About Me — Emily Schlimm
Who am I? the question I’m still answering
Tell me about yourself.
My body freezes with fear as my chest tightens, a knot forms in my throat, and my eyes dart to find a way to escape.
I’m 29 and still this question fills me with dread.
I have so much shame attached to my journey and who I am that I’ve spent most of my life hiding and trying not to be seen.
The Label.
The label that started it all.
I was 11.
It was just another annual checkup at the doctors.
Go in. Get weighed. Get measured. Get your shots. And off you go.
I got weighed. I got measured. I got my shots. But I wasn’t off.
I was sitting in the exam room, alone and by myself, with no one to be found.
Eventually my mom came and got me, but she wouldn’t look at me, she wouldn’t talk to me.
There was this look on her face that I’ve never seen before.
A panic.
A hopelessness.
A despair.
A disgust.
A shame.
I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew I did something wrong.
They told me I was an anorexic.
That’s the day I Emily was replaced by the label “anorexic.”
No longer was I Emily. I was an anorexic.
That label that defined who I was and what I was worth.
I lost myself, my voice, and close to my life in that label.
Yet, that label is my greatest gift. It is why I am here today.
My Journey.
“What is health?”
The doctors told me to do one thing and society told me another.
So, who was right?
I didn’t know.
I didn’t know why I wasn’t I getting better.
Why was I getting worse.
The more I listened to the doctors, the worse I got.
The more I listened to society, the worse I got.
I was confused, I was lost, I was broken, and I was barely holding on — mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
“What is health?”
I didn’t know so I got a Masters in the Science of Nutrition and Integrative Health where I’d find the answer . . . right?
No. This is where my health gave out but a deeper journey began.
I hit rock bottom to be broken open so I could see what was inside beneath the layers I’d was hidden behind.
Forward to Today.
Today, I define heath as connection and disease as disconnection from ourselves — in our minds, bodies, and environments.
Wholeness is about accepting all parts of ourselves.
It’s about working with, rather than against ourselves.
And this is what I, myself, am still learning.
This is a journey of reconnecting to myself.
This is a journey of deciding to take radical responsibility for myself from a place of compassionate self-discipline, respect, and love.
This is a journey of losing myself, to find myself — only to realize that it’s not about finding, it’s about creating myself.
This is a journey of creating, destroying, and recreating myself.
This is the journey of the Phoenix.
Why am I Writing?
To navigate my own journey and create the self I want to be — and hopefully use my journey to help you do the same.
To understand, transform, and release our pasts.
Navigate our presents.
And be our future.
To give ourselves permission to be right where we’re at in our journeys.
To start working with ourselves, rather than against ourselves.
To take radical responsibility for ourselves from a place of compassionate self-discipline, respect, and love.
To live the life and be the person we desire by taking our journeys and transforming them.
To use our deepest wounds to give new and meaning to our lives.
This is another way of living.
And together we are going to learn to love living the journey we call life.
Ready for a wild ride?
Then I say, let’s go together.
My invitation to you and to me is to start asking, “what do I want to create from my journey?”
Best — Emily
. . . But before we leave, let’s turn it over to you. So, tell me a bit about yourself.
If you want to join me on this journey of, not finding yourself, but creating yourself.
If you’re up for the wild ride, then follow me as I continue along that journey called life and read about the adventure, lesson, insight, or tool that I discover along the way!
