Hidden Gems: Meet Maggie Judge of LoveME Healing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maggie Judge.

Hi Maggie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in MN. I come from a loving family; close to my brother and blessed to have both parents still with us! I am married to my soul mate and have 4 wonderful children and 4 beautiful granddaughters.  I worked hard in school; did all my homework, studied a lot, followed the rules (for the most part) and in my spare time was a competitive swimmer… age 7 to 18. I say all this to illustrate that I started out right out of the gate with achievement as a core value….

I went to college for Computer Science and Math, graduated college, and dove head first into a career….

Over the years, My career took many exciting twists and turns.

I spent 21 years at Thomson Reuters; 15 in IT and 6 in Leadership development

I left corporate America and started a consulting business with a friend which was all about helping leadership teams with strategy, innovation and team effectiveness. This involved a lot of workshop design, facilitation and travel… I enjoyed this… but what I really felt a passion around was creating the tools that we used to do this work. After 7 years, my partner and I decided to go our separate ways for life reasons and I started Meaningful Expressions, my own graphics design business focused on creating business tools to more ‘meaningfully’ express brand/content (through videos, workbooks, websites, Powerpoints, eBooks, etc.)

I was now doing the work I was most passionate about …

But looking back at my entire career… The common thread across all these career steps was that I worked too much no matter what I was doing.

After an unexpected breast cancer diagnosis in November 2020, I had to make big shifts to prioritize my own healing needs, to advocate for what I wanted in my healing process and navigate all the overwhelm and fear. While my medical team was doing what they do best to eliminate my cancer, I felt alone in dealing with the healing that needed to happen at the personal, physical and emotional levels. I couldn’t find specific tools that I needed to help move through the day-to-day demands and changes… or to help me slow down all the parts that felt like they were spinning out of control.
My first response to my diagnosis was to create the tools and resources that helped me navigate day-to-day; the fear, and all the “new” changes that a cancer diagnosis presented. As a visual person, I wanted a clear roadmap of what all the treatments and surgeries were by month, as well as a goal date I set for cancer to “be out of me.” I knew the details would change and evolve over time of course, but I captured a framework immediately so that I could focus on what was ahead. Over time, I realized this roadmap allowed me to also celebrate each seemingly small step of progress along the way, easily communicate updates to my loved ones and reference again and again as questions arose. That roadmap was quickly followed by templates to get clear on the details of my diagnosis, what I wanted to address in each of my doctor appointments, and a daily color-coded snapshot of how I felt between/after treatments so that my doctors and I could see patterns and make appropriate decisions along the way. While those tools helped me navigate and manage the more obvious changes, I also needed to evaluate what else would be important to my healing, which became personal… how to open up and tell others about my diagnosis, how to accept support, ask for what I needed, how to say no to things without guilt or fear, and most importantly how to check-in and move through all the feelings and emotions.

MY story and the tools I created, in addition to the wisdom, experience and support I sought out from others going through breast cancer, became my driving force to start LoveME Healing.

There is so much change that comes with cancer. I was doing work that I loved, but I knew I was working too much. I wasn’t taking care of myself. Cancer was my wake-up call. With a cancer diagnosis, you are thrust into all kinds of appointments and big decisions… with the oncologist, the surgeon, and then all of the individual treatments and surgeries, etc. I couldn’t find the resources and tools that I desired in order to navigate it all and decided to make my own. When people started seeing what I had created for my own journey, they encouraged me to share these tools, my learnings, and my story with others. I realized that all of this was bigger than me or my cancer journey… and LoveME Healing was born.

LoveME Healing is a new community and set of resources that offer you a guided approach to discovering and practicing what is important in their personal healing transformation. My mission is to build a community of members that continue to pay it forward to those who come after us.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road, but it could have been so much bumpier than it was. I am blessed to be on the other side of breast cancer and call myself cancer-free! However, I recognize my healing will be an ongoing journey. Making the necessary changes to prioritize my own healing needs was my greatest struggle. The biggest challenge was figuring out where the time was going to come from in an already over-filled, over-committed life. Once I figured that out (out of sheer necessity), I then had to continue to honor it and create space every day to heal. The other challenge was figuring out what it looked like to let others help. I had a great support network that genuinely wanted to help… do anything! However, that relied on me being able to tell them what they can do or what I need. This was HARD! I created a tool to help me think through this which helped a ton as I navigated different phases of my journey.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about LoveME Healing?
LoveME Healing is for people with breast cancer who might be interested in:

• Discovering & navigating their unique healing needs at a personal, emotional, and physical level
• Finding Experienced Support for healing with tools, activities for reflection and journaling, and guidance along the way
• Connecting with and learning from others also experiencing this journey

LoveME Healing includes:

• Full-Year Membership to a Private, Online Community
• 30+ Tracking Templates & Reflection Tools to download and edit digitally or print
• 7 eBooks Focused on Healing Related Topics
• Virtual Sessions with Various Experts on Healing

It is NOT intended to add to the pile of information and resources but rather help people navigate all the changes that come with a breast cancer journey as well as foster intentionality around meaningful changes that contribute to healing.

What makes LoveME Healing unique?
LoveME Healing provides an individualized approach to healing at the emotional, personal and physical level. As unique beings with different medical and personal histories and needs, we offer a variety of tools and templates to reflect and get at what is meaningful for YOU. This process includes identifying the personal changes that need to be made in order to create the space to heal. Additionally, we not only leverage my experience, but our private community has a growing number of women, that have been through breast cancer, each offering their unique stories and wisdom.

LoveME Healing offers a set of 7 online eBooks where I tell my raw, imperfect story with 30+ downloadable tools/templates that step our members through different stages of their personal breast cancer journey. In addition, we connect via a private, online community to share stories, ask questions of each other, and provide inspiration, encouragement and support.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lovemehealing.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveme_healing/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/lovemehealingjourney/

Image Credits

Tiffany Mattick
Gilda’s Club
Photography by Melissa Marie (https://www.facebook.com/photographybymelissamarieMN)