Alison's WOW Story:
Let’s shift Limiting Beliefs and learn to create an Optimal Life that Embraces Longevity Now!
I always make the same wish, every birthday cake, each first star, every wishbone…it’s the same wish, “I just want to be happy.”
I’ve been granted my wish. A grounded joy comes from deep within and touches every area of my life. I enjoy optimal health, a wonderful relationship with my soul mate, my work is my passion and the learning never ends.
In my early twenties I learn “Knowledge”, a technique to turn my focus within and tap into an inner source of bliss. That is the answer to my wish and makes it possible for me to face every challenge ahead.
My life soon falls apart with the first of several full blown manic episodes. I have no idea what is wrong with me, but as the sleepless nights begin to close in I sense something is desperately out of whack. I’m away from home attending theatre school. Somehow I manage to pull myself together enough to complete my studies and form a theatre company. But it isn’t long before the chemical imbalance sends my metabolism spiraling into a dark abyss of delusions and jarring mania that has me wandering the streets all night long in a state of heightened awareness.
I still see my parent’s faces when they visit me, and I confess, “I think I’m going crazy”. I can hear my dad’s involuntary moan and feel the pressure of my mother’s reassuring hand on my shoulder.
“Promise me you’ll get help.” she pleads handing me the name of a doctor. In my confusion part of me enjoys this feeling of omnipotence. I no longer require food or sleep and I can access parts of my brain most people are completely unaware of. Do I want to give this up?
My love for my mother compels me to make a half hearted attempt to submit to a psychiatric examination by a doctor whose office even has a reclining sofa! I can’t relate to this man and after a brief cross examination I’m out of there. The cycle of “madness” continues unabated.
Coming down after each episode leaves me dehydrated and filled with anxiety as I try to piece together the sequence of events and sort out what actually occurred and what was fantasy. Yet there’s still a part of me that feels this is a gift of “super” consciousness. In reality I’m weak and unable to hold together my life in the city.
The next episode occurs in the small town I’ve moved near my parents. I no longer enjoy the anonymity of the city. Friends and family soon rally together to persuade me to seek medical help in the local hospital. The lock on the door clicks behind me, I’m immediately committed and heavily sedated. For the next six weeks I’m in a running battle with the staff of the psychiatric unit. They finally realize I’m not psychotic, but suffering from bipolar disorder and my lifelong prescription for Lithium begins.
“Sadly, if society can’t accept the gift of super human brain power I’ve been granted with these manic episodes, I’ll give it up.” I think as I resign myself to submit to the medication.
It takes about a year to regain my confidence and I decide to get a computer technology degree in order to guarantee steady employment versus the ups and downs of an acting career in theatre. After graduation I’ve started a software development company for health sector and life seems to be on track once again. This false sense of security soon dissolves into a pool of blood and excruciating pain.
While on a walk during a vacation in 1987 in the tropics, I have the dubious honour of being a cushion for a 650 motorcycle that is out of control. Having thrown the driver it careens into me from behind sending me bouncing along the hot pavement with the bike on top of me. I never saw it coming and once more my life is put on hold. I’m rushed back to Canada and the series of operations begin to try to save my leg. The doctors don’t hold out much hope and prepare me for the likelihood of an amputation. Somehow I know it will be alright. I am determined to save the leg.
The endless operations on my leg rule out working, so I return to university for a BBA with a double major in marketing, finance and a minor in economics writing my exams between operations. My immune system is so low… I’ve another bout of the flu and start smoking cigarettes in frustration at the non union of the bones in my leg and the unending delays in the operating schedules. A friend visits me at home and offers me several green pills.
“I don’t want any more drugs! I’ve got enough with Lithium. I’m not even taking any painkillers!” I snap in disgust pushing his outstretched palm away.
“They’re not drugs, this is food and it works wonders for me.” He replies calmly holding out his hand.
I don’t know why or how, but something in his calm manner makes me accept them. That is the turning point of my life. Without any understanding of the wild super food I’ve been given, I continue to eat it daily.
The first thing I notice is how wonderful I feel. My
university courses become so easy and I can remember everything I’m learning in
class without studying. The need for cigarettes drops away. Next the x-rays
show a faint shadow of calcium as new bone is forming around the multiple
fractures in my leg. When I show them to my psychiatrist she gives a quick
glance at the bottles and tells me to stop eating them, but my body tells me a
different story. I choose to listen to my body and decide not to discuss it
with her again. In fact I’m so enthused I think, “Wow, if I could put this in
the water of the world, it would end all war!” Continued at Right...
Before long I learn to walk again, to run, and dance! I graduate and head off on my next entrepreneurial venture. Life is good! Yet I haven’t understood the miracle of healing the body can do when given the proper building blocks to flourish. I feel good and forget about the little green pills.
The side effects of Lithium cause weight gain, vertigo, tremors in my hands and eventually affect the functioning of my thyroid gland. I’m so exhausted and find myself crawling up the stairs to my bedroom and sleeping eighteen hours a day. Luckily I work my own hours as a strategic consultant for a medical software company. A physician colleague takes one look at me and sends me for blood tests for hypothyroidism. A high dosage of Synthroid is now added to my daily drug arsenal and again I’m informed this will be for life.
This doctor also suggests…those little green pills! Ahhh…something clicks in my memory. I remember how well I felt and how my leg healed against all odds when I was eating that food.
Once more and this time with gusto, I embrace this wild full spectrum nutrition and start learning everything I can about super foods and their effect on the body. My career path leads me to Toronto and I learn more about sprouted foods, raw food, coenzyme Q10, digestive enzymes, probiotics and much more.
My quarterly blood tests reveal the biggest surprise. Gradually over the years my prescription for Lithium and Synthroid is diminishing. Finally the day comes when my doctor looks at the blood test results and announces, “I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but whatever it is keep it up! Alison I’m pleased to inform you that you no longer need Lithium or Synthroid.”
I am stunned! And terrified… The thought of going manic again and being hospitalized is not something I ever want to live through again!
“Are you sure? Will you monitor me even closer? Will you test my blood every month for a while?” I stammer fearfully as I feel the excitement beginning to grow. The real possibility of life without drugs floats seductively in my mind. He reassures me, agreeing to my request.
That was in the year 2000, and I continue to thrive in optimal health today. At the time, I was so enthusiastic that I published a regular column called The Natural Path in a periodical for physicians. I desperately wanted to inform them about an integrative nutritional approach toward healing. I coached numerous individuals to turn their health around and published success stories in Vitality a free health magazine with a wide distribution in Toronto. I gladly accepted any speaking engagements I was offered motivated by the desire to share these discoveries with everyone!
Yet, I always made my living doing work that wasn’t my passion. Again that was for the love of my mother. When I told her I wanted to publish a book on my healing experiences she begged me not to saying, “Darling you’ve overcome so much. Now you’re cured. Why would you want to open yourself up again to the social stigma of mental illness? Please don’t do this. Why don’t you write fiction?”
She was my confident, best friend, heroine, role model and by coincidence my mum. I respected her wishes during her lifetime, and now that she is no longer with us, I begin my work as a longevity expert, write the “first-hand account” section of the book and research the solutions I share. Following my passion to spread the very real possibility of optimal health for all, I host Your Vibrant Health Secrets FREE multi-expert telesummit. I coach groups or individuals, and offer several online courses the Longevity Toolbox and Easy Natural Facelift video program to help turn back the clock on aging. My professional purpose is to collaborate with people who have a sincere desire to take responsibility for their health, wellbeing and longevity.
Life experience has taught me that vibrant health is our right! As my understanding deepens I realize first we need to recognize and shift our limiting beliefs. They cause profound stress on our cellular biology, wellbeing and our ability to create a quality life that embraces longevity now!
As my gift to you for reading my story, I offer you
Jump Start Your Health Blueprint to help you begin taking responsibility for
your wellbeing when you visit my personal website Wishing Healh 2 U