Learn to Maximize Your Health Potential Today!
A Legacy in the making...
Meet Monique Bilodeau-Nestmann ~ Founder, Healer, and Educator
Mahatma Ghandi said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."
When was the last time you dug deep and reflected on the change you must be for this world?
When was the last time you pondered on the true greatness you have within that has the power to inspire and influence societal and global change?
When was the last time you looked at each day as the tremendous opportunity it is for creating a masterpiece with your life that will bless the world for generations to come?
We are living in a very turbulent time in history, with the world sitting on the precipice of extraordinary devastation. It is no longer an option for anyone who cares to sit by idle and indifferent. Now is the time that we must rise to the best of who we were created to be.
We all have an important God-given purpose that comes with gifts and dreams. But how often do we sell out our purpose, our gifts and dreams to the temptation of despair and giving up because of life’s hard hits. Don’t ever do that. God’s love for you never sells out, so don’t sell out on yourself.
My purpose is strong and clear. It is a purpose that was born out of tragedy. Something extraordinary happens on the journey from tragedy to triumph. When we push beyond our limits to attain the seemingly unattainable, a powerful inner strength develops in us that no one can ever take away. It is a type of strength that sends a strong message to the world and becomes an example that points the way for others to achieve the best of who they are designed to be.
Hi, I’m Monique Bilodeau-Nestmann and it is my passion to inspire and empower people like you to maximize your overall potential so that you can experience a life of unlimited possibilities and profoundly impact the world around you in a positive way.
I do this through natural health and healing. My life story has earned me the right to speak on this.
Who could have known that the founding and success of Essence Vitality would have been birthed in tragedy....
More than twenty-five years ago my family and I found myself in a hopeless situation with my health. It was then that we turned to natural healing for solutions and ultimately proved that ‘your body’s ability to heal is greater than anyone has ever permitted you to believe.’
My life story truly began with my birth when the doctor accidentally fractured my skull with forceps. This was the start of a lifetime of severe health challenges.
I spent the first year of my life suffering from extreme colic. When I was 3 months old, I nearly died in my mother’s arms. By the time I was 5, I had an adverse reaction to one of my childhood vaccines. I spent the first 9 years of my life living on continuous rounds of antibiotics, could not breathe through my nose until I was 9 and saw a homeopathic physician, was allergic to almost everything, had an asthma diagnosis, was extremely hyperactive, and, on account of my ill-health, I regret to say, I was sometimes mean and violent.
Sleeping was even a problem for me. I had to sleep propped up on four pillows just so I could breathe properly while I slept. My ability to learn suffered significantly. This climaxed when my public-school teachers removed me from my regular class and placed me in a special needs learning program, which ultimately destroyed my self-esteem. My parents eventually pulled me out of the school system to be homeschooled so I could learn according to my needs.
Could my health circumstances deteriorate any further?
The downward spiral of my health continued until I hit rock bottom in 1996. It was then that I was diagnosed with a severe case of idiopathic scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine with no known cause, and deteriorating organs. Medically, I was told there was no hope of recovery and the only solution for my back was a body brace and surgery. Considering that spinal surgery is a major procedure, my family and I investigated the ‘success’ of this type of surgery. We were absolutely horrified by the disastrous results some people had experienced making the cure permanently worse than the disease.
That, among other pressing things, became the catalyst for the defining moment in which we had to make the decision that my health was our personal responsibility, and we would have to figure out some way of totally reversing my circumstances and restoring my health.
We Trusted in God, The Strength of Desire, The Power to Heal
There were countless ups and downs!
That time of my life was nothing other than crazy and dramatic, with countless ups and downs. Daring to go beyond the condemnation of any diagnosis and invest yourself completely in finding your own solutions, is no easy task. The journey demands true grit. It can often be extremely painful and frustrating, because you’re often alone, judged, and have no support, including from those you thought you could count on.
My health challenges affected every aspect of my life- physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, socially, and relationally. And it certainly affected my parents financially. It was devastating on every possible level. When you have devastation to this magnitude, it extends to and affects the entire family. It can create for a lot of animosity and hurt amongst family members. I’m the eldest of eight children. And while my mom was spending her time trying to figure things out for me, and my dad was working to pay the expenses, they weren’t always available for my other brothers and sisters. This is the reality of dealing with severe health challenges. Healing is so much more than just the physical. And it needs to go beyond the individual diagnosed. It needs to extend to the entire family because the whole family is involved in some way.
When I received the diagnosis with no known cure from the doctor, I ran to the hospital bathroom, locked myself in and just cried. My dad came to talk to me. I literally collapsed in his arms as he told me, “Monique, I would take this for you if I could.” At home, after a week of crying, my mom finally came out of her bedroom and looked at me and said, “Well, Monique, you’re not dead until your dead. It’s not over until it’s over, and even if we lose everything and have to live in tents and string everyone up in hammocks, as long as we stick together, we’ll be ok.” And so that’s exactly what we did. No matter what we came up against and endured, we always stuck together and chose to chase hope! And hope we always found!
The Greater the Tragedy, the Greater the Triumph
From Patient to Practitioner, From Special Needs Student to Internationally Trained Coach, Speaker & Trainer
Over the years, my family and I have cried a river of tears. I have experienced pain that I never thought was humanly possible to endure. But we succeeded exponentially. The greater the tragedy, the greater the triumph!
Everything we found and tried brought me to a new level of health and healing. No matter how hard things got at times, we had a firm sense of knowing that I would achieve success no matter what. We were completely committed to doing whatever it took to heal.
Each Passing Year...
Each passing year brought a whole new level of vitality and stamina for me. I worked hard at recovering my chronic health conditions. The best was yet to be.
Little by little my spine started to straighten. And by the year 2000, I had enough correction that I took off my body brace forever. And from that point forward, I would never again need to worry that I needed surgery for my spine.
Over time, the health of my organs revitalized. My ability to learn improved. Even my emotional and spiritual well-being changed for the better. Literally, every aspect of my life was touched by my healing. I hit my stride, and my family and I have not looked back since.
I went from barely surviving to thriving. From being the special needs student, who couldn’t learn, and the patient without hope of ever healing, to the teacher and natural health practitioner. We truly cracked our own code for real healing and long-lasting health and vitality.
The year 2000 began my professional journey in natural health and healing. I became certified and after registered as a natural health practitioner. I have been providing manual therapy to people since the year 2000, have been offering organic and natural health alternatives since 2004, became a member of the Natural Health Practitioners of Canada in 2007, and became an independent certified coach, teacher & speaker with The John Maxwell Team in 2017. To date, I hold more than 30 different certifications, serve on an international research team, have been approved to serve on an institutional review board for human research, and I work with people from around the world helping them learn how to achieve their best life through natural health and healing.
I have spoken as a keynote speaker, taught and assisted with teaching continuing educational classes, created my own online masterclasses, and mentored other practitioners. My passion for inspiring and empowering people to transform their lives by transforming their health never ends! And neither does my learning!
It has been my greatest desire to serve alongside the world's top doctors, practitioners, teachers, and researchers who continue the science, development, and teachings of natural health and healing. I absolutely love what I do. I love inspiring and empowering people. And I love making a positive impact on people's lives. This truly is a dream come true!
An Unforeseen Health Crisis
A Day That Changed My Life Forever!
What drives my passion and purpose are the moments that have changed my life forever. September 5, 2021, became the most recent monumental day that changed my life. That day began an unforeseen serious health crisis, the most intensive health journey and learning curve, to date, of my life. A journey that brought me to my knees in despair at times. I could have never anticipated that being exposed to something, unknowingly at the time, so toxic for my body could set off a cascade of such catastrophic and very serious adverse reactions.
I have been told countless times that I'm the canary in the coal mine, the one who doesn't fit into any textbooks. This exposure would later prove to have transpired into, but definitely not limited to, a massive overload of infections throughout my body that led to aggressive and critical symptomatology affecting literally ever major system of my body.
It is literally a miracle I am still alive.
My life was completely incapacitated. I was so traumatized by some of the most severe crisis moments I went through. Thankfully, I did have good days. It was those good days that filled my 'hope tank' and gave me the courage and stamina to continue on. I needed courage and stamina because the next crash would inevitably come. And just when I thought I had experienced 'it all', something new, and more serious would happen.
I was challenged to my maximum capacity with the limits of my life pushed to the extreme.
In just under three years, I hemorrhaged more than twenty times and spent more than half the rest of the time aggressively bleeding. I experienced the relentless excruciating pain of moving, cutting razor blades throughout my entire body, including in my gut, heart, lungs, and brain. I suffered from damaging tachycardia, lungs filling up with fluid making me feel like I was suffocating, nerve injury and neurological damage that led to loss of feeling and suboptimal function throughout various parts of my body. And that’s only touching the surface of what transpired since September 5, 2021. But through it all, I continued to choose life and chase hope like I always did before. And hope I continued to find.
I have been working on my recovery for nearly three years. My healing journey continues daily. Repairing scar tissue, nerve damage and other neurological and cardiovascular issues, a severely dysbiotic gut microbiome, and chronic pain and fatigue, just to name a few, while conquering multiple serious infections, have been extraordinarily tough and rough. And there’s more I still need to do for my complete restoration of health. But the hardest to heal, not only for myself, but also for my husband, son, and family has been the complete emotional devastation and crushing impact from me suffering a miscarriage and nearly dying due to this extremely harsh unforeseen health crisis.
This was the climax of a lifetime of overcoming health challenges.
I have always found that when I needed help the most, God would provide me with exactly what I needed when exactly I needed it. I have been so blessed to have been supported by an absolutely awesome and outstanding team of health care professionals, teachers, and caring individuals, from all over, who continuously did and do their best to help me. At times, it has definitely been a roller coaster ride of uncertainty. But imagine the relief I would feel and an answer to prayer it was each time I would learn something new or find someone else to help me heal. Finding someone who has a phenomenal heart, full of love, compassion and patience, who cares enough to 'heal the hurt,' understands the insanity of what is going on in your body, who has a tangible process of recovery, and a remarkable ability of drawing out the healer within, is truly a gift and an answer to prayer that is so great words can not possibly describe. I will be forever grateful to all those courageous people who chose and continue to choose daily to be a selfless gift of themselves to others by giving their love and using their talents, knowledge, experience and expertise to help people like me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. This is who I also choose to be in the world.
Such goodness as this truly revolutionizes the world because the goodness of life will never be denied!
MY PASSION: Helping Initiate the Era of the Healer!
"My mission is to inspire and empower people to maximize their overall health so that they can experience a life of unlimited possibilities." (Monique Bilodeau-Nestmann)
Overcoming debilitating health challenges is no easy task. That’s the hard, raw truth. I have a 'PhD' through personal experience in this truth. There is nothing ever normal about experiencing severe health challenges. It’s absolutely devastating in every possible way- physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, socially, relationally, financially, and more. And it’s often a lonesome and painful road. Thank goodness those who struggle in this way tend to find each other and find a family of love and support in each other.
I’ve often wondered how my passion for natural health and healing, and helping others would evolve. Moving forward from this newest healing journey, I understand things more clearly. We can’t give what we don’t have. And we grow in courage by having our courage challenged. Overcoming this last unforeseen health challenge has been the greatest act of courage I’ve ever had to make yet. But as I succeed each and every day, I become a pillar of greater strength, filled with more knowledge, more experience, more expertise, and a heart full of even more love and compassion, ready, able and willing to serve and help those who need help the most to heal. No one gets left behind who doesn’t want to be left behind. By successfully unlocking my greatest potential for life, I am in an incredible position to help others do the same.
Over the years, I have worked with people of all ages and with all levels of vitality. I have worked with babies as young as ten minutes old, and seniors as old as 101 years of age. I have worked with moms concerned about the well-being of their families, and hardworking men, trying to get out of pain just to get back to work to support their families. I have worked with athletes trying to recover from sports injuries or maximize their game, and doctors, surgeons, and other health practitioners who already have a deep understanding of health and vitality and choose to take extra steps necessary to live their best quality of life. I have worked with business owners who understand that the maximum sustainable success of their business directly relates to their ability to maintain good health, and seniors who are trying to recover or maintain their vitality during their golden years. I have worked with people from across Canada, parts of the USA, Mexico, El Salvador, Australia, and other parts of the world.
My personal and professional experience has shown me that it is true that if you are willing to do the work, the sky is the limit for possibilities, regardless of your circumstances. In our lifetime, we may help many people, but we will only ever heal one person, and that one person is ourselves. A very good, kind, compassionate, and brilliant person in my life, someone who has helped me exceedingly, taught me this. 'No one else can heal you; only you can heal yourself.' You are the solution because God designed your body to heal!
Daily life is filled with choices, and it is those choices that mold the world around you. We all have the freedom to choose, but we are not exempt from the consequence of our choices. Great health, vitality and performance is a choice. Choose it. Commit to it. Maximize it.
As my mentor says, "Your healing choices are life-changing for your future. Watch, listen, and feel the miracle. It is you! The wonder of life will follow when you are at your best. And the world will settle and heal with each of us."
I believe in chasing hope. I believe in supporting each other. I believe that love does indeed heal people. And I believe that it is our God-given gift and right to experience and enjoy a complete restoration and maintenance of our blueprint design for health, healing, and vitality. I truly have an unwavering belief in the capacity for life.
Now is the time to initiate the Healer within!
Now is the time to heal and experience the fullest expression of life according to your God-given design!
Now is the time to rise up and be the change you want to see in the world!