In 2016, after a few years of suffering from "un-diagnosable" and chronic gastrointestinal illnesses like as IBS, neurological and psychological illnesses such as GAD and PTSD, I decided to take personal responsibility for my health.  At that point, I had become frail due to my fluctuating weight, I was unable to keep food down, I was having random dizzy or fainting spells, frequent migraines as well as blackouts and anxiety that could be crippling. Things were so bad that I had frequent hospital visits, numerous of which were extended stays. There were periods of days were I would not be able to eat. If I was able to eat, my go to snack was saltine crackers and either frozen Gatorade or frozen ginger beer.  LOL at me believing eating that was helping my body.  Despite all the intensive diet restrictions I had tried; gluten free, dairy free, no processed foods, no fried foods, no spicy foods, and a mostly bland diet, I was still unable to eat or keep anything down.  Due to this uncertainty, I developed an unhealthy relationship with food that I am still working to repair.  I was traumatized: I was in my early twenties, facing chronic illnesses, constantly in pain and certainly uncertain about my health and wellbeing.  When I should have been in my prime, I was at the lowest I had ever been in my life.

After teams of "renowned", "health specialist" were not able to cure my symptoms with an array of pharmaceutical treatments, I decided to try healing myself. I had nothing to lose.  However, I had my life and my health to gain.  In the summer of 2016, I began the transition of my body and mind, away from animal products, processed foods and pharmaceutical medications, as I switched to a plant-based diet and holistic/homeopathic remedies.  Also during this time, I began to work on my mental and spiritual well-being by deconstructing the ideas and perceptions I had blindly adopted from society and others.  Subconsciously, my body had already been leading me towards these changes.  I had cut down on eating animal products and processed foods, because my body was rejecting them.  During this time, I also decided to begin individual counseling and started developing my own spiritual practices.

At this point, after the changes I had been implementing, I was only having 1-3 episodes a month.  Although that was still not perfect, it was major progress from having 1-3 episodes a week.  After gaining this control, I must have thought that my work was done and tried going back to my old ways.  One weekend, after spending 9 hours on my bathroom floor, throwing up and passing out, and feeling like death was near, I realized that, I had caused this pain to myself!  I had to accept that I was making myself sick- I was solely to blame.  Although that may sound harsh, I found it empowering. In that same moment, I also realized that I am solely responsible and able to heal myself. The pain I experienced after that night humbled me enough to push me to complete my transition and fully commit to being plant-based and eliminating all animal products.  I immediately started a 5 day raw, juice cleanse.  I had been toying with the decision to transition to plant-based long enough to know that I needed to start with a cleanse, to increase my chances of remaining consistent with my new lifestyle choices.  This conscious change was the beginning of my lifelong journey towards healing myself and maintaining my health.

During my healing process over the past years, it has been my experience that mainstream health platforms, under-represent and denounce holistic and homeopathic practices.  During my research, I knew that I did not want to follow traditional Western medicine, I wanted to do things differently but I was unsure of where or how to begin.  In my quest to gain insight; resources, testimonials and empirical data, I was disappointed to find few.  This year, I have felt called to channel my energy and experiences into creating something that can be shared with others.  As an expert in mental health and having experience in holistic healing, I decided upon publishing my own website.  This seemed to be the perfect platform to freely share my thoughts and experiences while also having a chance to learn from others.  The Healing Honey platform will serve others; as a motivational guide, conduit and source for others to facilitate their lives journeys.

Much love