Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance…I hope you dance.
Mark Sanders and Tia Sillers
In November of 2005, while I was healing from the injury that inspired this book, my friend Andrea gave me a copy of the Mark Sanders and Tia Sillers book, I Hope You Dance. Sanders and Sillers are the authors of the song by the same name, the one made famous by Lee Ann Womack that has been so meaningful to so many people. On the first page Andrea wrote: “To celebrate the day you dance again. I hope you heal quickly.”
I have always loved to dance.
Dance is a form of celebration and I love to glide and turn, expressing my joy in each movement. My friends are used to me swaying with the beat even when there is no official dance floor. I let the rhythm flow through me—all I need is space and music. I love the freedom of dancing at home where a room can become an impromptu dance hall as I enter into the bliss of the moment, oblivious of style or grace. Other times, like this morning at the Farmer’s Market where my neighbors Karl and Matt had a gig playing their guitars and singing, every fiber of my being just has to move.
Dance is also the balm that soothes the pain of challenging life experiences. It helped me face the heartache and feelings of failure while my marriage was dissolving and lessened my anguish when my daughter grappled with depression, drugs, and suicide attempts. It lifts me and shifts my mood.
Our Innate Power
Since that fateful day in November, I appreciate dancing even more. That afternoon, I took a fall while mountain biking and was instantly paralyzed. Moments later, I stopped breathing. It seems I made a crucial choice: sit it out or dance.
My injuries were almost identical to the ones suffered by Christopher Reeve, including the loss of my ability to breathe. My doctor, Robert E. Isaacs, Director of Spine Surgery at Duke University Medical Center, said that my presentation “was pretty graphic—historically, it is one people do not survive.” With the severity of my spinal cord trauma, my prognosis for mobility was terrible. After surgery, Dr. Isaac’s expected me to remain a quadriplegic.
I gave faith a fighting chance. I chose to dance. I created a very different outcome.
I embraced the full capacity of who we really are—limitless spiritual and energetic beings. My results surpassed my doctors’ wildest expectations: I regained my breath without EMS and became fully functioning. My life is evidence of the truth that we are far more than most of us have been taught or imagined. When we open ourselves to new perspectives, we have more power than we ever realized.
Five years before I broke my neck, I was guided to my passion and path of service as a holistic wellness facilitator, teacher, and speaker. I give credit for my phenomenal recovery to my belief and practice in the teachings and to the processes that I share in this book. At that critical juncture between life and death, I stayed in the moment, accepted my infinite, ever-present inner wisdom and Higher Power, and held tight to my trust that everything is in divine order.
These teachings—the dance steps of the spirit—helped me to choose calm over chaos and turn my life around. I’ll show you how I released limitations and refused to accept the status quo, how my assurance that we are all here on a special spiritual journey to attain our highest potential has guided me towards healing and inner peace, and how you, too, can move through life’s challenges into health, abundance and joy.
I have watched my clients dramatically improve their life situations as they learn to relate to the difficulties that arise from a spiritual and energetic perspective—to view their bodies, thoughts, events, and even the universe itself, as subtle energy fields moldable by their minds, intentions, and feelings. In our sessions together, we balance these fields, transmuting the physical symptoms created by present and past emotional pain so that the flow of healthy energy and improved health and life situations can return. I will explain the principles behind this.
In my practice of life coaching and energy and sound healing, I have seen clients get well enough to cancel scheduled surgeries, avoid exhaustive, invasive and expensive medical treatment, get off prescription medicine, release pain, depression, and addiction, and feel more peace and joy in their daily lives. One client’s cancer disappeared after five sessions. I attribute their recovery, and my own, to our work in balancing our subtle energy fields, our readiness for the personal freedom that we want and deserve, and our willingness to see life from a multi-dimensional perspective. If you have health, relationship, career or financial concerns, I will share stories to give you insight into alternative options and practices that could work for you.
Honoring the Journey
If you are already aligned with mind, body, and spirit awareness, then Calling Back Your Power offers you an opportunity to move into a deeper knowing and owning of these teachings.
If you find what you read surprising, then I suggest that you consider that we have been taught throughout our lives to look outside ourselves for answers. This book offers a way for you to use your inner power to heal your health and life circumstances.
If you look at the world in a purely scientific way, I invite you to research the teachings of quantum physics that I mention in the third chapter, Your Energetic World. You will find information about research by world-renowned scientists from top universities who have uncovered evidence supporting the spiritual and energetic truths that have been practiced for millennia. You will see that, where Western medicine is perplexed at my results, ancient spiritual teachings and the emerging science of quantum physics make them more understandable.
If you come from a biblically-based background, I hope you will recognize the parallels with much of what you read here. I am reminded of, “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think,” Romans 12:2 and, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive,” Matthew 21:22. The teachings I discuss in this book share these same truths.
If you believe God has failed you and you question the existence of any Higher Power, I invite you to read this book with an open mind and to affirm that you will feel and know the Truth of your Being.
There are many paths that lead to spiritual awakening. As you read this book, I invite you to open yourself to the ones that serve you most naturally, that help you deepen your faith in our energetic and spiritual universe and in your innate power, and that feel right to you. Nothing has to be forced. Relax and let the Divine work through you, for you.
Spiritual evolution is at the heart of our lives. Though not always an easy task, we can limit the amount of pain, disease, and difficulty we experience. This book gives you ways to dissolve the negativity that makes life hard. I hope my stories, teachings, and truths will help you find the options and answers—the freedom— that is divinely yours.
I dedicated myself to this journey long before I needed these principles for my ultimate ordeal—my biking incident. Was I perfect in remembering these principles? No. I had, and still have, plenty of life trials with which to practice these principles. But, these teachings resonate with me and I am consistent in my efforts. I learned the value of being present in the moment and of acting from empowerment, not fear. From the moment I stopped breathing, my preparation gave me the awareness and spiritual strength I needed all the way through my recovery. These are the teachings that I share with you.
Shall We Dance
I invite you to take the incremental or, perhaps, giant steps that create your own personal dance as you journey through life. Hear the songs that are calling you to move at your right and perfect tempo. Let no one step on your toes! Practice your dance steps over and over as you move through life’s struggles, deepen your beliefs, and grow in your confidence. Expect your own positive results to multiply and watch your life transform right before your eyes.
I’m writing this book from my heart, sharing my life, hoping it helps you find the truth of who you really are—a way to remember more fully the nature of your essence. Follow the teachings and you will also experience a shift in consciousness—an understanding of how to release old hurts and pain and attract better life experiences, to move forward into prosperity, health, and joy.
Beginnings
I am often asked how I started down this path. The short answer is that we are always being guided to our destiny path’s highest good. The longer answer follows.
In the mid-1990s, my former husband’s job transfer moved our family from Maine to North Carolina. I brought with me the book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Christiane Northrup, MD, a practitioner recognized and respected for her holistic medical knowledge. The book opened a new way of thinking for me, though not all at once.
People align with different books and teachings as they move through life; and, at that point in my life, I aligned with many of Dr. Northrup’s teachings. Ironically, I skipped over the chapter on the chakras. Chakras are energy centers within our bodies that receive, assimilate, and express life-force energy. This seemed too out there for me at the time.
As you read my book, you may resonate with some thoughts and not others. My words may clarify feelings and ideas that you have, or you may feel resistance to them. Please set aside the ones that bring up resistance and focus on what feels right to you—we align more with our spiritual essence by not seeing ideas as right or wrong but rather as what is or is not for us at a particular time.
My reaction to the concept of chakras seems rather comical to me now, considering that a mere five years later I was drawn to Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing modality that balances the chakras. Over the years my appreciation for Dr. Northrup’s pioneering and visionary spirit has deepened—she has persevered with integrity in leading women to a deeper understanding of holistic medicine and our own innate wisdom.
My introduction to Reiki in the winter of 1998 was my first exposure to metaphysics. I was nearly forty years old and my marriage of eighteen years—actually a twenty-six year relationship with my high school sweetheart—was dissolving. Reiki helped me awaken to my untapped inner strength.
I remember the day I was invited to attend a Reiki healing group. Bill Alford, a retired neighbor with whom I often road biked, asked me to join him. I knew nothing about Reiki, but I did know Bill. I wondered if this was another of his crazy ideas. Bill is young at heart and physically fit for his age. He sports a gray ponytail and is very liberal in his thinking. I lovingly refer to him as my retired hippie friend. Luckily, we were on our bikes when he invited me to the Reiki class so he didn’t see me roll my eyes.
Something drew me there, though, and I was intrigued. Instead of eating my words, I had to refocus my gaze. I had grown up Catholic but could never wrap my mind around God being a man in the sky. Now, my greater spiritual awareness, awakened.
My experience of Reiki, spiritual books, workshops, and meditation has continued to lead me to an ever-deepening awareness of the Divine. I resonate with the truth that I am one with a Higher Power and not separate from it. I believe in the wonderful connection of the mind, body, and spirit. And, I continually deepen my knowing of the fullness of who I Am while being steered along my destiny path.
You, too, are being steered along your destiny path.
I am honored to be a part of your journey.