Bending Time: How One Lawyer's Health Crisis Sparked a Life Transformation

Text "clarity" to 33777 to access her free community with resources to help identify what truly lights you up.

What if your struggle with time management isn't about time at all? When lawyer Michelle Neimeyer received a devastating diagnosis of primary biliary cholangitis—a rare autoimmune disease that typically leads to liver failure—she embarked on a journey that would completely transform her understanding of health, productivity, and fulfillment.

Michelle shares how, despite following what she believed was a healthy lifestyle with intense workouts and protein shakes, her body was silently rebelling. The shocking diagnosis forced her to question everything she thought she knew about wellness. Working with alternative practitioners and studying nutrition, she implemented radical lifestyle changes that not only normalized her liver function but reversed damage her doctors hadn't believed was possible.

The unexpected side effect? Her persistent brain fog lifted. Her energy skyrocketed. The burnout that had plagued her legal career vanished. At nearly 60, she began feeling like she was in her twenties again. Michelle realized that what she had interpreted as a time management problem was actually her body crying out for proper care—a revelation that led her to create "The Art of Bending Time."

Now a certified health coach, Michelle works with busy professionals who feel they're sacrificing their lives for their careers. She reveals how chronic stress, poor nutrition, and neglect of crucial systems like lymphatic drainage directly impact cognitive performance and energy levels. By identifying what she calls "sparks"—the small, everyday sources of joy that fuel sustainable energy—her clients learn to prevent burnout while accomplishing more meaningful work.

Whether you're feeling overwhelmed, unfocused, or simply curious about the connection between physical health and productivity, Michelle's story offers a compelling alternative to conventional approaches to time management and professional success. Text "clarity" to 33777 to access her free community with resources to help identify what truly lights you up.

Chapters

• 0:48 Meeting Michelle Neimeyer
• 2:34 Diagnosis of Rare Autoimmune Disease
• 5:58 Finding Alternative Health Solutions
• 9:05 Reversing Liver Damage Through Lifestyle
• 16:01 The Art of Bending Time
• 19:39 Lymphatic System and Movement
• 24:01 Finding Your Sparks and Avoiding Burnout

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Hi, how are you? This is Dr Damaris Murray Grossman and this is the Mindfully Integrated Show. And today we have an amazing guest, michelle, who's going to tell you about her art of bending time and art of bending, and she's a lawyer and also health advocate for those and for herself, and she wants to kind of tell her story and how she kind of came to, why she is where she is now and why her perspective on health is different than maybe your perspective is and how we can make change. So it's a great pleasure to meet you and I really am looking forward to hearing more about you. We talked a little bit about it before the show, but I want people to know you and how's it going. How are you, michelle? And I wanted to make sure is it Neimeyer? It's.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Neimeyer like Neiman Marcus, but it's pronounced correctly.

Speaker 1: 1:07

Wonderful, so thanks for being on.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Well, thank you, and you know, as I told you, I was so excited to talk to somebody who's about integrative medicine, because that's really what led me down the path to getting to creating this program that I call the Art of Bending Time getting to creating this program that I call the Art of Bending Time.

Speaker 1: 1:28

I love the name, but you know you have a reasons for why. I mean, I don't know what you know would like to discuss with the audience and you know what you'd like to share. But you know one, how did you get to this point? And then, two, you know what is your?

Speaker 2: 2:08

no-transcript. I lost 35 pounds. I was exercising, doing HIIT workouts, taking shakes that were protein, primarily protein and they have a shake called Shakeology that has a bunch of stuff in it probiotics and prebiotics and some various supplements and I felt really good. I had about a year of that where I was like I'm doing great and then I had a UTI and I had a blood test and the blood test came back with these very, very elevated liver enzymes and that turned into what I'm sure a lot of people that you talk to have experienced, where it's like oh my God, this is very scary and I'm just a primary care doctor. I don't know anything about this. You need to go see this specialist. So I went and I saw a gastroenterologist who tried to tell me that I had something they call overlap syndrome, which is really, really bad. I did not have that and I went to a hepatologist who ultimately got me to my current doctor, who's really exceptional, and what I have is called primary biliary cholangitis PBC.

Speaker 2: 3:33

It's a very rare autoimmune disease and I've had enough experience with people I know having autoimmunity and I had had some experience in my law practice. I had early on in my law practice I represented insurance companies in the coverage cases that had to do with breast implants, where early I don't know if you even remember this, but in the nineties there were a lot of lawsuits because women were saying that silicone breast implants were causing them to get fibromyalgia and, you know, lupus and all kinds of autoimmune diseases. So I had learned a lot about that and kind of the. You know the general concept of that you've got a genetic predisposition and that there's something that would trigger the disease and that you know and that you know and I also knew that traditional, standard MD kind of medicine didn't always give you answers.

Speaker 1: 4:32

It didn't always give you Right, they were.

Speaker 2: 4:35

you know, the full info that you get is we don't know what causes this, there's no cure and we hope that you know. By taking this drug we can minimize the symptoms which in my case would, if left unchecked, lead to liver failure. And you know, getting this was really scary because it was like I was seeing things online like 10-year lifespan and liver transplants and you know that kind of thing liver transplants and you know that kind of thing Crazy Like.

Speaker 1: 5:13

I mean it's an intense, you know disorder and it's like something that no one I mean it's like you said it's where I hadn't heard of it myself and the fact that you were able to find treatment and find something outside of the average, you know whatever they're, you know, like I said, the liver treatment and 10 years First, what made you look into further things? Obviously it's for your health, but how did you come about to there, to you know, to where you're at now?

Speaker 2: 5:35

Right. Well, part of it was that I I had a friend who was a naturopath and he practiced in California. He owned a home. He had grown up in Miami where I live, and owned a home in Florida. He had grown up in Miami, where I live, and owned a home in Florida and you know I knew because I had talked to him about this he had written a book about curing cancer with nutrition and he had also done he was actually Montel Williams' doctor for his MS. So he had done a lot of, you know, treating people with autoimmunity. And so the first call I made was to him to say listen, like should I be doing anything? And you know he advised me to do some various things. We looked at my whole history, like you know, really deep on what did you used to eat when you were a kid and what do you eat now and what was your health history as a kid.

Speaker 2: 6:30

And I now understand having become certified as a health coach, you know we were looking at timelines to find things like did I have antibiotics? I had so many antibiotics as a kid Like I was the kid who always had an ear infection and always had strep and always had, you know, and it was constant antibiotics. My body probably has no, had no microbiome, except the bad stuff that came back and came in later, you know. So I I learned a lot about that kind of stuff and then I started making big changes. I went raw foods for a while. I then went through a kind of like a Whole30 type of elimination diet. There's a doctor out there named Amy Myers.

Speaker 2: 7:14

I followed her protocol, learned I had a very bad problem with gluten, you know and over time sort of found my own groove with a different kind of exercise. I'm not nearly as hard on my body anymore as far as exercise goes. I walk a lot, I stretch, I do various things, but I'm not like beating myself up the way I used to. I drink a lot more water and drink filtered water. You know I eat a lot more vegetables and a lot more fruits. And just you, and just if you look at what I ate in my lifestyle before and you look at it today, you wouldn't know I was the same person and that has led to incredible change.

Speaker 2: 7:58

And the thing I realized and the reason I put together the Art of Bending Time was I realized that these changes didn't just impact my health. They have reversed damage to my liver. They have caused me to have normal blood labs that a lot of people, even with this drug, don't reach. That I've not only gotten in the normal range, I'm in the bottom part of the normal range on these things that they're testing for. So a lot of these things are working better than I was told they would work, but they're also all these other things Like I had had brain fog and didn't really realize where that was coming from.

Speaker 2: 8:43

I had had, you know it. Really like I, like I said I'd been through this point of really bad burnout and I hit a point where I was like I feel really good. I was like, first of all, physically, as far as comfort in my body and just feeling like how I felt. I felt more like I was in my early 20s and I'm almost. I was diagnosed at almost 50. I'm 60 now. So for me to be like.

Speaker 1: 9:10

you know, I look amazing, you do not look.

Speaker 2: 9:12

Well, thank you, thank you, but I am, my 60th birthday will be November 2nd, so you know. So, basically, I all this stuff I was like this is amazing. I feel good, I feel focused, I'm getting tons more work done, I'm more organized, I'm more engaged, I like I care again. You know what I mean. Like all that stuff that is burnout.

Speaker 1: 9:39

It's like a blessing. You're beautiful, you're changed, you feel good.

Speaker 2: 9:42

And it didn't exist anymore and I was like this is amazing, like I'm back. And then I kind of sat back and I said, okay, if I want to do something to try to help people and I did actually do a program for lawyers that's being sold through a CLE course company up in New York and it's called Lawyers Thrive and Be Alive. I have it on my website and people can buy it from me, but you don't get CLE credit from me. This other company has it with credits and they get great reviews. And so I did that for a little while and you know it's still out there, they're still selling it and they're still asking me for more content.

Speaker 2: 10:21

And you know I thought about it and I was like I don't want to limit what I'm offering to people who are just lawyers, because it's not really just about the lifestyle of lawyers, although they're kind of poster children for a terrible lifestyle sometimes. Really any busy professional can be in this place. It happens in medical. I have friends who are doctors and nurses who have gone through the same kind of burnout and you know it happens to lots of us. So what I did was I looked back at myself at the time that I didn't yet know that I was feeling burned out or that anything was going on with me physically and kind of said who was I then? What did I think was going on then?

Speaker 2: 11:05

And I realized I went through a period where I was extremely unfocused, I wasn't able to get stuff done, and it got bad enough that I bought a time management course because I thought that was my problem. So that's why the Art of Bending Time, the Art of Bending Time is about time management. In a way, it gives you a way to really be effective at making the time that you have really, really impactful. But it also it does that by making you healthier and by making you more focused and more able to be in the like, in a flow state, because in a flow state you get more done, you do, and it helps you to have, you know, have goals and have goals that align with who you are and you know to be aware of what lights you up and what makes you happy, so you're not getting burned out by what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 12:05

I think, it's and it it that all came out of this. Like you know, what I honestly say is like the greatest blessing of getting this horrible autoimmune disease, because if I hadn't had that happen, I never would have changed.

Speaker 1: 12:21

But that's why individuals like yourself, like you, asked why you know when people are like on this podcast. You are an exact conversation, asked why you know when people are like on this podcast. You are an exact conversation of why you know you're changing the way you think about your health because this impacted the way you know you didn't want 10 years of your life. You want 50 or more years. You know like you thought about it.

Speaker 2: 12:41

I was like I'm going to be 120. Right, I don't want to transplant.

Speaker 2: 12:46

I don't look 60 because I'm 30 now when you have, when you're able to be healthy live like you're being healthy and have focus and have energy and have drive and have things you're excited about. It makes everything different. You know you see too many people, I think, who are like they hit 50 or so and they're like is this all there is, you know, and and it's sad, but it doesn't have to be that way and we can choose to change that anytime we want.

Speaker 1: 13:31

I think this is such an important point of view. You changed your health, you changed the way you thought and you literally changed your body. What did some doctors say to you, or people say to you now, now that things have changed, has there been any? I mean, I'm excited.

Speaker 2: 13:50

Well, the doctors so I still see the same doctor, the same hepatologist that I've seen in the past and I adore her. She's wonderful, she's from Brazil. She wasn't trained in our system. She did her residency at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, but she was. She's got that Latin American mindset where she's more willing to be accepting of things like nutrition. And you know, what American doctor would have allowed me to get my blood tested every month for six months before they said, okay, maybe you should take the drug, you know? And? And when I told her I wanted to try to deal with it nutritionally first, her response was I'm not optimistic, you're going to be able to do that, but if you do, I'll publish. So you know she wasn't about a.

Speaker 2: 14:48

There was a clinical study they were doing at the University of Alberta that was all about lifestyle and I did that clinical study and the thing that was funny was I realized like I was already doing this stuff. They were telling people to do, to do, and it was mostly a lot of you know. To some degree it was cognitive behavioral therapy approaches to help reduce stress and to help kind of change how you were looking at the world. It was gentle exercise and, you know, making sure to move your body frequently. And you know, I'm sure I it's funny because I was never.

Speaker 2: 15:29

I wasn't specifically taught this in my health coaching certification, but I always found this like now I tell people this and they're like, oh my God, you're right. You know, I realized like when I was in school we didn't really learn much about the lymph system, except that it exists and, um, it takes the garbage out of our system. Like how do we not get told? How are we not told about the system that basically takes out the trash and doesn't work unless you move your body to make it work? Think about it, and I tell people this all the time. I'm like you want a reason to get up out of your chair and move around every hour or so. You want a reason to get up out of your chair and move around every hour or so.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Consider the fact that, literally, your cells are like bathing in their own waste until you move your body and your lymph system takes it away, yeah, and getting a nice, you know, getting nice massages, the saunas, like get clearing out and literally that is one of the detox moment. You know parts of it, yeah, and I think that people there's a lot of that missing in that they just want to take the pill Right.

Speaker 2: 16:39

And you know, I was just. I just saw this.

Speaker 1: 16:41

Sedentary lifestyle really can kill you.

Speaker 2: 16:43

Yeah, and it's funny when I was in high school I lived in Minnesota and there were a lot of Swedish people there and I knew a lot of kids in high school whose families had saunas in their houses and they would take a sauna and then go out and roll in the snow like in the winter, which was nuts it sounds nuts, but it's basically the same as doing a cold plunge, right? So you're, you're, you're sweating out the toxic stuff and then you're jumping into the snow and rolling around and you like go back and cycle back and forth doing that for a while and you feel so good afterwards.

Speaker 1: 17:17

That's I mean I can see. I can see, like that, where it could you know? And then it's like closing off to clean out. So, cleaned out, yeah, yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense now that you know you're looking into it. But I think you're right that having the conversation about the lymphatic system and cleaning out the system, yeah, I don't think I mean in on a medical side. I would tell you we talked about the lymphatic system, right, and we talked about it very generic of yes, it's going to, you know, release and the way it flows and shows you how it, you know how the direction of it. But I don't think we really go into why it's the always the importance of it and it's always it's kind of and it's yeah, it's quickly and and as somebody who's not a doctor, all you learn is basically it exists, yeah, there are these things called lymph nodes right yeah and, and I mean you know, an immune kind of response.

Speaker 1: 18:05

But yeah, it doesn't really. I mean, if you're not really into it, yeah, how would you know?

Speaker 2: 18:09

you know, and if you go through traditional cancer treatment, they cut out the lymph nodes For real. They do, yeah, sometimes. So my ex had testicular cancer and he had a surgery where to prevent the cancer from jumping. They had learned that the mode of transmission and I know there are some kinds of breast cancer that are like this too the mode of transmission and I know there are some kinds of breast cancer that are like this too the mode of transmission is through the lymph nodes. So they will remove the like the system of lymph nodes that are tied to the part that has cancer which you know. When you think about it for alternative practitioners they're like you took the lymph nodes you know because you're removing. Now you're removing that whole section, like you're taking that whole part out to prevent the cancer cells from moving.

Speaker 1: 19:02

Right, and you're. So it is like it's this catch 22 of like not even catch, I don't even know what the word. You're pretty much you're trying to get rid of the junk, but you've removed the thing to get rid of the junk because the amount of time you know to, yeah, it's complex. Right, it really is.

Speaker 2: 19:18

It really is. Yeah, I know so anyway, what this turned into, that I teach people about now.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Now you made it a business, right? You made this your own, or is this your? This is my business. Now I'm no longer doing law, your passion.

Speaker 2: 19:34

Yeah, I wound out of my last case.

Speaker 2: 19:37

I made the decision in about 2019 to stop practicing law and I I stopped accepting cases and I just allowed the cases to go through their you know their process and end as they ended.

Speaker 2: 19:51

And the last one, which I jokingly referred to as the case from hell that will not go away, ended last summer, and you know the 2004 in the summer, and since then I've been doing this full time. So I work with people who are typically people who are 35 to 55, roughly busy professionals who've hit that, you know. They've hit a point where they've been promoted up to a level where they feel like they're giving up their lives to their jobs a lot of times and they don't know what to do. They don't know how to get what they want at home and at work and still be able to function, and some of them are, you know, a lot of times. It's not that they feel sick, but when we get into that health-related stuff, all of them have issues that way, because what happens is that's part of it. You know it's it's you start feeling that way because of the fact that you're not living a healthy lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 20:54

And their body's going to take a toll from.

Speaker 2: 20:57

Right, and a lot of times it's people who think that they're you know they're going to the gym every day and they're working, and they're running for an hour on a treadmill and they're lifting weights and they're you know, they're doing the things that they've been taught are the things they should be doing. The things that they've been taught are the things they should be doing. But you know they're also like they're never letting up and they're they're not necessarily doing the more gentle stuff that you need to and they're not. You know there's there's a lot they're doing that isn't helpful.

Speaker 1: 21:27

I can imagine yeah, the cortisol is out of whack completely. Yeah, the cortisol's are out of whack completely, yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:33

On another note, so I'm one appreciative of you being on the show, but two like I'd like to know is there a little antidotal or fun fact that people don't know about you? Some people know this, but most people out there in the world of you know this world that we're in, don't? I left my ex and took the boat and I lived on a boat for eight years. Oh, like, live on a boat yeah, like for, and it was super cool. I loved it. But I got off the boat when I was dealing.

Speaker 2: 22:07

I was diagnosed with this liver thing while I was living on the boat and, frankly, part of the reason I chose to get off the boat was because I realized it had mold and it had. You know, I was constantly being exposed to engine. You know there's chemicals, there's all this stuff and I was like I don't know how much of that is affecting me. Yeah, but I made the decision to leave that lifestyle in part because I was like I need to look at this and make sure I'm not exposing myself to things I shouldn't you know, yeah, yeah, just your environment, putting yourself in a better, a better state so that you can heal which obviously is a good decision, yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:49

And then Irma took the boat, so then the boat went away, which was very sad for me well, you can always go on cruises when you when you want to, once in a while yeah, it's not the same. It's not the same. But I I do have to say, when I was in Turkey, my friend that I was there with and I rented a boat for the day and it was wonderful and you know, just to get out on the water and drop an anchor and go paddle boarding and you know, that's my happy place.

Speaker 1: 23:17

That's really beautiful, yeah, so how can those reach you?

Speaker 2: 23:22

Okay. So what I recommend to people in the States especially and I think this works in Canada, works in Canada, it might work in Mexico is to text the word clarity to 33777. The other option will be on your show notes, which is a link to the same exact place. It'll give you a sign up to a free community and in that community I have some downloadable resources that are really helpful.

Speaker 2: 23:55

The first thing I do with any of my clients when I work with them is to help them find clarity on what lights them up, and there's a guided meditation in there and some journaling prompts to help people figure that out. So then they can start proactively working to get that in their lives, and that's one of the things that I've found is really really helpful about avoiding burnout is knowing, like learning. Not about big things, not about I'm going to go on a safari or I'm going to do this or that this. You know these big, big trips or goals to buy a house or whatever, but those little things that light you up, that give you joy in the everyday moments, in your work and in your personal life and, like in all of your life, making a proactive choice to live your life in a way that you get those things, and so when you're getting those things it's like fuel. That kind of helps just keep you feeling good throughout your day.

Speaker 1: 24:50

I think we need to pause on that. That's beautifully said.

Speaker 2: 24:54

Yeah, I call it sparks that light you up, so you know you find those sparks and you keep those sparks going and that that helps you to have like just fuel to get through your day and not to feel taken advantage of or whatever that makes you feel burned out taken advantage of or whatever that makes you feel burned out.

Speaker 1: 25:20

I, I, I thank you for being on, cause I think that there's someone here listening to like right now they're burnout and they're tired and they're probably an overachiever of some manner, where they're or they're at the top of their game, or they're on, not at the top of their game, and they're going Maya is something going on, and they need to kind of hear. You know, you're a six year old, which I don't even want to say that it's like you're beautiful. You've taken and changed your perspective. Your life is different and your health is different, and I think that's amazing and I congratulate you on that. And I think that you know, then, you've taken this to then help others on it, so it's awesome.

Speaker 2: 25:52

So I appreciate it. Well, thank you. Yeah, it warms my heart. You know what I mean. It's the kind of thing I'm now doing, something that I truly feel like I'm getting. I'm helping people in a way that makes me feel really good, and you know, that's what it's about, right.

Speaker 1: 26:10

I love it. I love it, so thank you so much for being on the show.

Speaker 2: 26:18

And I just wanted to verify again it's 3337 or 333? No, 33777.

Speaker 1: 26:21

Okay, so 33777,. Text that for more information.

Speaker 2: 26:25

And text the word clarity to that, so that's like the phone number you're texting too.

Speaker 1: 26:30

Perfect. All right, I'll have that in the show notes too. So thank you guys for being on. Well, thank you, it's nice meeting you. No-transcript.