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From Popstar and Poor Health to Pancakes and Patients

From Popstar and Poor Health to Pancakes and Patients

Hello Beautiful Souls, Welcome to KindBodyPlanet and our very first blog post.

Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Julie-Anne, Founder of KBP and this is a brief story of how I came to be a Qualified Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist and Natural Medicine Practitioner, working with amazing patients, healing and good mood foods (which have even been known to include raw chocolate and pancakes – yes it’s true!!), and what inspired me to create an integrated healing and learning space.

Now when I say brief, I mean brief as in, not as long as a book naturally but clearly slightly longer than one paragraph, so you might want to get yourself a nice cuppa, wrap up in a fluffy blanket, and get settled, ok ready? Then let’s have a chat.

My personal journey has been a long and emotive one, dealing with both physical and emotional challenges along the way. With over 15 years of passionate unrelenting work, touring with a band, in a strenuous and demanding music industry, I attained rare heights in my career as a singer – a job I truly loved. However, that came at a price. Prolonged consecutive periods of sleep deprivation, undernourishment, stress and constant pressure, recurrent 20-hour days for months on end repeatedly, meant I often suffered huge bouts of loneliness, fatigue, emotional overload, foggy thinking, and constant physical ailments compounding to frequent collapse.

Despite knowing I needed time out to pause and engage with myself and my family, but being unable to do so due to my contractual commitments, I soldiered on, taking blow after blow until one day my body gave in, landing me in a hospital with Pneumonia and forcing me to stop. 

The hospital insisted I discontinue work and take 6 weeks to recover. Unfortunately, my boss was not in alignment with the medical opinion and after a one-night stay in hospital and receiving antibiotics, I was driven back home.  Despite this dangerous situation, I would go on to continue touring heavily, delaying my healing by many months.

Now don’t get me wrong, I truly loved my job, but I was often afraid to speak up, really suffering from the ‘disease to please’, being the one who could never say NO. In addition, it was almost impossible to see my family and my partner, and that caused a great deal of upset for us all, burning the candle at both ends really isn’t conducive to good health or relationships.

Through the years that followed, I struggled to simply stay upright at times, I was literally collapsing before and after shows and sometimes in them! I was completely exhausted and developed more chest issues and colon problems. The problem is, the more you cover it up, the more people think you can keep going or doing. I used essential oils and meditation and read most things I could get my hands on, whilst travelling. But I was still failing to feel really well – I needed some time out to just stop and engage with myself. Little did I know, but that stop was just around the corner, to be presented however, in the most awful way.

In late 2009, The untimely loss of my beloved brother shook me to my core and my world imploded. I was forced by the universe yet again to question what really mattered. I immediately returned home to my family. However, as much as I missed them and of course loved any opportunity to see them, this was just the most upsetting time to be reunited. Despite the breather from the band, the stress and unimaginable heartache just piled on and compounded my exhaustion and it started to affect every area of my life. Way too early I returned to my job, feeling a focus would help but I was still overwhelmed in every sense. The stress continued bringing more illness, emotional struggles and landed me again in hospital. Once again, the need to halt was loud and clear. I started to realise that these huge messages to love myself more, would continue to manifest until I listened. This made me truly evaluate what was needed for my mind and body.

What followed was a difficult chain of events.  Saying goodbye to a 12 year relationship, a long career, and leaving Holland (which I had come to call home), I returned to the UK to take time out to analyse things, to reconnect to who I was. Recovery did not come easy, as a spate of grave challenges including a car accident which injured my back, another broken relationship, a fertility struggle and baby loss, further confronted me to take stock of my life. This was followed by a frightening experience of an unexplained brain blockage that left me unable to walk and talk for six weeks.

During this time of silence, I went deeply within and started to nurture myself with the same devotion I’d offered to others and that is where the true healing began. When I was truly low, I kept reminding myself that something great must be around the corner because I surely couldn’t be going through all this horror for nothing right? The lessons were long and often tough, but finally I was listening. All the time I had listened to others, worked for others, been the people pleaser, until my body and mind refused to partake any longer and quite rightly so.  Now was my chance to really live MY life on MY terms. What a blessing I had just received.

I tapped back into my childhood wonder, into my own wisdom, my authenticity, my inner doctor,  and into the teachings of my mother – a qualified complementary therapist – who avidly followed and used naturopathy her whole life. She had instilled in me, the important values of connection, compassion, acceptance and integrity for wellbeing. She regularly shared with me, healing foods, innovations and therapies from visionaries in the realm of health, wellbeing and mindset. I reconnected to my love of natural medicine, immersing myself deeply in learning and training on various aspects of holistic healing such as cellular health, naturopathy, nutrition, plant-based living, herbalism, massage, mindfulness, meditation, and much more. 

My practice not only strengthened me physically, but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually and energetically.  As I eventually emerged through the pain, I was empowered with a new perspective, enabling me to distinguish life’s struggles from what is construed as ‘suffering’. 

I started employing every tool at my disposal with complete faith and conviction, to find my way out of every physical and mental challenge coming my way. 

Having experienced the seemingly ‘impossible to navigate’, lowest points and darkest hours of life, and having made it to the other side strong and wholesome, I truly believe I found my calling in applying my knowledge and skills for helping others in need.

Now, I am here to guide you through those unimaginable times because you deserve to find your way back to health and happiness. I did it and so can you! And yes, I am qualified to help but first and foremost I am a woman, a human being wishing to be healthy and happy and live my best life and that is what I wish for you too, after all, THAT IS WHAT WE ALL DESERVE.  For a number of years now I have relaxed into the knowing that whatever comes along, nature will provide. This has further inspired me to offer an integrated space for natural medicine where healing, learning and facilitating can all be synthesised under one roof – KindBodyPlanet. I encourage you to “plug back in” to Nature as your source, and to make it a resource for attaining a holistic state of health; to look within – to “Follow Your Happy”. You have one life, make it beautiful.

I am here to hold that space for you because I know you can do it! You are stronger than you think.

If you resonate with anything here and think I may be able to help you, please contact me and let’s get started on your new, fantastic life plan. (and you never know it might even include chocolate and Pancakes :))

From my heart to yours, love, light, blessings and healing, JulieAnne x

Resources

www.kindbodyplanet.com

KindBodyplanet – Living and Loving with kindness for mind, body and planet.

Graphics – Kindbodyplanet / Canva.com (professional)

Quote – St Catherine of Siena

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