Lauren: Welcome to "52 Weeks of Hope." This is where you get to hear how to feel happy, balanced, and worthwhile, how to make that lonely ache vanish and feel empowered, confident, and secure. I'm Lauren Abrams, and I get to help you feel the magic again since going through my own dark night of the soul, by chatting with incredible leaders, healers, and elders who give us their message of hope after overcoming challenges of their own. And today, we're talking to the incredible motivational speaker and bestselling author, Amberly Lago. Having survived and escaped her childhood as soon as she could, which included both physical and sexual abuse, Amberly moved to California initially for UCLA but went to professional dancing and then into the world of fitness where she experienced incredible success. She saw her world crumble when an SUV plowed into her and she suffered horrific leg injuries. Amberly is here today, discussing resilience, perseverance, and how we can overcome anything in life. She's going to tell us what happened, but also what we're capable of. Amberly is going to give us her perspective on how not just to live with chronic pain, but to thrive and have an amazing life beyond our limited beliefs or limited thinking. Welcome to "52 Weeks of Hope," Amberly Lago. Amberly: Oh. Thank you, Lauren. And thank you for such a beautiful introduction. I'm so grateful to be here and get to see your beautiful face, and get to connect with your audience. So, thank you for having me. Lauren: Yeah. I'm so grateful that we were able to do this. I know you just got back from a mastermind. Was it all women? You're probably...after masterminds, you're always so on fire for everything. Amberly: Oh my goodness. It was incredible. I think this trip in Florida, I was more grateful to be around people than I ever, ever have been. Everything kind of...it shifts your perspective being here in California and not being able to be around people, and suddenly I was around 35 women. I hugged people probably to the point where it might have been a little uncomfortable for them because I was like, "Oh, I'm going to hug you. I haven't hugged in so long." But it was transformative. And there's something very healing about being by the ocean. At the end of the mastermind, so, we went through...you know, I coached 35 women. We did panels. And at the end, me along with my friend, Tiff Peterson

and Brooke Hemingway, we jumped in the ocean. And it was just so healing. And you're right. It's like you get back and it just makes you realize more than ever the power there is in community and connection. And I think that being resilient is really about having those meaningful connections and having conversations that matter most. Lauren: Definitely. I keep saying I miss hugging people. So, I'm just slowly starting to see people and hug them again. I'm like, "We can hug. Come on." I saw my neighbor. They have a new grandbaby. I said, "I can't wait to meet her." He came over. He said, "We can hug hello." It's so novel again. I miss it so much. Amberly: Oh, I know. I am a hugger. So, that is one of the things I missed the most. So, I got double vaccinated, which the decision for me actually doing that...because I know some people are like, "No way I'm getting that vaccine," and, "Yes, I'm going to get it." And at first, I was like, "No way I'm getting the vaccine." And my 95-year-old grandmother was talking to me and she said, "You know, I think I'd rather take my chances with the vaccine than I would with COVID. So, I'm going to get the vaccine." And that kind of put everything in perspective. And then I don't know what COVID would do to me because I was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome and how that would affect me. It made me feel a little safer. I know there's no guarantees, but it gave me the confidence to travel again. I felt like it gave me some freedom to hug whoever, to be around. And I just trained one of my clients yesterday for the first time in over a year without a mask on. So, that feeling of hope, I feel like, is in the air now. Instead of fear, its hope. Lauren: Yeah, which I love you saying that. That sounds like it'll be a soundbite. Your book, "True Grit and Grace: Turning Tragedy Into Triumph," documents your terrible accident that I mentioned in the intro, and your amazing miracle recovery. Do you want to talk about what happened? I don't want to forget to ask you if you know Alex Smith, the quarterback, and about his recovery. Amberly: No.

Lauren: Okay. Okay. Amberly: I'll have to write that down. Alex Smith? Lauren: Yeah. Well, he was on the Washington football team. But there's a documentary. And it is grueling. I am the queasiest person ever. So, when you talk about this, you can't...I'll stop you. I have... Amberly: Okay. Yeah. Lauren: I actually want you to...no, I do want you to talk about what happened. Just, like, the verbiage has to be a little... Amberly: Yes. Don't worry. I won't make you pass out. I mean, actually, you know, at the scene of the accident, I knew it was bad. But, you know, I was coming home from work on my motorcycle when I was hit by an SUV. When I saw the other car, when you make eye contact with people when you're riding a motorcycle, they're like, "Okay. I think they see me. Okay. He sees me." Well, I was like, "Well, I thought he saw me." He went shooting out of the parking lot and made a left. I was going straight, he made a left. And I tried to jump off my bike, but I only had time to let go of the clutch and try to stand up a little bit. I immediately felt pain, and I was thrown about 30 feet. When I came to a stop is when I looked down at my leg. Looking at it, I knew it was bad, but I really...and it was pain like I've never experienced before. But I didn't realize it was that bad until I saw the people around me. And one lady fainted. And people were scared to come up to me. It was pretty horrific. And luckily, a lady did finally come up to me. She was a nurse. And I was screaming and all kinds of cuss words, which I don't normally cuss like that. One of my thoughts was, "Oh, my Methodist mother would not be proud of me right now." And then one of my thoughts when I looked down at my leg was, "Oh, this isn't good. I might have to train clients on crutches for a while." Like, I had no idea how drastically this was going to change my life. I also didn't realize my femoral artery was severed and I was bleeding out. So, luckily, a guy made a tourniquet on my leg. I wish I knew who he was. He saved my life because he slowed... Lauren: Were you on a freeway or a highway?

Amberly: I was on the middle of the street on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills. I know we live close to each other. So, I know you know where that area is. And they shut down Ventura Boulevard. And the nurse was like, "You need to breathe with me. You just need to breathe." And so, the paramedics got there really fast. My husband got there fast. Lauren: Wow. Amberly: You know, he said that his phone was ringing, ringing, and ringing, and ringing. And he wasn't answering it because it was...he didn't know the numbers that were calling in. And he finally thought, "What is going on?" Because his phone would not stop ringing. And I had been screaming out, "Call 911. Please call my husband." And I was yelling out his number. And I was actually... I didn't want to try to reach...I didn't want to move. I was just holding on to my leg because I really thought my leg was just going to fall off. That's how broken into pieces it was. So, he got to the scene of the accident. They got me in the ambulance. And then I remember squeezing that paramedic's leg and I was thinking, "Well, why isn't he looking at me?" I wanted him to make some sort of eye contact to let me know, "Okay. It's going to be okay." I needed that little glimmer of hope like, "You got this, girl." And I got nothing. And I was like, "Am I dying?" Lauren: Where was your husband? Was he following the... That's incredible. Amberly: He was following the paramedics. And, you know, it's interesting. At this mastermind, I had someone ask me. They were like, "Do you remember everything?" And I was like, "I remember everything in such detail, like so vividly. In fact, sometimes I wish that I didn't remember because for the longest time, I would close my eyes and that's all I would see, was the car coming at me. And envision myself flying across and sliding across the asphalt." But when I got to the hospital, it was chaotic in there. I mean the ER room was filled with cops now because my husband's a cop, and news travels fast. And he was crying. I never heard him cry before. So, it was like, "Oh my goodness." That scared me because I thought he's freaking out. What if I don't ever...what if I'm dying and he's a mess? And so, I yelled across the hospital room. I was like, "Honey, I need you to get over here and be strong for me now." And he

came over and he held my hand. And that's the last thing I remember before I was put in induced coma because I was basically...my body. Because I lost so much blood and I was going into shock, I was dying. And they couldn't control my pain. So, they put me in induced coma. And that was the last thing I remember before... You know, this beautiful nurse leaned over me and she had this long, flowing hair. And she looked like an angel. And her name's Shaniqua [SP]. And I actually still keep in touch with her to this day. And she gave me comfort because she said, "Don't worry. We're going to give you something to make you feel all better now." And that's the last thing I remember before I woke up out of a coma with tubes down my throat. I'd been on, you know, life support. And they said, "We're going to have to amputate your leg." Lauren: Wait. So, when you were... How long were you in a coma? Amberly: I was in a coma for a little over a week. And they wanted to amputate my leg then. But my husband was like, "No. I do not want you to amputate her leg. I want that to be her decision. I want her to be awake, and that's her decision." So, when I finally did wake up, that's the first thing they told me was, "You've got a 1% chance of saving your leg. We really do need to amputate it. It's like a war wound." And I was like, "Wait a minute. You said 1%. Well, then I'm willing to bet on those odds. I want to try that 1%. I need to find a doctor who's going to try to help me save my leg." And we got on Google. We searched limb salvage. We pulled a lot of strings. We said a lot of prayers. And we were able to get me transferred to a hospital where a doctor was. Performed in total over years, over about three, four years...I don't lose track of the surgeries because it was 34 surgeries. And they saved my leg. And so, it's been a wild journey. And I think that it's so much about what we put our attention on. And like you, I love "52 Weeks of Hope" because the hope that I had was that 1% chance of saving my leg. And I held on to that hope. And sometimes, that's all we need, is just that little glimmer of hope to carry us through some of the most difficult challenges. Lauren: Reminded me I had a period of time where I had a thing in my car that said, "God never gave us a dream without giving us the strength to carry it out." And there was also...the reason...when we were talking a little bit before, when

I wasn't going to bother applying to UCLA because somebody like me, I would never get in. I talk about it in my first episode. And when somebody said to me, "They take 25 people a year that program from outside of UCLA?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Why not you?" And I never would have applied if he didn't say that to me. And [crosstalk 00:12:03]... Amberly: Sometimes we need that. Lauren: ...in that program. And, you know, it catapulted me on. But yours is like a whole different... But they say we would never take [crosstalk 00:12:14]. Amberly: Sometimes we need somebody to say something like that to us to... Lauren: But for you, it was like, "No." And I love your husband for saying it. "That's Amber...she's making that decision." It's also higher power, like, that he's your husband, at that time, you know, in that place. I love that. So, keep going. Amberly: Oh, yeah. Well, no. You're right. It is so much about the, you know, higher power. I couldn't have gotten through any of this without my higher power that I call God. Like I said, there was a lot of praying. And believe me, my husband reminds me still to this day, "You have both your legs because of me." And so, I'm like, "I know, honey." Lauren: [crosstalk 00:12:56]. Amberly: Thank you. Lauren: Such a guy thing. Girls are like, "We do this together." Guys are like, "I did this." Amberly: You're so right. You are so right. I mean he's kidding, for the most part. But no, really. He's like... And our sense of humor throughout this has gotten us through a lot because after going through so many surgeries... And I'm asked. People ask me, "Well, why did you choose to keep your leg?" And I'm like, "Well, I didn't know I was going to have to have 34 surgeries." If I would have known, I probably would have said, "You know what? Maybe not." In fact, a year after my accident, I had been diagnosed...when I got out of the hospital, I went to a doctor's appointment. I was so proud to be standing upright

because they told me...you know, I was on crutches. They told me it'd take two years to walk again if I would walk again. And I was like, it's been four months. It was like four, four and a half months. I'm like, "This doctor's going to be proud of me. I am upright on crutches already." Because I went from being this elite athlete. I was sponsored by Nike. I had a fitness business and employed several other trainers. I had a program where I taught people how to get certified to be a trainer. It was a big business and a big life. And I went from that and doing fitness videos to being bedbound in the hospital, and having bedsores. So, just to be upright and standing and be able to use the bathroom on my own without a bedpan was...I was really proud. And I think it's really important for anybody listening to remember, like, how far you've come. What's the biggest challenge you've ever overcome? And when you're in a new struggle and something seems, like, scary or you're anxious about it or you're feeling sad or you're feeling a little deflated, to remember about the hardest thing you have ever overcome and that you got through that. And that will give you the courage to keep going. But for me, when I was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, that was really the beginning of my healing journey. And that's why, like, after a year of all these surgeries and everything, I actually went to the doctor and I was like, "You know, I've got this solution. This leg, it's not working properly. It's deformed, it's all scarred up. It just gives me too much pain. So, we need to go ahead and cut it off. We need to schedule a surgery to cut it off." And he was like, "Well, we can't do that. You have complex regional pain syndrome. And if we do that, it may not only get rid of your pain, it might make it worse. So, that's not a solution for you." And at that point, I was really devastated. But sometimes, I think the hardest situations or circumstances in our life, we can't see it in the moment. But it really leads us to the life beyond our wildest dreams if we have a willingness to take action steps, to create healthy habits to get better. And so, after being really in a depression, in a state of denial really, I didn't want to believe I was diagnosed with this disease. It took a lot of digging deep to find a new skill set, a new kind of creative...a box of tools, and reconnect with my higher power. Lauren: So, I have a question.

Amberly: Oh, yeah. Lauren: So, is the chronic pain syndrome, is that a result of the leg? Is it... Amberly: Yeah. Lauren: Okay. Amberly: It's caused by trauma. And people can get it from breaking their wrist or spraining their ankle, or they can get it from a surgery. And it's when your sympathetic nervous system is all out of whack. For lack of a better term, it's like a computer that needs to be rebooted. It's not working properly. So, there's a constant pain signal nonstop. And your sympathetic nervous system controls your temperature, sweating, goosebumps. And so, when I'm in a flare-up, my leg will be a different color. It might have areas of goosebumps on it. It might swell. It burns, it feels like. Everyone has it a little bit differently. For me, it feels like when I have a shoe on and I'm having a flare-up, it feels like the shoe is just like a vice grip squeezing my foot. I have it in my right leg and right foot. And so, I've actually been...you know, there was one time recently I was at my daughter's... She's a horseback rider. And I was at her competition, and I wore pants. I can't wear pants that are too tight on my leg because it'll cause a flare- up. And I had some pants on, and I thought they would be fine. They weren't real, real tight. But for some reason, they started flaring me up probably just because I was on my leg a lot. I was like, "Oh my gosh. I have to get these pants off." And one of the grooms at the horse show gave me scissors. And the trainer saw me cutting my jeans, and they were $300 jeans. Lauren: Yeah. I'm sitting here thinking, "Scissors." Amberly: Yeah, I got scissors and I cut my jeans. And I was like...it's like... The pain gets so overwhelming, it's like you want to do anything to try to get out of that pain. And that led me down a road of really some unhealthy habits. I mean I tried everything. Ketamine infusions. You know, I would go in and the doctor would infuse me all day with ketamine to try to reboot my nervous system. I had a spinal cord stimulator. At one point, I was on 73 homeopathic pills and 11 different prescriptions at one time. And nothing was working.

And so, I'd started drinking to try to stuff down...it kind of numbed out the pain. And that worked until it didn't, until it became a problem. And it was really changing my lifestyle, everything. It wasn't just...you know, I feel like we have these pillars in our life of our physical, our emotional, our mental, our spiritual, our financial. And I had to work on all those pillars a little bit differently. Like, I had to change the way I ate. I had to get more sleep. I had to pause and ask myself, "What does my body need?" Because I had to unlearn some things. I was the kind of person that growing up in Texas, growing up an athlete and a dancer, I was taught, you just work harder, you ignore the pain. You know, no pain, no gain. Hide your crazy and be a lady. And you better grit this out. And it was like, that didn't work for me anymore. I had to give myself grace and listen to my body, and take care of myself. And so, more than anything, it's not just grit and being tough. It is about mental toughness, but it's also giving yourself some grace and being a best friend to yourself and being your best cheerleader. Because, man, sometimes it's tough. Times get tough. And it's like, if we're not our own best friend, then who is going to be? We have to know that we always have ourselves. Lauren: Yeah. Well, God is in the pause. So, if we aren't going to take that moment just to be quiet, we can't hear the message anyway. Amberly: Yeah. You know, I do a spiritual reading every morning. And it was about the pause. And so, also every morning, I read and then I text my sponsor. And I tell her three things I'm grateful for. And I text her my reading. And this reading was all about the pause. And it says, "The great creative power is everything. If you leave out one whole chunk of it by making God only masculine, you have to readdress the balance." Okay, that was one. But the one that I like, too, was, "Be still and listen to the stillness within." And so, I love doing these readings because it reminds me to connect with God. Because sometimes when life gets busy and things get good, we forget. We need to, like, really connect with our higher power and ourselves and ask ourselves what do we need, and do things that allow us to be in that creative zone because it can...and have non-negotiables. I don't know if you have non- negotiables, but I have some things that if I don't do them every day, I start

getting kind of off-kilter or as my family likes to say, crazy. So, creating those rituals and sticking to it makes a huge difference. Lauren: So, what are your morning rituals? What do you do every morning? Amberly: Well, I love to wake up early and have quiet time by myself before the rest of the house wakes up and before, you know, I'm making breakfast or checking email or taking care of my daughter who's still here in virtual school at home. And so, I wake up early so I can have that quiet time. And I do not...as much as I want to, I do not grab my phone and look at it. I don't scroll through Instagram even though I want to. I don't check email. I'm like, "No, I need to have time to myself." I write in my journal. I write three things I'm grateful for. I write what my intentions are. Like I said, I text my sponsor every single day. It doesn't matter if I'm traveling. I might text her a little bit later if I'm on a plane. But I always text her what I'm grateful for. Because when you express that gratitude, it makes you feel it even more. And then I move my body. That's why I'm still in workout clothes. And I think, you know, a lot of people think they have to do journaling a certain way or they have to have a fancy journal. And I grab anything. Like, I have just this, like, little notebook. And sometimes I write, like, no one else is going to read it. Yeah. See? And there's something very healing about writing because...and honestly, I had no idea that the journal entries that I wrote in the hospital bed, that was really therapy for me. I had no idea that some of those journal entries would be in a book that I would write in the future. So, you know, you never know. I like to write like no one else is going to read it. Lauren: Oh, definitely. Yeah, definitely. I've been exchanging gratitude lists for well over a decade. Amberly: It's alchemy, isn't it? Lauren: Yeah. And somebody said, "Well, I don't feel grateful." I'm like, that's not the point. You're grateful by the time you get to the end. It's not like...you do it to feel grateful. You don't do it to, like... And it raises our frequency and our vibrational level. It does so much for us.

Amberly: It really shifts your perspective, doesn't it? Lauren: Absolutely. And when I'm mad at Scott, I text him a gratitude list of everything that I'm grateful for him. By the time I get to the end, I'm like, "He's so great." Amberly: I know. You know, that's so...I'm so glad you brought that up. It's so important because you have...that's such a good idea when you're upset with someone to think about the things that you are grateful for. Like, we were watching home videos last night. And I was like, "Oh my goodness." There I was in one of the videos. My youngest daughter was two years old. And I'm limping around because my leg is still broken. And I had fallen down the stairs on my crutches. And so, my wrist was broken. And she was in the video. She's like, "Mama. Mama. I want to see." And I pick her up with one arm and I put her on the counter, and I had baked the cake for my oldest daughter. And my husband's videoing. And I thought, "You know what? I can be upset with him for things sometimes." I got upset last night because him and my daughter were being rowdy and getting into it. And I like to claim my peace at night. I'm like, "I just need peace. Y'all stop acting up." And I saw that video and I was like, "Gosh. Here's a man that I didn't go through all these surgeries by myself." Watching that video, I was like, he went through that with me. He took me to the hospital every single time. He was with me when I woke up. That's a lot. I mean I get emotional just thinking about it. So, I'm glad you said that. When I'm upset with him, I'm going to write him a little gratitude list. Because it works. It makes you so grateful just to...for what you do have instead of what you don't have. And it makes you grateful for the things that you can do instead of focusing on the things that you can't do. Lauren: Right. It's the whole thing. Whatever we focus on [inaudible 00:25:42] it's that simple. I talked to Rabbi Jill Zimmerman in one of my first episodes. She learned all this stuff growing up. And she's talked about...she was so amazing. I'm like, "How did you learn this?" "My mom taught me." She knew all her feelings because her mom taught her. She's older, definitely older than us. I'm older than you, anyway. But I [crosstalk 00:26:04]. Amberly: No, I don't think you are. I think we're the same age.

Lauren: But I'm like, I never...I mean I know way better now how I'm feeling in the moment. My kids know. I'm always so amazed. I'm like, "Wow. You know how you feel right now contemporaneously. That's so amazing." Amberly: Yeah. You know, my mom is such an amazing lady. And she worked so hard. So, I definitely learned a lot of grit and how to work hard from her. But I think that she's so gracious in everything she does, and so kind. And so, I learned that from her. And what I think really taught me about gratitude was, growing up, we were taught to always say thank you. She wasn't saying, "This is gratitude, and this is how gratitude works." But I learned through what she did. And one of the things that really showed me the magic of gratitude was when I was in the hospital and I was laying there. And I didn't know, is today going to be the day that they amputate it? Is this next surgery? Am I going to make it through this next surgery? And I remember getting really depressed and, you know, thinking, "Oh my gosh. I can keep staring down at my leg or being depressed." And instead I turned to my journal and I started. And it wasn't a journal. It was actually like a little notebook. I still have that notebook. I was writing down everything, the nurses and their names, all the people that came in to see me. I was writing down all the gifts that they had brought me, and writing thank you notes because my mom taught me. We always wrote thank you notes. And so, I found that when I would write these thank you notes, it changed the way that I felt. And so, when you can be of service to someone, when you can be kind, it really changes the way that you feel. For instance, you know, we were talking about me getting back from Florida when I was...I had a layover in Atlanta. And I got to the gate. And there was a guy in a wheelchair. And I can relate to him being in a wheelchair because I was in a wheelchair for so long. And he was sitting there and he didn't have anybody with him. And I walked over and I said, "Do you need help?" He said, "Yeah, I need to use the bathroom. And I told them, but I think they forgot about me." And I said, "You know what?" And let me tell you, I was tired. I was hurting. I was exhausted. And just me helping him get to the bathroom, I'd stopped thinking about how tired I was, how I was hurting. It just gave me this feeling of gratitude that I was able to help him. And then he was good, you know.

And so, just little acts of kindness and little acts that we can do to pay it forward are all around us. And it's just being aware of that and taking action on it. And, you know, a lot of people say, "Well, how can I be of service when I'm stuck at home and I'm not even in the office?" And I'm like, "You know, there are so many things you can do." I was of service in the hospital just by reaching out to clients and checking in on them and making sure that they had their workout still going on or I can get another trainer to work with them while I was in the hospital. And so, doing those little things, or just checking on somebody that you feel like, "Oh, they're strong. They don't need me. They've got this." They could need you if you just check on them. Even if you tell them why you're grateful for them, it really shifts their day. And like you said, it raises their vibration. So, I think it's really important to remember those things that make a big difference in people's lives. I know it makes a big difference in my life when I get a message like that. Lauren: Oh, it absolutely does. I mean when they...on Clubhouse, which is how I know you, they did this thing where it said, "Send money," where people could send me money. I'm like, "Why would they send me money?" Like, what? For talking? I don't know. And so, doing a fundraiser for foster kids. There's always something you can do. Anyway, so... Amberly: Yeah. I love that. You know, I love that we met on Clubhouse. And I hold a support group every Friday for people who have been diagnosed with CRPS or they're overcoming trauma or they just live with chronic pain. And in that group, we have someone that I met on Instagram and we've become friends. She had to have an amputation, and she didn't have her medical insurance to cover the hospital where she was supposed to have the amputation with this certain doctor. And in our Clubhouse room...no, this is before. I didn't have, like...they didn't send to me. We set up a GoFund for her, GoFundMe. We raised $19,000 just by being in a room and from sharing her story. And so, she was able to have her surgery. And the doctor told her, if she would have waited one more day, she had compartment syndrome, and it could have been worse. They would have had to amputate her entire leg. So, it's amazing what you can do when you

come together with community, especially with, like, loving, passionate, inspired people who want to help. It's, like, I feel like we can change the world. Lauren: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I mean I'm just connecting with...your vibe attracts your tribe. It's that. I know that we get to attract people that we're supposed to. Yeah. So, what would you tell someone who's having a hard time? I don't mean clinically depressed. But having those days where you just don't want to get out of bed and you're sluggish, which plenty of people have been having through the pandemic. And now, we're starting to get out and you're like, "I don't want to go out. I don't want to see anyone. I'm not feeling good. I feel fat. I feel wrinkle. I don't know. I feel physically gross. I feel emotionally depleted." What would you tell someone that's struggling in that way? Amberly: Well, Lauren, first of all, I can say I have felt all those things. Like, all of those things. Sometimes all of them at once. And I think we all have times where... You know, we're not always going to be motivated. We're not always going to be happy. We're not always going to be like, "Oh, I'm so joyous. Let's go conquer the world." But I tell you what. I would say, the thing that changes your mood and makes you feel better if you're feeling down or you're feeling sluggish, you're not going to want to do this. But what you have to do is move your body. Because moving your body, it really moves your mood. It moves your mindset. Not only that, moving your body releases endorphins which combat pain, which make you feel good. And also, it builds your confidence. I'm not saying you have to do some strenuous one-hour workout or whatever. It can literally be 10 minutes of moving your body and you will feel a difference in the way you think. You will be more creative. Just to take a break and go outside in nature is so rejuvenating. Because, for me, that's where I connect with God. That's where I can get away from the noise. And we need to get away from all the noise and unplug from our devices so we can really tap into what brings us joy again. And, you know, I know life is busy on Zoom and to keep up with social media and all of that stuff. And so, part of my non-negotiables...and I've messed up. I mean I mess up on this and I have to get back on track. And I'll go, "Oh, gosh. Why do I feel like crap?" And it's like, "Oh, because I didn't move my body. This is the second day I didn't move my body," or whatever it is at the time. But

I have a chin-up bar in my office here, and a Swiss ball, and a foam roller. And so, there are days when I'm back to back to back where I might only have time to do things in between Zoom sessions or whatever it may be. But moving your body, I would say, even when you don't feel like it, is going to give you energy. You're going to feel more energized even if you're, like, sluggish. To me, it's my medicine and it has changed my life. I'm grateful that I grew up moving and dancing and being an athlete because I knew, even in the hospitals, stuck in the hospital bed, if I just moved my body, I would feel better. And so, I asked them in the hospital, "Can you please install a pull-up bar over my bed?" And I asked one of the trainers, "Can you please bring some dumbbells?" And it wasn't like I was doing these strenuous workouts in between surgery, but I was doing it because I wanted to be able to use the bathroom on my own, use that bedpan without a nurse having to help me. I wanted to keep my upper body as strong as possible. And it does something to you emotionally, mentally, physically. It makes you feel better, and stronger, and more confident in every way. So, there's always a way you can move your body even if it's like me when I was completely bedridden. I would try to move my upper body. Just start where you are, and use what you have, and do what you can. And once you start to feel the difference in that, in how you feel, you will crave it. You will want to do it. It will be a part of your non-negotiable. Lauren: Yeah. That's a great answer. Do you have skeptics, people who would say, "Why do you even bother?" Or do you not even attract those [crosstalk 00:35:34]? Amberly: Oh, gosh. Yeah. Let me tell you. I remember when I got my first — not skeptics — haters. They were like full-on...and I was shocked. I was like, "Oh my gosh. I'm just trying to help people and give them hope and inspire them." And it was...I had been a guest, done an interview on "The Doctors TV." And when I was interviewed, they edited out the part where I talked about all the different treatments that I had tried and that none worked for me. And so, it just said that I used my mindset, and that's what gets rid of pain. And I'm like, "No, first of all, my mindset doesn't get rid of pain. It helps me get through the pain." My lifestyle helps lower the pain. And so, I had people

coming out of the woodworks in a support group that I was in that was like, "You're a disgrace to the CRPS community. You make it seem like it's so easy. How dare you even wear...it's nice that you can wear those shoes and a dress on TV." So, I was being, like, just bashed for what I was wearing, what I looked like. And I was like, "You know what? You would be smiling, too, if you were looking at that good-looking doctor on national TV." I felt no pain at that moment because I was so nervous to be on TV. And I was just sharing what I do on a daily basis to be more resilient and get through the pain. But you'll always have people out there that are going to be a skeptic or the naysayers or the haters. And it's like, you can allow it to tear you down and bring you down, or you can allow that to make you believe in your message even more. And so, I was really upset. It hurt my heart when I was like, "Oh my gosh. I'm trying to help." And my own people, my own CRPS warriors, not all, but there are a few. And it's funny how you remember or those negative comments seem to stick like Velcro and there could have been a million other things said, but I was like...those negative comments. And I told my husband, I was like, "Wow. I have these haters in the support group." And he was like, "Congratulations. Good. That means your message is getting out there." And I had to go, "Yeah. You know what? And that's not the support group for me." I'm out of there. Peace out. You guys, I'm love and light. You can go with the...I want to be on team love and light. So, anybody that's spreading hope and light and passion... And it's not like I just rah-rah cheerleader share the good things. I think one of the reasons I've connected with a lot of people through social media and especially Instagram is because I show them. There are days where my 13-year- old had to push me in a shopping cart because I couldn't walk anymore. There are days when I'm standing on a stage, and I feel no pain because of the adrenaline. And I feel the pain after I get off the stage. But I show the good, the bad. I try to keep it real, but I also don't just sit there and show pictures all day long of when I'm having a flare-up or my deformed leg. Because, honestly, it's not what I want to focus on. I want to focus on the positive. And I think that when we choose to focus on the good in our life, the good just keeps getting better.

And so, I want to focus on what good is going on because I want to keep the good times and the good things to keep coming my way, and everybody's way. It's so important. You know, what you choose...it really makes a difference in your resilience on what you're choosing in life. Lauren: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean don't these people know about editing? But I love when I was looking at some of your past appearances or maybe it was a podcast, I'm not sure what it was. But when you did that shift to where you love your leg. I thought that was really amazing. You want to just briefly talk about that before we finish? I just think that's...just that attitude shift or the way we see things. Amberly: You know, for a long time, Lauren, I couldn't even talk about that without crying because it was such a big change in my...it really changed my life. But if I can go from hating myself and my leg to looking at it totally different, then if I share that, what can someone else do? Maybe somebody else can start to look at their life or their body or, you know, the person that they are a little bit differently. But, you know, after my accident, I went from doing...you know, being in "Shape Magazine" and "Health Magazine" and a regular contributor for exercise tips for "Shape" and doing infomercials with Body by Jake, I had done a fitness video the day before my accident, and to wake up, have all these surgeries. And now, my leg, my ankles fused. So, people are always like, "Oh, you wear boots to work out?" And I'm like, "Well, my ankles fused and my foot doesn't even straighten all the way where I can stand up on my foot. It doesn't go to 90 degrees. And so, having a boot gives me that little lift." And my legs deformed. It was really hard. My self- worth was all caught up in what I did, what I provided for my family, and what I looked like. And that was completely just, in an instant, all gone. My career was gone. My looks were gone. My confidence was gone. And I really had to take a look at my self-worth and everyone's self-worth. We're all worthy. We were born worthy. And it's who we are as a person and how we love, and the kindness that we give. And I remember going into the doctor's office and I just hated the way my leg looked. I sat down in front of him. Usually, you know, the doctors...and he's the doctor that saved my leg. Usually, they'll put your leg up on the table. Well, he

sat down in front of me and he put my leg in his lap. And my first thought was, "Oh my gosh. I can't believe he's putting my ugly, disgusting, deformed leg in his lap." And then he did something. He looked at it like it was his masterpiece like, "This leg was the 1% leg that I saved. Look at this. It's a miracle." And I started crying. I was like, "Wow. If he can look at my leg that way, then maybe I can learn to look at it that way, too." And little by little, it wasn't, like, easy and overnight, but I was able to start shifting the way that I looked at my leg, and loving it, and being appreciative for all that it did do instead of looking at it for all that it didn't do, and how it looked. I was like, "God, this leg's a freaking miracle." This leg is $2.9 million worth of medical bills. It's worth a lot of money. And this leg is about the scars that I have representing the battles that I have won. And so, everything changed. And the thing is, we have the ability to shift our perspective. It's not really what happens, but it's how we view it and how we decide our attitude is about it. And so, I think if you start trying to just shift your perspective a little bit every day, it allows me to...I wear shorts. I mean I'm proud of my scars now because I'm like, "Yeah, maybe if somebody sees them, it will show them that, wow, they'll heal. They'll get through these times." I mean I even had a lady that had a double mastectomy. And she was so embarrassed of her scars. And I met her through Instagram. And she said, "You've changed the way that I view my body now. Now, I love my scars." And I just saw, she's doing videos or pictures and videos, like, completely topless. I'm like, "Oh my gosh. She really does love her body." She's showing it off. Good for her. But, you know, just that little shift can change a whole lot. Lauren: Yeah. Definitely. That's just such a great story. Amberly: Oh, thank you. Lauren: It's definitely a...the whole thing with the affirmations and telling ourselves "I love you" out loud and "I am a worthy person," even putting on moisturizer, saying, "I love my skin. I love my arm. I love my leg." Whatever it is, it helps so much. And it's accepting us, where we're at, however we are. For you, it was so poignant. So, I appreciate it. Thank you for sharing it. If you have a message of hope you want to give.

Amberly: Yeah. Like I said earlier, all we need is that little glimmer of hope. It's powerful that can carry us through. And I think it's really important to know that we have all that we need inside us to get through those tough moments. But it also helps that when we have people around us that can remind us of how powerful we are, the human spirit is so powerful. And so, I think that change is possible, and hope is available. And just to keep, like you said, doing those affirmations, writing it out, saying it out loud, and reaching out to other people, and spreading kindness, and sharing what we're grateful for can take us a long way. It can keep moving us forward. Lauren: Yeah. I love that. Thank you so much for being a guest today on "52 Weeks of Hope," Amberly. Amberly: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I love talking with you. I hope I get to see you in person really soon. And, you know, anybody, I think that it helps when we have people to talk to. So, reach out to me. You can reach out, DM on Instagram or anything. Reach out, or amberlylago.com. Because I'd love to hear from people. Lauren: Yeah. And all of our links, everything will be on the website and with the show notes and everything else. So, we'll have that there. Amberly: Thank you.