Hi, hello. Welcome to Mary's Cup of Tea, the self-love podcast for women, though all self-lovers

are welcome here. I'm Mary. I write and speak about self-love, and I'm best known for my book,

The Gift of Self-Love, and I also host retreats for women. And this is the podcast that will

inspire you to love yourself. Real quick, before we dive in, I want to

make sure you know about my book, The Gift of Self-Love. It's a workbook to help you build confidence,

recognize your worth, and learn to love who you are. It's available anywhere books are sold.

Thousands of people have it, love it, and have told me that it has greatly benefited their

self-love journey, and I hope it'll do the same for you.

And now let's get into the podcast.

At 17 years old, Ruthie Lindsay was hit by an ambulance outside of a gas station in rural

Louisiana.

She broke her neck, punctured her lungs,

and ruptured her spleen. Doctors performed a spinal cord fusion using wire, and miraculously,

she walked out of the hospital within a month. Only, a few years later, newly married and settling into adulthood, a simple turn of her head left her body riddled with chronic pain.

Her case confounded medical professionals and in the months that followed, she became

addicted to narcotic painkillers, depressed, and bedridden. After dozens of visits to specialists

and surgeons, a doctor discovered that the wire holding her neck together was piercing in her brain stem. Without another

surgery, she would be paralyzed. As she prepared for the procedure, her father passed away suddenly.

Her marriage began to collapse, and she surrendered her spirit to dependency and suffering.

The surgery repaired her spine, but she still felt broken, inside and out, until

she chose to change her narrative. Ruthie went home to the same town where she almost lost

her life. She decided to learn joy again to retrain her spirit to soothe her physical pain,

...