Episode 310: Turn Pain Into Power with Sydney Williams

This week Sydney Williams joins me on the show! Sydney is a former collegiate athlete and competitive skydiver (and it was news to me this is a competitive sport!) who unexpectedly found herself on the receiving end of a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis while grappling with unresolved trauma from a decades-old sexual assault. So what did she do? She set out on a mission to turn her pain into power. Two hikes across Catalina Island and 80 miles later, she founded Hiking My Feelings to help others tap into the mind-body connection and healing power of nature that helped kick her self-limiting beliefs and disease into remission.  In this episode, Sydney and I had a conversation about enduring hardships, the choices we make in the wake of them, and how we cope and make peace with our pain. We also talked about how Sydney’s hiking trips led her to appreciate her body, as well as, accepting and reversing her Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis. Her story is an incredible one. Our conversation was a beautiful one. I hope you’ll listen.  In this episode, you’ll hear: What led Sydney to hike the Trans-Catalina Trail, completely unprepared, armed only with delusional self-confidence (5:21) Some of the moments and lessons from her first backpacking trip (12:57) Embracing her body just the way it is and taking deliberate action to make her social media feed a place to find positivity and inspiration (13:50) Her Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis, how she handled it and what she did to reverse it (18:22) What it means to unpack your trauma and how Sydney began to unpack her own following a sexual assault (29:03) One step survivors of trauma can take to start the healing process (40:44) http://yourkickasslife.com/310   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices