The Life Lesson and Mindfulness Journey of an Endurance Athlete. Conversation with Isabella de la Houssaye

In this podcast, I have a conversation with Isabella de la Houssaye, a Louisiana native, living in Princeton, NJ. The interview was taped in June 2019 for Princeton Community Television, but I decided to share this amazing story on my podcast series. We spoke about mindfulness, persistence and being able to live your life in the present.

She speaks about being aware of the voices in your head and learning to quickly identify when they serve you or when they create stress and hold you back.

Diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer with tumors in her lungs, brain, spine, bones, and adrenal gland in January 2018, she was bed-ridden, in excruciating pain, and felt life was unfair. She was given at best a few months to live.

After a high-profile career as a lawyer at Lehman Brothers, she was raising 6 children, competing and winning ultra-races and winning them.” I was unstoppable” she says. “But, within weeks of my diagnosis, I could neither walk nor drive and I was told to put my affairs in order”.

Extremely healthy and as an extreme endurance top athlete who had run every marathon and climbed almost every mountain on the planet, she decided that she would take what was left of her life and use it to enjoy her last adventures, often shared with her children to share her pearls of wisdom and lessons in courage.

As she fought back and with the help of new immunotherapy and chemotherapy treatments, she accepted what she had control over and stopped wasting energy trying to control what was not within her power to control.

She embarked on new adventures including climbing the Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest mountain outside of Asia, with her daughter in January 2019. She was interviewed by the New York Times about it: NYT Interview.

She recognized fear and putting it in its place or rather expand her comfort zone so that fear did not control you. She learned to stay completely in the present. Quoting Isabella:

“At this moment in time am I alive? do I have frost bite? can I breathe? Can I take another step forward? The summit day on a mountain like Aconcagua is about 18 hours long. Many people get all the way to summit day and set out at 4 AM and at about 5 AM they are thinking--Oh my God, I have 17 more hours of this--I don't think I can last another 17 hours--and they quit”.

According to the National Cancer Institute, the five-year survival rate for people with Stage 4 lung cancer is 4.4% About 50% die within five months.

She is still alive today, three years later and last year, decided to bike across America to raise awareness about lung cancer and advocate for more comprehensive screening and more research on treatment options.

She feels blessed. She has decided every hour of her life is worth living to the fullest. She is practicing yoga and meditation. She knows now that mindfulness is facing your fears and moving on.