I have always been a believer that we can have it all in our lives. And for a while, it may seem that I did. A great husband, beautiful and healthy children, a fabulous job and I was feeling healthy and vibrant myself. Although ironically if you would have gone back in time and asked me if felt 100 percent fulfilled, I would have likely said no. I was continually striving for more, feeling anxiety inside as well as suffering from insomnia. I was driving myself way too hard and nothing was really ever good enough.

Then I learned life has a way of rearranging our best-laid plans. After I suffered a brain injury and then lost my husband to esophageal cancer, I really began to question what was possible after all. Can we really have it all?

When the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne came out in 2006, people around the world were excited by this theory. According to Byrne, The Law of Attraction states that when we want something, we need to send our desire for it out into the universe and stay very positive (which will increase our energy frequency) to draw our desired outcome to us. And presto, it is ours! For years, I have subscribed to this way of thinking or to use self-help terms, I will say ‘manifesting.’

And then one day recently, I changed my mind.