What I Wish I Knew Sooner on My Thyroid Healing Journey
Learn from my mistakes so you can move forward with more ease and less trial-and-error.
Hello my Thyroid Friend,
I assume that you are here because you have chosen to take the path to wellness. Maybe you have been told by conventional systems that there is ‘nothing you can do’ and that it is ‘all in your head’. But deep down, you know that there must be something you can do.
Well, I am living proof that there is something you can do to feel better. I managed to reverse my symptoms (and thyroid antibodies) by 90% by making dietary and lifestyle changes. I couldn’t believe the transformation - and neither could my partner! We are now totally in awe of the human body and it’s magnificent healing potential. It is so sad that I was given none of this information by my doctor or any conventional healthcare ‘specialist’. If I had just listened to them alone, I don’t know what state I would be in now - or if, in fact, I would even be here.
Now, committing to the healing path is not an easy task - however in doing so, most likely you will let go of aspects of your life that are no longer serving you - and you will begin to consciously bring into your life aspects that are serving your greatest health and wellbeing.
Taking the path of wellness and healing requires dedication. It requires us to look at our lives from a WHOLE-istic (holistic) perspective and look at what needs changing. You may find that only certain areas of your life need changing, however, I found that I had to reassess EVERY area and aspect of my life!
It is very important that when embarking on this journey, that you set yourself up for the best success possible. That way, it will save you making many unnecessary mistakes I did. I want to share my top 6 tips with you on how you can set yourself up for the best success on your path to thyroid health:
1. Eat well
Ensure that the food you are putting into your body is nourishing you. Try to avoid anything from a packet or jar, and cook from scratch as much as possible. Many people with thyroid and autoimmune issues tend to do really well on grain-free diets, or at least removing gluten, dairy, soy and refined sugar from their diets. Opt for nutrient-dense food, include lots of colourful veggies, high quality protein and high quality fats. Start listening to your body and observe how it feels after your meals. (I recommend you keep a food diary to stay on track of what works and what doesn’t.)
2. Don’t listen to the naysayers
There will probably be people who will feel intimidated or uncomfortable about you making lifestyle changes in order to improve your health. Many people may feel that the idea of ‘lifestyle medicine’ is very strange. You may not get approval of your new way of life from everyone. They may even laugh at you for going naturally gluten-free for example. They may not take what you are doing seriously. They may pressure you into going back into your old habits - the same habits that contributed to getting sick. Don’t let them take your power away. The most important opinion that REALLY matters is your OWN. You are the one that has been living with this chronic illness. You are the one that has been putting up with debilitating symptoms. And so limiting your health just to make someone else feel comfortable is nonsensical. You must learn to be okay with people not approving of you - and even people not liking you. It’s all OKAY. When you start living in ways that best support your best health and wellbeing, you will attract the right tribe to you who will respect you. The others will just fall away. Kindly allow them to leave if they want to. They may come back, they may not. Let it be, and release the need to grip on.
3. Carve out time for relaxation
This one is an absolute MUST. And can often be the hardest. We could be eating the healthiest diet in the world and exercising in all the ‘right’ ways for our body, but if we are still going around in a state of chronic stress, we will not be able to get fully better. Relaxation will look different to everyone - it could be going for a walk, meditating, reading a book or doing yoga. Something that makes you feel calm, rested and recharged. The whole point is that we are calming our nervous system and bringing it back to ‘safety’. I recommend you do this at least twice a day - morning and at night before bed.
4. Build a personal relationship with yourself
I truly believe that this one is the cornerstone to true healing. When we build a relationship with ourself, we then know ourselves on an authentic and deep level. This means that we are more aware of what our needs are and if they are being met or not. We are no longer ‘pretending’ to ourselves or ignoring our own needs.
In order to build a relationship with yourself, start spending time with just yourself, doing self-care activities, sitting quietly in meditation, etc. The more you do this, the more you will connect with your innermost needs and desires. You will connect to your intuition and you will get better at making the right decisions for you. This is priceless when it comes to navigating the healing path. We can feel so lost at times: what do I do now? Where do I go next? Is that food right for me? What gave me that flare up? Being more intuitive and ‘in touch’ with yourself means that you can begin to have an ‘inner knowing’ as to what the answer to your question is. You won’t feel so clueless and desperate looking outside of yourself for the answers as you’ll realise they all come from within.
5. Go one step at a time
Pacing yourself is so important. I learnt this the hard way, and tried to change everything all at once. It caused me way more stress and suffering doing it this way. I don’t want you to make the same mistake. If you are considering removing gluten, dairy, soy and refined sugar from your diet, then perhaps do one at a time. This way you can more accurately measure how you feel after, say, 2 weeks of eliminating one food at a time. Remember that healing is a process and it is not a destination. I believe that illness is a message from our spirit - a message that we are out of alignment and that there are changes we need to make. There are valuable lessons encoded in every person’s healing journey that is specific to them. The more we accept the situation for what it is, and release that resistance to wanting to be ‘healed’ overnight - the chances are, more transformation and radical breakthroughs will happen. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I’ve witnessed it many times.
6. Get super organised
Being organised is absolutely KEY to managing a chronic illness. When we choose a path of healing, we will be required to make multiple lifestyle changes - and this comes with creating new routines. This can get really overwhelming as there are so many aspects of our lives that we need to change. We realise we need to reduce our toxic exposure and swap all of our products to non-toxic ones, we realise certain relationships are not serving us and need to be changed, we realise we need to overhaul our diet and learn new ways of cooking, we realise that we need to change our daily routine in order to fit in time for relaxation and healing activities.
If we aren't organised, we aren’t setting ourselves up for the greatest success. We will just fall out of the new routine and back into our old habits. However, the more organised and focused we can get ourselves at the start and end of each day, the more chances we have at success. I recommend you implementing a daily practice of journalling into your routine. You want to be able to:
1. Plan the day (from a mind-body-spirit approach)
2. Cultivate a positive mindset
3. Reflect and learn from the day - keep in touch with your body more. What is working and what isn’t.
✨ To help you start tuning into your thyroid healing journey, I’ve created a FREE printable thyroid journal page - just for subscribing to this newsletter. It’s a simple but powerful first step toward understanding your symptoms, triggers and patterns.
💜 Want to go deeper? You can grab the full Thyroid Journal Bundle - over 22 beautifully designed pages packed with coaching prompts, daily trackers, planners and routines to support your healing. As a little extra gift, you’ll also receive a set of Throat Chakra Affirmation Cards - perfect for supporting that mind-body connection as you move through this journey.
Now, I’d love to hear from you! What inspired you to start your healing journey? Was there a turning point or moment that made you say, “enough is enough”? Hit reply to this email [or leave a comment on Substack] I’d truly love to hear your story. 💬
Much love,
Dani
ps. If you missed the link to your FREE printable thyroid journal page, then just hit reply to this email to let me know, and I’ll send it through again!