Wonderful Wellness
I live in pain, constantly and chronically. It isn’t pretty, it isn’t nice and it is very unfair. Oh and it frigging hurts. A lot. Over the years I have managed to make the pain worse. I have ignored the signals my body is shouting at me. I have distracted myself - this by the way is everyone’s default advice - but ignoring pain is actually tricky as it means I hurt myself more. Ouch.
So in an effort to understand, appreciate and accept pain, I have sought out professional help that has indeed has an impact on my health and pain levels.
Joo Westwood
One such person I am highlighting today is Joo Westwood - An Integrative Health Coach.
I am so happy to have her in my life. It has been a real change when we followed each other on social media.
What does an Integrative Health Coach do?
Integrative Health Coaching is a holistic and comprehensive approach to wellness. All aspects of a person are addressed including physical, emotional, social, and lifestyle factors impacting your health.
While I love modern medicine, in my experience it is amazing for the acute nature of conditions and pain. For a multisystemic condition like EDS acknowledgement, acceptance and long term care is tricky to find in a fast paced solution oriented medical world.
The Integrative Health Coach is key here as support and sympathy work wonders. Having someone to help you navigate a confusing complex chronic condition is what has helped me so much over the past few years.
Joo and I share similar histories which in some cases is spookily similar including having multiple cultural and language adventures. And of course especially in our hypermobility adventures. The random injuries, the constant pain and the knowledge that acceptance can go a long way. I asked Joo to help me. I needed help with my travel anxiety.
Frequent Fearful Flyer
The first time I travelled internationally was when I was 3 months old. I know, frequent flyer status started super early for me. I was visiting my family in Chile, flying from the UK to The Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina then Chile. Apparently I was very well behaved and slept the whole 30+ hour trip. Since then I have become more and more apprehensive about travelling.
It is fine when I actually do the travel and over the years I have seen sights that would now only be seen on Planet Earth documentaries. I have sat in the cockpit as we flew over the Amazon Rainforest. The sight of the green and blue patches of land and water will stay imprinted on if not my retina as that tears easily, my brain, for life. I have seen the vast oceans with whales swimming below, surfacing for air and back down. I have seen the sparkle of city lights and landmarks as we have flown by in the middle of the night.
But now in my 40s, I have found myself exhausted by the anxiety of travel. Too many questions overwhelm my brain like wasps bulging a new home. Too hot, too cold, too many people, too noisy, too smelly, too much!!!! Arghhhh.
Knowing I would have to get on a plane to go to Portugal for the ESTORIL Conferences where I was to speak was giving me chest and tummy pains. And the fact that I hadn’t gone anywhere since my detached retina episode was making me very nervous.
Joo understood and saw me straight away. She realised that I had got a bit carried away and was overwhelmed. She listened to my nutritional needs, my likes and dislikes and gave me some homework to do. What music calms me down? What textures work for me to soothe me? Such practical advice meant I was able to use my brain - as it likes to keep busy - and find a way to keep both body and mind soothed.
Planning & Pacing
A few weeks later, Joo sent me a whole curated and personalised plan. In it there was planning before advice, all those logistical things etc.
There was some wonderful calming words she had recorded which I played a lot in the days before travelling.
There were some great snack tips which sparked of my own creativity about what snacks I could make and take for the trip.
And Joo was always there when I had a concern or a question about how I could plan for the trip abroad for the first time in five years!
Soothing Success
I took deep breaths at each part of the journey. It turned out to be a car, bus, bus, hotel, bus, plane, taxi type of journey so I really worked on staying calm at every stage.
Over the months, Joo has checked in with me - thank you - which I really appreciate as I can forget or just need a little nudge every so often.
We also met up in real life and we worked on my current status and symptoms. This was quite the revelation as many of my symptoms are serious but not as serious as my brain actually thinks. Sometimes we need someone to tell us that!
I am so happy to report that I travelled well, even with a toothache that needed medical attention. I am proud that I prepared and planned and paced myself at each stage of the journey. I am especially happy that I got to see Lisbon and do some of the things I had planned. While I didn't get to do all of them, I was able to experience the wonderful place that is Portugal. Thanks Joo for helping me get to and enjoy this wonderful place and space!