Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashleigh Di Lello.
Hi Ashleigh, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m excited to be here, thank you! It’s been quite the journey to where life is now. I’ve had two life-altering health experiences 15 years apart, and the second one nearly broke me. But it was from that broken place that I began to rebuild my health and create my life’s work: Bio Emotional Healing®.
My journey began when I was just 13 years old. One day I was the epitome of health, dancing five hours a day, and then overnight, everything changed and I was suddenly fighting for my life.
I’ll never forget one particular doctor’s appointment. The office was all white, with no color or warmth, the feeling was very sterile and cold. After looking over various blood tests and scans, the doctor came in to talk to me. He rolled the stool next to the exam table I was sitting on, took a deep breath, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You need to accept that you most likely won’t live past your teenage years. You’ll never dance again. You’ll never live a normal active life. You’ll never get married or have children. And the sooner you accept this, the easier it will be to come to terms with your reality.”
I’ve never felt such shock and devastation. I was thirteen years old. How had this happened to me? How could my life change so drastically without warning?
After collecting every last ounce of my strength, I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, looked the doctor straight in the eyes and said, “I don’t accept this.” From one moment to the next, I had never felt such emotional extremes: from absolute devastation and unbelief to relentless determination to defy the odds.
The doctor was worried I was delusional and actually sent in a psychologist to talk to me and help me come to “terms” with my “reality.” I remember looking at the psychologist and saying that no one understood how dire my situation was better than me. I could feel my body dying, but I also felt that if I believed and accepted wholeheartedly that I was dying, then there would be no chance for survival. My Mom and I walked out of his office with no answers or path forward, but a determination to not give up on my body or my life!
For years, we continued to search for answers. I was tested for pretty much everything that existed at that time. The most repeated explanation was that I had some type of unknown viral infection that no one could diagnose or treat and was told I was a medical mystery and essentially sent home to die.
I got so sick and weak that some days I could barely lift a finger or speak. Many nights I would force myself to stay awake at night, afraid that if I went to sleep, my body wouldn’t make it to the morning. These long nights of willing my body to keep living were when I really began to personally understand and experience the intricate mind-body connection.
It was a long journey, but thankfully I defied all odds and after fighting between life and death for over four years, I began regaining my health and my life. Everything I was told I would never do, I did!
I was told I’d never dance again, and although I had a six-year absence, I became a top five finalist on the FOX TV show So You Think You Can Dance, a Broadway headliner on ‘Burn the Floor,’ and performed in over 45 countries around the world with my husband and professional ballroom partner Ryan.
And then I further defied the odds and had my beautiful daughter Sofia in 2014. I felt on top of the world in my personal and professional life, and then everything was taken away again.
In 2016 I had a failed hip surgery and my entire body was launched into chronic pain. For the second time in my life, I went from my strongest physical self to struggling with each step and everyday simple tasks.
I lost both my professional careers as a dancer and personal trainer, as well as the inability to hold my own child. I was told I was “a chronic pain patient now,” and that my nervous system had flipped a switch.
So after years of excruciating pain and one failed treatment after another, my desperation met my greatest determination and I thought: If I can’t find the answer outside of me, I’m going to create it!
I dove into neuroscience and it took me on a journey of understanding not just how neural pathways get stuck in physical pain but any emotional pain, trauma, or negative thought loops or behaviors. I discovered it’s all connected! This was the beginning of Bio Emotional Healing®.
I realized my illness as a teenager had deeply altered my brain and nervous system into an overly protective, hyperactive setting. Essentially, I had been living in subconscious survival mode for over 20 years, and I knew that if I wanted my life back, I had to somehow break the cycle and rewire my brain out of it.
So after years of study and over two decades of experience and application in my own life, what I discovered completely changed my life. I was finally able to get my system out of fight-or-flight so my body could heal! This allowed me to not only rewire the pain I was currently experiencing, but also all the physical and emotional pain I had stored from my illness as a teenager.
For the first time in over two decades, I could feel a sense of deep rest inside as the subconscious alarm bells that had been running to keep me alive finally felt safe to turn off. I trusted my body again and it trusted me. And rather than seeing my body as my greatest enemy and fighting against me, it became my greatest ally as I realized it had been fighting for me all along.
This long journey led me to the creation of Bio Emotional Healing®, a process based in neuroscience, that helps my clients around the world finally break free from physical, mental, and emotional stress to create mind-body freedom.
The brain is truly our most powerful tool, and just as much as it can hold us prisoner to our mind and body, that same power and capacity can be harnessed to help us heal and to set us free to become the person and create the life we want!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As I shared in my life story above, my journey has been anything but a smooth road! From fighting for my life for four years as a teenager, to experiencing injury after injury during my professional dance career, to then having a failed hip surgery that launched my entire body into chronic pain and being diagnosed with “life-long” pain conditions, I’ve had to choose over and over again to not be defined by what’s happened to me.
My health has been both my greatest adversity and the greatest catalyst to pushing me to the depths of my soul and leading me to create my life’s work: Bio Emotional Healing®.
After all I’ve gone through, one thing I know for sure is that life can be incredibly hard, but no matter how hard it gets, I am a witness that the human mind and body truly have no limits! This is why my life motto is: You’re not what happens to you, you’re who you choose to become.
This choice is one you have to make each and every day – and sometimes multiple times a day – but this miraculous gift of life is worth every effort we have!
I’m so grateful to be where I am now in my health and in my work. Through all the pain has come a great purpose through Bio Emotional Healing®, and I’m incredibly humbled and honored to now help others heal and live the life they want.
As you know, we’re big fans of Bio Emotional Healing®. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Bio Emotional Healing® is a process based in neuroscience to rewire the brain and nervous system out of the hardwired stress responses of anxiety, emotional trauma, limiting beliefs, and chronic pain and illness.
People are struggling with their mental, emotional, and physical health like never before, leaving them feeling stuck, broken, and that the best they can do is manage their stress responses the rest of their life.
This is exactly where I was with my health until I realized that for many of us, we’re treating the symptoms and missing the root cause, which is an overly sensitive nervous system.
This isn’t to say there aren’t other factors at play, but it also means you can’t fully heal without addressing the brain.
But this is the greatest hope of all! Because neuroscience has proven that no matter what has been wired, it CAN be rewired. This is exactly what Bio Emotional Healing® is designed to do. It’s an inside-out process to partner with your system and recondition the brain and nervous system.
In simplistic terms: Rewire the brain and unlearn the vicious stress cycle.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
If you struggle with emotional trauma, limiting beliefs, chronic pain or illness, anxiety, depression, overwhelm, or you just feel like you want more and like you’re not living your fullest potential, then I invite you to schedule a free consultation from my website: https://
This breakthrough call is for those who are sick and tired of being stuck, and are wanting and ready to change their life! But if you’re not quite ready to dive deeper and want to better understand how the brain works and the mind-body connection, then you can take advantage of all my free resources: The Bio Emotional Healing® Podcast, my Free Training on the Brain, my Free Mind-Body Blueprint, my Free monthly Ask Ashleigh Q&A Call and the information shared on my social media.
I would love to connect with you and help however I can in your healing journey!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ashleighdilello.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleighdilello/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleighdilello
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleighdilello/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ashleighdilello
- Other: https://ashleighdilello.com/podcast/
Image Credits
Trina Harris Photography 2009 – SYTYCD on FOX
