In this inspiring episode, inspirational speaker Elizabeth Meigs survived a life-altering car accident during her freshman year of high school. Elizabeth shares her story and is passionate about teaching others how to overcome their personal struggles.
https://elizabethinspires.com/
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Transcript
Hi and welcome to the You World Order Showcase podcast. Today we are speaking with Elizabeth Meigs. Elizabeth specializes in helping people find inspiration to live happier lives and based I'm pretty sure on her story, which she is going to tell us, it's an incredible journey.
That she's been on. I can tell you that.
So welcome, Elizabeth. We're really glad to have you with us today.
Thank you for having me. I feel so blessed to be on here and get to share my story.
I was essentially a beautiful 14 year old girl. I was going after my dreams. I had been a singer and a performer since.
Age of seven.
Had been taking voice lessons. Very popular. Played every sport. Cheerleader had my whole life. Going for me had been in a recording studio kinda demo tapes in the spring of my it's great year.
Everything my life was set, my voice teacher had arranged the recording studio because she saw my gifts and my talents.
And wanted to help me to make it big on the country music stage, which was my dream in life.
But then one week into my freshman year of high school.
My whole world was turned upside down.
My best friend's mom was driving us to the movies when all of a sudden, as we were travelling down the rural two lane highway, we were struck from behind.
This sent our vehicle into a tailspin, which then proceeded to barrel roll multiple times until we finally landed in the field on the opposite side of the highway.
With every roll.
My head is at the point of impact.
My best friend was the least injured of us all. All three of us survived. Her mom had to have multiple back surgeries, and before she could finally get back to living her life.
My friend flagged family a young family down on the side of the road to get them to call 911. This was back in 2000, so not everybody had a cell phone, especially coming from the rule area in Southeast Kansas where I grew up.
But luckily this family stopped and called 911.
Once the EMPs arrived on the scene and I had to be cut from the vehicle, resuscitated multiple times at the scene to get me stable enough.
To transport me to the Royal Hospital.
Where the doctors just weren't equipped with enough medical staff, knowledgeable and what I needed. So I would need to be life flighted to the nearest trauma center an hour and a half away by car.
Once my mom, my dad, my brother and sister-in-law all met with the neurologist and the medical team.
They would receive a very dim prognosis, less than a 25% survival rate.
They informed my family that my brain was falling rapidly and that I would need to be placed in a drug induced coma to allow my brain the best chances as healing and allow me the best chance of survival.
My grandparents were calling all of our family.
Aunts, uncles, cousins all arrived at the hospital. Everyone had been awake for more than 24 hours.
Aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins decided to go to the get a hotel room.
Get some rest because I was stable.
Then in the middle of the night on Sunday.
I took a turn for the worst.
My brain began swelling rapidly.
It got up to six to seven times the normal cranial pressure.
It was in the middle of the night.
There was a Calvary Baptist minister on the pediatric ICU unit that night who offered to come and pray with my family.
My mom remembers in this prayer.
Feeling a weight lifted up her shoulders and she.
Knew in that moment.
And I was going to survive.
It was approximately one hour after this prayer.
That my brain swelling began to go back down. Doctors were able to get me stable.
And Get Me Out of the woods.
Prayer is the most powerful thing that we have at our disposal.
Prayers make miracles happen.
I would remain in this coma for three weeks. The ventilator would be removed at 2 weeks.
Once I woke out of my coma.
I couldn't speak.
I would answer questions by squeezing my right hand or blinking my left eye.
I fatigued very quickly.
They but therapist would get me up for 30 minutes and the chair beside my bed and I would sleep the rest of the day.
On September 19th.
I stood for the first time.
Of course, I had therapists beside me holding me up because I had lost pretty much all my muscle mass.
It had been 20-4 days since I had been on my feet.
How much do we all take for granted every day?
Being able to walk to the refrigerator to get the glass of milk.
Today I'm sharing my story with you because.
This was a brand new beginning for me.
The life that I knew was over.
I would no longer be that beautiful, independent girl who had her whole dreams that I was chasing.
Making them a reality.
In fact, that night was the night that all my dreams died.
I had absolutely no idea.
The difficulty that I was going to.
Face over the next four to six years of my life.
I had no idea that my rehab and my recovery was not going to be the most difficult things that I would face in the next four to six years.
Of my life.
But little did I know in this moment.
That over the next four to six years, I would discover strategies that would not only help me in overcoming this tragedy and lead me to finding myself again.
But that it would also lead.
To a much bigger reward.
In the week following me standing for the first time, I would take three steps in the parallel bars.
And then I would be transferred to an intensive therapy program at the subacute rehab unit in Kansas City, MO. On September 27th, just a little over a month.
After the car accident.
Still having no idea.
Of the difficulty that would be in store for me.
And that I would face my darkest moments.
In the next four to five years of my life.
I still had to rely on someone to help me with absolutely everything transferring and getting me out of bed. I couldn't do any of that on my own.
I couldn't speak, so I would make my means known by writing on a whiteboard and by blinking my left eye to answer questions.
My voice pretty much defined who I was.
And but I was known for my voice.
People would hire me to sing all over the area.
Do you have any idea what that must have been like?
43 days after that fateful night.
As my mom walked into my hospital room that morning, I said good morning and I love you for the first time.
Of course, my voice was Bentham, but a whisper because it was still very weak from having the ventilator in.
Have you ever been hit with an experience that totally altered your life?
Look, you're figuring out.
Who this new person was?
Or had a situation that just left you stuck with no way out.
This was exactly where I was.
As I reflect back on these early days, I had to focus on my recovery. The gains that I was.
Making each day.
Being able to walk three steps one day, five steps the next.
It was hard for me to remember my progress each day, but luckily the therapists they worked with my mom, my family, they were all right there by my side to help remind me.
Focusing on the positive is so important.
Have you ever heard what you focus on Groves?
When it seems like you are being hit from every direction with negative, I encourage you to focus on the positive.
Over time, I learned that every night before I went to bed.
Picking out three positives from the day.
Would help me to be able to get through each day focusing on those positives. It's going to be hard in the beginning because when you're being hit from every angle with negatives.
Finding the positives is going to be a little bit challenging, but as you continue to find those positions every day, you're going to see more and more. I promise you that.
Deuteronomy 31, six says be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord.
Your God who moves with.
You he will not lead you or forsake you.
During these times, remembering that God is always with you is so important.
He loves you, but he's asking you to turn to him and ask him for the help to keep going.
He is the one thing that has never failed me and he's carried me through every challenging moment of my life.
He's always going to be there for you, too. I promise you that.
On October 13th, after being in the inpatient rehab for 2 1/2 weeks, I would be discharged home.
Of course, I was still relying on a wheelchair to get me long distances because I was still.
Very, very weak.
Had to use a Walker when I was up.
Walking to maintain my balance so I wasn't ready to go back to school.
My mom and I would go home for Friday night and Saturday night and then we would pile back into the car on Sunday afternoon, head back to Kansas City, MO to start a seven week rehab program Monday through Friday, 8 hours a day. Physical therapy, occupational therapy speech, and then working with the teacher.
Trying to help me to get caught up on.
My homework.
I still had no idea that my rehab would not be the most challenging thing that I would ever face.
I would.
Incredible story.
I would.
Be discharged right before Thanksgiving from this rehab center.
Go back to school half days, Thanksgiving through Christmas.
But then that I figured out what my most challenging obstacles would be.
Once back in school.
My friend's life had gone on.
They were still playing the sports we loved. They were still working their part, time jobs going out on the weekends.
I had to do therapy after school every day of the week.
School work was so much more difficult for me. Had to hire tutors. My mom had to help me with all of my homework.
So I was focused on school work and went therapy.
I felt alone. I felt isolated.
My friends didn't even seem to care.
If I was around.
That's what I perceived.
It hurt.
I dealt with judgment.
My right eye was closed and would require five eye surgeries to get it back to functioning.
And looking more normal.
The front part of my head was shaved from the pressure gauge that was in my school lives and my comb and the monitor, the brain swelling.
My left arm was drawn up.
For years, it would be years before I could extend it and open my hand without prying my fingers open by right hand.
So those who didn't know of the accident or know me before.
Would see something physically wrong with me.
And decided that I wasn't worth their time.
Little did they.
Know that I was pulling with them up here.
But they never wanted to get to know the beautiful person that I was on the inside.
This hurt.
This was the biggest challenge because I was.
No longer that.
Beautiful independent singer-songwriter whose life was sent.
It would be like this for years.
But you know what?
There was one thing that I could always count on to carry me through.
Not with God.
Term I have 2911 says for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not harm. You plans to give you hope in the future.
I had a voice in my heart.
That despite the multiple times a week.
For the next four to five years that I would come home from school and tell my parents that I should have died, I wish I was dead. I want.
To kill myself.
That voice would bring me comfort and peace and keep me going. That said, I have a plan for you. You have to keep going. You can't stop.
I knew it was the voice of God.
I would have given anything to been able to talk to someone who had been through what I was going through when I was going through it.
But I didn't have that.
So I knew I.
Had to be that for someone else.
I knew I couldn't stop.
So every night before I went to bed, I would pray to God and thank him for my life and my blessings and ask him to lead me and help me to make the right choices so that I could help those he placed in my path.
I also pray for everyone in the world because what I was going through, I wouldn't have wished on in you.
God will never fail you.
I didn't always hear the voice in my heart.
But when I was praying for something.
I was able to keep my eyes open to new opportunities and all of a sudden there would be a door that would open that I knew was from God and that I needed to walk through it.
Matthew 1926 says with me, and this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
With God by your side.
You can turn that impossible in that I impossible. That's exactly what I've been able to do.
I got through high school.
Graduating with my class, by the Grace of God.
Went on to college where I continued have more struggles similar dealing with judgment.
I changed my major four times, finally graduated with my associates degree in occupational therapy after eight years.
But it was then.
When I would walk through the door.
Of a patients room that had separate a stroke and they would tell me that I can't do this.
And I could sit across from them and share with them my story.
That would give them hope.
They thanked me on the day I would discharge them home and give me a hug and say Beth, I couldn't have gotten through this without you. Thank you.
I love working as an occupational therapist.
I moved from Kansas to Texas in June of 2015.
All of my coworkers.
And my friends were basically my coworkers were all married or in relationships so.
There was one thing missing in my life and that was someone to share my life with.
But I didn't have any way of meeting single people, so I started doing online dating.
I can tell you that God will use any means necessary to get you where you need to be, even online dating.
In July of 2016, I went out on a lunch date with.
Someone through an online date and he invited me through his church.
But it was in a suburb of Waco, and I had only lived there a little over a year. I didn't know where China Spring, TX was, so I never went.
In November of 2016, I ended up moving.
To China spring.
Every time I pass the.
Church. I would see his face, couldn't remember his name.
And we think of the invitation, but I still didn't see God pointing me to the church, so I never went.
I thank goodness that God is persistent.
Uh, he basically had to hit me upside the head to get me to the church. I'm just glad he didn't use it 2 by 4, the last Friday.
In January 2017, I was in Walmart.
At 7:00 AM buying cooking ingredients under cooking, check off with a patient where?
When, as I'm walking away from the cash registers, I hear a familiar voice talking to cashier behind me, I think.
I know that voice, but I don't know where. I know it from, so I turned around. Lo and behold, it was the gentleman who had invited me to church on that lunch date. So I slowed down. He recognized me.
We did small.
Talk after our vehicles parked right beside each other.
And then Saturday morning, I messaged him on the dating app and said guess what? I moved to China, Spring, TX. I have yet to find a church that I feel at home at what?
Time is church.
He told me to come the second service that he would introduce me to all of his friends. I went to church that Sunday. He introduced me to all of his friends. Those friends became.
Family to me.
This was the first time that I felt like I belonged anywhere. In 17 years I had friends. I had a job I love. I had coworkers.
Two weeks after joining this church.
I found out they had to Celebrate Recovery.
Now, I didn't really know what Celebrate Recovery was, but I knew with the depression and the anxiety that I had learned to overcome.
That I could help people by sharing my story.
Celebrate Recovery is what got me getting up on a stage and sharing my story to a bigger audience. More than just my patience.
Two months after.
Joining this church?
God spoke to me one night and told me that he brought me and his friend together to bring us both closer to him and that I needed to tell him that I loved him and that God loved him.
That night, when God spoke to me.
He may. He allowed me to feel the unconditional love that he has for everything of one of us.
It's a love unlike anything else. God loves you.
It doesn't make a difference in your past if you make mistake.
He loves us all unconditionally. I promise you that.
Nothing will ever change that.
He also let me see inside this friend.
He let me see that this friend had the potential.
To get out of all of the darkness and to rise above.
Make whatever was on his heart become a reality. I knew I had that potential.
I have always had everything deep inside of me.
To make my dreams a reality.
You do too.
You may have to dig deep, but I promise you have everything within you to get out of whatever it is you're currently struggling with.
And I know that's why God made me aware and showed me that night everything that he showed me so that I can share that with you. You have everything within you. Make your dreams a reality and get out of your darkness.
First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 13, states God is spaceball and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with your testing he will provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
I am living proof of this Bible verse.
I wouldn't be here today if I didn't have everything in me.
And make it to where I am today.
He is the one thing that will never fail you.
I am stronger and more resilient and I promise you by not giving up and keep putting 1 foot in front of the other, you can become stronger and more resilient as well.
Everything happens in God's time.
And his time is so much greater than ours. His timing is perfect.
Now, I'm not saying that I didn't have a lot of. Why? Why me?
Why I?
With big and ask God that so many times.
Over the last two plus decades.
That I never got an answer, but a door would open to an opportunity that would reveal why.
Because I needed to fulfill my purpose.
I would come across natural solutions that would give me my life back in the spring of 2019.
And then I would begin sharing these natural solutions with others.
One of my clients, Barbara, hadn't been able to make a fist with her hands for over 4 years, and so she asked me if I had anything that could help her. I recommended the CBD topical and the CBD oil under her tongue. Within one week she was able to make more of a fist.
And her discomfort was getting better. But she wasn't there.
So after one month I checked on her and I said how are you doing?
And she looks up at me with tears in her eyes, holding up both hands, making a fist with both hands, and says Beth, you are my Angel. I never dreamed I'd be able to do my job, and no discomfort at all. And I'm doing it. Thank you.
The clients that I can help using my natural solutions, they're so much more of a blessing to me than any of the benefits that I've seen.
About a month after I started this business.
I would meet my husband because I continued to do online dating.
He was a giver and he was generous.
That's what he let me see.
After we got married in 2024 to six months to a year into our marriage.
His true nature.
Began to reveal itself. His insecurities would bubble up to the surface.
God was opening doors for me to be able to continue to speak and share my story on a much bigger level, but.
My husband would always tell me that the only financial security I would ever have is with my occupational therapy degree. I would never be able to have any income through my speaking at all.
He would make me cry 1 to 2 * a month for over 2 years telling me that.
I would never make anything with sharing my story.
Any time costs would rise, he would.
Get down and tell me that I needed to bring in more money. I was working two to three days a week as an occupational therapist, able to pay half our bills plus our groceries.
But he was still helping.
Pay for his brothers car and other stuff financially for him, both his brother and his mother.
Which he always told me that they were family. He was always going to take care of them if they needed it.
I got to where I couldn't share my goals and my dreams.
Because he would just.
Knock me down. Say they weren't a reality.
Making me cry.
Anytime costs would rise and he would.
Go flip out because of me needing to bring in more money. I would say God would make a way.
His response to me would be that God doesn't pay the bills.
I knew better. God has always provided anything and everything I've ever needed.
His faith just wasn't where mine was.
Psalms 5015 says and call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.
That has always been my purpose.
Me sharing my story and what God has done for.
Me in my life.
That's to glorify him and to share with others who don't know the Lord.
So that they know that he's going to make a way where there's no way.
He is the one thing that you can always turn to.
To lift you up.
In your time and need but you.
Have to ask.
In March of this year, I had the opportunity to do a two day speaking seminar that would get me a professional demo reel for my website of me sharing a short little clip of my story. Professional pictures for my website.
It was amazing because after I spoke.
People would stand up and say, wow, you have to take your story nationwide today. You can help so many people.
At the end of that week.
My old friend that I hadn't seen in over three years hadn't been close to.
In over 4.
Reached out to my best friend in Waco, asking about me.
I thank goodness that God again is consistent, always uses that same person.
To get me where I need to be.
He doesn't give up. He's a patient and a loving God.
In God's timing is always perfect.
On Monday, April 3rd, I'm going to get a call from the coach who did that two day speaking seminar and he told me that I had been chosen to get the scholarship for his four months.
Coaching program to get me to where I could find and get paid speaking opportunities to continue to share my story with so many more people.
I was a bit afraid to share this with my husband because I knew it wasn't going to go over well.
That night I cooked dinner. We ate.
And uh.
After dinner, I shared with him the news of the coaching program.
His response to me was until I see him writing, there are no fees involved. You're not allowed to do it.
I immediately started crying.
He glared at me.
And said in a nasty voice, why are you crying?
And I responded to him and said because this is who I am, this is what God has called me to do, and he's opening doors to make it a reality. And you're telling me I can't do it?
He said. I'm just looking out pressed. This is a businessman. He's only out to take what you've take from you. What he can get from you financially. He doesn't want to help you.
I knew better because I had been doing networking for over 2 years and I had met many business owners.
That would give what they could their knowledge help other business owners out in any ways possible so that.
If ever they got where they needed something.
They would receive whatever they needed when you give of yourself.
That's when you receive sometimes blessings bigger than you could have asked her. Imagine.
I knew in that moment.
That I had to get out.
So I made my escape plan that week.
I called the director of therapy where I worked.
To try to find out if I could transfer from the hospital in Dallas to the hospital back in Waco.
And I was able to. I applied for an apartment that I could afford and was approved within 24 hours.
By Saturday, I was ready.
Ready to get out and protect myself?
Psalms 9111 says for he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.
God moved mountains for me that week.
I had lost my peace.
When I got married and moved to Dallas.
When I came back to Waco.
I found my piece again.
I was back.
Where I belonged, during what I needed to do to glorify God.
I know that you're watching this for a reason.
I know you have everything inside of you to get through whatever struggles, whatever challenges you're facing right now in this moment.
But you can't stop.
I believe in you and I'm asking you to believe in yourself. Belief is so powerful.
The one thing that has always stopped me and left me feeling stuck and lost with no way out has been anxiety and fear. Fear of the unknown.
But over time, I learned that I couldn't let the fear stop me. I'm telling you right now. Don't let the fear stop you. I'm going to let you in on a little secret.
What fear really is?
Fear is false evidence appearing real.
So you have.
To keep putting 1 foot in front of the other, I know you have everything within you.
To make it through whatever you're being challenged with right now.
It's in my reflection of the last two plus decades of my life that I realized that I did discover strategies that got me through every obstacle, every darkness I have ever faced.
That just added to that fear and anxiety.
And now I'm still here today.
So that I can teach these same strategies to you.
So that you two can regain your lives in the same way that I have regained mine, grow stronger, grow more confident, and become resilient, just like I have despite all of the circumstances that are trying to stop you.
Prayers make miracles happen.
Never stop asking for the Lord to be your strength and believe you.
Focus on the path of it, especially through the hard times.
And never forget that with God by your side, nothing is impossible.
You can change that impossible and that I'm possible.
And never stop believing in yourself.
Stop letting those who judge you and don't have your best interest at heart.
Letting them affect you.
Put up boundaries.
They don't deserve any of your time.
As I mentioned before.
The strategies that I discovered.
I have a gift for each of you.
I have a free download of my EI method to finding peace.
This is five steps that you can take to reset in 30 seconds or less. When you're feeling anxious, when you're feeling depressed, when you're feeling lost.
So I encourage you to download it. You'll see the link in the comments with this post. You can also go to elizabethinspires.com.
And find the download there. I encourage you to download it, print it off and place it wherever you need it most. If you need it in multiple places, print off multiple copies so that you can turn to it whenever you're feeling lost.
And feel like you don't have anywhere to go in no way out.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your story with us and your.
32nd reset for peace.
I'm sure that people won't.
Find that very useful. They're trying to overcome challenges in their life. Is there one thing you'd like to leave the audience with today, Elizabeth?
Just don't ever stop believing in yourself.
And when you are really struggling.
And you feel like you don't have anyone.
To talk to.
Turn to God. Talk to him so many nights when I didn't have someone that I could talk to, I would cry myself to sleep talking bigger and letting him know what was on my heart.
He knows what's going on in your heart and within you.
But he wants you to turn to him and ask him for help. Ask him for guidance.
And just let him know what you're struggling with, I promise you.
He won't fail you and he will.
Help you through.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you.