Jupiter’s Labyrinth was created in 2006 while I was recovering from a car accident with two broken ankles stuck in a wheel chair.
Since I had lots of time on my hands, I was able to start building my website, begin putting my herbal studies to the test by treating friends, family and the community with herbs and sharing the health education I had acquired over the past year.
But really my journey & inspiration to start this business began over a year earlier.
Fall of 2004 I had applied to study at Misty Meadows Herbal Center in Lee, NH in a 6 month herbal apprenticeship program . I had always been curious about plants and healing, especially aromatherapy, but didn’t know much about it. So, I thought I would give it a whirl, and if I liked it, I liked it and if I didn’t, I didn’t.
Shortly after applying for the herbal apprenticeship, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with high grade cervical dysplasia and HPV. For those unfamiliar with these terms, it meant that I had the highest grade of pre-cancerous cells growing on my cervix along with a virus that comes with most cervical cancer, Human Papilloma Virus. I was of course shocked and confused and had little understanding of the causes of these imbalances.
Now that the FDA has come up with a vaccine, for HPV, there is of course much more information available to the public about these conditions today.
My doctor told me that I was to have a biopsy to see how aggressive the cell growth was and then from there my options would be discussed. After the biopsy it was decided by my doctors that the malformed cells were expansive enough to merit a laser procedure where the first layer of my cervix would be removed.
Cutting off my “problem” did not seem like the answer to me, only a temporary fix with a fairly invasive procedure. Knowing that I was about to study a form of alternative medicine that spring, I thought perhaps I should look into some of these alternatives now, and walk a little of my talk.
I asked my doctors for time. They gave me 3 months. After the 3 months were up they felt it was important to have the laser surgery done if there were no changes in my condition.
From here, I decided to call Misty Meadows seeing as how I would be studying there. Wendy, the senior herbalist and my soon to be teacher, didn’t have any appointments available and I didn’t want to wait.
I then found an old business card of a chiropractor/Ayurvedic practitioner I had lying around the house. Someone had left the card with a tip at a restaurant I used to work at, and for whatever reason I kept it. The doctor was local, and I had heard about the practice of Ayurveda here and there and thought it was pretty interesting.
When I came in for the Ayurvedic appointment and sat down in the doctors office, my life changed.
The first words out of the doctor’s mouth after looking at my file was, “Did you know that your body changes, grows, sheds and shifts every second of every day? Your body is never, ever the same from one moment to the next. Just because you have dysplasia on your cervix right now, doesn’t mean it will be there a month or even a week from now.” Well, I am paraphrasing, but it was something like that.
No doctor had ever said anything like that to me. And no doctor had ever talked about my spiritual, emotional and physical health like this one had either. Ayurveda seemed to touch on every aspect of health that id often overlooked in western medicine: mind body and spirit.
After our full consult, the Dr. had given me a strict body type or “Doshic” diet to follow, a yoga routine, a meditation routine, even a time schedule of when I was to wake and retire, and a series of full body cleanses I was to do at home. I was to follow this routine for 3 months and then go back to my gynecologist for a check up.
So, I did.
The routine was hard at times, and sure I cheated a little here and there. But, after awhile it became easy and I didn’t even have to think about it.
I went back to the GYN after 3 months and I was given a clean bill of health. There were no signs of dysplasia or HPV to be found.
And all my doctor had to say was,
” Hmm. Good for you.”
Here I am many years later and still healthy.
Like I said, my life changed the moment I sat down in the Ayurvedic doctors office. And it continued to change even more when I began my apprenticeship at Misty Meadows.
I had gotten a scary but wonderful jump start into the world of health alternatives and delved even deeper into this world as I learned about herbs as healers, and other whole health practices.
After the apprenticeship I was an intern at Misty Meadows when I was thrown another scary but important curve ball: my car accident. Although I didn’t enjoy being in a wheel chair for 2 1/2 months, it gave me the time and space to slowly build a business and a practice that is now so close and true to my heart.
Illness and misfortune are often blessings in disguise. And illness is our bodies way of telling us to wake up and take notice.
If we take the time to receive these messages and bravely walk through these experiences courageously, then we will come out the other side of the tunnel that much happier, healthier, and stronger.
It is an honor and a blessing to work with my community and to help to empower, educate and support them as I was, so that they can take their health back into their own hands and find their own path to balance, happiness and well being.
Here’s To Our Health!