024 Overcoming Adversity Through Imagination: Dina Lynn Rosenbush’s Inspirational Journey from Bedridden to Empowered
Jun 28, 2024
Deborah Edwards and Debbie Pearson
Can you imagine turning your life around while being confined to a bed? Join us at Shero Cafe as we engage with the incredibly resilient Dina Lynn Rosenbush, a speech-language pathologist whose life was turned upside down by late-stage Lyme disease. Dina's story of transformation began with a hesitant read of "The Power of Imagination" by Andrew Womack, which ultimately led her to realize the extraordinary influence of her own thoughts and imagination. She shares her journey from skepticism to empowerment, revealing how she reimagined her future and rekindled her passions despite the physical constraints of her illness.
We also dive into the broader theme of embracing new and challenging ideas, even when they provoke initial discomfort or doubt. Dina's experience is a powerful testament to the importance of perseverance and openness in overcoming life's obstacles. Throughout our conversation, we explore pivotal moments that reshaped her mindset and how she applied these insights to steer her life in a fulfilling direction. This episode is a heartfelt reminder to trust the process, push forward, and be open to transformative ideas that can change your life for the better.
Can you imagine turning your life around while being confined to a bed? Join us at Shero Cafe as we engage with the incredibly resilient Dina Lynn Rosenbush, a speech-language pathologist whose life was turned upside down by late-stage Lyme disease. Dina's story of transformation began with a hesitant read of "The Power of Imagination" by Andrew Womack, which ultimately led her to realize the extraordinary influence of her own thoughts and imagination. She shares her journey from skepticism to empowerment, revealing how she reimagined her future and rekindled her passions despite the physical constraints of her illness.
We also dive into the broader theme of embracing new and challenging ideas, even when they provoke initial discomfort or doubt. Dina's experience is a powerful testament to the importance of perseverance and openness in overcoming life's obstacles. Throughout our conversation, we explore pivotal moments that reshaped her mindset and how she applied these insights to steer her life in a fulfilling direction. This episode is a heartfelt reminder to trust the process, push forward, and be open to transformative ideas that can change your life for the better.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Shiro Cafe podcast. I'm one of your hosts, debbie Pearson, here with my co-host, deborah Edwards, and today we are celebrating the Shiro in Dina Lynn Rosenbush. Hi, dina Lynn.
Speaker 2:
Thanks for coming here today. Hello. Thank you, Debbie and Deborah. It is an absolute honor to be on Shiro Cafe. This is fantastic. Thank you for asking me.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for being here. So I hear you have an interesting story and we'd love to hear about that and about the book you read. Would you like to share how this came about for you?
Speaker 2:
Sure, I'd be really happy to. So the book I read was the Power of Imagination by Andrew Womack, and my chapter in there tells about this transition. What had happened was that I had been working in a school as a speech language pathologist and during that time I was bit by a tick and I ended up with late stage Lyme disease by the time that I was diagnosed and I was reading this book that had been given to me by a friend and he didn't tell me anything about the book. He says you need to read this, and about three months later I picked it up and read it and I slammed the book shut. And I slammed the book shut and I said, no, it isn't.
Speaker 2:
Because it said in the book, your life is exactly as you imagine it to be. And I thought, no, it isn't. I'm laying here in bed and I am sick and this is not what I imagined it to be. And so I went on this journey of understanding how to imagine and remembering childhood and and training imagination and thinking about how I can be. Well, so that book like switched the way my life operates and really was a big catalyst for me, switching gears in my life.
Speaker 1:
Wow, that's amazing no-transcript reading.
Speaker 2:
And at one point I threw the book across the room, and I don't do that. I love books. Like I don't. I don't do that. And so I just had this thought if I have that big of a reaction to something, what's going on inside of me that causes me to have that big of a reaction to something? What's going on inside of me that causes me to have that big of a reaction to something?
Speaker 3:
Right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. And so once I had that thought in my head, then I started listening and I thought well, what if it's right? What if there is a level of power I have? What if my imagination does make a difference in my life? What if my thoughts do impact what's going on? And so I started thinking about what thoughts do I have?
Speaker 2:
And then I came across another quote that is your life is an exact replica of your thoughts, wishes and wants. And again I had the same reaction no, it isn't. And so then I of course I had this big reaction. So then I had to ask myself again what is going on inside of me that causes this big reaction? And then I said, well, if it's true, I need to figure out what my thoughts actually are, what is happening. And so I started analyzing my thoughts and deciding I need to figure out what my thoughts actually are, what is happening. And so I started analyzing my thoughts and deciding I need to change what I think about, I need to change what I dream about, I need to change my imagination. So I met started imagining myself. Well, I started imagining myself doing all the things that I loved to do prior to getting sick.
Speaker 3:
Okay. So when I'm looking at that, when I'm hearing that from you, what I think that pivotal moment was for you in the so that tick bite was actually something, actually a blessing, right, Because that brought you to this awareness. But, if I'm hearing you right, what was the big aha moment, if you will, is that you were in control. You were the captain of your ship. You are the one that drives your life experiences. Is that? Is that kind of what you came to?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I came to the realization that I do have some power in that and I have a lot of power in that.
Speaker 3:
Right.
Speaker 2:
You know, obviously we don't have 100% power in it, but we have a lot of power in it. Maybe we're at 90% or something. You know like there's a lot that we have control over by managing how it is that we think.
Speaker 3:
Right. And that's one of the things that I say. The biggest gift is the awareness that we get to choose and so I had choices. Yeah, because that you know, I don't think until then. Society really wants us to know that we have choices, right, yeah, so after you decided that, or after you came to that realization, then how did your life change? How did that inform you as you move forward?
Speaker 2:
Of course it's a process, because I was extremely sick, we were deciding my will and my funeral. You know like we were, I was extremely sick, so it took a process. So it took a process, but it also was that I was in bed for long periods of time and that gave me think time. So I started to think. Obviously I just said, you know, like imagining myself. Well, that was the first thing survival, once we got past the threat of non-survival. Then it was what am I going to do next?
Speaker 2:
And at that point I thought I don't have the physical capacity in me to keep up a school schedule like I had been doing. Those little buggers have lots of energy and I wasn't feeling like I had a lot of energy. So I thought what am I going to do differently now? And then I started thinking what do I love about the job that I had been doing and what do I not love? And how can I do more of what I love and less of what I don't love? What I did not love was being inside at a desk sitting still and at a computer.
Speaker 3:
And.
Speaker 2:
I didn't like the paperwork and the due process. What I did like was being active with the children, talking with parents, teaching parents, teaching children, interacting with my coworkers, going outside and enjoying the environment, the active things. So then I started thinking, well, how is it that I can create something that gives me the ability to be active, to go places and be places, not just be in a room, and also interact with parents and kids and people, people. And, and then I started. I created in my mind a business and and I thought how would I be able to do, in essence, teaching the parents that I teach them when they come into my classroom for help with their kids? How could I teach the parents how to interact at home so that they can teach their children how to speak, how to understand, how to listen better? How can I teach parents mass and mass, you know, like in a group? How can I teach them how to speak in ways that children's undeveloped brains understand better?
Speaker 2:
And then pretty soon I started to formulate the words for this and then I came across somebody who who talked to me about podcasting. And then I listened to a few more different people about podcasting, and then I listened to a few more different people about podcasting and then I thought you know, that would be pretty good. I'm going to just do that. And so one of the teachers that I listened to she said write a list of titles that you might have for episodes. And she gave us so many minutes to do it. And then, at the end of these minutes, she said to the class if you have 30 or more titles, you're definitely in your area. And I had 92. And to date, to date, I have 156 episodes and I haven't gone back to look at the list because there's just a lot in my head that I just it's like I want to get out.
Speaker 2:
I've done that job for 30 years, so there's so many experiences that I think you know this is really valuable information. This is something that changes lives. Why keep it to myself?
Speaker 3:
Exactly, exactly. And then I'm looking and I'm fascinated fascinated by all of that. That is wonderful, but the other thing that I wanted to maybe have you express a little bit more too, is when we're talking about your journey from the tick by to really being more informed about what you wanted to do in your life for your vocation. How does that change your life, your view on your life, your wellness? How did that change as a result of that epiphany?
Speaker 2:
I think that the change in me was this understanding that I can choose, I'm not locked in a box, that I can heal me when I have different illnesses, that God has placed within us the ability to heal ourselves in a lot of the cases and sometimes it may look through.
Speaker 2:
You know, we go through medical institutions or holistic health or whatever. But the body was made to heal and so it naturally starts to heal itself in whatever capacity it can. So then I started thinking about that in relationships and I started thinking about it in like fixing my home. So I started looking through a different lens at the world of. So if I want something, how do I create it in my mind to get a good, clear picture, and then how do we make steps to go around that. So it really was a different way of thinking. I consumed a lot of books during that time, but most of them through audio, because I had the Lyme disease in my brain, so I had it was impacting my vision. So a lot of the stuff was done through audio books, but I consumed a lot of them.
Speaker 3:
Do you miss those times that I had time to read? All that consume a lot of books.
Speaker 2:
I mean, I still do, but not as much as I'd like there are times that I miss having nothing in the schedule yeah there's just nothing there waiting for me when I was just free feeling and I and so this business that I've now created is structured towards freedom, structured towards being able to have those free days in my calendar, because I found those so nourishing to me.
Speaker 3:
Right.
Speaker 2:
And so I have more free days than busy days. But then I bulk up my busy days so I do a lot on the busy days, because I really like to have the days where it's white space.
Speaker 3:
I totally agree, and that is great. You're taking care of yourself and creating that balance for yourself.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's another way to say it, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 3:
I mean, that is what a lot of us don't do. It's just like busyness, busyness, busyness, full force, full force, full force. So I am going to ask you the final question. I know Debbie's here, but I wanted to ask you the final question that we have, and it is what would you like to share with our audience? So I'm saying a tip or what would be something that you would wish that every person on earth would just have the knowledge of. What would you share?
Speaker 2:
It comes back to a statement when I switched from doing full-on Western medicine and pharmaceuticals to parking those and deciding that I was going to die more comfortably because they were making me sick. And then I switched to Eastern medicine and I thought I'm out of my mind. And then the thought came to me just because I don't understand doesn't mean it isn't true, and that's the thought.
Speaker 2:
Just because I don't understand doesn't mean it isn't going to work and that right and that thought also encompasses this business thing and it encompasses other forms of relationship, things you know like, just because I don't understand in full or even in part, sometimes doesn't mean it isn't, and it doesn't mean it isn't going to work.
Speaker 3:
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 2:
So it's kind of a kind of a thinker with that double negative in there, but at the same time, when you say it in the positive, it just sounds different, you know yeah confusion that leads to this idea of of openness. To say that just because I don't understand doesn't mean it's wrong or won't work.
Speaker 3:
It's the confusion that opens you Right and just in another way of saying have it move forward with an open heart and an open mind and just you know, let it be so, yeah, so that would be the thought, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah. So that would be the thought yes, yeah, oh yeah. That was the parts I caught, because you guys know my computer just pooped out. That was very wonderful, dana Lynn. We really appreciate you coming here and sharing that story with us and I love that you really get that Like I'm still struggling with that. Like just because I don't understand it doesn't mean it won't work. Like I understand it in theory, but to like really put it, it's like if I'm not feeling good, I'm like isn't it working? Like I'm going to go into that. I don't know that mode, but you are living proof. So we appreciate you coming here and sharing your story with us and, um, I think that's it for us today, deborah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so thank you to our audience and to the book I read authors and action takers publishing and we're gonna say goodbye now. So, um, thank you to everyone listening bye.
