on my healing journey that changed like how I was approaching these situations and thinking about these situations. I realized I was thinking so much about what I couldn't control. You know, I can't control that I got the concussion, I can't control how long it took my body to heal, I can't control the relationship trauma I was experiencing, and I I couldn't control the fact I got sick with Lyme disease. But what I could control is the choices I made around those relationships, the choices I made to heal my body, the choices I made um to to improve my life, really to find healing. Like that was all within my control. So my it was about probably um like a few months where I really took this and did a lot of reading into locus of control and really um embraced it. And I ended up developing and on my own to help myself work through what I was going through, uh a coaching method, which um I call now reclaim control and thrive again coaching method. So yeah, I've turned it into a coaching method I now use to help other people heal and um not so much heal, but to find their way through their hardships. It's about being able to find your way through challenges. Um and it it really is about helping you understand and refocus on what is within your control in this situation, and you can really apply it to any kind of like hardship or challenge you're going through. And um, yeah, it's it's really about supporting those who are going through hardship and being helping them find uh what is within their control and kind of like working with them through through those choices to help them find what might work best for them out of those choices. And it's about like setting smart goals and then kind of trans translating those actions into smart goals and then into a path forward that's reasonable for the um person because obviously, if you're going through something that's hard, you don't want to sit there and set like five goals for yourself in one week, like it's too much. Which is smart goal setting, right? Yeah, exactly. So yeah, that's basically my coaching approach in a in a nutshell. But of course, everyone's situation is different, and sometimes the approach needs to be more flexible and evolving to work with the person. But um, yeah, that's a basic, and and I think it's it's really about empowering, you know, um the person who's going through that hardship because once you can help them figure out what is in your control about the situation, um, it can really help them feel less hopeless and less powerless and like more resilient, you know, it can help them into this feeling of being more resilient. And I think that that is important on any healing journey, really.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

No matter how big, how small exactly.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Yeah, to be able to feel like you can make a small change, whether it's big or small, just by making one single choice that you feel is within your control, then like that's powerful, you know. And and that's it's like something like you know, you're just not feeling 100% lately in terms of your mindset and you know, your outlook and how happy you are. And so what's what's in your choice with that within that, you know? Maybe your choice, daily choices would become something like, okay, I'm gonna, which we talked about previously previously, actually, like limiting what you're you're following on social media to accounts that only bring you happiness. Um making a choice to listen to a song that brings you happiness every day, you know, setting aside five minutes to read a book that makes you happy. Like these are all choices that you can make and to kind of bring your spirit up, your your mood up. Um, so yeah, it's really about um helping people discover what is within their circle of control and helping them yeah, kind of integrate that in ways that are sustainable for them and and life-changing for them as well.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

I love that. And that brings me to the spiritual side as well, because what you just described is exactly that uh on a daily basis, how we have the power. And I always say, you know, every basically really every problem can be solved through awareness.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

I love I think that too all the time. I do. We're in a show, and anytime now I run into a problem, I I say that every problem can be solved. So I love that mantra.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

True, it's true. It it is always a way, and my mantra is also everything always works out. It it might take long, it might be really hard and really bad, um, but it is always something on the other side. And what what you just described as well, I I just thought about the the vibration, you know, the spiritual side of things, if if we want to call it spiritual, because I think it's science, it's it's high energy, it's it's you know, it's quantum physics and it's it's available for all of us. And if you say that, do something small, listen to a nice song. I mean, my my happy place is driving the car and listening to great music or a great podcast or whatever. That makes me happy. It's like medicine, you know, and finding this place of happiness for yourself, and then gradually, yeah, just do it, no, practice it on a daily basis and have those morning routines or evening routines and everything. And I mean, this is this is basic now, just basic uh to feel good, yeah, and to to perhaps achieve the things that you want to achieve. Of course, when you're in a place of suffering and pain and everything, um, whether it's mental or physical, it's um it's easier said than done. But that's exactly where you and I where we come in and say, Hey, yeah, there's a problem for you. But I I follow what I who I love is Brue Castillo. I don't know, she's a life coach as well in the States, and she makes it, she breaks it down so beautifully, and she sometimes says to her clients, she said, Yeah, and so what? You know, when they come and spill out and and this is wrong, and this is wrong, and this is terrible, and this is awful, yeah. So what? And they say, What do you mean, so what? Have you no empathy? Well, you know, you can't say so what because I'm suffering here, but it's all about your awareness, you know, and the the what you make of it, or how you interpret the things that are happening on the outside. And you're the only one who can, like you said earlier on, make a choice, you know. Do I want to suffer? Do I want to be the victim? Or do I want to empower myself and take control of the situation? Baby steps. And yes, sometimes we need a coach or we need somebody to guide us through this, you know, and it's but there's always a way. There's always a way.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Yeah, and I think uh I think that's the that's the thing is um sometimes when you're in that that place it's it's sometimes impossible to see a way. Exactly. Yeah, and so having a coach can really help you brainstorm um if you're having trouble, like they might see something differently because of their experiences. Um but yeah, I do I do believe if you know sometimes maybe there's not always a way to like fix the problem in the way you want it fixed. Like for instance, maybe you know, there's something that's beyond repair, but at the end of the day, there's still ways forward. Um, it might not be that exact way, but how can we make the best of a very difficult situation? Like what choices can we make that help you move forward from this in um a more comfortable, a more um like positive way than than you know you currently are in this situation, you know, like how can we better support you in a way that um yeah, just gets you to a better place, really. Um and and sometimes, yeah, like I said, it's not like solving the issue you want fixed at first, like sometimes it takes a long time to solve something. Like, for instance, with my cushion, my concussion, it took um multiple years, you know, for the pain to go away. And and if I went to a coach and said, like, I want this pain gone, I want this fixed, I mean, that's not realistic, right? I have to respect the time it takes my body to heal. And as much as I wanted that, um it wasn't focusing on that at that time wasn't probably gonna move me forward as much as um focusing on smaller things around me that could make me happier in the moment, like going for a walk every day um to help my body relax, which helps my body heal over time, you know. Um allowing like daily allowing my body to take the time it needs to heal and respecting that and taking the time when I when I was able to um find the capacity to do some more research and look at what worked for others to get another book when I could to learn about other ways to heal. Like, um, so yeah, I think it's it's about holding that vision, like that's where visions and goals come in, right? Like you can have hold that vision, okay. I want to like heal from this concussion, but right now, like that's the vision. Smaller goals are gonna be about what what's in my control.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

What's yeah, what can I do right now at this point? And what, like you said, what makes me feel better? It's just about being a little bit better, even if it's just a tiny bit better, but just and then you know, you get this the dopamine, the the brain experiences some better feeling, and it likes that, you know, it's just growing slowly into that other version, no? It's it's yeah, it's it's yeah, but like you said earlier, and I I think that's very important to point out everybody, every soul, every body is uh individual, yeah, complex being, you know, an individual being, and uh we have to look at the individual, what where where are you at right now? See what what I really what I appreciate so much here is our meeting you today and hearing you speak and uh seeing the books you wrote that are available. Um you can tell us in a minute, but is to give uh people hope and to give people um the belief that it's not over, it's not that bad. And that's also my my passion, my purpose in this life, um which I found very late. I studied languages, but I found my passion also through hardship, through divorce, through pain at the age of 40, the early 40s. And that's and I was, you know, I loved it. I just love having this task in life, this purpose in life, and that's what it's about for everybody. I want everybody to find their purpose because finding the purpose also is invigorating, energizing, and is also fulfilling for the for the body and the soul. Yeah, you know, and that's what it's about, really. In in this short, like you said in in the beginning, this short life that we have here in this physical body right now. You know, that's that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

And I think one thing, like you mentioned hope there. Um one thing that always stayed with me through all of these hardships, like when there were days I did think, oh, you know, I don't think I'm ever gonna get better. I think I'm gonna have this disability, this injury for the rest of my life, you know. There were days I thought about that, but then you know, I always reminded myself of this one thing, and that it really helped anchored my hope, and that was that um change is constant. Like we talked about, you know, you talked about the energy, the metaphysics. Well, you know, I I do think there's like this this universal law that that things are always changing, like nothing when you think about it really stays the same and stays constant. Um so I think like with my healing, that was something I really kind of hung my hat on, you know, is like things are always changing. Whether, you know, for me what happened was technology changed to a point where now I can look at a screen because there's technology out there that doesn't have backlight um all the time. Speaking with you over a screen doesn't have a backlight, and that changed the trajectory for me of my recovery rehabilitation because all of a sudden now I could use screens again. And so this is um, but like, you know, a year into my recovery, it wasn't that way, and I was, you know, in that like mindset, like, oh, you know, this I'm not gonna see or find my way out of this, and then wow, look at that, you know, like a year later, there were some techno technology changes, and the technology was available for me to really rehabilitate. And whether that's change within your body, change within technology, change within society, change within, you know, your relationship dynamics, things are just always changing. And I think, yeah, holding on to hope with that really helped me because I was it really showed me that um as things change, sometimes new opportunities um arise and new uh avenues to healing, new avenues to recovery um open up.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Love that. Love that, yeah. So just yeah, thank you so much for sharing your story. And if you know, when listeners or people want to find you, would you wanna share where they can find your books or where they can find you? I'm gonna obviously put the the links in the show notes um later on, but um do you wanna share where they can find your books, especially?

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah, that would be great. Um, so all my books are available on Amazon Marketplace website. So um if you have access to Amazon, you can order through Amazon online. You can also order all my books through my website. Um, so my business name is Thrive Again Wellness, and you can find my website through all my social media accounts as well. So for Instagram, uh you can find me at Thrive Again Wellness, and same with YouTube and TikTok. So yeah, pretty easy to find that way. And um always also open to chatting with people and always there to help coach if that's what they're interested in. But I also love just connecting with people and hearing their feelings as well, and um yeah, sharing that healing journey with people, I think is is very special and yeah, brilliant, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

That's an inspiration and uh you know uh anchor in itself for people. I love that. So yeah, thank you so much, Jess. Thank you for being here today. And I'm going to put all the links in the show notes and um yeah, just reach out to Jess if you have any story or resonance with with her. So lovely to have you here today and talk soon.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Thank you for doing what you do.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Yeah, of course, thank you.