The Day My Mom Died, I Felt My Heart Was Ripped Into a Thousand Pieces…

I’m John Castagnini, founder and CEO of ThankGodi. For thirteen years prior to my mom passing away, I devoted my professional life to helping people overcome traumas and tragedies. Things such as the death of a loved one, rape, divorce, molestation, financial ruin – my clients had been through it all – and I helped them find their silver linings…

Mom’s death was a fork in the road for me. I had been teaching people how to see both sides of whatever happened in their life for over a decade… Yet there I was, in a state of heart-wrenching torture over my mom’s death, well aware I was nowhere close to the balance I had been telling my clients how to find.

I said to myself, “John, either you really believe that  a balance exits within your mom’s passing or what you’ve been teaching for the past decade is complete crap.”

It was time to look in the mirror, it was time to walk my talk…

I spent the next three weeks alone, contemplating my mom’s passing and bringing all of my emotions to balance. There were so many it felt like I would never get to the end of it, and then somewhere along the way something shifted…

I experienced what I can only describe as something truly miraculous…

When I finally integrated the truth on both sides of all that happened with my mom’s passing, I found the hidden balance beneath my emotions I had been teaching my clients to uncover all of these years.

I had always known finding equilibrium with one’s life challenges was the answer to finding lasting peace in the center of one’s authentic truth.

I helped so many people balance their emotionally tragic stories and watched their lives change as a result of working with me, that as I observed the effectiveness of what was occurring for all of them, I knew I had been gifted with something important to share with the world.

All was going according to plan until that fateful day on January 9, 2005…

Until I “lost” my mom, no prior wound inflicted the agony necessary to propel me in becoming intimately connected with the depth of struggle some of my clients experienced, as they faced their painful emotional memories, in order to equilibrate into the freedom that exists beyond them.

I practiced Equilibration so consistently in my life, that I’d gotten pretty good at not allowing my emotions to run me… Once you get to a point of habitual development of this skill, hardly anything takes you out anymore, but in the beginning it can be a little easier said than done…

It took pure love and intense dedication to wade through all I had to let go of, in order to embrace the deeper truth in my mom’s passing. I wanted to hold on to my emotional story. When it hurts that bad it feels SO real and nothing else justifies the feeling besides clinging tightly to the story underneath it.

Who would I be without the grief of my loss?… I would not be the person who could see the divinity and beauty in what had happened. I would not have had that mystical experience beyond time and space, which confirmed everything for me…

You are most welcome to read the full story of what happened if you want to know what really unfolded. It was pretty amazing…

In the end, I was able to honor and release my grief over my mom’s passing along with all of the guilt I felt for that which I could’ve done to help improve her health and extend her years. She was so full of life and wisdom, and she was always giving…

Even in her death she was there by my side, serving me to become more. Her passing was the greatest emotional trial I have ever lived and because of the depth of the pain I experienced, I grew an even deeper conviction that I can help anyone heal any emotional wound they carry, no matter how bad it is.

In the peaceful, calm and present state of grace and awareness I found when I balanced my emotions, I became absolutely inspired to write the story, “Thank God I Lost My Mom.”

After I wrote my story I thought about all of the people I’d helped so far, and how many more of them were out there with stories of triumph over tragedy that I hadn’t met yet…

Though I was clearly called to help people learn to see their suffering in a new light that would lead them to appreciation, and ultimately liberation from their emotional past… I couldn’t put down the idea of also helping some people to tell their story, like I had mine.

So, I began looking for other people who might also have a “ThankGodi” story to tell, but I had NO IDEA I would end up getting so many responses.

I sorted through hundreds of submissions of “ThankGodi” stories in order to create our first book, ThankGodi – Stories of Inspiration for Every Situation. Just like that, the first book of our series went to press, and Thank God I was born.

Little did we know the roller-coaster ahead of us…

Going into the publishing business right at the time Border’s goes bankrupt and Barnes and Nobles closes half their stores, was interesting to say the least.

Fortunately, we still had Amazon, and it was all we needed. Blessings poured in beyond our wildest dreams. We hit #1 on Amazon, sold tens of thousands of books, got interviewed on ABC-TV and were featured in a Hollywood film with the Dalai Lama.

ALL THIS, because I equilibrated my mom’s death, found the pure inspiration that existed beneath my emotions and listened to my inner voice tell me to write my story, and ask others to do the same.

I know if I had not taken the time to bring all of my emotions associated with my mom’s death to balance, that I would never have done any of these things and I wouldn’t be here with you now.

The many business challenges that we faced over the years, forced us to delve even deeper into doing whatever it took to accomplish our mission.

I realized the internet was the answer. But, boy was there a lot to sort through. Getting to the truth on how to effectively use the web felt like we were searching for a needle in a haystack.

Eventually, we came across some of the best in the business and we listened.

We realized that many of our authors who shared their ThankGodi stories could benefit from our business mentorship, so we expanded our vision, to really help our authors go beyond publishing success into successful brand development with good visibility.

Besides the exceptional work we do with our author partners, we also work with blog contributors who have an aligned message to share, as well as individuals who are going through any life challenge and business owners seeking to strike the internal balance of equilibrium, by practicing our Equilibration method.

As we continue to evolve with the age of the internet, we’re excited to be bringing many wonderful and amazing tools, tips, products and services to help you create the exact picture of balance you desire in your world.

Stay tuned…