What happens when you've spent your life surviving - and begin to realise there may be a purpose within everything you've lived through?In this episode of The Auburn Conversations, I’m joined by wellness coach Heather from Walking With Heather, whose extraordinary story is one of illness, trauma, faith, resilience and ultimately finding a way to use her experiences to help others.Heather was born with a congenital heart defect and was not expected to survive to her first birthday.She did.By the age of 17, she had undergone four open-heart surgeries. Then, at 38, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. She also lives with fibromyalgia, ADHD, osteoarthritis and chronic pain.But this conversation isn't simply about everything Heather has survived.It's about what happened because she survived.Heather speaks openly about the medical trauma, depression and anxiety she has experienced, and shares an incredibly personal period in her life when she questioned whether she wanted to continue.She also tells me about an experience during heart surgery at the age of 16 that she has rarely spoken about.Heather remembers watching the surgery taking place and feeling a peaceful presence with her. At the end, she remembers hearing:🧡 “It is not your time, I have a greater purpose for you.”Today, Heather believes that purpose is becoming clearer.She now uses her own lived experience to support and advocate for people living with chronic illness and invisible disabilities, while building her work as a wellness coach and sharing stories through her own podcast, Living Beyond the Invisible: A Walk with Heather.In our conversation we explore:✨ Growing up with a congenital heart condition✨ Surviving four open-heart surgeries✨ Heather's experience of breast cancer✨ Chronic pain and fibromyalgia✨ The hidden impact of medical trauma✨ Why people with invisible illnesses often mask how they're really feeling✨ Faith and Heather's relationship with God✨ Her extraordinary experience during heart surgery✨ Finding purpose after years of questioning why✨ Becoming a voice for people with invisible disabilities✨ Taking small, realistic steps when living with chronic illness✨ Heather's work as a wellness coach✨ Her dream of creating a nonprofit to support the chronic illness communityTowards the end, I asked Heather what she would say to her younger self, knowing everything she knows today.Her answer was beautiful:🧡 “Your life has meaning.”And:🧡 “The world is absolutely a better place with you in it and you 100% have a purpose.”This is an incredibly open conversation about surviving, healing, faith, purpose and discovering that sometimes the experiences we would never have chosen can lead us somewhere we never expected.Thank you, Heather, for trusting me with your story. 🧡⚠️ Content note: This episode contains discussion of serious illness, medical trauma, depression, anxiety and past suicidal thoughts. Please take care while listening.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH HEATHER🌐 Website:walkingwithheather.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━THE AUBURN CONVERSATIONSFor more episodes and to find all the listening platforms, visit:🌐 Website: https://www.sjwilliams-spiritual-arts-academy.com/ Other social platforms:📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sjwilliamsspiritualacademy/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/williams.sarahj ▶️ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEbffKtWxgc💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjwilliamsspiritualartsacademy/ 🧡 The Auburn Guide - SJ Williams, buy the book:www.sjwilliams-spiritual-arts-academy.com/buy-the-auburn-guide#TheAuburnConversations #chronicillness #invisibleillness #medicaltrauma #findingpurpose #spiritualjourney #faith #fibromyalgia #wellness #WalkingWithHeather #TheAuburnGuide