“Awakened Wellness”, where self-discovery meets purposeful, lasting change.
Journey to Wholeness: Personal Triumphs Over Medical Challenges
When Marie first shared her battle with thoracic outlet syndrome, it struck a chord with our listeners. Her story, woven through our latest episode, showcases not only the resilience of the human spirit but also the healing power of aligning with one's deepest values. Step into our conversation as we reflect on listener feedback regarding the intertwining of meditation and medicine, and the daunting task of establishing a health-centric routine amidst life's chaos. We confront the dark alley of fear-based medical advice with the flashlight of science, urging a path lit by informed decisions and personal empowerment.
Have you ever considered that your recovery could be hiding in plain sight, nestled within unexplored techniques or gadgets you've yet to consider? Join us as we navigate the tightrope of nerve regeneration, where too much or too little can result in a tumble. We share unconventional wisdom on becoming an 'ultimate opportunist' in the face of adversity, adopting tools from all walks of life to champion your health journey. Marie's story is more than just a narrative; it's a mirror reflecting our shared human experience, urging you to stay authentic as you encounter life's myriad opportunities. Tune in for heartfelt revelations and the encouragement to grow through the stories that connect us all.
For More Information visit awakenedwellness.life or marieknoetig.com
When Marie first shared her battle with thoracic outlet syndrome, it struck a chord with our listeners. Her story, woven through our latest episode, showcases not only the resilience of the human spirit but also the healing power of aligning with one's deepest values. Step into our conversation as we reflect on listener feedback regarding the intertwining of meditation and medicine, and the daunting task of establishing a health-centric routine amidst life's chaos. We confront the dark alley of fear-based medical advice with the flashlight of science, urging a path lit by informed decisions and personal empowerment.
Have you ever considered that your recovery could be hiding in plain sight, nestled within unexplored techniques or gadgets you've yet to consider? Join us as we navigate the tightrope of nerve regeneration, where too much or too little can result in a tumble. We share unconventional wisdom on becoming an 'ultimate opportunist' in the face of adversity, adopting tools from all walks of life to champion your health journey. Marie's story is more than just a narrative; it's a mirror reflecting our shared human experience, urging you to stay authentic as you encounter life's myriad opportunities. Tune in for heartfelt revelations and the encouragement to grow through the stories that connect us all.
For More Information visit awakenedwellness.life or marieknoetig.com
Good afternoon and welcome to Awakened Wellness. Marie and myself, jocelyn, we're here to answer all your questions. Bring wellness into your life. This show is all about when self-discovery meets purposeful and lasting change. This is what we want to share with you and we hope you enjoy the show. So we have some feedback and recaps before we dive into our first show.
Speaker 2:And today's show is going to be how the Body Heals.
Speaker 1:How the Body Heals. I like it.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a little bit different, so we're going to go with it Alright. So from the listening from within show, I had somebody tell me they started watching and they started to do the meditation regularly. She can't believe how much when she's sitting with her clients or patients, how much more she sees and what they're saying and more about them. And that's where it seems to be opening up for her, where it used to be. Just you write down what they're saying and kind of go with that, but she's seeing a whole different story so she thinks that's very cool.
Speaker 2:I think that is absolutely fabulous and she wants to learn more about the energy, medicine and stuff. Because of it, kudos yay.
Speaker 1:So that was cool. Somebody that's listening and looking and watching and seeing what's out there.
Speaker 2:Wow, we're going to go over a little bit of that, Alright. The next one is somebody who watches creating your own blue zone. They've been trying, but they find it's really hard to stay consistent with what they know they should be doing. What can they do Right? How can they make it stick?
Speaker 2:And I think for the advice I give anybody is they're always complaining that life gets in the way so they can't help themselves. You have to define what life is and what it means to you before you can even try to change it. Because if it means something to you to go out every Friday night with your friends and drink and do whatever it is that you think you need to change, you can't fix it Right. If you know that that's affecting your health, then you have to decide is that my life and that's what it means to me, so I'm going to continue doing that, or can I make a different plan and path? But you have to define it first and really know if that's your path and that's the one you want to take in order to change it.
Speaker 1:And maybe not such a big huge chunk of change, Right yeah?
Speaker 2:Right, baby steps. Can you adapt in that situation? What do you need to do for you? But just to go out there and say I'm not going to do it, it's not going to work? Okay, because you're going to be, you're missing out. But if it's not what you define life as you're not missing out, correct, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you just have to kind of dig a little deeper inside yourself, because to just go through the motions doesn't work Right, okay, so this is one that happens constantly. This person has been diagnosed with cancer, has a lot of friends who practice alternative medicine, and the advice is overwhelming on how bad her treatments are going to be for her.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:But they're not telling her anybody she can go see. That's going to give her a good option, alternatively, and they don't have a personal success story, only stuff they've read online and how bad it is for her. So it makes it very hard because they're being very negative and that's a struggle. I see a lot and that's really sad because you don't know. You know you have to do what's in your heart and you have to follow the science when you're doing something like that, correct?
Speaker 1:And I think too many people feel that by giving advice, they're helping you, but they're actually acting on their own fears. Yes, and then feeding it to you, which then feeds the monster. Right, and you need to be quiet and sit back and, like you said, look at the science, figure out what's right for you, where do you want to be with this? How do you want to proceed? And it's almost like a lot of roadblocks, right, right, interesting.
Speaker 2:All right, how the body heals. Where are we going with that? Today I've had a couple of people bring to my attention that they don't know my personal story, oh, and why. I think I know the things that I do and how I figured these things out. Valid point Okay, so that's where we're going. All right, and this is how I see the body heals and what I've discovered through my journey. Okay, all right, so I'm not going to go way back to birth, because that's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:But just to a key point. When I started developing thoracic outlet syndrome Okay, and it was after my second child was born I didn't know it was the C-section scars that were pulling me down internally. I had no way to know that until I know the knowledge that I have now. So I started losing the use of my shoulder and my shoulder started to roll in and there was nerve pain down my arm all the time and they just couldn't, I couldn't. We tried physical therapy. My neck was like sinking down into my shoulder and the pain was just unbearable on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:Then I had my third child and it just got worse after the third C-section. So then I went to see a bunch of doctors and they told me it was thoracic outlet syndrome and that they didn't have any options other than this radical surgery where they take out your first rib. So two surgeons told me do not do it. It was not a good idea and I was bound and determined to be out of pain. I was barely 30 something years old and I couldn't hold anything in my hand anymore. I kept dropping it and the nerve pain. I couldn't sleep. So I found a third surgeon who said it was a piece of cake. He'd done it a million times and it works like a charm.
Speaker 1:And you went with that.
Speaker 2:I went with that, you went with option three. I went with option three and he nicked my long thoracic nerve. When he was in there and I came out of surgery I didn't have the nerve pain in my hand for the first time, but then my whole shoulder girdle collapsed.
Speaker 1:Oh dear.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's a very rare thing, because the only way you can damage the long thoracic nerve is to go inside the chest cavity, because that's where it is and there's really no treatments for it other than wait for it to regenerate or whatever it's going to do, if it is at all. So at that point physical therapy was very limited. My options were very limited. They put me in a brace to hold up my arm. They had me taping my arm up whatever I could do, but my whole right side and the dysfunction in it was unbearable. I ended up with a dropped foot on my right.
Speaker 1:I was pretty much. Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I used to spend eight to ten hours a day flat on my back because I couldn't sit or stand for any length of time. If you see pictures of myself, my neck is very hyper extended and there was a lot of stuff going on, so it was a trying time. It was a trying time and when I found out that there was no cure and they told me that I would probably be disabled, I really struggled with that. Being 30 something years old and having such a tough childhood and coming through all of this, I just sat and didn't know what to do. And then one day I just heard this voice that said you're going to help yourself and help others too. And that's when there was just this inner voice that had always saved me.
Speaker 2:So many times when I was younger that came up and that's when I started to just have a little bit different outlook, that I didn't feel so lost and alone. But then I had to do a lot of things inside myself because now there's no options with medicine, no primary care, no specialists, no physical therapy, nothing that's going to help me. So I had to start looking inward and that's the first time I'd ever done that in my life. I didn't even know what inward was, so I had to assess my emotional state.
Speaker 2:I really had to think about, and the first thing I learned about myself is that if I pushed hard enough, I can find somebody that's going to see my way of thinking, and that was the surgery. So then I realized there's answers everywhere and I wasn't there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, If you look long and hard enough, it's going to be somewhere.
Speaker 2:It's under that rock. And then the next thing I had to do is I had to see my body for what it was, not what I wanted it to be.
Speaker 1:Where were you right now in this spot?
Speaker 2:And that was really hard to sit in. That and I see that a lot with people, even with just heart disease or diabetes or chronic pain. They don't want to be where they're at. But that's what gave me the most power was to be where I was at, because then I could notice just a little change and if something was working, because I was just so present and where I was at, I had to openly see what medicine was and where my options were or not. So to go around running from doctor to doctor didn't serve me and I had to accept that fact. It didn't matter. And where I see people just doing that all the time, looking for that magic answer, that magic pill, sooner or later they're going to show up somewhere and somebody's going to have that pill for them.
Speaker 2:I live in that world. Then my support systems. They were not there for many reasons, for many reasons, but the biggest reason was medicine said I couldn't get better. So what was I trying to do?
Speaker 1:Who do you think?
Speaker 2:you are.
Speaker 1:This is your lot in life. Live with it.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that was hard to accept because I was in a situation that most people don't get into and family members worked with the physician that it happened to, that had done it, and they supported him over me.
Speaker 1:Oh dear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I wasn't even allowed to talk about it, because every time they saw me they would have to think bad of him. And that wasn't going to happen because it was the old school world the doctors always write. So I had to have done something wrong for this to happen to me, because he's the best surgeon in the area and there's no way that could have happened. So, between my support systems not being there and medicine not being there, it was a pretty lonely road for a lot of years. Then religion that was the next one. Right, what happened there? And God wasn't fixing me, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's within Right, right, but again, we all think go to church, put on your Sunday best, and I already had so many bad things happen since I was a kid.
Speaker 2:To be sitting in that situation I was like what the heck? So then, because exercise was my go-to when I was younger, I had to be willing to see nutrition in its role in healing, no matter what. And that was really hard for me because we didn't have a lot of money back then. Okay yeah, so I was bringing up credit card bills because of my food allergies and knowing what my body needed on top of that.
Speaker 2:So I had to be willing to see more of what I needed, not what medicine kept saying was the norm. Yeah. So it was really hard, yeah. And then I also had to take a deep look in Amara and make a commitment to myself that if my situation was going to change, I had to change. So my lifestyle had to change, my behaviors had to change, the way I saw life had to change. And all the past traumas that were holding me back I had to look them in the face each time because I could feel myself retreating when they came forward. And then I couldn't be clear about where I was at with my healing.
Speaker 1:Side, stepping them, hoping that they wouldn't reappear.
Speaker 2:But when you're so present and you make that commitment to be so present with yourself, you can sense what you're doing is undermining your healing. And then it becomes really difficult to go against yourself because you can see those gains every day. And the struggle I see with my work right now is my clients, even though they make a big gain and they might be a little side effect of pain in an ankle, they can't see the gain, they can only see the pain in the ankle. They go right back again. They go right back again. But you need to see the gains in order to keep gaining. You need to acknowledge them and be in them and keep working them. And sometimes a lot of baby steps make a big step. So you gotta really be present in what's happening.
Speaker 1:And be positive about it as well, right, not be just always the well, I didn't get this and I didn't get that. I only got this far. No, you got that far. Look at that big step. Now the next one might be half an inch, but it's still a step forward, right, and you need to be happy about that, positive about that, and use that to propel you forward again, right.
Speaker 2:And you know, there's this guy, david Goggins. He's teamed the strongest man in the world. He's an EBCL and he's written all these books and he talks about how he uses his pain as his strength and all his childhood stuff as his strength. And I'd have to say I did that a lot Whenever there was a naysayer that gave me the power to push past and know you know literally what the heck do they think Because I am gonna get better, I'm not gonna be disabled at 30 years old.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Well, who wants to be? I mean, it's not a choice that any of us would ever make. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people that find themselves in that position.
Speaker 2:Okay, then I, as far as my physical body went, I had to become more present and I had to be willing to get to know my body and what it's supposed to feel like. So that took a lot of learning about neuromuscular reeducation If you move your foot, how is it supposed to move? Is it supposed to connect with the knee? Is it supposed to connect with the hip? So I had to become more present in those areas in order and get the brain to try to reconnect and do things that hadn't done in a long time. And I had to learn how I was supposed to move. And, like I said, all those little pieces just added up to big pieces. I had to learn that not all exercise is good, because I was an exercise junkie before this happened, so exercise was gonna fix me.
Speaker 2:But when you have any type of nerve damage and patterning issues, when you're trying to regenerate a nerve, there's a point that if you push too hard, the nerve goes backwards because you recruit other muscles and you start to overcompensate. So when you have nerve damage, you can only go as far until that nerve says I quit, and it's a really fine line. So if you're not present, you're always pushing too far, so you can't get the gains you're looking for because you're going into the other muscle groups now and you're not, and I see that as a struggle for clients a lot, because that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2:Well, it's because it's all electrical.
Speaker 2:So as soon as that electric starts to misfire, you're not strengthening what you're trying to strengthen now. So you have to be present and the people with nerve damage have a really hard time rehabbing because they don't want to be that present. Nobody wants to be Yep, but for me it was a survival thing, so I was willing to go there. So I try to share my knowledge and I don't expect people to do what I did, because they're not me and they didn't have the same drive that I had. But they've got to ask themselves how far do they want to take it? What do they want to do with it? So it's up to them on how far they want to take their healing.
Speaker 1:And at some point you have to walk away from the, the regular PT and the same old, same old and realize that that's not helping either.
Speaker 2:I think for me, I became the ultimate opportunist, and I still am. So. If I were really frustrated, I might ask the doctor to go back to PD if it was available to me, and then they would show me something, and then something else would come in my mind. That was better, just so it would get me unstuck, same way as I read an article, same way as I bought a new gadget. I'm the gadget queen because I can do things with gadgets that nobody even knew you could do for your body, because I'm an opportunist. If I'm looking for something and it shows up, I'm going to see what's in it for me, but it's usually never what it's designed to do. Correct, never, yep. So you have to be willing to be open and doing that. You know I have people all the time say, well, I don't know if it's going to work. I go well, you won't know until you try it, until you try it. And then, when you're doing your arm, maybe it works for your leg too. Give it a try, be more open and yeah.
Speaker 1:That's so funny because I had purchased one of these I don't know if you call it, but it's a neck support, cushion, stretch, whatever you want to call it and I thought, okay, so I can just lay on the floor and my neck is supported, but it's also being held in a correct position. And what I found was, oh, I can do this and stretch my hips, yes, oh. And then I found, oh, my neck was really tight. I found this yesterday it's so weird that you said that and it has like a little flat surface on it. And so I put it on the carpet and I laid there and you know, it said, okay, what feels wrong? And did a little bit of stretching. And then I went oh, my neck. So I kind of went like this and it slid on the carpet and I went, oh, my neck is supported, so if I slide to the right and go straight, and slide to the left, your body won't be.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it was supported.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that's exactly how it works. That happened yesterday, exactly, love it.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love it Because that's exactly how it works. You just lay there and become one with yourself and the answers just start to arise, and you don't even know what the answer is going to be. People want to know and that's why they can't hear. Yeah, alright, I had to learn as much knowledge as I could and realize that sometimes there's only a piece that would serve me, and it came when there was a nugget in it. For me, it was awesome, because you can never buy into the whole picture because it's only someone else's opinion. Correct, yeah, and I also had to learn that I was never without answers, but as long as I was looking, something would show up.
Speaker 2:And it might not be what I was looking for, but it always had a piece.
Speaker 1:So always be open. Don't be negative, right, don't have that wall up all the time. Well, it's not screaming at me that I need to do it, right.
Speaker 2:Okay, so now the spirituality piece I didn't even know that existed. Because I grew up Catholic. It was a big struggle because of my background and I had the nuns and I had all of that that. So when I wanted answers, I had to learn how to pray for answers without using the word God and without making it religious.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's when I realized I had this little voice in my head and I started asking it to show me what I'm not seeing. Show me what I'm not seeing. And that's where I got asked to see what you need to see. Okay, because you know more than you think. You know, right, you just bypass it with all the things you want that are here. So that's where that whole ask to see what you need to see came from, because I did not want to pray to God, because of my background and everything else Right?
Speaker 2:So I started praying for myself to help myself.
Speaker 1:That's okay, the source is within us.
Speaker 2:And then, well, I had to learn that because I was at a different place in my life. So then, as the answer started to come, I started believing in myself more, and then I had to convince myself I was good enough to get the answers. Oh, okay, right, Because it's this whole healing package, this whole, because you start to evolve and you start to realize those things and then you feel yourself, push yourself back again.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, oh, can't possibly be. Could possibly be that who am?
Speaker 2:I to know these things, yeah, and then I had to become more discerning.
Speaker 1:Discerning. I have to say yeah. People say you must, you must discern, you must have discernment, you must become more discerning.
Speaker 2:That is not an easy feat, it's not, but as I would get answers, I would have these epiphanies. So then I thought every one of my thoughts was the right answer. Right, and I see people do that all the time. Right, because it's hard to decide which one is which.
Speaker 1:Right, yep, yep, but there's this, knowing that, comes over you and there's this tingling and you're like, oh be honest, yeah, yeah, that's not the right one.
Speaker 2:Then, as soon as I started realizing we were more energy, I started to get more confused and overwhelmed.
Speaker 2:And then I'm like what is this Right, Because you hear all these things. So then I started reading and following anybody who did a Caroline, miss, james, van Progg, john Edwards, all of them, you know, eckhart Tolle, all over. So then I started going to their workshops and every time I would go they would have like this little piece of the puzzle. I'd read their book and it sounded so profound, and then I'd see them in person and I'm going oh, not a person I want to be dealing with.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Because the ego takes over. Okay, the only time you're pure is when you're with yourself and it comes through you clearly. Then society, the ego, whatever it is I mean, I'm human too. We all do it. So then I started realizing I'm there because they have a piece. What piece? Again, the opportunistic part, not to discount them.
Speaker 1:No, but when they're clear, when they're on, they got something I need.
Speaker 2:When they're off, I don't want them. So you start learning as you walk this path that you realize you know the guy that you were talking in the grocery store line just told you something. You were thinking about yourself and you didn't. But he's not dressed right or whatever. You don't like him. He had something you needed and you just become the ultimate opportunist and realize that all your answers are around Okay, yeah. So then over time that kept evolving and I kept realizing that when I was with somebody and they were talking I would get like a little feeling when they had that piece that I needed. And sometimes for me things go in slow motion. So you might be talking to me and all of a sudden you're like that peanuts cartoon Won't, won't, won't, won't. And then that always means something to me later and it always shows up in another situation later that I know it's a little nugget that I need for later yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's always saved me later in life. So that's been kind of cool. So then, when I started doing this work and that evolved that's a whole nother story I started calling it the body within, because it is the body within us that we connect to and listen to and talk to.
Speaker 1:There's a whole machine.
Speaker 2:There's a whole, there's a whole city inside of us, it's the whole part of us, untainted by our existence here. It's just that clear message that comes through us of anything that's possible in the universe.
Speaker 1:It's a purest form.
Speaker 2:And the discernment comes from being careful, because you know we were talking a little bit about our backgrounds and stuff in the spirituality piece and I get very nervous going to mystical because Right People, because they start hearing messages, they start going into this mystical place where I'm more about just being us Stay here.
Speaker 2:Stay here, stay home, it's all here. You don't need to go outside yourself. In the beginning, sure, I tinkered there because I didn't understand it and I was trying to figure it out. But Okay, the stuff I know. Now it's all in us.
Speaker 1:It's all in us.
Speaker 2:We are it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We are our own and there's messages everywhere. Yeah, so now we're awakened, wellness, we understand that healing comes from all these pieces, not just one, not just the physical, emotional.
Speaker 1:Right, there's not one answer.
Speaker 2:There's not one answer. It's an evolution and you have to define what level of healing you want to accomplish, because this takes you all the way to the time you pass. Correct, the more you listen to that body within and the more you're open. You're going to be connected when you do pass and you're not going to stay until your body crafts out. Right, we're not supposed to be here that long.
Speaker 2:We're supposed to be ready, when we're ready and let go, but we're so afraid and we have no connection to us inside that we stay until there's one last little inkling of our body that will run. And now we're getting over, medicated and all kinds of things, but we shouldn't be suffering the way we are.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 2:And we just have to learn to dig a little deeper inside us and see where it takes us.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a wonderful story. I know, and I don't mean story, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's so many facets of this I could go a whole nother direction with and how the different things have happened through my life. But, cassie, this was for you because she did ask me. Well, I think it's really important and it's important and for me it was always hard to talk about because I think for the first 20 years, believe it or not, there was a lot of shame for me because I felt like I had done something wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I certainly can understand that. We're both coming from different places. I, as you know, I have thoracic outlet syndrome and so I was told that you were the expert and I came to you for that and little did we know the similarities. And when you started talking about the surgeons earlier, I was like, oh, I did that. You're right that search, that search for what you really want.
Speaker 2:Nobody's going to tell you. I just have a client recently did that with a diagnosis and he's been misdiagnosed fully. But he found the person that listened to him and didn't even do all the tests. He gave him a clinical evaluation and he was good to go because he wanted it so badly. He had all the evidence they needed.
Speaker 1:And talked his way right into it.
Speaker 2:Talked, his way right into it.
Speaker 1:We need to be talking to ourselves. We need to be, as more importantly as you said, listening, because it's all within us. Everything is within us. Yes, and you need all those little pieces, kind of like going through an orchard and picking this apple and then that apple and I'm not saying you shouldn't use medicine, because that might be part of the answer you're coming with.
Speaker 2:Yes, your body within is guiding you to go to this doctor and listen to that one versus that one, because that one has your answer Correct. I'm an opportunist. I use everything that's on the planet. I don't discount anything as a valuable answer.
Speaker 1:Well, we can't.
Speaker 2:You could be missing the greatest answer, but you have to be present in who you are in order to make those answers right for you Right, I love it.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for sharing that story and thank you, Cassie, for asking, Because you know we tend to gloss over where we're coming from, how we got here, but again, you also don't want to sound like well, I figured it all out.
Speaker 2:I'm not figuring it all out. None of us have done that. This is helping me figure more out. Exactly this is helping me come to a different place inside myself, so I'm grateful for that, I love it and I'm grateful that you want to do this show.
Speaker 1:So we would like to say thank you for joining us today and having Marie be able to share this part of her life and have you understand it and see if there's any similarities with you. So we will see you next time. Have a fabulous rest of your day.
Speaker 2:Thank you.