Do you remember Chiara? In August 2016 I wrote The Healing Power Within about her overcoming anorexia. Chiara is my son’s girlfriend which gives me lots of opportunities to talk to her. She is often found in newspapers talking about her story or sharing healthy recipes. Lately, she has been invited to talk at TEDx (Europe) about “choices” later this year. Isn’t that amazing? You can imagine that I got highly inspired and this post is a result of it.

Chiara was close to death when she weighed only 25 kg (about 50 pounds) at her lowest point when she was 16. It was the time when a voice inside her said that it was time to make a decision. She could either let things happen or make things happen! It was her choice. Her inner core, where life can never be extinguished, was able to flicker a bit higher which persuaded her to make THE most important decision in her life. She chose to live and although physically she was at the weakest her spirit was wide awake and ready to approach a big change. Strength doesn’t come from the body in the first place but from the inner concept you make. Everything else follows. You need conviction, endurance, and the clear intention to not let go until you have reached your goal. Yes, you need some kind of stubbornness to put yourself, and your well-being first. It is a choice.

Making the choice to live – and here I mean to open yourself to life in all that life means like feeling love for yourself, seeing the gift in yourself and in all that is given to you to expand that gift – lets choices come your way you might have never dreamed of. That way you look eastwards and see the sun dawn instead of westwards where it only goes down. Life presents itself in different colors and provides different options to choose from. Options are not only for your own benefit but for the benefit of everyone you touch.

Let’s get back to Chiara’s example. Her resurrection towards life and the immense change that has come along with it is such proof that you can overcome almost everything you set your mind to. No medication and no talk helped until she decided to live … and the miracle happened and has not stopped yet growing. Now she uses her story to ignite the fire of life, the insight that everyone is their own master, and the zest for life in others. She may be a small lady but her will and golden heart are amazing!

The choice to live opened up choices to make her life even more enjoyable, to create her life, and to take action for what she wants. Taking this one choice made her see that there are endless choices for us to make and that we are never helplessly lost. That one choice made her choose to go out with her story, to choose giving interviews, writing articles, and now she has even gotten an invitation for a worldwide speech to reach even more people. Her choice did not only change her life but has the potential to change so many lives in this world.

Now, what about you? Your choice to live life in a way that makes you feel alive may not only be your entry into a world of opportunities and choices for more life but may also be the necessary impulse for so many more people to stand up and choose to live. Wouldn’t it be worth the try? It’s your choice!

In Love and Light