Health & Wellness Expert | Writer | Author
I spent most of my first 20 years hospitalized with life-threatening asthma, autoimmune disease, colitis, and arthritis. Doctors told my parents I would not live beyond 17! Born in 1955, I was environmentally sensitive, and chemical sensitivities were not yet recognized as a threat to health. Through the grace of meeting a Paul Bragg-inspired medical doctor, I survived.
Paul and Patricia Bragg are the founders of the modern health food & natural lifestyle movement. They started it ALL! And lucky for me they did! The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle was key in providing the tools to completely heal my body, from head to toe…a transformation that launched my passion and training in alternative health, and my private practice of over 35 years, where I’ve helped thousands regain their health and stop premature aging.
What were the biggest initial hurdles and how did you overcome them? At the beginning, my biggest hurdle was just surviving. As I healed my body, I discovered the emotional trauma and PTSD that was just below the surface of my sunny personality. Thanks to the Hoffman Process, I released the rage, fear and sadness that came from years of illness and treatments that were as just as crippling as the arthritis and asthma I had battled for so long. After 18 months of daily “rage work” in a safe, rubber room that belonged to my therapist, I was an inch and a half taller, and my RA was gone!
How powerful are unconscious, negative beliefs? They own us.
I also focused on detoxing the pharmaceutical medications I’d been given in my youth, through protocols such as colon hydrotherapy, juice cleanses and an all-organic diet. I was lucky to have mentors along the way that supported me, but at that time, there were no “gut health experts” to guide people’s journeys to wellness. So, I became one!
Patricia and I share a variety of safe, simple cleansing practices in “Revolutionary Beauty,” so that everyone has a proven, step-by-step method to release the toxins we all encounter in our beautiful, but toxic world.
What books are you currently reading?
I recently reread a book that my former husband, Kenny Loggins and I wrote over twenty years ago, “Unimaginable Life,” and it was poignant to see how much of what we learned influences me to this day. Our path together was the springboard for finding my voice and healing what I call in “Revolutionary Beauty,” my beauty-wound — the wound that all women carry due to society’s punishing rules of physical perfection.
What advice would you give to an upcoming youth or talents locally and internationally?
Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to launch with humble beginnings! When I first began giving colonics, a friend built me a tiny cubicle in the reception room of a colleague’s clinic, and I charged $20 a session. My first husband, David, said, “Work only with those who are ready to fight for their life the way you fought for yours.” That means, choose collaborators and clients who are committed to their own success, their own health and growth, and are willing to be 110% responsible for their own experience.
Keep your eye on the big picture; ask for help whenever and wherever needed. Stay healthy; get enough sleep, eat clean food, drink plenty of water and if needed, ask for support from friends and family or local health services. Prioritize yourself! That is one of the themes of “Revolutionary Beauty.”
If possible, trade services, and stay on budget. When you get stuck, slow down, take a break and get into nature. Mother Nature always has the answers!
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