For a couple of years now, I have been dealing with some health issues caused by the autoimmune disease Hashimoto where the thyroid gland is gradually destroyed. In this blogpost I want to tell you about my ordeal from being ill permanently, what my home country Germany has to do with it and how I turned my life around.
Back in the dark days of my health struggle
Just 1-2 years ago, my life looked totally different than now, when I was working in a normal 9 to 5 job, which was okay in that period of time, but nothing special. I had a wonderful apartment directly in the centre of cute little Augsburg (my hometown near Munich), had tons of “friends”, partied a lot and just lived for the weekends. But behind the mask I was super unhappy and unconfident with what I had, even though it doesn’t sound so bad to you now. It was just an ordinary life. And I hate ordinary!
But I always had the feeling that my personality doesn´t fit into the “normal German lifestyle”. I was always dreaming about something bigger and better and I felt that there was something out there, waiting for me. My unhappiness arised and my mood was horrible and to make matters worse I got quite ill. Permanently ill. I got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease which is cold Hashimoto, where the thyroid gland is gradually destroyed. What follows are health issues like weight gain, depression, general pain, constipation, tiredness, burning eyes, dizziness and nausea. Especially the last two symptoms were really hard for me… and I was getting crazy from it. Starting every day with a shit physical feeling was just horrible!
Why a panic attack was just the peak of the iceberg
One flue followed another and I always had to struggle with my immune system. I started to eat healthier, went to the gym and tried to avoid stress from work. It helped a bit, but didn´t solve the problem in the end, because the fever (often till 40 degrees) came back and my whole body felt like the one of an old women. In summer 2016 it was so bad, that I got a panic attack mixed with dizziness, nausea, rapid heartbeat, breathlessness and an immense pain in my chest. In that moment I really thought that I am having an heart attack with just the age of 23. They have send me to the hospital, but couldn´t really find a medical solution to help me sustainably. My organs looked normal, my blood test as well. They have asked me if I was dealing with emotional problems or much stress. And I have denied it!
My dad – the little hobby philosopher – reads a lot about how to change your mindset to live a much more positive life, always told me: “Daughter you have to start within yourself. Your bills for medicine and visiting the doctors are higher than the once of your grandma!” And I never believed him that I was ill because of my inner struggle.
Back home from hospital I was thinking about what the doctors and my dad said and needed to accept, that maybe, maybe they were right! My unconsciousness was calling me to wake up and my body started a rebellion that I need to change a thing!
Changing my mindset was the key to health and happiness
In the next month I have focused on finding new goals, changed my lifestyle, way of thinking, the work place and living conditions etc. That was also the moment when my idea of going to Ibiza for a working season was born. Suddenly I had to realize that I was feeling better every day that got me nearer to my restart on Ibiza. Arrived there I was just overwhelmed by the Ibiza lifestyle and felt super comfortable being there. And after a few weeks, I really got the here-I-am-home-feeling on the magical island of the Baleares.
I have spent 6 months on Ibiza, without feeling really bad. Had just a short cold or something which was mostly gone after 1-2 days. I have been in Thailand now for three months without getting ill and ANY kind of feeling bad, tired, unhappy or whatever. Looking back on the last months, from my start in Ibiza till today, I didn´t got really ill like I was before.
Ibiza was also the place, where the idea of working location independent in the future came to my mind. So i have googled a lot to get more information about this and i have bought the interactive video course “Raus aus dem Büro”, that i can highly recommend you to check out, if you understand a bit of german and if you are interested in working remotely/location independent.
Thanks to my travels I am healthy and happy now
When I was calling my mom the last days, we spoke also about that topic. She has to suffer from Hashimoto too and deals since several years now with health issues caused by this autoimmune disease. And during this phone call I told her: “Mom, I think the reason why I got ill, was because I lived in Germany!”
And I don´t mean that the country is bad itself. I mean the bad weather in combination with my unhappiness plus the mindset of most of the people there, mainly of my hometown, who are not really open-minded and too much focused on old traditions and following conservative way of thinking. For people like us, who has to deal with an autoimmune issue, stress and cold weather are not really useful for healing. The circumstances at home built up a construct of hopelessness for me. I needed to escape and get rid of that: ASAP! And I did!
My strong will to finally change something brought me to Ibiza. The work on Ibiza helped me to improve my English skills, which were horrible when I arrived. The impressions from the magical island helped me to build up my good-working social media channels, which caused me to start my website blog in the end. And Ibiza also finally brought me to my new job, where I can work location independent from wherever I want to in the world as a freelance marketer and project manager for DNX. We organize for example the big DNX festival in Berlin and Lisbon each year, which i highly want to recommend to everyone of you who wants to escape from the normal 9 to 5 life.
Here you can get your tickets for the english speaking conference this September in Lisbon: www.dnxfestival.com. Would be super happy to meet-up there with you! And if you use the code: DNX-LISBON-2018-FRANZI you will get 30 € off. In case you cannot join us in Lisbon this year, you can watch all talks from the conference of last year with the help of the DNX video-package (german speaking). The english version is coming soon!
This job also was it, that brought me to Thailand, because i had to chance to go whereever i wanted to go. And Thailand finally has set me free! Because travelling alone to a foreign country, showed me who I really am. No masks, no need to hide. It´s just you, another culture and the new environment. And if you travel you will get inspired by so many new things. People may show you their way of living and what is important for them. Listen to them and learn!
I also used to time to do some yoga and meditation at the beach or just listened to a podcast for relaxation. Thanks to digitalism our world has become so fast, that we sometimes forget how important its is to slow down a bit to redirect the focus again. Awareness and Mindfulness are the keys to a less stressful life! There so many good things out there. It´s time to restructure yourself, your values and beliefs to find inner peace. Take it as a chance, with which you can start over again and build up your live as you want to do it.
Negativity makes ill. A positive mindset is the healer!
I think the reasons why i got sick are a mix of more different components. Like for example the fact that I had to deal with some issues from my past. Family struggles, relationship problems and issues with my inner self. I just swallowed everything down. All the time. If you do your research about how people can get ill from emotional stress, you may also find out that if you “swallow something down all the time”, it´s a safe way to crash your immune system in long term.
Maybe one reason why I always had to deal with tonsillitis and the negative symptoms of my underactive thyroid like dizziness and my really bad immune system. So I highly recommend you to try to deal with problems when they pop up. Accept your lot and face the facts if you don´t want that your past life puts a spoke in your future life wheel. And if your body is under full-time-pressure because of permanent stress, it´s just normal that the body system breaks down some day.
Unhappiness creates pain in your mind, heart and body!
Imagine your body is your motor. And if a car has not been driven for a long time, the potential that the car begins to rust because of that is quite high. But if someone cares for the car and takes it for a ride the potential of rust is lowered. Treat your body as it would be the motor of a Porsche 911, like your holy temple! Love and respect yourself from the in and outside and be grateful for what you have already!
Be like a car that wants to be driven and don´t be too lazy and waste your time on this earth by just watching stupid TV shows. Create something that makes you grow and ride your fucking car at full speed! Don´t be like a pony that is happy to stand confidently in its box waiting for food, even though the door is open, just because the pony is used to get fed. Think outside of the box… maybe there is a nice flower field directly next to your box. All you need to do is just a little step to look around the corner. There so many good things out there. It´s time to restructure yourself, your values and beliefs to find inner peace. Take it as a chance, with which you can start over again and build up your live as you want to do it.
My 6 tips for you to create a much more positive life
Here I am now, planning my year 2018 with loads of new travel destinations, the implementation of my business goals, enough time for personal development and the strong will to live a much healthier and happier way of life.
It doesn’t matter from what you are suffering. Emotional, health, family, financial problems, issues at work or whatever, there is always a way out of the unhappiness combined to these problems, if you just START & CHANGE something.
6 steps I would recommend you for the start:
- See the good in everything! Replace negativity with a positive mindset. Work on that every fucking day!
- Free yourself from people who are not making you happy or serving you any longer. You need to surround yourself with like-minded people, who lift you up, push you to your higher self and support you.
- Be aware and grateful for everything you have (reached) already. List up the three things of the day you are thankful for! Repeat it every day!
- Create something valuable for the world and don’t be lazy.
- Treat your body, your mind and your soul like a temple. Show them respect
- Trust in your higher self and the law of attraction!
It all starts deep inside you!
Even if the change you have in mind is just a tiny little step. No problem! But better make sure, every next step you do is one in the RIGHT DIRECTION. Everybody can lose the right track sometimes, what counts is to push yourself to find your way back. And all good things will follow. And this is a promise!
I still eat too much shit the whole day and do not enough sports but i am working on improving this at the moment. After my mindset change now the body transformation has to follow. Less sugar, more yoga and dancing and more fruits and vegetables is my new challenge for a sustainable change of my immune system.
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4 comments
Hallo liebe Franzi,
ich bin sehr beeindruckt von deinem Lebenswandel und freue mich sehr für dich. Ich habe deine Seite gerade über Laura-Lee’s blogg entdeckt. Schöne Aufmachung und tolle Beiträge hast du hier erarbeitet.
Selbst habe ich ähnliches durchgemacht, wie du es weiter oben beschreibst und der Heilprozess des ganzen Dilemmas war für mich auch, den Schritt ins Unbekannte zu wagen. Zwei Jahre war ich weg aus unseren gemeinsamen Heimat München. Inzwischen schätze ich München und Deutschland sehr. Allerdings bin ich nun bald mit meinem Studium fertig (nach dem Auslandsaufenthalt habe ich meine 180° Drehung von Erzieherin zu Getränketechnologin hingelegt) und möchte nicht wieder in dem Trott gefangen sein den ich schon kenne.
Mal sehen wohin mich mein weiterer Weg führt. Deine Seite habe ich mir auf jedenfall als Inspiration gespeichert.
Genieß das Leben und alles Gute
Jules
Hallo Jules,
vielen lieben Dank für deine lieben Worte und es freut mich wahnsinnig dass dir mein Blog gefällt. Ich kann dich absolut verstehen! Irgendwann wieder im Hamsterrad gefangen zu sein ist meine größte Angst… das soll auf keinen Fall wieder passieren. Daher habe ich mir nun mein eigenes Business im Bereich Online Marketing aufgebaut und coache nun auch Menschen wie dich, die über den Tellerrand hinausblicken möchten und zeige wie man reisen und arbeiten optimal verbinden kann. Ich arbeite mittlerweile zu 100% ortsunabhängig, hauptsächlich im Bereich Social Media und Blogwriting. Falls dich sowas auch interessiert, schau doch auch gern mal auf meiner Coaching Seite vorbei. (https://blog.franzis-footprints.com/coachings) Vielleicht ist das ja auch was für dich. LIebe Grüße und viel Erfolg bei deinem Studium! Franzi
Hi Franzi,
ich find es immer wieder schön und inspirierend zu lesen wie es dir geht und was du so machst.
Deine Veränderung sieht immer so leicht und einfach aus. Um so schöner zu lesen das du genau so wie viele andere erst etwas zurücklassen musstest um dann zu etwas besserem zu finden.
Für mich fing der ganze “Wandeln” mit einem Jahr in Neuseeland an, mittlerweile haben meine Freundin und ich einen großartig laufenden Blog und ganz viele verrückte Ideen out of the Box.
Irgendwann in Thailand oder einem anderen schönen Land würd ich gern mal mit dir quatschen, ist echt schön inspirierendes zu lesen.
Lieben Gruß Julian
Hallo Julian,
super gerne. Wie heißt denn dein Blog? Enjoy your travels und schreibe mir gern mal eine Mail mit deiner Reiseroute vielleicht ergibt sich ja mal ein treffen.
Liebe Grüße. Franziiii