My Chronically Well Story
How Did I Begin To Live Well With Chronic Illness?
Hi, I’m Leslie Thorpe. I am a health coach specializing in helping women find their way to living well with chronic illness and become their own advocate. I am certified by Duke Integrative Medicine and the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches. This is my Chronically Well story. Read on to find to find out how to gain access to my free Chronically Well Mindset Program!
I’ve spent my adult life living with recurrent lymphoma and autoimmune issues.
I was diagnosed with lymphoma as a brand new college grad, as a new mom and again when my daughter was 4 years old. I have been through surgeries, radiation, chemo, a lot of treatment side effects and now “watchful waiting” for the last 14+ years. I’m not even going to list the autoimmune issues…
And while I have been well enough to avoid a third round of cancer treatment, I spent a lot of that time getting sick, feeling awful and exhausted.
When my doctor told me there was nothing more she could offer me, I was not willing to accept that. I had reached my tipping point. I was done.
That’s when I decided I needed to take more control of my health.
So, I got serious about researching what I could do for myself to supplement my traditional medical doctors.
Things slowly started to change. I began to realize how much I could control some aspects of my health. I stopped waiting for the cancer hammer to drop and started to take action.
I had always thought that if I just followed my doctor’s orders, that would be enough — but clearly, nothing would change unless I took initiative.
And, that is what I have been trying to do ever since. I am excited to share some of the aspects of what I did to take charge of my life and health with the hope that my story might be helpful to you.
Here Is What Began My Path To Living Chronically Well -
The first and most important change involved changing my mindset: I realized I needed to start putting my well-being first.
I noticed that I was pushing myself too hard in all aspects of my life. The end result was exhaustion, illness, lots of secondary infections and a general feeling of frustration. Rinse and repeat.
I knew I could not magically reverse everything that was going on with my health. But, I opened my mind up to pursuing what I could do to impact my life and health for the better.
It was a slow evolution. But, what I ended up with is what I refer to as a Thriving Mindset.
This mindset involves accepting the practicalities of your illness and working with it, rather than against it. It involves giving yourself some self-compassion as you live with the inherent difficulties of it. But, it also leaves room for hope and the possibility that your healthy choices will make more room for your body to heal.
I think it is remarkable that how I thought about my life, health and circumstances had such a big impact. I became empowered by focusing on what I could do rather than what was outside my control. I became open to change, trying new things, and giving myself a bit of grace. I started to give myself more credit for what I was going through and to truly appreciate what my body had been through. I became grateful that I had the opportunity to create a better balanced life and to pursue better health.
I did not need to power through. I did not need to have all the answers. But, I did hold myself accountable for making an effort to do what I could as I was up for it. And, when I say effort, a lot of the time that meant prioritizing rest and recovery. I started to say “no” a lot more. I started to ruthlessly prioritize where I put my time and energy.
Then, I became more open to examining my life and what might be worthy of some adjustment.
What I was doing was taking an integrative approach. An integrative approach involves taking a look at the whole person and all aspects of an individual’s life to notice what could be impacting their wellbeing - including the physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental factors. While this definitely includes seeing healthcare professionals, it includes A LOT more that happens outside of the doctor’s office.
More specifically, this means considering all aspects of your life and finding where you are experiencing stress and misalignment with what you need or want. This could be anything from your job, to your relationships, to a specific lifestyle choice - to just about anything in your life. From there, you work on getting your life and lifestyle more into alignment with the factors that will support what you most want out of your life and health.
To read more about taking an integrative approach, I invite you to read this related blog post.
And, finally, I stopped thinking about wellness in terms of traditional vs. alternative and started to look at what was best serving me. I pursued whatever worked for ME, regardless of the label.
It turns out that this is an “integrative” approach to healthcare. I utilize both traditional and complementary approaches to maximize my health.
In my opinion, there can be a place for both types of providers. They are looking at different aspects of our health and the combination leads to a more comprehensive approach. In my case, this is what I needed. I needed medical treatment AND to work on some underlying issues that were distracting my immune system.
Some of my traditional medical doctors act a little snarky about the fact that I see a naturopath. But, what I have accomplished regarding improving my health would not have been possible without the guidance of my naturopath.
Seeing her is expensive because insurance doesn’t pay for most of my related expenses. But, I would rather pay to have my current level of health and wellness, stay out of the ER and stay well most of the time.
YOUR Chronically Well Mindset
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What Is The Result So Far?
While no one thing worked on its own, the combination of my efforts have made a tremendous difference in my health and life.
After years of peeling back layers of illness, I realize that I had slowly coached myself to chronic wellness. I am not cured. But, I am living well with chronic illness. I am Chronically Well. It takes a lot of consistent effort, but I think it is absolutely worth it to feel so much better.
Coaching YOU
Once I hit my stride with improved wellness, I knew I could not keep my experience to myself, because so many women are suffering!
That’s when I became an Integrative Health Coach so that I could share my experience with other women in similar situations in a way that would empower them to find their own unique way to thrive.
Today, I help women just like YOU shorten the learning curve on living Chronically Well. It might look different for each of us. But, there are some fundamentals that you can apply to your life in your own way.
The first step might include opening your mind to how much you can do to create a positive impact on your life with chronic illness.
I invite you to download my FREE 7-day Chronically Well Mindset program that highlights the fundamentals of the Chronically Well Thriving Mindset.
Subscribe to my newsletter to receive free access to this program in the Chronically Well app! Just scroll down to the bottom of this page and sign up!
How ready are you to find your unique path to living Chronically Well?
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