Oct 31, 2022 - 7 min read

About Amanda

My name is Amanda Conta Steencken and I was born and raised in Jujuy, Argentina. Mom is American. Dad was Argentine. I grew up speaking both English and Spanish. Supposedly, the story goes that my first word other than "Mama" was "birdito" (a spanglish mish mash of little bird and it's Spanish version: pajarito). Language and words and their meaning were central in our home growing up. Dad used to read dictionaries from cover to cover, "just for fun" and taught English as a second language at the local University and at his private institute. Mom learned Spanish by full-on immersion.

My siblings and I grew up with a deep understanding that words matter. Had you asked me if I thought words had power when I was a kid, or a teen, I would've wondered what the heck you were talking about. I was oblivious to this essential truth for a long time. But in hindsight, I "knew" deep down that the spoken word has power. It has taken me the better part of 3 decades to fully embrace this:

Who knew that in my forties I would come into the full blown aha! moment that the spoken word matters in more ways than one! It's not just the meaning of what we say that is so powerful. It is the vibrations, the frequencies of our uttered words that affect us and the world around us and everything in it. It is the intention that imbues each uttered word that fully embodies the power behind them. Much like music affects everything that sound reaches. Much like sunlight affects everything that it touches.

In my teens, as an amateur musician/pianist, it was easy for me to comprehend the power of music. I got a high when I played the piano, when I listened to the great musicians of the past and those performers of my present, who so graciously shared their gift with the rest of the world. Music made me happy. Good music still puts a big smile on my face. I "got" the power of sound in the form of music pretty much right off the bat. I wanted to inhabit it and make that my life. What I didn't "get" at that time was the power of sound in the form of my words. In the form of the words uttered by those around me.

When I woke up one morning with swollen, painful wrists, and realized I could barely move my hands I freaked out. It hurt too much to push down the piano keys. I was blind-sighted. "It hurts", "it's swollen", " I can't...". These words were reinforced over the next 10 years by assorted doctors' words: "she can't", "she should not", "maybe piano playing isn't for you", "the x-rays show arthritic-type degeneration in the carpal bones. Bilaterally", "it's Kienbock's disease", "oh no, avascular necrosis of the scaphoid and lunate bones", "we're probably looking at Juvenile Rheumatoid arthritis here", "you probably need to change majors in college".... etc.

Etc. Etc.

With each proclamation and with each x-ray, and with each change to accommodate the pain, came more pain and more proclamations. I had made this "thing" my own. And so now I referred to it as "my arthritis", "my wrists have limited range of motion", "I switched majors because of my diagnosis"....

Words have the power to ensnare us or to free us.

Along the way and over the years I got help from the western medicine establishment in the form of compassionate physical therapists and one rheumatologist that was willing to try more than one drug. This practitioner hit on one big-pharma darling that helped get the joint pain under control enough for me to get through life each day. But it wasn't enough. Never once was lifestyle or diet discussed in these "health care" settings. Every single encounter with "the health system" left me feeling less-than-adequate and as if "I could do better". And every single encounter took place in 10 minutes or less. I realized that if I wanted a better quality of life, if I ever wanted to have kids and be a functioning human well into old age, I would have to take matters into my own hands. There was a whole lot of "fake it till you make it" going on in my 20s and 30s. And thank goodness for that! In retrospect I see that God was quietly and steadfastly imbuing me with the strength and grit needed to get through to the next stage. And the next. And the next.

Along the way and over the years I also picked up some very primitive know-how in the world of herbal medicines and some much needed clean-living habits. I became fascinated with essential oils and wild edibles and wild medicinal plants (as it happens, I came by this fascination honestly, as one of my maternal great grandmas and my paternal grandma were savvy herbalists and used these time-tested home remedies constantly). Thus began my journey into the world of wellness. I learned how to identify wild medicinals on our hikes; I met wonderful women with way more experience than I, who mentored me and continue to mentor me in all-things herbs and tinctures and salves. Through my own health adventures and those of my kids I finally embraced the lifestyle changes that were long overdue, and which were bound to help our bodies heal. Heal for real. We cut out all the junk food, ditched the cereal boxes and commercial milk products, embraced our local meat producers, got egg-laying hens and beefed up our veggie garden. We also cleaned out our medicine cabinet and bathroom closets of all industrially-produced medicines and shampoos and soaps. We embraced the sun and natural light and movement and family and friends. We decided to homeschool. We did so for many reasons, but mainly because being in the government school rat race was antithetical to our desire and belief that kids should have unlimited access to the outdoors, to sun and fresh air all the time.

Then 2020 happened. The covid saga sealed the deal for me. My eyes were opened on a whole other level. As I uncovered the layers of lies and deception we were all being subjected to, I realized there was so much more to learn. So much to unlearn first! And I desired to learn more. I yearned to learn all the amazing things I didn't learn in graduate school. I became aware of an entirely different way of doing things. Truly aware. The veil was parted and my eyes and heart were opened. I am forever thankful for 2020 and the years that followed. I resigned from a job that I loved, a wonderful teaching position at the local medical school. That heart-wrenching decision took well over a year but the freedom that ensued propelled me to go back to school myself. As I work through the courses in the Doctor of Naturopathy Program I am continuously amazed at the inherent wisdom our bodies have. As it turns out, many of the habit changes, herbal medicines and truly healthy practices I was learning and implementing on my own are part of Natural Medicine and correspond to Natural Law principles. On the side, I've become fascinated with Quantum

Medicine and Circadian Biology. The wealth of knowledge is vast in these fields, despite what the mainstream western medicine behemoth portrays. Tenacious, kind souls shared and continue to share quantum and circadian knowledge; they doggedly pursued the research and clinical practice of what 'the establishment" deemed kooky and labeled as quack medicine all throughout the 20th century; they stood firm in what they believed was the truth; and many died doing so. Thanks to them we have the opportunity to change things and do things differently. As it turns out, healing is not just about the chemistry of the situation (food and detoxing). It is also, and perhaps most importantly, about the energy, the frequencies of the situation. Light and photons and sound and phonons, and electrons and protons and the ether that connects it/us all.

"Change is the end result of all true learning"
- Leo Buscaglia

I only stopped referring to the wrist diagnosis as "my own" in the last few years. But the long journey to today, to that point where I said "ENOUGH", is what gives me the power and the authority to stand my ground, firmly, and to change what I say, to change how I say it and to charge it with the life and the power that it deserves: "THIS IS NOT HOW I TURNED OUT", "I AM WORTHY", 'MY BODY IS NOT OUT TO GET ME, MY BODY IS AMAZING", "MY BODY ONLY KNOWS HEALING AND I AM ABLE AND CAPABLE TO HELP MY BODY EMBRACE THAT STATE OF HEALING". "I CAN". "I AM".

And so here I am. What happened to your wrists, Amanda (you ask)? I was able to complete a PhD dissertation in graduate school with experiments that required me to perform spinal surgery on rodents. Those fine motor skills never went away. I still play the piano. My son has taken up piano playing too. I am learning how to shoot bow and arrow with my daughter. We hike and row and ski and enjoy life as a family and with friends. I can hoist bales of straw and bags of pine shavings and do what needs to be done for our happy chickens. Although I still ask my husband for help with the 40lb bags of chicken feed, I am finally pain-free for the first time in decades and have resumed strength training in order to build more muscle.

"Because more muscle means less inflammation! Muscle is the organ of longevity."
- Cynthia Thurlow

My wrists are AMAZING. They are no longer swollen. And the previously fused carpal bones are slowly moving more and more with each passing day. Once upon a time I couldn't do a proper downward dog in yoga. With time and intention and determination, natural law principles took center stage again, my body in it's all-encompassing wisdom is healed and I have the honor and privilege of walking into what this healing truly looks like. Fists-for-wrists downward dog is slowly being replaced with fully-placed palms down-on-the-mat downward dog. A few seconds longer each time.

"It's not as painful to learn something, if you do it incrementally"
- Yo-Yo Ma

In short: I did not become the diagnosis. I stopped embracing it. I ditched the crutch that the diagnosis had become. I chose to step into the fullness of life that was intended for me. I am healed. I am whole and I am pain-free.

And I am forever grateful.

I am grateful for the amazing people, family and friends, God placed along the way. I am grateful for my little family, our home and all our pets. I am eternally thankful for sunrises and sunsets and grass under my bare feet. I am thankful for music. And I am grateful for the ability to say Thank You.