Five years ago I started blogging. I’d always felt that I had a message to share, that my voice wanted to be heard, and that to be transparent about my life, would help others on their own life’s journey. At the time I was in the midst of a huge health issue, finishing up my Master thesis – having moved back in with my parents to do just that – and working freelance for an advertising agency on top of that. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it, starting a blog in the midst of all of this, but I’m glad I did. It kept me sane.
My blog was a huge creative outlet for me. A project which allowed me to combine my love for web design, photo editing and writing. A project that made me feel seen, a project through which I could share everything that I didn’t manage to share offline. Naturally, as I was blogging about me, my life, and whatever kept me busy… I regularly wrote about fibromyalgia and Lyme Disease, and what helped me to deal with these issues.
Over the years my blog got more popular and while I had stumbled upon my own path of healing and got better every day, I kept receiving messages from people who clearly weren’t getting better. At first this annoyed me immensely. Everytime I got a message like that I felt as if I got pulled back in the plague hole called Lyme (a hole which I saw some people embrace wholeheartedly, because it was in this hole that their issues had a reason, a label, and where they felt acknowledged, where they could be a ligit victim – it was also a hole that had never smelled good to me and which I had only dipped my toe in for a little while).
Before I knew it I was writing entire e-mails full of advice to the people contacting me. Enlistening everything that had helped me, praising my favorite therapists and books, sharing typed out recipes of herbal remedies and Ayurvedic meals… Until I realised: this feels like something I should do for a living!
Funnily enough, as soon as I announced that I was doing consultations… *crickets*
I know now that this had a multitude of reasons, among which a treasure chest filled with limiting beliefs around money and my incapabilitie, and having lost touch with the part of me that was able to hold space for people, the part that makes people feel safe and welcomed. Plus, I wasn’t certified as a health coach, which scared me, because I couldn’t prescribe anything, only share from my own experiences. To overcome all of this I enrolled in three study programs (while still healing from Lyme disease and the terror of writing a Master thesis), including acupuncture, herbalism and qigong teaching.
Enrolling in acupuncture school changed my life, literally. The Chinese philosophy on health and healing is endlessly fascinating to me and changed my own story about healing entirely. But after a year I dropped out, because I knew I didn’t want to poke needles into bodies (even though I LOVE going to my own acupuncturist). I also dropped out of my herbalism studies. My view on healing had changed so much, that the way the program was taught didn’t resonate with me anymore. In Chinese medicine, everything is about restoring balance. While western herbalism, way too often and unnecessarily, limits itself to stating facts. Such as: dandelion helps people to urinate, nettle is for people with anemia, and take some chamomile before sleeping… I couldn’t deal with that approach, especially as I knew so many good herbalist bloggers and writers (among which Asia Suler and Robin Rose Bennett), who went way deeper into herbalism than this. Who would commune with the plants and feel into their energetic medicine as well.
At this point, I felt hundred percent unqualified to do consultations with people. If I had learned one thing, it was that there is no ‘one cure fits all’, let alone ‘one meal fits all’ or ‘one herb fits all’. Ie learned it the hard way myself too. Beging convinced that because I was always cold, I needed tons of cinnamon and ginger. Until an Ayurvedic practitionist pointed out to me that there were way more imbalances going on, and that my gut issues actually stemmed from a heat problem: a.k.a. please quit the cinnamon and ginger!
But I still wanted to help people online. I had learned so much on my own healing journey (and still learn tons every day), and had gotten a knack for doing business online through the best course I ever took: running my own blog. By now I had also discovered the difference between consultations and coaching sessions: you don’t give advice in coaching.
I saw so many people out there looking for answers outside themselves, while it had gotten so clear to me that inside is the only place to look for answers. (Trust me, I know how hard it is to look inside sometimes, and how ‘looking for the magic pill’ outside yourself often seems way more important.) Answers about your healing journey are found inside, just as answers about creating an online business lie inside.
Even so, I got a coaching certificate with Yes Supply, because even though I knew how and what I wanted to help people with (taking deep journeys within themselves, roaming the subconscious world, uprooting limiting beliefs, receiving answers from deep inside, and integrating the finds in the physical world), I did feel I needed to get some coaching foundation. Which I’m very glad I did. It taught me what I already sorta knew, but instead of a vague concept in my head, getting certified helped me to untangle what coaching is, so that I now know perfectly what I’m doing. Even though I never use the NLP techniques in the way we were taught them. Remember, I take you on deep journeys within your own subconscious mind.
Now, I’m here. Helping you to remember your inner medicine, that gift that you’re here to share with this world. To take up your role in the healing of this planet, and to make a living doing so. Because even though we’re on the brink of a New Earth, living in the 21st century means having and using money, to take care of yourself and do good in the world.
Did I get here all by myself? Of course not. I’ve had help of many wise teachers, healers and mentors. And for the past two years I’ve had a coach myself. We’re not here to do it alone, we’re not meant to do it alone. In the past we lived in tribes, where we could ask for advice from our elders, who would gently or not so gently help us to find the answers. I believe everyone needs a coach to help you find the answers, to get ahead in life, to reflect, to help you grow, and to help you create what you want to leave behind on this Earth.
This is what has driven me to become a coach. A deep, heartfelt wish for everyone to feel into their inner medicine and share it with the world. To take up their part in the self-healing of our planet, because our planet needs it. The world needs it. And to help you to create an income, so you can keep on sharing your inner medicine and do good in the world.
Curious what coaching with me feels like? You’re always welcome to book a free Dream Talk with me.
Pictures by www.wearetheearth.nl
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