Through Every Season
Surviving a Traumatic Brain Injury: Elizabeth Meigs
(upbeat music) Hello, this is Ashley. Welcome to the Through Every Season podcast. Everyone is welcome here, and it's a safe space for you to explore your faith in God. We all go through different journeys in life. That includes highs, lows, and everything else in between. Grab a drink of the day, a snack, and take a seat. We'll help you walk through every season. (upbeat music) Well, welcome, Elizabeth, to the Through Every Season podcast. I'm so excited to have you on today. We have Elizabeth Megs, did I say it right? I got so nervous, I would say it wrong. We have Elizabeth on the podcast today to share her story and all the wonderful things that she's doing to inspire others in our community and in our country in the United States. Elizabeth, can you give a little bit of an introduction and kind of let everybody know who you are and what you're about? Elizabeth Megs, with Elizabeth Inspires, I am an inspirational motivational speaker and a transformational coach. And I am very passionate about helping people to be able to break through their barriers so that they can learn how to become stronger and be able to succeed in life, finding their confidence so that they can just live the life of their dreams. - Really excited to get into your story today. So on the Through Every Season podcast over here, we always have a drink of the day. In my personal life, I call anything that's not water, a girly pop drink. My husband's like, what the heck's a girly pop drink? I'm like, a girly pop drink is any drink, that's fun. And it makes everything fun. So we do a drink of the day on the Through Every Season podcast 'cause it just makes everything a little bit more fun. So Elizabeth, what drink of the day do you have for us today? - I'm actually pretty chill and relaxed. I'm just drinking water. - That's okay. That's okay 'cause you know what? We like to also stay hydrated around here. And you are in Texas. We were talking a little bit before the podcast started, how she's in Texas and it's already so hot over there. So it is definitely important for you to stay hydrated. - Oh yes, most definitely. - And so the audience is probably not going to be surprised that I have another poppy. Beth, I have to ask, have you had poppy before? The probiotic sodas, have you had one? - Uh-uh. - Well, you need to try one if you're like a carbonated sparkling water type of gal. So I have a poppy and I told everybody, I'm like, hey, look, for season two, we're gonna switch up our drinks. And I know I have another poppy, but I will say it's a new flavor. It is a new flavor, it's orange cream. It definitely tastes like a dream sickle. And I picked out the very last two at Kroger yesterday. So it was meant to be. - All right. So we're gonna dive right in into our topic today. So our topic today is about overcoming adversity. And Beth is gonna really dive into her story of how she overcame adversity in her own life and how she's helping other people overcome hard challenges, difficult life events and adversities in their own lives. So we're gonna dive right in. (upbeat music) - So Beth, as you already said, you're a motivational speaker, you're a transformation coach, and you're also a woman of God. You help other people overcome their own hard times and their life struggles, but you also have a story of your own. - Yeah. - You're involved in an accident at the tender age of 14. What happened the day of your car accident? What did that day look like for you? - I woke up as I did every Saturday morning, went to my voice lesson. So that I had been picking since the age of seven. I had been singing and performing for over half my life, chasing my dreams. That evening had plans to go to the movies with my best friend. We got into the SUV. I had no idea that that was gonna be the last time that I was able to stand on my own two feet for over three weeks. We were traveling down a rule through lane highway when all of a sudden we were struck from behind. This sent our vehicle into a tailspin, which then preceded the barrel roll multiple times until we finally landed in the field on the opposite side of the highway. With every roll, my head was at the point of impact. EMTs would arrive on the soon and I had to be cut from the vehicle versus the state of multiple times. Had to be life-plited to the nearest trauma center an hour and a half away by car because I grew up in a very rural area. When my parents arrived at the trauma center, they would receive a very dim prognosis. When they were certain with the inform of my family that I had suffered a traumatic brain injury, they gave me less than a 25% survival rate. They would let my parents know that I would need to be placed in a drug and there's comment on all my brain, my body, the best chance of survival. They made no promises. The first 48 to 72 hours would be very critical. And if I survive that long, my chances would improve, but they made no promise. - It's crazy how much our lives can change in the blink of an eye or just instantaneously that you probably started your day just thinking it was gonna be just a regular day or maybe it was gonna be a fun day. It was gonna be a good day for you. And then it ended in such a tragic way that I can only imagine your parents hearing this prognosis for you. I don't think anyone, unless if you've gone through something tragic with your child, of course, can just imagine what it felt like in that moment to hear that prognosis and that devastating news, what were your family's thoughts and feelings in this moment? - They were in shock. Started making phone calls, there was a phone call tree made. My mom called my grandma. She started calling all of our relatives so that everyone could get to the hospital an hour and a half away. We had family from out of state, my aunt and uncle from Colorado got in the vehicle and made like an eight-hour trip in like six hours to get to be with my family. Because we all needed to be together. - And I'm glad that all your family came to you and were able to give you that support and also support one another, of course. So as you said, that the first 24 hours, those were really critical. So 24 hours following that accident, what did things look like for you? - 24 hours in, the doctor's got me stable. My aunt's uncle's grandparents and cousins who had all been awake for well over 24 hours decided that I was stable and they could go back to the hotel. They could go get hotel and get some sleep. My mom, my dad, my brother and sister-in-law would remain with me. They would take 12 hour shifts after I got out of the wood. But the first few days, nobody gathered me sleep. They were with me 24/7. In the middle of the night on Sunday, I would take a turn for the worse. My brain began swelling rapidly. The doctors didn't give me much hope. They basically would say this is likely the end. They began working frantically to try to find the right medicine that would bring down that brain swelling and get me headed in the right direction. There was actually, in the middle of the night, at midnight or 1 a.m., a Calbury Baptist minister and pediatric ICU unit. You see, our minister had been out of town at a conference. So he was unable to come be with my family. But there was ministers from our local town. Everyone was praying for me. There was people praying for me all over the world being reached out to English moment. The Calbury Baptist minister would come into the pediatric ICU that night and offer to pray with my family. And it would be in this prayer that my mom would feel a weight lifted off of her shoulders and she knew in that moment that I was gonna survive. It would be approximately one hour after that prayer was conducted, that the doctors were able to find the medication that would get my brain swelling headed back in the right direction and get me stable. That was the first sign that we saw that how prayers can make miracles happen. - Hearing how the power of prayer was able to take away off of your mother's shoulders, which for one, you hear all the time in these situations that mothers have some sort of intuition where they can kind of know what's about to happen with their child or what the outcome may be. It's just that inner feeling that they have and that connection with their child. So to have that weight lifted off of her shoulders was kind of like God telling her, hey, she's going to be okay, which is incredible. - And amazing. And the fact that you had people praying for you just all over the world, that's incredible. And then they were able to, God was able to work through those doctors to find the medication, to be able to help you and probably saved your life, definitely. At this point, you're still in medically induced coma, is that correct? - Yes, yes. I would remain in this coma for three weeks. - Wow. - Three weeks in the coma. And then of course, when I woke, I was unable to speak a word. The ventilator would remain in for two and a half weeks. So my vocal cords were very, very weak. I would answer questions by squeezing my right hand or blinking my left eye because my right eye had trauma through it. So it was unable to open clothes. It was just closed 24/7. I had no idea what happened. - When you came out of a coma and you kind of got to the moment where you could start processing the environment around you, what were your thoughts? - My processing, honestly, I wasn't really able to process anything for weeks. I would remain in rehab. I would remain at the trauma center and be moved from the pediatric ICU unit to a regular room and remain there for a week while my parents tried to find a subcuter rehab. I would be transferred from the trauma center in Wichita, Kansas at the end of week four to a children's hospital in Kansas and the Missouri where my parents, when they walked into that hospital, I saw bright colors, but saw lots of positivity. So they knew that that was the place that I needed to be. Let's just say that I was a Krabby pants. I wasn't sleeping. A feeding machine that was would run overnight continuously was so loud and noisy. They would have to put extensions together and wheel that outside of my room. I swear my hospital room was right outside of the nurse's desk and I wasn't ever able to sleep. So I would have mood swings. If I wanted to sleep, I would make everybody leave my hospital room. Lights had to be out and plead quiet. The first light in the subcuter rehab unit, my mom was gonna stay there with me, but I wasn't able to sleep. So I made her go to the Ronald McDonald house of like, I can't sleep with you staying here with me. So you go somewhere else to sleep so that I can get some sleep and even then. - And the doctors, did they diagnose you with a traumatic brain injury or TBI? - Yes, traumatic brain injury was what I suffered. My left side was affected. So I was unable to extend my left arm or open my hand for years without physically prying my fingers open. My toes would curl under. I was getting both toxin injections every three months for years on my left arm, hand and foot would require multiple foot surgeries. - You described it as crankiness or moodiness. And then also really difficulty was sleeping, aside from just the natural hospital environment, do you think that that was also connected to your TBI or your traumatic brain injury? - Yes, my sleep, I would be lucky to get two to three hours of halfway decent sleep for the course of 19 years. Always taking something prescription or over the counter that never would work 100% of the time. So you're not sleeping good and there's some warnings. I just didn't want to get up. - Wow, and yeah, sleep, gosh, sleep affects so much of our lives that I cannot imagine not getting, you know, good sleep for 19 years, only getting two to three. Hours while, and even a course in your earlier recovery, the years following your accident, you know, rest is so important, you know, for the body to heal from trauma. So I would fatigue so quickly in the first four years after the accident. When I first got back in the school after being in hospitals and rehabs for the span of three months, when I first got back in the school, I would have to take a nap. I would get back in the school after Thanksgiving of 2000 and go half days from Thanksgiving to Christmas, come back to my grandparents or my brother's house and take a nap before we had taken the OT, occupational therapy and physical therapy, which I did every day after school for years. Sleep is so crucial after you've had a brain injury or a stroke because your brain needs that good sleep in order to heal itself. - Following your accident after those three months that you were in, were you in the Children's Hospital for three months before going to school? - So I was in the trauma center for a month and then I would be transferred to the Children's Hospital for two and a half weeks, but at that two and a half week mark, once I was discharged, I was still requiring a wheelchair for distances, had to use a walker to keep my balance up on my peep. So I wasn't ready to get back into school yet. I wasn't able to carry a book, so I wasn't able to do any of that. So I would begin a seven week day rehab program in Kansas City, Missouri with the Rehab Institute, where I would get physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. I would work with a school teacher to help me to be able to get caught up with my classes, to some extent, on what I was missing. Those classes that I had to pass in order to go on to myself more a year. And my mom and I would live in the realm of McDonald House Monday through Friday for seven weeks, only getting to go home on the weekends and sleeping my own bed. - It's a big change from what your life was before the accident. So between the sleep, the complete, you know, wrench, that was thrown into your daily schedule or your daily routine or what was your normal life and then all of these different appointments, where there are other ways, even if it's just the small things that you are expected to do day to day, that was affected by your accident, even if it's just like things like brushing your teeth, like hygiene, like taking care of yourself, just those little things that we do independently that we really take for granted. - Yeah, my mom would help me with all of my baby, even after I got home, going home on the weekends, while I was at the round of my town house, she would have to help me 'cause I'd beteached so quickly. My balance, I had to sit down in the shower, I wasn't strong enough to stay standing to take a full shower, I had to have a shower seat. That night, the girl I once was died. Through all of the months of rehab, I hadn't quite come to the conclusion that that girl had died. I was expecting my life to be what it was before, having no idea that my life was never gonna be what it was before. - Wow, and to also go through that at 14, you're still going through puberty. It's really a pivotal time being a teenager, and you were entering your freshman year of high school at the time, you were just beginning to be in high school, be with all the big kids, and socially, that's a huge time in our lives, is entering high school and being a teenager. How did this affect you socially in school? I know you mentioned the fatigue, and I'm sure that that affected you too, but were there other ways that it affected you with your friends, your relationship, and with your peers at school? - Once back in school, that's when I discovered the biggest challenges that I was ever gonna face, because once back in school, I was no longer that popular. Everybody wants to be my friend. I was an invisible nobody. I had to do therapy after school every day of the week. We had to hire tutors to help me get caught up and stay caught up with my classes. Throughout high school, I would have to have math tutors, because while math used to be one of my favorite subjects, my brain, now math is very challenging after that point. So math was very difficult. My friends' lives had gone on. Sure, they would come and visit me a couple of times when I was in the hospital. I would see them on the weekends occasionally when they came home for that seven-week period. But once back in school, they were still playing the sports we loved, working their part-time jobs, going out on the weekend. They didn't have any time for me, nor did they seem to care if I was around. That was what I perceived. Of course, none of them had any idea what I was dealing with on the inside. They had no clue the battles but I was fighting on the inside. With drifting friendships and changing circumstances, there's definitely a grieving process that was piled on top of already grieving what your life was like before the accident, who you were before the accident. So I'm sure that her 14 and even beforehand, you had all of these thoughts about what life was gonna look like for you. We all do when we're kids. We have a certain dream or a certain vision of what it'll be like with our lives. What was that vision for you prior to your accident and how did that change following your accident? - Before that night, I was chasing my dreams. My wife's teacher who I had been working with since the age of seven saw my gifts and my talents for singing on the stage. I was known for my voice. People would ask me to perform and sing different places. I've sang in so many different weddings. I was going places. I was, everyone knew I was gonna make it big in the country music world. But those dreams were shattered that night. It was 43 days after that night before I even spoke a whisper because the ventilator that had been in for two and a half weeks. And then it was another seven to eight, 10 months before I could even speak in full sentences without my voice breaking and cracking out because of how weak my voice was. My mom was concerned because she didn't think I was ever gonna speak again because of how they did a scope on my vocal cords to make sure there was no damage because my voice was who I was, not to find me. Now that is gone. The grief of losing who I was, losing my passion, what the dreams I was chasing, I lost all of that that night. And I'm sure that among your loved ones and your family, that there was change with them too. How did this impact your family and loved ones and those close to you following your accident? It was difficult for them. My parents, the days that I would come home from school because I dealt with judgment and rejection, not necessarily just from school, but just being out and people would see something physically wrong with me and decide that I wasn't worth their time. Everything was a challenge and difficult. Everything was hard. Going from everything being easy to everything being challenged and a struggle and more difficult than I ever could have imagined, I would come home from school multiple days a week and tell my parents that I should have died. I wish I was dead and I want to kill myself. I would throw myself down on my bedroom floor, under my knees, crying out to God at the top of my lungs asking him why he did this to me. What did I do to deserve this? But that's when I would get my answer. And that answer would come in the form of a voice on my heart. A voice that would bring me an overwhelming amount of comfort and peace, the only comfort and peace that I would feel for years to come was this voice. A voice that I knew was my higher power God saying, "I have a plan for you. You can't stop, you have to keep going." It was with that voice and that answer that I realized he didn't do it to me. World leagues, circumstances can cause challenges, can cause upheaval, can cause you to be at the lowest of lows. That's out of your control. But God was right there beside me saying, "I have a plan for you. I had to believe in something greater than my current circumstances. I knew that one day I was going to need to be for someone else exactly what I needed in that moment so I couldn't give up. I would begin praying for everyone in the world because the suffering that I was going through, I wouldn't have wished on a single soul. I would go to bed each night. No matter what had happened during the day to knock me down, I would go to bed each night, talking to God, thanking him for my life, thanking him for my blessings. Asking him to lead me, I continued to turn to him 'cause I knew he was the only thing that could get me through this. When he never failed me, he was always there to pick me up and carry me through every darkness that I would ever face. - That's beautiful that you were able to meet God in such a tragic time in your life and be able to hold on to him. Prior to your accident, what did your faith look like? - I went to church most every Sunday. It was an early morning morning church service, so there were some times that I would be like, "Mom, I'd rather sleep." But I went to church every Sunday. I would sing a church. My grandparents loved to hear me sing a special. So I would sing different hymns or different songs that I was working on with my voice teacher. So I knew God, but I didn't know him to the extent that I would grow to know him through my challenges and through my struggles. - And when going back to school, was your track for graduating or your studies affected long-term through the remaining years of your high school years? - So I would get through my freshman year needing to catch up on my world history homework, but the teacher would allow my mom to give me the test throughout the summer. And as long as I had completed all of it by the beginning of my sophomore year, I would be able to move on with my class. So at the beginning of my sophomore year, I was moving on with my class, but I still had medical issues throughout high school. My senior year, I would get vertigo that would last me for over six months to where I wasn't able to actually read in a book without getting severely sick. So I would have to have a tutor come to my house half a day for the first semester of high school of my senior year to be able to help me to stay caught up with my classes, the ones that I had to have. But I would after Christmas be able to get the vertigo norm and that's to where I do get back in the school. And I would graduate with my class. - And did things change for you socially in high school, the farther away that you got from your accident and coming back to school? Was there any changes socially as you started to heal your body and heal from your accident? - I continued, I had judgment and rejection that I dealt with along in the college, but I did find ways of coping. My voice teacher would actually call my mom a few months after I had made home for good. She had stopped giving voice lessons, but called my mom and said, Debbie, I want to work with Beth to help her to get her singing voice back. She was so gifted and talented and I want to just help her to get back to singing. So once my voice did get back and stronger, I got back to singing. Now my voice was not what it was before because my neck muscles were affected from the brain injury. So I had increased muscle tone. I was no longer that strong soprano was a natural vibrato, but I would find that when I was on a stage scene, people would see something that I was good at and I wouldn't be judged. They would decide that maybe we don't have a reason to judge her. She has a beautiful voice. That would be a coping mechanism for me throughout high school. 'Cause when I was on a stage, I felt like I was important. I felt like I had something to live for. - I'm so glad to hear that you got back to singing and that you found joy and a therapeutic sense, if you will, to performing on stage and getting back to that. That in itself is incredible. - Yeah, the joy. - Both are one of it. - Yeah, the joy was I had the fine stuff that would bring me joy. When you are in the darkest of your days, then you feel like you're in a pit. Why do no things that bring you joy? Those things that you're passionate about. Now, I didn't know what God's plan was for me. I didn't know how anything was gonna happen that I didn't know when, but I had that promise from him. I have a plan for you. And I knew that what I was passionate about and helping others, somehow that would tie into his plan and that that would be my purpose. So I couldn't give up. I was curious. I had to figure it out. I had to become a good problem solver. - Wow. And so you graduate high school, get that diploma, you're moving on to the next stage in life. I know you already mentioned that you did go to college. What did those next steps look like for you? Post high school graduation. What did college look like for you? - I had absolutely no clue what God's plan was for my life. So I would do two years of community college before moving on to university. After the two years of living at home and going to community college, I would find out about a rehab counseling program. And I would transfer to Emporia State University where after two and a half years of being in the rehab counseling program, I would learn that essentially, it focused on driving and alcohol abuse. And that wasn't really what I wanted to do in the state of campus. I wanted to be able to work with people who had suffered a traumatic brain injury because that's how I could best relate and provide hope. After I decided that I was in the wrong major, when I discovered that that would be another difficult time for my family because that would be eight years after, or seven and a half years after I graduated high school and we would unexpectedly lose my dad in a car accident. - That's devastating and traumatic that you lost your father in a way that you almost lost your own life. What was that like for you, having your father pass in a way where you almost also lost your life? - My mom was worried about me. She wasn't sure how I was going to take it, but she never expected me to be the rock. And that was only because of my relationship with God. My dad was a Christian. He would go to church Christmas and Easter. He was saved before he was drafted into Vietnam. My mom really struggled with the thought, wondering if he had gone to heaven or not. And one day in the vehicle, she had a conversation with me and said, "Beth, do you think your daddy went to heaven?" And I said, "I know he did. "Him and I have had conversations about God "and Jesus multiple times since the accident per year." So I knew he did. It would be approximately a month and a half after we lost him that one night he would come to me in a dream. And I would wake up sitting up in my bed like he was sitting on the edge of the bed, having a conversation with me. I could still feel his presence in the room. And he basically said, "Beth, honey, "I know your mom is struggling. "Let her know that I am up here in heaven "and I'm watching over all of you "until we're all together again someday. "Tell her I love her. "I love you. "Tell your brother, sister-in-law nephews that I love them. "And I'm just here with y'all, "watching over yet until we are together again." - And with your accident and everything that you had to go through with the trauma and medical trauma, definitely, and then losing your father in that way, did you suffer from any mental health struggles or PTSD following your accident or the loss of your father? - So PTSD wasn't really a pain when my correction happened, 'cause it happened in August of 2000. PTSD didn't come about until years later, after 9/11 and all of that. But as I look back now, yes, I did have PTSD. I would have the mood change. I would have the crying out and just wanting to end everything. Now, after losing my dad, I would become depressed. I got a bit lost. I was not in the best places financially. And it was with losing my dad that I realized rehab counseling was not what I needed to do. So I would begin to shift, try to get through chemistry in college. I never took it in high school, that wasn't gonna fly. So I had to drop the class, so I was gonna go to PT school. So that wasn't gonna work. So I applied to the PTA program at Washburn in Topeka. I wasn't accepted. But then one month before the occupational therapy assistant program was due, the application was due for this program, I found out that Washburn was getting it. I was the first class. I applied and I got in. It was with my clinicals and stuff. When I was able to walk into a patient's room who had suffered a stroke, the fact that they were discouraged, they were lacking hope. And the fact that I could sit across from them and share with them my story, that would give them hope. There was one time that an older gentleman who was very independent, this was in the first year of me doing occupational therapy, I would walk into his room 'cause he was very independent. Well, he had fallen and broken his hip. And oh my goodness, he was cranky. The physical therapist had warned me about him because Beth, he's not in a good place. I walked into his room and he told me, "You just don't understand what I'm going through." I sat down and I said, "Actually, I have a better idea "than you can probably imagine. "Share with him my story." We didn't get a full session with him. But the next morning, the physical therapist, after she saw him walk into the office and said, "Beth, I do not know what you said to him yesterday, "but he is a totally different person. "And he is willing to do whatever it takes "to get back to where he needs to be." I walked into his room that second day, first time he did, it was apologized to me. Yeah, I have been known to be the one to work with patients who are not willing to work with other therapists. And they would say, "Okay, we need to send Beth in there "'cause if anyone can get them to do the therapy, "she's the one that can do it. "And if she can't, no one can." But I love that you went and worked in a space where you had that personal experience of being that patient. I think that that's incredible and having that real life experience and perspective to bring to the room with you. That was when I began to discover the power behind my story. And over the years of me doing, being an occupational therapist, God always sends me into the rooms that I need to be in. In one way, shape or form, there's been many times that I walked into a patient's room where they called me their angel because that's what they needed. God sent me an angel today from there. Thank you, I needed you. Sometimes the patients are in such a bad place. They aren't, they got bad news. They got a bad diagnosis and not expected to live. And I walk in their rooms with physical therapists to do a co-treat because we knew that they had gotten the bad news and the patient just didn't want to do anything. I offered a prayer to them. After the prayer, they put their hand online and they say, that's what I needed more than anything. God has blessed me with that insight to be able to see what people need and gives me the wisdom and the knowledge to be able to deliver. - Hearing that, some things that come to mind is first, there's this quote, I really like this quote and it goes walk into the room like God sent you there because he did. That just kept going through my mind that it's amazing that you were able to send in a room and then pray with other people. Like all of those other people across the world were able to pray with you. And I'm sure that that is just like a full, just a full circle moment. The one part of my prayer and I did religiously, every single day it was God, please leave me, help me to make the right choices. He has faithfully done that. - Sure. - I do make wrong choices, but I fail forward and I learn from those wrong choices so that I can continue pushing. And even though I don't know how I'm gonna get through and how anything's gonna get turned around, I put my faith in him and I know and I have learned that he is always going to provide anything and everything I will ever need. - You're a motivational speaker, which I'm sure listening to this, everybody's like, well, Dashi is just listen to her. But what led you to want to become a motivational speaker, especially because you were in a clinical setting prior to this, working one-on-one with patients, what kind of led you to that shift? - God is very persistent. He's patient, but he's very persistent. And when we don't see the science clearly, he will not get upside the head. I'm just glad he didn't use it two by four. So after I moved to Texas in June of 2015, the only thing missing in my life was someone to share my life with. So I began doing online dating. Yeah, God will use any memes necessary to get you where you need to be, even online dating. In July of 2016, I went out on online lunch date where I was invited to a church that was in a suburb of Waco. But I still lived in Waco and I had lived there for a little over a year. So I had occurred to the suburb. One of my coworkers still lived there, but I didn't really know where it was so I never went to the church. And that date never proceeded to be another one. So I forgot about it when I went to my life. Then in November of 2016, I ended up moving to that suburb where every time I passed the church, I would see the face of the individual who invited me. Couldn't remember recently and still didn't see God planning me to that church telling me that I needed to be there. So never went. Well, God is persistent, patient, but persistent when he needs to be. The last Friday in January of 2017, I was in Walmart at 6.30 AM by cooking ingredients to do a cooking check-off with a patient where I worked. As I am walking away from the cash registers from checking out, I'm sure familiar with what I was talking to the cashier behind me. I had no clue how I knew it, but it was distinctive. It was like, I know that way from somewhere. So I turned around, lo and behold, the gentleman who invited me to church was at the cash register. So I slowed down, still couldn't remember anything, waited for him to catch up with me. We did small talk after our vehicles, parked right beside each other. Saturday morning, I still couldn't get out of my head the small world of us running into each other at 6.30 AM. So I got on the dating app. He was still on it. I sent him a message and said, small world seeing you yesterday. Guess what? I moved to China Spring in November. What time has church I have yet to find a church I feel at? So he invited me to second service. About two weeks after I joined that church, I found out that they had a celebrate recovery. I didn't really know what celebrate recovery was. I knew drugs, alcohol, abuse, but I learned that it's for anybody with any hurts, habits, or hang ups. So grieving, anything like that. And I thought, okay, these people are dealing with anxiety and depression. I have been there. I have wanted to take my whole life. I can help people by sharing my story. I've been doing it for over five years, working as an occupational therapist. So why can't I get up on the stage and care? I would begin sharing my testimony in 2017. And I would have people coming up to me about how much hope I gave them. One night, only one came up to me and said, Beth, I wasn't gonna come to church tonight, but something was telling me I needed to be here. I know now that that was God, I needed to hear your story. Thank you, it gives me hope. My eyes began to open to the possibilities of me getting up on a stage glorifying him and being able to spread his message. That actually, at that time, I hadn't truly gained full clarity on the message that he had chosen me to deliver. In 2019, I would continue to do online dating. And I would meet someone that I thought was in the same place in a relationship with God as I was, but it would turn out to not be a healthy relationship. Hm, after we would get married, I would begin to be manipulated. No mind. Verbally and emotionally abused. As God was bringing people into my life that saw my value because my confidence had grown and what he was calling me to do, this saw my value and was working to help me to get on bigger and better stages. That was in the time where I shifted by hope for natural health as a wellness coach with my natural solutions to being Elizabeth's inspires and getting up and sharing my story on stages. In the beginning of January 2023, that friend who I hadn't seen in over three and a half years hadn't been close to in over four and a half years, he would be on my heart. I had no idea why, but I knew that he was struggling. So I began praying for him every day just as I had when we were in each other's lives in 2017, 2018. God would, in February, would align me with a speaking coach that did a two day speaking seminar that would allow me to get my professional demo reel, pictures of me speaking from a stage and help me to be able to outline my talks, help me to find ways of making money so that I could truly grow Elizabeth's inspires. When I found out about this opportunity, I had to have three conversations with my ex-husband. They get him to allow me to use my business money to invest in this. And then he would give me an ultimatum where he would tell me if I wasn't able to make money with this after I did this seminar that I was gonna quit playing games and go get a reel job. Even though I was still working as an occupational therapist, appearing two to four days a week paying half our bills and the groceries. So, and he made quite a bit more than I did, more than double what I made in the month. I did this two days speaking seminar where I again got confirmation from everybody that was in the audience that I was right where I needed to be. Every single person in the audience was moved and told me that I could never stop telling my story. My story needed to go nationwide today because there are so many people in this world who meets my message. So, I came home that night empowered, fueled to fight for my dreams and my purpose. At the end of that week, my one of my good friends from weeko would reach out to me and let me know that my old friend that I hadn't seen in three and a half years had asked her about me, that's how I was doing. Now, he reached out to her in a way that she wasn't able to respond, technical difficulties. I knew he was struggling, started praying for him double time, asking God, okay God, why is this happening? You spoke to me about him years ago. I'm not sure what's going on, so I just prayed for him. On Monday, April 3rd, I would get a call from the coach who did that two days speaking seminar and he would tell me that I was chosen to get the scholarship for my coaching program that would help me to be able to get my speaking business where it needed to be, so I could get paid to speak and be able to help so many more people. I knew that this was God didn't exactly where I needed to be, so I was excited. I was a bit fearful from the conversation that would need to happen that by, because I knew it wasn't going to go over well. After dinner, I shared with my husband the news of the scholarship. He looks at me and says, until I see him writing that there are no fees involved in this year, and I love to do it, I started crying. He looks at me with a look of pure hatred and asked me in an acetone why I was crying. My response was, because this is who I am, this is what God has called me to do, and now that he's making a way for me to do it, you're telling me I can't? I knew in that moment that my prayers from 2017, 2018, asking God why he spoke to me about my friend, they were answered. That night before I went to bed, I said, "God, I'm 99% sure you need me to go back to Waco." You brought someone into my life that saw my value for this moment right now because I was gonna be in a situation where I wasn't being valued. I wasn't being appreciated. I wasn't being supported. If you need me to go back to Waco, I need you to make me a sign, 'cause I'm not 100% sure. Wednesday, you gave me a sign. After I got the sign, I would pray to him and say, "Okay, God, I don't know how I'm gonna get back there." So, if this is what you need me to do, I need you to make a way. She doesn't do 100% of the work. It's a partnership. I knew I had to get off my butt and do my part, or it wasn't gonna be possible. So, I started making calls. Calls my director of therapy at Intempa Stylus, because I knew when I moved away, they were building in Intempa Stylus, Waco. Within 24 hours, I was able to transfer. Next 24-hour period, I was able to find an apartment that I could afford. Within four days, God made a way. The night before Easter, on April 8, I would leave. My ex-husband was playing piano at a church each morning, an hour and a half away. So, he left the night before. My bags were packed. I was ready to go. I loaded up my vehicle and I left. I couldn't deal with the manipulation. I couldn't deal with his response and arguing and all of that. I just needed the leave. I needed to get back to finding my piece. Once I got back to Waco, clearly hit. I had lost every sense of peace that I had ever had when I got married. I had been living in nothing but constant chaos and confusion. That's no way to live. God doesn't want any of us to live in chaos and confusion. We are not meant for that. So, he provided my way out. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13. He will not allow you to be tested beyond their means, but with your testing, he will provide the way out. - That's great. And also great that he also was able to provide a way for you to get out of your unhealthy and toxic marriage and abusive marriage and put you in a spot where you could be healthy again and also heal from that. 'Cause there's trauma and unhealthy and abusive relationships as well. There's trauma involved in that. So, the trauma of the marriage didn't affect me the way it was most people because I had already developed my strategies recovering from the car accident that kept me strong through the loss of my dad. The strategies that when my friend was brought into my life, God use that friend to build my confidence and make me the strong, confident woman that he was gonna need me to be. 'Cause he knew that I was gonna make a bad choice. But you know what? That bad choice, he turned it around for the greater good as he has every challenge that I have ever faced has always been for the greater good. - Your website mentions that you have some big things kind of in the works. Are you able to kind of speak on some things that you have in the works through your speaking and then your coaching business? - Yes, I am so excited to announce that my pathway to peace is going live on June 1st, 2024. So after I was able to make my escape, I was reconnected with coaches that I had had the opportunity to work with when I was married, but was told that it wasn't possible. So when they came back into my life, I decided, okay, God, this is my way forward. With working with these coaches, they were able to help me gain clarity and God gave me a download. I began writing down the specific strategies, not even realizing that I had been teaching strategies to my patients off and on for over 12 years, working with lack of visual service. When I began writing these strategies down and actually researching them, now science backs them in helping with mental health issues. Now, it's not spent the last 10 to 15 years. I developed these strategies over two decades ago without the use of science. I was just through God's grace and mercy. That was how my pathway to peace came about. I developed, created pathway to peace so that I can give others a shortcut. If you are in a cycle of spending your reels, feeling like you are in a darkness, in a hole and you just can't find your way out, this is how I've done it. That's why I created my pathway to peace so that I can walk alongside you and help you to build the firm foundation that I was able to, to teach you these strategies. They build on each other. So you start with the pathway to peace, you build the firm foundation, then continuing to go along. You're able to bring in the other strategies that helps with your awareness, helps you to figure out your triggers so that they don't trigger you anymore. - That's incredible. And just listening to you talk about how, you developed these strategies a few decades ago, but now science is back in the map. The only thing that came to mind is, because of course, I work in the mental health field too, is everything has to be evidence-based, but you literally put the evidence in evidence-based. - Yeah, yeah, it's like the research and stuff that I have found and it's like, wow, yeah, I had no idea what I was doing, but it was all because of God's grace and mercy. His plan is so much greater than anything that I could have ever dreamed of. I am pinching myself because my life feels like a dream. All of my clients that I work with, they have always been so much more of a blessing to me than any of the blessings that I've ever received through my recovery, any of that. The clients that I get to work with, that's what keeps me going. - Do you have a couple of events that you're hosting? One, I believe, is in fall of this year, and then you have another event that you are putting together for, I believe, spring of 2025. - Yes. - So what are those events? Are you able to speak a little bit on what they like? - They're not locked in yet. It's going to be speaking at a couple of college campuses, but summer, I am doing a couple of summits. I will be speaking and sharing in a summit June, I believe it's June night through, it's a little over a week. And then I will be speaking in another summit in July. They're all virtual, and then one in August as well. - A wonderful, that's wonderful. - So those summits, and then I am, of course, launching my pathway to peace. So if you go to Elizabethinspires.com, you will see under resources, my free strategy, but yeah, I met it, that helps you to just have a reset so that you can find your call through the storm. And then, of course, the pathway to peace, where you can read all about that and be able to, you can book a wellness discovery call with me too, if you have questions. If you'd like answers to find out if it's the right thing for you, because it may or may not be. I don't want anyone to feel like you have to sign up for it to learn more. So look a call with me. - That's awesome. And I'll make sure to also link all of your social medias and your website in the podcast description, and I'll also share it on social media when sharing the episode of this podcast, so then people can, they can find you, and they can sign up to work with you. And I know that you offer so much inspiration and you offer so much wisdom to other people, but to kind of close out the podcast, if you had to give one singular piece of advice to somebody going through a really challenging time in their lives, what would it be? - The challenges that I have faced have made the victory so much sweeter once I was finally able to break through. My offer to each and every one of you who may feel a bit lost, feel like you are in a cycle and spin it out of control. I wanna offer you hope. My mission and my strategies offer healing that opens pathways to empowerment. It's with these strategies that you gain your confidence. You can believe stronger in yourself. And when you learn to do that and take care of yourself, that's when your eyes are open to a world of possibilities. I just wanna thank you so much for coming on the podcast and talking about your story and just providing such light and just such inspiration, just listening to you. I had just chills over my body and I can't wait for other people to hear what you have to say and just thank you for being here. And I'm so glad that God brought you to your purpose and to where you are meant to be. - Thank you, thank you. I'm so happy that you invited me on your show and I know that each and every one of you who are listening to this, you're listening to this for a reason. So please don't hesitate to reach out and find your support. - Of course, of course. And we will link everything in the podcast description just like I said. And as we close out every single podcast, you're welcome to explore your faith here. Jesus always welcomes you home and so will I. Thanks everyone. (upbeat music) - Thanks for tuning in to through every season podcast. You can find new episodes on Spotify and Apple podcast on the second and fourth Friday each month. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook using the links in the podcast description. Do you want to come and tell your story or testimony? Fill out the jock form listed in the podcast description. We'll see you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)