The Breadcrumbs I Didn’t Know I Was Following

I promised I’d tell you how I cleared HPV.

And I will. But not yet.

Because if I start there, you might think this is just another “how I healed” story.

And it’s not.

This is about something much bigger.

The Question Nobody Asks

Most people want to know WHAT I do.

They ask about protocols, supplements, cycle tracking, hormones.

But nobody asks WHY I do this work. Or how I ended up here in the first place.

I wasn’t always obsessed with the menstrual cycle. I wasn’t always aware of how crucial hormones are for the female body.

My journey began somewhere else.

And I’m only now starting to realize that you don’t always know where life is taking you. It’s just experience after experience, leaving breadcrumbs.

Like a future version of you is guiding you forward, one step at a time.

How I See The World (You Might Think I’m Crazy)

To understand how I look at life, you need to know something first.

I believe in both the multiverse theory and the simulation hypothesis. (One book that changed everything for me: 🔗The simulation hypothesis by Rizwan Virk, feels like sci-fi but isn’t to me at least)

• I believe everything happens all at once (no past and no future). Just infinite versions of you existing simultaneously across different timelines. From that lens, I can say this: “a future version of me, the one already living the life I’m building toward, left breadcrumbs for me to find”
• Or if I use the simulation hypothesis: “my player controlled my moves to guide me further”. Like someone playing a video game, zoomed out, seeing the whole map while I’m stuck in first-person view. My player knew which experiences would unlock the next level.

And every single one led me to 🔗The Sync Way and to this work with the menstrual cycle.

But here’s what I’m starting to understand these days: the cycle is just one pillar of something bigger I’m building. (I don’t know what it is yet… I just know I’m being guided to build it)

The Day Everything Changed

I was in my first real job, my first 9-to-5, working at a creative agency in Amsterdam.

If you know the agency world, you know it’s chaos.

And I’m very left-brain oriented. I need structure, organization, step-by-step processes. Without them, I was drowning.

I was also an expat, away from my family, in my early 20s, trying to figure out how to be an adult in a foreign country.

A few months in, my period stopped.

It was the first time I had to see a doctor in the Netherlands and ask for tests to figure out what was happening.

The Long Road to a Diagnosis I Didn’t Want

First, a pregnancy test… obviously negative.

Then blood tests and everything came back normal.

Finally, they sent me to a gynecologist. Everything seemed fine and they couldn’t explain why my cycle just... switched off. They just said: “you’re just stressed because of your new job”.

Ok that might have as well been true but what’s next?!

After many scans and more blood tests, about 2 months later, a Pap smear result came back. I needed a cervical biopsy.

CIN3. Severe cervical dysplasia. Precancerous cells.

A lot of damage caused by HPV in my cervix.

The recommendation: surgically remove the precancerous cervical cells.

The Choice I Didn’t Want to Make

That procedure came with risks.

You don’t know how many times you’ll need it until your cervix is “clean”. And each procedure decreases your chances of carrying a pregnancy to term.

But back then there wasn’t much information online. Just a few Reddit threads.

I was trying to find someone, anyone!!!! who had gone through this and could tell me what it was actually like.

Finally, a colleague connected me with a friend who’d had the procedure.

We got on a call and suddenly, I felt less alone.

She had chosen to go through with it. That was her decision. But just talking to her made me realize I wasn’t crazy for being scared.

And I wasn’t alone.

The Shame That Only Lands on Women

There’s so much shame that comes with this virus.

Only years later I found out HPV can be passed from your mother when she’s pregnant with you. It can be passed by your partner, who can carry it without any symptoms.

But the shame? That only lands on women.

Your body is the one showing symptoms, being monitored, biopsied, cut into.

And you’re the one sitting in waiting rooms wondering if you did something wrong.

Where It All Actually Started

That shame…

That’s where my obsession with understanding the female body began.

Not with the menstrual cycle, not with hormones.

Shame caused by a virus!

(A virus I’d been vaccinated against when I was 13, by the way)

There are over 200 types of HPV. Around 40 affect the genital area. 15 types are high-risk and linked to cervical and other cancers.

HPV 16 and 18 alone cause about 70% of cervical cancers.

The most widely used vaccine is Gardasil 9. It protects against 9 types.

Anyways… My test results were a looooooong list of numbers. Over 100 types of HPV in my body. WTF?!

So I was left with one solution in medical terms: “remove the problem”

But these surgical procedures remove abnormal cells, not the virus itself.

It wasn’t removing the problem. It was pushing it away and that felt superficial.

I wanted to know why my body couldn’t clear it on its own.

And that question led me down a path I’m still walking today.

The Question That Changed Everything

That’s when the journey began.

What was really happening with my body? Why wasn’t my immune system strong enough to fight this?

When you get the flu, your body fights it. Your immune system kicks in and clears it.

So something was holding my body back.

I decided I was going to dig deeper and start strengthening my immune system from the ground up.

Looking Back at Who I Was

This was 2017… I was in my early 20s and I’m being honest, I had a really beautiful, really messy early-20s lifestyle.

Parties, alcohol, smoking, drugs. I tried them all. I had a lot of fun. Late nights, tons of stress (that didn’t really feel like stress back then), cheap food, fast food. I wasn’t cooking for myself, I’d just grab whatever was convenient.

I wasn’t working out but I was dancing and moving a lot.

I didn’t have any of the wellness protocols I now religiously follow.

I didn’t know about nervous system regulation. I didn’t track my cycle. I didn’t prioritize sleep or manage stress intentionally.

I was just... living the way most people in their early 20s do.

Fun, but my body was paying the price.

If You’re Going Through This Right Now

If you’re clearing HPV right now, or looking for a way to strengthen your immune system, I don’t have a one-size-fits-all recipe.

I wish I did.

Your body is different from mine. Your immune system is dealing with its own unique combination of factors.

What I do have is a framework. A starting point that I use in all my coaching programs:

• Nutrition
• Movement
• Stress management
• Recovery

These 4 pillars work together or they fall apart together.

You can’t out-supplement a terrible diet.

You can’t out-exercise chronic stress.

You can’t recover if you’re not resting.

It Took Time (Years, Actually)

I didn’t clear HPV in a month or 3 months. It took years!!!

I was at the doctor’s office every 3 months doing Pap smears and almost always biopsies. (Ouch!!! Those biopsies are so, so painful)

But every choice I made, every meal, every walk, every earlier bedtime was building a stronger foundation.

And eventually, my body did what it was designed to do.

It cleared the virus.

The Real Reason It Worked

When I look back now, I’m convinced the reason I cleared the virus wasn’t just the lifestyle changes.

Yeah, those mattered. But what really made the difference was this: Certainty.

Unshakable belief that I could clear the virus.

The doctors told me I had to do the procedure and that cutting off part of my cervix was the only way.

And that was partly true… it was one way and maybe the fastest way.

But deep down, I believed my body was fully capable of clearing the virus on its own.

What Certainty Actually Looks Like

Certainty didn’t mean I knew exactly how it would happen. I didn’t have a timeline and I didn’t have a detailed plan.

What I had was this: I know my body can do this and I know if I support it, it will heal.

That belief shaped every choice.

• When I wanted to skip the gym: This is building my immune system.
• When I wanted to stay out late drinking: My body needs rest to fight this.
• When I felt scared at follow-up appointments: I’m doing everything I can. My body is working.

And slowly, over time, my body proved me right.

This is the same principle I talked about in my last 🔗post about Kabbalah.

When you have certainty, your actions align.

Without certainty, every choice feels hard and every obstacle feels like a sign to quit.

But with certainty, you keep going because you already know how it ends!

The Follow-Up That Changed Everything

Months later, I went back for another Pap smear.

The precancerous cells were gone and the virus had cleared.

My doctor was surprised. “Sometimes this happens” she said. “Your immune system must have kicked in”

I remember thinking: “It didn’t just kick in. I gave it everything it needed to do its job. And I believed it could”

The Storms You’re Ready For

A close friend of mine told me this: “You will only go through a storm when you’re ready for it”

Not everyone has storms. But those who are ready, they will.

And if you go back to the breadcrumb theory, the idea that a future version of you is guiding you forward then you have to understand this:

You have to go through certain storms to be guided to the path you’re supposed to take.

So have trust.

The storms you’re going through right now are catalysts and they’re guiding you further.

Your player, your future self, can zoom out and see the entire map.

They know which experiences will crack you open and which challenges will teach you what ease never could.

You can’t see it yet because you’re stuck in first-person view, inside the storm, wondering if you’ll make it through.

But “your player” knows.

You Will Get Through This

Trust that you have to go through the storm.

And have certainty, unshakable, bone-deep certainty, that you will get through it stronger on the other side.

The HPV diagnosis was my storm.

The agency job was my storm.

The decision to leave everything and build something new, that was a storm too.

And every single one led me here… to this work I do today and to you.

So if you’re in your storm right now, I see you.

I know it’s hard and I know it feels lonely and unfair and too much…

But I also know this: you’re ready for it. You wouldn’t be in it if you weren’t.

And on the other side, there’s a version of you waiting: stronger and more certain than ever.

Trust the breadcrumbs. They’re leading you exactly where you need to go.

Love, Teo

PS: If you’re going through this, HPV, another health challenge, or just feeling like your body isn’t working… save this post. Come back when you need the reminder: You’re body is not broken, it’s simply overwhelmed. When you give your body what it needs + believe with certainty it can heal… it will.

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