Bend Like Bamboo: Simple Joy Leads Amanda From Paralysis To Practitioner

Amanda Campbell's journey from MS diagnosis to becoming a kinesiologist  demonstrates healing beyond the conventional.  The pivotal moment? An evening with friends and family that ignited possibility and revealed a new  path forward through her MS. 

In this episode we hear Amanda's story about her discovery of the relationship between mindset, the nervous system, and physical healing.

Now a sports kinesiologist and founder of Bend Like Bamboo, Amanda helps others transform their relationship with chronic illness.

Whether you're navigating a health challenge or simply interested in the mind-body connection, Amanda's story demonstrates the human capacity for resilience and transformation. As she puts it, "Flexibility in our mindset impacts everything that matters – our body's ability to repair, how happy and resilient we are, and how connected we feel."

Amanda's story might just change how you think about healing, recovery, and what's possible - further information and resources as mentioned by Amanda in this episode can be accessed by visiting bendlikebamboo.com 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:10

Hello and welcome. You are listening to MSMS the Many Stories of Multiple Sclerosis the podcast where we hear stories of life with MS told by the people who are living them, with MS told by the people who are living them. I'm Colleen Daniels, your host, and in today's episode I'll be speaking with Amanda Campbell, from Victoria, whose story is one of courage and transformation. Amanda is waiting to speak with us right now, so let's get started with a warm welcome and say hello, amanda.

Speaker 2 0:43

Oh, hi Colleen, Thank you so much for having me on your podcast.

Speaker 1 0:47

Oh, thank you, and thanks so much for getting in touch and for your feedback on the podcast. It's really encouraging when I hear that the stories shared here are connecting with people, so I really appreciate that. Thank you, and before we get into what life looks like for you today, and before we get into what life looks like for you today, I'll ask, I think, if you can share a bit about your early days of MS and what stands out when you look back for you.

Speaker 2 1:14

Well, I guess we would have to rewind all the way back to when I was 14 and it was experiencing some pins and needles on the left-hand side of my face, and then again at age 19,. So it would just come for a little bit and then it would go away. And it was around the age of 19 that my twin sister, nicole, and I were studying musical theatre and dance full-time, and that was shortly after year 12. Actually, from year 12 we went to, you know, we went to university and we were on a path to study. Either we were either going to move into law or Nicole was always very creative herself and she was moving more sort of into arts, maybe law Anyway. So after a year we just figured life was too short. Because she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease when we were 11 and she had one of the worst cases ever seen back then. She was very, very sick but thankfully, after a huge journey there and a whole nother podcast, she recovered and then we figured life was too short. So after finishing year 12 together, after she had missed five years of school, we um, you know, dipped our toe into uni and that was all fun and great, but we thought life's too short, let's pursue our dream of singing and dancing full-time. And that's what we did, and we started to sing and write our own music, and um took it pretty seriously.

Speaker 2 2:44

And that was around the age of 19 that my pins and needles came back on my face and fingertips and I went to a GP to have it checked out and he said you know, it could be neurological. I suggest you have an MRI. And I had an MRI and the results were inconclusive. They only found one tiny dot and so, true to my nature, I just got on with my life. I fell into the fashion industry, a career I really enjoyed throughout my 20s, which helped me to pay for my music career as well.

Speaker 2 3:19

And it was around the age of 24 that I experienced pins and needles again, and so I was working behind the scenes with some Australian designers in the office and I learned how to be a personal assistant. And you know I was living an amazing life. You know I had a fantastic job, great income and I felt like I could do whatever I wanted. But the symptoms were pins and needles and weakness on the left hand side of my face and body. So I went back to the doctors and they sent me off to have another MRI, but this time I had a specialist, a neurologist to um, who analyzed them and he found uh, I think it was two lesions on the right hand side of my brain and one at the top of my spine.

Speaker 1 4:07

Right.

Speaker 2 4:08

And so, therefore, they confidently then diagnosed me with multiple sclerosis. That's the moment that I was diagnosed, and that was at age 24.

Speaker 1 4:18

24 you were diagnosed and so prior to that you had your sister with Crohn's disease and she'd recovered from that. So that's a huge story, like you say, on its own, and she's doing well now and still. Can I ask that?

Speaker 2 4:35

Yeah, in full remission, just like me. So we're both yeah, very lucky.

Speaker 1 4:39

So that's amazing. Something changed. Obviously you were diagnosed with MS, and how was it for you after the diagnosis, then your MS?

Speaker 2 4:51

Well, from that moment on, everything just stopped and I became stressed and I began to focus on what I didn't want and what I was scared of that might happen. You know, as we do, when we're stressed, we entertain worst case scenarios.

Speaker 2 5:03

And I thought and you know, as we do, when we're stressed, we entertain worst case scenarios and I thought what if you know? I thought, well, what if I end up bedridden? Or what's going to happen to me? Am I going to be able to achieve my dreams, you know, and my goals? Am I enough, am I lovable? All those questions come in when you're diagnosed with degenerative chronic illness.

Speaker 1 5:23

Yes, and your future? It just yes startled me.

Facing Complete Paralysis

Speaker 2 5:27

So I began to focus on what I didn't want and what I was scared of that might happen. You know that I might end up disabled, bedridden or worse. So I worked harder and went out later and disconnected more and more from my mind and body, denying how frightened I felt about my future. Mind and body, denying how frightened I felt about my future. And so, from age 24 to 29, that's what I was doing and I was suppressing how I really felt and that created more destructive energy in my body that led to more stress, that led to more inflammation. And I'm definitely an overachiever. I work really hard and I think I found relief in applying myself to work and I just went on a mission to achieve my dreams no matter what, and I did, but from a very loaded energy that seeked perfectionism and from stress.

Speaker 2 6:20

And so, five years later, my worst fears were realized and the entire left-hand side of my body became completely paralyzed. My face dropped so it looked like Bell's palsy, my arm twisted and it looked like a stroke. My hips, leg and foot completely stopped working on that entire left-hand side of my body, so washing and feeding myself became the most difficult tasks of my day within just 10 days. So that was really stressful. So they send you to hospital for steroids when you're having a relapse like that, and I had three days of steroids but I still couldn't move. So they did five days of steroids but I wasn't responding to treatment. So they transferred me to rehabilitation, another building in the hospital, where I would live for two months. But first I sat in front of another doctor there who then explained that I may never, ever walk again, and that was a tough, tough time.

Speaker 1 7:20

That's not something a young woman wants to hear at all.

Speaker 2 7:24

No, not when she's in the prime of her life. But now, looking back, I realized, you know, I just spent so much of my energy trying to make what I didn't happen not happen, you know, really wanting it to not happen, but placing so much energy and attention towards it and overdid it, overworked myself. And what I know now as a practitioner and the patient is there's many things that cause stress, and it's not just things that you consciously can think about. It's what's going on underneath the iceberg, what's brewing, what we're thinking, what we're believing about ourselves and what can be possible for us, especially when we're diagnosed with an autoimmune condition or any disease. Especially when we're diagnosed with an autoimmune condition or any disease, and when our negative beliefs or thoughts conflict with our goals, it creates a lot of stress. But that's, you know, all the stuff that happens in the background that we don't usually talk about.

Speaker 1 8:17

True, so was there kind of like I'm just trying to understand the point at that time that you saw that that you needed to refocus your energies?

Speaker 2 8:30

Well, first of all, I was just hit rock bottom and I was told I may never walk again. But what I was doing was I was forced to live in rehabilitation in four white walls, sitting still within myself Most of my childhood and growing up. I'm an overachiever and I was working very hard and that was a great way to disconnect from difficult emotions. And I'm sure that my personality was created not just from having a disease, but even before that. You know, just growing up, wanting to be enough, wanting your parents to approve of you. You know Nicole and I were very much into music and arts and creativity, whereas other various members of the family were more, you know, sort of doctors, lawyers. So yeah, just wanting to feel like we were enough and just wanting to be our authentic selves and I think it takes time as we grow up to figure out who we really are and to, you know, to feel enough even when we're different from members of our family.

Speaker 2 9:30

Yeah, so, sitting in rehab I was forced to sit still within my thoughts and in my body and and to look at myself and I just knew that something needed to change. But before I was able to do that, you know know, I sort of just contemplated my life being permanently disabled and went through a bit of a dark night of the soul sitting in my wheelchair with big black sunnies and you know, and the change that happened was a very special day, when you know it was, it was a lot.

Speaker 2 10:03

it was, you know, nearly two months of living in hospital and spending a lot of time alone and except for the three times a day, five days a week that I was in rehab trying to get you know they were giving me these exercises.

Speaker 1 10:18

Yes, the physio To just make.

Speaker 2 10:20

Yeah, I remember just even like the physio was giving me these exercises to just get my hand to open and close, and I was crying and I had tears running down my face because it was so hard. And it was in those moments I knew I had a choice I could give up or I had to change my mind and my approach about what I believed could be possible to get better results.

The Pivotal Moment of Joy and Recovery

Speaker 2 10:42

And so a kinesiologist started to a family friend. A kinesiologist came and worked on me every week and I would go to physio and I started to. I started to improve. But before that part of the story, I must tell you about the pivotal moment of change, which was when a couple of friends and my twin sister came to my room one day and they put me in my wheelchair and we went across the road and we all had dinner together. And getting out of hospital and just feeling normal sitting with my friends at a restaurant brought me so much joy yeah in polarity of.

Speaker 2 11:21

You know the deep despair that I was going through, facing all these really difficult things and not being able to just shower or wash my hair or jump into a car and go somewhere, losing all my independence. I was so vulnerable and so we shared dinner and we were just belly laughing Like we just laughed and laughed like the old days.

Speaker 2 11:42

And I came back to my room later on that night and my toe moved on my paralyzed foot for the first time. And I came back to my room later on that night and my toe moved on my paralyzed foot for the first time and I went oh my God.

Speaker 1 11:51

And it was in that moment.

Speaker 2 11:52

I found hope.

Speaker 1 11:54

Yes.

Speaker 2 11:55

And, as a result, I began to focus my energy differently. I began to focus on what I wanted instead of what I didn't want, which was to get my mind, body and life back.

Speaker 2 12:06

So, that gave me more courage and enthusiasm to relax and open my heart, to be more brave, to fight harder. In my rehab sessions and, like I said, I had a very balanced approach. I had a kinesiologist working with me, which kinesiologists work with the nervous system and the muscles and the organs, using traditional Chinese medicine, and that also helps to work with the brain, the nervous system and firing the nerve pathways up. And that in conjunction with working with an amazing neurophysiotherapist in Melbourne who specializes in getting his clients not just walking but running again. I was just in the right place at the right time, working with the right people and very lucky, and also, I think, with this attitude shift within me and the power of joy which I've also learned on my journey and how healing that can be.

Speaker 2 12:58

Why that is is because when we're stressed, we're in that fight or flight stress response which leads to firing adrenaline, cortisol and inflammation degeneration and your body is trying to keep you safe, so it's going to prioritize those pathways.

Speaker 2 13:14

When we're not firing those pathways and we relax and we belly laugh and we feel safe again, the body then turns to and there's a lot of science behind this and it's all in my book and various people that I quote in it a lot of doctors that have done some research and other people with MS as well. There are many doctors that have been diagnosed with MS that have done incredible research on mindset, nutrition and body work. But when we can relax, we can find growth and repair pathways instead. So maybe that's what happened when my toe moved for the first time, and after that I just worked really hard. I was first in at the gym last to leave and I progressed from being able to sit up. I first had learned how to sit up again. I had to learn how to smile again. I had to learn how to put pegs into holes. I had to learn how to crawl again, and then I had the foot brace because of my gait and then they took that off and they put tape around my knee to then walking again.

Speaker 2 14:15

And those first steps walking on my own were incredible and I managed to walk and run within six weeks.

Speaker 1 14:23

Run in six weeks. That's amazing, that's huge. In six weeks, that's amazing, that's huge, it was.

Speaker 2 14:28

That is huge.

Speaker 1 14:28

It wasn't a pretty run, but it was a run, it doesn't matter, that's fabulous, that's a fabulous story just even up to there. That's a fabulous story right there and like talking about I'm trying to put it together. You know, you talked about the belly laughing and how that brought you such. You know you had all this joy just in that moment of having dinner with your family and then, as a result of that, then you had your toe move, and so there's more joy there, Possibility, belief, yeah. So, oh, look, I can understand that totally and how that could lead to healing. You know, and I guess it's just a concept, I suppose, but it's certainly very possible and I'm definitely open to that because I had a very similar experience myself. But it's crazy, isn't it? It really is crazy and a complete turnaround from that moment for me as well. So, you know, I do understand that and I hope people can connect.

Speaker 2 15:33

These moments are really significant in our lives. They're just beautiful and we're all going to have one or two.

Nutrition, Movement and Repair Pathways

Speaker 1 15:39

Yes, Now you are a practitioner yourself.

Speaker 2 15:42

Yeah, so that led me on a journey to change my career from fashion and, you know, first of all, I came home after being, you know, mobile again, but I still had to lie down half the day, I still had multiple very debilitating MS symptoms and there was more work to be done. Yeah, so the first thing I did was I started to study food nutrition.

Speaker 2 16:02

Okay, what should I eat to maxim maximize repair in my body? And then I found Dr Terry Bowles, who is a doctor in the States who has MS herself, and she created a diet called the Bowles Protocol, designed to maximize repair. And so I went from. Like you know, I was declining prior to that and then so I went from like a plateau. It improved some of my symptoms and I was able to. Rather than declining, I stabilized and some of my symptoms started to subside my fatigue improved, balance issues improved.

Speaker 2 16:44

I had bladder and bowel issues, frequency and urgency, but the paralysis had come good. So I was able to walk again, but I still felt very unstable on my feet. I wasn't strong yet. So I was walking and jogging every single day. But the first thing I looked into was other than movement, was nutrition, and then that also required a lot of research on how to stabilize my gut health as well. So, whilst it was great to increase all these nutrients and eat a lot more because we need a certain amount of fruits and vegetables to get our recommended daily intake of nutrients but when you're in repair or you're stressed, you need even more. But flooding your gut with all of these proteins and vegetables. Oh, I went through hell with that as well.

Speaker 2 17:39

So I realised I had to repair the lining of my gut in order to do that, was that a change of diet?

Speaker 1 17:45

again then to do that repair.

Speaker 2 17:47

It was just tweaking, so for a long time I was eating in one way and it was very different. You do it according to your beliefs and what works for you, and now, as a practitioner, you know it really does need to be a customised approach. Customised approach, it doesn't. You know, a broad way of eating will not necessarily like. Some people are celiacs.

Speaker 2 18:10

Some people you know, need to be dairy-free, some people choose to be pescetarian, some people are paleo eaters, but broadly, all of my studies on nutrition and all of the workshops and courses that I have now are really I was able to, because I studied so many different diets. I learned and saw patterns of common denominators and eating very much a Mediterranean-based diet ticks a lot of the boxes in terms of nutrients that are required for brain and gut health and to repair the nervous system. But that wasn't enough. I then had to. You know, a lot of my really close friends knew that I always had a fascination for energy medicine and, intuitively, was just naturally really good at, you know, connecting with what people needed when they were stressed.

Speaker 2 19:06

And when I found a course of sports kinesiology and started to study it, I then realized that all of my, all of that and the fascination I had with energy medicine and my natural abilities, the method showed me a way that I could, how I could work with people and how that would utilize the skills that I already sort of intuitively had in a way that could actually, you know, for kinesiology for me.

Speaker 2 19:35

It really helped me on a physical level Initially, when I was living in rehabilitation, it helped to wake my nerve pathways up and I managed to repair faster on a physical level. Initially, when I was living in rehabilitation, it helped to wake my nerve pathways up and I managed to repair faster on a physical level. But what I noticed was when my toe moved for the first time and what I was thinking and believing about myself and what could be possible. For once my toe moved and then I had more enthusiasm and courage to be able to put myself out there more. I felt more relaxed and when I felt more relaxed I was able to open my heart.

Speaker 2 20:08

And you know, they're two very important things to look at when we're healing is regulating the nervous system and when we can then relax. We can come out of that fight or flight stress response and we can fire growth and repair pathways instead. But then that leads to you being able to open your heart, and often we're shut down, protecting our hearts from stress and past traumas. And when I'm working with clients now, it's very much about regulating the nervous system and helping them to open their heart again, because we have more electricity in the heart than we even do in our brain.

Speaker 1 20:44

they say Well, that's interesting. I'd never heard that before, and so you talk about opening your heart, and what I kind of hear when you say that my take on that is that you're now kind of giving back like you're giving a service, like you're serving people. You know what I mean? Yeah, yes, you're being like a servant. I suppose is the word A sports kinesiologist yes, I'm helping.

From Patient to Practitioner

Speaker 2 21:12

I've created a program where you know people that are newly diagnosed can have all the information I learnt about resilience, mindset, nutrition, movement, connection, which are my pillars of health just an e-book and a video of everything I learned. Bang, because you know when you're exhausted and unwell, you know.

Speaker 2 21:30

I just don't want people to have to go and find that information and it's all backed by science and there's so much information out there and also the common denominators that I came across and, I think, being of service and helping others with not only what I learned at that point of diagnosis to how, when I was heavily in the need of repair, to also then a maintenance program, but then after that, opening my business, ben Like Bamboo, and my private practice, and also another business that I co-founded called Nourish, which was a nutrition business of Ben Like Bamboo and my private practice, and also another business that I co-founded called Nourish, which was a nutrition business of ready-made meals, and we had investors and we were a startup.

Speaker 2 22:09

I also have developed a program of helping people when they're thriving and they're in a fast-paced environment and are needing to perform on top of their game, because what I learned was all the lessons I learned healing my body also applied to de-stressing and managing my nervous system when I was, you know, thriving in my life afterwards, so it sort of just keeps on growing and sort of reaching further.

Speaker 2 22:34

We just evolved. Reaching further yeah, the journey evolved, yeah.

Speaker 1 22:38

Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it Just sort of? I'm looking at your email now. You talked there about how we can stay, or you've kind of talked about it already but how we can stay stuck in illness despite when we think we're doing everything right. So your technique or your thinking, what would you be advising people when they're in that sort of situation? Because if they have an illness, a condition like any sort of lifelong condition, and they kind of get stuck in it and they're really focused, like you say, and when you're first diagnosed, I suppose that is the time when you're kind of stuck with that thinking. But then you do, you move on with the condition and you kind of get to learn to live with it in a way. But you also get to the point where you really are stuck and you can't get out.

Speaker 1 23:32

You know you're just like this and you kind of think this is me. You become your disease and it does happen. It's sad, but how would you advise people to sort of get through that and to recognize it themselves too?

Speaker 2 23:46

I think the best way of explaining that is an analogy that I use with my clients and something I learned from an amazing um, a doctor, car Carolyn Mies, who has amazing work. I highly recommend her. She came to Melbourne and she did a lecture and I was experiencing some eczema on my neck and I never prior to that had any skin conditions ever before. And you know, I tried all of my techniques and I, you know, even tried kinesiology, acupuncture and all the skin creams and I saw a naturopath and nothing was working. And I went and sat down and I saw her speak and she said this and I use it as an analogy when I'm explaining our state and when we're stuck.

Breaking Free from Illness Mentality

Speaker 2 24:37

You really want to understand the difference between the state of your mind, body and energy when you're stuck versus when you're not. And if you imagine a tall building, when we're on the ground floor of the building, this is where we are when we're stressed A very limited perspective here where we have access to more lower frequency emotions of fear, anger, worry, shame, guilt lower frequency emotions of fear, anger, worry, shame, guilt. When we can elevate our state. And if you imagine going into a glass elevator and going all the way up to the top of the building and you hit the penthouse and you know, on the ground floor we're in a victim state.

Speaker 2 25:15

Everything's happening to us, not for us and we're stuck in those lower frequency emotions and that fight or flight stress response is a response we become addicted to, particularly in our modern day of living drinking too much coffee, watching the news. You know our brain hasn't evolved from fearing running from a predator versus that inner chatter and dialogue that goes on of what we think about ourselves and what people think of us. And so when we come up into that elevator and we can step out into the penthouse with a more elevated state and mindset, we can see all the streets, we can connect all the dots. You connect to something higher than yourself. Here I call it my higher self and it feels like things are happening for me. Here I have more clarity and foresight and vision as I understand the cosmic joke of everything. Now I take myself up to the penthouse when I'm meditating because it's it's a, it's a great practice every morning and night to elevate our energy here, where we can access more elevated emotions of love, joy, forgiveness, compassion and resilience.

Speaker 1 26:32

Okay, and I'm sort of stuck because you used the word addiction and being addicted to that lower state.

Speaker 2 26:42

We can become addicted to the fight or flight stress response, even just with the choices that we make. Drinking too much coffee will fire adrenaline and firing adrenaline when you're already stressed keeps you into that feedback loop of stress.

Speaker 1 26:57

Yeah, and that's kind of a simple way to see it though to see it as an addiction. If you're in that, so it's a horrible place when you're like that, but if you think of it as an addiction, you don't want to be addicted, you know, and I think that I don't know, I think that might be a way of helping people. To see it. It's like you're addicted to that. You're addicted to that bad stuff.

Speaker 2 27:22

Well, it becomes the norm, it becomes so familiar to be in that fight or flight stress response, just that you know, wired and disengaged and disconnected.

Speaker 2 27:30

Let's talk about the fight or flight stress response where we're usually stuck in our heads overthinking using the intellect, not a balance of your intuition and that inner knowing versus the analytical mind which will go into that internal chatter which is often linked to those negative thoughts and beliefs that we have about ourselves that we haven't changed our minds about. So bending like bamboo is about changing your mind about the stories you've been telling yourself when you're younger that really need to be addressed, readdressed and reimagined and put in the bin, because what you're believing about yourself is connected to the biochemistry of whether you're in fight or flight or whether you're in growth and repair, and when you've been diagnosed with a health condition, you want to be firing growth and repair pathways as much as you possibly can.

Speaker 2 28:19

So, simply meditating and journaling and walking and flooding it, nourishing yourself on a cellular level with you know, whole foods are excellent ways of promoting growth and repair pathways instead of survival and stress and doing deeper, whether you see a counselor or you know. For me, I love kinesiology for this, but there's lots of different modalities that help to work with the amygdala and the hippocampus and parts of the brain that can help you to understand what's going on in the subconscious brain and this, you know, is the most powerful way I've found with myself and how I work with my clients that can help to rewire the brain to really, yeah, promote growth and repair pathways and see things from the penthouse instead of the ground floor.

Understanding Kinesiology and Healing

Speaker 1 29:08

All right, okay, so kinesiology you have explained it. Now I'm just not really I'm not familiar with it, quite honestly. So I'm going to ask you again If you could just give a little bit of a rundown. Again, kinesiology what is that exactly Like if I came to see you, if you could just tell me what's the first thing you'd be wanting to know about me, or how would we start? How would you start? Okay, with me as a client, if you don't mind.

Speaker 2 29:44

Yeah well, kinesiology is a modality that takes an integrated approach of mind of your body structurally, your mindset, your body, biochemically, so your hormones, as well as how your brain fires all the biochemistry of your body and nutrition as well and electromagnetically, so your energy and your chi. So if you go and see a kinesiologist you'll probably fill out some forms that will help to identify what's going on with you structurally, any physical symptoms, any body pain, injuries, and what's going on with you biochemically, so what you're eating, what's going on with your hormones, if you've had any issues in any of the glands, like your thyroid, your adrenal glands. And emotionally. Usually we talk about, we address your upbringing and we talk about your mom and your dad, what it was like growing up, and this gives us a really good idea because our beliefs are formed at a very young age, usually when we're in that environment, still living with our families.

Speaker 1 30:57

Okay, so that's a part of kinesiology, all of like your upbringing and everything.

Speaker 2 31:03

Well, kinesiology addresses the body as a whole. So structurally, biochemically, emotionally and energetically we work with the body as a whole and with the acupuncture system and the chakras. They're all linked to all the the different parts of your body and so if you, for example, a person, came with a really sore hip and structurally that needed adjustment, as a sports kinesiologist I do have structural tools that I could use, such as pressure points or what have you, to release that. But what will create a deeper, longer lasting change is addressing the emotions that might have not been addressed. You know, such as worry, for example, in the stomach meridian and the stomach meridian. You know parts of that will run through the stomach meridian, you know parts of that will run through the hips. And then you know, holding acupuncture points that shift the chi will not only create a structural change in the hips but also release that emotion and therefore the stress.

Speaker 1 31:57

That is absolutely amazing. It really is.

Speaker 2 32:00

It is such an amazing modality and I honestly highly recommend everyone having at least one or two sessions. You'll just learn so much about yourself and what's causing you stress, and some of the things that you haven't thought about.

Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Speaker 1 32:12

That's exactly it, isn't it? And there's so many things that most of us don't know about. But as a kinesiologist, obviously you've done a lot of training and you've spent quite some years doing or practising, so you know, and just to sit here and listen to you talk, I can see the benefit there. I can really see that. So thank you so much for explaining my pleasure. So thank you for that. All right, now I do think we probably need to wind up now, amanda, but where can listeners connect with you or learn more about your work?

Speaker 2 32:46

Oh, my website, bendlikebamboocom, has loads of free resources there a full explanation of what kinesiology is and how it can help you in all stages of your healing or whether you're thriving.

Speaker 1 33:01

Ah, thank you so much for that. And one other little thing that I did think, but I didn't ask you. I was wondering if you had like a mantra or a quote or something that sort of sits with you that you've used in your journey along your way. Was there something in particular? Yes, there might be, oh God, yeah, or just one, if you can think of one.

Speaker 2 33:25

Well, it's about the concept of bending like bamboo, and the mantra is flexibility in our mindset impacts everything that matters Our body's ability to repair, how happy and resilient we are and how connected we feel. So it's just how can you be more flexible in your reactions, in your thoughts, in your belief systems? Can you, yeah, just relax more and open your heart and a lot of healing will come in.

Speaker 1 33:52

Oh, thank you, and I can see where Bends Like Bamboo is your obvious choice of a name for your business, thank you. Thank you so much for that. I think we will have to finish up. Thank you so much for that. I think we will have to finish up, and so I will just say that is today's episode of MSMS, the Many Stories of Multiple Sclerosis. Thank you, amanda, for sharing your incredible journey with us and all that you've learned along the way, and thank you everyone for listening. And just remember every experience of living with or close to MS is unique, but we are all in this together and if this episode spoke to you, please share it. Subscribe for more stories if you like, and until next time, take care, and we will keep connecting, one story at a time. Thank you.