Project Description
Brucks, BC, Canada
“I was dealing with the loss of my wife’s legacy; that she wasn’t going to be able to do the things that we had planned on doing. We weren’t being able to, she was not going to be able to see her grandkids and to be able to experience those experiences. So my guilt was coming from that place. I’m now able to get past that guilt and look for the things I can work with. I have a better idea of who I am. As I work with those pieces, I become comfortable with them. I’m not trying to get rid of those pieces but I’m trying to understand them and I’m trying to learn how to live with them and have the capacity to move forward.”
Improvements with: Grief, Survivor’s Guilt, Caregiver Burnout, Childhood Trauma, Low Energy/ Chronic Fatigue, Frozen Shoulder, Difficulty Walking/ Flexibility, Arthritis, Edema, Heart Healing, Inflammation, Self-Identity Redefining, Unhealthy Lifestyle Habits.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Grief. The Brucks who came here was he was pretty sad. | Brucks is still a pretty sad dude, but he was kind of in a pit of sorrow and he didn't see a way out of it. And now there's a lifeline, there's a set of tools I have to get out of that pit if I want to. |
| Dealing with Survivor’s Guilt and how it affects your whole outlook. | We brought that up and we're able to dig deeper and see where that's coming from because the guilt isn't anything in and of itself… I'm now able to get past that guilt and look for the things I can work with… And I'm trying to learn how to live with those pieces and have the capacity to move forward. |
| Self-Care was lacking. I tend to put other people's needs first and I don't tend to focus on self-care at all. Brooks that came here, his diet was not great. He was eating out more than he'd like. I was not taking care of myself and as I know I could and should, and have the tools to do. | I've realized that it can be a detriment if I don't address it, so I need to have a plan in mind to take care of myself properly. Even in the middle of a crisis, I can be dealing with that and yet still making sure I'm eating properly and getting the rest, the exercise, the meditation, the whatever it is that I need to keep myself healthy so that I can continue to do the things I like to do and want to do. This was just a wonderful refresher, a wake-up to say, oh yeah, that's right you can do these things and then to have the capacity to learn new things. There are a lot of skills and recipes that now I have. |
| Time to Think and Remember that Life Goes On. | It me just sitting by the ocean, just reminds me that as life goes on, it goes on… It gave me the capacity to stop, to stop long enough, to stop long enough to realize that I'm OK and that even if I'm not OK, it's OK to not be OK. And that kind of realization allows me to start looking for a longer view and to start putting some ideas out of what I would like to do, and what I'd like to be. And even if I don't get there, that's all right. |
| Childhood traumas. Going through some therapy and other body healing, I realized I have, I still have a lot of just trauma from being as a child. | I realized that I need to continue working on the traumas and that I can get help to work with those. |
| Low Energy - I was lethargic. Sometimes I’d sleep for 3 hours, sometimes for 10 hrs, and I would still wake up just really fatigued. | My energy is much higher than when I came… I slept most nights 6 to 8 hours and just woke up before my alarm went off and I was just ready to rock and roll. So that's a really big difference. |
| Low Drive - .I did not have a sense of drive because I felt that the future was so nebulous. I couldn't really focus on it and I didn't have much reason to really look for a future. And this has woken me up. | I feel awake and I feel that I can find some reasons to do things. And there are lots of reasons. I've got huge lists of things to be grateful for and that's going to give me drive and hope, to allow me to carry on. |
| Exhausted Physically and Not Able to Pull Myself Onto the Shore or Move Forward - I was struggling to get out of a boat to the shore. I was trying to work on my health, and I felt like I couldn't get there. | It's going to be a long road to get back to a place where I'm fully charged but this is like a watershed moment where you can kind of build a bit of a beachhead now… Being here allowed me to get out of the boat, to get onto the beach, to build a little bit of a flat space where I can put up some shelter and figure my stuff out. And now I feel like I can kind of go off into the woods and see what's out there to see. |
| Multiple knee, ankle and foot problems. I had some arthritis in my feet, knees and ankles. A year ago I could walk manybe a hundre and fifty feet without pany pain, and I had to go upstairs kind of sideways. | I don't have as much pain in my feet. My shins, my quads, my everything is firing better. They're pulling in line. And just a general lack of inflammation is down, too, which is a huge thing. |
| Edema in knees and feet. I had really puffy bottoms of my feet all the time. My knees always had a bit of edema because I had really bad injuries. | The edema on my knees is gone. It’s huge. |
| Frozen Shoulders and stiff hips | My shoulder is moving freer now than it was. Both shoulders definitely have more mobility just doing the stretching, yoga and other things. My hips are moving more freely, too. |
Experience Highlights:
- Group support: Everybody wants to be here and wants to get better. You’re all pulling towards a similar goal. If someone’s having a bad day and you’re having a great day, then you can go alongside that person and help them however you can and vice versa: I had a really hard day and someone just came up to me and just said hey, you look like you need a hug. That makes a big difference, and you know you’re not alone in your struggles.
- Walks, especially to Goose Spit in Comox, getting to the big beaches
- Yoga and morning meditations – and I never meditated in any way before
- Non-judgement: I think we all have a lot of struggles one way or another and it’s just so much easier when someone comes alongside you and tells you it’s OK without judgment and without any kind of shame and says, here’s another way to do this.
The information above is based on the following resources:
- Unedited Video Testimonial Materials
- Before and After Self-Assessment
- Program Participation and Progress Sheet
- Before and After Emotional Wellness Tests
Disclaimer : Results of participants differ and the Fresh Start cannot guarantee that you will experience your improvements in the same way as in this testimonial. The Fresh Start is not an allopathic medical facility and does not claim to either diagnose or treat any disease. The Fresh Start does not guarantee a recovery from any specific disease or a health symptom.
