Life is a lesson, every single day. I have spent the past several months on a journey that has brought me through some major trials.
In March I launched BrainBeHappy.com, an interactive community for mentally ill, those living with brain injury and their caregivers. This was a dream of mine; a dream that was sparked from a program that I was taking with SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) called "Dream Boogie".
The reason I chose to create this website is because there weren’t any websites, that I was aware of, that were positive and upbeat for survivors of mental illness and brain injury, where they could go to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. The only sites I had found were sites that had statistics, or sites that were, to me, very depressing. There were forums out there. But they too, were just a place to complain, and I knew that complaining hadn’t gotten me anywhere, so I decided that I would try and help others see the “bright side” of life.
The past three weeks, I have really been working diligently on my own healing and taking a real hard look at my life. For those of you who don’t know my story, you can see it here.
I realized a week ago that my Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), that I’m still having quite a few complications from, was caused by a negligent doctor and I also realized that no one ever offered any rehabilitation assistance to me. The only rehabilitation assistance I’ve received is what my husband has helped me with, some psychotherapy from my psychotherapist, and a whole lot of help from Google. My greatest therapy has been the research I’ve done to put my website together. My research has been a great blessing!
As I have been researching alternative methods of healing, I have been having Cranio Sacral Therapy, Reiki Therapy, and done some Pranic Healing Meditation. I spend time every day doing some type of meditation. I am seeing some phenomenal results. Both of my daughters have also been having Cranio Sacral Therapy and Reiki Therapy and have been experiencing amazing results. These therapies have become a blessing in our lives.
One thing that I had stressed to the members and readers on my website was, “Learning to live a happy, productive life with a brain injury is the most important thing. It doesn't really matter how it happened, or why it happened or whose fault it was. The fact remains, it happened. Now, what are you going to do about it? I've chosen to live my life - happily. Let me help you to do the same!” After experiencing these new methods of healing, I think I have a different outlook. I will be rewording it to say, “Learning to live a happy,
productive life with a brain injury or mental illness is possible. What’s important and something you need to know and to do is to forgive everyone, one by one, including yourself, and release all those circumstances, memories and feelings into the light – send them to God and say, ‘It is done.’ I’m working on this and I’m striving to live a happy life. I’ll help you to do the same!”
I used to think that it didn’t matter what had happened. I was always taught – forgive and forget. That may be true, but you need to admit what happened, feel the feelings, forgive the person, the situation, the people, yourself, and then release it into the light. Say amen and move on. It’s no longer yours. By doing this, you are releasing the experience/situation into the universe and God can take control of it and you no longer have to. It is a freeing experience and one that I have found is very healing!
Today I am finding peace. There is so much in my life that I am grateful for! I could spend the next hour writing about all the things that I’m grateful for but maybe that’s for another post.
Just know that it’s important to validate what you’ve been through, but then to forgive and most importantly let it go.
Hugs,
Cathleen
