Episode 190
Have you ever been severely ill and mostly bedridden? Are you living in the tension of the now and the not yet after rebuilding your life from hard seasons?
In our authentic conversation, special guest Lauren Watt, shares her “Renewing Your Mind, Restoring Your Hope” God Story about her healing journey and the intersection of faith, trauma and chronic illness.
Lauren is also a referral from former podcast guest, Lara Silverman, who is a author, speaker, musician, and hosts the “Singing Through Fire” podcast.
Enjoy listening to Lauren’s inspiring God story and pay it forward with a tax-free donation to support another woman’s God story!
Altered Stories Ministry Donation Link
Lauren is a 25-year-old entrepreneur, creative, writer, and speaker who became severely ill at 14 and spent eight years mostly bedridden with complex chronic illness.
After years of searching for answers and trying numerous treatments, Lauren began a brain retraining program in 2023 and has since regained much of her health, rebuilding a life that once felt impossibly far away.
Today, she writes about chronic illness, trauma, faith, and hope through her Substack, Lauren’s Pen, which reaches readers across 31 U.S. states and 13 countries.
2016 esophagogastroduodenoscopy for nonstop nausea
2025 Fair entries (I crochet)
2026 Lauren and Bentley hiking (Ackerman Nature Reserve)
Hiking Spring 2026
Lauren and Bentley in Ohiopyle PA
Lauren in bed with Pascal
Lauren on beach
In This Episode:
- Lauren is a 25-year-old Christian entrepreneur, speaker, and writer, and enjoys speaking on a variety of topics, including self-care without shame.
- She lives in Pennsylvania and has lived there her whole life. She also loves making videos and slideshows
- I think that stories have influenced me tremendously. Now there are specific stories that have influenced me more. The gospel story obviously being the biggest one, because it is true.
- Lauren shares her “Renewing Your Mind, Restoring Your Hope” God story.
- She came to faith as a very young child and was raised in a strong Christian home.
- She became chronically ill at age 14 after being mostly healthy as a child. She was diagnosed with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, and she would have allergic reactions to her environment.
- In the fall, after getting and recovering from a UTI, she started having many debilitating symptoms, and she wasn’t getting better. She started spending most of her time in bed, and every week new symptoms were popping up.
- She was mostly homebound and bedbound for 8 years, and really only left her home for medical appointments.
- In 2023, at age 21, Lauren contracted COVID for the second time and subsequently developed long-haul symptoms. She decided to try a brain retraining program.
- Part of her faith journey was learning to see her body as a good creation from God.
Today she doesn’t have nearly as many symptoms, but she does have some health issues. She has been learning to bring her pain to God, lament, but not stay stuck there.
- Her biggest transformation was learning not to put her life on hold anymore, but that was something she struggled with for a long time.
Links
Quote
- “I think that stories have influenced me tremendously. Now there are specific stories that have influenced me more. The gospel story obviously being the biggest one, because it is true.” - Lauren Watt
- “I would consider my whole life a God story. I believe that God is sovereign over all things and I am so grateful that I don’t remember a time that I didn’t know and love Jesus.” - Lauren Watt
- “Part of my faith journey was learning to see my body as a good creation from God.” - Lauren Watt
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