Self-Compassion: Your Ally in Pelvic Pain
From Chronic Illness to Empowerment: How Self-Compassion and the Mind-Body Connection Transformed My Life
My life has been shaped by chronic illness and debilitating conditions. I was born with an autoimmune dysfunction involving lupus antibodies, and throughout my early childhood, I consistently struggled with my health. By adolescence, I was experiencing horrific pain caused by endometriosis and adenomyosis.
At that time, very little was known about either of these conditions. I spent more time in doctors’ offices than in classrooms. By the time I was 16—and well into my college years—I was overwhelmed by physical, mental, and emotional stress. The isolation, pain, fear, and depression brought on by my medical, health, and life trauma were becoming unmanageable.
During that period, I was also studying in college, exploring how the mind–body connection has a powerful influence on our body’s systems. I was simultaneously trying to discover ways to live with my conditions. I studied pain reprocessing therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and positive behavioral strategies.
I was severely struggling with the way I spoke to myself. As my isolation, pain, and symptoms progressed rapidly, the walls of my physical, emotional, and mental prisons began closing in. Now I understand that my self-talk—my thoughts and beliefs about myself—created spikes on those walls, making them close in even faster.
One of the most important lessons I learned through education, training, and personal experience is this:
The way we talk to ourselves through medical and life trauma can be the difference between having access to hope, compassion, worthiness, and resilience—or feeling even more isolated, afraid, and limited.
I began implementing self-compassion strategies, mindfulness tools, self-awareness practices, and self-validation techniques to examine and challenge my beliefs and thoughts. Alongside science-backed functional medicine approaches, these tools changed my entire internal and external world for the better—especially during the perimenopause stage of my life. I am eternally grateful to have these practices to lean on during the sacred shifting transitions of womanhood.
Understanding how we define ourselves—and how our experiences shape those definitions—is powerful. This awareness gives us the ability to update the belief programming that runs in our subconscious, much like updating an operating system and removing background apps that no longer serve us. When we choose compassion, awareness, and healing, we create space for resilience, hope, and growth.
