Video excerpt from "MINDFULNESS: Power in the pause" Virtual Class — 06.17.2021
Watch the video to hear Michelle Toth share the story of her journey to living a lifestyle of radical well-being.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
A little bit about me and my story. I started Brilliant Muse many years ago and we started out as providing specialized program management to these large technology clients. I lived in the Bay Area at the time so we were in the heart of Silicon Valley. Super competitive environment, very crowded. You know, tons of traffic, expensive, you know. I was living the life, living the dream, right? Moving and shaking! And the business, you know, it grew really, really, really rapidly, but it has evolved as I've evolved, and by that I mean, you know, I've integrated this Wellness into my life over many years, and I've realized the importance. And seen it show up for me in ways both personally and professionally. Basically, when we feel good we perform better or relationships are better. So that notion of self-care is super, super important. And now with my company, we're infusing radical well-being into everything that we do and it's really becoming part of our DNA. So for me personally, II. I come from a military family. My dad was so super strict and disciplined. My dad was very Type A and I'm also a little Type A, and recovering perfectionist, so I have really for the most part of my life, have lived on autopilot. And just checking boxes, right? So I went to college, I got married. We bought a house, we got divorced. I went back for more college. You know, I had babies. I'm climbing the corporate ladder, you know, starting a business. So check, check, check. Check. And during all of those checks, I was experiencing a lot of symptoms, so some of those symptoms were anxiety and depression. I actually was on medication for years for this insomnia because of all the worry and the anxiety. It was hard to sleep. Plus I was living on caffeine and sugar and also experienced substance abuse issues, meaning I drank wine. I enjoyed it a lot and every night and in large quantities so it became a problem. And that's not, you know it's a depressant, so it's not good for the depression. But that was happening. I also couldn't get pregnant, so I struggled with infertility, and then more recently I was diagnosed with SVT which is a heart condition, and went on medication for that. So. For about a year and I'm not on that anymore and have managed all of these symptoms through these mindfulness practices that we're going to talk about today. Having all of those symptoms, I really started looking for ways to feel better and I've practiced yoga for many years and through that and the community and the people that I've met through Yoga II started studying different practices, reading a lot, and really exploring. Exploring new ways to feel better in a natural way, which really changed my life and so I can say that on the outside I was looking very happy, successful, and all of that. But inside I was really sad... and sick.