Journey with Kimberly through one crisis that set her up for failure and another life-altering experience that remapped her brain for success. Had the road sign read, Take a sharp right turn here and follow the path to your life-altering destiny, I would have turned and gone in another direction. The path was marked with two color-coded shapes: the green circle indicated a widely groomed, easy trail, and the blue square led to an intermediate slope. I needed the green trail that led to the lodge at the bottom of the mountain. I had taken a hard fall on the catwalk and wasnt feeling so good. To get to the trail, I needed to take a sharp right turn. The only problem was, I suddenly didnt know what right meant. I could not find my right side. Everything right was gone! Kimberly fell into her defining role and lifes purpose (quite literally) when she skied over a cliff and sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). One day, Kimberly was a vibrant career woman who enjoyed a successful lifestyle and an active social life. The next, she had to learn basic life skills to survive. Kimberlys quest for survival sent her in search of the missing pieces of her past. She learned that survival is a multifaceted anvil that shapes our decisions and forges our future. Merely existing then becomes a double-edged sword: you may have managed to keep breathing, but are you really living? The only way for survival to triumph is to acknowledge the role of fear in the face of crisis: affirmed fear liberates; coddled fear incapacitates. Denial keeps us stuck!

"Previously published in hardcover by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House"--Title page verso.

"Previously published in hardcover by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House"--Title page verso.

Details recent advances in neuroscience that have yielded a more accurate understanding of the brain's functions and malfunctions and, in turn, have moved psychiatry away from psychotherapy and into the mainstream biological traditions of medicine.

This is a short memoir about my brain injury, the events that led up to it, the long and difficult road to recovery, and most importantly how it changed me... for the better. This book is not just for those who may have had the misfortune of suffering a brain injury; it's for anyone. It's just a story; one that I hope you find interesting, perhaps a little bit light, a touch sad, and above all else, brimming with hope. Hope, in my opinion, is the single most important emotion to grab and hold on to like you're holding on for dear life. Because if you are like me, hope is what gets you through today and to tomorrow. If you let go of hope, life lets go of you. I wrote my story with the hope that it might inspire others to not give up and keep fighting the good fight - whatever challenges life throws your way.