How Acceptance has helped me on my MS Healing Journey with Megan Evans EP 146

00:00:00 Chazmith: Welcome to Our Power is Within podcast. I'm your host Chazmith and my mission for this podcast is to inspire you to take your power back and to realize that you are the healer that you have been looking for all along. 

00:00:20 Chazmith: Healing is possible in mind, in body, and in soul. If you are unfamiliar with Jeannie Kulwin, let me introduce you. Jeanie is a stress and mind body coach in LA who has appeared on this show several times. Her work involves not only a specialized focus on mind, body, and TMS healing, but also helping clients transform important aspects of life that feel stuck or overwhelming. Careers, relationships, weight issues, confidence, purpose, life stressors, you name it. You'll find her to be compassionate, action oriented, and results driven. All the things you need in a coach to create meaningful change. Her holistic approach will help you make the changes that are important to you and you'll walk away feeling empowered to continue to create the life that you want. One of the many things that makes Jeannie a terrific coach is that she's been in the trenches with her own health challenges, completely overcoming fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue that left her physically and mentally depleted. Simply put, she gets us. After healing herself completely, Jeannie is now laser focused on delivering fast results to her clients through her one-to-one coaching program, which includes weekly support, consistency, and accountability. So book a free 45-minute call to learn more about her one-on-one coaching program so that you can fast track your results. Go to jeanniekulwin.com to easily book your call. That's J-E-A-N-N-I-E-K-U-L-W-I-N.com. Links will be in the show notes. 

00:01:59 Chazmith: Now for our guest today, welcome Megan Evans. Megan is the founder and creator of the MS Stage and the MS Stage Method. Megan has been living with multiple sclerosis for over 19 years, and after noticing a gap in the support community around MS, she created mindfulness practices through meditation, movement, and sharing stories that helped her on her healing journey and are now proven to help others shift their mindsets around theirs. As an empowerment coach, she helps women around the world with MS become friends with their symptoms, and she is with us today to have a chat around all things she has learned through this 19-year journey. So please enjoy. 

00:02:44 Chazmith: Megan, thank you so much for being here with me today and for everybody who will be listening. 

00:02:49 Megan: Thank you for having me. 

00:02:52 Chazmith: Absolutely. I'm excited. So I was doing some research and just kind of looking a little bit more into your story, and I know that we've had some communication back and forth. And so what I've gathered is that you've actually been living with MS for about 19 years now, and you are on your healing journey and something I read was that for many years that you had this diagnosis, you actually resisted the diagnosis. And then you talk about how in 2018, you had the worst exasperation of symptoms ever and then this really kind of helped you pivot in terms of how you addressed it and approached it and how you supported yourself through this journey. So I think what I'd love to do is learn a little bit about this whole experience and everything from when you first got the diagnosis, why the resistance or how the resistance impacted your healing experience, and then what kind of happened in 2018.

00:03:54 Megan: Okay. Thank you. So I was diagnosed, yeah, it'll be 20 years next February. So it's been almost two decades and I was 24 years old at the time and lost feeling on the left side of my body. So clearly I knew something was obviously wrong. The MRI I got only had one lesion and typically they won't diagnose MS unless you have more than three or more lesions. So it took me about six months to get a diagnosis and I was really into alternative medicine and the doctor told me, it's as if you've had a stroke, you'll likely end up in a wheelchair one day and I was 24, my mom was right there in the room and I said, “No, that's not going to happen”. And we walked out and I never went back to that specific doctor again. 

00:04:40 Megan: I felt that I went on this path of I only have one lesion, I can get rid of it. I know I can do this. I can do it. I can do it. And so I really felt like I fought it. I was also only 24 years old. Let's be real about what that was like in that life, what we were like back then. And I really just felt like I could get rid of it. I felt like I could do all the things. And so I went down a path of homeopathy and acupuncture and all the alternative medicine, which I am a huge fan of, and I still very much believe in and diet. And back then I quit gluten, which back then nobody knew what even, it was not a thing. People weren't talking about being gluten free 20 years ago. Now everybody is or not everybody, but everybody should be. Let's put it that way. So I went down that path. And even then, I stopped, not that I was a huge drinker, but I stopped drinking alcohol at 24 when I was single. And all I wanted to do was go out and meet people. And I was moving between New York and LA at that time and starting my career and going down that road. 

00:05:47 Megan: Yes, I was into all the healthy stuff, but I didn't really accept the diagnosis. I was like, I can do this. I don't need this. And I'll just keep moving forward. And I would always say, and I still do this. So, and I teach this too, that I was diagnosed with MS. I didn't want to own the label. I didn't want to say I have it. I didn't want to go around telling everybody that I had MS. And also, I mean, I was just starting my, like I said, I was just starting my career. I didn't want that to become an excuse for what I could or couldn't do. So I didn't really talk a lot about it, I don't think, back then. And I did not get on MS drugs. I wouldn't. And I had exacerbations over the years. I had probably, I don't know, I want to say five to six and all of them were pretty bad. But my worst one was at the end of 2017, I lost feeling from the neck down and I was in a really stressful time in my life. 

00:06:42 Megan: I was traveling all the time for my job. I was working. I was a personal wardrobe stylist. So I was doing physical work in people's closets all the time and I would travel between, I was living in Nashville at the time with my husband, we would travel between New York and LA and Nashville and I was seeing clients all over the place and hauling stuff for them and in their closets, up on ladders, down on my knees and it was very physical. And my husband and I had also started another company at the same time, as if there wasn't enough going on and we were at festivals every weekend trying to get this, we had a t-shirt, it was like t-shirts and posters and hats and things we were trying to sell and so we were doing that on the weekends at festivals. So it was all a lot of physical work and I was killing myself, to be honest, really and had a really bad exacerbation, lost feeling from the neck down. And was in the hospital bed, literally with my computer, could barely use my hands, but still trying to shop for a client. That's how the level of stress had taken over in my life. And I still was like, I don't want, I wasn't going to make any changes. I was still doing all the diet and the homeopathy and doing all those things, which I thought were all the right things. But I hadn't really done the emotional work.

00:08:04 Chazmith: Yeah. I was going to say, it sounds like you've done all the physical things, but not really addressing the emotional components and then the behavioral components that are driven by our mental and emotional stress.

00:08:17 Megan: Correct. Yes, exactly. So what happened was, my family looked at me in the hospital bed as I'm trying to type this email, which I could barely type with my hands. And I mean, my mom looked at me and she's like, “You have to stop. Like, stop. Seriously stop”. And then I went to a new neurologist who, because I had so many horrible experiences with neurologists over the years, and this woman was so amazing. She's Italian and she's amazing, She was at Vanderbilt and she held my hand. She said to me, “Megan, it's time. You have to get on something. You have to get on something”. Because I had a lot more lesions at the time and I hadn't had an MRI in seven years. And so clearly, I had just been pushing it under the rug and pushing it under the rug and not really listening to my body, which is so ironic because I'm such a believer in listening to my body and I always was and I always did the work of like, I'd go to the energy healer and I would do the affirmations and I would do the diet and I would do all the things, but I wasn't really tapping in on a deeper level.

00:09:22 Megan: And so I stopped everything. I took a year off. I went on a deep journey, deep therapy. I went to therapy and really had to like, really dig into the root of all of this. And then through that, I realized, you know, I had basically been in fight or flight around the MS for 14 years and I wasn't willing to accept it. And I then finally said, I'm willing to get on a drug. And that took me, you know, some deep work to finally say, I'm willing to take the medication. But what I did was the medication, now I take pills, then I took a shot. But whenever I would put it in me, whether it's I take it orally or inject something in my body, I thank it and it's all energy. So I thank it for doing its work. I thank it for working for me and helping me and that was part of the huge shift. And then just realizing that I needed to accept it in order to be able to commune with it, to have a healthy relationship with it and it's what I teach. And when I say accept it, I don't say, “Own the label”, I don't, I still don't say I have it. Because I don't want my cells to hear that and our cells are constantly listening to us to everything we say we think we feel and that's proven. It's science.

00:10:49 Megan: So for me, I say I was diagnosed with it. I sometimes say I'm having an experience with a certain thing today or this or that. But I don't own the label. I still don't. And I'm a huge believer in that. But I had to accept and this is something I teach that it's like it's another entity. It's like its own entity and it's there. It exists. It's real. We can't just sweep it under the rug. It happens for a reason. A lot of times it's our body sending us messages, right? Or telling us, hey, listen to me, listen to me, knocking on the door. Something's going on here and I need your help and our body is really explaining, at the end of the day, our body is really trying to help us. And so when it does have things like this and it breaks down, it's really just saying “You got to do something here. You got to make a change. Something's not right”. And so that was me finally getting the point of going, “Yeah, this is what it is”. And I have to have a relationship with it, a healthy relationship with it. Because I feel like I was just constantly pushing it on the rug, setting it aside, keep going, keep going, keep going. I was just go, go, go all the time. And wasn't really doing the underneath work of all of it.

00:12:06 Chazmith: Yeah. Do you feel looking back that, to some degree it was almost like “I'm going to resist this diagnosis. That's not going to be my life. And I'm going to overachieve and push myself even harder to prove that that's not a part of me” rather than going, “Oh, this is an experience that's happening in my body and that means it's a cry for help and something's not working in my life and transforming your life”. And like you said, that you finally came to do, doing the deeper emotional work to understand why the body might be expressing these symptoms. You almost did the opposite, ignore and show it like, no, I'm the boss. I'm going to do all these things and achieve all this stuff.

00:12:46 Megan: Yeah. It's weird because I kind of did both because I would go to an energy healer and have like a three day session with her and come out and be like, “Oh my gosh, I just had this huge Aha moment”. But like it was glimpses, right? It wasn't like I was consistently staying with the practice. I was even resisting meditation, which is hilarious because I believed in it. I always did and I had all these books. The funny thing is I had all these books in my bookshelf back then, which back then like nobody was like, wait, what? Like Louise Hay and all, you know, all these people that I had all their books like stacked in my bookshelf for ever. I mean, for years and yet I wasn't really doing their work. It was like the book was just sitting on the shelf, you know?

00:13:33 Megan: So yeah, I think that's exactly what was happening. Yeah. It was a matter of learning to feel into my body and really get in touch with my body on a deeper level, not just through emotional work and meditation, but through movement and talking to my body more, talking to my cells. I've been working with a medical intuitive for, I mean, 10 years and she taught me that. And so she was teaching me that before this all even happened, but I still wasn't, I was doing that and I know it helped for sure, but I wasn't really still getting to the bottom of all of it. So yeah, that was my big moment.

00:14:13 Chazmith: Yeah. Now in the process of doing this deeper emotional dive and going to therapy, what did you discover? Were there any big aha moments or epiphanies that you realized your body was begging for or asking you to pivot or shift in your life? And then how did you make those changes?

00:14:31 Megan: I would say my biggest moment was really, I mean, what's coming to me right now was a year ago. I would say actually, was I had a big moment where I realized I was born with an immune deficiency and I realized that I came into the world sick, basically. So my cells have only known sickness. They knew it when I was little and I believe that we come into the world knowing the emotional, like our body, our cells, when we're in vitro, know the emotions of our parents. They know the emotions of our ancestors potentially or whatever, but I believe I came in sort of as a, it's like I was here to be a distraction for other people in my family, I'll just put it that way. And that was a big revelation about a year ago. And so it's like an ongoing, right? Like, yeah, when I, 2018, I had revelations, but then life is continuing to dive deep, right? And continuing to serve and so sometimes those revelations just happen out of nowhere and one morning I woke up and felt that. I was like, wow, I actually feel like I came into this world, like knowing that I was here to distract, like it was like my sickness was their distraction so that they didn't have to deal with their own stuff. So then when you realize something like that, it's like, whoa, I don't need this anymore. This isn't mine to carry. This isn't my story to carry. This was their story to carry that I didn't need to be their savior. So then it actually comes into the, oh, I can accept that because I know that I can deal with that. I can move that through me. So yeah, I think there's always aha moments.

00:16:30 Chazmith: Yeah, definitely. Especially when we're in this kind of journey. So what have been some of the big lifestyle changes that you've made from more of a emotional perspective, if you will. You said you quit your job after you had that really big exasperation in 2018. You took a year off. But I guess, did you discover or learn that there were ways you needed to pivot and shift your life and how you were approaching life and the way you were caring for yourself overall beyond just, like diet and exercise?

00:17:02 Megan: Yeah, meditation. That was the huge shift was like, meditate every single day. Other than therapy, obviously was good. But meditation was better because it really keeps you present all the time and mindfulness, being mindful. So that calmed my nervous system down more than anything. And that was my biggest to-do and that is the biggest thing I changed in my life at that point and still do, I still do that every day. Now I do it even more than I used to. So yeah, I mean, I think that was the biggest shift and just being more present in my day to day. I slowed everything down and then discovered that I really needed to share my story, that I needed to help others in a new way. I was already helping women build their confidence in styling and personal wardrobe. But this was like, I knew that I had a greater purpose and that's what really came through all of that.

00:18:00 Chazmith: So you never went back to styling and wardrobe?

00:18:03 Megan: No, it's funny. I pivoted to, because then the world shut down pretty soon after that, right? 

00:18:09 Chazmith: Right. 

00:18:09 Megan: From pandemic. And so because 2018, I took off. 2019, I started to like dabble in something that I was like, well, “I'm going to combine my styling with my story and somehow figure out a way to do that” and I actually started working with some women who were dealing with different autoimmune, who needed help with their wardrobe because their weight was fluctuating so much and so I was doing that some and then the world shut down in 2020. And I started doing like a little bit of digital, like online styling work with some of my clients who still needed me, but nobody was going anywhere. Nobody was doing anything. Nobody cared about styling and so that's when I was like, no, but I have a greater purpose here. Like something else is really calling me. And I felt it. I felt it in my body. I knew because I grew up doing theater and dance and it was always my escape and I loved it so much. I was a drama dance major. I wanted to be a Broadway director and choreographer and that's what I love to do. And I've missed it for 20 years and it was calling me again. And I was like, there's something in here that I need to figure this out. Like, what am I really meant to do? And that's when the MS stage was born.

00:19:21 Chazmith: Okay. So what is lifestyle like today versus before in terms of what are your primary tools aside for meditation? Because I know that you said that's a really integral part, but what are some of the other kind of non-negotiables in your day-to-day life that you do to support yourself and your wellbeing?

00:19:39 Megan: Yeah. I mean, stretching, exercise, grounding. I live three blocks from the beach so I go almost every day to put my feet in the sand and do some earthing. That's a definite non-negotiable at least a few times a week, if not almost every day. Yeah. Just getting yourself out in the sun too, I think is incredibly important. Sleep is incredibly important. Dancing, I do a lot of movement that's not just exercise. Like, that's not just a typical exercise or yoga, but it's also dancing and movement. And yeah, just being mindful, being present. I mean, that's part of my everyday life, a constant journey of that. So I do emotional freedom technique, tapping. Let's see. I'm trying to think of all the things. Journaling, right?

00:20:27 Chazmith: Do you do this all every day though, or more kind of like as needed, depending on what you feel drawn to in any given day or experience?

00:20:33 Megan: Yes. Every day, I would say, for sure meditation. I dance every day, at least one song in the morning. And my gratitude practice and exercise and stretching. So yeah, all of those are definite every day. And grounding happens almost every day, I would say.

00:20:51 Chazmith: That's awesome. Now, speaking of dance and exercise, I read somewhere that you said that you really believe in the power of using movement on an energetic level for healing. What do you mean by that?

00:21:07 Megan: So I created an exercise called ‘switch’, which is what we do is I play one song and every 20 to 30 seconds, I call out a different emotion so that the women in the group just can move their bodies, however that emotion comes up for them. So you don't have to think what it's supposed to look like, right? But it's about feeling in your body what the emotion feels like when I say the word. So we switch from blame to forgiveness, from anger to love, from resistance to acceptance. So we'll switch all the different emotions in a song so that your body begins to feel what the positive emotions feel like and your cells become happy, right? Because they're like, “Oh, we like joy. We like that one. You know, I have more of that, please. Can I have more forgiveness, please?” So your body can start to be like, “Oh, it's actually possible. Healing is actually possible. I can start to feel that. What does that feel like?” And it's really important. It's really an incredible practice. So that's something I do every day myself.

00:22:13 Chazmith: That's awesome. I really like that. I've never heard of this before. And I feel like beyond the positive emotion, it sounds like it could also be like a really good opportunity to release the other emotions as well. 

00:22:22 Megan: Totally.

00:22:24 Chazmith: If there's any stagnant or stored anger, sadness, or anything, maybe in that expression, it could come up and be released in a somatic way. 

00:22:34 Megan: Yeah, absolutely and that's what that's for. And so what I did was I went back to all of my, like I said, my theater roots and this book called ‘Action Theater’, which I love because I used to do improv and I was a dancer, but I was always into dancing either contemporary or I did a lot of African dance and I did more modern dance. But I was also really into like, I went, I remember going to a class that was for the Alexander technique, which was kind of somatic based. But back then, we're talking 30, almost no, 25 years ago, something like that. So, you know, there was the Alexander technique, it was a little bit of somatic stuff, breath work, you know, some of that was in there. And so I just have all these inspirations from, I've also been doing this Ishtara practice with the woman who's in Salt Lake City. She does online work with Ishtara. And that's, so it's really powerful moving our bodies with emotions. It's important.

00:23:32 Megan: So that's just the warm up exercise of my program. And that's something I teach that I feel is important along with the meditation, all the other things, because it's all about the mind, body and the spirit and getting us into changing our mindsets, right and like getting into the mindful work. 

00:23:51 Chazmith: Yeah, absolutely. So speaking of mindful work, you talk about how our symptoms can become superpowers. And I would love to hear a little bit more of your perspective on this, like how and why that you believe that.

00:24:05 Megan: So our symptoms, I mentioned this a little bit before are there are messengers, right? They're just there to give us messages. And if we look at them, like, what are they trying to tell us, right? It might be that you need to be calmer or, you know, I just want you to slow down. Think of them like, what is their voice? Who do, that, you know, and I lead students through a practice through meditation to name their symptoms, which is really important to name them, to understand their character, to see what they look like, what are they wearing? What are they? You know, what color are their eyes? 

00:24:45 Megan: I mean, you can get really deep with who they are, how old are they? Why are they there? What do they want to tell you? And then when you look at it from their perspective, well, they're just there to guide you, right? So it's like, what are they trying to tell you? And then go, well, actually, that's pretty cool, because they're just wanting to slow the hell down, you know? I mean, and so then it's like, okay, I get that, cool. So then when they show up, it's like, they're just trying to help you out. They're just trying to give you a little guidance and a reminder of like, hey, pay attention, right? Slow down, be mindful. 

00:25:25 Megan: And so I like to think of them like a superpower, because then it's like, no, they're just giving you a little message. And if you look at it like that, then it's a positive that you can be their friend, right? Or they can be your friend. And you can allow them to give you the messages that you need to receive and the reminders, I guess.

00:25:43 Chazmith: Yeah. And it shows, hey, the body and these sensations or symptoms “are not actually against us.” They're actually really there for us to guide. And it reminds me of, you know, some people refer to it, you're saying you refer to it as they and the symptoms, and you give them names and faces and ages and all that. But it's kind of the same how some people approach, like inner child work, where they're just kind of checking out those different parts of that little child inside or the internal family systems where they're actually going into those parts to see, well, are they there to protect you? Or, you know, are they there to put out fires? What are they really there for? 

00:26:20 Megan: Yeah. And ultimately, that's then their superpower, right? So yeah, I mean, I'm a huge believer in that. And it's a positive way of looking at it, right? It's really all about the mindset shift, which is what I teach, because it's not looking at it in such a negative way or being mad at your body, you know, or the woe is me or being the victim of what's going on in your life. It's actually like, no, they're just there to help you. Honestly, our bodies want to help us. They want to be well. Our cells want to be well. They're happy when we're happy, when we're in joy. I've experienced, I had a woman, I did a live talk and I led the switch exercise and a woman was, she uses a cane. 

00:27:05 Megan: But I said, through that, I was playing the song and all I was doing was calling out the words. And these people, most of them were in walkers or wheelchairs and were not moving upright, like they were in their chairs. And most of them just closed their eyes to visualize themselves moving. They weren't even standing up moving. And she said to me after the song, she said, when you said joy, my foot moved three or four inches more than it has in four years. And it was incredible. I was like, wow, I mean, I didn't plan that, you know, but it's amazing what, ourselves and that was just her visualizing what was happening. When she heard the word, her cells literally loved that. And so her foot moved more than it has in four years. And I was like, yep, that's just proof is in the pudding. Right? I mean, there's science to all of this. 

00:28:02 Chazmith: Yeah, absolutely. So now because you also coach and guide people through your programs, you can help others. How do you really connect with what the emotion is underneath these sensations or symptoms? How do you really tap into that?

00:28:16 Megan: Asking them.

00:28:20 Chazmith: You just talk?

00:28:21 Megan: Talking. I mean, you can do it silently. You can do it with your eyes closed, just asking, getting into meditation and talking to them, having a conversation and learning to really talk to your body. And it's not that hard to be honest. I mean, there's a gratitude meditation I lead that people do in the morning as part of their homework in my program. And that's just waking up, learning that, talking to your body, thanking your body, your body wants thanks, your cells want to hear that you are grateful for them and for them, because they are trying to work for you. So they're happy when you thank them. So even if you're tapping in, closing your eyes and saying, thank you so much. I know you are trying to tell me something today. Can you just let me know what that is? Just like, can you just tell me what's going on? 

00:29:13 Megan: And you will get a hit. You'll get a hit of what they want you to know. So even if every day, you just, two minutes of your life, you just say, if the symptoms popping up, you could just be like, hey, please tell me what's going on. Like try to work with me here. Can you please have a conversation with me? I think you need to ask them if they're willing to have a conversation with you first. And then if they say yes, they might say no, they might say no, not today. And then you're like, okay, I'll try again tomorrow. But if they're willing and they say yes, then you can ask them, tell me what I can do to help you too. What are you asking for? What do you need from me? I think that's really important because they are trying to help you, but you need to ask them what they need too in order to get better.

00:29:59 Chazmith: Yeah. Have you ever had anyone who just really struggles to hear and connect with the emotions or feelings underneath the sensations?

00:30:09 Megan: Yeah, I have. But I think most people, once I can get in there with them, then yeah, then we can crack that. So I think, of course, there's tears and there's anger and there's all kinds of things that come up because people are mad at their bodies, you know, and I think a lot of it is or they're sad, they're grieving their old, what they call their old body, right? Before the MS or before whatever illness you might be dealing with. A lot of people are in grieving mode. They're in mourning of what they used to have or what they used to be capable of. But if you can change your mindset around it and say, but we can, we can get there, anything is truly possible. I mean, anything is possible if we visualize what we can create, we're creating our own reality every day. 

00:30:55 Megan: So I absolutely have had people having a hard time, but I ultimately get them there and it takes the 12 weeks of my program to get them there. It's not a quick fix. You know, transformation takes time. And it's neuroplasticity too. We're retraining our brains and our minds and our habits, right? Because habits are hard to break.

00:31:18 Chazmith: Do you generally, when you're helping people who are a little bit harder to crack, like harder to really connect with motion, you know, the message that the symptom is bringing to us, do you find there's generally a theme amongst those people or like a particular reason that might be why they're having a harder time connecting?

00:31:37 Megan: They're in denial, typically, which is, that's not a judgment at all. That just is, that is my experience of who that tends to be. They're in denial of their diagnosis. They are angry at the diagnosis and at their bodies for failing them. And it's just a matter of slowly, but surely chipping away and tapping into it and learning to tap in. And it might take more time than others. And I've had that experience with a woman recently. And now it's like her, she's like a totally new person. It's crazy. So yeah, I think it's just, you know, it takes time, but anything is possible. But you have to be willing to do the work. You've got to be ready to jump in, right? And it's like, it's a leap of faith and you've got to just jump in and go, I need a change. That's the thing. People come to me when nothing else is working. I need a change or I'm frustrated or I'm, I feel lost. I feel, you know, alone. I feel afraid. I'm scared. I don't want this to be my life for the rest of my life. Like something's got to give here. 

00:32:47 Megan: And it's a leap of faith because what I'm doing is totally different. Nobody's doing what I'm doing. So it's like a whole mind, body, spirit approach to healing. And yeah, so I think it's just a matter of saying yes to your body and being willing to step in. 

00:33:05 Chazmith: Yeah. And it's so true that we can, when you first do get a diagnosis or, you know, even without the diagnosis and illness or sickness or pain, that can be like a traumatic in and of itself, especially if it's a diagnosis that the doctor tells you, you're stuck with for the rest of your life. If that's not true, that can be really traumatic. And I do think that's a really important aspect is being able to get out of the… I hate my body. It's turned against me to realizing, no, my body's actually completely for me. And it's just, you know, it's actually helping me. It's guiding me. It's redirecting me. 

00:33:37 Megan: It's redirecting me. It's giving me a message. It's helping me to slow down. But also I want to say that doctors are not God and they tell us something. And it's like, you know, they're going to tell us how they've been trained, right? You're going to end up like this. You're going to end up like that. You know, you might only have this many, amount of years left to live, whatever it is, but nobody really knows that. The only person that can control that is you, honestly. Like your thoughts and beliefs in you and your body and your cells and what you're saying to your body and your cells, that's really what's controlling the whole narrative of the story. So I just want to reiterate to people, like, don't feed into that, right? Like you are your own doctor. You are your own best healer, truly. And your body is your own best tool to healing.

00:34:29 Chazmith: Absolutely. So despite the fact that most doctors believe that MS is the lifelong diagnosis, do you believe that you can fully heal?

00:34:37 Megan: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, if you know Dr. Joe Dispenza's work, miracles happen. Miracles are happening with visualizations and with meditation, with so many things. Yeah, absolutely. I totally believe that. And now I still, do I take an MS drug? Yes, now I do. Do I believe that I'll be on it forever? No, not necessarily. But I'm not going to put pressure on myself one way or the other. I'm just also allowing the healing to take place. I'm allowing, to be in the present moment. And I say every time I put pills in my mouth, whether they're supplements or medications, I thank them for working for me, for doing their best work. And I muscle test myself constantly. So I'm in constant communication with my body, whether it's, I don't need this supplement today or do, you know, asking my body, does this feel right for you? And does it feel, you know, do you like this today? Do you not like this today? So yeah, I'm a huge believer in, “Anything is possible.” So I never say never. And I never say always, I guess. Except with my husband, of course. 

00:35:49 Chazmith: Yeah. No, that's good. Because that's another thing I've personally encountered is putting pressure on myself to heal. Living is possible, but then putting that pressure. So you're transferring the pressure that your body was asking you to not put on yourself. Maybe that was career focused into now healing focused, but the pressure is still there. So it's like just transferring it from one thing to the next rather than actually letting it go. 

00:36:12 Megan: I totally did that. So even 2018, ‘19 maybe, I can't remember exactly. But I did that. I would be like, I found this doctor and he's going to fix me. And so then I would go all in on this protocol or all in on that protocol and kill myself with instead of with work. I was killing myself with all these detox protocols of trying to get rid of this or get rid of that. Or it just, I was finally like, it was really in the last two years through all this meditation, all this deep work that I was like, wait a minute, I don't need all that stuff. That is not what's going to get me to the other side of all of this. Truly what's getting me to the other side is being present, which is so ironic, right? When you think of it like that, it's like, no, what's really going to get you to the other side is listening to your body, being present in the moment and leaning in to what your body feels it needs right now. 

00:37:05 Megan: Not with the doctor. This doctor is not going to be your, fix all, your miracle worker, your cure, whatever. Like you just have to feel into what is your body calling for. That's what I'm a huge believer in. Well, because I've experienced it and I know all the differences because I've been through all of that stuff. 

00:37:25 Chazmith: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So you have a program called MS Stage? 

00:37:30 Megan: The MS Stage. 

00:37:31 Chazmith: Yeah. And so how was that birth? Like where did that come from?

00:37:35 Megan: So it came out of my love of theater and dance. It's when I said that I was feeling the call to get back into that work. 

00:37:43 Chazmith: Yeah. 

00:37:44 Megan: I went into my attic and pulled out all of my old theater books, which I'd been saving for like over 20 years. All my binders from my senior thesis project in college, which I had done, a play in college with six actors, three women and three men. And we had written it out of improvisation, out of what we're talking about, out of movement and improv and speech. And literally that's how I birthed the play. And I went back to that because it was calling me again and I went through, I mean, you should have seen my office was like all this stuff laid out everywhere. My husband was like, what is happening in there? I was like, don't come in. Yeah. And so I mean, hours and night, late nights and everything. And I just, that is how the MS stage was birthed. I was like, I am going to pull together, not just meditation, but obviously meditation is a huge part of what we do. But it was through the movement practices, through the improv practices, acting exercises that actually nobody needs to be an actress or a dancer to take my course. That's not what this is about, but it's about tapping into what you do in those instances when you're trying to come up with a character, right? 

00:39:07 Megan: Like when you're trying to play a character and instead it's being mindful in your own life, in the own character that you are playing in your own life and that your symptoms and the illness, whatever that is, whether it's MS or whatever, what those characters are, what roles they are playing in your life. And so it's really like an investigation of all of that. And yeah, we dance, we meditate, we do mindfulness practice, which is I recreated what Uta Hagen, who's one of the great acting teachers of all time, that came out of her book. So yeah, we do all of these practices to really go on a journey of mind, body and spirit. And ultimately, it's the framework of the MS stage is, I went off of the framework of the hero's journey by Joseph Campbell. So. 

00:40:01 Chazmith: sounds really creative. 

00:40:03 Megan: It is. It is very creative. Nobody's doing–

00:40:06 Chazmith: A really fun approach. 

00:40:07 Megan: Yeah, it's a very fun approach. It's a great way, also, to connect with other women in the community. And–

00:40:14 Chazmith: So you focus on women, right? 

00:40:16 Megan: I focus on women. Eventually I feel like I'll, maybe I'll move into men, but women are where I wanted to start, is what I know best because I am a woman and a lot of women are diagnosed, more women are diagnosed with MS than men. So I wanted to start there and then see where, how it evolved. 

00:40:38 Chazmith: And so this is a 12 week program you said? 

00:40:41 Megan: It's a 12 week program. It's two hours a week on Zoom with me live and small intimate groups. And you have homework and there's teaching, you get your, it's very, you have access to me through the 12 weeks and there's a lot of lessons and teachings and work to be done. And it's, really helps people get consistent with their practice, what their tools that they tap into, what works best for them. And by the end, I mean, the transformations have been incredible. What's happening in women's lives and whether it's a new job, a new passion or their old passion has come back to life that they had left behind, that they forgot that they loved a certain thing or they knew they loved it, but they didn't know how they would get back to it. And they always thought, well, there's no way I could do that. Now I was diagnosed with this. So yeah, it's been really amazing and really profound what's been, what's happened in the groups. 

00:41:41 Chazmith: That's awesome. That's really cool. Is that all you offer? Or do you do any, like one-on-one stuff? 

00:41:46 Megan: So I offer one-on-one for women who've done the 12 weeks. They can do one-on-one’s with me. It's important to me that people do the 12 weeks because that's really what's going to get you to the other side. That's going to get you the true transformation. I do a free mini course that people can take online, which is an hour. There's no reason not to do it because it's only an hour of their time. And there are some incredibly valuable tools in that, like naming the symptom, doing the switch exercise, learning how to be present, getting out of your head and into your body and all of that happens in an hour. So that's amazing. And that's, you can do that. But I do feel that in order to go even deeper with that, you need the live sessions and the coaching. 

00:42:38 Chazmith: Awesome. And where can people connect with you on social media? 

00:42:43 Megan: At the MS stage. And if they want to book a discovery call, it's just the link will be in the show notes for the discovery call. And yeah, my signature program is the best way, you know, I can support women right now with MS and the transformations or have been incredible and you know, for anybody who's ready to make a transformation in their lives, then feel free to reach out. 

00:43:09 Chazmith: Yeah, absolutely. And I ask everybody a final question at the end of the episode. And that question is, if you were told that you could only share one message with the world for the rest of your life, what would you spend the rest of your life sharing?

00:43:27 Megan: The one thing I would say, which I learned from one of my teachers, is to get out of your head and into your body. And in every moment that you can. So if you're stressed, or you're running around, or you're trying to make a big decision, the best way to do that is to just, takes 10 seconds to drop in, take a deep breath, close your eyes, breathe out and say, I and your name get out of my head and into my body and you will immediately feel a shift in your body, you will feel, you might feel tingling in your hands or your legs or your feet or something, but you'll feel yourself drop in. And that is the place that you want to make those choices from.

00:44:08 Chazmith: Love that. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you being here. It's been so fun to just kind of hear a little bit about your story. I feel like there's a lot of fun little perspectives and nuggets that I really enjoyed hearing and I know other people will as well. I love your switch dance. 

00:44:24 Megan: Thank you. 

00:44:24 Chazmith: I wonder, do you have a YouTube channel with a sample of that for people to experience? 

00:44:30 Megan: My Instagram has that and then also the free mini course, which that will also, that link will be in the show notes too. Yeah. So the mini course, I teach it there for sure.

00:44:42 Chazmith: Perfect. There's probably people who want to try that out because it's definitely a new one that I haven't heard before. So.

00:44:47 Megan: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm so thrilled. 

00:44:51 Chazmith: Yeah, absolutely. Friends, thank you so much for being here with us today. I hope you found value in today's episode, regardless of what symptoms you might be suffering from and are healing. If you haven't done so already, please consider leaving a five star review on Apple podcasts to help future listeners tune in so that they can tune into their power of healing too. If you don't already follow the podcast on Instagram, make sure to give us a follow @ourpoweriswithin where we will post intermittent challenges, highlights from all the amazing content shared by our guests throughout the years and so much more. Until next time, make this week great.