My day job is being an author. My new book, “Facing Life Challenges: The ABCs of One Woman’s Journey to Healing Her Heart,” is currently available on Amazon.

This is about my personal journey to live with my life’s challenges.

My story starts when my son was about two years old. I went through a period when I was in a deeply depressed state, struggling with depression and anxiety.

One day, I was doing tai chi, trying to relax, and I hallucinated: I had a sensation of spiders coming down on me, everywhere. It took me completely by surprise and it took a while before I realized this wasn’t really happening.

Shortly after that, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and I went through one of the worst periods of my life. At the time, getting that diagnosis seemed like a death sentence: I didn’t know much about the illness and went on a 10-year roller coaster trying to find the resources that would help.

Throughout this period, my husband and I were also raising a high-maintenance child who was dealing with issues of his own—including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from a traumatizing experience our family had when we were camping and a tornado hit.

We had some very hard times and as our son approached middle and high school, they accelerated, and he eventually ended up in rehab. We have come through that and today our son is an adult and in a much better place—he has a job and is engaged to be married.

As I was living through my son’s challenges and my own, I found I had an insatiable need to read and try to understand and learn. I read books on spiritually and prayer, meditation, yoga and tai chi. I learned about the benefits of volunteering and the power of physical contact.

I began to see I had a story that might help others and decided to write my book.

Each chapter of the book combines my personal story with research and techniques the reader might want to explore for themselves. It follows an “ABC” format, which is where the title comes from, and each of the topics I’d studied became a chapter in the book (for instance, spirituality and prayer, meditation, yoga, Qi Gong each have a chapter).

The book includes journal prompts—I’ve found journaling to be very helpful—and I’ve also created a separate journal resource. My book just come out Nov. 12, 2020 and it’s already been named a #1 Amazon Best Seller in the Teen & Young Adult Parental Issues category. 

I’m hopeful those who are dealing with some kind of challenge will find my book to be valuable. And I also have a website where I offer additional insights on many of the tools and resources I share in my book.

My most memorable caffeine was the coffee I had with Mary Helen Conroy. Mary Helen set herself the goal of connecting with 50 Wisconsin female entrepreneurs to learn about them and their dreams. Out of that coffee, she ended up becoming my publisher!

My current caffeine of choice is a chai latte.

My favorite place for caffeine the Firefly Coffeehouse in Oregon.

The person I’d love to share a cup of caffeine with is our new vice president, Kamala Harris. I’d enjoy getting to talk with her about how she got to the place where she is today and what her vision is for women.

World problem that could be solved with the right amount of caffeine:  child sex trafficking in our country, state and even our city. It is happening here.