This October, I want to have a discussion on the topic of Dharma. Dharma is a calling within you that you cannot deny. It is your destiny. It’s your soul’s purpose on this earth. And I consider it to be something that our soul has contracted in the stars before we arrive on this planet.
If you look up Dharma, there are 4 key aspects that it can embody: Life Purpose, Spiritual Growth, Cultural Context, and Moral and Ethical Conduct.
Most importantly in regards to what I’m feeling, Dharma represents the unique path or purpose each person is meant to live, one that aligns with their natural abilities, values, and role within the greater whole. Living in harmony with your dharma creates a sense of fulfilled purpose, one that you cannot get from just any action, job, or task.
I’m certainly no expert in Dharma, but I definitely feel that my life has a very specific calling and purpose. If you aren’t sure whether or not you have experienced this, I can explain it as an undeniable knowing of what you are supposed to be doing, despite external circumstances, including perceived limiting factors that would normally dissuade any reasonable and logical human being from staying the course. This strong sense of duty and obligation often comes without explanation. It took most of my life to find out what this calling was for me, and I’m grateful that I have received these messages. In life, sometimes things are just put in your path, and there’s really not much you can do about it, but answer the call and show up to the best of your ability.
This is what happened when my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. I didn’t really have a choice but to show up for the call. I did it with gratitude and with unbridled dedication, despite all of the fear that I was experiencing. At that point, I had owned Thrive Wellness Center for eight years, but this took all of my energy and all of my focus. Shifting away from office work and client responsibilities, I was able to support my mom fully on her journey.
The team at the Wellness Center was absolutely incredible. There is no way I could have supported my mom the way I did, and helped her recover completely from this diagnosis without the help of the amazing team members at Thrive. Following treatment at the Hope4Cancer Clinic in Cancun, the team was there to support my mom in her continued recovery and healing. She spent six days a week at the Wellness Center for nearly the next year as her body got stronger and the cancer diminished (until the Covid shutdown). She was present to receiving services, and chipping in by helping us with inventory and by washing and folding laundry from massage and foot bath services.
I had the opportunity to close the doors in 2016, but I knew I was supposed to stay with the Wellness Center. I had this feeling—I’m supposed to be here. I met my husband in 2012, right after I opened the center, and I just knew Thrive was supposed to stay open. I wasn’t supposed to open something different in Rochester—that would’ve been a very, very different path.
The timing of this situation felt so divine, I almost can’t believe it. My mom underwent treatment just one year before the COVID pandemic hit and showed no evidence of disease four months prior. Just a few months’ difference could have prevented her from seeking treatment outside the country—which we believe would have cost her life.
Due to circumstances from COVID, we were forced to close the Wellness Center, and I had to take on the daunting task of transitioning my practice—something I was so used to doing in person—into an online format. I had never believed I could help people remotely while running the Wellness Center in Pennsylvania, but COVID forced my hand. That shift has allowed me to work with people not only in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, and Virginia, but all over the world.
It has allowed me to travel while I support individuals with their health and offered healing retreats in Costa Rica for individuals seeking to reset their nervous system and receive healing in the jungle. This had been a dream of mine from the very beginning of opening Thrive Wellness Center in Kingston, Pennsylvania.
Witnessing my mother go through this diagnosis affected me so deeply. I saw what people go through when they’re newly diagnosed with cancer. And I know what their loved ones go through.
Receiving a stage 4 diagnosis of cancer is incredibly scary, and the challenges at times seem insurmountable. During the process, it was my only goal… my only wish… my only prayer… that I could help my mom have the best quality life that she could have, know that she was loved, and leave no stone unturned when it came to trying holistic modalities to support her body in clearing the disease.
I’m so grateful that my mom was open to trying these things, to trusting her intuition. When she had made so much progress by July of 2019, we were so hopeful because everything was moving in the right direction. By Western medical standards, she was cancer-free, after just being diagnosed in January of 2019—nothing short of a miracle.
We were able to meet and get to know such amazing individuals at the Hope4Cancer Clinic. The support staff, doctors, nurses, and everyone who was there, including all of the patients are such wonderful people. When she was there, many of the people who were there with her did not make it. Over time, they fought their own battles and some people prevailed and some did not. I took note of some of the differences in the mindsets, and the perspectives, and the behaviors of these individuals.
Some of them I was able to follow along with their journey after they left the clinic. My mom and I stayed in touch with some of them and maintained friendships. I learned what others went through as well, and saw that many shared similar stories and challenges. No matter if their support came from conventional medicine doctors, holistic practitioners, family and friends, the feeling was the same—the challenges seemed to come from all directions. And this all rests atop of the fear that you may not make it through, which squeezes every decision into the space that makes it feel so hard to choose.
By November, my mom was deemed cancer-free by holistic oncology standards. And at this point we could take a breath. A little bit of a breath… because you know it can come back at any time.
My mom continued with her protocols, religiously and tirelessly to support her body. And I’m so proud of her for that. Now here we are six years later—and she is still cancer-free. I can write this book with confidence in knowing that the difficult choices and the sacrifices she made definitely affected her outcome.
And now once again, we can take an even deeper breath, because after five years of no evidence of disease, the chances of the cancer returning diminishes significantly.
This dharma was given to me, and I choose to accept it. I have to share this story, and I have to share what she did and how I supported her so others could follow in her footsteps. Not to do exactly as she did, however, to learn from the experience of not allowing limiting beliefs to dictate your outcome.
Having been sick as a child with an autoimmune disease, going through the pain and the fear, and then finding healing and recovery through nutrition and supplementation set the foundation for this journey. I was very sick. I had to take a lot of medications. I had to get stuck by needles all the time. I was only five when I was diagnosed, but I was given the gift of the opportunity to learn what food and vitamins can provide for the body and what hope can provide for the soul. I even relapsed around age 10, as I had stopped eating healthy and taking my vitamins, and I thought that I was better, but only my body felt better. There was still underlying disease within me. And this time, it took longer and it was harder to recover. But I did it, and this lesson served.
It’s a lesson for my mom, as she went on this journey, to know that you don’t stop short—you don’t go back to neglecting your body or returning to old unhealthy habits. When you have a serious condition, you must stay attentive and committed for the long haul.
The gifts are endless. Days filled with feeling healthy, less visits to the doctor, and knowing that you’re supporting your body and being strong through all of your decisions.
With cancer comes the gift of gratitude– for every day that you’ve had so far and for every day still to come… because it silently whispers: your days are limited. It reminds us how precious this life is… and these rogue cells that we’ve named cancer are crying out for help.
I’m still in the process of working on the book. The project continues to grow, as there will be a guidebook to go along with it, and a cookbook to support individuals on their journey.
My heart goes out to everyone who has either received a cancer diagnosis or is a friend or family member who has received a cancer diagnosis. And I want you to know that I’m writing this book for you, whether you agree with what I say or not. It is my dharma, and I believe one of my deep life’s purposes, to share this journey and information with you. Please take what resonates and leave the rest behind, and may you be blessed with peace in your heart as you walk this journey—a journey that is surely a catalyst to a new you, even though you didn’t choose it. It’s being brought to you for a reason. May this reason come to you clearly so that you can embrace the experience and move through it with freedom and grace to the other side, whichever side that may be.