Cultivate an Exceptional Life is a chronic illness community for women who are done waiting for their hard season to be over before they start really living.
Here you’ll find honest stories, practical tools, and hard-won wisdom for building a life you love — alongside your illness, not in spite of waiting for it to get better.
Because an exceptional life doesn’t just happen. It has to be cultivated.
I’m Leisa Watkins, and I’ve spent most of my life figuring out how to build something beautiful inside circumstances that were anything but.
I created Cultivate an Exceptional Life because I needed it to exist. A place for women who are done waiting for their hard season to be over before they start really living. A place where we talk honestly about chronic illness, grief, and the unexpected — and intentionally about joy, purpose, and what it means to thrive anyway.
Because an exceptional life doesn’t just happen. It has to be cultivated. Despite it all.
Here’s my story.
My Story
I didn’t arrive at this work through a single crisis. I grew up in it.
I’ve lived with fibromyalgia and chronic Lyme disease for over 40 years. Long before the diagnoses piled up, long before the worst weeks came, I was already learning what it meant to build a life inside a body that didn’t always cooperate. That foundation shaped everything that came after.
And a lot came after.
In one month I endured three surgeries, an ectopic pregnancy, and a traumatic car accident — one of three I’ve survived. My husband was later hit by a drunk driver and spent months recovering. One of our daughters spent 30 days in a children’s hospital while I was trying to hold everything together with a body that was breaking down.
Then came the week that changed everything again. My husband was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Three days later I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Our daughters were fighting their own medical battles simultaneously.
We also lost our car. Had our power and water shut off. I found myself reaching out to strangers for help in ways I never imagined I would.
I know the grief of nine miscarriages. The trauma of sexual assault. The long road of rebuilding after financial collapse.
As a family we now live with more than 25 chronic illness diagnoses between us.
I share all of this not for sympathy — but because I want you to know that when I say I understand, I mean it. I’m not writing from a place of having figured it all out from the outside. I’ve been in the dark. I know what it feels like to wonder if a good life is still possible.
It is. I’m still here. And so are you.
What I Learned Along the Way
In the darkest seasons I searched for answers anywhere I could find them. I immersed myself in research, connected with others navigating similar conditions, and listened to every story of struggle and survival I could find.
What I kept coming back to wasn’t a cure or a treatment or a perfectly managed diagnosis. It was something quieter and more stubborn than that.
People were still building beautiful lives. Not despite their pain exactly — but alongside it. Not waiting for the hard part to be over. Not putting joy on hold until their bodies cooperated.
They were cultivating something. Intentionally. On purpose. Even on the hard days.
That realization changed everything for me. Life is worth living — and worth living well. Even when it looks nothing like you planned. Even when your body isn’t on board. Even when you’re still in the middle of it.
That belief became the foundation of everything you’ll find here.
Why I Created Cultivate an Exceptional Life
This space was born from a simple desire: to share what I’ve learned — not as a medical expert, but as a woman who has lived through deep hardship and found her way back to meaning and joy.
You’ll find honest stories about navigating chronic illness, caregiving, grief, and recovery. Practical tools for emotional resilience and mindset. Reflections on advocating for yourself in a medical system that doesn’t always make it easy. And woven throughout — art, travel, photography, and the small beautiful things that remind us life is still worth showing up for.
This isn’t a site about getting better. It’s about living fully, right now, exactly as you are.
My hope is that something here makes your path feel a little lighter, a little more possible, and a lot more hopeful.
Why You Can Trust My Voice
I’m not a doctor and I’ve never claimed to be. What I bring is something different — over 40 years of lived experience navigating chronic illness, including fibromyalgia, chronic Lyme disease, and multiple sclerosis. I’ve been a caregiver for disabled adult family members while managing my own conditions. I’ve raised medically complex children, learning to advocate fiercely in medical systems that don’t always make it easy. I’ve done the research, sat in the waiting rooms, fought for answers, and rebuilt after collapse — more than once.
My professional background spans leadership roles as CEO and Chief Operations Officer, teaching, marketing, writing, and digital publishing. I’ve coached women through mindset shifts and helped them find their footing again after illness turned their lives upside down.
But honestly, the credential that matters most here isn’t on any resume. It’s the wisdom that only comes from surviving what you thought might break you.
I share what has genuinely helped me and what I’ve learned from decades of research and lived experience. Always consult your own healthcare team for medical decisions — but know that everything here comes from a place of deep personal understanding.
What You’ll Find Here
This site holds a lot — because life with chronic illness is a lot.
You’ll find practical support for navigating diagnosis, treatment, and the medical system. Honest conversations about grief, trauma, and the identity shift that comes with chronic illness. Mindset tools and resilience strategies for the long haul. Journaling prompts and worksheets for the days when you need somewhere to put it all.
And woven throughout — stories, art, travel, photography, and the small beautiful moments that remind you that your life is still yours to shape.
This space was built on one simple truth: life can be both heavy and beautiful at the same time. You don’t have to wait for the heavy part to be over to start finding the beautiful.
A Few Fun Things About Me
I call myself a conflicted vagabond.
Part of me dreams of selling everything and traveling the world — eating warm croissants in Paris, wandering Indian markets, making friends in cafés, and capturing beauty with my camera.
Another part longs for a charming city brownstone, where evenings are filled with ballet performances, museums, football games, and candlelit dinners with good conversation.
And then there’s the part that wants a quiet country homestead — chickens in the morning, books on the porch in the afternoon, and the deep peace of a slower life.
I’m wonderfully, beautifully conflicted. And I’ve decided that’s more than okay — it just means there’s a lot of living still to do.
A Look at My Journey Through Work
As a child I wanted to be either a prima ballerina or an FBI criminal profiler. Life had other plans.
I’ve worn many professional hats since then — banker, traveling art teacher, craft and hobby designer, CEO, Chief Operations Officer, head of marketing, digital assets director, web developer, and lifelong entrepreneur.
Every role, every unexpected turn, taught me something I eventually carried into this work. The banking taught me systems. The art teaching taught me how to meet people where they are. The entrepreneurship taught me how to keep building when things fall apart.
All roads, it turns out, led here.
My Love for Travel, Art, and Photography
I’ve always believed that beauty is one of the most underrated healing tools we have.
Traveling — even when it requires careful planning around my health — reminds me that the world is vast and worth exploring. Creating art quiets the noise in a way nothing else quite does. And photography has taught me to look for what’s worth noticing, even on the ordinary days.
You’ll find all of these woven throughout this site. Not as extras or distractions from the serious work of managing chronic illness — but as essential parts of it. Because a life worth cultivating isn’t just about symptom management and survival strategies. It’s also about croissants in Paris and light falling through a window just right.
The Medical Challenges My Family Faces
I share this list not for sympathy, but for recognition. If you’ve ever felt alone in your diagnosis — like nobody around you truly understands what you’re carrying — I want you to see your condition here and know that you are not alone. We have lived it too.
Between us, our family has navigated:
- Cancer (Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma)
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome (MALS)
- Mast Cell Activation Disorder
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Post-Concussive Syndrome
- CSF Leak
- Dysautonomia
- Diabetes and blood sugar issues
- Lyme Disease
- Epstein-Barr Virus
- Fibromyalgia
- Connective tissue disorders
- Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
- Hashimoto’s Disease
- MTHFR gene mutation
- Congestive heart failure
- Asthma
- Chronic kidney disease
- Blood clots
- Sepsis
- Internal bleeding
- Workplace injuries
- Osteoporosis
- And more
This is our lived experience — not medical advice. But if your condition is on this list, or even if it isn’t, you are welcome here.
You’re in the Right Place
If you’ve read this far, I have a feeling you’re exactly who this site was made for.
You’re not looking for someone to tell you to think positive or push through. You’re looking for someone who gets it — and still believes something beautiful is possible on the other side of all of it.
That’s why I’m here. That’s why you’re here.
If you’d like to go deeper into my personal story, explore the posts tagged My Story — each one is a closer look at the hard seasons, the lessons, and the hope that kept me going.
Thank you for being here. Truly.
With love and gratitude,
Leisa