Rise Sister RISE. This month we celebrate 'Ourselves'.

So, what will you celebrate about yourself this month? It is the month of LOVE after all.

Any females facing their health challenges, whether physical or mental, they go hand in hand. I hope you find some, hope and peace and a way to celebrate exactly who you are today, right in this moment, remember something you have overcome before and how amazing it felt on the other side! Keep your faith in finding solutions and attracting good people to help you in this chapter of life. I'm celebrating my recovery journey this month.

I have only love and admiration for anyone navigating health challenges. 'Acceptance is key to any struggle to move forward into new unknown territory'. Almost five years on from devastation, this beautiful body and I have gained each other's trust again in what will be my 54th year.

My natural lean shape is starting although slowly, to return albeit in a softer more feminine shape from my body-building days. There is a new type of trust that's beautifully powerful in a non-judgemental way. Only love, patience and kindness remain in place of the grief, shock and fear from my body's blowup of 2020.

Thank you, beautiful body, mind and soul, for delivering me to this moment. I feel blessed. No fixed machine or gym insight. No heavy weights, no stressful workouts.only Intuitive, functional movement. Initially, with just a yoga mat, all I could do was sit and meditate on, then gradually, with my trusted TRX fixed on my living room wall, I learned to balance, and gradually, my body built the confidence to pull and push gracefully, breathing slowly and methodically to the sound of healing music so not to get the over-sensitive nervous system too excited even by my choice of music.

Building trust and appreciation were key here. Yoga Asanas would eventually follow, and then bands, light dumbells, and kettlebells would slowly become new accessories to my home studio, but it wasn't that straightforward or without setback after setback. My body would reject everything I tried to do until I did things differently and tailored to my day-to-day ability and invisible PEM line that took time to work alongside and understand. As long as I moved and it felt safe, I was OK with that. It was an improvement on not being able to balance, walk or talk.

All I had was intuitively patient movement, gradually adding one new movement at a time and letting the body just connect at the moment and feel safe with that on and off between relapses until we found common ground. Always returning to the start to try again but even slower and more appreciative.

Admittedly, I would have many moments of despair, many. Those moments of giving up in a sobbing mess on the floor when a relapse came on and everything felt so very hard and too overwhelming. After so much learning and trial and error a new understanding and love for all I was going through in this chapter of my life became easier to understand and realise I was being made to think and be different, do things differently even when I didn't have all the answers or solutions but just do it differently and be more aligned with what was needed in the present moment.

So, while the upper body is starting to become lean again, the bigger lower body muscles are requiring more attention and patience, with lymphatic systems not yet back to functioning 100%, this has felt like the hardest part of this whole experience to accept, but once in acceptance the healing can continue, and progress can continue in its new way.

One thing I do know is that today, even with my perfect imperfections, I fully love and accept myself anyway!

Mind and body connection is key to navigating your way back to yourself from any major illness or setback. Mindset is your golden ticket to surviving and thriving.

Happy February. Much love and Blessings x