#99 I Never Meant to Sart a Business
Sep 13, 202612 years ago, I had no idea I was starting a business. I didn’t set out to create Shift for Wellness. In fact, I didn’t know I had anything to share.
After cancer treatment, when I was finally beginning to feel well again, something unexpected started happening.
People came to me.
Friends. Friends of friends. Family. Colleagues. People who had just received a cancer diagnosis. People living with chronic illness. People facing difficult, life-altering circumstances they never saw coming.
“How Did You Get Through It?”
They would ask me: “How did you get through it?”
They saw strength in me. Trust. Faith. Positivity, I suppose, for lack of a better word. But I hadn't thought of myself that way. I had simply been trying to get through what I was thrown into.
There had been three months when I was essentially stuck in bed dealing with the effects of cancer treatment. I wasn't developing a wellness program. I wasn't thinking about becoming a coach. I certainly wasn't creating a business.
I was trying to figure out how to live inside a life that suddenly looked very different from the one I had known. My world had become VERY SMALL.
So when people started asking me what I had done, I had to stop and think about it.
What HAD I done?
The Five Things I Kept Coming Back To
Looking back, I began to recognize five things I had returned to again and again:
Self-acceptance
Honesty and humor
Intention
Faith
Thankfulness
They weren't steps I had read in a book. They weren't a program.
They were simply the practices that had helped me find my way through, and people wanted to know about them, so I shared them.
I Wanted to Help People Help Themselves
At first, that meant free workshops. I wanted to reach people who, like me, might be home, not well, frightened, overwhelmed, or simply unable to get out into the world.
I wanted to help people help themselves.
Making It Accessible
Those workshops became writing. The writing became a blog, and then I realized something that shook me:
What if the people I most wanted to reach couldn't read what I was writing?
There had been a time during my own treatment when I lost the ability to read, so I taught myself how to narrate what I'd written.
The blog became a podcast.
From then on, if I wrote something, I wanted there to be another way to receive it. I didn't have the language for what I was doing at the time, but the educator in me certainly did: make the learning accessible. Meet people where they are.
Then, very unexpectedly … people began asking if they could work with me.
That one threw me. 🙃 I remember thinking, Work with me? What exactly do I have to work with?
So I went back to the things that had helped me:
Yoga. Mindfulness. Meditation. EFT. Healing Breathwork. Reiki. NLP.
One practice led to another, and I pursued the training and certifications that would allow me to understand these modalities more deeply and share them responsibly with others.
Because Apparently I Can’t Stop Being a Teacher
Then, because apparently I can't stop being a teacher, 😂 all of it started making its way into my classroom. 🍎
I shared what I was learning with my students, their parents, and my colleagues.
Practices I had first used to help myself through cancer treatment became tools I was using to help children and adults navigate the stress and overwhelm of life and learning.
Somewhere Along the Way, Shift for Wellness Became a Business
And somewhere along the way, without some grand business plan or master vision...Shift for Wellness became a business.
Today, it turns 12! 🧁🎈
When I look at what it has become, I don't really see a collection of certifications, workshops, podcasts, classes, coaching sessions, or programs.
I see people.✨✨✨
✨People who needed somewhere to bring the thing they were carrying.
✨People who needed to be witnessed in their suffering without being defined by it.
✨People who needed support while they figured out what came next.
✨People who sometimes needed permission to laugh in the middle of something that wasn't funny at all.
✨People who needed tools to help release what their bodies and hearts had been holding.
✨People who discovered that transformation doesn't always arrive as some enormous, life-altering moment.
Sometimes It Starts With One Small Shift
Sometimes it begins with the tiniest movement toward something different.
A breath. A thought. A tap. A laugh. A different question. A moment of self-acceptance. A little faith that maybe all will be well.
Twelve years later, Shift for Wellness is still going strong! 🙌🏼 It's about helping someone find their own way toward a better place.
Because sometimes...one small shift can make a world of difference in the life of someone searching for answers to unanswered questions.
My Give Back Then. My Give Back Now.
Shift for Wellness was my give back then, and it still is today.
To every person who ever asked me, “How did you get through it?”
Thank you.
Your questions gave me a reason to put words around what had carried me through, and to begin sharing it in ways that might help someone else find their own way through.
That was the beginning of Shift for Wellness.
Happy 12th birthday, Shift for Wellness. ❤️
Here’s to the next small shift and the life it has the power to change.
