When Small Changes Begin to Shift the Future

I remember it very clearly. It was November 2022.

By that point, I had been impacted by Long COVID since March 2020. I was experiencing heart rate spikes, fatigue, shortness of breath, stomach pain, joint pain, and brain fog.

In May 2022, I got COVID for a second time, and the Long COVID symptoms worsened. The fatigue became crushing. I had difficulty falling asleep and difficulty staying asleep. Most nights, I would wake up around 2 or 3 a.m. when my heart rate would spike and jolt me awake. During the day, I felt bone-weary tired - beyond exhausted. On top of that, I had crippling brain fog.

At work, I sometimes struggled to remember something as simple as a file path to open documents I needed. Situations that once felt manageable - like navigating tricky conversations or office politics - suddenly felt overwhelming.

At home, life with a toddler felt almost impossible to keep up with. Even when the house was quiet, I would forget why I had walked into a room. Add a curious small person exploring their world to the mix - asking a million questions and needing someone alert enough to keep them safe - and it often felt far beyond my capacity.

It was a strange and disorienting experience.

For years, I had relied on my brain and instincts to navigate complexity. I was a trained facilitator. Yet suddenly I would find myself getting angry or defensive, even when my conscious brain was practically shouting at me not to.

Planning normal day-to-day family activities felt difficult in ways I had never experienced before. On top of that, every morning I woke up with deep joint pain. I felt like I had aged forty or fifty years overnight. My body felt fragile, like it might simply give out.

And I also knew the statistics through my work with the National Health Service… people impacted by the mix of symptoms I experienced, people facing systemic chronic stress and neurological issues had increased risk of serious, longer term health conditions like stroke, diabetes, heart issues, cancer, and more. They experienced these issues, and death, at an earlier age than the general population.  

The combination of my physical state and what I knew about the possible health outcomes created a deep-rooted feeling that I might be dead within five years unless something changed - and changed drastically.

It didn’t feel dramatic or like I was being alarmist. It just felt factual - and that realization was incredibly sobering.

I was already struggling to manage how unwell I felt day to day. Now I was also thinking about my future, my family’s future, and my daughter’s future. There were no more dress rehearsals. This was real life, and it wasn’t the life I wanted. 

Starting With What I Could Control

At that point, I felt like I had nothing to lose. So, I decided to start with the things that were within my control and see if small changes might make a difference.

I began researching practices that support the nervous system. I started experimenting with a few simple things. To my surprise - and honestly, my joy - they began to help.

Things like eye movements and specific, gentle joint mobilizations started to ease symptoms. The changes weren’t instant, but they were noticeable. And that gave me something incredibly important: a sense that my body could still respond.

Expanding the Toolkit

Around that time I felt healthy enough to go to an exercise class and met Andrea. She helped expand my understanding of how body systems work - especially the nervous system - and what that meant for recovery. She also introduced a whole new set of tools that helped accelerate the progress I had started.

Tools like ankle tilts that reset the nervous system and a set of focused, activated stretches that open up soft tissues, including fascia, in a matter of minutes.

It has been an eye-opening and remarkable journey.

Where Things Stand Today

Today, I’m able to live a full and active life again.

I still need to manage my symptoms and pay attention to how my body is functioning. But I can exercise, handle the normal ups and downs of life, and my brain works the way it used to. In fact, in many ways, I feel stronger and more resilient than I was before the pandemic.

I don’t know for certain what the future will hold. None of us do.

I do know that measurable markers, such as inflammation, have improved. My nervous system is far more regulated, and my body is no longer sending the constant distress signals that once made every day a challenge. Most importantly, I feel hopeful about the future again. And I’m deeply grateful that some of these learnings have helped others begin to find their own recovery path as well.

You might be reading this from a very different place than where I am today. If you’re in the middle of severe symptoms, the idea that things could improve can feel distant, or even frustrating to hear. I remember that stage well. When you are exhausted, foggy, and your body feels compromised, simply getting through the day can take everything you have.

What I’ve learned through this experience is that the body is often far more capable of recovery than we realize — especially when we begin to understand how to support it.

The path is rarely linear, and it can take patience. Small shifts in how we work with our nervous system, our movement, and our daily patterns can create meaningful change. The potential to address symptoms and improve future health prospects are worth paying attention to – even if the steps are small at the start. 

Warmly,
Katie 

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