THANK YOU for kindly taking the time to visit my JustGiving fundraising page for the British Thyroid Foundation!

I would beam a smile at you about right now....as what you are doing will not only raise more awareness to a condition that affects 1 in 20 people in the UK, it will bring a brighter future for future generations to come because it is a genetic disease...

WHY? 

It is not everyday that you get offered to kill a part of yourself off with radio-active iodine and have to be on medication for life. A treatment I refused, because I would like to keep fighting for my little butterfly Thyroid gland to stay alive.....before it is unaturally given a death sentence in the future, or I am just foolishly hopeful that one day medical research will find a better solution. Not being a smoker or gone through childbirth, I knew my thyroid imbalance was triggered because of the shock I experienced towards the end of last year. With then starting my yoga teaching business 'The Cat Pose' and running my blog, my focus was on work. 

The result of my yoga and meditation practise was to slow most of the symptoms over the month, made me more aware of my body and caused my condition to become livable, as instead of being anxious and an emotional wreck I was still calm and focused. My students will probably tell you they had no idea whatsoever about my condition. But I was not able to rid of heart palpitations altogether, which admittedly is a chemical effect of the hormones and contradicting biological signals in my blood creating a bit of scientific chaos that needed to be corrected. For now, though my thyroid has been the most overactive it can be, I choose to be on blood tests, hospital visits and medication for 18 months that should normalise the thyroid for at least a while after that. I am of course not the only one living with this condition, which will not kill you as long as it is treated, and is by no means as surprising as something like cancer. But it is life's way of telling me how precious living is and what emotional stress as well as shock can do to a person. 

Maybe it's because of the relaxing Zen Yoga I teach, or my decision to live as reasonably healthy as I can manage, but this time round I must have mastered some sort of technique or super powers. Only a few years ago when my thyroid first went out of balance, things were different...having much more hormones than a body can cope with renders one a bit of a walking wreck, crying so easily without actually knowing why, being tired quite constantly after several hours of being awake, having hands that shake to a sexy dance without your permission, experiencing emotional anxiety or negativity as you worry from toenail to toenail, and getting heart drummings that practically want to jump out of your chest when you start a slow paced jog or exert yourself a little more physically. Strangely, I don't feel the symptoms as badly as I did last time, when my thyroid was much less overactive, and even knowing that I am allergic to almost all of the allergens (think grass, dust, birds and everything stopping me from breathing) the hospital tested me with hasn't kicked me into a depressive state. 

Call me lucky or a dramatic looney tune, but I feel happy and grateful to be going through this experience which seem to somehow make me even more certain about the path I have chosen.....for I know that I will be fine, despite the odds. And I am not the only one affected by this condition, so I would like to help others too. After all, what better person to teach others to relax than one who truly knows how to relax and experienced the miraculous benefits it has to offer? I have been lucky to have it first hand as living proof goes, coming to an awareness of what health issues I have to solve in order to live even better, and I am privileged to show others how mindful living can make a difference. With knowledge there will be change, and that's why I am inviting you to help make it a positive change for others by putting funds into research that will change lives. Now, let's celebrate living and breathing!

DONATE:  I would like to humbly invite you to join my fight in helping all the many little butterfly glands out there....please, as a pretty pretty birthday please: 

a. Donate what you can directly on this JustGiving Page (rather than giving me a birthday present), 

b. And/or join me for a Zen Yoga (suggested donation £10) or guided Meditation class (suggested donation £5) and picnic (feel free to bring goodies) in Greenwich Park (London) to celebrate my birthday with me on Saturday 16th May 2015 (about 11am). Or join ALL 3 activities for a suggested £12 donation! More details on the Facebook Event page: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1041697432526785/ 

Thank YOU!

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