About Me

If you want to live your best life, this blog is for you. 

I’m a published travel writer and photographer who blogs about living your best life. Over the past three years, I have shared my experiences, exploring and testing various strategies to improve every aspect of our lives—health, relationships, career, and personal growth. Living with a debilitating autoimmune disease has been a significant part of my journey.

I’ve tried to avoid overly fluffy inspiration. I mean, “living your best life” conjures up images of flawless yoga poses on a beach at sunrise, but let’s be real: for most of us, it’s more like juggling flaming torches on a unicycle while praying the smoke alarm doesn’t go off. Between the avalanche of self-help books, overpriced wellness gadgets, and those annoyingly perfect Instagram influencers, it’s easy to feel like you’re one kale smoothie away from cracking the code.  But hopefully, my blogs take real life into account, and I include insights from my professional experience, training, and actionable tips. I hope you’ve found them to be an honest account of what has worked for me and what hasn’t.

With a career background in technology sales, I’ve worked for leading technology companies, mostly selling in the financial services sector.  Later, I worked in Sales Management, responsible for leading sales teams to achieve targets of over $100M.  Before founding our executive search business in 2008, my last challenge was to design and implement a sales process to facilitate the merger of three separate acquired organisations to ensure their continued success.

7 years ago, on a rainy January day, I was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) with a complete fusion of both sacroiliac joints.  AS is an autoimmune inflammatory disease that causes the bones in the spine to fuse. This fusing makes the spine less flexible and can result in a hunched-forward posture; a good example would be the “hunchback of notre dame”.  If ribs are affected, it can be difficult to breathe deeply.  It also affects other joints, and, in some instances, you can develop cardiovascular disease.

It’s unknown what causes the condition, but there’s thought to be a link with a gene known as HLA-B27.  This is a specific type of protein that contributes to immune system dysfunction. The presence of HLA-B27 means that my white blood cells cause my immune system to attack those otherwise healthy cells.

There is no cure for AS, but treatments can lessen symptoms and, with some of the new drugs available, possibly slow the progression of the disease.

When I was diagnosed, I decided my life was not about just surviving but thriving. My blog is like a survival guide for the soul, but with grit and teeth, giving readers the tools they need to reclaim their best life. That’s why it’s worth your time.

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