Taking Control of Stress….
I am on a mission to help and guide women, to remember who they really are and to take back control of their own magnificent well-being.
A part of this requires helping my clients to understand what stress really is. I expose stress as the ‘silent killer’ and cause of 95% of chronic disease, which includes symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, hormonal problems, sugar imbalances, and weight gain.
Busy women engage me to guide them to overcome these symptoms on their health journey to empower themselves to feel amazing, look amazing, and have astonishing energy and vitality!
I learned what I know from embodied experience,
...not just from reading information from a book
…WHICH MAKES ME DIFFERENT FROM MANY HOLISTIC MEDICAL DOCTORS AND PRACTITIONERS….
For four decades, I have been on a journey to unravel stress that was being held in the physical, mental and emotional aspects of my body - which ultimately interfered with optimal health and distracted me from being aware of my spiritual connection to my Essence Self.
Now I am able to guide clients to help them to change within months what took me decades to discover.
I have gone from stressed, insecure and struggling with annoying health symptoms, to living WITH
ever-expanding love, confidence, and vibrant health. But this was a journey….
THE Path
Why do I care so much about this topic of stress and mind-body health? I have lived as a Busy Woman my whole adult life and I have had to learn how to prioritize my health and overall well-being.
I would like to share why I’m so passionate about this topic and the turning point of my life:
THE JOURNEY BEGINS….
After working through college, as much as 30-hours a week as a cashier at a neighborhood grocery store (I went to Chicago Public Schools and had zero college guidance, which caused me to miss out on outstanding opportunities in hindsight) - I pushed myself to graduate college in 3-years with high honors, and jumped right into medical school, through the early decision process.
I was determined to ‘show’ all the naysayers I could do it, which only tended to make me feel alone and competitive in the world. My heart had shut down, (even developed recurrent chest pains and was hearing a heart murmur develop in my 20’s, which later reversed) and truth be told, I was insecure and afraid - I just didn’t show it on the outside:
In medical school, I pushed through to finish my studies a whole quarter ahead of time - just to add extra stress to the already extreme working conditions mix! I had no idea I was harming my adrenals and body with the sleepless nights, and 48 hour work days… my body had started to deal with chronic, ‘annoying’ health symptoms. But I had not connected the dot to ‘stress’ yet.
I essentially had no time for friends and barely any time for dating. My medical school ‘study buddy’ fortunately was playful, and helped me to breathe sometimes. I had become soooo serious! I completed an Internal Medicine Internship after graduation.
This would be my life until I started my eye surgery residency at the University of Chicago.
I would go on to complete this Ophthalmology residency and continue directly into a Cornea Transplant fellowship… for which I carried the workload of two people for the first six months of the one-year surgical program.
I returned back to Chicago in 1990 to take a full-time Ophthalmology position in a corporate setting. I had essentially become a workaholic and had a difficult time taking breaks or relaxing.
THEN, THE WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE, 1991 ROLLED IN,
the quiet before the storm...
I decided that I would start a new medical practice in January, 1991…and that it would also be a good time to start our family! (Yikes!)... Chronic stress can contribute to poor decision-making, which was certainly true for me in this situation.
So against my husband’s advice, I became pregnant, while working full-time and single-handedly putting the pieces together with plans to start my new business by October with two full-time employees on the payroll. I had become a full blown ‘control freak’ at this point, and stress was starting to take its toll.
I still remember thinking ‘Oh my God, what have I done’?
Then August 1991 rolled in and my world began to crumble… the next 3 months were the most tragic times of my life:
After returning home and still trying to repress my feelings and face the world, it took about two weeks for me to start to burnout and break down. By the end of 1991, this was my prayer one evening after working all day…
…MY PRAYER WAS, “GOD, IF YOU DON’T HELP ME… I’M GOING DOWN’…
Be You, MAGNIFICENTLY!
I now understand how people can kill themselves - and I’m determined to help women to not wait for a life crisis to reclaim their mind/body/spirit wholeness… I now understand how to heal the ‘parts’ of ourselves that block our light from shining… I call them metaphorically, ‘cataracts of the soul’. They are not ‘bad’ - we just need to understand how to transform them to become wiser.
If you’re struggling with some of the issues and conditions that
I have named, I have a message for you…Don’t worry – you too, have the power within you, to make it!
And I am here to show you the way…
We have nothing to prove, nothing to ‘show’... We just need to know who we really are, learn how to tap into our own magnificent being within, and learn how to empower our own health! This is the path to being Well, Whole, and Wise.
Be You, MAGNIFICENTLY!
I now understand how people can kill themselves - and I’m determined to help women to not wait for a life crisis to reclaim their mind/body/spirit wholeness… I now understand how to heal the ‘parts’ of ourselves that block our light from shining… I call them metaphorically, ‘cataracts of the soul’. They are not ‘bad’ - we just need to understand how to transform them to become wiser.
If you’re struggling with some of the issues and conditions that
I have named, I have a message for you…Don’t worry – you too, have the power within you, to make it!
And I am here to show you the way…
We have nothing to prove, nothing to ‘show’... We just need to know who we really are, learn how to tap into our own magnificent being within, and learn how to empower our own health! This is the path to being Well, Whole, and Wise.
Hi, I’m Valencia Ray,
