Ellen Livingston is the director of Living Heart Health Ministry. She is a natural health and wellness mentor whose insight is grounded in over 20 years of experience dedicated to a raw vegan lifestyle, and helping others choose a creative, heart-led life. Known for her sincerity, compassion, and accessible teaching style, Livingston is a sought-after public speaker and writer for topics ranging from raw vegan science, to lifestyle considerations, to mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Her audiences include those who are seeking to raise their health and energy levels, to those ready to embark on the deepest emotional and spiritual journeys.
She has been mentoring others and leading unique wellness retreats in the U.S. and Costa Rica since 2007 and has self-published a book called The Ultimate Raw Food Diet Detox and Wellness Program, with another one about to be released titled Following Nature Home.
Connect with Livingston at EllenLivingston.com or by emailing ellen@ellenlivingston.com. You can also find her on substack.com/@ellenlivingston, facebook.com/ellen.livingston.315, and youtube.com/@LivingYogaRawFoods.
By Ellen Livingston
I’ve never enjoyed exposing myself to potential scrutiny and criticism. Staying quietly out of the limelight seemed like a good strategy for avoiding these unpleasantries. My friendly, people-loving nature, along with a deep desire for approval, caused me to prioritize putting others at ease, and to do what I could to keep everybody comfortable. I’d always believed that was the right thing to do…the nice thing to do. In many ways it felt good, yet a disastrous cost to me of all this people-pleasing was that I was chronically tense, and I was squelching my own true self-expression.
My body couldn’t lie. Symptoms of dis-ease developed and persisted, and finally, becoming sick and tired of being sick and tired was the catalyst that squeezed me out of my comfort zone…it simply became too uncomfortable there. What ignited the transformative journey that unfolded next, was my discovery of a diet almost wholly of fresh ripe fruits and greens—nature’s pure and gentle nourishment. My painful symptoms subsided, my energy rebounded in spades, and I felt the whole frequency of me shift into a higher gear. It was thrilling!
And I found myself out on a limb, heroically courageous and determined, healed and healing, and... alone. I was ready to shout about what I had found and tell everyone what it was doing for me. But very few had any real interest in such radical change, and my exuberance seemed to frighten people. Weirdly, in younger years I was told I was “too quiet,” and now I was told I was saying “too much.: I had my deep knowing though, tucked safe in my heart, and nothing could deter me. I was onto something big and there was no going back to sleep.
I was daring to express my authentic journey, no matter what people would think of my unusual choices, and despite many people’s attempts to pull me back into their comfort zone. It was edgy for me...also liberating and exhilarating. I found wonderful new comrades in my raw vegan lifestyle: I posted a flier at The People’s Food Co-op advertising potlucks in my dining room, and I traveled to raw vegan events. And so began a most colorful and adventurous chapter in my journey. My ideas and visions flowed unobstructed now, and I felt a new freedom to experiment. It seemed that each adventure synchronistically led into another, as if I was nimbly hopping from lily pad to lily pad across the water.
Getting onstage was a leap. It happened organically, as I was asked to share in a public arena. I was eager, and so nervous that I brought copious notes to my first talk at Arbor Farms Market, and I must have overwhelmed my small audience with much too much information. I was invited to give talks and food demonstrations several times a month in various locations, including a regular spot at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore. I was requested every year for a decade as a main presenter at the biggest raw vegan festival in the country. With so much practice, I learned that a simple message was most effective, and that people loved my sincerity. I relaxed, put down my notes, opened up, and really enjoyed being myself onstage. I was inspiring other people to see outside of their comfort zones and dare to lead with their hearts. I owe a heartfelt thank you to The People’s Food Co-op, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore, and Arbor Farms Market for giving my vulnerable new voice a friendly stage.
I was encouraged and I expanded more. I invented workshops, seminars, and then travel-retreats. I would start with the seed of an idea, plant it, and let it grow with me as I boldly blazed new trails, one inspired step at a time. I had no real guidance except the deep current of wisdom I felt tapped into, and I was amazed at how people trusted me. It was fun to live in this spontaneous kind of flow, designing as I went, and I experienced an intoxicating feeling of limitlessness.
Risk-taking became my new comfort zone, serving my insatiable desire to stretch my own boundaries and help others grow. I realized a big dream when I developed unique annual wellness retreat in Costa Rica. These retreats were a lot of work to organize but I was fueled by inspiration. And they were such fun in the moment. I would pinch myself as I played in spectacular jungle waterfalls with my clients, testing the reality that I had created this, and that it was supporting my children and me. I manifested some dreamy country property on the edge of Ann Arbor, and an amazing 30-foot Yurt which became a cherished community hub and the site of many wonderful, magical gatherings.
Navigating the emotions and challenges that came with my quick transformation required two equally important actions from me: regularly going deep within to know my own capacity for wisdom and resourcefulness and reaching toward a benevolent higher power that is bigger than me and will always accompany me. I grew up in a family with no religious or spiritual program, and with little help understanding my emotions, so I simply invented ways of connecting with my Self and with God. Nature became my spiritual temple, and my heart led my earnest prayers.
“We all have the extraordinary coded within us, waiting to be released.”
—Jean Houston
My journey of awakening is full of magic, synchronicity, and adventure, as well as challenges that rocked me to my core. Along the way I am learning to trust myself and the higher hand that lovingly guides me. I know that I can choose to rise stronger from the ashes of any apparent defeat. I dare to share my discoveries, however uncommon, and to live differently. Not because I want the discomfort of being uncommon or different, but because I was born to learn, grow, and share, and I cannot not turn away from this calling.
Wholehearted living ultimately brought my soul home to the sunny, fruit-filled, seaside tropics of southern Florida. This required leaving my Michigan nest, the only homeland I knew for 50-plus years. I have certainly exited many comfort zones along the way, as I’ve learned to worry less about what other people think. I find comfort and confidence now in the sublime beauty of heart-led living. I’ll close with lyrics by a favorite Michigan band, which express my sentiments so well:
I was born, into this wild terrain,
Choirs of light, to show the way.
I have traveled the long verse, to the refrain,
To find the note, that must be played.
I have sang this old chorus of love for ages,
And I will sing it, till the story’s told.
—The Ragbirds, from “Lemon Grove”
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