The Awakening
Diagnosis, survival, reclaiming health, and the spiritual awakening that changed everything.
Healing is more than treatment.
Created by a Stage IV cancer survivor, this is a place for practical guidance, honest encouragement, and a whole-person approach to caring for your health beyond treatment alone.
A personal note from Corie
No matter what brought you here, you are not powerless.
Maybe you arrived here carrying a diagnosis, frustrated by symptoms no one can explain, overwhelmed by conflicting advice, or simply ready to care for yourself differently. Wherever you are starting, I want you to hear this first: you deserve more than fear, confusion, and a life spent only managing what is wrong.
This is not about rejecting medicine, chasing perfection, or changing everything overnight. Treatment can be lifesaving, but healing asks for your participation. It begins with learning to nourish your body, ask better questions, listen more closely, bring your mind, body, spirit, and daily choices into greater alignment, and take the next honest step.
You may not control every outcome, but you are not without influence. One choice can become a pattern. One question can open a new door. One small act of care can begin to change the way you live. You are allowed to participate in your own restoration. That is why I created this space.
Explore what speaks to you. Take what helps. Start where you are.
— Corie
01 · The book
A terminal prognosis changed her life.
Surviving the crisis required lifesaving treatment. Healing required faith, nutrition, self-advocacy, and a whole-person way of living.
I Was Supposed to Die: My Rebirth Through Stage IV follows Corie from a Stage IV diagnosis, sepsis, and life support into the daily work of reclaiming her health and discovering that surviving the crisis was only the beginning.
From terminal prognosis to faith-fueled healing
What if your treatment plan is only one part of your healing plan?
Corie tells the story plainly: what happened, what she questioned, what she changed, and what she learned along the way. The book honors the lifesaving role of medicine while exploring the faith, nutrition, research, self-advocacy, and daily choices that became part of her larger healing plan. It is an invitation to advocate for your own health.
See the back cover
Alignment
Where belief becomes behavior and discipline becomes freedom.
Rebuilding
The healing kitchen, rebuilt comfort foods, and the mindset shift from processed dependence to intentional nourishment.
Ownership
Ownership, awareness, and the decision to participate in your own restoration.
Practical Food & Health References
Practical food guides, symptom-support resources, and nutrition considerations for recovery and better health.
You do not have to be perfect. Perfection is an illusion. Progress is made real through small choices repeated with intention.
Corie Watkin
02 · About Corie
Plainspoken, faith-centered, and uninterested in pretending.
Corie Watkin is not a wellness guru, and she has no interest in pretending to be perfect. She believes people deserve honest answers—not another expensive promise wrapped in hope.
In the fall of 2022, Corie was diagnosed with metastatic Stage IV colon cancer. Within weeks, she developed sepsis, underwent emergency surgeries, spent time on life support, and awoke with an ostomy. Medical intervention and immunotherapy helped save her life, but surviving the immediate crisis was only the beginning.
Relying on faith, research, nutrition, self-advocacy, and a growing understanding of whole-person healing, Corie began rebuilding her health one decision at a time. Based on her most recent PET scan, she is cancer-free and showed strong overall health. She continues to obtain follow-up imaging approximately once a year, though she chooses not to have an oncologist overseeing her health at this time.
Her message is not that one food, one supplement, one protocol, or one practice holds every answer. It is that a treatment plan, even a lifesaving one, is only one part of a healing plan. Healing asks the whole person to participate by bringing the mind, body, spirit, and daily choices into greater alignment. Not perfectly, but intentionally. When people learn to support their health beyond treatment alone, they begin to recognize that they are not powerless. They have far more influence over their healing and well-being than they were ever led to believe.
Read more of Corie's story
Her approach is neither anti-medicine nor blindly devoted to it. Corie believes treatment has a necessary time and place, but healing is broader than treatment alone. It includes what we eat, how we rest, the environments we create, the questions we ask, the habits we repeat, and the faith we lean on when the future feels uncertain.
Cancer also made Corie's work as a life insurance agent deeply personal. When she became seriously ill, a living-benefit policy gave her more than financial protection. It gave her room to breathe. She did not have to lie awake wondering how she would pay her rent, cover her car payment, or keep up with everyday expenses while her body was fighting to heal. The funds also helped make some of her holistic healing choices, supportive remedies, and wellness pursuits financially possible. By easing that burden, the policy allowed her to focus less on surviving financially and more on healing physically, mentally, and spiritually. With nearly four in ten Americans expected to develop cancer during their lifetime, and more than 1.5 million heart attacks and strokes occurring in the United States each year, a serious health crisis is not something that only happens to someone else. Today, Corie helps others understand policies that may provide that same kind of support when they need it most.
Away from writing, insurance, and her healing kitchen, Corie finds peace caring for her dogs, turtles, and boas. As a passionate boa breeder, she refers to her snakes as “living art.” Boas are often feared simply because they are misunderstood, yet they are quiet, independent creatures that prefer peace over attention. They reflect the independent, eccentric, quietly quirky, and resilient side of Corie that enjoys connection, but is most at peace simply being left to live life on her own terms.
Through her book, website, and growing community, Corie is creating a place for people to explore without pressure. She is not here to tell everyone to follow her path. She is here to help people filter out the noise, recognize their options, and discover what may be possible when faith becomes action.
This is a place for thoughtful conversation about the book, faith-fueled healing, using food as medicine, life after cancer, mindset, and the small choices that help us keep moving forward.
Inside the community
- Corie's Corner & Announcements
- Book Discussion & Questions
- The Healing Kitchen: Tips, Recipes & Peer Support
- Faith-Fueled Healing & Shared Experiences
Read along, share what has helped you, ask honest questions, encourage someone who may be a few steps behind you, and help us create a community where kindness, grace, and respect guide every conversation.
04 · From My Journey to Your Inbox
What I'm Learning, Loving, and Finding Useful—Shared With You.
You can expect an uplifting and informational email, including book news, new resources, recipes, and plainspoken encouragement from Corie, sent once or twice a month. Please add me to your contacts so you don't miss it!
05 · Financial Peace While You Focus on Healing
A health crisis should not become a financial crisis too.
Cancer also made Corie's work as a life insurance agent deeply personal. When she became seriously ill, a living-benefit policy gave her more than financial protection. It gave her room to breathe. She did not have to lie awake wondering how she would pay her rent, cover her car payment, or keep up with everyday expenses while her body was fighting to heal. The funds also helped make some of her holistic healing choices, supportive remedies, and wellness pursuits financially possible. By easing that burden, the policy allowed her to focus less on surviving financially and more on healing physically, mentally, and spiritually.
With nearly four in ten Americans expected to develop cancer during their lifetime, and more than 1.5 million heart attacks and strokes occurring in the United States each year, a serious health crisis is not something that only happens to someone else. Today, Corie helps others understand policies that may provide that same kind of support when they need it most.
Talk With Corie About Living Benefits
06 · The Corie's Life Shop
Where inspired gifts, personal favorites, and a few wild surprises come together.
Explore apparel, home goods, personalized gifts, encouraging messages, and playful finds inspired by the many sides of Corie's life.
Shop Corie's Life
07 · Contact
Have a question? Write to Corie.
- Email moc.liamg@efilseiroc
- Scheduling Schedule a Conversation With Corie
Follow along
Book updates, personal reflections, practical encouragement, and life beyond the diagnosis.