I’m shining the spotlight on my friend and fellow entrepreneur, Eboni Gee. I asked her if she could share her personal journey as an entrepreneur in today’s article. She agreed and wrote the content below. Eboni’s one amazing entrepreneur and is a featured expert in the Love Yourself First Series: 5 Incredible Days to Love Your Mind, Love Your Body, and Love Your Life! Thank you, Eboni!
My journey to freedom wasn’t a physical privilege, but a mental expedition that was a long time coming. I grew up in a household where my father dominated the mood with his negativity and I became more and more determined growing up that I would never be as miserable as he was.
As a teenager I read self-help books, prayed and tried my best not to absorb the environment around me. I desperately wanted to avoid his fate. Unfortunately, due to poor coping strategies and misunderstandings on how to properly use self-help materials, I developed bad habits of my own. I would live with this baggage for a long time before I found the key to my freedom.
I have always been a self-starter so I began doing what I thought would fix my problems. In my early twenties I focused on my physical health, worked full-time, went to school full time and ended up engaged and later married to my amazing husband Travis.
My mom had been diagnosed with Cancer during this time and I took care of her for two years until she passed away, one week after her fiftieth birthday. My sister was nineteen and my brother was eight. Being the oldest child meant a lot of responsibility and pressure that added to the weight that existed over my life. This experience had once again put me in the toxic environment I fought to get out of with my father. This is when I realized forgiveness was also a huge barrier in my life. I would become enraged when he was in my presence.
By my late twenties my son was born and I decided to go to nursing school. Two years later, I had custody of my brother which brought it’s own set of challenges. Whatever habits and routines I had developed to become a better me was lost inside of the stress, lack of time and shear exhaustion of life.
I was functioning in my life, but I wasn’t living. I began to have anxiety and a few panic attacks that were really scary. This was exacerbated by a personal situation that stripped me of any fight I had left. That experience marked the turning point in my life. My doctor said I can choose medication or diet and nutrition modifications to treat my anxiousness. I choose to change my lifestyle. I was already seeing a therapist and I got super intentional in healing my mind.
I developed a self-care routine which included, healthy meals, regular exercise, meditation, journaling and my daily devotionals. I continued my personal development with a deeper understanding of how to interpret and apply it. Meditation was such an awakening experience for me. It brought the peace and clarity I had been seeking for so long. I had heard a saying that we heal in layers and it’s entirely true.
The lesson I was missing during my exploration into self-help was that comprehension and application are the keys. If you don’t understand the why, what and how of your healing you won’t get there. I had to get quiet within myself, constantly reflect and evaluate my progress, revise my plan and start again many time.
The work you do on yourself is one of the hardest things to do, but once you develop those muscles your strength increases and you become able to take on greater assignments in life. I have spent a large part of my life working with dialysis patients.
You would have to really love something to spend twelve to fifteen hours per day, three to four days a week and over fourteen years doing it. I started feeling like I needed to do more in that area and found my passion in health coaching, specializing in kidney health. I create increased awareness, provide support and promote advocacy and education to people who are predisposed, have a pre-stage form of or who are diagnosed with hypertension or diabetes. While medication is a powerful form treatment, so is prevention and lifestyle modifications. It is my desire to see kidney disease not continue to affect generation after generation. I intend to be an influential force in the fight against chronic kidney disease.
Whose permission are you waiting for? What validation are you waiting on? Get a strategy in place that will allow you to pinpoint your goals, address your barriers, resolve your issues and manifest your vision. Visualization has been a huge part of my success personally and professionally. Thoughts become things, the state of your mindset will determine whether you get positive or negative results. Don’t let where you came from decide where you go. You are not your experience, but you need them to guide you in the right direction. You will still have some bad days in life, we all do. The problem is not the bad days, it’s your response to them.
Think about this, if I did not put the work into myself to be greater and share my purpose with the world there would be so many lives I would never have touched. What are you suppressing in your life that is keeping you from achieving more and showing up in the world in a powerful way?
What do you need to heal and grow from?
Whatever it is, it’s never too late to live the life of freedom you desire. Don’t rob yourself and the world of your potential. What will you commit to changing today?
So this is my journey to freedom. Not to be perfect but to be a healthier, stronger and more dynamic me.
About Eboni:
My name is Eboni Gee and I am wife, mom, registered nurse and entrepreneur. My passion is kidney health. I create increased awareness, provide support and educate people who are predisposed, are in the pre-stage or have been diagnosed with hypertension or diabetes. We address six particular domains in our wellness spectrum to help you stay healthy or get back on track. If you are dealing with kidney failure we can support you as well.