Radiant Survivor
Radiant Survivor is a book on healing that will give hope and encouragement to anyone facing trauma in their life, be it big or small. As they make their way down their path of rehabilitation, this book will help lead them to an awakening to a new life. It’s a compilation of stories, mine as well as others who have faced their own tragedies and have survived and thrived, in spite of the odds.
Introduction
Have you ever faced a life situation that completely changed your life, one that may have brought you to the brink of death, be it physical or emotional death, only to transform you from the person you were to a person with a whole new set of beliefs, values and truths? Mine happened June 10, 2011 at 6:30 am.
But before I tell you my story, I want to tell you why I’m so glad you’ve chosen to read my book. As you might have already gathered from the title, it’s a book of transformation… moving from the old to the new. I hope you see it as a resource for your own healing as well as a vehicle through which you can help others, if you choose to do so.
At the time I was writing this introduction, I was 85% recovered from my trauma, after months and months of rehab, exercise, massage, Reiki, yoga and any other modalities I could use to bring my body back to normal. As much as I have done, it seems that I will be actually better than before. I am on the road to full recovery and I hope that before I finish writing this book, I will have completed my metamorphosis into the person I am meant to be instead of the person I was, not only physically, but most importantly emotionally and spiritually. I will have healed, at least from the life circumstance that was brought into the light during this odyssey. Our healing never stops, not as long as we live in our physical bodies. What I desire now is to use my healing experience and share it with others, in hopes that my transformation into the person I will be will help others who are facing similar life-changing experiences see their circumstances not as a curse but as a blessing. Life challenges are truly gifts from the soul, offering so many opportunities to grow as we learn the lessons we are being taught and gain the wisdom from these lessons. And because there so many different types of trauma we can face in this world, my story being only one, I have also included others’ stories of their tragedies and victories – breast cancer, loss of a loved one, emotional and sexual abuse, addiction, depression leading to feelings of suicide, and others… very compelling and powerful indeed! And I have included stories from caregivers as they too are affected in many ways.
Please note that each chapter is written with different emotions and perspectives underlying each. As I went through the different phases of my recovery, the theme of each chapter was what I needed to work on at the moment of writing it, and was reflected in my story as well as in the diverse stories used to elucidate the various themes. They all had a unique effect on me: some are heavy with story, some are more weighted with pearls of wisdom and others have a balance between both.
Beyond my story, the subsequent chapters of this book explore the various perspectives of recovery from life-altering experiences, addressing such subjects as:
- Believing in yourself and never giving up
- Understanding the limiting beliefs that hold you back from being all that you can be
- Being grateful and having the right attitude
- Knowing that your experience is part of your sacred contract with the Divine
- Surrendering and letting go
- Establishing your support system
- Seeing recovery as a process
- Wondering what to do if you don’t fully recover
- Finding out what is really important in life
- The caregiver’s perspective
And more!
This book is both spiritual and practical, as we are spiritual beings living in physical bodies so we must live life from the soul but also through a certain amount of logical reasoning. I will tell you that there may be parts that challenge your beliefs as they may discuss topics that you do not believe in or that you’ve never thought about. All I ask you is that you open your mind to all possibilities, as it is in this “knowing” that new and wonderful opportunities in life can flourish and bring you to a greater level of awareness of life itself.
I do hope that what you read in the pages of this book is most useful to you in living through any difficult life circumstances. I’ve tried to be as witty as possible, sprinkling the stories and discussions with bits of humor. I’ve also included exercises at the end of each chapter to reflect on your situation and to help you ensure that everything possible is being done for your healing. Life is not meant to be hard. It’s meant to be full of joy and peace, even in the roughest of times. “You can use a challenge to awaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into even darker sleep.” (Power of Now p. 74) I truly believe that our attitudes either awaken us to all possibilities in life or they can plunge us into a dark abyss. Where would you rather be?
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