Your Wellness Team Isn’t Just for When Life Is Good

Something unexpected came up with my health recently, and I’ve gone back and forth about how much of that story I am ready to  share publicly. Part of me wants to keep it private until I know more, and part of me knows there is something useful in naming the experience while it is still unfolding. I’m not ready to offer all the details — and honestly, I may never need to. What I do want to share is what happened inside me when uncertainty entered the room, because I think it says something important about why building a wellness team matters, not just for maintenance, but for the moments you don’t see coming.

The First Thing That Hit Me Wasn’t What You’d Expect

I received a copy of a medical report for a test I had done. While I don’t understand it all and still need to discuss it with my doctor, what I did get from it is the possibility that a biopsy might be a next step. What threw me for a loop here was that my mind didn’t immediately go to what the results might mean. It went straight to one word: needle.

Why does that word trigger me? If you don’t already know, I have a needle phobia. I’ve had this reaction since I was little, though for most of my life it was brushed off as a dislike. It wasn’t until I started counselling in my thirties that someone gently named it for what it was: not a dislike, but a phobia — and helped me understand the difference. For anyone who hasn’t experienced a true phobia, it isn’t a preference or a dislike — it’s a full-body response that happens before your rational mind has any say. In me, it looks like this: my body tenses and tears come. I’ve made real progress — I no longer hyperventilate the way I once did — but when time passes between needle experiences, the reaction can still take a step back again.

I share this not for sympathy, but because it’s a really honest example of something I talk about often: the way our mental and emotional state shows up physically. My phobia isn’t in my head. It’s in my whole body. And navigating a health unknown while also managing that phobia means I need support across every layer of myself — not just one.

The Moment I Noticed the Cue

Here’s the part I’m a little disappointed about — and also genuinely proud of.

It took reading that report for me to start reaching out to my team. Part of me wishes I had been more proactive, that I had sensed something earlier and started the process before I was triggered. But the other part of me — the part that has been doing this work long enough to know better — recognises that catching it at all is the win. I noticed the cue. I didn’t push it down or wait to see if it would pass. I started booking appointments. And I’m also staying open to the possibility that this may show me I need another kind of support too. It’s too early to know what that might be, or whether another modality will become part of the plan, but that’s another reason having a team matters. A team isn’t static. It can shift, expand, and adjust as you learn more about what you need.

That’s what having a team makes possible. When something comes up — whether it’s a health scare, an emotional trigger, or a season of life that feels heavier than usual — you don’t have to start from scratch while you’re already overwhelmed. The relationships are there. The trust is there. You may still need to adjust the support around you, but you’re not building from nothing. You’re reaching for something that already exists.

Looking at All Three — Mind, Body and Spirit

When I started thinking about what I needed, I moved through it the same way I help others do in my sessions — across all three layers.

Physically, I’m booking a massage and checking in with my chiropractor about whether changing to a weekly appointment for the time or keeping every two weeks makes more sense right now. My body holds stress, and I want to stay ahead of that. My doctor is leading the medical side and will guide the next steps from that perspective. I’m also connecting with my homeopath — not because I know exactly what she can offer right now, but because I trust her knowledge deeply and want to hear what she thinks. There may be support that helps with other symptoms I’m navigating along the way. I’ll keep both sides informed, because I know there can be a fine line between different approaches to care. I don’t discount either one. Each can bring a different perspective and, when handled thoughtfully, they can complement each other.

Mentally and emotionally, I have a counselling appointment booked to work specifically on the needle phobia — practical tools to help my nervous system before and during what may be coming. And whatever else surfaces in that space, I trust we’ll work through it together.

Spiritually, I’ll be reaching out to my Reiki practitioner and likely booking a reflexology appointment as well. These sessions help me regulate, ground, and reconnect with myself when uncertainty is loud. But my spiritual support doesn’t stop there — and this is the part I haven’t talked about publicly before, because it might surprise some people.

I’ll also be going to church. And I’ll be consulting my tarot cards. To some, those two things might sound contradictory. I understand why. But for me they are not contradictory at all — they just give me different things spiritually.

My faith is part of who I am. There is much about organized religion I don’t agree with — I won’t pretend otherwise — but the founding beliefs, the familiarity of the mass, the feeling of being in that space, and my connection to Mary, Jesus, the angels, and the divine are things that make me feel safe. Church is an affirmation of something deep and foundational in me and it always has been.

Tarot gives me something different. For me it’s not about getting answers — it’s about asking what I need to be aware of. What heads up do I need right now? I’ll be working with both my regular tarot deck and a “shadow work” tarot deck I recently purchased, asking each what I need to pay attention to as I move through this. Together, they help me look at both what is present and what may be sitting beneath the surface. The connection I feel with my guides during a reading helps me settle.

At the end of the day, both practices help me do the same thing — release and let go of what I cannot control. To give it up to something greater than me. To surrender what isn’t mine to carry. And really, isn’t that what both religion and spirituality teach us? That there are things beyond our control, and that the practice — whatever form it takes — is learning to trust that and let go?

And acupuncture? I know some might wonder about that given what I’m navigating. The honest answer is that it’s not on my list — because of my needle phobia, I’ve tried it a couple of times and the longest I lasted was five minutes. And that’s okay. Not every service works for every person. This is me, and this is what works for me. That’s the whole point.

Why I’m Sharing This

I don’t know where this health situation is going. It could be a road with many bumps, or it could resolve quickly. What I do know is that the more I can support all three aspects of myself — mind, body and spirit — through whatever comes, the better equipped I will be to handle it.

I also know that I feel more equipped to face this than I would have years ago. The work of building my team, of understanding myself across all three layers, of learning my own cues — that work isn’t just for the good seasons. It’s preparation for exactly this.

If you don’t have a team yet — or if you have pieces of one but haven’t thought about it holistically — I want you to hear this: you don’t need to wait for something to go wrong to start building it. Start now, while life is relatively steady. Because when something does come up — and something always does — you’ll already know exactly who to call.

If you’d like help figuring out what your own team could look like — or where to even begin — that’s exactly what my Intuitive Wellness Sessions are for. I’d love to help you build something to lean on before you need it.

Do you have a team you lean on when things get hard? I’d love to hear what support looks like for you.

With warmth,

Holistic Mystic | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan