As many of you know, after almost three fastidious years of lockdown, masking and social distancing care, I came down with a severe case of COVID in December 2022. In the first quarter of this year, I also started to show symptoms of long Covid. Most significantly it affected my memory, sometimes in hilarious and somewhat tragic ways.

For example– five minutes after I wrote a specific date on the document I could not remember what date I had written or if I had given it out to my students.

I found that I could still teach exceptionally well, but COVID was affecting my organizational brain – a brain that was typically excellent at logistics. 

Long COVID also created fatigue – not the devastating fatigue that I meet in clients – and I know has affected those around me. I know that I have been lucky. But fatigue nonetheless – a kind of dulling of my capacity. It is fatigue that also fed into by the drain and isolation of being a COVID refugee.

So, I took some radical steps for a workhorse like me and initiated a 6-month break from crafting and teaching programs, work that is a great love of my life. 

I thought I would write and report on how this recovery is going, and share some images of my life below.

I reduced my workload to four days a week from the six that I had been regularly working. I put my auto-responder on and restricted my availability to email.

I disappeared into the garden and continued to turn this barren half-acre of earth into something my mother calls, “a plant jungle”.

So, for most of my days off from my working life, this is where I have been, building the microbiome of the soil, growing vegetables, planting flower beds of hardy yet sunny plants because I live in one of the driest places on the planet.

I have planted beds of Australian natives: Grevillias, Kangaroo Paws, and Silver Princess, while bringing back to life 40-year-old roses to their former glory. I have to admit, they do look stunning.  I have also shared some photographs below of my garden adventures. 

It was also obvious to me that I needed to nourish my creative spirit in different ways if I was not going to be writing so much.

🪴So I enrolled in pottery classes. I have built dinnerware and begun to learn the scary art of the pottery wheel. Somedays I feel I don’t know what I am doing, and other days I surprise myself that what emerges from the wheel is a bowl or a mug and not a wet, slimy blob. The clay has become my teacher.  

I have also had infinite snuggles with my fluff-ball-puppy, walked in nature when I have had the energy, and I am about to return to swimming in the currently freezing local outdoor pool. 

All of these things have helped with my recovery from COVID. I do want to add some other things because I know people will read who are also on this journey.

Here are some other things that have helped me:

🌿 The biggest most important things that I have used to address long Covid were very strong liquid herbs created by my naturopath. These included large and strong doses of Oregon Grape Root, Golden Seal, Gentian and other immune-boosting antiviral and antimicrobial herbs. As soon as I started to take these herbs, there was an immediate improvement in my brain function. It was as if someone had turned the light on again. I remain on them.

💊 I also took a supplement called Panaxia Aviix Long which had a blend of amino acids and Traditional Chinese Medical herbs. These also helped immensely.

For the recovery of my energy, I took a very high dose of Ubiquinol, and something to support ATP fuel (which is the fuel generation capacity of cells and the mitochondria within them).

🛏 I also made sure that I slept. I probably could do so with even more sleep. 

Significantly I reduced the complexity of my life, which feels so good, but I wonder if I ever want to return to complexity as it was in the past. I asked for help when I needed it from family and from friends. I accepted when I was not strong enough to dig that hole in the garden, and I asked someone else to do it for me.

👼🏻 Of course, I also worked with my Spirit Team on this experience, especially the energetic component of COVID along with the physical, and they have been brilliant, using all the tools of Spirit Magic.

🙏🏻 Finally, I surrendered even more deeply into the emptiness of awakening. I allowed deep quietness and I listened intently to the spiritual tasks required of me during this recovery. This was not always easy. The spiritual demands were intense yet deeply rewarding. Each time I met the demand there was a significant improvement in my health at all levels. Letting go allowed my well-being to come through the cracks that my surrender created.

🍃 I continued my pre-existing plant-based diet primarily being Vegan with a little wild-caught fish for its oils and protein. 

This combination has woven a successful web of healing around and through me. I no longer feel exhausted, tired after expected effort but not physically devastated or finding it hard to get out of bed. The deep reservoirs that COVID drained are being replenished and my spirit is beginning to feel delightfully nourished.

If long COVID has affected you, you are in my heart. Long COVID ranges from mild to devastating.

May this sharing be an inspiration to you on your own healing journey. 

If you have struggled, healed, or are still wrestling with long COVID or chronic illness please share your experiences and any helpful tips below. We heal together.