Just three months after my mother-in-law died, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at age 29. At that point, I had been freelancing for 5+ years, clocking upwards of 90 hours a week and nary a vacation. On paper I had all the markers of “success”, but mostly felt deeply anxious and unwell.

With any cancer diagnosis, mortality tends to slap you across the face. Or more apt, across the heart. I was wrapping my head around the fact that I was in no way prepared to be a dying 30-year-old.

I was lucky that my prognosis was “it’s pretty likely you’ll live to be an old lady,” but the veil of uncertainty had been lifted and you simply can’t unsee it. I had spent my whole life being simultaneously curious about death & dying, and drowning in death anxiety too much to even consider the fact that I needed to make preparations. Wasn’t EOL planning for other people? Something I could do later?

More critically, this time of reflection opened up the question: what am I doing with my short time on Earth? Why am I spending day in and day out doing something that other people say is important but is making me so unwell? I realized I was going to have to face and embrace mortality as a way to uncover what living well means for me.

I believe true wellness lives in reconnecting to our true selves and cultivating our relationship to nature. I believe in stillness and self-reflection. I believe that each of us are meant to live a full, authentic, joyful, and meaningful life of true wellness.