“If You Can’t Believe It, Then It Probably Won’t Happen” – My Interview With Cherie Kephart

Imagine you’re in your early 30s, you’re in a wheelchair, hallucinating, barely able to follow the doctor’s speech. It’s Friday. And he says,” You’re not going to make it until Monday.”

That is today’s guest, Cherie Kephart. A mysterious illness led to years of suffering, during which her symptoms again and again were undiagnosed and misdiagnosed. For many years, Cherie dealt with relentless pain and the anguish of not knowing what was causing it.

She shares important lessons the painful experiences taught her about the point of suffering, the meaning of forgiveness, and the importance of stopping, noticing and recalibrating when life moves too fast, among others.

The following is just a tiny taste of Cherie’s remarkable insights.

Q: What’s the point of suffering?
Cherie: The big lesson suffering taught me was that I needed to slow down and pay attention.

Q: What eventually led to your healing?
Cherie: Believing it would happen was one of my first steps in healing. If you can’t believe it, then it probably won’t happen.

Q: What does forgiveness mean?
Cherie: The freedom to move on.

Q: You’re on a healing path. Does that mean you were broken?
Cherie: No. In the midst of my suffering, I felt broken. But in retrospect, I experienced something that propelled me into the beautiful life I live now, that I don’t think I would have gotten without it. And I’m still on the healing path, recognizing that I’m not broken. That I am whole and complete.

When I ask if there’s one last thing she’d like our listeners to hear, Cherie says, “Don’t let fear drive you. Put fear in the back seat. Put it in the trunk. Strap it to the roof. Don’t let it drive you. It will be with you. But you have a choice what you do with your fears.”

Cherie Kephart is the award-winning author of A Few Minor Adjustments: A Memoir of Healing, an inspirational story of one person’s persistence to find healing.

About Cherie Kephart
Raised in Venice, California, Cherie longed to travel and experience the way other people lived. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia on a water sanitation and health education project, Cherie returned to the United States with an African souvenir she didn’t expect: a mysterious illness. She fell severely ill and almost died, leaving her with symptoms that went undiagnosed for many years. This inspired Cherie to write her memoir, A Few Minor Adjustments: A Memoir of Healing, taking the reader on a powerful but entertaining journey through her adventures and search for life-saving answers.

Find Cherie on Social Media:
CherieKephart.com
Facebook
Instagram: @CherieKephartwriter
Goodreads

Cherie’s Books:

Books Mentioned in the Interview:
Fierce Joy, by Susie Rinehart
Love Is Complicated: A True Story of Brokenness and Healing, by Marlena Fiol, to be released summer 2020

About Marlena Fiol, PhD
Marlena Fiol, PhD, is a globally recognized author, scholar and speaker. She is a spiritual seeker whose work explores the depths of who we are and what’s possible in our lives. Her significant body of publications on the topic, coupled with her own raw identity-changing experiences, makes her uniquely qualified to write about personal transformational change. She is also a certified tai chi instructor and freelance writer whose most recent work has appeared in numerous literary magazines and newsletters.

You can find Marlena in the following places:
https://marlenafiol.com
Facebook
Twitter: @marlenafiol