About Nicole Kaysing & Balancing Wellness

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Sports were just part of my life — I loved them, and they kept me moving without a second thought. My mom made sure I ate well. I had energy, I had confidence, and honestly? I didn't know how good I had it.

Then college happened. My senior year, I tore my ACL playing soccer. Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I was sitting still. And that same year, I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Health, Physical Education and Exercise Science — a degree that was supposed to mean I knew how to take care of myself.

But here's the truth: knowing and doing are two very different things. I had the knowledge, and I still ended up 30 pounds overweight, feeling lost, and completely disconnected from the healthy, active person I thought I was.

So I started looking for my way back.

I found a therapeutic wellness company that actually made sense to me — one that combined nutrition, exercise, and cognitive behavioral therapy into something genuinely holistic. For the next four years, I worked at their summer camps and boarding school as a personal trainer and physical educator. I worked with children and young adults who were struggling — really struggling — and I watched them transform. Not just physically, but in the way they saw themselves and their lives.

I was in my element. I was on the front lines, helping people change while living the kind of active, purposeful life I loved. What I didn't fully realize at the time was that I was living a balanced life — and it was the balance that was making everything work.

Then the boarding school closed, and I had to figure out what came next.

I went back to school. I picked up a personal training job at a local rec center, started teaching Health and Wellness to university freshmen, and spent three years earning a Master's degree in Teaching K-12 Health and Physical Education. And it was there that my understanding of wellness started to grow into something much bigger than weight loss or fitness.

True health, I was learning, isn't just about your body. It's about your whole self — your physical, mental and emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, environmental, and financial wellness. All seven areas. All at once. What I was building, without fully naming it yet, was the Balancing Wellness framework.

And then life decided to test everything I thought I knew.

After finishing my Master's, I entered a three-year Physical Education PhD program with a mission: design a holistic wellness education curriculum for K-12 students. It was exactly the work I was meant to do.

But those three years nearly broke me.

I poured everything into my intellectual and occupational wellness — and the other five areas collapsed around me. I tore my other ACL teaching a gymnastics class. I gained almost 50 pounds. I was diagnosed with severe depression and struggled to get out of bed in the morning. I was spiritually disconnected, financially depleted, and running on empty in every direction that mattered.

I hit rock bottom. Hard.

And here's what I learned sitting at the bottom of that hole: you cannot outthink your way out of imbalance. You have to live your way out of it — one small, intentional step at a time.

So that's what I did. One day at a time, I applied everything I had spent years teaching others. I rebuilt my physical health. I addressed my mental and emotional wellness with honesty instead of avoidance. I reconnected with my purpose, my relationships, my finances, and myself. It wasn't fast. It wasn't perfect. But it was real — and it worked.

That experience didn't just change my life. It became the foundation of everything Balancing Wellness is built on.

And it taught me something I carry into every school, every workshop, and every conversation I have today: lasting change doesn't happen in isolation. It happens when three things come together — your environment, your mindset, and your support system. Change one and you feel it. Change all three and everything shifts.

That's exactly what I'm now building with schools. Because here's what I know after years of teaching, researching, and living this work: when a student is only getting the wellness message in one place, it fades. But when the school, the home, and the student are all operating from the same framework — when educators are equipped, parents are engaged, and students have real tools — that's when something lasting takes root. That's the whole ecosystem. And that's the work I'm most excited about right now.

Today, I'm a Wellness Educator, Speaker, and Author — and the work I do is deeply personal because I've lived it from both sides. I know what it feels like to have all seven areas of wellness thriving. And I know what it feels like when they fall apart.

The Holistic Mindfulness Journal, Create Your Dream Life, the curriculum frameworks I bring into schools — none of it is theory. It's a map I built by walking the road myself. And now I get to hand it to you.

Whether you're an educator trying to build something sustainable for your students, a parent who wants to model real wellness for your family, or someone who's simply ready to stop running on empty — you're in the right place.

All it takes is an open mind and a genuine desire to make a change. If you have that, you have everything you need to create your dream life.

Wishing you Abundance, Joy, and Success — Nicole Kaysing