2020 - Not So Sunny
On the morning of February 22, 2020, my daughter's birthday, I received a call from someone telling me that my father was just rushed to the hospital. He suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, and he was bleeding inside his brain. After numerous brain surgeries to relieve the pressure from his brain, followed by a tracheostomy surgery, the bleeding from his brain continued. My heart was beyond broken.
Days after his surgeries, my dad was transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Montgomery County, PA. I arrived at the facility only to find out that Montgomery County was shut down due to COVID-19, which meant NO visitation!
I was devastated. I spoke with my father's overworked nurse at the rehabilitation facility who felt my pain. She agreed to FaceTime me daily using her personal cell phone. She was my angel. During that time, through FaceTime, I sang to my father, prayed and had daily conversations with him. I am sorry to say the chapter of this story doesn't end well. My father transitioned on April 14, 2020.
Before my father passed, I normally worked out 2-3 times a week without that much intensity. When he passed, for the first time in my life I began to work out everyday. For the first time in my life! I realized exercising was helping me with stress, especially on some days when it was so painful I couldn't even cry. But I still felt hurt and broken. I had a hard time focusing. The pain just kept building. God help me!
It wasn't until I was introduced to Reclamation Fitness (a workout for people going through trauma) that I started to notice the releasing of my pain. Geneva, my daughter, instructs in a way that challenges me physically, which I expected. But what I did not anticipate was to be empowered, encouraged to be my best self, and to actually enjoy working out! Not only am I sweating and releasing toxins but surprisingly I cry sometimes during the class, feeling liberated! (and I don't cry easily lol).
These Reclamation Fitness workouts feels like physical therapy.
But the workouts are also mental therapy, especially when it comes to focus. I decided to try the mindfulness classes, which I had never done before. The mindfulness exercises helped my anxiety, the breathing exercises improved my sleeping and the 21 Day Stress Challenge enabled me to add these techniques to my everyday life.
THANK YOU to the Reclamation Fitness community for unselfishly caring about women's health. Thank you so very much for giving me back my SUNSHINE!
