Self-Care For The Service Provider

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” ~Audre Lorde

This one is for me. I have spent nearly 20 years in the health and wellness industry. I have multiple degrees, specializations, and certifications. I help people. I love what I do. From preterm infants to children with special needs to adults with work-related injuries to pregnant women to cancer survivors and those on hospice, I help people. I love what I do, in all of the ways that I do it. 

Sometimes, however, I am drained. I spend my days and nights trying to find ways to educate and empower others to live their best lives and achieve optimal health via a wide range of modalities. For a while, I was a great example of the kind of living that I was proposing. I ate well, I worked out regularly and vigorously, I meditated, I traveled, and I practiced self-care as a way of life, not just some birthday treat.

Nosara, Costa Rica

However, when I became pregnant, everything shifted. Not just my internal organs and my SI joint, but my priorities and my perspective. From the moment that I found out that I was pregnant, I made every life choice based on my daughter coming into and thriving in this world. The only issue was that this singularly pointed focus was leading to the demise of my well-balanced life. I was a pregnancy nutrition coach and prenatal massage therapist, who only ate toast and jell-o throughout pregnancy, because of hyperemesis, and received exactly 2 prenatal massages in 40 weeks, while recommending that expectant moms should get a massage as often as they see their provider (because that's how often changes are occurring within the body). I did teach and practice yoga throughout my pregnacy, which was my saving grace. Other than that, I was the barefoot and pregnant cobbler.

Survival Tips For Women Who Do Too Much

The pregnancy was the beginning of the end for my active self-care regimen. In my, I moved 
3 states away. I moved away from my friends, family, yoga studio, nail tech, spa, hiking trail, make-up counter, running crew, martini & tapas spot, juice bar, stylist, shoe shop, and dress boutique. I had my husband, but he works very long hours, and wasn't that great of at scouting out locations that I would definitely love. I birthed my daughter in January, went into hibernation, and essentially, did not reemerge until late April. I actually loved being my daughter's everything during that time, despite not knowing how to get to Target, or where to go for the best mani-pedi. I did, however, begin teaching at a great yoga studio, which is where my post-pregancy life began to open up. I was venturing out in the town and on the trails. I was talking to adults. My husband gifted me with new running shoes, for my "new" feet, and I began racing again. I returned to occupational therapy part-time, and although I was exhausted, I was on a roll... until we lost our childcare providerS. Then, it was back to baby and me- for more than a year. That was unexpected. 

Tennessee State University's 5K
Nashville, TN

My focus returned to her 19/7. My amazing husband took over in the evenings... still does. During this time, we spent days eating the same snacks and wearing the same jammies. We promised play dates with friends, but they rarely happened. We took walks daily, but they weren't competing with the snacks. I was slowly finding out about juice bars and natural hair stylists, but I never made the provisions to go. My SnapBack had expanded and my energy and motivation were at an all time low.

Why I Am Not A Bad B!

Because of my love affair with breastfeeding, during this time, I became a lactation counselor. Because I was quite unsupported after giving birth, I augmented my experience 
as a birth doula, with training to become a postpartum doula. I also became a licensed Oh Baby! Fitness provider. Still, everything that I was doing was for other people. In 2006, I launched an Atlanta-based women's wellness company, and we closed its doors shortly after my daughter was born. Ironically, our tag line was "Perfecting The Art of Selfless Indulgence", because I know that women have a lot of guilt around taking care of themselves. In 2015, I launched another company, this time focused completely on perinatal health and wellness for new and expectant moms, so that I could be the kind of provider that I did not have during that phase of my life. 

How We Got Here

Delving more deeply into the birth world is how I discovered the amazing work of 
Panquetzani Ticitl,  a holistic womb counselor, complete wellness coach, traditional birth attendant, and foundress of Indigemama. This weekend, the universe saw fit for me to attend her Matriz y Concha workshop for womb health and healing, hosted by the equally amazing Claudia Booker. Just a few of the varied benefits of of optimal womb health include treatment for PCOS, endometriosis, blocked fallopian tubes, blood clots during menstruation, ovarian cysts, hormonal imbalances, uterine fibroids, unexplained infertility, poor egg health, ovarian failure, stress from infertility, lack of menstruation, excessive menstruation, constipation, pain during ovulation, tilted uterus, scar tissue, gas, and painful sex. This work greatly complements the work that I do as a pelvic floor therapist. 

Panquetzani! 

Initially, I desired to attend the workshop so that I could help my clients in deeper and more meaningful ways. I will be able to do that. What I did not expect, was the nourishing and nurturing way in which I will be able to help myself and my own womb, which is the center of life, love, abundance, sustenance, and all creativity. During this workshop, I realized that while I genuinely love helping others, I often focus on finding ways to do that in order to ignore all of the ways that I too, need help. I also made peace with my own womb for causing so much pain over the years, thanking her appropriately for helping to create and sustain the life of my child, and decided that we could remain united, despite my not wanting to have more children. I was elated to discover how, and more importantly, why to attend to my own self-care needs on a regular basis, and in my own home. I am replenished. I am invigorated. I am alive! I cannot wait to implement the womb nutrition, womb massage, womb fitness, and vaginal steam (YES!), into my own practice and my own life! 

Do you have questions about womb wellness? I can help!