By JoJo Marie Schillaci
Motivational Speaker & Author of My Missing Peace
No matter your challenge, obstacle, or current situation you find yourself in, with the right mindset, you can achieve anything!
As well as being the Mindful Wellness Contributor to Adamo Nest Magazine, I am also a Motivational Speaker and Author of my recent memoir My Missing Peace, What I Learned While Bedridden For Over 1,460 Days.
As a child, my entire existence was enveloped in deep-seated fear; some self-induced, some inherited and some as a result of an early childhood tragedy. The intense and relentless fear, coupled with multiple head injuries, resulted in decades of physical symptoms doctors were unable to diagnose. Over time, debilitating symptoms
caused my world to become smaller and smaller. I soon became housebound and eventually, completely bedridden, unable to move my body. I was overcome by violent vertigo and vicious migraine headaches. After 44 years of living in misery and constant illness, the symptoms were hitting critical mass and I was forced to face it all. I was finally diagnosed with a complex neurological condition; my brain and body no longer worked together. I would remain bedridden for over 4 years.
I was diagnosed with a major vestibular deficit; part of my brain had died. Your vestibular system is a sensory system responsible for giving our brain information regarding the head position, spatial orientation, and motion; also involving motor function, allowing us to maintain balance, stabilize our head and body while in motion as well as maintain posture. Rehabilitation was going to be similar to that of a stroke; minute movements repeated over very long periods of time.
During this time, my marriage of 24 years ended, and my son and I were left to begin our lives over from scratch. I laid in bed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for over 4 years in excruciating pain, wanting to die, but knowing I had to live because my son was counting on me. As the days went by at an agonizingly slow pace, I began realizing that to survive, I needed to show up differently; it was that simple.
In my memoir My Missing Peace, I share my life journey through crippling fear and debilitating pain as well as the tools I embraced to get me to the other side. I share in detail what I now refer to as my 5 Pillars of Transformation and how I utilized them to create a solid mindset of trust and positivity.
After a lifetime of merely existing through life, I am finally liberated, reaching a goal I never expected or could have foreseen; it was about being vulnerable, conquering fear and never giving up. I am free from the shackles that previously held me in a state of fear; a state of immobility, a state of “what if”. Writing my life story has enabled me to give a voice to what had been laying in silence within. It has afforded me the opportunity to cleanse, renew and close the past, enabling me to walk freely and peacefully into my future; a future that is no longer based on fear, but solidified by trust.
I am now walking and living again. I look back at this time as the biggest blessing in my life and the bed I was condemned to as my hatchery. Living the 5 Pillars of Transformation allows me to take control of situations and self-generate inner peace. No matter how high the hurdle, I trust what is meant will always be. I accept what is in this moment, allowing grace to fill me with gratitude for the experience. I remain fiercely committed to the energy I put out to the world as well as what I will allow in.
My Missing Peace empowers, motivates, and inspires the reader by showing them how they too can begin living their best life. It is a compelling roller coaster ride, taking the reader through the lowest of lows to a celebration of what I thought were unattainable highs.
“JoJo’s ability to bring her reader into each and every scene is nothing short of incredible. If you’re looking for a book that will inspire, humble, elate, awe and move you, this is it! A perfect example of how loving and trusting in oneself is the formula for living a life in true fulfillment.”
