The Power of Choice: Reclaiming Life After Trauma | Ep 196

Music. Imagine getting up every day full of energy, as if you were in your 20s again. What would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything, but without it, everything else is nothing. And yet, too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system or public health as a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone, combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your Health for today and all your tomorrows, don't wait for your wake up call. Welcome back to another episode of The don't wait for your wake up call podcast I am very excited to have with me today. Amy Thurman, Amy, welcome to the show.

Oh my goodness Melissa, thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here. I'm excited, well,

I'm very excited to have you share your incredible story with the audience, because it is such a story of of hope and resilience and just the human body's ability to recover before we get there. Though, I do want to introduce you a little bit to the audience. Amy is a visionary leader whose life work is dedicated to fostering hope, resilience, overcoming adversity and Educational and Community Renewal. As the author of the best seller, finding my hero within a journey from incapacitation to empowerment, she challenges readers to confront the excuses holding them back from living the life of their dreams. She also holds a master's degree in Educational and Community Renewal from the University of Oklahoma, and is a former social worker and university educator. And I'm going to stop there with your bio, Amy, because I would really love for you to go back to the beginning and share your story so that the audience can hear it from your mouth, rather than me continuing with this bio.

Absolutely. Thank you so much for that warm introduction. I, like Melissa said, was working at a major university, and literally, the very next day, I couldn't even take myself to the restroom. So I had been pretty healthy three kids, been an educator and social worker, always doing something when I wasn't working, I was volunteering, so I was always doing something. That's where I got my sense of worth, was by doing things. And so I was always busy, and I felt sick one night and got up to take some medicine and ended up passing out, and I landed on my face on the hardwood floor, and the impact from that sheared my brain stem, caused a traumatic brain injury, and it actually broke my neck. But all of that went undetected for six months, and so for the first literally almost the first year after the accident, I had to lay flat in bed for 23 hours a day. I was completely incapacitated. I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk, I couldn't hear or see correctly. I had to wear a cover over my eyes, earplugs in my ears. I couldn't speak above a whisper, and my family was having to do everything for me, including helping me go to the restroom, because I literally couldn't lift my head off of the pillow without immense pain, and none of the doctors could figure out what was wrong with me. And so that's that's an intro. I don't know how much further you want me to go into it, because there's a lot more to it.

Oh, well, I would literally love for you to share your story as it happened, because part of the reason why I do this show is to bring people like you on to give inspiration and hope to others who may be going through a similar journey. And as hard as it is to spend 23 hours a day for nearly that first year of your life, completely incapacitated, with your family looking after you, you are here in a very different situation today, and that's where the hope comes from for others. So yes, please keep going with your story.

Okay, absolutely it is so true. I'm in a very different place today than I was then, and so being fully dependent on my family, as I said earlier, I my my sense of self worth came from being able to do things, from accomplish from accomplishing things. And so being completely incapacitated, not being able to do anything for myself, as you can imagine, took me down, down into. A deep, deep, dark place that I would never, ever wish on anyone, and I just felt like such a burden to my family. Nobody could figure out what was, what was wrong with me. I didn't know if I was going to have to live like this for the rest of my life. And I wasn't okay with that. I wasn't okay with feeling like I was going to be a burden to my family for that long watching them the fear in their eyes and the pain in their eyes as they watched me suffer. And so I began to pray, and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed that I would die because I was not living. I was merely existing, and I had to depend on everyone to do everything for me. And yet I continued to be alive. I was I was praying to die, yet I was continuing to live. And so I thought I've got to take matters into my own hands, like I've got to take care of this. This can't be the way my life continues. And I knew I had so much pain medication, I knew that I had enough to make it happen. And so I fully intended to do that, I formulated a plan. I said all of my last I love yous and my goodbyes, and went to sleep from what I thought was the last time in my life because I was going to swallow that handful of pills the next morning. I appreciate your understanding as the emotions arise, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. It's just, who knows,

and really, really, really difficult time in your life. And thank you for your vulnerability, for your honesty, your emotions are coming out in me. I appreciate that can understand how difficult this was and how difficult, what difficult it was to be in a place where you had to make that decision to say your last goodbyes to your loved ones. That's Yes, how difficult a place you were in it was. And let me just ask, because I didn't ask this question, how long ago was this? This was 10

years ago, and so I literally have lived the past 10 years with a broken neck.

And so How incredible is that to come from that place, that depth of despair, and knowing that you weren't living, you were merely existing, and you were in constant pain to where you're at now. So we'll pick up there where you thought you were going to sleep for the last time. You'd said your goodbyes and

yes, and so the next morning, I plan to swallow the handful of pills. And if you've ever been in a deep, dark place, most people have, at some point in their lives been to the depths, and you know that it's a very foggy like a muddy place, your your thinking is not clear. It's so foggy you just can't see through the fog, is what I keep saying. But I had this sudden moment of clarity. Is what I call it, because it's like all of a sudden the fog lifted, and I just had this very clear thought that said to my heart, what if you don't have to die? What if you can make a different choice? What if you can take the same energy you're using trying to die and you can turn it around and fight to live instead. If you do that, maybe you can get better. And if you can get better, maybe you can use your experience to help other people. The word choice is what rang in my soul. I, up until that point, I didn't think I had a choice. I couldn't see that I had a choice. And this, this this voice inside my soul insinuated that I had a choice, that this was truly up to me, that I could do it differently, and so being a former educator and social worker always in service of others, it was really that thought of maybe I can use this horrific experience to help other people that made me choose to fight to live. And so in that moment, I mean, it took a while, I my heart wrestled with it for a while, but once I decided to do that, I chose to fight to live with the intention of using my story to help other people. And so it wasn't like all of a sudden I have this mindset shift, and then I'm just better, and I'm sharing my story and helping others. It was a long, arduous, 10 year journey of fighting my way through the medical and the disability systems. Like I said at this point, still, nobody had figured out what was wrong with me. It was my fourth neurologist. I just kept going through neurologist neurologist, because I knew we have this inner knowing about us, and I just knew that there was something that someone was missing. And so I just my fourth neurologist said, Has anyone ever looked at your neck? And I said, No. And so he pressed around in a few places, and he said, I think you have a really. Bad neck injury. Let's do some imaging. And so that was it. That's he found that injury. And by the way, I'm on my six neurologists now. They have each helped in their own way, but my six neurologist is the one I'm sticking with. But I when I So, I made that mindset shift, and still laying flat on the bed for 23 hours a day, still the same situation, still the same circumstance, still depending on my family. But it was that change of perspective that allowed me to really begin to fight. And I knew I was in such a negative place, all I was focused on was what I can't do. I just wanted to be able to do anything I could do before the the accident, and I couldn't do any of that, and that's what I was focused on. And so I knew that I would never get better with that kind of mentality, with that kind of thinking. So I knew that not only did I have to change that, but I had to replace it with something. Because just because you change something doesn't mean it changes. You have to replace it, or it leaves a hole there. You have to fill it intentionally. And so I began listening to podcasts and audiobooks. I had my husband load them up for me, because my eyes weren't working well enough to be able to see what I was doing. And I turned the volume down really, really low so my brain could handle it. And I started listening to Dr Wayne, Dyer, Tony Robbins and Rumi. And that's when I came across the wisdom of Rumi, after which my business is named, polished the mirror. And it was this poem that changed everything for me. It goes like this, ye who seek God apart that which you Seek thou art, if you wish to seek the beloved space, polish the mirror and gaze into that space. And that told me that every answer I seek can be found within. Up to this point, I was looking outside myself for all of the answers. I was looking for this knight in shining armor to come rescue me from this horrible existence. I was looking for this hero to come save me from all of this that I was going through. But what I found out was that person that I had been looking for this whole time was found in my reflection in the mirror, and I began to be kept, began to get in touch with my soul, began to learn to speak my soul's language, and I really, really was able to accept the emotions. I learned so much about emotions during that time. I did a lot of deep introspection, I created some of my own tools about emotions, and was able to find my hero within and that's why I named my book that, because that's what I was able to do through all of this adversity and all of this trauma, I was able to find the person I was looking for in the mirror. And that's that's pretty much what I get to do now, is I get to help other people learn, to polish the mirror of their lives and find their own heroes within and

that's beautiful. And congratulations to you for choosing that path after you had that clarity.

Thank you. You

could have still made a different choice, and I know that when we're in the muck and the depths of despair, it feels like we don't have a choice, and it feels like everything's happening to us and we're the victim.

Yes,

and I want to ask you, when you look back at that now, do you see how this happened for you?

Absolutely. I people ask me a lot, you know, do you regret that, or do you wish you could go back and change it? And the answer is no, I actually see it as a gift right now, because, yes, I was helping people as an educator and social worker, but Melissa, I've been able to help so many more people and reach people, literally around the country because of what I've been through and because of what this my story is allowing me to reach people in a way that never could have reached people before. And so with that promise of I'm going to fight to live with the intention of using my story to help other people, I had no idea what that meant. I literally, I didn't know what that would entail, and it has become, literally a dream come true. I am living the life that I couldn't even dream like there are things happening in my life that I never, ever even dreamed of. They're so much bigger than what I was dreaming. And it's because I have embraced this as a gift, and I'm just using it in an authentic way to help other people,

and that's really beautiful. And I truly do believe everything happens for us, yes, and in the moment, you can't see it. However, the sooner we ask that question in the moment, like even. Learning to ask that question allows us to shift our focus as you learn to do and get the learning so that we can move through it more quickly. And that is a huge step for any listener who's listening right now, if you are in the muck, just ask, How is this happening for me? And sit with that till the answer comes and gives you that clarity, so that you know how to keep moving forward. So as you got that clarity, Amy, you started to move into you change, shift your focus. We know that we get more of what we focus on, and you were focusing on the negative, so you were getting more of the negative. You realized that wasn't going to work, so you started shifting your focus. And I know that in that process, you came to a place of realizing there's a difference between self love and soul love as you connected with your soul, and I would love for you to talk about that.

Oh, absolutely. I love to talk about this very passionate about it. So I'll try to keep it to a minimum here. But we hear a lot about self love. Self Love, self everybody's pushing self love, and I agree we self love is is very much needed. But what we're not pushing enough is Soul love. We have to have self love. We have to get to that point first before we can get to the soul love level, if you will. But there is a difference in the two. We need them both. The self is rooted in fear. The soul is rooted in love. The self will always, if you're self guided, it will always lead you to a place of fear, or it will always be a result of fear. You're fearful that you're not going to meet expectations, or that someone's going to be upset with you, or you're not going to do something right. But the soul will always lead to unconditional love. The self is who you are now, this person that you are now, the soul is who you can become. It is all of the potential of who you could be if you can learn to embrace it and listen to it and follow its leadership and its guidance. And so they really work together, but I feel like there's so much more education that's needed about soul love, because it is the next step. If you you know, people get to self love, and they learn a lot about that, but it goes even higher. There's even more than self love. There's a soul love level that that's what I have been able to get to. And, you know, I even created an emotion frequency chart. This was one of my tools that I created when I was, you know, trying to make it through and figure out how I could make it through to help other people because of the energy states which I know that you're familiar with, the vibrational frequency, everything has a vibrational frequency. And so I learned that I was living in the lower levels of the vibrational frequencies, and that's where the self lives, but our soul lives at much higher vibrational frequencies. And so if we can learn to and use the techniques to get us to those higher levels of emotion of vibrational frequency, then we can connect with our souls, and it's an easier place, easier place to be. I do want to say, in reference to what you were talking about earlier, that I like to compare video games to our lives. My son is now 14, and he loves for me to sit and watch him play video games. I could care less about the games, but he loves for me to sit and watch them. And what I have noticed is that he likes to use these cheat codes, and he likes to do whatever he can to figure out a way around the obstacles in that in the level that he's on. And so he's doing all these things, you know, finding all these ways around these obstacles so that he can make it to the next level. But what happens when he gets to the next level is he didn't learn what he needed to learn on the previous level because he went around it. He didn't go through that obstacle, he didn't get the lessons, he didn't get the experience that he needed in that level. So when he gets to the next level, he's completely lost and doesn't know what to do because he didn't learn what he needed to learn. And I feel like life is that way that we try to find every way around obstacles and around things we don't want to go through them, but it's by going through them that we learn and that we gain the experience that we need to move to where we want to be along our path in life.

I agree with you 100% and this is completely in alignment with the trainings that I offer as well, and a funny little story along those lines is about bulls and cows. The Bulls know when a thunderstorm comes, the bulls know to go headlong into the storm and out the other side. And the cows don't they run and try. They run away from it. And it's interesting that the bulls, they already. Know, just to go straight through, that is the quickest way, and you get the learnings on the way, and then you're prepared for the next level. So that's a beautiful analogy. Thank you very much. Of course, you were mentioning earlier, you were just talking about your fourth neurologist, your fifth neurologist, your sixth neurologist, and the self advocates, advocacy, or having someone advocate for you as you navigate the medical system, is something I talk about a lot, and I know you do as well. I would love for you to talk a little bit about that, as well as alternatives to Western medicine that have helped you on your journey.

Absolutely, I am, you know, oh gosh, I'm gonna have to really think about this, because there's so many things I want to say right now, the doctors that I saw really wanted to push medication at me. They really wanted me to take medication to just numb the pain. They didn't really want to get to the source of what was causing the pain, and I was not okay with that. I wanted to find out what was causing it, and I didn't want to be reliant on medication for the rest of my life. So that was one of the reasons that I continued to pursue different avenues. I went to so many specialists. I so many specialists, and it was I really reached out to, I really made connections on social media and different groups of people who had the same symptoms that I was having, and they were able to point me in different directions, and one of them led to a brain center that is out of the box, completely out of the box, thinking, and that was where they were able to discover that my brain stem had actually been sheared and that my balance was off, like the blow to the floor knocked my center of gravity off and so I was walking funny because my body was off kilter. And there's so many things they did at that facility that I was like, This is crazy. Like it sounded so wild and crazy, but it was, it worked. Like they were able to help the nerves in my brain stem reconnect. They were able to recenter my body so that my balance is better. It's still not great, but it's better. And of course, my insurance didn't pay for that was out of pocket. And that's kind of the way it is, that anything that's not Western medicine based, you kind of just have to figure out a way to pay for it yourself. But I have found the most help in those type from those types of providers. I have naturopathic doctors. I take a lot of supplements, and the only medications I take now are for my thyroid and for hormones, because I have figured out a natural way to offset the rest of it. And I think that people, a lot of people, don't understand that that is possible, that there are so many other alternatives to prescription medications and to a Western way of thinking that actually are much healthier for you and can lead to a much more pleasant way of life.

They're much healthier because they tend not to have the chemical well, they don't have any chemicals in them, and so therefore they don't have the negative side effects that will often happen with prescription drugs. And it might help this one thing, but then it triggers these other side effects, and then you go to the doctor with your side effects, and they give you another medication for those side effects, which trigger more, and that's how people end up on so many different medications. So I applaud you for figuring that out. And Western medicine is amazing in terms of acute care. However, when it comes to, you know, longer term recoveries and chronic illnesses, etc, the answer isn't necessarily drugs for the rest of your life. So I love that you knew that you didn't want that path again. You had a choice. You knew that you could do your own research to figure out a different way, or at least look for options, versus just accepting the solution of a drug to numb the pain, yeah, which likely also causes the mental fog, etc, etc. Yes,

it's, it's so true, right? In my book, talk about how I got lost from I took my son and dropped him off at daycare, and I got, I couldn't remember how to get back home, because of one of the medications that I was on. So it's so true,

right? Just and because each and every one of us is so different that, and then the combination of medications that the doctors are giving you, they don't have an answer as to how that cocktail is going to respond in you, and for you, it caused you to get lost, which is crazy and dangerous. You. Yeah, yeah. And so I'm really glad that you know you chose to put yourself first, look after you, and figure out a different way for you and your family, because imagine if you got lost with your son on the way to daycare, and that would be scary for your son to be thinking, mommy's lost. Mommy's not supposed to get lost. Why is Mommy lost? Right? And then also, I applaud you for going to different doctors. As you said, every doctor served you in some way. However, when they were no longer serving you, you kept looking. You didn't just accept what you were being told. And it wasn't until your fourth neurologist that they thought to look at your neck and figured out the neck injury. And so just talk a little bit about that path of, you know, that self advocacy, of having to go, you know, choose to go to different doctors and navigate all of this for yourself while still incapacitated. I

think we are, you know, we're taught to and and we do respect doctors like we are taught that they are the be all end all, that they know everything we go to them and whatever they say is what we're supposed to do. And I just, I like you said, I would take what was meant for me, what I thought I could use, and then just leave the rest. And someone asked me the other day how I did that, like how I felt about just excusing doctors and moving to the next one. And I said, I don't feel badly about that at all. It was I was doing what was best for me. There was nothing against that particular doctor. They served a purpose. Like every professional in my in my journey, has served a purpose, but like you said, once they serve their purpose, then I chose to move to a different one, because I felt like there was just more and more and more. And at one point it became, I don't know that I would refer to it as an addiction, but it was my life's sole purpose to figure out what was wrong with me, and I just I didn't rest well, because I was constantly searching as I began to learn, I mean, as my body, I began to be able to see a little bit more and read a little bit more. And I had, you know, my husband and my mother making phone calls for me to these different doctors, asking questions. And it was, I believe, you know, I'm just as if you can't tell, I'm just head strong. I'm just determined. And I just kept going and kept going. And I think it was for a time, because that's where I was getting my sense of self worth, like, Okay, I'm accomplishing something here. I'm doing something to help me along my journey. But then the the last doctor, not the last doctor, but as far as that journey goes when I saw he was a stem cell specialist, because they were looking into maybe harvesting some of my stem cells from my hip and putting them into my neck to help it heal itself, right? And when they shared with me, when he shared with me, what his what he found, he actually found that I had injured the dens in my neck, and that people who have that type of injury, only 5% of them survive. And of that percentage, and even lower percentage, are able to walk again. And so it was that realization of, oh my gosh, I'm part of low, less than 5% like I think I need to be thankful for the capacity that I do have. You know, I had relearned to walk at that point, and it was at that point when I said, I think this journey, I think I need to stop pursuing this and take some time to be grateful for what I'm able to do and what I have learned so far and just, you know, be okay. Learn to be okay with what I have now, the abilities that I have now, even though I still have limitations, and it was really at that point, it took me two years to really accept that. But after that two year period, my life literally exploded, like things in my life just started happening because I was just allowing it to be what it would be. And it's not that I wasn't fighting it anymore. It was just, as you said, I learned that it was happening for me and not to me and and, yeah, it was quite, quite a journey through that medical system and the disability system that was a whole nother story in and of itself,

well, and I love that you, you know, you really figured this out all on your own. And that gratitude piece is so powerful because, again, it shifts the focus, yes, and it was there that you said that, that's where you realize that the. Was happening for you, which also allowed you to have all of those learnings that came through. And once you have the learnings, then you know you're out the other side, and then all of this positivity started happening in your life. So it's it's absolutely beautiful, and you are an incredibly determined person. And congratulations for all that you've accomplished, because it hasn't been easy. You've come from the depths of despair to now being in this place where you've written your best selling book, and you're reaching out and helping others and teaching this to others so that they too, can recover, and that's incredibly powerful. The impact that you can have. You will never know the impact that you have, because you don't know how many people listen to this podcast, you don't know how many people read this book that you never hear from and yet, it got them to start asking a question, how is this happening for me, and shifting their focus and coming to a place of gratitude and moving through aside from the people that you are working with, one to one, all of whom are absolutely blessed to have the opportunity to do so. And what I love is not only your determination, your unquestioning faith that once you had that clarity, that you could make a choice, and you could put that much energy into living instead of dying. You chose that, and the energy that you put in gave you that determination. And you just trusted that if you kept moving forward, and then I want to say one foot in front of the other, although initially you weren't even capable of putting one foot in front of the other, yes, but if you kept moving forward, even in your own mind, taking baby step after baby step after baby step, on your healing journey, that you could get there. And it was, I know that it was unwavering. It has to have been unwavering in order for you to get to where you're at now,

yes, there were times where my question it literally was a roller coaster, because the doctor would say, well, let's run this test. I think this is what's wrong with you. Let's run this test. So I'd get my hopes up. Okay, okay, this is it. I will have an answer. And that wouldn't be it. And so it was like starting completely over. Okay, then another doctor, okay, let's try this other test. Same thing. It was up and down and up and down. And so there were times that I just thought, you know, what am I doing? Am I just wasting my time? Nobody, nobody's figuring this out. But it was just something inside me that just kept saying, keep going, keep going. Don't give up. And I have had a few readers reach out to me already and say that, literally, this book has saved their life, that they were on the verge of ending their lives, and that they read my book and said, you know, Amy made a different choice. Maybe I can make a different choice too. And so just knowing that I just think, okay, everything I've been through is worth it. If it's saving at least three people's lives, and like you said, you know others that I don't even know about, then it has all been worth it. And it is, like I said, it's just such a gift. I feel like it's just such a gift,

and that's so beautiful that it's already saved lives, and that they're recognizing that if you could do it, they can too, yes, and that's what's so true about our human resilience and our human ability. And again, it's why I do this podcast, because if a listener out there can hear the story of one person that's healed, even if their doctors told them that they can't, or that the stats are so low, or you've got three months to live that whole nocebo effect. That doesn't have to be your story. And you just need to find the one person that's done it. And maybe there's way more than one, depending what the the illness or disease or injury is, you just have to find one. If you find that one person, then if they've done it, you can too, yes, and as long as we have hope we can heal, because that's the mindset in which the body can heal. If we don't believe we can heal. We're not going to heal. I love that quote, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right, yes. By Henry Ford, it's so simple and it's so true. And if we get into that, I think I can, we've got hope. And it might be little, tiny baby steps, but as we start to create the environment for the body to heal, it will start healing. That's what it's designed to do. Absolutely it has to start with the mentality of our ability to do that. And even if you haven't found that one person who's done it before you, you have, you can live in the hope that you can find. That person, or in the hope that you can heal, you can be the hope for the next person. Maybe you're going to be the first person. And maybe you were Amy, maybe you were the first person with this. You're certainly in those small, small percentages, you didn't have someone to guide you, to show you the way you're doing that for other people now. And that's so incredibly powerful.

Thank you so much. So

I absolutely love your story. I'm not glad you went through it in the sense that there was a lot of pain and a lot of difficulty. However, I'm glad for everything that's come as a result of it, and I love that you found your hero within so I just love I know that's the title of your book. And I encourage everybody to go buy this book and read it and share it with your loved ones, because many of us know people who are struggling right now, and this could change their lives too. But I would love for you just to share a little tiny tidbit of finding your hero within. Was there an aha moment where you realized you'd found your hero within, or was it more, you know, a slow, steady realization as you looked back, how did that come about?

It really was a slow, steady realization that I, as I began to connect more with my soul. I just stopped looking outside of myself, little, little, little, you know, just kept going inward more and more and more, until one day I realized, like, I this is what I do now, like, I just go inward now, and I, anytime I need anything, I check with my soul first. I don't ask other people first. I check within first. And that made me realize, like, this is what I've been looking for, like, my whole life, and it's right here, right here within me, and so, yeah, it was a gradual process. And I think that's something important for people to know that it's not a snap your finger kind of thing, and it just happens. It's very a consistency and a desire to keep doing it and wanting, wanting to do that and practicing it, and just keep going, just not giving up. You know, you hear that a lot, just keep going and don't give up. But it's so true. Like you just, you just never know, like, what's around the bend? It could, you could be right on the verge of something, and when you give up, you know, you could have the next step. Could have been what you were looking for. So just keep taking those steps. Keep going, keep going, keep going.

It's beautiful. I love it. And if people are listening and thinking that, you know, this is a little bit woo, woo. I just want to share with you that quantum physics, of it all, that quantum physics is entirely science based, yes, and everything that Amy is saying you have access to as well. We all have four bodies and three minds. Our four bodies are our spiritual body, our mental body, our emotional body and our physical body. And our three minds are our higher self, connected to our spiritual body, our soul, and then we have our unconscious mind which is connected to our emotional body, and we have our conscious mind which is connected to our mental body. Now the conscious mind cannot connect to the higher self. We actually have to work through the unconscious mind to connect to the higher self. And our higher self has our blueprint of perfect health. It has all the resources available for what it is that you came into this world to do in terms of your service, your passion, your purpose, and we just have to be able to access it. And Amy's figured out how to access it. And there are she's developed tools, and there are other tools to be able to gain access to that. Unfortunately, our education system doesn't teach us that that's all about the conscious mind, and we don't get to learn the tools of the unconscious mind. And our medical system is looking just at the physical body and not at the emotional body as much, and the trauma is held in the emotional body. And you said earlier, Amy, the very beginning, you learned a lot about emotions through this process, because we have to be able to release the emotions to heal the trauma in the body. So everything Amy is saying is is so perfectly aligned with the makeup of our physical body, mental, emotional, spiritual and our three minds, our soul, it's all interconnected, and we have to look at all of it. And so again, if you're struggling, there may be aspects of your body, your minds, that you're not yet looking at, and Amy someone that can help you do that. Yeah. So thank you so much for coming on this show and sharing all of this Amy, it's a really powerful story, and I'm so happy to hear that other people have already let you know you've saved their lives, and I know there will be many, many more.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

You are most welcome. So I love to ask my guests What does don't wait for your wake up call mean to you?

Oh gosh, in this whole journey, I literally, my life was literally spared at least three times, or at least three times that my life was spared, and I feel like it like I wasn't getting my attention, like I was trying to get my attention all of these times, but I was like, I'm too busy. I have too much to do. I have too much to accomplish, because that's how I was getting my self worth. And I wasn't listening. And so I think, like my soul literally was reaching out to me and communicating and telling me all these things, but I would didn't recognize it because I wasn't familiar with it, or it seemed too weird, or I just didn't, didn't want to go there, or I ignored it, and it finally got my attention, because I couldn't, I was completely incapacitated, and so I don't want other people to go through that. I I really, really, I talk a lot about this actually about listening to your body and paying attention to what's happening to you, because something somewhere is trying to get your attention, and if you don't pay attention to it, it's going to find another way. It's going to find another way to get your attention. And I don't want you to end up like I was being completely incapacitated, even though my story has a happy ending that was not a pleasant thing to go through. And so I highly encourage yes to just just think outside the box and just pay attention closer attention to thoughts, feelings and emotions and things that you're going through,

and again, what you're sharing just rings so true with me in the sense of, I always like to say, listen when your body whispers so it doesn't have to yell at you. Oh, I love that. Body will always get what it wants. It is programmed for your very survival. So if it is at a point where it can't keep going the way it's going, it will take you down. And I had another lady on the show earlier this year, and similar thing, you know, working really hard, thinking she was doing everything right that she was supposed to be doing in life. And one day she was all she ended up in ICU. So different story. However, she ended up in ICU because the body got what it wanted. It needed her to stop. It needed her to rest. So that's a great, great message. And listen to your body. Every symptom is not meant to be ignored. It's not meant to be written off as aging or seasonal allergies or blamed on genetics. Every symptom is your body talking to you and asking you to do something differently.

So true. I was actually having symptoms of, you know, what they discovered that caused me to pass out to begin with. I was having those symptoms for quite a while before I the accident where I passed out, and so I wasn't listening. I was just like, that's just because I'm stressed, because I'm busy, because, you know, I'm tired, because I'm doing all the things. And I wasn't listening. Society

teaches us to do, do, do, go, go, go, work harder and be tough and push through those symptoms. And now for every person listening to this podcast, if you didn't already know it, now you know it, it's time to stop making excuses when we have our symptoms, and instead ask questions. What's going on in my life right now? What am I being where am I being asked to slow down or do something differently and to take action? So that's beautiful. Amy, now if somebody wants to get hold of you and work with you, how can they do that? And I know that you've offered a very generous gift. If you would like to share that as well, please.

Yes, I would love that. I My website is pretty much a one stop shop. You can connect with me on the socials there, and my book is available there. My podcast is there. There's a Press page where my TV interviews and magazine articles and all those things are there. It's www. Dot get Amy's help.com. G, E, T, A, M, y, S, H, E, l, p.com, and if you go to the free section, there is a resource there called 10 Ways to show yourself 1010, steps to showing yourself Self Love. I just talked a lot about self love versus Soul love. I created the resource about self love because I have to explain so much about Soul love. I can't just put a resource like that out there. So. So pretty much everyone knows what self love is, so that's the resource that I have there for you, as well as a copy of the emotion frequency chart that I created.

Beautiful Thank you. And of course, you said earlier you have to be in a place of self love before you can even attempt to get to Soul love. So it is the perfect starting point. So thank you very much for both of those very generous gifts. Amy, and is there any last wisdom that you would like to share with the audience today?

I just want to remind you of how powerful you are, that we make ourselves small as especially women. We make ourselves small so that we don't offend people, or that we don't intimidate people, or that we try to fit in, but we're not meant to do that. We have such power inside of us that can help us do so many things and reach so many things, paths in life that we want to but we don't. We don't see that. We see ourselves as small. We make ourselves small. But I want to remind you that there's a power within every one of us that's accessible, just like I found it's within you too that you have the ability to tap into that and allow yourself to really live the life of your dreams. Even with a broken neck, you can live the life of dreams. I'm telling you it's possible you are powerful. You are powerful beyond belief. Believe that. Believe it.

That's beautiful. What a wonderful way to end the show. And I love the passion you have as you say that it's palpable. I can feel it. So thank you, Amy. And of course, thank

you so much.

Thank you to my audience for tuning in and listening each and every week as I bring you amazing guests to the don't wait for your wake up call podcast, if you know somebody that needs to hear Amy's story today, please share this with them. It may save a life. Thank you for investing this time with me on the don't wait for your wake up call Podcast. I'm so glad you joined in. If you can take two minutes to share this episode with someone you think can benefit and have a positive impact on their life. That would be wonderful. Please leave a review by going to your favorite podcast listening app, and let me know what you enjoy or would like to hear more of it. Will support me in my effort to bring the possibility of natural healing to a wider audience and help disrupt the sick care system we have today and make human health a global priority. Health is your true wealth.

You.