EP 10 | Sydney Low "Slooooow Down": A Journey Through Accident Recovery and Spiritual Healing

Have you ever wondered how a seemingly tragic event can end up being a catalyst for change? Join me as I sit down with Reiki practitioner and founder of Earth and Ether Wellness, Sydney Low, who offers a heartening perspective on this very idea. After being hit by a car, Sydney embarked on a transformative journey of healing and self-discovery, armed with resilience and courage.

This episode unravels Sydney's remarkable story, starting from a life that was spinning too fast to a cataclysmic pause brought on by a car accident. Sydney shares her initial denial about the severity of her concussion and the overwhelming support she received from her partner in her path to recovery. We traverse through Sydney's healing process, where she found solace in practices like Reiki and gentle movement. Sydney delves into how Reiki allowed her to establish a deep sense of safety and presence within her body - a crucial aspect of her recovery.

An accident like Sydney's leaves an indelible mark on one's life. We discuss how her experience shaped her relationship and facilitated the establishment of new boundaries and values. More importantly, Sydney shares the importance of patience and grace during the healing process and the necessity of asking for support. Her story is a testament to the transformative power of healing and reinvention. If you're intrigued by Reiki and its potential to heal remotely, Sydney's insights and resources could be beneficial for you. Prepare to be moved by Sydney's inspiring journey and the life lessons it offers.

Connect with Sydney : www.Earthandether.ca

0:09 Sydney Lowe's Healing and Reinvention Journey

4:57 Experiencing an Accident and Its Impact

16:45 Healing Through Self-Acceptance and Therapies

25:53 Life-Changing Impact of an Accident

Are you loving this show? I’d be so grateful if you like, rate, review and share with a friend!

Catch the episode on Youtube to see photos and videos related to this story.

Want to spend more time with me? Join me in my 1:1 Coaching Container https://www.coachedbyjess.com/coaching

Explore more wellness conversations with me over on instagram @coached.byjess

Do you have a story that you would like to share on The Pivot Point? Apply now https://forms.gle/hxfmFb5RNJ7VBKQQ9

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:09

Welcome to the Pivot Point stories of courage, resilience and reinvention. I'm your host, jessica McGahn, coach, producer and creative, whose mission is to normalize the human experience, ignite the soul and move you from feeling limited to limitless. Please connect us, and my hope is that within this series, you will find at least one story that resonates with you on a deeply personal level, one that speaks to your soul or your current situation, that will motivate you to keep moving forward, inspire you to make bold, brave choices in your own life and help you feel less alone in the process. In today's episode, I speak with Sydney Lowe, who once upon a time felt like life was moving far too quickly, progressing at a pace that wasn't necessarily hers. She feels this speed so deeply that one day she actually writes in her journal slow down. And the very next day she's struck by a vehicle. In this conversation, we talk about how fate may have acted in her favor that day, how the crash affected her physical and mental well-being, and the skills, tools and support that allowed her to heal and move forward at a pace that feels good for her.

Speaker 2: 1:29

Today, sydney is a Reiki practitioner, soon-to-be counselor and founder of Earth and Ether Wellness. She has a wild story and a world of insight to share with you. So, without further ado, let's dive in Sydney. I am so excited to have you on the PivotPoint podcast today For those listening. Sydney is not only a guest today, but she's also a friend of mine and we met when we were in the same cohort at Rhodes Wellness College. I went for my life coaching diploma and Sydney did her full counseling certification, so she's got a world of knowledge to share with us, not only from her training but also from her life experience.

Speaker 2: 2:16

So I'm so excited to have you here.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Thank you so much, jess. I'm super excited to be here too. It's really good to see you and connect with you again, totally.

Speaker 2: 2:26

Now, this podcast explores pivotal moments in people's lives. Some are choices. There are these aha moments where you're like you know what, I can't keep going down this road, I need to change something. And some, like yours, are acts of fate, things that happen to us that are completely out of control, out of our control, and that we need to then navigate ourselves through. And I believe that's kind of what we're exploring here with your story today, correct?

Speaker 1: 2:54

Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, definitely definitely an octave.

Speaker 2: 3:01

So, before we get into the accident that catapulted this change for you, can you paint me a little bit of a picture of who you were, how you existed in this world, what life felt like for you before your accident?

Speaker 1: 3:17

Well before the accident I had just started school at Rhodes Wellness College. I think we were like two and a half months into the first semester, maybe three months.

Speaker 2: 3:29

Is that early into our semester? Wow?

Speaker 1: 3:33

Very early into the semester and, yeah, I was working in a grocery store. I kind of didn't really know what I was doing with my life, but I was having fun. I had just started a relationship with my current partner, I was living with my best friend and, you know, life was moving very quickly for me. There was a lot of very high speed, rapid growth, especially in that coaching class where everything was just kind of, you know, doing the self work was our learning in that time. So I remember having a lot of self awareness, a lot of growth happening, and I also remember being a little bit overwhelmed with how fast my life was moving in a direction that I wasn't even really clear on yet. So, yeah, that's kind of where I was at the accident.

Speaker 2: 4:34

That's so interesting that you had this sense of moving too quickly, because I think what we're going to learn is how this accident made you slow down. So having that knowledge dropped in as a little hint as to where we're going is so fascinating how life kind of happens for us sometimes. So what happened? What Tell me about the day of your accident?

Speaker 1: 5:03

So the day of my accident I was okay, I'm gonna write a little bit before. Sorry, not write a little bit before. I'll tell you a little bit before the accident something that I was writing. I was feeling very overwhelmed in that week. I was kind of struggling a little bit with just like feeling calm and three times that week I wrote in my journal I just want to slow down, help me slow down, I need to slow down. Over and over and over again and it just kind of kept coming back to that.

Speaker 2: 5:36

Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me that you were literally writing in your journal I need to slow down. Slow down, sidney, like we. Please help me slow down. You're like begging the universe. To slow you down, begging begging the universe.

Speaker 1: 5:51

I have the journal, and so this is the page. This is what I wrote. It says slow, slower, slower, slow down. And then the next day after I got home from the hospital after getting hit by a car, I just got hit by an F in car.

Speaker 2: 6:14

So wait, let me get this straight. You wrote that in your journal the next day. You got in a car accident and went home and wrote I just got hit by a fucking car.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Wow, so yeah, so I wrote that in my journal on a Saturday. On a Sunday it was very stormy, like I don't know if you remember seeing on the news that, like EC, was flooding a couple years ago. It was a really crazy storm and I was walking home from work and somebody just they were turning right and they just didn't see me crossing the road and I didn't see them coming. And, yeah, they just hit me with their car and I was unconscious for a few seconds on the ground and woke up just in the most pain I've ever, ever experienced. And a few seconds later there was people all around me, somebody was holding my neck and ambulances came and they took me to the hospital and yeah, and that was that Were you alone.

Speaker 2: 7:18

Did they stop and help? Do you remember the people who came to your aid?

Speaker 1: 7:25

No, I don't remember the people who came to my aid. I was in shock, like I was totally full shock, and they did stop. It was a guy, he was young, he was probably in his like mid 20s, just a thing. He only looks like a couple of years older than me at the time and but I don't know his like, I don't know who he is, I don't remember what he looks like or anything. But yeah, he stopped. He stayed with me the whole time. A few other cars stopped. It was on a pretty main intersection, so a few other cars stopped. I had someone call my mom like immediately, so she came with me and followed the ambulance to the hospital and was with me the whole time. And yeah, wow.

Speaker 2: 8:12

What were your injuries and how long did you have to be in the hospital for?

Speaker 1: 8:17

I was only in the hospital for a few hours actually. My injuries I kind of flipped over the front foot of the car and went face first into the ground so I had very bad road rash. My ear was split open on the top and they had to like sew it back up, which was so strange to experience. I can't believe that I had no injuries to my legs where the car hit me. I just had a bruise. No broken bones, no broken anything. Had a very severe concussion.

Speaker 1: 8:56

I didn't know how severe it was at the time. It kind of that just exposed itself over the coming months. Yeah, but no broken bones. There were so many small details about how it happened that I truly believe saved my life, because if he had honked and I looked, I would have maybe gone like front of my face first rather than side of my head. I had my glasses on top of my head and I'm pretty sure that's what cut my ear, but if they were on my face maybe my ear would have been removed. And so many little details that changed everything about how it happened.

Speaker 2: 9:42

How did the accident affect you mentally and emotionally?

Speaker 1: 9:49

In the moment have it happened?

Speaker 2: 9:51

Yeah, or this has happened. I can imagine you're immediately sent into some sort of dysregulated state. I assume in that moment or maybe you had an overwhelming sense of calm. But then coming out of stepping out of that hospital or even in that hospital, what were those initial first couple of days like emotionally and mentally after this accident?

Speaker 1: 10:14

Yeah, well, right when the accident happened, I was in go mode. I was like you call my mom, you call 911, somebody get my mom on the phone right now, tell her exactly where we are. I was in go mode. And then, as soon as we got into the ambulance and my mom came into the ambulance, that was when I just totally lost it and started having a panic attack, I think.

Speaker 1: 10:38

I had a panic attack the whole way to the hospital until I was there and they were like I need you to calm down because we need to work on you so that you don't bleed out of your ear for anymore.

Speaker 1: 10:49

And so I calmed myself down. And, yeah, the next few days after that were very confusing, very confusing and overwhelming. I felt hopeful. I felt like, oh, this is just. I didn't really know what a concussion was. All I understood was like I'd seen people that play sports like hit their head and spend a week in the dark and then they're fine and back to their life and back to their duties and whatnot. And so I was kind of anticipating that.

Speaker 1: 11:26

I called my boss, I said, hey, I'm going to need the rest of the week off work, and not knowing that this was just the beginning and that things were going to get worse. And so the first few days I felt okay. My partner came and he stayed with me. I wasn't able to really do anything, I couldn't really take care of myself. So he came, helped me bathe, helped me cook, cleaned up the house for me, meal prepped for me for when he was going to be at work, like he really took care of me in that time and so grateful for that. And having that support made me feel okay. I think it was when things started to get worse for me, physically and cognitively, that I really started to struggle with the emotional side of things.

Speaker 2: 12:22

Firstly, we love a supportive partner. I love that you had him to help support you in the moment. The right support can make a world of a difference and it sounds like your partner really showed up for you. I also love that, no matter how old we get, we always want our moms. When something bad goes wrong, like no matter what. I'm 33 years old. If shit's hitting the fan in my life, someone call my mom or I will call my mom. They're just our superheroes. Really, can you help us understand? Because what I'm hearing is that the accident really left you almost unscathed. We hear that there's a concussion, we hear that your ear is damaged, but what I'm also hearing is that you really struggled to do things for yourself. Afterwards you had to have help. You were saying bathe and cook and clean. So what was that about? What was preventing you from being able to do those things?

Speaker 1: 13:18

Yeah, there was a lot of really intense symptoms that came with it. I had very bad vertigo, so I would get very dizzy, even laying down, like I would be laying down and the room would just be spinning around me. So it kind of was it's my nightmare. Yeah, it was horrible. I'd never had anything like that before. I felt totally out of control of myself. I also just I had no idea what was going on. Like I was so confused, so confused, so overwhelmed.

Speaker 1: 13:52

The thought of dressing myself in the morning was like a concept that I could not comprehend. It just I don't even know how to explain that. It was crazy how what was so normal and so routine was suddenly the biggest challenge that I had ever experienced. And I was also about to move. So I also had to pack and do all this stuff. And I remember I would just like write lists. I would write lists of all the things that I had to do and then I would do one thing. But as soon as I crossed something off the list, it felt stressful to look at. So I would have to rewrite the list and I was not ever able to really get anything done. So, again, my partner and my mom helped me with that.

Speaker 1: 14:43

And other things too, like I was sleeping like 14 hours a day. Lights were horrible. I don't know if you remember, but in class I was always wearing sunglasses because I couldn't look at the screen. I also had my camera off a lot of the time and most of that time I was sleeping, to be totally honest, because I couldn't keep myself awake.

Speaker 2: 15:06

I do remember the sunglasses and I do remember you not being around Like I know. You had to go back and do redo some of those courses and stuff because suddenly you were just unable to be there as much as you used to. Or even when we had tests, I remember you could only do like half of the time and then you would do the other half later because you just needed more space and time and you were in this process of healing. When you talk about the vertigo and the inlay ability to even perform small tasks for yourself is that a symptom from the concussion or is that a symptom of trauma?

Speaker 1: 15:48

I think at the time it was mostly a symptom of the concussion. Just yeah, it was definitely a symptom of the concussion. I think as time went on, my symptoms just weren't getting better and I really wanted them to and really needed them to, and you know, they would get a little bit better here and there. But I think after a certain point it was, you know, the impact of the trauma that started to really affect my daily life. My motivation, my sense of hope, my sense of purpose, like all of those things just became lost from me because I needed to get better and I wasn't so Is it fair to say that this was kind of a dark time in your?

Speaker 1: 16:45

life Totally. Yes, it was a very dark time. I remember struggling with my mental health a lot. I still struggle a little bit today too, but Don't we all? Yes, but yeah, I struggled a lot with my mental health and that's when I had to take a break from school and, you know, skip out on a couple of the courses that we had to do in that second semester. And I, yeah, I got to the point where I was having such severe intrusive thoughts, such severe PTSD nightmares and, you know, suicidal thoughts even too, and I knew I didn't want to die because I was in a near death experience and I was grateful for my life.

Speaker 1: 17:35

But what was going on in my brain just was not matching the experience that I wanted to be having and that I felt like I could have.

Speaker 1: 17:45

So it drove me a little crazy and I took myself to the hospital and I said, you know, I can't handle these thoughts and they didn't really do a whole lot for me. They were like, if you're not in danger of yourself, you're probably okay, we can talk about it for a few minutes, but we're gonna send you home. So they sent me home and that was my wake up call that I needed to not be in school right now. I needed to take a break, I needed to rest. I needed to let myself sleep for 12 hours a day. I needed to, you know, figure out how to organize my life so that I can manage the few tasks that I put on my to-do list each day, you know, like brushing my teeth and having a shower and cooking myself. You know, that was all I could handle, and I couldn't even handle that while I was in school, so I took a step away to just focus on those things.

Speaker 2: 18:41

What I just heard there was and let me know if this is fair to say, but like that was this aha moment where you stop trying to force yourself to be the same way that you were before this accident and just accepted with where you're currently at and gave yourself the time that your body and mind needed. Is that accurate?

Speaker 1: 19:05

Absolutely. It was such a wake-up call for that. And at the time I was living with my family and I love my family so much and they're all a bunch of little go-getters and they are the hardest working people I know and they love it and they thrive that way, and so for my whole life I've looked up to these people and thought, okay, I'm you know, I'm blood related to them, they are my family Like, maybe one day I'll be like that, you know. And so I always was trying to be like that and to hustle and to work hard and to do more and to get it all done. And even before the accident, that was what I was struggling with. I was like, oh, I need to slow down, yeah. And so it was really hard to come to that place of understanding and acceptance that maybe I'm not like that, maybe that's not me, and maybe this accident is my lesson in surrendering to slowing down and finding my pace that works for my life and works for my joy.

Speaker 2: 20:13

Yes, sydney, yes, that is such a powerful message because, especially in today's day and age, where it's such a hustle culture, there can be this narrative that people carry as if I'm not on all the time, if I am not pushing at all times, I am lesser than or I am less worthy. And what I'm hearing is you found the beat for your own drum that you were able to follow, so what ended up being some tools or resources that have helped you heal and be able to continue to move to the beat of your own drum?

Speaker 1: 20:51

I am so blessed to have had a lot of support in that time. I got my antique. I was living with Owens Owens, a wellness center broken scroll wellness and in Courtney and they have so much there. So I got to try out a lot of stuff. I was doing yoga very frequently. I was doing meditations. I was doing I was doing this work called body code with this woman named Dawn Elgin, and I don't even really know how to explain what it is, but it's very fascinating.

Speaker 1: 21:26

Is it a talk therapy? Is it like a? It's not a talk therapy, it's a. Basically, she connects in with your energy and, using the body code system, asks questions to my energy field and to my subconscious to identify where there's blockages that need to be let go. Very, very fascinating work. So that was very helpful.

Speaker 1: 21:55

But some of the main things that I really brought with me through my life and through my day is so many grounding practices. I really learned the importance of being present, especially after spending probably at least 10 months completely dissociated completely dissociated. So once I started to come back into my body, I realized just how powerful that is. So some of the things that I do for that it's just like gentle movement, shaking if I'm feeling overwhelmed, giving myself, like you know, little hugs and, you know, moving my body in a way that feels like it resonates with my experiences.

Speaker 1: 22:43

Another really, really important thing that came to me during this time is Reiki. I had a Reiki session with my set mom over Christmas break and she that was my first time ever having a Reiki session she had just gotten her level one Reiki certification, so she was practicing and I felt the most relaxed that I have ever felt in my life, I think. And there was so much that came up during that session and I just was hooked. So three weeks later I got my Reiki certification and started practicing on myself every single day. It brought me a sense of presence. It brought me like safety in my body so that I could process by emotions and process the sensations that were going on. My chronic headaches started to melt away slowly and all these therapies that I had been doing had finally actually started to work. So that was huge, hugely important in my healing journey.

Speaker 2: 23:50

And for anyone who's listening, who maybe doesn't know what Reiki is, could you tell us a little bit about what a Reiki practice is?

Speaker 1: 23:58

Yeah, so Reiki. It's a Japanese relaxation technique that was founded by Mikau Usui, and it's essentially a type of therapy that works with the bio field, or the aura or the energy centers, rather than the physical body. It does involve the physical body a little bit too, because the practitioner uses their hands to direct life force energy into each of the energy centers, or seven energy centers. And life force energy is an energy that every living thing has within them. It's the energy that gives us life, that gives us joy, that allows us to move through our day. And when this energy gets blocked it can cause all kinds of different symptoms. It can cause physical pain, headaches, emotional distress, and the blockages can also be caused by trauma, injury. You know hard experiences, challenges in our life that we don't fully move through, and it just kind of refreshes that energy so that you can move forward a little, and Reiki was so pivotal in your healing journey that you're now certified.

Speaker 2: 25:16

you're a certified Reiki practitioner yourself now, correct? Yes?

Speaker 1: 25:20

I am, yes, and I've started by a little business doing it, because it just changed my life so much and it was such a gift to be able to share that with other people and I wanna keep doing it. I just love it.

Speaker 2: 25:36

So now you're a certified Reiki practitioner and a counselor and a coach, so you have the capabilities to help so many people and you bring with you your own experience of having to heal through very difficult circumstances. How has this accident changed your life?

Speaker 1: 25:59

This accident has completely, completely turned my life around, and I think the ways that it has changed me the most is in, like I said, my pace at which I move to the world. It's brought me a lot of deeper connection to myself, to my purpose, to my purpose, to my body. Yeah, it changed in a lot of ways that I'm still working through to get really impacted by my relationship with my partner. He spent a long time just supporting me and I was not able to really show up for him in the same capacity. So now that I am able to show up for him in a greater capacity, we're working through some of the impacts that that trauma had on us. It really helped me to get clear on what my priorities are in my life and my values when it comes to my work, the way that I move through my day, my relationships, my friendships. It's helped me to really weed away the stuff that's just not working for me anymore, and so my life has changed a lot. It has changed a lot.

Speaker 2: 27:36

You still journal and are you more cautious of the things that you request from the universe these days?

Speaker 1: 27:42

I am very cautious about what I request from the universe. Every time I find myself saying something that could come back and bite me in the butt a little bit, I check myself and I correct it like sorry universe, I didn't mean it like that.

Speaker 2: 27:59

But it really does, sorry, continue.

Speaker 1: 28:02

Yeah, I just I don't journal as much as I used to. It's a practice that I am just now starting to bring back in, because during the accident I wasn't really able to focus on writing things down. It just felt very challenging, but I took videos of myself talking instead, so kind of like a journal practice, and now I'm starting to get back into it a little bit.

Speaker 2: 28:30

I think I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast the difference between looking at life happening to us and looking at it as life happening for us. Do you feel like you were meant to have this experience?

Speaker 1: 28:46

Absolutely, absolutely, it's. Yeah, I really do believe that this accident was the catalyst for all the changes that I needed to make in my life and all of the boundaries that I needed to set in my life, and it really helped me to get there quickly. I think next time I would ask the universe to put it a little more gently. Teach me this last time, but like softly please, yes, maybe not so hard, but, yeah, I really do believe that it was exactly what I needed in that time.

Speaker 2: 29:32

Yeah, what would you say to someone who is just encountered or just experienced an accident themselves that has completely shaken them up and they're at those early stages, or maybe in the early stages of healing? What would you want to say to someone who is in that dark place currently?

Speaker 1: 29:55

There's so much, but I think really, the biggest thing is just that it just takes time and it is going to be challenging and there are going to be times where you're just going to want to take a magic pill that's going to cure everything and, unfortunately, trauma physical or emotional trauma is one of those things that unravels as time goes on. And just to have a lot of patience and a lot of grace for yourself and don't be afraid to ask for what you need from the people in your life, the people that care about you, even if it means taking more space from the people that you love and care about, so that you can tend to yourself, so that you can hold space for your own. Yeah, I would say that that is one of the greatest lessons that I learned.

Speaker 2: 30:47

Amazing. Thank you so much, sydney, for sharing all of your personal journey. Your vulnerability, I think, is going to help a lot of people who are listening, whether they're in an accident or not. I'm really learning the emphasis of really trusting your own rhythm and not denying yourself the things you want or need, but understanding where it's coming from and seeing how you can give those things to yourself. If anyone listening is interested in working with you, they're connected to your story. Maybe they know someone who's been in an accident or they're really struggling. They're in a dark place themselves. How can they contact you?

Speaker 1: 31:31

Yeah, I have a website now, so one way to contact me is through there. It's earthandetherca, as well as my Instagram, which I am on pretty regularly, which is earthandethercom. Those are a couple of ways that people can reach out to me for anything. If you want to experience a Reiki session or just want somebody to talk to, I am super open to supporting people in the way that I can.

Speaker 2: 31:58

Can you do Reiki remotely or do you need to be in your neighborhood?

Speaker 1: 32:04

You can do Reiki remotely. Reiki is one of the best pieces of Reiki in my opinion. That is something that I can send to anybody anywhere in the world at any time, because energy is not bound by time or space. It's really lovely to be able to offer that to people. I find that I've done both in person and virtual sessions. I've found no difference in the effectiveness of it, which is amazing.

Speaker 2: 32:34

Well, that's fantastic. I will make sure that all of Sydney's links are in the episode description below, so you don't have to question where to go. Just click the links and it'll bring you right to Sydney. Thank you so much again, Sydney, for having this conversation. It's just been so nice to just reconnect with you too.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Thank you so much, Jess. It's really good to be here and to be supporting your new podcast, which I'm super excited for. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: 33:05

If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider liking and subscribing and letting us know your thoughts in the comments below. It truly means the world to me to hear from you. New episodes will be available every Saturday, both on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts and if you would like to learn more about my work as a coach today's guest or have a story that you would like to share on the pivot point, check out the episode description for more information. Now time for the legal stuff.