By Jana Beeman, CHHP, CHT, AADP
Do you ever feel like life is out to get you?
If you have ever felt that way, then read on. If you haven’t, well, you might gain some understanding.
People have often asked me how I’ve gotten through all the trauma my life has dealt me over the past few decades, and it always boils down to one thing. Before I tell you what that thing is, let me set the stage with an example.
This example is relatively recent, although I can find parallels throughout my life. My husband and I moved from California to Washington State for his work. I gave up a good job (it paid well, but I wasn’t happy), a studio and dance school I loved, friends I adore (well, I didn’t give them up but moved away from them) in order to support him and to create a new life for us. I worked really hard before the move, packing up the house, teaching until just a couple days before the move, keeping the house as clean as I could to show it so hopefully we’d get it sold. My hubby was already working up north, only coming home on the weekends, and I was pretty much on my own getting everything done. But I looked at it as the beginning of a new adventure.
We made the move, and two months later, I was invited to dance at an event some local dancers had put together. Long story short, the floors at the venue were beyond awful, and as a result, I ended up turning badly and tore the tendon that goes from the arch of my foot to the center inside of the calf. I was off my feet for 4 months… it was only that long because I kept trying to unpack stuff and take care of my cats in the new 3-story house. I slipped and fell down the stairs more than once.
So four months go by and I get back on my feet, start teaching at a local yoga studio, and am starting to build my dance business when I start having intense pain in my ankles, to the point that putting weight on my feet would cause excruciating pain – I was unable to walk on them. My doctor said it was arthritis, told me to stop dancing (forever) and remain as sedentary as possible. He said there was nothing I could do to improve it. Well, I believed him, silly me. I spent four more months sunk deep in depression and eating my way through the pantry. I gained weight, got more depressed, and basically gave up.
However, that is just not me. One morning I woke up and decided to see another doctor, so I made an appointment with a specialist. He redid the x-rays, found narrowing in the joint but zero sign of arthritis, and after we talked a bit more about what it felt like, he suggested chiropractic and physical therapy. Not long after this, I had to pick up some meds for my cat, and at the vet’s I ran into someone I didn’t know, but I just knew was also a dancer. We talked a bit and exchanged numbers, and it ended up she was a California dancer and a chiropractor! We ended up doing trade in exchange for a couple of months of chiropractic on my feet and ankles.
I started doing my own physical therapy, got on the treadmill every day, even if just for 5 minutes, and made myself a goal of walking a mile a day and if I did, I would go to Egypt on vacation. It wasn’t easy, but I got to Egypt, and walked miles a day while there. I am back to teaching dance and yoga classes, am performing just a little now, and although I still have issues with my ankles from time to time, I basically have my life back. It took me a couple years, but it was time well spent.
An interesting thing happened in the middle of all this though. I took at look at the dancer’s life I’d been living, and decided to head in a different direction – something I could sustain whether I could walk or not. I went back to school online and got certified in nutrition. I already had my certification in hypnosis and yoga/restorative yoga, was a trained counselor, and am proficient in EFT, meditation, stress relief and migraine pain control, so adding the nutrition opened up a whole new venue for me as a health, nutrition and fitness counselor. Now I get to help others who are suffering or feel trapped by their bodies unlock the code to what is really going on, and help them have the kinds of breakthroughs I’ve had. And, my 45 years of chronic migraines ended just after I started school. Having spent 2/3 of my life in drastic migraine pain, this is a gift of unimaginable magnitude.
Now my practice is growing in leaps and bounds, I’m connecting with the most amazing and strong people, and I’m truly happy with what I’ve created.
Was it an accident that…
- I went to another doctor?
- I ran into a chiropractor who would help me on trade?
- I found out about the nutrition school I ended up attending, which helped me change my life?
- I found the last pieces to my own migraine struggle?
- I’ve met exactly the right people at the right times to grow my business and enrich my life?
No. It was no accident. Through my meditation and spiritual connection, I was guided to the right place, people and events. Even in the depths of my depression, I felt connected to a knowingness that I needed this time, that I needed to go inside and let things shift in me and for me. Change is not easy. Starting a whole new life in a completely different direction isn’t easy. But the soul doesn’t grow and expand when life is always easy – challenges and how we face them are the keys to growth and expansion.
So what is that one thing I talked about at the beginning of this article which I’ve always relied upon in my life? A simple faith that I am guided. A knowing that there is no coincidence, that there are no accidents, that I chose to live my life to grow and learn and become more than I was. I’ve always been strong – if you knew more of my background you’d know how true that is – and I rely on my strength to get me through whatever it is I have to face in life. And I give as much as I can to those things in my life that feed my soul.
Life doesn’t exist to torture us, although I can understand feeling that way sometimes. Life is all about the journey – how we live, how we grow, what we learn, what we give back. Life is about the joy we feel, the love we share, the inspiration we express, and the connections we make with others. Every single day, we have the opportunity to change someone’s life, to help someone feel better, to make a difference. The less we think about what we can do for ourselves and the more we think about what we can do for others, the richer our lives become.
I may have lived through some amazing challenges, but I am grateful for them. Through them I have become more, given more, shared more. And when the next challenge comes, I’ll do it all over again.
Jana Beeman is a Board Certified Health, Nutrition and Fitness Counselor, Certified Yoga and Modified Yoga Instructor, certified in Hypnosis, meditation and stress relief trainer and a specialist in chronic migraine pain relief, food allergies and inflammation, and beating stress and fatigue. AADP Certified. She is a national speaker and is regularly featured on radio programs such as Spirit Radio, Women’s Radio and SQR-fm as well as her own podcasts, newsletters and blog.
Her website, www.balancedlifetoday.com gives information on her programs. Visit www.balancedlifetoday.com/migraines.htm for information on her migraine programs and to sign up for her free Migraine Management Newsletter with more informative articles and great tips on migraine control. She offers frequent teleseminars, podcasts and presentations at your location are available. Free 30-minute consultations about her program and how it might help you with your migraines or other health issues are available on a limited basis. Call (360) 263-5800 or email jana@balancedlifetoday.com.
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