Pray - Plan - Prosper

Story by Life & Health Insurance Consultant

Marcy Myles-Clark

Research shows that anxiety levels have hit an all-time high during the Covid-19 pandemic. People had not planned or prepared for the unexpected, thereby triggering overwhelming amounts of physical, emotional, and financial grief.

As the U.S. works to resume normalcy, we see more of a shift from the physical impacts of Covid-19 to the long-term mental and emotional impacts of the pandemic. The last 18 months have caused a spike in anxiety and post traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD).

According to the CDC in June 2020, 40% of adults reported struggling with mental health or substance abuse. People are now desperately searching to find their long-lost peace of mind. 

Marcy Myles-Clark experienced one of the most traumatic periods of her life when she and her husband Theirrien “Tee” mysteriously contracted Covid-19 in March 2020.  Before that, Marcy and Tee were your typical suburban Maryland fun-loving, empty-nester couple, living their lives to the fullest. Then, in the blink of an eye, life as they knew it drastically changed.

Marcy, a 47-year-old (20+ year Healthpreneur, Real Estate/Life & Health Insurance Consultant) was mildly affected by Covid-19, however, her husband, a 56-year-old (30+ year Sr. Law Industry Manager) became deathly ill and spent 46 days fighting for his life (including 28 days on the ventilator in a medically induced coma) as Johns Hopkins “Sickest Covid-19 patient.”

During that time, Tee was isolated from his family. He experienced several life-threatening episodes where Marcy was told to prepare herself and their family for the worst. Marcy did what she knew best, she deployed various “Spiritual and Practical/Financial Resources” to successfully navigate herself and her family through one of the toughest times in recent history, starting with Powerful Prayers and Fruitful Faith. She also utilized various other spiritual resources to unite her mind and body during a stressful time to achieve peace of mind. She calls these her “Good Spiritual Resources” aka crisis management.

These resources include the following 4 Key Spiritual Resources for crisis preparation and management.

Powerful Prayers

Fruitful Faith

Joyful Journaling

Microwave Meditation

Rapid Relaxation (Bonus)

Powerful Prayers

Marcy formed what became an international prayer group in the early days of Tee’s hospitalization and they prayed him back to good health with “Fruitful Faith” (abundant belief in the seemingly impossible) as they tracked his progress. During his various life-threatening episodes, the group would pray for him, and his body responded, defying numerous life-threatening episodes. It is her belief that others can also achieve peace of mind by utilizing these techniques. Spiritually speaking, it is important to believe in the impossible, when life gets in the way. Having fruitful faith and believing in a higher power can take away the burden of feeling helpless in grim situations. It helps you to know that there’s more working on your behalf than what your human eyes can see. 

Joyful Journaling

It’s a way of putting your intimate thoughts and feelings on paper which can be so simple but so gratifying. Joyful Journaling is therapeutic, and it allows us to clear our minds. It is believed to have possible healing properties. Research also suggests that journaling might be helpful to our health and immune system, which is quite timely, since we’re all concerned about boosting our immunity to decrease the effects to Covid-19. 

For Marcy journaling has always been a favorite past time and opportunity to peacefully express herself privately. It’s no surprise that she found journaling to be a source of tranquility during her recent trials and found journaling to be a way to stay sane when there were just so many other things going array. She would chart her most intimate feelings during her personal time, since a lot of her experiences needed to be shared with family and friends who were tracking Tee’s progress, while praying for his healing. As it turns out, some of her journal samples would become a published record in the couple’s book and be used as a testimonial to demonstrate the thoughts and feelings she was going through.

Microwave Meditation.

This is a simple method of instantly re-connecting mind, body, and spirit for peace of mind. Microwave Mediation can be mindfulness and focusing on positive thoughts. Like the old proverb goes “Whatever a Man Thinks, So is He.”

While Tee was absent and fighting for his life, Marcy focused her thoughts on the fact that he was still alive and still withstood a fighting chance, which proved to be true. Scriptures or inspirational readings can further help to propel the mind into microwave meditation.

Rapid Relaxation

Lastly, she proclaims the importance of Rapid Relaxation to achieve peace of mind. Sometimes Rapid Relaxation can just be a simple phone call from someone who brings joy, a simple walk with nature, or listening to a relaxing or fulfilling song. Marcy loves the water and often finds her Rapid Relaxation in water related activities including bathwater. These are simple and accessible tools that can quickly reset the mind and body into relaxation mode. While these tools are effective during the actual crisis, Marcy strongly recommends utilizing them pro-actively.

Pre-planning, implementation, and execution of these spiritual resources were a large part of the successful outcome of the ordeal.

In addition to spiritual resources, Marcy and Tee also deployed “Good Financial & Practical” resources during this traumatic period as part of their crisis management.

Financial & Practical Resources

As a long-time family caregiver and veteran pharmaceutical representative, Marcy is aware of the importance of having and leveraging relationships with personal physicians. It was their relationship with Tee’s physician that saved his life. Tee’s Pulmonologist urged and arranged for them to go to the ER for an emergency cat scan of his lungs which determined that he was in lung failure and needed an emergency intubation, which ended up saving his life. He may not have survived if he would have had to wait and navigate through the typical emergency room channels. Additionally, early in the pandemic, Covid-19 testing and treatment was only available with the referral of a physician. This ended up being a detriment for many who didn’t have health insurance or a relationship with a physician to advocate for them.

As a life and health insurance consultant, Marcy knows the importance of having both living and death insurances in place. Disability and long-term care insurances are examples of necessary living insurances as they can be the key to survival in these situations. Long Term Care (LTC) is necessary to ensure proper nursing care (in the home or in a facility) in the event someone becomes incapacitated and unable to function without assistance. Both types of insurances can be extremely beneficial during sudden or chronic illnesses. 

“My husband and I were very grateful for his LTC policy which allowed us the ability to ensure proper in-home care after his 46-day hospital stay. Covid-19 had totally ravished his body. For the first few months after his return home, he was unable to walk, and he needed assistance with bathing, dressing, toileting, etc., many of the things that we often take for granted. We were able to secure an in-home aide to assist during this time utilizing the LTC plan funds. Thankfully, we didn’t have to utilize any of our life insurance benefits, but it was great to know that we had it, which is the total premise of insurance.” 

Insurance is something that you pray that you don’t need to use, but you’re grateful that you have it when you need it. Unfortunately, there were many people who were unprepared who did not have life insurance prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, many of the families of the deceased were left with a financial burden in addition to their loss, further increasing their anxiety. These types of situations reiterate the power of having your financial house in order and proactively implementing “Good Resources.”

Photo Courtesy of Marcy Myles-Clark

This article can be shared with the below social media buttons