Mounina Bouna Aly’s journey and the passage from internal misery to healing, accepting the divinity of her body, the wisdom of her soul, and the freeing of her mind, “Was a gift given to her by Multiple Sclerosis,” writes the 41-year-old first-time author. Shocked? Unbelieving?
Her debut book, Receiving the Healing Gift in MS: My Journey from Separation to Union after a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis shatters the myth that MS is a death sentence and opens a door of infinite possibilities where illness, with all its pain, is accepted as a gift from life, a compass aligning you to healing.
It’s a tough sell. “I didn’t understand it all at first,” said Aly, who in 2007 experienced her first crisis at 29 while in Val D’or, Quebec. In a matter of hours, she says the left side of her body became perfectly paralyzed. “I thought at first it was normal since I had been so unhappy inside.”
Difficult to diagnose
Multiple sclerosis is difficult to diagnose because the symptoms can come and go, and the severity of symptoms can also be inconsistent. MS is a chronic, often disabling neurological disease that may lead to problems with numbness, coordination, vision, speech problems, extreme fatigue, and even paralysis. Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world, with an estimated 77,000 Canadians living with the disease, with 11 people diagnosed each day. While it is most often diagnosed in young adults aged 20 to 49, younger children and older adults are also diagnosed with the disease. Women are twice as likely as men to contract MS.
“I wasn’t surprised, though, when I was diagnosed,” Aly said. “I was so miserable inside. I felt so unhappy for years. I went on with my life as if nothing had happened. This is a mistake. This isn’t happening to me. I could work and do other things. All is good. All is good. I did not know that life was talking to me.” After six long weeks in a rehabilitation center and taking different medications, Aly returned to work, again thinking, “All is good.”
The certainty of life
Aly’s life always seemed confident. Curious by nature, a healthy eater, and rarely sick, she worked during the day developing pensions plans while studying during the evening, hoping to become an Actuary. She had already completed a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and was enjoying a long-term relationship and her close-knit group of friends. A seemingly everyday life by any standard.
Inside there was uncertainty, detachment, and misery. “There was no life in me,” she revealed during our interview. “I always felt disconnected.” Numbing herself to marijuana to avoid feeling, Aly writes, “she was trying to find comfort in the logical view of life, viewing it through a very rigid-black-or-white paradigm.”
When her second crisis struck, she was on vacation in the Dominican Republic. “I had a dream that I was being healed,” she says. “When I woke up, I couldn’t even stand up. Imagine not being able to stand up in a country far from home?”
Sometimes it’s easier to deny a hard truth than face it. This time, Aly couldn’t deny it. This time, Aly faced it.
This is where Aly’s story begins and where we join. Aly reveals her journey and the eventual passage from misery to healing with MS as a constant impersonal cohort at first. Still, as Aly bares her story, you begin to see a love story, her love story in the sharing of her readings, research, and endless curiosity. Through acceptance, change, and forgiveness (the three sections of the book she sees as gifts from life), Aly falls in love with herself and life and invites us to do the same. MS, it seems, became her companion, her healer, and her teacher.
“This was something greater than me, much more powerful than me, and something more loving than me,” she says. “It was all perfectly and divinely orchestrated.”
Receiving the gift from life
There are points in the book where you may need to set it down, and reflect, because there is so much to take in as Aly winds us through her spiritual journey, sharing the knowledge of her spiritual teachers and the lessons learned. Aly’s writing style is outwardly frank, honest to a pinpoint on a needle, and heartwarming in her sharing. In particular, in “Patience, she writes, “Is pertinent and should be allowed to unfold as it needs to,” as should reading Receiving the Healing Gift in MS. This is the approach to Aly’s debut book. Accept – then act and open yourself up to the possibility of an infinite amount of possibilities.
Your first impression on reading the title is of shock and disbelief. How can an illness be a healing gift from life? We often perceive illness as something inside of us to “get rid of” as soon as possible. Illness can often seem unbearable. “The gifts of illness may be difficult to see or appreciate,” writes Aly. “Everyone is different.”
Receiving the Healing Gift in MS: My Journey from Separation to Union after a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis is one of those rare books that confirms what you may already know but don’t know yet – illness is a gift from life, and that in itself is enough to rattle a century of conventional wisdom when it comes to disease.
World MS awareness month
The book’s release is timely as May is World MS awareness month, with World MS Day 2019 taking place on May 30. The 2019 campaign, ‘My Invisible MS’ (#MyInvisibleMS), centers on raising awareness of the invisible symptoms of MS and the unseen impact of MS on quality of life. The campaign will give everyone affected by MS a voice to share their invisible MS symptoms and express what they want others to know and understand about MS. It will challenge common misconceptions and help people understand how to provide the proper support.
Canadians will walk together in different communities on May 26 for the annual MS Walk. In 2018, MS Walks from coast to coast in Canada raised $8 million thanks to the support of 31,000 donours, participants and volunteers. For more information, visit MS Walk and register for the walk in your community.
You can also donate to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada #ACTSOFGREATNESS.
