Sometimes it takes a serious health challenge, ours or our child’s, to reconnect us with our health, vitality and our joy. From personal experience I’ve come to believe that our children’s health challenges are directly linked to the area of OUR greatest growth potential as mothers. When we, as moms, deeply understand, accept, and learn to appreciate the transformation that unfolds as we guide our children to vibrant health and happiness, we also release our own self-defeating habits and are able to reach for the stars.
I broke through my own limiting beliefs and discovered my passion for the healing and supportive work I do today as a Family Health Coach, speaker, and author after my oldest daughter started having seizures at age 8.
I’ll never forget the Sunday afternoon that April when I was standing at the kitchen sink making dinner and heard grunting sounds. I turned over my shoulder to see my daughter, Julia, hunched and convulsing and drooling from the mouth. My child was having a seizure. As you can imagine, having never experienced this before, I was terrified.
We immediately called 911 and Julia was hospitalized for four days while doctors ran all the tests… EEGs, MRIs and CAT scans. The crazy thing was Julia had one seizure each day, and it always happened when the doctors were on rounds and would come in to check on her. Something deep inside me knew it was related to the emotions she was feeling, even though her emotions couldn’t be measured by an EEG or MRI.
The next four months were the most challenging months of my life. Julia continued to have seizures, sometimes as many as ten to fifteen a day. The episodes were so unpredictable and the uncertainty of everything in our lives made life exhausting. She ended up taking 4 different seizure medications to get them to stop. During that time, not only were my husband Mike and I trying to keep a close eye on Julia, we were also providing for our 3 younger daughters and doing our best to maintain some sense of normalcy in our lives. It’s amazing how a negative situation with a child can have such a dramatic impact on everyone in the family. It didn’t stop there. Shortly after Julia’s health crisis, Mike started having anxiety attacks and my auto-immune condition, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, flared to record levels. Talk about a health crisis—we were all going through a major shift.
One of the first things we did to return our family to radiant health was to work with numerous experts, coaches and specialists. This led me, and the entire family, on a powerful journey of self-discovery and led to a reversal of the symptoms. With support and expert guidance Julia was weaned off all of her medications and I am happy to share that she continues to be seizure free. Through lifestyle changes Mike eliminated his anxiety and reversed his life-long allergies, and I was able heal my auto-immune condition.
We discovered a simple holistic approach to health and found deep connections and joy in our lives. That painful part of our lives led me to discover my passion of supporting other families through their child’s health crisis and is why I share my family’s intimate journey so openly.
I’m often asked what steps we took to create such a radical transformation. There are 7 key steps that I guide my health practice clients through and I share them here.
Here are the 7 steps to increase your child’s health & happiness:
- SEE how you prioritize health – You are the largest living role model for your child and when you discover what messages you are providing this is the first place to start – including consistency and overall priority of healthy habits.
- FEED your family well – Our bodies need certain foods to make great parts. These include proteins, fiber, vitamins, minerals and essential fats. Emphasize crowding out highly processed “chemicalized” food-like substances and replacing them with real foods.
- LOVE your family unconditionally– Love yourself first so you can give to others – do this by practicing patience and compassion with yourself. Also, discover how each person in your family feels love – consider five love languages; acts of service, physical touch, receiving gifts, quality time and words of affirmation.
- SLEEP Yourself to Health – There are many ways to balance your nervous system for optimal health including quality sleep, decreased screen time, quiet environment and deep breathing.
- MOVE for fun – Movement is like food for the brain – our bodies crave movement and it regulates the nervous system, so move often.
- BELIEVE it is possible – Share a spiritual practice with your children – whether through religion, meditation, connection to nature, art or yoga – the key is to share it rather than keep it internal.
- CLEANSE your stress – Not all stress is harmful, only negative stress is. It’s important to recognize your thoughts, words, feelings and actions because they attract more of the same type of energy.
These powerful steps, as simple as they seem, have helped hundreds of families improve their child’s health and overall allowed everyone in the family to feel more connected and happier. The key is to realize it takes a holistic approach to overcoming a challenge and when consistent healthy habits are a priority, a snowball affect happens. Sustainable, life-long transformation happens in time.
Start with one or two steps and create some momentum to build to the next. Life is a journey and we are meant to enjoy the ride. This way you will improve your child’s health, while making your life easier and create time to invest in yourself.
