Why I'm Becoming An Ayurvedic Health Counselor
...and the 39 year journey it took for me to get here.
If you asked college aged Jess if she ever saw herself becoming an Ayurvedic Health Counselor, she would: first, ask you what Ayurveda even is, and then, think of her diet of microwavable Cup of Soup, Twizzlers, and Coke and think it was hysterical that anyone would ever take health advice from her.
Well.
That version of Jess went on to move to NYC where she continued to use the microwave as her main cooking tool, and landed a career teaching special education in NYC public schools. Around this time she started attending yoga classes regularly for the physical and mental health benefits, but absolutely didn’t subscribe to an Ayurvedic lifestyle of any sort. She went to bed late, considered 3 cups of coffee an adequate breakfast, and had a terrible immune system—catching any kind of sniffle her students would bring into school (…she’ll never forget the time there was an outbreak of ringworm in her classroom—oy vey!)
Fast forward to her 30’s. At 33 she had her first child, and soon saw how food, illnesses, and stress impacted his little self on an enormous level. Not being able to find any concrete medical reasons as to why he would have such epic meltdowns multiple times a day (and she explored EVERY road there was to explore) was when her interest in holistic health (both on AND off the yoga mat) began. SURELY there were ways to make him feel better in his own skin, and she was determined to find them.
For pre-school she enrolled her son in a Waldorf school, which prides itself on educating the whole child holistically—they take just as much satisfaction in their organic farm-to-table snack and lunch offerings as they do in their goal of giving kids a screen-free childhood. For Jess and her family, this felt like exactly the right fit.
She also completed her Yoga Teacher Training around this time, and to no surprise, Ayurveda was one of the topics that interested her most in the 200 hour course. She took great joy in teaching gentle yoga throughout NYC, and vowed that when the time was right, she would take a much deeper dive into Ayurveda.
The next few years got busy real fast—Jess and her husband became certified foster parents in NYC, and were placed with a 6 month old baby, right around the time Jess found out she was pregnant. They jumped from 1 to 3 kids super fast—oh, and it was at the beginning of the Covid Pandemic lockdown in NYC.
To add a little extra fun during this whirlwind of a time, her son landed in the ER and the doctors discovered that his blood sugar was in the 400’s (for reference, most people have readings under 140.) The doctors immediately jumped to Type 1 Diabetes, but after tests (and a 6 month wait time), he came back with a genetic form of diabetes called MODY (although in his case it was a mutated gene, neither her husband or her were carriers.) It was SUCH a relief to finally have a diagnosis and something to work with regarding their son’s health.
It all became so clear in that moment—why her son was always SO sensitive to foods and would have unexplained meltdowns that weren’t triggered by anything specific—his blood sugars had been high since birth and, in all the testing that was done, his blood sugar was never looked at. Although she considered the food she fed him healthy-ish, he still ate his fair share of bagels and white pasta, which of course triggered his numbers sky high.
This was Jess’s big Ah-ha moment. The moment that she began to dedicate even more time to the diet of her children (and their grownups:-) to make sure that they all can feel their personal best at any given moment. Medication was not a route she wanted to jump on, if it was possible to control her son’s sugar levels via diet and lifestyle. And, 1.5 years after diagnosis, she’s happy to say she has (thus far) been successful, and he’s feeling the best he ever has.
Having this knowledge of being able to make small diet and lifestyle changes with such a HUGE result made her want to share this with other people. When one of the Ayurvedic podcasts that she listens to religiously and just loves reported they were starting their first cohort of Ayurvedic Health Counselor trainings, she knew the time was now right. She’s turning 40 this autumn, and giving herself and her family the gift of health that will have generational impacts is exactly how she wants to begin her new decade.
The course kicks off in September, and will be a year long. She’s excited to share snippets of what she learns here in this newsletter space, and is so grateful to have all of you on this journey of holistic health with her.
Jumping out of 3rd person now…whew, this was a long one, but our journey is a long and winding one, right?;-) Let me know what questions you have about Ayurveda or holistic health below! I truly do believe that Ayurveda has the power to improve your physical, mental, and emotional health, and as they say, health is our greatest wealth, friends.
And if you are not already a subscriber, you can leave your email below and get updates each and every Friday! What a pleasure to journey together:-)
So exciting to hear!