Today we’d like to introduce you to Jillian Means.
Hi Jillian , thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Knowledge is power, and healing is possible. That’s the one truth I’ve built my whole life on, and I learned it the hard way.
I was a sick kid — strep throat, IBS, psoriasis, the works — and at 21 my body finally had enough and handed me a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. I could have let that be the end of my story. Instead, I decided it was the start of a different one. Every day, in every way, I was going to get better and better.
So I went looking. I read everything I could get my hands on, I found other people healing themselves with food as medicine, and one piece at a time I built a toolbox — yoga, nutrition, meditation, movement, sleep, affirmations, time in nature. I am not someone who waits to be rescued. I am the one who figures it out. My drive, plain and simple, was wanting my boys to see me doing cartwheels instead of being carted around on wheels.
Twenty years later, my MS is still in remission and I feel great. And somehow, I’m juggling more than I ever thought I could — running By Any Means, raising three boys, teaching high school special ed, and finishing my master’s. By any means, I keep showing up.
Where I’m headed now is simple. I want to put my toolbox in other humans’ hands — especially moms with MS — so they know what I know. Your body is innately intelligent. You are not your diagnosis…you get to choose who you become with your daily choices.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it hasn’t been a smooth road — and I wouldn’t trust the story if it had been.
The first detour came early. I was a sick kid long before I had a name for any of it — strep throat, IBS, psoriasis — and at 21 my body finally said enough and handed me Multiple Sclerosis. Hearing that at an age when most people feel invincible was its own kind of grief. There were days the fear ran loud: that I’d end up bedridden, or in a wheelchair.
Then there were the struggles that don’t show up on a scan. I am a middle child to my core — I want everyone to get along, so for years I avoided conflict and I was terrible at setting boundaries. I said yes to everyone and everything, and it cost me my focus and sometimes my health. I’ve learned, slowly, that a boundary isn’t a wall — it’s how I stay well enough to keep showing up.
And honestly? My biggest heart is also my biggest hurdle. I want to help everyone — every age, every story — which makes it hard to point all that energy in one clear direction. Add raising three boys, teaching full time, and grad school on top of managing my health, and “smooth” has never been the word for it.
But here’s what all of it taught me. Healing isn’t a straight line, and it isn’t passive — it’s a toolbox you build one tool at a time, hard days especially. The bumps didn’t break me. They’re the reason I have anything worth sharing.
As you know, we’re big fans of By Any Means Wellness & Yoga. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
By Any Means started as a promise I made to myself — that by any means, I would be healthy, happy, and grateful, and live a long, zestful life. It grew into a wellness company built on one belief: your body is innately intelligent, and healing is possible.
What I do is help people build a toolbox. When I was diagnosed with MS at 21, I didn’t find one magic fix — I found dozens of small ones: nutrition, yoga, meditation, movement, sleep, journaling, affirmations, time in nature. I specialize in helping others gather the tools that work for their body and leave the rest. No dogma, no one-size-fits-all program — just what actually works for the person in front of me.
What sets me apart is also the thing I am most proud of: I am not selling theory. I’ve kept my MS in remission for 20 years, and I feel great. I have a mobile yoga component that does special events and guide chair yoga to seniors, I share food as medicine, and I do it as someone who walked the road — not someone who read about it. People trust me because I am living proof that you are not your diagnosis.
What I want your readers to know is that I’m just getting started. I’m building By Any Means into a place — online and in person — where people, especially moms living with MS, can find the tools and the encouragement to heal their own bodies. You don’t have to wait to be rescued. Your body already knows how. I’m just here to help you remember.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
First and always, my family. My mom and dad raised me on hard work and perseverance and taught me that connection and family are everything — values I work to embody every single day. My husband and boys are the reason I get up every day determined to get better, and the ones who remind me what all of this is for. I am eternally gratefully for Paul and Marcene my in-laws they have always shown up for us again and again, steady and generous, always there when we needed them most.
Dr. Terry Wahls changed the way I saw my own diagnosis. Watching her use food as medicine to reclaim her life from MS gave me something I desperately needed in the early days — proof that the body can heal, and permission to believe it could happen for me too. She handed me a map when I was still looking for the road.
Jason Stephenson, though we’ve never met, was in my ear on the hardest nights. When my mind wandered to the dark places, his guided meditations brought me back to calm and back to center. He taught me that I am not my anxious thoughts…I get to choose where my mind lands.
And I would be remiss not to name two of my dearest friends, Dr. Angela Graper and Dr. Erin Flynn-Brown — big brains and even bigger hearts who helped me make sense of my blood work and labs when the numbers felt like a foreign language, and who introduced me to the fabulous chiropractic care that became one of my favorite tools.
I am who I am because of the people who believed healing was possible before I fully could. None of us heal alone — and I’ll spend the rest of my life passing that gift forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://byanymeansyoga.com
