Health & Wellness | New Year’s Day

Pain, Mindset, and the Power of Using Your Voice

As the New Year begins, I’m not setting big resolutions or chasing shiny goals.

I’m reflecting.

Over the years, I’ve learned something that doesn’t get talked about enough:

mindset matters just as much as medicine when you’re living with pain.

From 2009 to 2021, I ran my own online radio station. If you listened, you would have heard confidence, calm, laughter, and connection. What you wouldn’t have heard was the pain.

Behind the mic, both of my knees were screaming.

Every show. Every day.

I lived with chronic knee pain for years before finally having double knee replacement surgery in 2016. And yet, my voice never told that story. I learned how to show up fully — even when my body was struggling — because my mindset told me I still had something to give.

That lesson has followed me.

Now that I’m back home in Seattle, winter brings new challenges. Cold weather doesn’t play fair with arthritis. These days it’s my hips — and this year, my hands and shoulders have joined the conversation too. Pain changes how you move, how you pace yourself, how you plan your days.

But here’s what hasn’t changed:

I still know how to use my voice.

I still know how to show up — just differently.

Health and wellness isn’t about pretending pain doesn’t exist. It’s about learning how to live with it without letting it take your identity. Mindset doesn’t erase pain, but it does shape how we respond to it.

Some days, showing up looks like standing strong.

Other days, it looks like working from home, sitting down, speaking gently, and listening to your body.

Both count.

As we step into a new year, my hope for anyone reading this is simple:

Be honest with yourself. Be kind to your body. And don’t underestimate the power of your mindset in shaping your story.

You are more than what hurts.

And how you speak to yourself matters — especially on the hard days.

Here’s to a New Year rooted in awareness, grace, and self-respect.