#Microbes, Mindfulness, and the Art of Small Attention

#I Didn't Heal the Way I Thought I Would

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For years, I fought to heal like it was a full-time job.

Functional medicine summits. IV drips. Green juice fasts. Breathwork classes that left me dizzy.
Paleo, AIP, low-FODMAP, low-hope.

I tried pills that made me worse and protocols that made me poor.
I tried believing harder.
I tried not caring at all.

Through it all—the flares, the fog, the quiet gutting loneliness—I kept bargaining with the universe:
Just one more thing. Just one more try. Then I'll be better.

I thought healing would come loud. Triumphant. Undeniable.

Instead, it came like this:
A jar of carrots on my kitchen counter, quietly fizzing when I wasn’t looking.

Not a cure.
Not an answer.
Just a reminder: life is stubborn. Life wants to go on.

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#What Finally Shifted for Me

Healing didn’t come from a single breakthrough.

It came from a messy, overlapping, stubborn series of shifts that started working together—finally, imperfectly—instead of against me.

Fermentation was a huge part of it.

I filled my kitchen with jars: cabbage, carrots, kimchi, kefir.
I made SIBO yogurt so potent it could probably apply for citizenship.
I read Super Gut like it was a survival manual—because for me, it was.

I started taking Vitamin D—not because of a lab result—because of life.
I didn’t technically test "deficient," but I knew:
Years of indoor living, screen light, winter slumps.
Every time I spent days outside—camping, traveling, wandering under open sky—my body softened. My skin calmed. My energy hummed back to life.

Hearing trusted voices like Dr. David Williams and Dr. Eric Berg, and learning the crucial role of pairing D3 with K2, I decided to try.
A simple daily commitment: this organic D3 + K2 formula, 10,000 IU, maintenance-level, for a few months.

My brother had sworn by it for years—after it helped ease his own severe psoriasis—and finally, I listened.

I'm glad I did.

I moved more, but with kindness, not punishment.
I slept a little deeper. Ate a little cleaner. Breathed a little more.

It wasn’t glamorous.
It wasn’t overnight.
It didn’t erase everything.

But it was real. And it added up.

#The Microbiome: Not Just Hype

If you're new to this, here's the simple version:

  • Your gut is home to trillions of microbes—a rainforest inside you.
  • Those microbes are in constant conversation with your brain, immune system, even your skin.
  • When your gut is healthy, your resilience, mood, digestion, and healing all get a real boost.
  • When it's wrecked—through stress, antibiotics, processed food, trauma—everything feels harder.

My body wasn’t broken. It was begging for microbiome support.

When I finally listened, the whole map of my healing shifted.

#What Helped My Gut (and My Life)

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Here’s what made a difference for me—slowly, stubbornly, over months:

#Lessons from the Microbes

The biggest lesson fermentation taught me had nothing to do with recipes.

It was about trust.

  • Microbes don't rush. They transform at their own pace.
  • You can't force a ferment. You create good conditions—then you step back.
  • Perfection isn't the goal. Life finds a way—messy, unpredictable, stubborn.

You can't yell at cabbage to ferment faster.
You can't demand sourness on a schedule.
You can only stir the brine, bless the conditions, and trust the unseen work happening inside.

Maybe that's what my body had been trying to teach me all along.

Healing, it turned out, wasn't a war to win.
It was a garden to tend.

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#If You're Tired, You're Not Failing

If you're reading this in the middle of your own long fight, I want you to know:

You're not broken.
You're not behind.
You're not failing because you haven't "fixed" yourself yet.

Maybe you don't need to try harder.
Maybe you need to notice the bubbles you can't always see.

Start small if you want:

  • Add one fermented food to your meals.
  • Sit still for sixty seconds before you eat.
  • Let your breath fall back into your body, just for a moment.

Tiny signs of life are still signs of life.

You don't have to hear the pop of the jar to know the ferment is working.
You don't have to feel perfect to know healing is happening.

You are still becoming.
You are still alive.

And that’s enough.

"Microbes don't hurry. They just become. Maybe we can, too."