Spirituality & Personal Growth

Drema is one of those clients that threw me for a loop when I first met her. I was referred to give her massages due to her pain. That’s all I was told. I had no idea what I was walking into. She was in her 40’s. Her pain was due to an automobile accident, and not just a simple fender bender.

When she was 14 she was walking and was hit by a car on her left side. She was in a coma for over 9 months. She underwent several surgeries to repair the crushing of her bones, skull, and damage to her internal organs. I was freaked! I was walking in on a woman who had been bed ridden most of MY life. She couldn’t hold up her head, sit on her own, or do much of anything really but lay in a bed propped with pillows. She did have some use of her right arm, but it was very unstable and wild.

At first she scared me. She was angry, she yelled, cried, and she didn’t remember me every time I came. Sometimes her mind would go into a bad memory she experienced years ago and she’d shout and grab me with her right arm which was very strong and unstable as though she was back in that moment. I’d have to snap her out of it. I’d repeat who I was several times during a treatment and why I was there. At times I would feel so emotionally overwhelmed that I after her massage I would go and sit in my car and cry. I would ask myself “Can I do this?”, “Why am I here?”, “Can I even help her?”

She was filled with so much frustration. I didn’t know what to do. She kept moaning that she wanted to WALK. Clearly that didn’t seem that it was going to happen. After all, she had no use of her entire left side. She had been in a bed over 20 years. Her muscles were atrophied, or scarred. She couldn’t sit on her own, she had to be propped with pillows in a bed. She couldn’t even brush her own hair. Her right arm was all she had and it was very shaky, besides that think of a 3 month old baby and their physical abilities. That’s just about where she was, but she could communicate. She would yell out demands of what she wanted others to do for her and her mother and sister would run and do whatever they could for her.

One day after a tough session I just decided if she wanted to walk then I was going to do whatever I could do to make that happen. She had already gone through years of unsuccessful therapy by trained doctors and therapists with minimal results. I had no idea how I would do it, but I didn’t care. I’d find a way.

Months passed by of me stretching her, making her body go through the motions of getting up, rolling over, trying to make her to as many exercises as she could, even if it was just lifting her head and trying to do a crunch in bed. She’d be dripping with sweat and exhausted after an hour “workout”.

Little by little she responded. Muscles that had not moved in 20 years started to wiggle. Her left leg started to move. Her left arm would start to move back and forth. She even began gripping with her left hand which was crushed, filled with scars, and had undergone several surgeries. She began holding up her head and turning it in all directions.

I soon realized her memory was improving. She knew who I was, remembered our visits and what were doing. I began enjoying seeing Drema. I loved her determination and drive. I enjoyed the challenge. I enjoyed experimenting with her and challenging her to see what she was capable of.

Little by little I noticed her fine motor skills were improving, but I knew the mind MUSCLES needed a workout too! So, I wrote out affirmations for her to type on her computer keyboard with the right hand. Affirmations like, “I can brush my own hair”, “I can sit up on my own”, I can brush my own teeth” and of course, “I am walking”.

She has able to wiggle herself into her wheelchair.

And buckle her own seat belt using both hands! She was gaining use of her body parts again.

I helped her get out of bed……

to go and sit down in a chair other than her wheelchair….

She is exhausted from so much exertion!

What a satisfying feeling to see her in a chair for the first time in over 20 years!

Next, came sitting on things other than chairs. I wanted her to be able to use a bathroom again. When was the last time you felt thankful that you could use the bathroom?

So, I continued to help her walk. Her steps were improving. Just like a baby in a walker, I considered myself her life-sized walker! Tough stuff! I was sweating too!

I wanted her to put herself in bed from a standing. We would go back and forth from being in bed to getting up and standing for an hour sometimes.

Now I wanted her to stand on her own for the first time!

She’s “cheating” a bit here by leaning on my chest, but pretty darn close!

A little wobbly!

I wanted her to be able to support her own body weight…..and she did it! Drema is standing on her own!

This was probably more exciting and rewarding than watching my own children learning to stand and walk on their own. Never underestimate what a determined mind can do. She was told she’d never do these things and here she is. Believe, because nothing is impossible.

As Wayne Dyer likes to say, “Nobody knows enough to be a pessimist.” Anything the mind can perceive we can achieve. She had the determination, the drive! We went through sweat and tears….and after a year she did walk!

Healthy living is multi-dimensional and sometimes I can get stuck in few aspects of health, but health is another word for balance which is another word for moderation. It’s about balancing several aspects of healthy living and figuring out how many healthy habits can I adopt. It’s about having a full and satisfying life.

Also, I’d like to utilize more self control. I still feel that I lose focus and tend to revert on progress I make at times. Albeit, the bikini body challenge is one of them.


In the sense of good health, I’d like a romantic companion, more human touch, sex, laughter, play, and a stronger sense of merriment. I feel like I am out of balance with these. Sometimes I forget to have fun, laugh and be carefree.

I need to put up my vision board. That always kept me on track. I don’t know why I took it down. Perhaps it was a bit dated. Well, it’s time to post a new vision board! I want a healthy life and feel inspired after looking at these photos.

I am going to keep adding to my list of healthy habits. It’s about outweighing the bad with good and eventually no longer having habits that do not serve me or my health. Here’s to health and living an inspired life.

Isn’t it funny how we would view the world and behave if we knew our days were limited? Fact is, we tend to take life for granted. Nobody knows when our day is up. If we did, would we do things differently? I use this scenario of “if this was my last day” for me to regain perspective on my life. This is how I want to live everyday. I want to stay here rather than get swept into the small stuff that doesn’t enrich my life. At the end of my life. I want to know that I conducted my life in this fashion.

1. Love and savor the people in my life like my kids, family and friends
2. Make amends with anyone I needed
3. Watch more sunrises and sunsets
4. Feel thankful for the opportunity to be alive
5. Inspire free living and follow the beat of my own drum
6. Live lightly
7. Eat well
8. Exercise
9. Keep learning and sharing my journey
10. Live in peace
11. Be more loving, patient and compassionate, be more tolerant, and forgiving
12. Forgive and love myself
13. Have more fun
14. Laugh until I have cramps in my side
15. Wake up early
16. Smile until my cheeks cramp
17. Leave my voice to share with my kids
18. Surround myself with my favorite things & create a private retreat
19. Hang out at an outdoor spa
20. Love my dog
21. Make someone else’s day a little easier or better, brighten someone else’s day
22. Enjoy the sun, spend more time outdoors and have picnics
23. Make more videos & blogs
24. Get off the TV and PC and experience living
25. Read to my kids and cuddle at night
26. Do more things that my kids enjoy doing like hide and seek in the dark
27. Do something different each day
28. Hug more
29. Celebrate my uniqueness
30. Make it a point to find the joy in my life and carry a carefree attitude

How about you?

These things rejuvenate me, bring out the best in me, and remind me to celebrate the gift of life.

1. Loving my life, my kids
2. Writing in my gratitude journal
3. Envision my life direction (vision board or programming)
4. Reading “Levels of Human Consciousness” for Enlightenment in “Power vs Force”
5. Yoga
6. Getting a massage
7. Sun bathing & reading a good book
8. Meditating in the sauna
9. Dancing to awesome music
10. Fasting
11. Eating raw food
12. Sharing a conversation with someone who is AWAKE
13. Learning something new
14. Turning people on to transparent living
15. A day of silence

I almost forgot making love would be on this list too…hmmm… back to those romance videos 🙂

How about you?

Yesterday was such a nice day. It started with checking my emails and receiving a message from Dhrumil of We Like it Raw. He has created a page called Masala that lists” the hottest mix of raw food blogs online”. I was humbled and honored that my blog would even be mentioned. It feels good knowing that somebody is reading my jumbled blogs. I love sharing my experiences and stories. Even better I love receiving comments from others stating that I have helped them. How cool is that?

I took my little poochie, Hailee out for a morning walk and just savored the gorgeous weather. I feel so lucky to be alive and have my life. I have so much to be thankful for. I am smart, healthy, and creative. I have 2 awesome kids that I spend lots of time with. I have a home that I can play around with decorating and gardening. I live in Southern California and we have such mild weather. It’s funny how fast we can forget these things and we always seem to find room for complaints on where we are lacking. I really want to turn that around and only see what is going right in my life. It definitely far out weighs any nitty gritty complaints I may have.

I came home and read 2 chapter “Loss of Innocence” from “Mastery of Love” by Don Miguel Ruiz to my children. This is such easy reading and they understand the message. Wow, this really put me in my place as a mother. It explains how children are tuned into love and enjoying the present moment. As parents condition and dump our “hell” on our kids and they develop emotional wounds like shyness, fear, etc… Our kids start to try to please us (parents, teachers, etc) for approval. Anyhow, I was brought to tears. I love and adore my children. I know they are my teachers and they remind me about real life. So much of our existence is fluff. I want the real stuff, the good stuff. The stuff that matters. I want to live in love all day long. I actually said my goal for the day was to “make love all day long”. That is my ultimate goal. I may not be there 100%, but I’ll tell you what, each day I try I grow by minutes. Before I know it I’ll be there. Practice makes perfect.

My kids and I played around in the kitchen and created this. I love when I just whip something together without any planning. It’s always a surprise. I had some serious sweet tooth going on and instead of eating something really off the charts we had made chocolate ice cream by blending frozen bananas with cacao. We just kept going from there and this is a quick video of what we came up with. Meg wasn’t in the mood to be on the camera so she acts a little silly, but kids will be kids.

Then a beautiful gift wrapped book came in the mail from Matthew Kenney. He sent me his book “Entertaining in the Raw“. Of course it is beautiful and he truly is a genius. Sorry to keep repeating it Matthew, but it’s true! I remember last year thinking there needed to be a book for raw entertaining. Ta da…here it is. Literally, my daughter and I sat and went through every picture salivating. I really didn’t know which recipe to try first. So, of course Matthew recommend I make the basil wrappers. DOH! I should have known, he had sent me that recipe before the book came out last summer. Oops! Well, you don’t gotta tell me again… I am on it! I’ll post a video of the final product as long a you guys realize it won’t be nearly as pretty as his photos show.

Anyhow, I just enjoyed a simple mellow day filled with lots of hugs and cuddles with my kids. I felt centered and balanced. So, I want to keep up with my daily goal to make love all day long. I can see how one day went and I look forward to more. Just thought I’d share. 🙂