In November 2018, Risa August received the stunning diagnosis that she had a rare pituitary disease that resulted in a large pituitary tumor at the base of her brain. Two months later, following brain surgery and only partial removal of the tumor, she underwent six weeks of radiation treatments. On top of all that, her 18-year marriage was falling apart.
This brutal series of events could crush the strongest of people. But Risa, recovering from the surgery and desperate to get back to her former self, stood tall in the face of adversity and signed up for a six-week, 1,800-mile bike tour from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Coast Highway. First, she had to allow herself to heal and reassess her abilities.
“About halfway through 2019 following my treatments, I realized that my life was forever changed,” Risa says. “My physical body, as well as my mental cognition were altered significantly. My life would never be the same.”
The company Risa had worked for since 2013 had hired her because of her mental acuity, sharp eye for details, and ability to easily organize the internal infrastructure of the business. She also ran her own successful wedding and event planning company, and was an Ironman triathlete, endurance cyclist, and outdoor enthusiast.
“I had an ability to do it all, and I had endless amounts of energy,” Risa says. “But my treatments and the disease that came with this pituitary tumor took that away. I could barely get off the couch. My brain wasn’t communicating properly with my body.”
Recovery was a long, ongoing process. One day, she made a conscious decision that she would no longer focus on what she could not do and instead focus on what she can do.
“This opened me up to possibilities,” Risa says. “I began looking at the world and my circumstances differently. I shifted my perspective and stopped viewing obstacles as roadblocks and instead began viewing them as something to navigate.”
Risa turned the word “can” into a mantra: capable, able, now. And in those moments of feeling doubt or indecision, she asks herself what she is capable of doing at that moment. “I have learned that each step takes me to the next step, again, opening me up to possibility,” she says.
Eventually, she took that long bike ride down the Pacific Coast. That was followed by a climb of the Salkantay pass in Peru, and a solo cycling journey across northern Spain. Risa also became an award-winning author, speaker, Gestalt practitioner offering coaching and creative workshops, and patient advocate.
“I used this life upheaval as rocket fuel to propel me toward transformation,” Risa says. “I realized that I get to choose how I move forward in my life.”
Today, she is based in Colorado and has sights on visiting new places. “What I love most about travel is immersing myself in different cultures and connecting with others,” Risa says. “My favorite movies as a child was the Indiana Jones series.”
The health challenges Risa faced have encouraged her to begin filling her life with the things that bring her joy, and to see the world through a new lens. “I let go of expectations and embrace experiences,” she says.
That includes negative experiences as well as positive. “I ask myself ‘what am I meant to learn?’ in challenging situations,” she says.
It’s Risa’s hope that her story is an inspiration to others who are going their own challenges. “I found a passion in patient advocacy work, giving voice to those who struggle with finding their own,” she says. “I guide others through their own limiting beliefs and toward shifting their perspectives so that they believe they can live life without self-imposed constraints.
“When you’re facing adversity, those moments of doubt or struggle, pause for a moment and ask yourself, ‘what am I capable of and able to do now, in this moment?” she says. “Although your life might not go exactly according to plan, when you face an obstacle and shift your perspective, you might see that the obstacle is actually a gift.”
“Life is like a 10-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.”—Charles Schulz
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