Before's & Afters, sharing a bit about why I choose a life of optimism and abundance every day....

An excerpt from Guided by Giants, sharing how I beat the odds in less than 12 months.....

'The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

I've spent a lot of time recently talking about empathy and kindness, compassion and culture and I wanted to share a little bit about why this mindset has been one I've consciously adopted along with defiant bias towards optimism. For those new to the resilience and abundance community or are stumbling across my profile, I wanted to go back to the beginning and show you the before, now you can see the after.

My journey began in 2019 when I was diagnosed with Intracranial Hypertension. I sat in the optometrists office after having routine eye tests, they looked panicked and told me i had two optic nerves raised and had started going blind... that were not a good sign (bad humour). Often it is the sign of a brain tumour or mass. So they sent me onto a neurologist and neuro-optomologists urgently. This path eventually led to my first brain surgery (1 of 3) and a shunt was put in, which also then led to a series of complications that required several other surgeries.

It was the start of a long and arduous journey, and I knew that I needed to dig deep to find the strength to keep moving forward. Not long after Rocket's (my youngest son) arrival in 2019, I had began to notice something wasn't quite right. I started experiencing troubling neurological, cardiac and cognitive symptoms that were hard to ignore. It started subtly - dizziness, unexplained bouts of fatigue, sudden waves of weakness that left me reeling. I chalked it up to postpartum exhaustion and running a business working too hard, initially, believing it was a typical part of the rollercoaster of motherhood and I was just unbalanced.

There was a gnawing sensation that something was seriously wrong with me and I had severe and chronic pain. Turns out it wasn't just an innocuous visit to the optometrist, which revealed swollen optic nerves, the full magnitude of what I was eventually going to face, during a pandemic did not even cross my mind...

Yet, as weeks turned into months, the symptoms didn't subside they got worse. They grew more persistent, more unsettling. Fainting episodes started, I dropped mugs, I had vision issues, and my heart would race unpredictably for no reason, leaving me gasping for breath along with surges I used to call them. They felt like brain zaps and seizures. My head throbbed with unrelenting pressure before the shunt, as if a vice was slowly tightening around my brain and it all seemed linked somehow but noone could give me straight answers. Simultaneously I was seeing Neuros, Opthos, Surgeons, GPs, Gynos and general surgeons for severe abdominal pain that felt like a trapped nerve post my c-section. It was like my body all of a sudden threw in the towel. I genuinely had many moments where death felt like it would have been more merciful...I had infections, complications, repeat surgeries. One crucible after another. I rarely had less than 5 weeks without hospitals or ambulances or the next procedure.

From 2019 to 2023, In a span of less than four years, I found myself lying on a surgical bed, not once, not twice, but twenty-six times. Abdominal surgeries, brain surgeries. Once I had abdo and brain surgery at the same time, Wollongong (2021). I don't honestly know how I made it through....all during a pandemic where visitors were not allowed. Nurses were sparsely allowed in your room and the world was shutting down.

Each surgery was a battlefield where my willpower and optimism had to face off against grim realities of my deteriorating condition. I was fighting not just for myself, but for the ability to reclaim the life I had known and the moments I had missed with my family. I was missing out on so much time with my children. I was missing Christmases and birthdays and some days unable to get out of bed. I never got that life back. BUT I did get a whole new one I wouldn't trade for the world.

Each incision was a reminder of the adversities I was facing. I would watch the hands of the clock slowly tick away as I waited in pre-op nervous each time, thinking about my children growing up, their laughter echoing in rooms I was not present in. Doctors suggesting it was miraculous I made it this far, and I hadn't even been half way.... I kept missing birthdays, school plays, and bedtime stories. I missed my son's first steps, first words, and countless everyday miracles that make being a mum, something I'd wanted for my whole life, such a joy and privilege.

Summarised Timeline:

2019 - My youngest was born

2020 - Jan - April Neuro investigations, severe abdominal pain, random fainting episodes and collapses, autonomic nervous system dysfunctions, surgeries start and continue for another three years. Including complications, infections, debridements, a stroke and a coma caused from a blood infection.

Jan 2023 - Autonomic Dysreflexia finally was diagnosed (I was actually so grateful for this) with Intracranial Hypertension and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia syndrome. We finally knew what was going on. My autonomic nervous system was damaged, C1,C2 nerve compression in my cervical spine and damage from a previous neurostimulation device and it was wreaking havoc. It is a life threatening condition and can affect you for small reasons like you need to pee.

BUT IN

March 2023, I attend A360, met Dr G and started 2 week intensive health overhaul. I Lost 15kg in 4 weeks. I started eating Keto, quit sugar all together, transformed my environment, started really living the values I'd been studying about Abundance and kept working towards living a life that was harmonious despite the health challenges. I kept going, and eventually I saw in front of my own eyes, my ENTIRE TRANSFORMATION - LFTs normal within 12 weeks. I start running 18km min a week....and I continue to strictly follow Dr G's advice alongside Tony Robbins' work, and Peter Diamondis' Communities.

As my physical health had waned, so did some of the relationships I had held. The stress and strain of my prolonged illness took a toll not just on me, but also on those closest to me. Friends drifted away, unable to understand or cope with the extent of my suffering. My marriage barely survived my sickness, it absolutely didn't survive my healing. The dynamics of my relationship totally changed, and we found ourselves on completely separate paths, unable to continue. So I subsequently let go of my previous business which I'd been CEO of and run for close to 10 years. Building it to a $6m valuation. With transformation there was still a lot of loss.

But in the face of all this loss, something remarkable was the trade, however.... I discovered an inner reservoir of strength and resilience I hadn't known existed. I found a community of people who understood, supported, and lifted me up exponentially. I learned that while some relationships might not survive adversity, others are formed or deepened because of it. I understood that while my life had taken an unexpected detour in getting so unwell, I was still capable of experiencing joy, love, and above all, abundance. And this started to transform the inside of me, which then started to transform the outside of me. I subsequently got healthier than I ever have, had started new roles and joined incredible people changing the world.

Through the adversity, the surgeries, and the missed moments, I guess I learned that life wasn't about avoiding hardships but about growing through them.... It became about learning to weather the storm and emerging stronger, more compassionate, and more alive than ever before. And never losing my sense of me. Or what is possible with a mindset of abundance and a lot of resilience.

This is a small window into why I choose to wake up daily and paint pictures of abundance, smile or choose to embrace adversity. I've witnessed what's possible, I've been proof of what is possible when you decide not to accept what is not good for you, or what is written for you. Why not take the path or the road less travelled if it leads to you saving your own life. I had some giants that helped, but I ultimately learned that I was the giant all along. And the truth is I had the power to heal myself all along.

You can do anything you put your mind to. I believed it. And I did it.

THIS IS MY AFTER PIC:

"Life is short...until you extend it" - Peter Diamondis, MD Abundance360