The Day My Body Said No
In 2008, my body said no...no to the ovarian cysts I had forgotten about, and the critical needs I had learned to neglect since I was 15 years old. When I sat in the exam room and heard the words uterine fibroids, I was told that five of them were growing in my womb...three the size of baseballs, two smaller. It felt as if the diagnosis had arrived overnight, but deep down I knew these growths had been forming for 2 decades, nourished by everything I had accepted as “normal.” As a matter of fact, in 1999 I had an iridologist appointment and the Dr saw the fibroids in my right iris then. I started reading about holistic living immediately after that; however, I was not ready to receive nor dive in deep just yet.
My menstrual story began in seventh-grade gym class in 1987, when my friend Jackie Bishop, bless her memory, handed me a huge maxi pad and with really no instructions. No one ever explained what cramps, nutrition, or rest meant for a young girl’s body. The pain that followed through my teens, cramping, spasms, exhaustion, moodiness, was brushed aside as something every girl endures as normal. Decades later, I would learn that my experience wasn’t only hormonal; it was environmental, emotional, and generational.
That wake-up call in 2008 became the anchor of my holistic fibroid-healing journey. It pushed me to question everything and pay attention to what I put in and, on my body. I started focusing on my emotional hygiene and emotional fitness/self-care, 9 years later. I really had no idea that all those things were connected. I started to get in rhythm when I was introduced to whole foods nutrition and all natural, eco conscious personal care. Intentionally and steadily, I started creating and transitioning into a new eco conscious lifestyle for myself.
Early Years: Learning What I Didn’t Know
By the time I was 16, I had already been conditioned to treat my period as an inconvenience instead of a conversation with my body. Every month I reached for painkillers and junk food, never realizing that what went into my mouth and onto my skin was teaching my hormones how to behave.
In the 1990s, the word eco-friendly rarely appeared in beauty magazines or aisles. However, I went to school in the suburbs of Memphis with white kids who wore Birkenstocks and were self-proclaimed "vegan" before it became popular. Me and my friend Tam Young called and described them as, "So save the world". Though I wasn’t vegan, I always loved their fashion style and the reason behind their buying choices. I relaxed my hair, coated my skin with Dial soap and Bath & Body works, and washed my clothes with heavily perfumed detergents, the same way pretty much every woman in my immediate family had. We trusted what was on the shelf. I didn’t know that many of those everyday products contained toxic chemicals now linked to endocrine disruption or that my diet of sodas, sugar, lots of Jiffy Cornbread and hormone filled porkchops,sausages, big chicken breasts, could quietly feed inflammation.
When I look back, I see that my environment mirrored my inner world: busy, chemically overstimulated, and disconnected from nature. I inherited more than genes; I inherited habits. My mother, aunts, and grandmother all battled painful cycles, cysts, and fibroids. They coped the best they could with the information they had. It wasn’t until my own diagnosis that I realized how our choices, what we eat, breathe, think, and apply to our skin, become part of our womb and hormonal stories.
That awareness was my first lesson in eco-conscious living. Healing, I discovered, wasn’t only about medicine or movement; it was about the ecosystem of my life. The foods I chose, the products I used, and even the thoughts I repeated were either polluting or purifying my internal environment. Learning to live sustainably became both an act of self-preservation, self-respect, cooperative economics, and resistance.
The Diagnosis That Changed Everything
When the ultrasound confirmed that five fibroids, three the size of baseballs and two smaller, had grown in and on my womb, I felt both disbelief and recognition. My body had been whispering for years through cysts, breakthrough bleeding, and pain, and now it was finally shouting for my attention. The diagnosis didn’t come as punishment; it came as a message: something had to change.
The doctor offered few options, surgery, or “watch and wait”. None of those felt like healing. I wanted to understand why my body was creating this outcome. That question became the beginning of my holistic wellness journey and my initiation into eco-conscious, sustainable living.
I began to notice the patterns between my environment and my symptoms: the processed foods that left me sluggish, the chemical relaxers that irritated my scalp, the body sprays that masked rather than nurtured. Each discovery was a revelation. I learned that healing wasn’t going to come from another prescription; it would come from intentional, intuitive, strategic self care over my body and my surroundings.
So I started small. I replaced one product at a time, choosing what was clean, local, and kind to both body and planet. I swapped conventional foods for organic, all natural and whole foods and fresh juice, stress for stillness, noise for movement. I learned that wellness isn’t a single habit, it requires transforming your lifestyle and lifestyle change. What I put in my mouth, on my skin, and into my mind all communicated directly with my hormones and nervous system.
That shift from helplessness to curiosity became my power. The more I aligned with nature, the more my body responded with ease. I wasn’t just managing fibroids anymore; I was redesigning my entire way of living.
The Unlearning: Creating a Womb-Centered Lifestyle
The greatest act of healing I ever performed was unlearning. Everything I’d been taught about womanhood, productivity, and even self-care had to be rewritten. For years I had pushed through exhaustion, numbed pain, and ignored intuition because that’s what strong women were taught to do. But the body keeps score, and mine finally asked for a new way to live.
I began where I could, with food. I studied Dr Sebi's Alkaline diet and Blood Type Food Therapy and discovered how personalized nutrition could balance energy and hormones. Juicing became a ritual of renewal; every glass was a reminder that healing was happening.
I then turned to what touched my skin. I replaced synthetic lotions with nourishing blends of goat’s milk and coconut milk, ingredients gentle to both the body and the earth. Crafting those small-batch products felt sacred. Bathing is a daily ceremony of reconnection with nature and my own softness.
Next came movement. I returned to dance, not as performance but as medicine. Through sensual and somatic movement, I learned that when we move the body with intention, we regulate the nervous system, release stress, and remind ourselves of safety. It was through movement that I started to feel good and settled in my body.
And finally, I learned the art of emotional hygiene. I practiced Strategic Self-Care, creating space each day to check in with my emotions, my energy, and my needs before they turned into symptoms. Healing was no longer something I pursued on weekends; it became the architecture of my life.
What began as a fibroid diagnosis evolved into a blueprint for sustainable wellness, one rooted in eco-conscious living, nourishment, and nervous-system balance. I wasn’t simply healing my womb; I was architecting a new relationship with my entire temple.
The Transformation: From Healing to Helping
As I deepened my womb-centered lifestyle, I discovered another ancient practice that supported my recovery, yoni steaming, sometimes called a hip bath or pelvic steaming. Used for centuries in many cultures, this ritual became a gentle yet powerful way for me to reconnect with my body. The warmth, the herbs, and the quiet time created space for reflection and release. Over time, I noticed improvements in my cycle comfort and pelvic strength, and most importantly, a renewed sense of dialogue with my own womb. It wasn’t a miracle cure; it was a mindful practice that reminded me that healing happens when we listen.
That same principle, listening, guided the birth of Divine Clementine Bath & Body, LLC. What started as small experiments in my kitchen grew into a full wellness company rooted in eco-conscious care. Every bar of goat-milk soap, every jar of body butter, every bath ritual was created with two questions in mind: Is it kind to the body? and Is it kind to the earth?
As my products and practices evolved, so did my calling. I became certified as a Movement and Group Fitness Instructor, a Juice Therapy Chef, a Pelvic Steam Facilitator, and a Strategic Self-Care Ambassador. Each certification represented another layer of the holistic framework that had changed my life.
Today, through The Cleopatra Method™, I help women translate self-care into strategy using sensual & somatic movement, eco-friendly body care, and nutritional awareness to restore hormonal harmony and nervous-system calm. What began as a personal health crisis transformed into a mission to teach others that sustainable living and self-leadership are two sides of the same coin.
Lessons Learned & Closing Invitation
Every stage of my healing taught me something that no doctor, product, or prescription ever could.
Lesson 1: The body always knows.
The fibroids, I do not call them "my" fibroids", I do not claim ownership of them, were never the enemy, they were messengers. When I slowed down enough to listen, I realized my body wasn’t broken; it was brilliant. It had been trying to save me all along.
Lesson 2: Environment is medicine.
The foods we eat, the air we breathe, the products we use, and the emotions we hold all shape our hormonal health. Living sustainably is not just an environmental choice; it’s a wellness and economic justice strategy. When I aligned my lifestyle with nature, my body began to trust me again. These are the sounds that helped me listen to my body again.
Lesson 3: Self-care is a form of leadership.
Healing isn’t about escape; it demands structure and guidance. Strategic, intentional, committed, consistent care gives women the strength to lead, create, and age with vitality. Currently I am in perimenopause and loving it. I have no symptoms and it's due to what I have shared here.
Today, I teach women what my body taught me: that healing is a holistic dialogue between body, mind, and planet. Through Womb Mastery Salon on Patreon, I guide women to create eco-conscious, womb-centered lifestyles that honor their natural rhythm and restore their nervous systems. I have worked with over 200 women since 2020
🌿 Invitation:
If my story resonates with you, I invite you to begin your own journey toward holistic wellness and sustainable living. Explore The Cleopatra Method™ private immersions, eco-beauty rituals, and somatic movement practices at divineclementinebb.com. You’ll find tools and guidance to help you regulate stress, support hormonal balance, and reconnect with your body’s innate intelligence, naturally, beautifully, and sustainably.