What Do You Do When Life Throws You A Curve Ball...Such as Having a Stroke?

LOS ANGELES - July 31, 2018 - PRLog -- According to business expert and best-selling author, Valerie René Sheppard, when you learn to master your response to the curve balls in life, you will hit a home run.

Sheppard's curve ball came on June 5th, 2015, while she was facilitating a leadership conference at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). While leading a debrief of a breakout session, she lost the ability to move her right leg.

"It was confusing and scary," says Sheppard.

What Sheppard didn't know was that a blood vessel had broken and was leaking blood into her brain. She suffered a catastrophic hemorrhagic stroke.

Research shows:
• More than 795,000 people will suffer a stroke each year.(https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm)
• Hemorrhagic strokes in particular, account for almost 20% percent of all strokes, and up to half of those afflicted, will die. Common symptoms of stroke, include (https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/hemorrhagic-stroke-):
     • Sudden weakness
     • Paralysis
     • Inability to speak
     • Vomiting
     • Loss of consciousness
• Roughly 40 million people identify as caregivers to adults, and 4% of adult care recipients are stroke victims. (https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2015/caregiving...)

Sheppard slipped into a coma for three days. She spent several more days in the ICU, three weeks in a rehab hospital, and months in physical therapy. The stroke also impacted her lifestyle, including loss of mobility, difficulty using her right hand and arm, and constant nerve tingling on her entire right side.

But Sheppard's is not a typical story of the devastation of stroke.

Her speech was 100% restored within her first two days of waking up, without speech therapy. She entered the rehab hospital on a gurney, and left walking out with a cane.

She returned to her UCI classroom within an astounding four months, and just four months after that, mounted the stage to give a talk entitled "This is How You Soar" to global leaders of the Evolutionary Business Council. Shortly thereafter, Sheppard released her book, Living Happy to Be ME!: Dancing Your Soul Lightstyle©, which has won multiple awards. Her doctors call her recovery a miraculous home run.

"The meditation, positivity and other happiness practices I teach have contributed to my physiological success, as well as my peaceful and positive attitude throughout," says Sheppard.

Sheppard's tips for transforming life's curve balls into home runs:
1. Remember that you're more than your body and/or the circumstances you are experiencing in the moment. This is crucial to being able to move forward, and lead a purposeful, fulfilling life.
2. Acknowledge your emotions related to the situation. But don't let them 'own' you. Your "negative" emotions disrupt your body's natural ability to heal itself, and you actually prolong your own suffering.
3. Stay focused on what you really want. Regardless of what your five senses tell you, stay in the potentiality of that outcome. Meditation and visualization can help.

As for Sheppard? Her positivity is palpable. She recommends "when the going gets tough, go to gratitude." Find things in your situation you can be thankful for exactly as they are. Then use that positive energy to help you do the best you can with whatever is happening.

Valerie René Shepard is the author of Living Happy to Be ME!: Dancing Your Soul Lightstyle©, a #1 Amazon best-seller that teaches joyful living through all circumstances. She is available for interviews and can be reached at 949-241-3730 or at valerie@HappytoBeME.net. For more information about Sheppard's work, including her partnership with UCI, visit: https://HappytoBeME.net