📚 LESSON:

Okay, I just led my call to welcome in November. We called it Design Your November inside the CLUB. And this is a thing we do each month to plan ahead what we want to think, feel, see, do in the month. So that at the end of the month, we get to celebrate what we’ve created and of course, learn from the inevitable bumps that come up as they do with being human.

But anyway, part of designing our November means being intentional and putting some things on the calendar that we know are going to help balance the negativity bias that living with an autoimmune disease can sometimes, I shouldn’t say sometimes, can always bring, right? Our brain wants to remind us of everything that’s going wrong.

And so to get ahead of it, recognizing that November is the start of the holiday season, I offered that they think about three things and I’m going to give you what the three things are to put on their calendar this month to look forward to and to again, um, wrap up the month and look back and be like, wow, I’m really glad I did those things.

✔️ ACTION:

So the first one is something that you know is going to be an amazing memory. So I always think of this with the holidays that there’s more activities around our town happening, um, potentially more family members or friends having get-togethers. So we don’t have to do it all. A lot of times we don’t have the energy to do it all. But what is one thing this month, you want to be sure you do because you know that again, it’s going to be a memory maker.

All right, the second one, what is something you can do this month that is going to be giving a huge thank you to future you. So just asking this question like, what would future you be glad that you did, opens up a new portal into ideas for how to take care of yourself, oftentimes.

So think about that. What could you do this month that may not be what you love to do, but future you would be really glad if you did it.

All right, and now the third one is, what is something that you have been maybe procrastinating on all year. There’s only two months left, but you know, you would feel so proud if you did this thing. If you made some progress on whatever this thing is that you’ve been wanting.

And you notice these are kind of vague because everybody’s going to have different answers that come up. So just trust your gut with your first instinct and write these three, these three things down.

Writing them down is going to dramatically increase the chances that you follow through on them. Um, maybe even get them on the calendar. Maybe, um, set a reminder. You know, there’s so many different ways to ensure we keep the most important thing, the most important thing and not forget about it.

So if this sounds intriguing at all, if you want to be celebrating these three things at the end of November, then I encourage you, try this.

A little bit of the why behind this exercise, if anybody’s interested in the science is these three prompts help us tap into the three parts of happiness that we all need.

I know I am always looking for ways to feel happy. I love to feel happy.

What they do is they help us with progress. Making progress is something that leads to happiness. They help us with pleasure. Just doing things for the sake of doing them and enjoying them leads to happiness. And then purpose. When we tied up to our purpose, we connect to that purpose. It helps us feel happy.

So in case you weren’t quite sure how they were linked, the future you one is the purpose connection. The thing that is likely going to help bring you pleasure is going to be a memory maker in November. And the last one, that thing that you’ve been procrastinating on, that is a way for us to feel the joy of progress.

All right, I know this was a little bit long, but if you’re still with me, then you’re interested and I would love to hear what your three activities are in the comments.

REMINDER: Learning + Action = Change (use the comments for the action & don’t give into the temptation to skip the action part)

READY for more?

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WHY a Daily Dose of Habits for Autoimmune Health? Find out here.

WHAT is The Habit Hub for Autoimmune Health? Find out here.

Plus, I’ve created a Menu of Support to go deeper. Or, press the easy button and schedule a call with me for personalized guidance on your next best step.

Not sure how to credit this amazing image 👆?!

I don’t want you to learn any new information.

Hear me out.

What if you already have enough information to take a step (or leap) towards feeling better?

You’re smart. I know it. And chances are you’ve already spent plenty of time, energy, and money gathering information about how to improve your health.

So here’s a little mindset shift I want to offer you. And you can use it ANYWHERE.

OLD MINDSET: “I need to learn more.” Or “There’s an answer I just haven’t found yet.”

NEW MINDSET: “I need a way to actually USE what I already know.”

Can you feel the difference?

One keeps you searching. The other gets you doing.

And this applies whether you’re reading a book, listening to a podcast, scrolling Instagram, or sitting in a doctor’s office.

My absolute favorite story to make this point involves a longstanding client. Let’s call him Robert.

He’s a neurosurgeon. Smart, right?!

He knows more about the human brain than 99.9999% of people. He holds them in his hands and fixes them.

Not to mention he’s read just about every book written about how brains work.

When I’m coaching him about how to work with his brain to feel better, he often says quietly, “I know, I know.” Or “I teach this stuff.”

My response?

“Good! You DO know this information logically. Here’s the part I see as being helpful for you based on what you’re dealing with right now.”

Because when we’re in our own stuff, we aren’t always thinking super clearly. And it can be hard to remember, let alone use, all the useful information we already know.

So the next time you catch yourself thinking you need MORE information, try asking yourself:

What do I already know that I could put to use TODAY?

That’s a question worth practicing.

And it’s a big part of what I’ll be teaching in my free class, How to be good at autoimmune health, this weekend.

Not just WHAT to do, but a simple system to actually DO it in your real life.

Come join me here.

P.S. To be honest, you’re probably gonna learn some new information, too. What will be different is that you’ll have a way to use it immediately.

Because the HOW is in the NOW.

His book, Atomic Habits, was published in 2018 and it's still on the NYT Bestseller's List.

Almost 30 million people have purchased it.

I'm one of them. And I’m guessing you are, too?

That book (and about 5-8 others) makes up a good bit of the science that fuels my approach to better health with autoimmune disease.

Because habits matter. Absolutely true. 

AND habits aren't enough. 

How do I know?

Because 100% of people who end up becoming my client tell me they have purchased, read, or at least have heard of Atomic Habits and agree with it in theory.

And 100% of them are still want something to be better in their habits, health, and life.

And I know exactly why that is.

I'm very familiar with the gap between what you know you want and actually getting it.

It's because we all need a system, not just random habits that people tell us are "healthy."

👆my note to myself while reading Atomic Habits in 2019.

Can you guess what I've been up to since then?

If you guessed, “creating a system to have the absolute best health possible, especially with an autoimmune diagnosis,” you’d be right

And I want to tell you more about it here: How To Be Good At Autoimmune Health.

It’s a simple system for feeling good AND doing what I can to function at my best.

I've been living this system for over 14 years.

I've been refining, teaching, and coaching others to help them live this system for over 7 years.

Because, as a SMART man once said...

"You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

We all need a system that works even when motivation is gone, energy dips, and real life tries to get in the way.

We all need a system that also works when things happen that are outside our control.

You can build your own system, sure.

Or, you can borrow mine (plus have my personalized support to help you install it into your days).

Join me on November 1st for a free class where I'll be walking you through my system for How to be good at autoimmune health.

I'll be sharing a stories, strategies, and my simple system so you, too, can stop letting a diagnosis run the show.

I'm super curious. Where do you stand with Atomic Habits...

-HEARD OF IT

-READ IT

-IT CHANGED MY HEALTH/LIFE (or at least I'd like it to!)

In my last post, I shared the first of two beliefs that have changed my health and how I live with autoimmune disease.

I wasn’t born believing either one. I’ve practiced them, looked for evidence that they’re true, and over time, they’ve become a part of how I think and live.

The first was Different is good.

Now for the second.

My habits matter.

👆a few made possible by habits.

If there is one thing I wish every single person living with autoimmune disease believed as deeply as I do, it’s this:

My habits matter.

Not because I say they do, but because science says they do.

And once you try this on and start behaving as if they do, you’re going to see it for yourself. You’re not going to need the research because you’re going to have evidence in your real life.

Research suggests that roughly half of what we do each day happens out of habit.

Think about that.

Nearly half of our day.

That is incredible.

Because if habits make up such a large percentage of our lives, they deserve our attention.

My habits matter.

And I’m not just talking about food or exercise.

I’m talking about our inner habits, too.

That’s our mindset.

That’s how we think. That’s how we feel. That’s how we talk to ourselves. Whether we celebrate ourselves or criticize. Whether we assume the best or expect the worst.

These inner habits make up our mindset.

But let’s not forget the outer habits.

My habits matter.

How I eat.

How I move.

How I sleep.

How I rest.

How I connect with others.

How I take on challenges.

You may notice I’m marching through the different spokes of The Habit Hub for Autoimmune Health on purpose.

The Habit Hub is a framework that is holistic, meaning you don’t need a bunch of other frameworks to decide what you can do to feel better and function at your best.

My habits matter.

Your habits matter.

And the Habit Hub gives us the six areas of habits that we can control—the ones that matter: our mindset, food, movement, rest and relaxation, connection, and good stresses or challenges we take on.

Every one of these habits is quietly shaping how we feel.

It’s shaping our energy, our gut health, our inflammation, our confidence, our pride, our resilience, our quality of life.

Habits matter because they become our days.

Remember, roughly 50% of our days are done on habit.

And think about it this way:

A day is really just a tiny version of our life.

It’s a microcosm of our life.

So if I can make today healthier, my life becomes healthier.

If I can make today more joyful, even just for a moment, my life becomes more joyful.

If I can make today more balanced, my life will become more balanced.

When you adopt this belief that my habits matter, we don’t have to worry about changing our whole life all at once.

We instead get to focus on our days.

What’s making up those days?

And how can we slowly but surely add in more habitual actions, more habitual beliefs, more habitual feelings that make those days feel good?

We can do days.

This takes Trusting in the Tiny.

But think about it.

The days become weeks.

The weeks become years.

And the years become our life.

Pretty hard to argue with the fact that our habits matter.

You likely know that I believe habits matter.

But what I’m hoping you hear is that I wasn’t born believing that my habits matter.

It was an intentional choice I made to build this belief, to practice it again and again and again, to find evidence for why it was true, and to let it become just who I am.

Somebody who uses habits to create better health.

Someone who believes that I can use something as small as a habit to create something huge, like a life that is healthy.

And It’s Not Just About Habits

I don’t want to be misunderstood.

I absolutely value my medical care team.

I value the MRIs I get, the testing, the lab work, the infusions for medications that are proven to help with my disease in the long term.

My doctors are all incredibly important.

But even if all of those appointments added up to 20 days a year, what about the other 345 days?

That is where health gets built.

Between the appointments and scans and lab draws and checkups, that’s where habits quietly go to work.

I recently heard a quote that perfectly captures how I think about health:

It’s not up to you, but it’s not not up to you.

How true is that?

No, we do not control everything.

It’s likely that your autoimmune diagnosis reminds you of that every day. I know mine does.

But we control way more than we sometimes give ourselves credit for.

Our habits are where our influence lives.

Not perfect control, but meaningful control.

Intentional control.

One of my clients recently went to her routine doctor’s appointment, and she reached out afterward and said her doctor was thrilled.

Those are the words she used:

“My doctor was thrilled.”

Her numbers were looking better. Everything was moving in the right direction. Her attitude seemed to be lighter, and she seemed to be more optimistic.

And as excited as she was, I couldn’t stop smiling.

Because what the doctor was celebrating had actually been built on hundreds of ordinary Tuesdays.

Tiny habits.

Tiny choices.

Tiny follow-through.

Tiny moments where sometimes nobody else even saw.

But I saw her showing up in the CLUB.

I saw her practicing new thoughts that became beliefs.

I saw her shifting how she was feeling.

I saw her doing those outer habits day in and day out.

I saw her celebrating wins even before they were visible to others.

So that appointment where she got to thrill her doctor?

That was because she believed her habits matter.

Again, we’re not creating a whole ton of health and feel-good moments at those appointments.

We’re creating those on the days in between.

Let’s take those days seriously.

And what makes up to 50% of our days?

Yep.

Your habits.

Your habits matter.

My habits matter.

I’m here to help you show up for those days.

So borrow this belief.

Try it on. Steal it. See what it can do for you.

Practice believing it. Write it down. Share it with someone.

Ask yourself how you would feel if my habits matter were one of your deepest beliefs.

But most importantly, ask yourself:

If I deeply believed my habits matter, how would I show up differently?

What would you do to really own and be proud of what those habits are?

That’s the do part.

Because believing new things can feel really, really good, but we don’t want it to stop there.

We want the beliefs to change how we show up in this world and to change what happens with these beautiful bodies of ours.

Once they become beliefs, the downstream effects of how you feel and what you do or don’t do become really natural.

Because the belief is at the root.

It’s a root-cause approach.

It’s a huge part of how I follow through on helping you make change in a way that feels good, so it lasts for good.

You don’t create a healthier life all at once.

You focus on the days.

First a Tuesday.

Then a Wednesday.

Then another.

And eventually your days become your life.

So if any part of you believes your habits matter—the mental, emotional, AND physical ones—I want to invite you to join me.

Sign up and show up for my free class, How to Be Good at Autoimmune Health.

I’ll teach you a simple system to use those habits to feel better and function at your best.

Because your habits matter.

And so do all those ordinary Tuesdays.

Tomorrow is my 42nd birthday, and today happens to be episode 222 of my podcast.

That’s a lot of twos.

It got me thinking: If I could choose just two beliefs that have completely changed my health and how I live with autoimmune disease, what would they be?

And could I share them with you so you could borrow them, steal them, make them yours, and let them change the trajectory of your health and your life with autoimmune disease, too?

So here they are, yours for the taking.

Birthdays have never really been about cake or parties or presents for me. I think of them more like a personal new year. I use them to reflect, I use them to plan ahead, and I use them as a chance to get to know and interact with past versions of myself and future versions of myself.

And since I’m turning 42 on episode 222, I thought it would be fun to explore what the number two—and specifically 222—means.

I don’t know much about numerology at all, but the number two is associated with balance, partnership, trust, and patience, which definitely speaks to me. I’m always saying that The Habit Hub Approach to autoimmune health is balanced and helps you build self-trust. I love supporting people on their journey, which is partnership. And, of course, patience is never a bad thing when it comes to making big changes in our health.

Even cooler is that 222 is widely interpreted as a message of balance, harmony, and faith. A gentle nudge from the universe to slow down and trust what is unfolding.

You may or may not know, but the entire year of 2025 I decided I wanted to believe that slowing down not only was okay, but actually could be a really good thing.

And let me tell you, setting that as a goal—to believe that—has paid off.

I am deeply enjoying the benefits of going at my own pace and not trying to keep up with everybody else. I’m always finding evidence that slow is smooth and smooth is fast, and pulling up this 222 numerology definition is one of those pieces of evidence.

These ingredients associated with the number two are pretty important ingredients for creating better health. They’re even the exact ingredients of my secret sauce to feeling good.

So I want to share two beliefs that have quietly changed everything for me. Not just how I think about autoimmune disease, but how I live and who I am as a person.

And the part I want to point out is that these were not beliefs I inherited from anybody.

These are not society’s beliefs.

These are ones that I actively chose to nurture, to build evidence for, to shift my thinking from one way—the old way, the more frustrating, draining way, the way that was more dominated by autoimmune disease—to this new way, this health-promoting way, this feel-good way.

I’m not going to say it happened overnight, because it didn’t.

Changing how we think, shifting beliefs—sometimes it can be quick, but sometimes it takes time. And I’ve found the ones that take time are so worth it.

Especially when you feel like you’re doing everything you should be, everything you could be. You’re checking all the boxes. You’re doing all the right things.

But something is missing.

This is likely what’s missing.

This deep belief work at the root of how we feel and at the root of what we’re doing or not doing.

Because our beliefs are our habitual thoughts.

That’s how we shift belief: we think things on purpose. We think them again and again until they become habitual. Our thoughts determine how we feel, and how we feel determines what we do or don’t do.

Our beliefs are at the root of how we experience life and the results we get in life.

So here is belief 1 of 2.

And I’m keeping it short because that makes it sticky.

Three words.

Different is good.

I used to think that being different was something to overcome.

From a young age, we all want to fit in. We don’t want to look different. We don’t want to feel different. We don’t want to have functionality of our bodies that doesn’t keep up with the crowd.

I know for me, I didn’t want to have to admit that I was getting different kinds of support to improve my health—mental, physical, and emotional. I didn’t want to be the only one with a diagnosis who had to worry about how her body was going to work.

And now I think it’s one of my greatest advantages in life.

Not only being willing to be different, but actually finding the ways that it’s a good thing.

Let’s be honest. Most people don’t feel great.

Most people are exhausted.

Most people say they’re just too busy for things they know they want to be doing, things they know would take care of their bodies, their brains, their family.

Most people—even people who are not dealing with a diagnosis that impacts their daily life—are ignoring the better ways they could be taking care of themselves today.

I once heard someone say they’re putting it on credit, and they’re going to have to pay back that debt later.

Because here’s the thing: all of us are aging.

All of us have the same incentive and need to take care of these brains and bodies in a really different way.

So you and me? We may have stronger reasons to be different earlier, starting when we’re younger with these diagnoses.

But that’s not a bad thing.

That’s going to be a good thing.

We’re just ahead of the game.

So many people in my life—and people in my clients’ lives—are aging and getting other ailments and diagnoses. They end up coming to us for our insight, our guidance on how we did it, how we put our health first, how we were different, how we are different.

Which brings me right back to the belief:

Different is good.

I am just done trying to fit in.

After I chose to start thinking this and eventually believing it, it felt so much easier to stop trying to fit in.

My autoimmune disease forced me to become different much earlier than I wanted, in my 20s.

But today I intentionally choose this different again and again.

Different for me through the years has meant hiring a coach. I was the first person in my entire world to hire a coach.

Different for me means working on my mindset, not just my body.

Different for me means paying attention to my feelings instead of just pushing them aside. And paying attention to them really means owning them. Seeing how I have way more control over how I think and how I feel than I originally thought.

If I’m feeling sad, if I’m feeling frustrated, if I’m feeling worried or uncertain, I can see where that’s coming from and I can choose to shift it.

Different for me also looks like, instead of saying I just don’t have time, I make the time.

I prioritize the things that matter most instead of waiting until I have the time.

Different for me means planning ahead, resting without apologizing, bringing food with me places—or, as my husband loves to point out, eating hard-boiled eggs on airplanes.

He doesn’t love sitting next to me in those moments.

But being different in those small ways adds up.

I choose joy on purpose.

I choose to be an orange fish.

Different isn’t weird. Different is intentional.

Different is living in alignment with the life I actually want, not the life I was accidentally creating before I took this different approach.

Paul McCartney once said, “I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird.”

And one of my favorite reminders:

Different habits create different health.

Hey, we could even say weird habits create weird health.

And when somebody has a big diagnosis and chooses to instead feel better and get healthier because of it?

That’s weird.

Weird habits create weird health.

Let’s be weird.

So if you want your health to be different—and by health, I mean how you feel, how you function, how you think—you’re probably going to need to do something different to get it.

And different is good.

So borrow this belief. Try it on. Steal it and see what it can do for you.

Practice believing it. Write it down. Share it with someone. Ask yourself how you would feel if this were your belief.

But most importantly:

What would you do differently if you believed different is good?

What would you do differently in the name of creating your best health?

Because believing new things can feel really, really good, but we don’t want it to stop there. We want our beliefs to change how we show up in this world and to change what happens with these beautiful bodies of ours.

And if any part of you believes different could be a good thing for you, here’s one way to practice it:

Do something different.

Sign up and show up for my free class, How to Be Good at Autoimmune Health.

I’ll teach you a simple system for creating more health with autoimmune disease—and maybe showing up for something different is exactly where you start.

I want to give you an approach to autoimmune fatigue (replace throughout with any symptom, really) that can change how you feel and your relationship with it.

Instantly.

Yes, I said instantly.

And I know that can sound like a lofty goal, especially when we’re talking about something as real and frustrating as real-life autoimmune disease realities. But stick with me, because I’m not promising that your fatigue is going to magically disappear by the time you finish reading this.

I’m talking about something different.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I love teaching about habits—the inner ones and the outer ones. We need both. They’re powerful levers we can pull to feel and function at our best.

And if I had to summarize one of the biggest takeaways I hear from the people I coach, it’s this: I make the inner habits tangible.

I help people take a desire to think differently, think better, or think more positively and turn it into something they can actually practice, measure, and tie to a result in their life that feels a little bit better.

I don’t take that lightly.

I had a client tell me something a while back that I still can’t get out of my head. She said everybody out there—in emails, on social media, at presentations—is talking about how having a more positive mindset is good for us and leads to a better life.

“But Amy, you are the only person who has ever shown me how to do it.”

If I had to be known for one thing, I think that’s it. I want to be the How Girl.

The what we do and the why we do it are important when it comes to better health, especially with autoimmune disease. But how do we actually close the gap between what we know we want to think, feel, and do...and actually thinking, feeling, and doing it?

So yes, we’re going into the land of thoughts and mindset here. But I want to make it tangible.

Simple, even.

Simple does not mean easy.

The One Idea I Want to Remember

This morning I finished a book by Michael Neill called Supercoach. It’s not a new book. I think it might even be 15 or 20 years old, but I recently heard about it and kind of fell in love with his writing style and the concepts and ideas he shared.

Whenever I finish a book, lesson, or presentation, I like to challenge myself with a question—and I encourage my clients to do this too.

It’s impossible to remember all the wisdom and all the gold in those pages, so I ask myself:

If I could only remember one or two things from this, what would they be?

This time, I wrote down one idea that was so good it inspired me to grab my microphone and record the podcast version of this article:

“Every feeling you experience is a shadow of a thought, not a reflection of the world around you.”

In other words, you’re living in the feeling of your thinking, not the feeling of your circumstances.

If you’re one of my clients or CLUBbers, or you’ve been around my work for a while, this may sound familiar. It’s essentially what we call the habit cycle.

Circumstances happen in our lives. Things we cannot control. An autoimmune diagnosis may be one of those things.

But everything that comes after that? We have some level of influence there.

How we think about our circumstances influences how we feel. How we feel drives what we do or don’t do. And what we repeatedly do—or don’t do—helps create our experience and our results.

But I know this can sound abstract when we’re just talking about it.

So let me show you what I mean.

Start With the Weather

Let’s start with something universally accepted as outside of our control: the weather.

Imagine you look at the thermometer and it’s 70 degrees outside. For my Canadian friends and readers across the pond, that’s about 21 degrees Celsius.

Someone coming from Antarctica might walk outside and think, This is so warm.

My best friend Jarred lives in Vegas. If he walked outside and it was 70 degrees, his thought might be more like, Oh my gosh, this feels amazing and cool.

Same 70 degrees.

The temperature hasn’t changed.

The temperature itself is neutral. It doesn’t create the entire experience all by itself. We humans come along, have a thought about that temperature, and that influences how the temperature feels to us.

Okay, let’s make it a little sillier.

Think of a dog.

Maybe it’s your dog. Maybe it’s a friend’s dog. I’ve used this example before, and I’m using it again because clients have told me it helped this concept really click for them.

Imagine a picture of a dog pops up in a group text. This is a real-life example, by the way.

My sister hates dogs. She is not shy about this fact. Yes, she uses the word hates. A lot of people cannot understand this, but anyway...

She sees the dog and feels disgusted. I think she even texted the group something like, Ugh, I hate dogs.

My cousin is a dog lover. She sees the exact same picture of the exact same dog and thinks, Oh my gosh, he’s adorable. I love dogs.

Again, the dog hasn’t changed.

If the dog itself created the feeling, everybody who looked at that dog would have to feel the same way.

But they don’t.

What accounts for the difference?

My sister and my cousin do.

Their thinking about the dog is different. Maybe that’s influenced by past experiences with dogs or a whole host of other things, but the point is that they have different thoughts about the same circumstance, so they feel differently about it.

And if we take the habit cycle all the way through, they probably act very differently around dogs too.

Which brings us to something much less silly.

Now Let’s Talk About Fatigue

If you live with autoimmune disease, chances are you’re tired from time to time.

Fatigue can be relative. It can be influenced by all sorts of things. It can be different from day to day, maybe even hour to hour.

But for this example, let’s use fatigue as our circumstance.

Now let’s look at one set of thoughts about fatigue that I’ve heard from different clients—and I’m almost willing to bet you’ve had one or more of these thoughts from time to time.

Well, I guess this is my new normal.

There’s nothing I can really do about it.

It never budges.

It’s only going to get worse.

Try one of those thoughts on for a second.

Really think it.

How do you feel when you’re thinking that about your fatigue?

I’m willing to bet you don’t feel great. Maybe frustrated. Defeated. Overwhelmed.

Now let’s take the exact same circumstance—fatigue—and try on a different thought.

Maybe you hear something new about easing fatigue and think, Huh. That’s interesting. I haven’t tried that yet.

Or maybe you practice thinking, There could be a different approach I can learn.

How about this one?

Wait. My thinking can influence how I feel and maybe even how I experience the energy I have.

Or one of my favorites:

I can TRUST in the TINY. Tiny changes in how I think, feel, and what I do can make a difference.

Now really settle into one of those thoughts for a moment.

How do you feel?

Maybe curious. Maybe even a little hopeful. Maybe open again.

Here’s the really important part:

Your fatigue hasn’t necessarily changed. But something has.

How you’re choosing to think about it in this moment.

And that matters a lot more than it may seem.

Because What You Think Changes How You Feel And What You Do Next

The first batch of thoughts—the ones that leave you feeling frustrated, defeated, or overwhelmed—are going to lead to very different actions than the second batch.

From curiosity and hope, I’m willing to bet you’ll take different actions. Actions that, if you practice and repeat over time, create the possibility of different results.

This is the point I really want to make:

Someone who believes their fatigue is shiftable stands a much greater chance of shifting their fatigue than someone who has already decided it isn’t going to change or it’s going to be too hard to change.

Not because believing makes fatigue disappear in the moment.

But because somebody who believes change is possible is much more likely to experiment, learn, notice, try, adjust, keep going—and maybe even have a little fun with it.

I don’t think people are using the words fun and fatigue in the same sentence very often.

But maybe we should.

And if you’re still feeling a little skeptical, remember: where does that feeling come from?

Back to the idea that started all of this: every feeling we experience is the shadow of a thought.

So if you’re feeling skeptical that your energy can change, that it can get better, there may be a thought underneath that feeling like:

This will never work.

And if that’s you, it’s normal not to believe something different quite yet.

You don’t have the evidence.

Yet.

Borrow My Confidence

Until you build some evidence for yourself, I’d like to lend you my confidence.

Actually, if you are feel curious, hopeful, and open enough to join us in the CLUB, you can borrow our confidence.

Because this is one of the things I think support can do so beautifully.

You don’t have to know exactly how something is going to work before you’re willing to give it a try.

I celebrate anybody who comes in and says, I’m going to give this coaching-with-Amy thing a try, because it takes a little bit of bravery. It takes leaning into the unknown and being willing to experiment.

I’ve spent hundreds of podcast episodes trying to tell people how powerful, amazing, and even fun coaching can be.

But I love showing you even more.

You learn something new. You try it in your real life. You get coached when your brain tells you it’s not going to work. And you’re surrounded by other people practicing a different way too.

Inside CLUB, I call this the support trifecta: coaching, curriculum, and community.

You don’t have to manufacture all of the belief by yourself.

Sometimes we borrow it until we have enough evidence to build our own.

So, What Are You Thinking About Your Autoimmune Disease?

So here’s what I want you to ask yourself:

What is my relationship with fatigue?

What are your thoughts and feelings about it?

And if you’re one of the people who doesn’t experience fatigue regularly, plug in something else here.

Maybe it’s pain.

Maybe it’s worry.

Maybe it’s another symptom.

Maybe it’s simply not feeling as good as you want to feel.

This same concept can work with anything that feels like it’s getting in the way of you feeling good.

What do you think about it?

How does that thinking make you feel?

And is that relationship helping you move toward what you want—or making it harder?

Maybe today is the day you decide to do something about it.

Not necessarily to solve the entire problem.

Just to make your thoughts about the problem a little bit more useful.

That’s a first step.

There’s a World Beyond Your Thinking

I’ll leave you with one more idea from Supercoach that inspired me.

Michael Neill calls it a hidden truth, which really is another way to say a secret if you think about it:

Your world is what you think it is, but there’s a world beyond your thinking.

I want us to discover the world that lives beyond our thinking.

I’m doing this work every single day in more own life.

I wish I could say that 15 years in to dealing with autoimmunity, I don’t have to keep practicing. That I don’t have to keep learning. That I don’t have to keep spending time in spaces and communities that make this work easier and, ultimately, more inevitable.

But I’m human.

You’re human.

This is something we get to do ongoing, so we might as well find a way to enjoy it.

And I like to channel Quincy Jones here, too. He said he didn’t have problems. He had puzzles.

So maybe fatigue is a puzzle.

Maybe pain is a puzzle.

Maybe whatever feels like a sore spot in your health right now is a puzzle.

And maybe you don’t need to know exactly how to solve it today.

But if your current relationship with that puzzle could use some improvement, take the first step.

I’d love to invite you to come experience this puzzle-solving for yourself, do get a look at a world beyond the repeated, habitual, kinda-stale thinking that we all get caught up in.

Option 1: you and me, on a complimentary call to take the first step (and figure out your next ones after)

Option 2: you and me (and a few friends), on a free class I’m teaching called How To Be Good At Autoimmune Health.

Because there really may be a world beyond your current thinking.

A world where you feel a little better.

A world where you feel a little more in control.

A world that’s a little bit less tainted by autoimmune disease.

And maybe one tiny shift in how you think about what’s possible is where you start.

📚 LESSON:

One of my favorite things about what I teach and how I coach for us to feel better and function at our very best is that this stuff goes way back to ancient philosophers and every day it’s being proven more and more by modern science.

So there is a track record of this stuff working and I get to be often the first person to come in and teach people and walk them through just how powerful this stuff can be.

So today I want to tell you about Marcus Aurelius, an emperor way back in the day as well as a philosopher. And he wrote to himself these words. Now, keep in mind, he never meant to have this published, right? These were just reminders for himself.

He wrote, “When force of circumstances upsets your equanimity, lose no time in recovering your self-control and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.”

I’m going to repeat that last sentence.

“Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.”

Now, I am teaching a class coming up called How to Be Good at Autoimmune Health. And if you’ve already registered, you know that I ask you a question, what is a feeling you wish you could feel more of?

And the reason I ask that is that feeling matters.

What I want to teach you is that feeling, that feeling is habitual. So I’m going to teach you how to bring yourself back to that feeling so again, it becomes more habitual in your body.

“Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.”

So if I had to guess, Marcus would have responded to my question, how do you want to feel more? He would have said harmonious. I want to feel in harmony.

And that’s not that far off from the responses I’ve been getting. Calm, peaceful, joy, happy.

This is possible for any of us, for all of us. Feelings are not reserved for certain people or people without certain circumstances or diagnoses.

Feelings are available to all of us.

And that is what I will be teaching you is how we get there.

✔️ ACTION:
And we have a couple different ways to get there.

Bring your willingness to reroute if your original thought on how you will get there is no longer available or is temporarily offline.

That’s okay. We will get there.

And if you have already signed up and responded, thank you.

And if you haven’t yet, today is the perfect day.

I can’t wait to spend a little bit of time with you, hear from you, and teach you the skill of how to be good at autoimmune health.

RESOURCES mentioned:

📅 How to be good at autoimmune health | A free class to learn a simple system to start feeling better & to keep functioning at your best.

READY for more?

Upgrade to paid to keep your Daily-ish Doses of Habits for Autoimmune Health coming.

WHY a Daily Dose of Habits for Autoimmune Health? Find out here.

WHAT is The Habit Hub for Autoimmune Health? Find out here.

Plus, I’ve created a Menu of Support to go deeper. Or, press the easy button and schedule a call with me for personalized guidance on your next best step.

*Note: I pulled today’s dose straight from The REST Project that is happening right now inside CLUB Habit Hub. It’s our monthlong focus on making REST a consistent part of life (and learning to stop beating ourselves up for needing it).

Photo credit: my beautiful client who sent me this from her walk, knowing my love for finding the beauty in slowness.

📚 LESSON: Have you ever heard of slow living? It’s actually part of a larger slow movement that started with slow food in Italy in the 1980s and eventually expanded into all kinds of areas of life.

And the idea isn’t do everything slowly. It’s more about living deliberately instead of reflexively rushing through your life. Which sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

Um, so many of you are probably like, yes, Amy, I would like to slow down. Or for me, it was not about necessarily wanting to slow down. It was wanting to love the fact that I was slowing down.

In some ways, I needed to. In some ways, I didn’t have a choice. So it was a lot of embracing it for the beauty that it was and not, um, adding any layers of shame or guilt to it.

So if you are in any of those camps, either you want to slow down, um, but find it hard, or you have slowed down, but are beating yourself up for it, you’re in the right place.

A couple of years ago, I found John Mark Comer’s book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. I know you guys have heard me talk about it before.

And I planted a belief seed because that is what I do when I notice there is something I want to believe. And I want it to be deep in my soul that I believe this thing. And I invite you to do it too.

So the belief seed that I planted is, it could be possible that slowing down is not a bad thing. It could even be better than not slowing down.

And so planting that seed, I went out looking for ways that it was a good thing that I was getting to slow down.

And notice I said a couple of years ago, that was my belief that I started to practice and patiently nurtured. Back in January of 2025. It’s almost 2027. I have been working on this for almost two years and I can tell you, it’s so worth it.

Because without doing the inner work, actually changing what we believe about hurry, productivity, getting things done, missing out on things, I think a lot of us, maybe you, no judgment. Think slow down is a really nice idea.

Again, without actually changing the way we think about slowness and the way that we, the pace with which we live our life.

So one of Comer’s points that has stuck with me is that is perhaps the most famous words ever written about love is in the Psalms. And it’s, I think the number one verse that’s read at weddings. And it starts with love is patient.

Not anything else. It starts with love is patient.

So think about who you are when you’re in a hurry. Are you more patient, more present, more loving, more likely to be the version of yourself you want to be?

Or are you a little more irritable, impatient, snappy?

Remember when we talked about our rest tells at the beginning of this project, many of you, if not most of you, said irritation and impatience comes up a lot. And that tells us, you know what? I’m maybe not feeling rested.

So that’s pretty interesting, right?

We don’t slow down just because slow sounds nice. Let’s embrace maybe slowing down because there’s a good chance it can help us feel more rested.

And slowing down might just have us liking who we are better when we’re not rushing.

But this can’t only be inner work. We need the outer habit too.

And one of the most practical ways I’ve found to practice slow living is by looking at our margins, our space between activities, our space between events, leaving 10 minutes earlier than we think we need to.

Not scheduling things to happen right on top of each other. Giving ourselves more time than we think we could possibly need. Leaving white space in our calendars. Stop treating every 15 minutes like it’s something that needs to be filled.

Because if we’ve packed every minute back to back, we’ve basically designed hurry into our day.

So margin can feel uncomfortable at first. Your brain may say, but I could be getting something else done.

Perfect.

Again, there’s our inner work again, a chance to practice that belief seed that slow and spacious could be a good thing.

We don’t become unhurried people because we read a book or listened to this five-minute rest project lesson.

Again, I planted this seed years ago and I’m still practicing it and it’s worth it.

✔️ ACTION:

So maybe today you plant or water your seed around the pace of life that you want to live. And again, this is personal that you want to live.

And here’s what I want you to share. So let’s engage a little bit.

Where do you habitually feel hurried?

And where could you add a little margin?

Maybe five minutes, 10 minutes. Remember, trust in the tiny.

Let’s see if a little more margin helps us not only do life differently, but feel more rested while we’re living it.

I have a feeling we are going to reap the benefits and so are the people around us that we love.

REMINDER: Learning + Action = Change (use the comments for the action & don’t give into the temptation to skip the DO of the DAY)

READY for more?

Upgrade to paid to keep your Daily-ish Doses of Habits for Autoimmune Health coming.

WHY a Daily Dose of Habits for Autoimmune Health? Find out here.

WHAT is The Habit Hub for Autoimmune Health? Find out here.

Plus, I’ve created a Menu of Support to go deeper. Or, press the easy button and schedule a call with me for personalized guidance on your next best step.

Do you wake up already exhausted...then spend the day trying to survive until bedtime?

Living with an autoimmune diagnosis means fatigue can feel like the symptom that runs your life. Coaching people with a wide range of diagnoses, I even call it “the symptom that binds” them all.

You dread the morning alarm. You push through work and adulting responsibilities, only to have nothing left to cook dinner, exercise, play mahjong, or love on the people you love.

You fall asleep on the couch at 7 p.m. You say no to plans you actually wish you had energy for. You wonder, Is this just how life is now?

And after trying pricey supplements, diets, doctor visits, medications, and every tip and trick the internet throws your way, it’s easy to start believing this is simply your new normal.

It can feel like you’ve lost part of yourself.

But here’s something I want you to hear:

Fatigue may be common with autoimmune disease, but common does not mean normal.

And while some parts of fatigue may be outside your control, there is probably more influencing your energy than you realize.

Even better?

Most of those things are absolutely within your control.

First, A New Way to Think About Fatigue

When we hear the word fatigue, most of us immediately think of physical fatigue. And sometimes that’s exactly what we’re dealing with.

Physical fatigue can be caused by all sorts of things. Inflammation. Poor sleep. Hormones. Medication side effects. Nutrient deficiencies. Damaged mitochondria. Even just the sheer energy cost of living in a body that’s working harder than others without a diagnosis.

As a doctor of pharmacy turned autoimmune health coach, and someone living with autoimmune disease myself, I absolutely believe those things deserve attention and support.

But over the years, I’ve noticed most people struggling with fatigue aren’t just physically tired.

They’re mentally tired.

They’re emotionally tired.

And the tricky part is that both of those can leave you feeling pretty darn physically tired, too.

Fatigue is layered. Physical fatigue can add to mental fatigue. Mental fatigue can add to emotional fatigue. Emotional fatigue can make physical fatigue feel even heavier.

They all play together.

At first, that can sound like terrible news.

“Wait. You’re telling me my fatigue isn’t caused by just one thing?”

Probably not.

But I actually think that’s GREAT news.

If your energy were controlled by only one thing, you’d be stuck looking for one thing to fix it. That’s a lot of pressure.

Instead, there are dozens and dozens of small opportunities to support your energy—and you can start taking advantage of some TODAY.

This is worth repeating:

It’s great news that fatigue has many causes because it gives us many opportunities to improve it.

You don’t need one giant breakthrough. Although, don’t get me wrong, we won’t turn one down if it comes along.

Instead, you get to feel how powerful a handful of tiny shifts can be when they are all pulling in the same direction.

Type #1: Physical Fatigue

Let’s start with the one we all know.

Your body feels heavy. Simple tasks feel harder than they should. You wake up tired even after a full night’s sleep, or you hit a wall in the afternoon and never quite recover.

It can feel like everyone else plugged their phone in overnight and woke up at 100%, while yours somehow charged to 27%.

If you’ve ever thought, “How can I be this tired this early in the day?” you’re not imagining it.

But while some of the things influencing physical fatigue may be outside your control, many of them aren’t.

Physical fatigue isn’t only influenced by what is happening to your body. It’s also influenced by what happens for your body each day.

What you eat. How you move. How you sleep. Whether you add in intentional rest. How much stress you’re carrying. The boundaries you set. The people you spend time with. Even the way you think.

All of those everyday habits can either drain energy or help create it.

And this is actually one of my favorite things about habits:

They give us more levers to pull.

Maybe you can’t control having an autoimmune diagnosis. But you can change up your evening routine to support better sleep. You can eat a fuel-filled breakfast more consistently. You can take a short break to move your body in a way that feels good. You can prioritize rest before your body forces it upon you (easier said than done for many of us, I know). You can ask for support.

You can upgrade your habits. And it’s worth figuring out which ones and how, because your habits matter.

Type #2: Mental Fatigue

Your brain is an energy-hungry organ, and it turns out thoughts burn fuel just like bicep curls do—especially the thought that leave us feeling worse about our health and our life.

Mental fatigue isn’t only about having too much to think about. Sometimes it’s about what we spend all that thinking on.

Living with autoimmune disease can unintentionally train us to become experts in what’s wrong. We pay attention to symptoms, lab values, side effects, what isn’t working, what used to be easier, and what we’re afraid might happen next.

Some of that is necessary. Some of it helps us make smart decisions and solid plans for the future.

But if we’re not careful, our diagnosis can slowly become the main character in our story. It can take the wheel and start driving our life.

Brains get really good at scanning for evidence that we’re getting worse. That our body isn’t working. That nothing helps. That this is simply how life is going to be now.

Those are heavy thoughts to carry around all day.

This does not mean your symptoms are all in your head. Far from it.

It just means where we place our attention matters.

Again, brains get really good at finding evidence for what we are thinking. If we’re accidentally spending our time and energy thinking about the diseased parts of life, it’ll go looking for problems, symptoms and what’s going wrong, and it’s sure to find plenty of them.

But there are other things to notice, too.

Possibilities. Strengths. Health. Progress. What’s working? What your body can do. What might still get better.

The goal isn’t to ignore the hard stuff. It’s to make sure the hard stuff isn’t getting all the attention.

And this isn’t toxic positivity.

It isn’t pretending the hard parts aren’t there.

It isn’t looking away from the hard parts.

It’s looking through the hard parts to what else is possible.

Because alongside your diagnosis, there is still health to appreciate and health to create. There is still strength to build, joy to experience, and a whole lot of life to live.

When I shifted from focusing almost exclusively on managing disease to intentionally creating health, life just got better.

Not overnight. Not magically.

But slowly and steadily, my energy, my hope, and my sense of control started coming back. And that, my friend, feels good. I want that for you, too.

Type #3: Emotional Fatigue

Mental and emotional fatigue are close cousins because thoughts create feelings. And the thoughts we practice most often tend to create the feelings we live in most often.

For a lot of us with autoimmune disease, those feelings are uncertainty, frustration, overwhelm, guilt, fear, or a lack of control.

Because we’re human.

There is a lot that comes with living in a body you can’t always predict. There can be uncertainty about the future, frustration with what your body can or can’t do today, disappointment when symptoms change your plans, guilt when you need help, and grief over things that used to feel easy.

That’s a lot to carry.

After my own diagnosis, I realized I wasn’t only grieving my health. I was grieving the version of me who could run ten miles without thinking twice about it.

And because so many of us are achievers, helpers, and problem solvers, our instinct can be to push through. Keep going. Keep functioning. Keep smiling.

But ignoring an emotion doesn’t make it disappear. It can keep running quietly in the background, using energy the whole time.

One of the most fascinating things I’ve realized in my quest to become an expert on all things habits is that feelings are habitual, too.

If we’ve spent years feeling overwhelmed, our brain gets pretty darn efficient at taking us straight back to overwhelm. Same with fear, uncertainty, frustration, even feeling out of control.

Our bodies get comfortable there. But comfortable isn’t always comfortable, sometimes it just means familiar.

And here’s the part I love: once we accept that feelings are habitual, we can make it a habit to feel more of the ones that actually feel good.

I think of this as next-level habit work.

What would it look like to get better at feeling hopeful? Proud? Peaceful? Confident? Joyful? Grateful?

Not all day. We’re humans, not robots.

And not because we’re pretending the hard parts don’t exist. We’re just changing things up so we don’t have to live there full-time.

Which brings me to what I think is the most helpful way to put all three types of fatigue together.

Start Thinking Like an Investor

You know the saying health is wealth?

I think we should take that pretty literally.

Think of your energy like a bank account.

All day long, you’re making deposits and withdrawals.

Some things put energy into your account. A good night’s sleep. A meal that fuels you. Ten minutes outside. Moving your body. A conversation with someone who gets you. A thought that leaves you feeling hopeful instead of helpless.

Other things take energy out. Poor sleep. Food with ingredients you can’t pronounce. Pushing past your limits. Saying yes when you really want to say no. Spending an hour thinking about everything that could go wrong.

And then there are what I call the hidden fees.

These are the sneaky little energy drains we don’t always realize we’re paying for: overthinking, letting health overwhelm you, clutter, too many decisions, unfinished decisions, scrolling, comparing, worrying, arguing with what is. The list is long.

A few dollars here. A few dollars there.

And suddenly you look at your account at 3 p.m. and wonder where all your energy went.

This is why I like thinking like an investor instead of someone who is just trying to “fix fatigue.”

An investor isn’t looking for one magic deposit.

An investor looks at the whole account.

Where am I making deposits?

Where am I making withdrawals?

Where am I paying hidden fees I don’t need to keep paying?

That last question can be a big one.

Good Investors Diversify. Energy Creators Do, Too.

A good investor wouldn’t put their entire retirement account into one stock.

Yet we do this with our health all the time.

We decide food is THE answer, so we pour everything into food. We chase the perfect diet, remove more foods, add more supplements and keep tweaking.

Or we decide exercise is the answer.

Or sleep.

Meanwhile, other parts of our health are sitting over there waving their hands, hoping we’ll notice them.

This is why I don’t think about autoimmune health as one thing.

I think about it in six parts: mindset, food, movement, rest, connection and “good” stress.

These are the six places to upgrade to habits that can help us feel and function better.

Six areas of lifestyle that we can control. Or at least influence a heck of a lot.

Perfection is not necessary. Instead you have six different places to look for opportunities.

Maybe another food rule isn’t your best investment right now.

Maybe improving your sleep would pay you back more.

Maybe you’ve got movement pretty dialed in, but the way you’re thinking about your health is charging you hidden fees all day long.

Maybe what your body needs most isn’t another thing to do at all. Maybe it’s rest.

Maybe it’s an important relationship that’s worth your focus.

Maybe it’s time to take on some “good” stress—setting a big goal to challenge yourself and see yourself get stronger.

This is why I wish I had a crystal ball that could tell you exactly what every habit is worth to you.

But I don’t.

Nobody does.

A ten-minute walk might feel like a $1 deposit for one person and a $10,000 deposit for someone else.

For me, making a morning stretch a habit was a much bigger investment than I ever would have guessed before I tried it.

And sometimes the return on investment surprises you.

You start a habit because you want more morning energy and suddenly you’re sleeping better, feeling more confident, having fewer cravings, or feeling proud because you’re keeping promises to yourself.

I think of those as the good kind of side effects.

And then there are the penny habits.

The tiny things that don’t feel like they’re doing much at all.

One extra vegetable.

Five minutes of movement.

Going to bed ten minutes earlier.

One different thought.

One no.

One deep breath.

One text to a friend.

It’s easy to dismiss those because we’re looking for the $100,000 deposit.

But pennies add up.

And, more importantly, they compound.

That’s how real wealth is built.

And I think that’s how a whole lot of real health is built, too.

So Where Should YOU Invest?

This is the question I want you asking instead of:

“What else should I be doing?”

Because when you’re already tired, you don’t have unlimited energy to throw at every possible healthy habit.

And more isn’t automatically better.

What if instead you asked:

Where will the energy I have available to me right now give me the best return on investment?

Maybe that’s food.

Maybe movement.

Maybe rest.

Maybe connection.

Maybe it’s the season to take on a “good” stress.

Maybe the biggest return is going to come from your mindset—your mental habits that nobody else can see.

Eventually, we want to diversify. We want habits supporting us across all six areas.

But we don’t have to do all of that today.

We just need to figure out where your next deposit is most likely to pay you back.

Your Next Step: Find Your Best Energy Investment

And that’s exactly what I created my free quiz to help you do.

The quiz looks across the six parts of autoimmune health—mindset, food, movement, rest, connection and good stress—and helps you identify the area most likely to give you the biggest bang for your energy-buck right now.

Not forever.

Not because the other five don’t matter.

Just your best place to start.

And I’m not going to give you a result and send you on your merry way.

You’ll also get a gift from me based on your result to help you turn what you learn into something you actually use to change your energy, your health, and your life.

Because knowing what to do and actually following through on it are two very different things.

We’re not trying to collect more health information around here.

We’re trying to turn what we know into habits that pay us back.

Again and again and again.

Take the quiz. Find your best energy investment. Make your next deposit.

You don’t need to do everything. You just need to know what what you can do next to not let fatigue be your new normal.

If today’s the day you want my help to think, feel, live better with autoimmune disease:

🎧 Listen to my podcast, Autoimmune Health Secrets (here’s an episode I think you’ll love).

🧡 Explore my Menu of Support to get a taste of having me as your coach.

♣️ Ready to invest in what matters most? Join me inside CLUB Habit Hub.

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I’d love to hear from you. Ask a question or share a takeaway in the comments.

Want to sharpen your consistency skills in the name of better health with autoimmune disease? I’ve got you. Join my Consistency Challenge and never “start over” again.

Love being here on Substack? I’ve got a Daily-ish Dose of Habits for Autoimmune Health that’s calling your name.

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Part of why it’s felt so vulnerable is because I never want someone to read my words and use them against themselves. I never want someone living with autoimmune disease to think I’m saying their symptoms aren’t real, that this is “all in your head,” or that the losses and grief that come with chronic illness somehow don’t matter.

I’m not saying any of those things.

What I am saying is that the way we think about our circumstances—the way we perceive them and talk about them—can either help us or hurt us.

And that matters.

I’ll be sharing a little about my faith, which isn’t something I always lead with because I truly want everyone to feel safe and welcome here, no matter what they believe. But if you’ve spent much time with me, you know that connection to a higher power is part of the Connection spoke of The Habit Hub for me. It’s one of the tools I use every single day.

As you read this, you may find yourself challenged. You may even notice a little resistance.

That’s okay.

Maybe just stay curious and ask yourself one question:

Am I willing to see a blind spot? Am I willing to see something differently than I have before?

Because for me, being willing to see something differently changed my life.

It changed my health.

There’s Something Different About You...

People ask me some version of this question all the time.

“Amy, how do you have such a good attitude when you’ve experienced very real loss and devastation?”

Or they’ll simply say,

“There’s just something different about you.”

The truth is, I’m really not that different.

I’m not a superhuman.

If there is something different, it’s probably this: I’ve become willing to explore perception shifts instead of treating every thought that enters my brain as objective truth.

That willingness has changed everything.

And I truly believe it’s available to all of us.

A Definition That Stopped Me in My Tracks

If you know me, you know I’m an avid reader. I love buying books. I love holding them in my hands. If we’re ever on Zoom together, you’ll probably notice shelves full of them behind me—not to mention the piles tucked into every nook and cranny of my house.

Years ago, I kept seeing people reference A Course in Miracles. I always found the conversations interesting, but I never actually picked it up.

Then I came across Marianne Williamson’s A Return to Love, which is essentially her reflection on A Course in Miracles. I’ve always loved her writing and her prayers, so after seeing it recommended yet again, I finally ordered it.

Very early in the book—I think maybe even in the introduction—I read one sentence that completely stopped me in my tracks.

A miracle is a reasonable thing to ask for.

I remember thinking...

What?

Because when I heard the word miracle, I pictured something huge. Rare. Impossible.

Maybe it’s the scientist in me.

As a pharmacist, miracles always felt like something extraordinary and medically inexplicable. In fact, if you look up the textbook definition, you’ll find something along the lines of an extraordinary and scientifically inexplicable event attributed to supernatural intervention.

Maybe that’s why I’d always kept miracles at arm’s length.

I didn’t want to hope for something that, by definition, felt impossible.

But this definition...

A miracle is a shift in perception.

That was different.

Because perception is simply the way we’ve come to see something. It’s a belief. An opinion. A conclusion we’ve reached based on how we’ve experienced the world.

That suddenly felt possible.

The Story I Had Accepted

By that point, I had several autoimmune diagnoses. My multiple sclerosis was described with words like progressive, chronic, neurodegenerative, and likely disabling.

Those are heavy words.

Without ever consciously deciding to, I had accepted another belief right alongside them.

I believed my health would inevitably get worse over time.

I believed my life would always be a little worse than it could have been without autoimmune disease. Maybe I’d always have less energy. Less joy. Less possibility.

Looking back, I understand why I believed that.

On paper, it made sense.

But after reading that definition of a miracle, I found myself wondering something I’d never seriously considered before.

What if that didn’t have to become my reality?

What if the miracle wasn’t that my diagnoses disappeared?

What if the miracle was learning to see my health differently?

What if I could see my diagnosis differently?

What if I could see my future differently?

That question changed everything.

The Miracle I Started Asking For

After that, I started asking for a miracle.

Praying for one.

Wishing for one over and over again.

Not a cure.

Not different MRI results.

Not that my autoimmune diseases would somehow disappear.

Instead, I found myself praying something much simpler.

Help me see this differently.

Help me see this diagnosis differently.

Help me see my health differently.

Help me see what is still possible.

And here’s the coolest part.

The miracle came true.

Just not in the way I expected.

It wasn’t like flipping a switch.

Instead, it came gradually.

I started changing my habitual thoughts. My habitual beliefs. My emotional habits. My perceptions.

Because I’m me—and because I love habits and behavior change—it actually made perfect sense.

I realized perception is something we practice.

Thoughts become habits.

Beliefs become habits.

Ways of seeing become habits.

And because they’re practiced...

They can also be changed.

Maybe some miracles happen instantly.

I actually think perception shifts sometimes do happen that way.

I’ve experienced that.

But many of my miracles happened gradually through practicing new thoughts over and over again.

Tiny shifts.

Tiny beliefs.

Tiny reframes.

Around here, we say TRUST in the TINY.

This became one more place where that proved true.

One Miracle Opened the Door to Many More

That first shift—from seeing only disease to also seeing the possibility of health—opened the door to so many other miracles.

I’ve regained function.

I’ve learned to manage my mind.

I’ve learned to process emotions differently.

I’ve learned to intentionally create more of the emotions I want and spend less time in the ones I don’t.

I’ve learned to change my perception of symptoms.

I’ve even learned to change my perception of painful experiences from my past. A devastating divorce. Family situations. Losses. Stress.

Those things didn’t disappear.

But today I can look back at them through a completely different lens—one that serves me instead of keeping me stuck.

Honestly, I thank God the miracle came to me in this form.

Because now it’s a skill I get to use everywhere.

Not just with autoimmune disease.

With relationships.

With disappointment.

With uncertainty.

With life itself.

And it’s become my life’s work to help other people discover that same possibility.

Learning to Question My Thoughts

One of the biggest changes this created in my life is that I stopped treating every thought that entered my brain as if it were an objective fact.

We do this all the time without even realizing it.

We think things like, My health is getting worse. My life will always be harder. I’ll never have the energy I used to have. This diagnosis is a bad thing. This should have never happened.

Sometimes those thoughts make perfect sense.

Of course they do.

But now I’ve learned to pause and ask myself a few simple questions.

Is this thought useful?

How else could I see this?

What’s a more empowering belief?

What belief here would help me create more health and happiness?

That moment—that tiny pause between the thought and believing it—is an opportunity for a miracle.

A shift in perception.

I want to make this tangible, so let me share a few examples of what this has looked like in my own life.

One thought I used to practice accidentally was, My body is failing me.

Today, I practice believing something different.

My body is communicating with me. It’s asking for support.

Another thought that quietly followed me around for years was, My life will never be as good with this diagnosis.

Today, I practice reminding myself that yes, my life is different.

But different doesn’t automatically mean worse. Different can be really good.

Another old thought was that my diganosis was happening to me—that my diagnosis was simply a threat.

Today, I ask a different question.

What if it’s actually a challenge and the reason I become healthier?

Can you feel the difference between those old thoughts and the new ones?

None of these new thoughts erase reality.

They don’t pretend autoimmune disease is easy.

They don’t deny grief, frustration, fear, or loss.

They simply open the door to possibility instead of closing it.

To me, those are miracles too.

What the Science Says About Perception

Here’s the part where I get to bring in a little science.

I first discovered researcher Kelly McGonigal through her TED Talk, and later through her book The Upside of Stress.

Her research suggests that the way we perceive stress strongly influences how stress affects us.

Notice that word again.

Perceive.

If we believe our health or our diagnosis is only a threat—if we believe it means our life is permanently less than, or that we’re powerless—our bodies respond one way.

But if we begin practicing thoughts like:

“This is hard, but I can rise to meet it.”

“This challenge is asking me to grow.”

“I can support myself through this.”

“I can become healthier because of this experience.”

Our brains and bodies respond differently.

That doesn’t mean we ignore reality.

It doesn’t mean we invite positivity to the table.

I still grieve.

My clients still grieve.

We still have frustrating days.

We still acknowledge pain and loss because they’re part of being human.

But beauty is part of being human too.

So is hope.

So is resilience.

So is growth.

The difference is that we stop reinforcing beliefs that leave us powerless. We stop acting as though we have no influence over our experience.

Instead, we begin asking a different question.

How do I want to meet this challenge?

Threat or Challenge?

One of the biggest shifts I’ve made is changing the way I think about challenges.

Human life comes with them.

Nobody promised us an easy ride.

For many of us, autoimmune disease may be one of the biggest challenges we’ll ever face.

But maybe the goal isn’t eliminating every challenge.

Maybe the goal is learning to use that challenge instead of allowing it to use us.

To use challenge energy instead of threat energy.

To create more health with disease.

Maybe even because of disease.

That single shift has changed the way I move through my life and my work in the world.

A Tiny Experiment

I’d love for you to spend a few minutes reflecting on one question.

How are you currently perceiving your health and the stressors that come with it?

As threats?

Or as challenges?

Just notice your answer.

Then, if you’re willing, write down one or two threat thoughts you’ve been repeating lately.

Maybe they’re things like:

My body is broken.

I’ll never feel better.

My future will always be less healthy.

Now, beside each one, experiment with writing a new thought.

Not fake positivity.

Not pretending everything is okay.

Just a thought that creates a little more possibility. A thought that feels just a little better.

Maybe it’s:

My body and brain are capable of change.

I can learn skills that support my health.

I can influence my experience.

I can create more feel-good days.

I can become an exception to the rule.

Tiny counts here.

Actually...

Tiny is the whole point.

I’ve been doing this work for more than fifteen years, and threat thoughts still show up in my mind.

The goal isn’t to eliminate them.

The goal is to notice them sooner and gently practice a thought that serves me better.

That’s how new perceptions are built.

That’s how miracles happen.

My Miracle

There’s another quote from A Return to Love that has stayed with me.

“Thought is cause. Experience is effect.”

Those words remind me so much of the “inner habits” I’m talking about to anyone who will listen.

Whether or not you agree with every part of that statement, here’s what I know to be true.

If I don’t like the effects my thinking is creating...

That’s somewhere I can begin.

My diagnoses didn’t disappear.

My challenges didn’t disappear.

But my perception changed.

And because my perception changed, so did my experience.

That became my miracle.

Maybe your next miracle isn’t waiting for your circumstances to change.

Maybe it’s waiting for one TINY, better-feeling thought.

What next?

If this gave you something to think about, don’t rush past it.

Pick one idea.

Sit with it today.

Notice what happens.

Real change rarely comes from one big breakthrough.

It comes from tiny shifts in how we think, feel, and act.

That’s why I created my Daily-ish Dose of Autoimmune Health here on Substack.

A few minutes most days.

One idea.

One simple action.

Because better health isn’t built all at once.

It’s built in real life, one TINY thought, feeling, or habit at a time.

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📚 LESSON:

Common sense does not equal common action. Or another way to say this is common knowledge does not equal common action. So, I saw a study today that 2% of Americans have optimal omega-3 levels. 2%. So, I’m going to skip the temptation to go into all the ways omega-3 has been shown to help these brains and bodies of ours thrive.

Our hearts, our cognition, our vision, inflammation. There is so much goodness that comes with omega-3, which we can find in foods, which we can make a habit to consume to get those levels up.

I bet you if I asked 10 people on the street, they all would know, “Oh, omega-3s would help me feel better. They would help me live a healthier life. “ But how many people? And if we go by this percentage, it would be maybe one. Maybe one person is actually making it a habit to get those levels where they should be.

So, this is just one example. I bet you everybody knows that strength training can be something that can help our bones, our muscles, our brains, our cravings, everything. Um, there are just endless habits that we know with our brains would be good for us, but there is a huge, huge gap between common sense and common action.

✔️ ACTION:

So, that is a little bit of learning for the day.

Let’s pair it with action so we can start to see and feel the change. Today’s action isn’t even to change anything, but instead to identify one thing that is common knowledge, just one, that you have not yet made common action, that you have not yet made a habit, that you have not yet incorporated into your life in a way that feels so good that it’s just who you are.

Again, we don’t even have to do anything with it yet today, but share what it is. Again, it could be food, it could be movement, it could be mindset, it could be something with sleep or rest and relaxation, it could be relationships.

I would love, love to see what is on everybody’s mind when I ask that question. So share it in the comments. That’s our action today. Is to share one thing that maybe common sense, common knowledge to you, but you haven’t quite yet made it common action, um, enough to really let it have the power that it can have in your life and in your health.

Okay, meet you in the comments.

REMINDER: Learning + Action = Change (use the comments for the action & don’t give into the temptation to skip the DO of the DAY)

RESOURCES:

🔗 Research from the CDC on Omega-3’s

🎧 How to turn common knowledge into common action

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