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The Gratitude Project. It is a delicious online space dedicated to wellness and bliss where you’ll find nourishing recipes, self care tips and natural beauty solutions. Holistic health coach Angela Simson founded The Gratitude Project as a place to share, help and inspire those looking to improve their wellbeing or for anyone who’s health may be suffering, as Angela’s was.
We are so grateful to have Ange as our Guest Blogger this month and to inspire you all with her own story and encourage you to make positive changes, embrace every challenge and live your best life possible.
I was lucky enough to be born healthy. Ten fingers and ten toes and a good set of lungs.
So how did I up at the age of nineteen suffering from debilitating migraines? Sometimes three times in a month. Attacks that would leave me resting in a cold, dark room for up to two days. I would lose my vision, my ability to string together sentences and have to deal with the stabbing sensations in my head as I couldn’t find a drug that was strong enough to ease the pain. Looking back, however, I see this as a huge blessing in my life.
At 22, my boyfriend proposed and all of a sudden I was looking towards the future. I wanted to have babies with this man. Beautiful, healthy babies. How on earth would I look after a baby? I knew that living in fear of an attack wasn’t a way to live at all and nothing I had done in the past was working. Other than taking medication every day for the rest of my life, I thought I had no options. So when a friend recommended I see her Naturopathic GP, I hesitated and with little hope, booked an appointment.
I can remember that day as clear in my mind as if it were yesterday. I remember the lecture when I told her my current diet, packaged snacks, take away, frozen meals, sweets. I remember how much it all made sense when she explained to me that the food that we eat becomes our body, our cells. I was fueling myself with sugar, preservatives and food like substances, no wonder by brain was screaming out for better nourishment!
I was sent home with a list of foods to eat in abundance, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and lots of good fats and proteins. I was extremely new to the world of health and I thought that because Doritos were made of corn, I could eat them. But I was learning at my own pace and progressing. Having that kick start and that first taste of what healthy living could feel like, I wanted more. I became set on curing myself of my migraines.
Over the past 6 years I’ve empowered myself through education, experimentation and lots of frustrating set backs. We decided we would start trying for babies and my husband and I took on a 3 month cleansing detox that I created for us, to prepare our bodies for conception and to create the healthiest baby we could. When the detox was over we started trying and soon fell pregnant with our baby girl.
I now coach mums-to-be and put them on this same detox outline to really prep their minds and bodies to create life, hold life and give birth to a miracle. To me, a mothers self care and own health and nutrition is paramount to a healthy family. Health is a birthright and I wanted to give my daughter the best start at life I could by being the happiest and healthiest mum I could be and I’m so glad I can share that with others now.
I decided to study at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and start the Gratitude Project when Bo was 6 months old. I’ve seen so many mothers putting themselves last in life and really struggling to love and appreciate all the crazy happy mess happening around them. Being a mum is lots of work! It’s a challenge and each day you’re thrown a curve ball to completely blow you off guard. I believe it’s made easier through taking in every less than desirable challenge as a lesson and opportunity for growth. Slow down. Add in nourishing foods for the whole family, meditation and movement and the experience becomes a blissful joy.
I’m happy to say I now only have a migraine attack very occasionally and they now only last 1-2 hours maximum. I’m still working to rid myself completely of them but for now, I’m happy where I am. I’m grateful for this challenge in my life. As painful and frustrating as it can be, if I wasn’t struck down with these headaches I never would’ve taken on this path to wellness and I can’t say where I’d be or what I’d be doing now. That’s the basis of the Gratitude Project for me. You take what is given to you and turn it into something positive or a lesson to help you grow. For me it was migraines. Without them I wouldn’t be in the great health I am now, doing work I love with beautiful women and the benefits my family has received are endless.
Now I always challenge my clients with what I call a ‘flip it’. I want you to leave a reply at the bottom of this post and let me know something in your life that you can look back at and find the positivity in. A lesson that has helped you to grow and become the person you are today. Take a negative and flip it into something to be grateful for.
