While the rest of the world was dealing with the realities of the covid19 pandemic, Teheli Sealey was fighting to recover some semblance of her life following an accident after a Carnival fete in 2020.
"I was having the time of my life, lying on the grass in Mandela Park (Port of Spain) when a car ran over my head, twice. Front and rear tyres. Nobody expected me to survive."
The months that followed were difficult for the personal trainer, health coach, yoga and pilates instructor and author as she struggled physically, emotionally and mentally.
"I was battling brain trauma, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and I was in a lot of pain. Sometimes I cried because of the emotional pain, and other times my body would cry without me knowing because of the physical pain.
"I felt myself spiralling out of control and didn’t want to be around people. Every day I would lie in bed and look at my wall decal that said 'believe in yourself.' Eventually I just focussed on the 'believe' because I felt the Lord wanted to use me as a message," Sealey told WMN.
She put all her energy into her healing, and on October 31, 2020 was able to run the 26.2-mile TCS New York City virtual marathon along the bike path in Chaguaramas. Even the doctors were surprised at how quickly she was healing.
"I ran with great friends with loving energy. This was about getting my health and life back. Not just surviving but thriving. It was the highlight of the end of the year 2020."
[caption id="attachment_900350" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Recovering from what could have been a fatal accident, Teheli Sealey says the most beautiful things in the world can come out of tragedy. - Sureash Cholai[/caption]
But that mental strength didn't develop overnight.
Like her body, Sealey, 45, has invested a lot of time and energy into training her mind to help her achieve her goals, short- and long-term. For her, though, understanding the power of the mind didn't happen until she was in her 20s. The last of seven children, she grew up very sheltered, unable to do the things that children in that era did.
"Things like riding, swimming, playing in the road were not part of my childhood... My mom was always fearful that something would happen to me. She was a model and more interested in making her girls look pretty."
And even after her mother left the family and went to live in the US, that fear stuck with her.
"My mom was unhappy in the relationship and I suppose because I was the last, she asked me for permission to leave. I felt privileged but didn’t know the cost of it because I was nine."
She never saw her mother face to face after that until Sealey visited her in Baltimore 19 years later, and never again after that.
"She died on the day I got my wedding dress in Miami some years later. She refused to come to Miami to help me choose the dress because she was living in fear... As it turned out, she was calling my siblings and me while she was dying. Her phone records showed that ours was the last number she called.
"She died o
