“From Chronically Ill and Depressed to Vibrantly Alive”

I overcame being chronically ill and depressed in my youth to becoming one of the most vibrant and alive people I know.

Being diagnosed with a chronic digestive disorder at the age of two, developing severe eczema, and asthma by the age of three resulted in me adopting a restricted diet and being dependent on medication.

Doctors told me there was no cure. And that I would need to take medication to manage my symptoms my entire life.

I refused to accept this.

I surpassed my own goal of living a high-quality life without any medications and have become a health example to everyone around me.

 

I want you to know who I truly am. The “about me” pages that I see on blogs tend to talk about how happy and healthy a person is and how much they have accomplished in their epic life.

My dear friends and family have seen me travel the world, have a beautiful kid, meet the man of my dreams, and live symptom-free as well as depression (and anxiety) free. They have also seen me at my worst and know how low and dark I have been. In my teens, I had little reason to live, my experience of life was miserable. I was bloated, constipated, in pain, foggy-headed, depressed, and anxious. Today, I live in a completely different reality, one in which I am excited to wake up every day and to live my life; I have no intestinal pain, I have an epic relationship to food, and my mind is clear.

Overcoming my life long sentence of doctor-prescribed medication…

In my teens, when I started questioning my doctors about all of the medications I was on, they told me that I would need these medications for the rest of my life. I remember walking out of the office and feeling 1000% determined to live a life without medications. But I had no idea how I would do this.

Fast forward twenty-five years…

I recently had a blood test; the nurse told me that I have the healthy blood of a teenager. I live symptom-free, without any medications, by practicing exactly what I teach in my Food and Mood Program.

 

 

Curing my own depression by Learning how to feel and how to think

As I went into university at the age of eighteen I was relatively physically healthy, but I still suffered from depression (and some anxiety). Again, I was on a mission to find a way to live a life free of depression and anxiety and again without medication. For the next decade, I dove into personal development, self-help, meditation, yoga, energy healing, dance, therapy, and psychotherapy.

I lived and worked at Esalen Institute, home of Gestalt therapy and incubator of the Human Potential Movement, for five years. I participated in over one hundred workshops; all of which helped me get to know my Self and gave Me permission to feel my emotions. This was the first wave of relief to my depression: learning to feel.

I also lived, worked and studied at a raw food zen retreat center called BodyMind Restoration Retreats up in Ithaca, NY. Beyond raw food cleansing, I learned about my mind. I learned how to watch my mind, I learned about awareness. I learned how to follow my breath. And I learned the beginnings of how use my mind, instead ot it using me.

“Learn to use your mind, and not let it use you,” is one of my well-remembered teachings from David.

David, Zen Master

Overcoming belief systems that did not serve me, to becoming a master of my own life.

I have always been an odd duck and a black sheep. The life that was explained to me as a way to live a good happy life, never felt like it fit me.

Questioning my internalized belief systems were the beginning of my lifestyle revolution. To name a few old belief systems of mine:

• I used to unconsciously believe that I needed to be ‘good’ to be loved and accepted.

• I used to live with a scarcity mindset, where nothing ever felt like enough, especially me.

• I unconsciously ate all the emotions that I did not know how to feel and process properly.

I was crystal clear, from a young age, that I did not want the typical life of two kids, a husband, a nine to five, and a house with a white picket fence. I am so happy that I followed this truth of mine, it took me to amazing places and made me who I am today.

My Twenties

After graduating top in my graphic design class, I said no to a life in a cubicle; I headed straight for yoga teacher training and continued towards my unusual life.

• I started and owned a one-of-a-kind hand-made hat business that was wildly successful.

• I tried a poly-amorous relationship, with whom both of them, I remain to be best friends with today.

• I had a wild run in the pot industry in Northern California.

• I spent many weeks of many years participating in building the best city in the world: Black Rock City. Where I met and married my Man (not the same year.)

• My feet have walked on half of the world’s continents.

• I explored my own inner realms with a few plant medicines while traveling South and Central America.

At the base of my chosen life path are my intentional belief systems:

• There is no ‘good’ nor ‘bad’, boy, girl, or even human. We are innately worthy and our worthiness is different than the quality of our actions and behaviors.

• My relationship with my self is the most important relationship for me to tend to; it is my truth, my inner compass, and results in the quality of my inner Self. Without it I suffer and feel lost.

• Failure is apart of life, feeling it and facing it opens up my life.

• Life is half easy and half hard. Half positive and half negative.

• Food is medicine.

• The answers we each seek are ultimately found within us.

• The persistent focus of becoming more me; generates my true connection to my potential.

• Incorporating challenge into my life, often choosing to feel uncomfortable, generates a satisfied and meaningful quality to my experience of my life.

Resiliency and Adversity

I remember setting out on my first big travel to a new continent at the age of twenty-two. I remember being scared about my health, I remember feeling nervous about who I would meet, and wondering about how the long list of unknowns ahead of me would end up.

I also remember being sure that I would figure it all out. This self-cultivated feeling of self-confidence has been my greatest ally. This thought, ‘Everything is figure-out-able’ has opened up the world to me and removed many potentially self-imposed obstacles and limits.

 

I am currently the woman of a seaman; we have chosen a lifestyle of travel and living without a home.

We have a thriving, healthy, and happy little one; I am a full-time traveling mom.

Update since 2020. We are no longer living on a cruise ship and we are about to move into an airstream to continue our adventure.

Update 2021. We are living (and I am working) in our airstream.

Update 2022. We are settling down in Reno, NV, USA. This is a beautiful grounding change for us. Many people ask, “Why Reno?”

My answer, “Living in a place with a lot of outdoor access was crucial for us: rock climbing, hot springs, and nature loving people are what make us happy.”

The resiliency, that I now possess, astounds me.

My now well-versed skill of dealing with adversity is remarkable.

Looking back twenty years, my current life is deeply impressive. “From Chronically Ill to Vibrantly Alive” (and traveling the world); I could not be more thrilled about what I have created in my life and who I have become.

• Optimal physical health

• Emotionally capable and authentically resilient.

• Mental Mastery

My Recent Chapter that Lead Me to Today.

Five years ago, I stepped away from my last well paying source of income, I was a type of boutique farmer. I left because I felt a calling from within me, I knew there was something that my heart and soul wanted to bring to the world. A life project that I wanted to birth. I realized that after I had healed my Self, I was ready to contribute to the world!

Step one was figuring out how I wanted to contribute.

For a year, I spent hours every week sitting with my Self, asking my Self open-ended questions and then listening to my internal answers.

My first clue was that I wanted to write; the theme that continued to come up was that I wanted to inspire people to change by believing that new (and challenging) things were possible. I started a hobby blog but soon realized that I would need to brand our family to make an income from advertisements, which I did not want to do.

I knew there was more… I kept taking my Self on long walks, asking my brain questions, and continued to listen.

I figured out the components that I wanted to create in my life.

• To be a word artist.

• To be location independent.

• To financially support my family while we are rock climbing around the world.

• To live a lifestyle where we (my fam and me) spend time together, breathe fresh air, and eat clean food.

And then it all clicked for me…

My newest Chapter: Life Coach

I believe and feel in every bone of my body that coaching is what I am meant to do. I am over the moon excited to have finally figured out what I want to offer the world.

Life Coaching has sounded like a cheesy profession until I met my mentor Brooke Castillo, an educated psychologist and more impressively self-hep guru. She and I share many of the same teachers and belief systems. I am fortunate to study her life-changing work and am profoundly excited to share this revolutionary way of how to approach one’s own life: Mine, Yours and anyone who is interested in mastering their internal reality.

It was not until I met her and her model that I fell in complete love with coaching. The applicable structure that she teaches is brilliant and I am deeply grateful for what she brings to life coaching and the world.

Me as a Gut Health Coach:

There are two causes for chronic digestive disorders. Food and Mood which accumulate into lifestyle; or as the doctors say… diet, stress, and lifestyle.

… but they do not tell you HOW to change.

I do.

The process of going through my gut health program is worth the price of admission a thousand times over. Plus you and your future self get the benefit of your best shot at long lasting health.

• Your brain is already programmed, would you like the skills to write your own code?

• Life is full of stressors, would you like the tools to maintain balance?

• Change is hard, would you like the strategies to make your healthy habits effortless?

To learn more about how your life can change by upleveling your gut health schedule a Health Strategy Session with me today.

Program Benifits:

• Feel Fully on-top of your Health

• Eat your favorite treat without it being a problem

• Know exactly what supports your own body’s gut health

• Live in a way that lowers your probability of disease

• Possesses the skills to manage your mind and emotions so you can show up like a rockstar in your life, work, and relationships.

• Hook your future self up

• Solve your Digestive Issue

• Fall in-Love with foods that serve your body, brain, and belly

This is how I help my clients everyday,

Coach Chandra