6 minute read
Dawn Healing
HEALTH FR M INSIDE UT
By TERESA HAMMOND
As a society and a world, there is probably no better time to examine one’s mental wellness than the present day. With isolation, distance and for some fear, now being a very present part of personal history, looking at one’s wellness from the inside out some believe is critical to achieving life balance, as well as joy.
“We are three parts: body, mind and spirit,” Miranda LaRee shared.
Specializing as a SelfHealing Guide, TraumaInformed Life Coach and Resiliency Master, LaRee’s 209-based business Dawn Healing o ers the community a number of workshops, as well as personal guidance for those desiring to dig deeper into their overall mental health and release of any trauma.
LaRee recently sat down with 209 Magazine to o er an understanding of the importance, as well as connection, of mental health to overall wellness. “Your body has three components and if we’re not addressing all three then we’re still going to be out of homeostasis,” she said. “To bring it back into homeostasis and we have to get all three in line.”
Yet it’s not something which one can achieve overnight. No di erent than achieving a physical body or health routine, achieving this takes both time and commitment.
“We start by breaking; by changing ourselves, breaking those generational curses that get passed on to our children, or children we’re around,” she shared, adding teachers and mentors have just as big of an impact on this as parents do. “Adults have a huge impact on children whether you’re a parent or not,” LaRee shared. “I feel like I’m here breaking generational trauma,” she continued. “Tragedies happen, but by having the consciousness of what we’re dealing with and developing healthy ways to deal with it. We’re just going to be happier and healthier.” e child of a mother ghting kidney disease and later being a icted with it herself, LaRee brings a lot of personal experience to her practice. Applying personal experience to proven practices which help one not only heal, but blossom on the other side of facing topics which are o en uncomfortable.
“It’s the beginning,” she said of speaking one’s truth and identifying triggers, as well as traumas. “You don’t want to
TO GET ALL THREE IN LINE.” —Miranda LaRee
fake it. You’re not repressing. You’re not going to repress your real feelings, but you’re trying to share how you feel and that begins with your words because then your thoughts and your beliefs become your actions.”
LaRee acknowledged that life isn’t easy. Every person is faced with hurdles or struggles which are uniquely theirs. It’s how one proceeds through the muck and struggle which will determine their path from there forward.
Using herself as an example, she shared a story of preparing for her rst kidney transplant at the age of 32. Faced with mortality and the life she wanted to lead for herself, as well as her children.
“Realizing how unhappy I was and how much I was su ocating,” she said. “I felt like all of these things, it was like a midlife crisis at 32.”
A midlife crisis which eventually led to divorce, as well as facing a reality that her life just might look di erent post-transplant and making peace with it all.
“All of that was what led me to who I am,” she said, o ering there are no regrets on marriage or of any of her early life.
“I think self-love is huge,” she continued. “Self-worth in and of itself has several components and working with your inner child and receiving your inner child. Having a relationship with your inner child.”
Clarifying that one’s inner child can be any age from three to 27, she stressed the importance of having that relationship and knowing that version still exists and how much you let it control in your life. “Before surrender felt like giving up and telling the universe I’m okay with this, and then I’m telling the universe I want more dialysis and that wasn’t true,” she said of coming to terms with the changes in her life path. “Instead, I found acceptance to be very empowering. I could live a life that I’m very proud of, even while I’m sick. I looked back and I wasn’t like I had been. I didn’t put my life on hold.” A powerful shi , which is a prime example of how one can re ect on their life and circumstances and make a conscious decision to shi the pattern and the path which they may continue to travel.
“I made this decision to o cially stop waiting on the wait-
THEY’RE NOT. —Miranda LaRee
list. I was on the waiting list for kidney,” she said of a second transplant which came later, “but I wasn’t going to wait. I wasn’t putting my life on pause, hoping for this kidney that could never come.
“If I have to spend the rest of my life on dialysis, what is it going to look like?” she con ded of a conversation she had with herself. “How am I going to show up? What is my intention with this life? What example am I going to give my children? My children are literally the driving force between all of it.”
LaRee shared that being a living example of resiliency for her children served as great motivation in her transformation of living a fuller life.
“I think the rst thing is you have to have the willingness to look at yourself and be aware and all of that is still going to come from taking ownership,” she shared. “A lot of people want to be able to blame someone else. What are you going to do? It’s not their responsibility to x it. ey’re not living your life; they’re o doing their own thing. So, taking responsibility and saying that it’s not a fault thing, it’s not a blame thing. What am I going to do now with this?” It also comes down to self-awareness.
“I think you have to really understand how your energy works,” she stated. “I think we need to understand the importance of your intention in the world and then a lot of people think intention setting is the same as goal setting and they’re not. Intention setting is how you’re showing up. How you arrive in the world, and I think that’s what’s really important to know your intention every day.” Equally important, LaRee shared that in this time of isolation, frustration and judgment, looking out is also needed to be better, well-adjusted individual. “Giving people the bene t of a good intention because I believe people in general are good,” she said. “We, everybody has a villain story and everyone has a hero’s story. We are all that in someone’s story with somebody.” And everyone has the opportunity to cra their own story. “ e awareness just changes your life,” she concluded of facing one’s trauma and inner dialogue. “You have a new perspective and when you have a new perspective you have a new reality. In that new reality you start to know that anything is possible. ●
