A healing space for Mind, Body & Soul
Katie May
I am a mother, radical naturalist, professional Environmental Engineer, and graduate of Leadership and Workplace Conflict Resolution master's program from the Maharishi International University.
Life has taken me on a bit of a ride to find my way here, as we cannot fully understand the pain and joys of another if we have yet to experience them ourselves first.
I have found my way through multiple health issues, stress, and toxicity in the professional world, and healed myself on many levels. The healing journey is never done, however the past couple years I have been called to connect with Reiki energy, my intuition, and embrace some of the techniques that have brought me wholeness over the years, so that I can share them with others as they find their way in life. We are here to help each other find ourselves again.
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"We're all just walking each other home" - Ram Dass
My Healing "Story"
At the age of five I began to experience health issues, small, however my family ignored them believing that I was making them up to miss school. These continued to grow at age sixteen with chronic daily headaches. I ignored my body, relied on medications, and hustled through life. I started at the University of Iowa College of Engineering in 2004, worked three jobs of which I all loved - gymnastics coach, retail, and clinical pediatric research at the University while taking 17-19 semester hours. I barely slept, but I loved it. After my first year of school the headaches were unbearable and experiencing issues with my arms, so I finally sought out medical help and received the prognosis of Chiari Malformation II with damage to my spine resulting in no spinal reflex and partial paralysis of my upper body. I understood the severity, the risks, but I still didn't know how to take care of my Self. I continued to work, take classes, and even pushed my surgery until after Finals. Once finals came, I was in such bad condition, I learned what it is like to be on the razor blade of life and death.
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My first brain surgery was in December 2005, where I also had my first NDE. I chose to live, come back, and live with Passion. For the first time in my life doctors and adults understood the pain I was in. Out of the six thousand surgeries my doctor had performed, mine was the worst he had seen. Part of my cerebellum and ponds were removed. My verbal brain center was damaged, and I came out Seeing and Being in the world differently. Symbols, systems, categories, and the games of the mental mind started to lose meaning.
I began to change, I believed in something greater, but I was still determined to finish school and become an engineer like my grandfather and great grandfather. My NDE showed me I needed to focus on water, and I was driven to 'save the world'.
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My health improved, however I still had issues. It wasn't until I went to Mayo in 2007 that they understood what was going on. I had a complete CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) leak at T7 in my back due to the Chiari restriction and damage. After my second surgery I was finally fixed, or so I thought. Improved diet and self-care kept me alive. But I had a new issue, Intracranial Hypertension (IIH). After years of CSF overproduction to keep me alive, my body didn't know how to function normally. My pressures continued to increase to 38 CCs where you become close to entering a coma, it is here that I would be rushed to the hospital, undergo spinal tap to release the pressures down to 4-8 CC. This happened monthly until finally my doctors refused any more and forced me to hope that pharmaceuticals could keep me alive. They couldn't. I had to save myself. I formally withdrew from school and became fully devoted to my Self.
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I read everything I could on CSF, IIH and the endocrine system. I was doing everything right, but my body wasn't getting better. I still had IIH, high doses of medication resulted in metabolic acidosis, heart, liver and kidney issues. I could barely function, and death seemed the only future.
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The healing realm includes all the tools we need, often over a large chunk of time to allow for us to work through our patterns, contracts, and belief systems, to heal those past parts of us that won't let us be whole, and for us to fully understand what it means to be Human. It took me many years. I found peace, joy, beauty, and health. I was on cloud nine. I saw it all. And I wanted it all.
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By 2012, I had my son and returned to school. I finished my Masters in 2016, jumped into the professional world in Atlanta, and was determined to save the world. I worked hard, learned a lot, and then received my Professional Engineering license in 2020 in the midst of COVID pandemic. The COVID pandemic allowed time for my mind, body, and soul to rest, to reflect and realize that had disconnected myself again and that I wasn't truly happy.
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I returned to my spiritual roots, found balance with the personal and the professional self (i.e., the spiritual self and the one I thought I had to be), and I decided to start being me, taking my time, and enjoying my life.
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