How to Fight Fires...
Spoiler alert: Pushing through, putting on a brave face and cracking on doesn't always work.
I received a lot of love for my last email to you all. Thank you! It can (and often does) feel a bit lonely running your own business - the dogs are great and all, but the conversation is a bit one sided – so hearing from you lovely people means a lot, I’m so grateful.
Some of you said you had been having a meltdown too, and it got me reflecting on the troublesome times that we all go through. You know the ones, those times when you wind up feeling like you’re trying to fight one totally out of control fire and many smaller fires single-handedly? With a garden hose full of holes? Yeah. Those are the ones. So, I was thinking about that, and what I was thinking is that we can’t just outrun misery and struggle. We can’t always plaster on a brave face, push through it or pretend we are ok. Sometimes we have to stop and acknowledge that the fire is out of control, we have to rally in the troops to help us get the flames a little more manageable.
It’s the same with periods and hormones. We can’t just suck it up and crack on. Periods and hormones are their own fires, and they can get out of control too sometimes. Sometimes all you can do when you’re facing the flames is to pick a place to start. When it comes to hormonal and period health, the starting place might be screaming your head off in the forest (yep, I’ve done that many times) or throwing paint on a page and seeing what happens. After that you might try some herbs, or pain killers, or just switch up your diet. The next step might be learning how to rest properly, laughing your head off with a friend, having a discussion with your doctor and asking all the questions you need and plenty more besides. Over time, by trying these different things and being fluid, you end up with a tool kit that is vast and varied.
This is what I’ve been doing during the last two years of my own emotional growth and healing, and it’s what I did back when I was struggling so much with endo and adeno (and all the rest!) - I didn’t find one magical thing that helped, I found about forty. On some days it all comes together nicely and on some days none of them will work at all, and there are some tools in my toolkit that I have now outgrown or moved through.
It’s how I work with clients as well. Whether we’re talking hormonal health, mental health, physical health or emotional health, our health isn’t a tangible or linear thing. Much like those fires, health is a wild beast with context and nuance. It’s all connected and what is needed is to walk through the moving parts together, to do the research and get educated to make informed choices.
I promise you, I don’t have ALL the answers. No one does (and anyone who tells you they do have all the answers is frankly lying to make themselves feel very superior and grandiose.) I am, however, an educated person with a deep understanding of the workings of the human body, both in a biological physical way and a mystical psychological way. I help my clients to get to the bottom of what is going on, and now I am on a bigger path to try and educate even more people. I truly want everyone on the planet to read and understand the content of my book.
It’s a big stretch, I know. It’s a big planet and there are a lot of people on it. I’ve got to start somewhere. Remember, sometimes you just have to pick a place to start. That’s what I’m doing right here, right now: I am leaning in with a request to you all… Do you know or work anywhere that would like me to host a workshop? Do you have access to schools or uni’s that would be interested in me coming along and giving a talk? Do you work in an environment that would benefit from me doing some education? Can you let me know so I can spread like a mycelium network and get this message and book out to the masses?
If you think you have something that would be a good fit then hit reply to this email or drop me an email gemma@thewellwomanproject.com
I’m calling on the powers of my wonderful community to help me walk this book and its contents into all the corners of the world that it needs to be, and I’m calling on you too to reach out for help with your own firefighting. Pick a place to start. If you’re dealing with hormonal health then perhaps that place is booking an intro call with me, or perhaps it’s telling your doctor that actually your pain isn’t ‘normal’ and that you need more than to be fobbed off with painkillers. Perhaps if you’ve got family shizzle going on or you’re drowning in work stress, the place to start is to go and scream at some trees and then sit on the mud for half an hour before you return feeling a little stronger, a little more grounded and a little more able to fight your corner. Whatever it is, know that I am here cheering you all on.
xx