I AM Rising Tina Marie Bertoli

This episode dives deep into what to say and not to say to someone going through a challenge, an illness, a loss, etc. It's meant to be educational and inspirational and also healing!

I go through a list of all of the things people said to me during the darkest and scariest time of my life from diagnosis of cancer, through treatment, and beyond. 

As my mom always says, "People mean well." And I get that.

AND, we can all learn, grow, and evolve to be a better healing space for others when they are going though struggles.  And we can begin to take ownership of our feelings that come up when those around us are suffering.

This could be a controversial or triggering episode!  And that's amazing because that means there is energy to be felt, experienced, breathed into, and forgiven.

Let the healing begin!

If you'd like to watch this episode, it's on YouTube HERE

This 4th episode was recorded when I was in my 2nd year of studying with Alchemy of Breath,  (my school), as a mentor. 

I share some of the trauma from receiving the actual diagnosis, multiple surgeries and the aftermath,  toxic drugs, not feeling safe in my body, and dissociating.  I share how breast cancer cracked me open to meet myself on the inside; how I truly met my light in the darkness by facing my death and my willingness to embrace the unknown.

In Alchemy of Breath, we did an exercise of writing a letter from our death bed, breaths away from our dying self to our current self. 

I share the letter to music as a healing process.  The 2nd half being very meditative provides the opportunity for you to inquire into your own life and experience, opening your heart to the moment and what comes up for you. 

 

I AM Rising Season 2, Episode 2; "The In-Between"

In this 2nd episode, I go a little deeper in sharing my journey through a life-threatening breast cancer diagnosis and 2 and a half year recovery.  I read a journal entry of when I was in the darkest of times.  This was after surgeries and chemotherapy and I felt dead on the inside just as much as the outside.  Some things I talk about are:


Once cancer is in the body it’s a wake up call; a calling to go inside.
Breathing new life to those parts that shut down/closed.
How we build up walls and create identities to protect ourselves
Cancer as a punishment vs cancer as a gift; how I slowly got there
Shame/guilt, embarrassment, closure, giving power away, and how toxic this is to the body.
How to feel whole vibrant alive again after severe trauma.
The choice to surrender.
What is the true medicine? How to navigate resistance.
Last few moments invitation to breathe, open, and drop in to embrace yourself. What new commitment can you make for yourself?

Season Two: Episode One of I AM Rising and a dramatic title that is based completely in truth.

Death, Rebirth; the Return. After 3 years of a healing recovery from a life-threatening breast cancer diagnosis, Tina opens up about her journey of meeting her death face to face.

In this first episode, she reads a part of her journal when she is in the darkest of places. After surgeries, and chemotherapy, no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, feeling lost, dead inside, like a shell of a human being, wondering if she would ever even remotely feel like herself again, whoever that even was anymore.

She shares deeply and authentically and we peer into the depths of her suffering in the pitch-black, darkness. She then shares the total contrast of a journal entry a year or so later demonstrating a complete turnaround!

Tina lays the groundwork about some of what she did during this time to heal and paints a picture of what to expect for future episodes.