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Meet lauren
IN RETOSPECT
I’m Lauren. I’m a health writer, master holistic health & life coach, podcast host, speaker & mama. Having been previously wheelchair-bound until implementing the lifestyle that I will outline below, I’m also very much immersed in, and an advocate of, holistic living (a whole-person approach) and live by this quote:
Wellness is not merely the absence of illness, it is a state of complete physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being
MY STORY
At 23 months old, I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. By 18 I was in a wheelchair and on chemotherapy, and at 29 I went into remission.
The decade between my most challenging years and reaching a complete state of wellness was spent in intensive self-study, where I used a root-cause, integrative, mind-body approach, to recondition my mind and body back to health.
Writing it all out here makes it sound so simple; it wasn’t, and it’s not. But it is possible, for anyone. As Glennon Doyle says “We can do hard things.” And I believe my purpose in life is to guide others through these hard things and help them achieve their wellness and fulfilment goals.
Whether you are suffering from chronic illness, raising children in a world of conflicting information, or you simply want to feel empowered and motivated to become the best version of yourself, let me help you do that.
My articles, talks, podcast, and recipes – created and curated lovingly with the hope of encouraging people to live their healthiest, happiest lives – are all available for free on this website, as well as meditations and other resources I've created, and you can read more about my story below.
My life’s work is dedicated to bringing this message to others, and to help others attain this level of wellness themselves (and by wellness I mean health, happiness, and fulfilment).
1986
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of two, and Uveitis in my right eye the year following that. My poor parents didn’t know what to do; in 1986 there weren’t many options. They researched as much as they could and decided that the steroids the doctors wanted to prescribe were too toxic an option for a two-year-old so instead we tried everything from homeopathy to spiritual healing. The homeopathy helped to keep my immune system strong and helped keep my joints from being damaged by the disease, which was a major achievement, but it was always like there was a piece missing from the puzzle because I was never free of the disease completely and I would have dreadful yearly flare-ups that would result in time off school and a watered-down version of childhood.
My knees and ankles were so swollen I couldn't sit on the floor with my friends
When I was 17, after starting performing arts school, I suddenly had a huge flare-up that wouldn’t go away. I ended up being put on a chemo-based drug that changed my life forever. It damaged my liver, caused me to lose my hair, and left me disabled. By the time I was 18 I had arthritis in every joint in my body. I was wheelchair-bound, I couldn’t feed myself because my elbows were too stiff to bend and reach my mouth, I couldn’t chew food because my jaw was so stiff and I couldn’t even sit up straight because my hips were too stiff. I left college and never got to go to uni, or go traveling with my friends; I really lost out on those late teenage years.
But here’s where it gets interesting…
You see, I needed to get that sick. Had I just been a bit ill, with some arthritis that was mainly manageable, I never would have worked as hard as I did to find the answers that led me to that missing piece. My destiny was to get that sick.
Something within me (what I now know to be an inner knowing, instilled in me by my mum who always believed we’d find a way) knew that disability wasn’t going to be my story; wellness was.
By 18 I was wheelchair bound and lost the sight in my right eye. (I never let anyone take pics of me at my worst back then, so this was me on the road to recovery)
By 18 I was wheelchair bound and lost the sight in my right eye.
So I subsequently spent the next decade immersed in intensive self-study, teaching myself everything there was to know about the human body and mind; what makes them work and not work. From epigenetics and neuroplasticity to the pharmaceutical industry and how it worked, how the healthcare/sick-care system was compounding my disability, how behavioral economics was manipulating me into thinking only someone else could make me better, to inner child healing, spiritual connection, trauma healing and emotional intelligence.
I later qualified in nutrition, life coaching, NLP, and CBT, and, though they offered more insight and structured skillset, it was the self-study and the immersion into research driven by my desire to find answers, that taught me everything that enabled me to not only go into remission but to guide others toward similar outcomes.
I didn’t go into remission the next year or even 5 years later. I was 29 when I went into remission. Over a decade after setting off on my journey of self-discovery and 27 years after being diagnosed with a debilitating, inflammatory autoimmune disease.
I spent my whole wedding in a wheel chair, in excruciating pain
Over the years I became the youngest ever trustee for Homeopathy UK, patient spokesperson for the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine and Parliamentary ambassador for paediatric autoimmune diseases and I have hosted Parliamentary events with the emphasis on making holistic wellbeing more accessible.
I have written about wellbeing and conscious parenting for publications such as Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Natural Health, Health & Homeopathy, What Doctors Don’t Tell You, The Green Parent, The Natural Parent, and more. I speak at a range of events from conferences to festivals, most recently having spoken at Gaia in Colorado, and for TEDx. I also spend as much time as I can campaigning for the awareness and accessibility of natural health options and informed choices for parents alongside wonderful organisations such as the Arnica Network
I live in London with my husband, Daniel, our 2 children and our dopey Flatcoated Retriever, Story.
I hope you enjoy my website and get everything you need out of the many resources available here, and please make sure to follow me on Instagram so you can keep up-to-date with everything I’m up to.
Love & Health,
Lauren
My podcast, Reconditioned with Lauren Vaknine, opens up discussion on all aspects of health and growth, looking at ways we can recondition ourselves back to wellspness through integrating the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual elements of ourselves. (Tune in to hear me alongside some pretty awesome guests!). Creating a podcast felt like the next natural step to be able to share all the things I’ve learned throughout my journey that I hope will help others. The podcast page here will tell you more.
The RISE Membership really is all my life’s work and learning in one place; offering everything that it took me decades to learn in order to move into true wellness, to help others achieve this level of healing.
Many years have now passed since I stopped relying on (or indeed using) allopathic medicine, and I have been in remission since 2013, with the exception of postpartum flare-ups following the births of both my children, which was an important learning curve as each one reminded me that this autoimmune disease lives dormant within me and any number of things can trigger it and it’s up to ME to tackle that – not the doctor, not my parents, not my husband, and not the pharmaceutical industry… I take my healthcare into my own hands. Postpartum hormones were not something I had control over but the need to up my game to get back into remission each time spurred me on to really practice what I preach. I believe that in order to cure, we must heal from the root cause, and after that, we must focus our energies on prevention.
MEET THE TEAM
Kim
Chief Operating Officer
Kim is the the glue that holds this business together. She is head of all things systems, processes and business growth
Thomas
Media Manager
Thomas takes care of everything media / social media-related here at LV HQz
Katie
Community Manager/ PA
Katie supports me in every part of running LV HQ, and is also community manager for RISE, supporting our RISE members with anything they may need
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Lauren Vaknine Ltd is registered in England and Wales.