| So you want to know how to be happy after an injury | | | | by then the damage was done. |
| or illness changes you physically and emotionally? | | | | The resulting closed head injury was invisible. My family |
| After an attack left me disabled with a brain injury my | | | | and friends just didn't "get" why daily life had become |
| whole life turned upside-down. Nothing about me was | | | | a monumental struggle for me. Hey, I looked fine. But I |
| the same physically or emotionally. So I most definitely | | | | not only couldn't keep up I couldn't even follow a |
| know what you are going through. | | | | conversation. |
| I was one of those super achievers growing up. You | | | | In fact I couldn't do much of anything because severe |
| know - valedictorian, President of the National Honor | | | | dizziness limited me. Since you see with your brain not |
| Society, concertmaster of the band, playing music in | | | | with your eyes I couldn't even see the world I knew |
| professional orchestras as a teenager. You name it | | | | existed. |
| and I did it. Only I didn't just do it, I had to do it better | | | | Talk about the desire to overcome adversity - mine |
| than everybody else. | | | | was in satiable. Even after the docs said I would not |
| And I didn't stop at high school. I went through college in | | | | heal I forged ahead seeking the help I knew was out |
| three years with a music scholarship even my dean | | | | there. I knew I could return to happiness. |
| told me was too hard for a freshman to get. Then I | | | | Since I put out the message (to the Universe) that I |
| applied to one graduate school in psychology and one | | | | fully intended to heal despite the doctors' verdict the |
| doctoral program. I got into both even though the | | | | Universe stepped forward. Synchronistic events led |
| advice is apply to 28 schools to be sure you get into | | | | me from one healer to the next. Each modality offered |
| one. | | | | something new. Most important, each new teacher |
| Got the picture? Okay, now realize in a doctoral | | | | gave me the hope I needed to continue my motivation |
| program when you hand in a paper you flunk if you | | | | to recover. |
| have a typo in it. The professors do not even read the | | | | I never thought I could not get better even if better |
| papers if they see a typo. | | | | meant accepting how I now lived my life - limited as it |
| All my life everything came easily to me. Frankly I didn't | | | | had become. That dominant thought allowed me to |
| understand why it took so long for others to | | | | stay positive and live in happiness despite outward |
| comprehend what I picked up immediately. | | | | appearances. |
| Enter one client in a psychotic episode. This 420-pound | | | | All that matters is what goes on inside. You heal from |
| women cornered me and whacked me in the head | | | | the inside out. Your outer world always reflects what |
| repeatedly until I figured out how to slip out. Of course | | | | is happening within. |