Renee Airya survived a brain tumor at 29 that left her face paralyzed, then rebuilt 60% of her mobility through visualization and exercises. She teaches how to flip your flaws by reframing them, using a Greek pottery example, and shares why vulnerability matters.
Questions this video answers
29
About 15 years
10 hours
100% paralysis on the right side of her face (could not move, smile, or close/blink one eye)
Approximately 60% mobility restored
Chapters
The next person that's going to share with you I think is one of the best people on the planet that could ever talk about reducing suffering. Because my next presenter, this is what she does. This is what she's done in the lives of many people. She's my best friend. She's an amazing human being. Her name is Renee Aria R E N E E 2 E's A I R Y A Renearia dot com. She's an author, she's a coach, she has a high level program. It's a high level mastermind. M I n e as in mining called the ten carat goddess group and she also has a five carat group also. And boy, you know, she's transformed a tremendous amount of suffering in her life and she's going to share with you just a little bit of her story and how you can do it yourself. So I, I want to give a big warm welcome for the lovely, amazing Renee area.
Hello everybody. I am going to do a timed slideshow and I'm ready. At age 29, I underwent one of the most dangerous forms of massive brain surgery. I'd like to talk to you today about something that I got intimately familiar with and it's not discussed that very often. It's not discussed often, but it's the topic of flaws. I believe that the way that we choose to deal with our flaws will lead to a life of success, power and health or self destruction, insecurity and shame. So the dictionary defines a flaw as a defect or a blemish. I am not a fan of this perception and I'll talk a little bit more about that later. But right now I would like you guys to be brave and please raise your hand if you have ever experienced a flaw in yourself. Thank you. Right. It's a part of the human condition and I want to call myself out right now because I'm experiencing what I have believed to be one of my most major flaws. And public speaking now that started at the age of 12 in my Debbie Gibson looking photo up there when I decided that I wanted to go to modeling school. And I was really excited about this because I was good at it. However, I got back to grade school and there were some really ugly rumors circulating about me. People were saying things like, I must think that I'm better than everyone else. I think that I'm more beautiful than everyone else. I'm a sensitive person. And that wasn't true. So it really hurt me. I also was constantly getting made fun of for being super skinny. So. So I subconsciously decided at that time that it was not safe for me to be in my power or in my beauty in public. Despite going through those emotions, I did go on to climb the corporate ladder from a very young age. I moved myself to California when I was 21 and I was living an amazing lifestyle. But I had an aha moment. I decided to quit my corporate job, become an entrepreneur and and study meditation in the healing arts full time. I learned about something called intuition. And I had also learned that I'd been using this gift my whole life to help other people heal. Now I also started a journal practice at this time. And I did it every day because it was the best way for me to get to know my own inner truth. Now at age 29, I started getting some really disturbing warnings in my journal. Things like, something is really wrong with you. You are going to die. Pretty disturbing, right? I did not know what to do with this information, but the messages kept coming. So I went to doctors many months later and many doctors later I was labeled a hypochondriac. There was no conclusive evidence, but I kept getting these messages. I was very frustrated. More than anything, I needed to put my questions to rest. I did get to the right doctor at the right time. And a specialty ordered MRI reveals what you see here. I had a very large tumor in my brain that had been growing for over 15 years. It was life threatening and I needed emergency surgery. I was at the doctor by myself when I got this diagnosis. If you can imagine. It was completely shocking and it was very, very scary. But I'll tell you what, I also felt a sense of relief because at least I knew I wasn't crazy, right? So all in all, I went into the surgery pretty surrendered and grateful. That is, until 10 hours later my friend looked down at me on the hospital bed when I woke up from anesthesia and said, I'm sorry, something went really wrong. It was less than a 1% chance, but my facial nerve had been cut. My face was 100% paralyzed on the right hand side. I couldn't smile, I couldn't move my face at all. And. And I had to wear an eye patch because my eye wouldn't even close or blink. So I recently saw this eye patch a couple months ago and it was a huge emotional trigger for me because I wore this every day for almost a year. Finding this was the inspiration for this talk because I realized that something very powerful was moving through me at that point in my life. And I feel like now is my time to be able to share it with others. So the doctor came back into the hospital room and he had tears in his eyes. We were really good friends. And he said, you know, I'm so sorry. I feel terrible that you can't model again and that you're not able to smile. And interestingly, I looked at him and said, I have no idea how I'm going to do this, but I am going to heal myself. My face will move within the next six months. I said it with a lot of integrity. And he looked at me and smiled and said, you know, I'm going to support you. I just want to let you know that it's not medically possible for that to happen. And let's say, even if it did, it would take at least 18 months. Now, I set upon my journey, even though I was dealing with an entirely deaf ear now on one side, and. And I had to teach myself to walk again. So I had to be very deliberate about my path. And I'm not going to say that it was all law of attraction stuff, but for sure, visualization and prayer were instrumental in my healing process. But I stood in front of the mirror every single day for hours, doing my facial exercises and willing my face to move again. Nothing happened. Then one day, a tiny spark came back. I knew I had it from there. I've recovered 60% mobility, and I know that's not 100%, but I need to let you know that it is an absolute, not only medical miracle, but miracle that this has happened. So a lesson that I have to share with you is for a very long time, I would hide myself behind my hair, which I deliberately put back today because my face still does some really funky things. My eye still does not fully blink on one side. But a few years ago, I got over it. I decided to start going out and sharing my story in small groups and also in different social media videos. And something really cool happened. I noticed that people were able to actually access their own inner beauty and their own inner power through my facial flaw. I believe that I have been able to flip my flaw into one of my most unique abilities. And hopefully that's what you're seeing right now as I flip my flaw of public speaking into a greater strength. Because let me tell you, when you hide, you create more shame. That means you create more feelings of being unloved. But when you share, you let the light shine through your shame. And I believe we can actually become perfect through our flaws. So the first step that I want to share with you today, if you want to Flip any of your visible or invisible flaws. This one is super easy. And I'm going to share a short story with you that was actually shared by Doug Andrew, who's in this room here. He really helped me to create a more empowered perception of flaw. So when the ancient Greeks used to make pottery, many of the pieces, as you can see up here, would come out with cracks and blemishes. The sellers wanted to hide these visible flaws, so they would put wax over them. But interestingly, when the buyers found out about this, they were willing to pay more for the pieces with visible flaws because they were authentic. So maybe you can see what I'm getting at here. If you can look at your flaws through that lens of perception, could it be possible that your flaws are actually a gateway to your own sincerity? And step number two, this might not feel right for everyone, but I'll just put it out there and encourage you to take the opportunity to create a 10 minute flip your flaws conversation with someone in your life. This may sound super simple, but the thing is, you need to show up 100% in your flaw. That means you need to share all the things that you've been hiding that you've been feeling judgmental about, that you've been feeling fearful about. It could be a little intimidating to do this as well. So you obviously want to make sure this is with someone that you consider to be a safe soul in your life. Something as simple as sharing can allow for stuck energy to move and become liberated. So my point today is about coming out of hiding. My point is that I believe we are perfect, not in spite of our flaws, but because of them. And I just want to end with a quote from Marianne Williamson, who says, as we free ourselves from our own fear, our very presence automatically liberates others. And that is the world that I want to live in. Thank you. Thank you.
