Personal history of overcoming

My story is a true story of overcoming hurdles and what it entails, sacrifice, pain, loss, acceptance, hope, despair…but it is also a story of courage, capabilities, confidence, learning, balance and happiness. Hello, I am Yolanda, and probably like you, life has been testing me since my early stages, and what I have lived and learned has led me to be who I am today, someone with numerous tools self-tested with positive results, which I can put at your disposal if you decide to take this path with me. Here I share the story of my life, so you understand why I can be your guide so that together we can find your instruction book. 

I had a childhood marked by threats and fears towards my father, in which I was part of the circle of toxic relationships between my parents, where the figure of the man submitted the woman to his own will. This led me to develop patterns of toxic behaviour in my relationships that took me years to detect and overcome. 

The first big test of my life came at the age of 14, when, in addition to suffering the death of my father, I survived a motorbike accident that left me incapacitated for months in bed and with a bleak forecast of staying in a wheelchair forever. 

THE AWAKENING

Even at that age I was convinced that I would not collapse, and despite the numerous fractures to my spine and a corset covering half my body, I recovered with endless hours of rehabilitation, persistent mental work and the unconditional help of my mother.  

Taking into account the panorama I experienced during my adolescence, my university years were no less complicated. I suffered episodes of depression and panic attacks, I suffered from bulimia, and due to my low self-esteem, I wanted to disappear forever. I still shudder to recall some situations I experienced where I realized the power of the mind when it is not your friend. In particular, one day I was looking at myself in the mirror and although I knew that what I was seeing was a thin, physically strong and beautiful body, my mind was selling it as something ugly, undesirable, and I was scared. 

That day I woke up, something wasn’t right, and I started to work on myself.

LEARNING

I’ve learned that health is very much linked to your emotions, and I, like some of you, have been hit by it at two points in my life.

A first time during my last year of work in a top management position. I sucked the stress in such a way that I developed Bell’s palsy. The left side of my face and my shoulder became paralyzed, my mouth dropped and I had problems with the vision in my left eye. This made me take action, so I decided to hand in my voluntary redundancy letter and shortly afterwards I created my first Pilates and rehabilitation space. 

A second time, when I thought I had healed everything, an autoimmune disease came to me unexpectedly. I was referred to a rheumatologist who didn’t know which box to put me in, whether it was Lupus or Fibromyalgia. After numerous visits to the hospital and following a very strong medication that didn’t help me at all, one day I decided to stop and think about everything that was happening. That day I remember that everything was overcoming me, my hands hurt, I couldn’t drive, it was hard to walk… I couldn’t believe it. With all the personal work I had done, I kept asking myself: how can I find myself in this situation? It was hopeless.  I allowed myself to cry, to fall into the depths, so that I could free myself. I stopped, took a deep breath and said out loud: “I DO NOT HAVE THIS DISEASE, I DO NOT ACCEPT IT AS MY OWN. 

I took measures such as further improving my diet, natural therapies and a lot of self-hypnosis with work at the cellular level, and today, that autoimmune disease is part of my past and also part of my great personal growth.

APPRECIATION

On my way I have realized that one must love and value the BEING here. I have two wonderful children and a husband who is my best friend, companion, lover and sometimes, because not everything is a bed of roses, my worst headache. My experiences as a mother, especially my second time, have been another stage in my life mapped out to get my tools out, apply them correctly and outshine myself once again.

 My first pregnancy was relatively good. At that time, I was in Dublin running my own Pilates and rehabilitation studio. In the last few weeks of pregnancy, I developed pre-eclampsia and at 41 weeks and due to a poor induction of labour in hospital, I had to have an emergency C-section to save the baby and me.

With my first child in my arms, I forgot the terrible episode of pain, uncertainty and tiredness I had experienced. I thought I was going to die because my membrane was abruptly and unexpectedly ruptured…you can imagine what it was like to come home and recover having my baby already craving all my attention. Anemia, kidney and liver damage, changes in vision and a lot of accumulated tiredness. My baby gave me a lot of strength and an important reason: I had to fight for both. 6 months later I was physically and mentally recovered to return to my work at the clinic. 

My second pregnancy was very different from the beginning. At 8 weeks gestation I started with dizziness, vomiting and pain that led me to close my business. I could not walk, drive or play sports and developed two thrombophlebitis in which I was urgently hospitalized. During the second hospitalization I was advised to stay in hospital for the rest of the pregnancy so that I could be injected with heparin every day and bring the pregnancy to a successful end, but at that time I could not face staying in hospital for so long; I knew I would be plunged into a terrible depression. The solution, because I looked for it, was to learn how to inject the heparin, which is not an easy task and has its risks, so that I could go home. The doctor agreed and sent me a nurse who taught me how to do it.

At 36 weeks of gestation, already overcome by pain and dizziness and on the verge of collapse because I could hardly move, I begged my gynecologist to perform a caesarean section, and this was done in week 37, relieving my suffering. My daughter is now a healthy and happy child, and I have gone through 3 years of physical and emotional recovery that is part of my personal growth. 

In this great journey of my life, I have shown myself to be strong, brave and with a great desire to improve. At times I have felt tested, on the tightrope, as if I was being prepared to do my job better, with knowledge and first-hand experience. To this day I continue to face tests, which is to be expected, but now I see them coming, I anticipate and overcome those obstacles with greater ease, showing me that if I want to, I can.

I currently feel highly qualified to advise you on your health, your physique and the management of your emotions, to build a full life at all levels and help you achieve your personal goals. My specialization in the human mind and its behaviours has given me the right tools to do quality work, which gives me great inner peace in knowing that what I have been through serves to help others achieve that balance.

“Mejorando estas áreas mejorarás todo lo que emprendas”

“Conozco el camino”

Yolanda Arquero