Joyce Friesen

Joyce Friesen, an integral living coach and mentor, helps people identify their major life challenges and goals. As advisor and advocate she supports people to revolutionize their overall health and well-being.

As a result of her own experience, and over a 30-year career in medical information and management at both the Vancouver Hospital Medical Library and the Woodward Biomedical Library at the University of British Columbia, Joyce developed an integrated system for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual regeneration.

As a lifelong seeker, Joyce discovered her spiritual path during the depths of her stress and depression. She has been studying meditation with spiritual master Sri Chinmoy for over 15 years.

Here’s How Joyce Tells Her Story

My mother died of stomach cancer when I was 18. It was horrible. They removed her stomach and she starved to death. On the day that she died I told myself, I am not going there. This is not going to happen to me. I could not allow such tragic sickness and suffering into my life. I had to find answers that would empower me in my commitment to wellness.

And So My Quest Began

For years I read nutrition and self help books, bought a supplement because it was advertised as “the solution” to my problem. I tried several different therapies. I ate margarine because butter was bad. Then “they” said margarine was bad, and butter was good. So I switched back.

My diet wasn’t great, even though I thought I was eating healthy. I had a healthy diet according to the latest research and what the media said. In fact, this is the most common phrase I hear from people today, “I’m eating healthy, but I just don’t feel great.”

Just like the ice cream flavour of the month there always seemed to be something new that would fix me. I spent 1000’s of $’s and couldn’t say I felt any better. In fact I felt worse.

My Lifestyle

Of course life got complicated, and like most women, I made lifestyle choices that were destructive. I smoked. I drank too much. I took birth control pills.

I got married and had children.

On the surface, it appeared as though I had it all together: the perfect career, a lovely home, a beautiful garden, a swimming pool and a country club membership. I was like a lot of women—superwoman or bust.

But I was not only stressed. I was sick with severe colds and flu, and constant headaches that often lasted for five days. I was depressed and totally exhausted, but I kept on pushing myself.

And then one day, when I got out of bed, I was so dizzy, I couldn’t move. My doctor did a battery of tests that indicated there was nothing physically wrong with me. And yet I didn’t feel good. I didn’t look good and I was afraid for my overall health.

The Road Less Travelled

Out of desperation, I went to see a homeopath. She gave me the full picture of what was really going on inside my body. I had allergies I didn’t know about. I had fungal, bacterial and viral infections in various parts of my body. I had parasites. I had chemical and metal overload and the list went on. Internally, I was a toxic waste dump.

That rather horrifying assessment was my wake-up call. I knew I needed to flush out the toxins and waste from my body. But where did they all come from? And how was I going to get them out?

And I knew I needed to take a hard look at my toxic lifestyle. But not just what was going on with my body. I needed to look at my attitudes, my thoughts, and my beliefs. And the biggest question of all—who am I?

Ancient Principles—Modern Science

My homeopath introduced me to the ancient Chinese principles of nourish, balance, and cleanse—the philosophy of regeneration. These principles applied not only to the body, but also to the mind and emotions.

The philosophy of regeneration says that the body is best nourished by a wide variety of whole foods. Once the body is nourished, it has the innate ability to bring itself into balance and harmony, to create optimum health. It is a blue print for vitality and well-being.

I finally understood the problem of modern nutrition. There is no philosophy. The single isolate or single nutrient approach is just a prop up job. If you try to do something to strengthen the body with one single herb or nutrient and expect to get a whole effect, you won’t. And you will probably get a side effect as your body is pulling in too many different directions all at the same time.

Our bodies have so many different parts, and so many different things are required to nourish all these different parts. If you don’t nourish the whole there can be no balance. There will only be excess and deficiency.

But regeneration goes beyond the body and encompasses the mind and heart also. If we have negative thoughts our minds are out of balance. If we have anger our emotions are out of balance. And if we have hatred our hearts are out of balance and we cannot become the love we came here to spread.

And now the exciting news. Even contemporary science is beginning to understand what the ancients knew. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

As a result of the mapping of the human genome, a whole new science has emerged—epigenetics. The greatest discovery during this project was that it is the context of the cells that is the most important factor in determining health—not DNA. It is what happens outside the cell that is the critical factor. It’s what happens to the DNA that makes it respond.

This applies to nutrition as well. An exciting aspect of epigenetics is nutritional genomics, the discovery of the path to personalized nutrition. What we put into our mouths has a profound effect, not only on our body, but on our entire being.

The deeper I dig into this knowledge the stronger is my inspiration to share my journey with all those who resonate with me. I believe that anything worth having is worth sharing. So by building a better me, I build a better world.

“As you ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the body, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul; and this … is the reason why the cure of many diseases is unknown to the physicians of Greece, because they are ignorant of the whole, which ought to be studied also; for the part can never be well unless the whole is well.” Plato