How long have you been doing what you do and how did you get to be an Energy Expert for professionals?
To answer this question, it’s probably best that I share with you a defining moment in my life. It resulted in everything I do at this point.
That defining moment in my life happened in 2009, after being deadly ill for 5 years. My body had crashed in 2005, after working day and night with a total burn out for two years. I had ignored about every daunting symptom, from paralyzed limbs to total black outs at work. Bit by bit, the diagnosis’s were adding: total burnout, Lyme disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Central Myelitis, Poly Neuritis. I was in constant unbearable pain, paralyzed on and off, totally exhausted, completely isolated from life and social interactions, lonely, not able to do anything but laying down. I was crawling over the floor. Sometimes I woke up blind. Or talked backwards.
I had become bitter and angry. Angry with doctors who didn’t believe or help me, doctors who told me every visit that it was all between my ears, doctors who said that nothing could be done. But this anger was my drive to keep searching for a solution. I was stubborn. I didn’t want to give up, even though everybody had taken away my hope for cure…
I still remember that day in April, when I found the solution for my debilitating condition. I discovered raw food. A new world opened up to me, I read all day long and knew: “This is it!” I could feel it in every cell of my body! The next day I was 100% raw, even if I didn’t know what I was doing. I just did it. I started by stopping to cook my food. Pretty easy when you're too tired to cook!
I used the thorough analysis I had made during my ongoing research, made all the links, connected my “Aha” moments, adjusted everything to my new food. Ten days later my pain had gone and I managed to walk pain free. Three months later I was able to stay up all day long, to build up the energy I could only dream of in the past. I had cracked the code. I was cured.
My recovery to optimal health could begin...
But the most exciting takeaway from healing was: I had found a new passion, mission included. I had gotten a second chance in life and wanted to make that count. I didn’t know how yet, but I knew it would come my way.
At that very moment, I made the commitment to myself to immerse myself in absolutely everything that was connected to a living plant-based diet, to generating energy (I still had a way to go), to learn about the science and psychology of change and how to change a mindset that was hooked on draining habits.
I read all the books I could get about plant-based food, detox and cleansing. I invested in an intensive coaching program to process my illness, to shift my mindset and to overcome my fear of exposing myself to the world. I had been completely invisible for years and now there I was: 52, overdue and a high risk for employers, feeling as if I woke up after a long sleep and the face of the world had changed. How could I possibly fit back in and catch up with the speed of a workaholic society, recovering from being a workaholic before the crash?
I was determined: nothing would stop me! I had a message and I would become an expert, even if I had past my fifties. I had lost my job, couldn’t find work with my history and age. What first seemed to be a disaster became my opportunity to a new career. I started studying again, became a certified raw food coach and started my business “Ravishing Raw” in that first month of my study. Yes I'm a do-er, a decisive action taker, an implementer. After losing 5 precious years of my life, there's no more time to waste.
During this process I had only one thing in mind: helping others, making a ripple effect in the world. Not just in my own small pool. The first opportunity came to me very soon; my friend, who was just diagnosed with Südeck disease and given up by the doctors. Their painful treatments didn’t work out for her. She was desperate when I visited her. I didn’t think one moment and said:
“From now on, you will only eat what I prepare for you! I’ll come to you every day and help you heal yourself.”
She and her husband were in tears. And so I did: for almost 3 months I went to her place and made all her food -her right arm and hand were completely disabled at that time-. We made a picture of her hand every day. After only five days it started looking like normal again, ten days later she could move her fingers, after a few weeks she was helping me and 3 months later her doctor was stunned: she had completely healed!
This was the moment I received the proof that the strategies I used to heal myself, could also help others. I designed my first signature system “Ravishing Raw FooDprint™”, my blueprint for restoring energy so that the body can start healing itself.
At that very moment I thought: “This is it.” But you know what the best part of a life journey is? You keep bumping into new places, people and opportunities. A story never ends. We all keep adding new stories, new experiences that we can turn into important work.
So did I, when I decided to follow my heart, discarded my whole life and crossed the ocean with only 2 suitcases to start a new life with the love of my life. You know, I created this hashtag #lifestartsat60 during that process because it taught me so much about myself. By persisting in the tough parts of BIG change, I discovered a new dimension that I’m bringing to my work with strong women.
I made #mybigmove at an age when many people start thinking about retiring, get scared of doing something new with their life and business. I see so many women with big dreams stop themselves in their tracks because they think they are “too old,” “too fat,” “too shy,” “too ugly.” Women often feel too old before they even hit their lovely forties!
So now, with this amazing experience of completely starting from scratch at 60!, I know that I can inspire women to pursuit their dreams or ambitions at ANY age. I know what it takes. I did it. I know how to do it.
I wish I had someone who would have held my hand when I was doubting myself and my decision, someone who could lay it all out for me, checklists included :-)
Living in New York now, I’m taking my business (and life of course) to a next, even more exciting level! I want to give successful women the FULL package that is absolutely life-changing for them and that makes their big “move” possible.
And yes, it all starts with energy! I would have never gotten where I am now without this bada$$ energy!
Of course, as an eternal student, I keep investing in my education with the best mentors out there, attending seminars to learn how to grow my business and stretch myself. It feels incredible to be able to do all these amazing things after years of disability.