Celebrating Ten Years of Running: On Miracles and Hope

The woman walking gingerly up the ramp to exit the pool turned to me and said, "I'm sorry I'm walking so slowly."

"Oh no need to apologize," I said. I had seen her working with her physical therapist in the pool. "It's hard work isn't it?"

"I just want to feel like myself again," she said as her eyes filled with tears.

Her knees hyperextended when she experienced a fall last year and she hasn't been able to regain her mobility.

I felt compelled to share my story with her.

Her eyes filled with tears. "Oh my goodness. You created about 4 miracles in your life!"

I shared with her how I ran Boston in 2009, the ups and downs in my journey and then my latest miracle in December of 2014 after a serious knee injury that blew out my left knee. I was told I wouldn't and shouldn't run but if I did - no more than a 5K and then went on to run 3 consecutive Bermuda Half Marathons. I shared with her the resources and methods I used to heal and what I continue to do to heal the effects of paralytic polio and trauma.

I grabbed pen and a piece of paper from the lifeguard's office and wrote down information for her. I recommended Dr. Joe Dispenza's book, "You Are the Placebo," and encouraged her to go on line to find meditations that would help her to heal. I told her about Dr. David Hamilton, Ph.D.'s work and how my story is going to be included in the next edition of "How the Mind Can Heal the Body." I suggested she visit my website and blog.

She told me I was her guardian angel and she has been blessed to meet many angels in her healing journey. She found a wonderful surgeon in Needham who told her that she'd support her efforts to try everything she could to avoid total knee replacement surgery. After I shared with her my experience with chiropractic care, she was inspired to contact her chiropractor and resume treatment!

I told her how deeply blessed and honored I felt to be a part of her journey; how I was blessed to have so many angels come into my life just when I needed them throughout my life.

She asked me when I swim and I told her Tuesday mornings; she'll be there for her physical therapy sessions in the pool.

"I can't believe what hope you've given me. I mean here you are -- 11 years after being told you should prepare to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair and all you've accomplished."

I shared with her how I appreciate the miracle of healing that I co-created in my life; how I appreciate every pain free step and feeling free in my body.

I am grateful for the gifts of polio, trauma and Post-Polio Syndrome in my life. Without them I would not be the person I am today and would not be able to inspire others with miracles and hope.

I am deeply grateful that I can celebrate 10 years of running and share this miraculous journey of healing, hope, possibility and miracles!

From my heart to yours,
To your health and wellness,
Mary

My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body." It's available for pre-order on Amazon.

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):

Celebrating Ten Years of Running: Just imagine!

From the Foreword of Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance by Jacqueline Hansen:
Try to imagine what it must have been like to be diagnosed with paralytic polio as a child. Try to imagine suffering child abuse at the hands of those very family members who are charged with your upbringing. Try to imagine them together. It’s unbearable to think about. Then imagine surviving the unthinkable, and in adulthood being diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome. This is a story that needs to be told. This is a story of challenge, of resiliency, and a story of heart, tremendous heart.

Shortly after the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome, in February of 2007, I got still and asked for Divine Guidance. I imagined a life very different from my past and very different from the one the doctors predicted for me. My pen became my divining rod for healing as poetry poured out of my soul. My first poem? "Running the Race" that foreshadowed my 2009 Boston Marathon run and opened the portal to healing.

I watched Forrest Gump's Run Forrest Run scene over and over again imagining myself running free.

Mirror neurons are fired up when we watch somebody do something. Our muscles and neurological connections fire up as if we were doing the very action we are watching!

On Saturday's run, after I slogged through the first mile, I thought about a video that my friend's husband posted on YouTube tracking Kathleen Horgan's triathlon training. Coincidentally, the staging was set up for Sunday's Boston Triathlon that Kathleen was racing.




"Whatever it takes
cuz I love how it feels when I break the chains!"

As far as I have come on my journey healing the effects of paralytic polio and trauma, I still have to be vigilant about not going back into old feelings in my body. It takes both consistent mental and physical training.

I imagined myself out on a run with Kathleen and I transcended any limits I was feeling in my body. Kathleen is poetry in motion! We did crazy negative splits and a pace for the last mile that I haven't seen in a year. I'm recovering from 3 Bermuda Half Marathons in as many years and after a hip/groin/back injury it's a new starting line with working on my pace.

Starting lines are awesome. There awaits unlimited possibility at a new starting line.

Before Saturday I was still in recovery mode after crossing the finish line of the 2018 Bermuda Half Marathon.

On Saturday I crossed a new starting line and I can just imagine what's next!

From my heart to yours,
To your health and wellness,
Mary

My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body." It's available for pre-order on Amazon.

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):


Coming soon *** The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 ****

The cure for anything is....

I slogged through the first mile of yesterday's 5K run. The weather was perfect for a run. There was a headwind but it was sunny and cool. The vista of Boston Harbor is stunning. Running from Carson Beach to U.Mass Boston and back is a route we've run for the past 3 years training for the Bermuda Half Marathon and one we love to run. It seemed as though I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. I wondered if I would ever get back to a faster pace knowing full well that:



We passed by JFK's sailboat and people had paused to look at the boat and the accompanying plaque.

Tom and I decided to pause for a moment and take a photo and read the plaque that we had run by countless times.
“I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it's because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it's because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came."

It helped me connect to something far greater than myself that is within me and all around me.

After the first mile, I knew I needed to get myself together on the run.

I cleared away the cobwebs of thoughts that were weighing me down.

I allowed myself to experience the expansiveness of the ocean and the infinite possibilities that exist reflecting on gratitude for my miraculous healing journey in the wake of childhood paralytic polio and trauma.

As I turned over my worries to the Universe, I felt lighter. The tightness in my chest released and I got very focused.

My pace went from 18:26 for mile 1 to 17:24 for mile 2 according to Tom's Garmin.

I felt a determination fire up in my soul as I get ready to run the 5th Annual Middlemiss Big Heart 5K Run, Walk, Roll on September 22.

It's an all pace race and I don't have to "worry" about my time. My goal after running Bermuda this year was to focus on shorter distances and my pace. My body has a lot of recovering to do after I challenged it to 3 consecutive half marathons in as many years and I honor that but I also feel passionate about not allowing external circumstances to impede my recovery efforts or stand between me and my goals. I felt compassion and self-love flow through me honoring the stress in our lives. I felt a shift within me and my pace picked up almost without effort.

When we finished our run


I felt transformed! I loved feeling the trickles of sweat that pooled in the small of my back and the sweat that mingled with tears of release and relief!

Tom looked at the pace of our final 1.1 miles - 17:11!!!

Talk about negative splits on a run but more than the time and the pace was a shift to feeling freedom and a renewed belief that I CAN set and achieve goals when I connect to Source.

I can trust in the process of recovery and I can allow myself to once again run free and unencumbered.

Feeling this fast pace ignited a sense of hope and joy within me as I cast out my troubles. I once again discovered that the cure for anything is saltwater, sweat, tears and the sea!

From my heart to yours,
To your health and wellness,
Mary

My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body." It's available for pre-order on Amazon.

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):


Coming soon *** The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 ****

Inspiring Others With What's Possible!

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Alice in Wonderland

David Hamilton, Ph.D. wrote the first edition of "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body" ten years ago. He put out a call for healing stories from people who healed themselves through visualization.

Here is what I sent to him:
Eleven years ago I was diagnosed with Post Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease by Western Medicine Standards. My life came to a screeching halt. I was at the height of my award winning career as a VA social worker yet was told if there were any "hope" of stabilizing the symptoms where they were I needed to quit my job, be prepared to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair possibly needing a feeding tube because I would aspirate my food due to weakness on the left side of my esophagus. I was weak and in chronic pain, anxious and depressed.

I got still and asked for Divine Guidance and I began writing poetry in which I imagined myself being whole, healed and free in my body. My first poem was "Running the Race" - yes I know pretty incredible as I sat in a leg brace using a cane and at times a wheelchair for mobility. I went on to run the 2009 Boston Marathon as a mobility impaired runner. In addition to using poetry as a vehicle for visualization, I meditated several times a day imagining God as my master electrician rewiring my neuromuscular system and healing the effects of both childhood paralytic polio and severe childhood trauma that manifested as Post Polio Syndrome.

Three years ago, my left knee "blew out". I was pushing myself way too hard in my running without cross training. MRI indicated an atrophied gastroc muscle, bone spurs, degenerative changes due to osteoarthritis and multiple knee surgeries, shredded cartilage and a fatty lipoma. I was told to stop running and prepare to need a total knee replacement in a few years.

I returned to visualization and found my way to a wonderful chiropractor who supported my using visualization and a set goals not limits philosophy. He was also a personal trainer who prescribed exercises to support me as a runner. We used KT tape and the power of visualization to heal my knee and grow a new gastroc muscle.

I upped my game of time spent in meditation using visualization harnessing the power of my mind and the Divine within and around me and in January crossed the finish line of my 3rd Bermuda Half Marathon in as many years.

At the age of 64 years old not only am I not in a wheelchair and have not had a total knee replacement but life a full, vibrant life through the power of visualizing myself from illness to wellness claiming my birthright to be healthy.

After I sent him additional information about the specifics of how I turned around my prognosis, he wrote,
Thank you so much, Mary. What wonderful use of visualisation!!! I LOVE it. :-)

I love how creative you were and also how committed you were. I think your examples of visualisation will give many other people hope, who have none!

I’m meeting with my publisher at the end of the month to go through the examples I’ve been sent. Is it OK if I get back in touch with you then to confirm if we’ve been able to use your example? Personally, I really love it so I’m pretty sure it’ll make the final edit. :-)

Thanks again, and have a lovely day,

I am so excited to share with you that my story is going to be included in the newest edition of David's book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body."


You can pre-order it on Amazon.

An authoritative and accessible book by a qualified scientist, showing incredible proof of the mind-body connection.

There is no longer any doubt that the way we think affects our bodies: countless scientific studies have shown this to be true. For former pharmaceutical scientist Dr David Hamilton, the testing of new drugs highlighted how profoundly the mind and body are connected. Time and time again, the control group of patients in drug trials improved at similar rates to those who actually received the medicines. Astounded, Dr Hamilton decided to change the direction of his work to explore the relationship between the mind and the body.

This bestselling acclaimed book was first published 10 years ago. In it, Dr Hamilton explores the effect of visualization, belief and positive thinking on the body, and shows how using our imagination and mental processes can stimulate our own defences and healing systems to combat disease, pain and illness.

In this new edition, Dr Hamilton has added four new chapters to discuss the latest cutting-edge information and extraordinary new techniques. These include using imagery to stimulate the immune system - a method that can benefit cancer patients undergoing conventional treatment - effectively using the mind to speed up rehabilitation from stroke, and powerful visualization strategies to help facilitate recovery from injury and illness.

While I share my story on Facebook, in this blog and in my books, having my story included in David's book is going to have a wider audience reach. He has appeared in the movie Heal Documentary, and is an internationally renowned speaker and author. His publisher is Hay House UK.

So often people do not know what is possible when it comes to healing our bodies harnessing the power of our minds.

I've heard many stories of people who say, "Oh I tried this or that and it doesn't work."

During these past 11 years I have experienced and experimented with many different paths to healing. I am so blessed and grateful that I found my way to chiropractic care with Dr. Lizzie Sobel. I meditate 3 times a day. My morning and evening meditations are 20 minutes each; my afternoon meditation is a 45 minute meditation. I use either a meditation from Dr. Joe Dispenza, Dr. Bernie Siegel or the soundtrack from Heal. It has taken me persistence and dedication to maintain momentum on my health and wellness journey healing the effects of childhood paralytic polio and severe childhood trauma. I work out five days a week; two days of running, two days in the pool and one day strength training on land.

My dedication is to myself and my own well being but it's also to send a message of healing, hope and possibility to others inspiring them to know just what is possible despite all appearances to the contrary!

From my heart to yours,
To your health and wellness,
Mary

My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body." It's available for pre order on Amazon.

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):


Coming soon *** The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 ****

Celebrating Ten Years of Running: For the Pure Joy of It!

The heat and humidity was intense yesterday morning when Tom and I woke up to go on a run. Usually the heat and humidity saps my energy. Most people's energy is usually sapped by heat and humidity but I'm still recovering from the effects of paralytic polio and I can be especially vulnerable to wilting.

But not yesterday! I had a powerful mindset for my run - an intention to feel the joy of running. Yesterday's run came on the "heels" of the theme of gratitude. It was as though the heat lit a fire within me.

After Tom and I did our morning meditation and core work, ate a banana and hydrated, we headed out the front door with frozen water bottles around his waist and my Nike+ on my arm playing tunes on my new running playlist.

We decided to go once around the big aka Chestnut Hill Reservoir.

As the sweat poured and we basked in the gift of each other's company, I realized that I was going at a pretty fast pace. Tom noted that I was doing negative splits according to his Garmin.

I felt the joy of pushing myself; I felt the joy of pouring sweat and the joy of running.

This is the first year in 3 years that I am not training for an endurance event. I loved the challenge of going the distance 3 consecutive years in the Bermuda Half Marathon but I knew it was time to take a break and allow my body a chance to continue to heal from the effects of paralytic polio and trauma without the added strain of training for 13.1 miles.

I'm feeling good in the skin I am in for the first time in my life and able to experience the beauty and joy of running.


The joy continued as my body continued to pour sweat preparing an apres run breakfast of raisin bran and banana, toast and orange juice. Tom had coffee with his breakast and the smell of coffee and toast tickled my soul with more joy. As a side note, I stopped drinking coffee after the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome but I can still savor the aroma.


I LOVE how breakfast tastes after a good run or a strength training workout. Food tastes so good as nausea yields to the joy of refueling. I savor every bite knowing how I am treating my body with love and respect. My gas tank goes from empty to full.

As my body recovered from the run, the feeling of running for the pure joy of it lingered in my mind and soul.

From my heart to yours,
To your health and wellness,
Mary

My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body."

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):


Coming soon *** The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 ****

Celebrating Ten Years of Running: The Gift of My Feet On the Pavement

During our Cape Escape vacation, we were blessed to meet a woman using a wheelchair at the pool. We struck up a conversation after we watched her beautiful and graceful strokes carrying her through the water without using her legs. She had remarkable upper body strength and transferred herself from the wheelchair to the pool. She shared with us how 5 years ago she had a benign tumor removed from her spinal cord. It was pressing on a nerve and when they removed it, she became paralyzed from the waist down. She said that her neurologist gives her a lot of hope with all of the advances in recovery from spinal cord injuries. I shared my story with her.

As Tom and I were out on our 5K run yesterday, I felt a sense of gratitude surge through me. While I am always grateful for the miracle of healing that I've been able to co-create in my life, there was a deep connection to the awareness of how truly blessed I am!

As my foot struck the asphalt, I felt a connection to the Divine and gratitude well up from deep within me.

Eleven years ago I was told to be prepared to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. I was using a wheelchair at times for mobility to conserve energy. The admonition I received from the Post-Polio Clinic Team was, if you use it you will lose it. Yes you read that right. The thinking was that because so many nerve cells were damaged as a result of the initial polio virus, that with the "normal process of aging" they would die off at an even faster rate. I needed to preserve what functioning was left to try to stabilize the progression where it was when I was diagnosed in December of 2006.I was weak. I needed a leg brace and a cane. I had difficulty swallowing and breathing. I had to eat a semi soft diet, do a chin tuck and a dry swallow to avoid aspirating my food. I woke up tired regardless of how much sleep I got. I knew it was time to leave my award winning VA career and took a leap of faith not knowing what my future held for me. I had only one goal: to heal my life even though I had no idea of what that meant.

In the midst of a flurry of appointments with doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, brace clinic and facing a grim diagnosis and future, I got still and asked for Divine Guidance. In an answer to my prayers, I penned the poem, "Running the Race." My heart and soul opened; poems poured out of me inspiring my healing mind, body and soul. By February of 2008, I told my personal trainer that I wanted to run the 2009 Boston Marathon as part of my next health and fitness goals!

Every step I am able to take is a gift. While I have in my mind's eye that some day I would love to run a 12 minute mile, I am very content when I can get my pace below an 18 minute mile for now.

Every run is a gift especially when I get to spend time on the roads with Tom.



There are many who take the gift of running for granted; who don't even pause to think about what a gift it is to have one's health and be able to run. I am so grateful for the gifts of childhood paralytic polio and trauma because I have this deep connection to Source and an overwhelming sense of gratitude being tuned into even the simplest of pleasures like the gift of my feet hitting the pavement!

From my heart to yours,
To your health and wellness,
Mary

My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How The Mind Can Heal the Body."

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):


Coming soon *** The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 ****

Celebrating Ten Years of Running: "You didn't believe them did you?"

On our second loop around the Reservoir on a glorious Saturday morning run, an older woman passed us while we stopped for water. She was walking at a very fast pace. We met up at the path exiting the Reservoir.

"We couldn't catch up with you," I said.

"You were going at a great pace," Tom added.

"Really? You were trying to catch me?" She beamed.

"Yes we were!"

"I do this several times a week," she said.

"May I ask how young you are?"

"Yes. Of course. I am 75."

"May I ask how young you are?" she said with a smile.

"I'm almost 65 and Tom is 66."

"You look marvelous too."

"I had paralytic polio as a child. 11 years ago I was told to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair after they diagnosed me with Post-Polio Syndrome."

"You didn't believe them did you?" she said.

We talked about how it's "all mind over matter" and how you just have to believe in your own health and well being along with being dedicated to a work out program. She does water aerobics where a friend of hers lives and does weight workouts twice a week in addition to walking around the Reservoir a few times a week.

When "they" first told me to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair and that I "had" a progressive neuromuscular disease I was terrified. I read the book "Post Polio Syndrome" by Dr. Julie Silver, "an expert in the field." While at first I felt a certain sense of comfort that someone was naming what was happening to me and I wasn't alone in what I was experiencing, another part of me couldn't (and obviously wouldn't) believe what was happening to me. After fear, acceptance and anger, I got still and asked for Divine Guidance. That's when I began to shift to a belief that I would and could recover and live a more full and vibrant life than I ever had.

The response to my asking for Divine Guidance came in the form of poetry! I harnessed the power of my imagination through my divining rod for healing, my pen and I believed a future very different than the one the doctors and physical therapists predicted for me.

Ten years ago I traded in black tie shoes with a toe up leg brace:


for running shoes:


that helped me cross the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and experience 10 years of running adventures.

When "they" told me I had a progressive neuromuscular disease and should prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair...I didn't believe them!



From my heart to yours,
To your health and wellness,
Mary

My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How The Mind Can Heal the Body."

Be sure to visit my website by following this link.

My books are available on Amazon.

Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:


Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):


Coming soon *** The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 ****