24th Jul 2021
Jen Wilson Shares her Health Journey
In this blog movement and health rebel, Jen Wilson takes us through the 6 stages of disease taken from the principles of Ayuerveda and relates this to her own Health Journey.
Jen prepared this content for our Health & Wellbeing Being magazine which will be available to all from the 2nd of august at the ‘Magazine’ page of our website.
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A bit about Jen Wilson
Hello, I Am Jen Wilson, a movement & health rebel here to help you move and feel better in your body.
I am an absolute geek (always learning) and a little bit obsessed when it comes to finding ways in helping you look after your body in a way that works for you – you don’t like it, we don’t do it.
I am top heavy on the qualifications… From a HND in Health, Fitness & Exercise, BSc in Sport and Exercise Science, Pilates, Yoga, Meditation, Massage, Personal Trainer, Barefoot specialist, Functional Movement Coach, nutrition coach… If it interests me, I go deep and learn what I can.
I got into working in the health & fitness world after 12 years in the travel industry. When I worked in Greece, we partied HARD and I piled on about 20KG of booze weight. Going through the process of nutrition and exercise to lose that weight and feel more confident in my own body, I fell in love with the industry and wanted to be a part of it.
Since 2009 I have totally evolved and grown into myself, in my book Become A Warrior Woman, 9 Rules to Sort Your Shit (available on Amazon or the audiobook is available from my website), I take you through the initial process I went through post-divorce to help me sort my shit. I have been a high-intensity, all guns blazing fitness fanatic (I made loads of mistakes there and behaviours that I now believe contributed to me being diagnosed with Crohn’s). I have been a National Fitness Presenter (I lead sessions at fitness expo’s in Blackpool, Birmingham and Sheffield). I was a Master Trainer for the Indoor Cycling Group.
I am now a movement and health rebel using Pilates & Yoga, meditation, individualised nutrition, lymph work, massage and I am writing a book called The Healing Rebel about my journey with Crohn’s and the things we can do to help heal our bodies. I actively encourage rest and downtime (big difference from who I was pre-2017).
My next education is going to be about breathing, specifically for women’s health – our monthly cycle has a massive impact on our breath and women who suffer PMS symptoms, anxiety, panic attacks in that week leading up to their period can do work with their breath to help reduce/alleviate those symptoms, and for those of us a bit older going towards perimenopause or are already menopausal have a whole other situation going on that breath can help with (keep an eye on my social media for workshops on this).
I am also the GGC members resident Yoga teacher teaching a 30min Yoga session in the Exclusive member’s group each week.
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6 Stages of Dis-ease
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s* in 2017, no one could have been more shocked than me to get this diagnosis. I was what society sees as ‘fit and healthy’. The thing is, I wasn’t healthy, I was fit and unhealthy. I slept around 4 hours a night (possibly less), I worked 7 days a week, my body was in constant stress from teaching lots of high intensity spin classes, plus Pilates, plus going to the gym to work out, plus running my own business, plus partying all weekend, plus suppressing my emotions, plus eating on the go, plus running from one gym to another to teach classes, plus thinking rest was a waste of time (unless I was getting a sun tan, but even that is doing something).
When I got really honest with myself and realised what I had been doing – I had been ‘doing’ all day long, every single day. I had totally wiped myself out. I had been warned by many fitness coaches, and businesswomen about burnout before but had always thought ‘nah, not me, I am fit and healthy’.
I had totally lost sight of what healthy meant.
I think it’s important to start at understanding how ill-health and dis-ease appear in our bodies. In my research I looked a lot at the Eastern methods for inspiration and understanding, there they have 5000 years of procedures and processes and Western science is slowly starting to produce the evidence to back up what the East has rarely questioned as they know and understand intuitively and with wisdom.
Everything in the body is connected. The body and the mind are powerful and you can’t have one without the other so to separate them, even to separate the different functions of the body just doesn’t make sense to me.
These 6 stages are taken from principles of Ayurveda.
Stage 1 Accumulation
Stage 2 Aggravation
Stage 3 Spreading
Stages 1 – 3 can be a bit annoying, but wouldn’t disrupt your life. You would be able to continue just ignoring the signals from your body (we can throw A LOT of shit at our bodies before they start to malfunction). You might buy an over the counter remedy (does anyone else remember the ProPlus craze in the 90’s?). You might choose to ignore the symptoms and push on with the thought that you will deal with it at the weekend, or when you have your week’s holiday in a couple of months, or when things at work start to slow down (business owners – when do things EVER slow down unless we take specific time off??).
In these 3 stages, small changes can make a significant improvement and reverse what’s going on. With a bit of work, you can rebalance fairly easily in these stages. It takes us being aware, awake and connected to ourselves, our bodies and our actions AND MAKING CHANGES.
Stage 4 Relocation
Stage 5 Manifestation
Stage 6 Chronic dis-ease
My personal experience of Eastern and Holistic medicine is to look at all the symptoms, including body and mind and find out what is not working correctly. In fixing that, these symptoms go away and balance is restored. It’s like making sure that your dominoes are all set up correctly so when the first one goes they all tip evenly and in the right order.
I don’t believe that one is the only answer. An integrated approach is definitely more effective. I have been able to take information discovered by my western doctor and pass it to my medical herbalist to get help and vice versa.
We seem to live in a time where people are constantly looking for a magic pill that allows us to ignore our symptoms and live off balance responsibility-free. We are surrounded by marketing strategies that are selling us food, drink and lifestyles that make promises these things will make us happy. Instead it’s making us sick, disconnected, and unhappy and we want a pill for that.
Much of the information out there is confusing, conflicting and overwhelming that people throw in the towel and say ‘ah well, something’s going to kill me…’ So many people are suffering and feel stuck on a hamster wheel. They don’t feel as though they can take back their power, they are likely too exhausted to take back their power so just reach for a coffee or energy drink to drag themselves through the day.
***This is an excerpt from my new book The Healing Rebel which is due out on 01st Sept 2021 PRE ORDER YOUR COPY HERE https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=HWRRE4SMY6RJY )
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Client testimonials for Jen Wilson:
‘you are magical’
‘I could sing your praises about your teaching until the cows come home’
‘that lymph stuff is amazing, my psoriasis is really starting to calm down’
‘I have been getting the best sleep since introducing the lymph work’
‘My dentist noticed I have a spring in my step since I have been working with you’
‘I always feel calm after speaking with you’
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