Nancy’s Story. “Trust Your Gut!”
Nancy was born in the year of the Ox just three days from the shift to Tiger. Her Spirit’s strength, determination, courage, passion, and compassion have been the source at the Heart of her healing journey.
Here is her story.
“I began to see Melissa in the fall of 2014, before she even had an office space. She came to my house.
I remember telling her I wanted something different for my healthcare and wellbeing…
She brought a folder and a video tape about Dragon’s Way. We spent over an hour going over the basics, but it was all a bit overwhelming. Grasping E=MC(2), ditching my current doctor and standing like a divining rod was something I couldn’t get my head around.
I really didn’t know what to think, but something just felt right. Not icing an injury (using heat only), not drinking iced beverages, not eating raw vegetables and NOT drinking too much water all took some time to sink in this old-way brain! When everyone including doctors tell you something else, it’s hard to ditch those ideas. After about a year I quit my regular doctor and trust what I’m learning.
Just some of my personal “stagnations” that have left the building so to speak - I will try and recall. Most noticeable is that I got UTIs all the time and was fearful not having access to an antibiotic. I haven’t had one since 2014!
I was told early 2000 that I would need a knee replacement sooner than most people my age. I still have a very slight “twinge” when I use stairs but that’s it for the most part… I don’t need a knee replacement!
I have not had my annual birthday bronchitis and have only gotten sick when I was under very noticeable stress, which has happened twice since 2014. I am no longer taking ANY prescription meds!!! Oh, did I mention I sleep better!!!! Herbs and talking to Melissa has also helped acid reflux a GREAT deal!!!
AND my body fought off COVID - complete with no symptoms and antibodies!!!
I think this journey is something you work on everyday consciously and unconsciously!!
A BIG leap of faith… but that’s the take away… FAITH!! AND Gratitude!!!”
Nancy Elder
The road that led me to Melissa's door began in 2011. I came home in the afternoon to find my husband, Larry, daughter, Carrie and son-in-law Brian waiting for me. Not normal. Larry took my hand and asked me to sit with them, “Carrie’s cancer has returned.” Stage IV breast cancer is the “satan’s name”. In that moment , my heart fell out of my body and shattered into pieces. How does a mother hear those words and take another breath? This began my descent into hell.
A journey of treatments for our daughter and learning that she was only expected to live six
months. I felt sentenced to life in prison.
Depression, anxiety and dramatic weight loss were only the outer manifestations of a pain so
deep I could not breathe but somewhere inside I knew I had to stay alive.
When Carrie was diagnosed the first time, at age 31 (five years earlier), she was in medical school and not yet married. I was so grateful to be able to pour my heart into her journey back to health. So much love and support came our way-it nourished both of us and she became a breast cancer survivor. She had looked death in the eye and found a depth of gratitude and joy that she had never known. It was contagious — she shared that wisdom and love with her family, friends and patients . She met and married Brian and she became pregnant. She had wanted to be a mom all her life but that was not part of her journey in this life. She miscarried. We all mourned that loss deeply, yet were hopeful that the miracle of a baby was just a little further down the road. Then at 37 years of age, her life, full of promise and love experienced “satan’s return”. The cancer had come back.
I know there are no accidents but cruel reality disconnected me from that wisdom and my soul went with it. This spiral began for me: medication, psychotherapy, ECT, of course these were only treating the symptoms of depression and anxiety but my soul was shattered by grief.
Carrie was amazing in her strength and courage. She endured, with grace, the pain, the fatigue and the full accompaniment of everything that went with her cancer treatments. She was able to go back into her medical practice and give her patients excellent care and true compassion. She exceeded the six month prognosis and went onto live for almost five years. She passed in 2016 and that was the beginning of my new relationship with my daughter. In 2017, she led me (and I am not speaking allegorically) to a gifted healer, Iva Nasr. The spiritual healing began in earnest. Iva held, supported and guided me in so many ways and when I could no longer tolerate the side effects of all the medications, Melissa appeared on Iva’s radar.
As anyone who has had the opportunity to work with Melissa knows, her practice embraces your whole being: acupuncture, herbs, and Dragon’s Way Qigong. I immediately sensed Melissa was with me reflecting my reconnect with my own inner physician. I began to feel the interdependence of all my body’s systems. I recognized everything is energy and I began to step into the universal source of all energy. Every cell in my body began to harmonize with Divine Flow. Melissa’s understanding of my meridian system and ability to work with it cleared and released blockages and downloaded energy from the Universal Qi. She taught me how to open the four master energy gates, releasing stagnation in my upper and lower body and strengthening my energy foundation. Balance returned. "Dis-ease” transformed. I found my joy again. My heart overflows with gratitude and I have reconnected to the infinite and unconditional love of the universe. Miracles are everywhere you just need the access code.
Lee Glasscock
I first was introduced to Melissa and the Indy Healing Center by way of wanting acupuncture for stress and anxiety. Over the last few years, Melissa and the physical walls of the healing space have been so much more than just acupuncture. I have been moved and pushed to see myself and the world around me in such a different light than I ever had before. In a nutshell, it is about energy and connection. I now I understand every little thing is energy and that it can either stay stuck or it can move. I also see my connection to myself and my spirit and my connection to others is a huge part of my overall health.
I particularly came in really wanting to "clear up" issues I thought were wrong with me. These issues being mental health, digestion and diet. I really had come to believe that I needed to restrict my diet to be my best which in turn resulted in me restricting most things in life, like joy, creativity and true connection.
My first Dragons Way I really, by habit, focused on the food and diet and somewhat ignored and downplayed the other information like moving out energy and opening up to releasing emotions and connecting to my true self. I think my 2nd or 3rd Dragons Way or maybe during Digesting the Universe, I realized, WOW! My beliefs matter. My thought patterns matter. My liver can really be screwed up if I'm not dancing, singing or creating! All this restriction, all these rules and all this being serious about being healthy, this is why I feel half alive!
Being alive is about being alive now, not in the future "once all your problems are solved."
So many sessions I have sat with Melissa while I come up with my "physical symptom of the month" and she gently listens and lets me give myself my own answer, that I have all the answers. My body is full of wisdom and my biggest enemy isn't the wrong food or the anxiety I have labeled for myself or the physical symptom floating to the top, its not trusting myself. She has taught me time and time again, to notice and not judge. To be curious and playful, not harsh and so rigid.
The biggest shift of knowledge I have gained since being a patient at Indy Healing Center is knowing that we all have an inner wisdom of knowing what we need. I believe and understand that even a tiny cold is our way of processing exactly what we need at the time and that if we listen to ourselves and our bodies, it always has a message.
For me, the message is ongoing and is always inviting me to keep going to get closer to a joyous, creative and healthy being. Melissa has helped me see that the food restriction and anxiety is really just from being too rigid, not something that needs more restriction and rules. I thought after 4 kids and all this stress life had to be hard, but turns out - I am deep down wild and free, so all the stress is really coming from not being my true self.
There is an Indigo Girls song that says "the hardest to learn was the least complicated." This explains so well what I have learned from my time at Indy Healing Center, that we have the simple answers inside of us, guiding us and leading us to strive. The rules and beliefs we create over time are so complicated. The first appointment I had with Melissa she instructed me to "go play in the park, put flowers in my hair and eat a cupcake." I still consider this the best medicine I could find for my soul when my brain and head take over. Maybe only second to a hot bath and piano music, all things that make my body and heart feel alive and connected.
I am so grateful for the shifts, tears and laughs I have had with Melissa and others within the sacred space at Indy Healing Center.
Kristin Hackman