024 Overcoming Adversity Through Imagination: Dina Lynn Rosenbush’s Inspirational Journey from Bedridden to Empowered

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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.

Connect with Dinalynn Rosenbush 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Shiro Cafe
podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, debbiePearson, here with my co-host,
deborah Edwards, and today weare celebrating the Shiro in
Dina Lynn Rosenbush.
Hi, dina Lynn.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thanks for coming here today.
Hello.
Thank you, Debbie and Deborah.
It is an absolute honor to beon Shiro Cafe.
This is fantastic.
Thank you for asking me.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Thank you for being here.
So I hear you have aninteresting story and we'd love
to hear about that and about thebook you read.
Would you like to share howthis came about for you?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Sure, I'd be really happy to.
So the book I read was thePower of Imagination by Andrew
Womack, and my chapter in theretells about this transition.
What had happened was that Ihad been working in a school as
a speech language pathologistand during that time I was bit
by a tick and I ended up withlate stage Lyme disease by the

(01:06):
time that I was diagnosed and Iwas reading this book that had
been given to me by a friend andhe 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 Islammed the book shut.
And I slammed the book shut andI said, no, it isn't.
Because it said in the book,your life is exactly as you

(01:29):
imagine it to be.
And I thought, no, it isn't.
I'm laying here in bed and I amsick and this is not what I
imagined it to be.
And so I went on this journeyof understanding how to imagine
and remembering childhood andand training imagination and
thinking about how I can be.

(01:49):
Well, so that book likeswitched the way my life
operates and really was a bigcatalyst for me, switching gears
in my life.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Wow, that's amazing no-transcript reading.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
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 thoughtif I have that big of a reaction
to something, what's going oninside of me that causes me to
have that big of a reaction tosomething?
What's going on inside of methat causes me to have that big
of a reaction to something?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Right.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah.
And so once I had that thoughtin my head, then I started
listening and I thought well,what if it's right?
What if there is a level ofpower I have?
What if my imagination doesmake a difference in my life?
What if my thoughts do impactwhat's going on?

(03:33):
And so I started thinking aboutwhat thoughts do I have?
And then I came across anotherquote that is your life is an
exact replica of your thoughts,wishes and wants.
And again I had the samereaction no, it isn't.
And so then I of course I hadthis big reaction.
So then I had to ask myselfagain what is going on inside of

(03:55):
me that causes this bigreaction?
And then I said, well, if it'strue, I need to figure out what
my thoughts actually are, whatis happening.
And so I started analyzing mythoughts and deciding I need to
figure out what my thoughtsactually are, what is happening.
And so I started analyzing mythoughts and deciding I need to
change what I think about, Ineed to change what I dream
about, I need to change myimagination.
So I met started imaginingmyself.

(04:17):
Well, I started imaginingmyself doing all the things that
I loved to do prior to gettingsick.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Okay.
So when I'm looking at that,when I'm hearing that from you,
what I think that pivotal momentwas for you in the so that tick
bite was actually something,actually a blessing, right,
Because that brought you to thisawareness.
But, if I'm hearing you right,what was the big aha moment, if

(04:45):
you will, is that you were incontrol.
You were the captain of yourship.
You are the one that drivesyour life experiences.
Is that?
Is that kind of what you cameto?

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, I came to the realization that I do have some
power in that and I have a lotof power in that.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Right.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
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 lotthat we have control over by
managing how it is that we think.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Right.
And that's one of the thingsthat I say.
The biggest gift is theawareness that we get to choose
and so I had choices.
Yeah, because that you know, Idon't think until then.
Society really wants us to knowthat we have choices, right,
yeah, so after you decided that,or after you came to that

(05:43):
realization, then how did yourlife change?
How did that inform you as youmove forward?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Of course it's a process, because I was extremely
sick, we were deciding my willand my funeral.
You know like we were, I wasextremely sick, so it took a
process.
So it took a process, but italso was that I was in bed for
long periods of time and thatgave me think time.
So I started to think.
Obviously I just said, you know, like imagining myself.
Well, that was the first thingsurvival, once we got past the

(06:13):
threat of non-survival.
Then it was what am I going todo next?
And at that point I thought Idon't have the physical capacity
in me to keep up a schoolschedule like I had been doing.
Those little buggers have lotsof energy and I wasn't feeling
like I had a lot of energy.
So I thought what am I going todo differently now?
And then I started thinkingwhat do I love about the job

(06:35):
that I had been doing and whatdo I not love?
And how can I do more of what Ilove and less of what I don't
love?
What I did not love was beinginside at a desk sitting still
and at a computer.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
And.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
I didn't like the paperwork and the due process.
What I did like was beingactive with the children,
talking with parents, teachingparents, 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 methe ability to be active, to go

(07:11):
places and be places, not justbe in a room, and also interact
with parents and kids and people, people.
And, and then I started.
I created in my mind a businessand and I thought how would I
be able to do, in essence,teaching the parents that I
teach them when they come intomy classroom for help with their

(07:33):
kids?
How could I teach the parentshow to interact at home so that
they can teach their childrenhow to speak, how to understand,
how to listen better?
How can I teach parents massand mass, you know, like in a
group?
How can I teach them how tospeak in ways that children's
undeveloped brains understandbetter?

(07:54):
And then pretty soon I startedto formulate the words for this
and then I came across somebodywho who talked to me about
podcasting.
And then I listened to a fewmore different people about
podcasting, and then I listenedto a few more different people
about podcasting and then Ithought you know, that would be
pretty good.
I'm going to just do that.
And so one of the teachers thatI listened to she said write a

(08:15):
list of titles that you mighthave for episodes.
And she gave us so many minutesto do it.
And then, at the end of theseminutes, 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 have156 episodes and I haven't gone

(08:35):
back to look at the list becausethere's just a lot in my head
that I just it's like I want toget out.
I've done that job for 30 years,so there's so many experiences
that I think you know this isreally valuable information.
This is something that changeslives.
Why keep it to myself?

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Exactly, exactly.
And then I'm looking and I'mfascinated fascinated by all of
that.
That is wonderful, but theother thing that I wanted to
maybe have you express a littlebit more too, is when we're
talking about your journey fromthe tick by to really being more

(09:13):
informed about what you wantedto 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 resultof that epiphany?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
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 havedifferent illnesses, that God
has placed within us the abilityto heal ourselves in a lot of
the cases and sometimes it maylook through.

(09:50):
You know, we go through medicalinstitutions or holistic health
or whatever.
But the body was made to healand so it naturally starts to
heal itself in whatever capacityit can.
So then I started thinkingabout that in relationships and
I started thinking about it inlike fixing my home.
So I started looking through adifferent lens at the world of.

(10:11):
So if I want something, how doI create it in my mind to get a
good, clear picture, and thenhow do we make steps to go
around that.
So it really was a differentway of thinking.
I consumed a lot of booksduring that time, but most of
them through audio, because Ihad the Lyme disease in my brain

(10:34):
, so I had it was impacting myvision.
So a lot of the stuff was donethrough audio books, but I
consumed a lot of them.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Do you miss those times that I had time to read?
All that consume a lot of books.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
I mean, I still do, but not as much as I'd like
there are times that I misshaving nothing in the schedule
yeah there's just nothing therewaiting for me when I was just
free feeling and I and so thisbusiness that I've now created
is structured towards freedom,structured towards being able to

(11:14):
have those free days in mycalendar, because I found those
so nourishing to me.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
And so I have more free days than busy days.
But then I bulk up my busy daysso I do a lot on the busy days,
because I really like to havethe days where it's white space.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
I totally agree, and that is great.
You're taking care of yourselfand creating that balance for
yourself.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, that's another way to say it, exactly, yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
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 thefinal question.
I know Debbie's here, but Iwanted to ask you the final
question that we have, and it iswhat would you like to share

(12:05):
with our audience?
So I'm saying a tip or whatwould be something that you
would wish that every person onearth would just have the
knowledge of.
What would you share?

Speaker 2 (12:20):
It comes back to a statement when I switched from
doing full-on Western medicineand pharmaceuticals to parking
those and deciding that I wasgoing to die more comfortably
because they were making me sick.
And then I switched to Easternmedicine and I thought I'm out
of my mind.
And then the thought came to mejust because I don't understand

(12:43):
doesn't mean it isn't true, andthat's the thought.
Just because I don't understanddoesn't mean it isn't going to
work and that right and thatthought also encompasses this
business thing and itencompasses other forms of

(13:03):
relationship, things you knowlike, just because I don't
understand in full or even inpart, sometimes doesn't mean it
isn't, and it doesn't mean itisn't going to work.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
So it's kind of a kind of a thinker with that
double negative in there, but atthe same time, when you say it
in the positive, it just soundsdifferent, you know yeah
confusion that leads to thisidea of of openness.
To say that just because Idon't understand doesn't mean
it's wrong or won't work.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
It's the confusion that opens you Right and just in
another way of saying have itmove forward with an open heart
and an open mind and just youknow, let it be so, yeah, so
that would be the thought, yes,yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Oh yeah.
So that would be the thoughtyes, yeah, oh yeah.
That was the parts I caught,because you guys know my
computer just pooped out.
That was very wonderful, danaLynn.
We really appreciate you cominghere and sharing that story
with us and I love that youreally get that Like I'm still
struggling with that.
Like just because I don'tunderstand it doesn't mean it

(14:14):
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 youare living proof.
So we appreciate you cominghere and sharing your story with

(14:35):
us and, um, I think that's itfor us today, deborah.
Yeah, so thank you to ouraudience and to the book I read
authors and action takerspublishing and we're gonna say
goodbye now.
So, um, thank you to everyonelistening bye.