My 50 years of life have been a roller coaster.

Good moments, hard moments. Successes and mistakes. Seasons to celebrate and others to reflect, learn, and grow. I can point to many positive changes in my life— for example when I started working at 20, or when I began living a healthier life through exercise and reading, habits that have stayed with me. When I quit smoking after my first child was born. Or when I made the difficult decision to end my marriage and start living on my own, a path I continue to walk today.

But without a doubt, the biggest and most positive change I’ve ever made has been recovering my faith.

Since my teenage years, I considered myself a non‑believer. My philosophical position shifted between atheism and agnosticism, and it was a way of thinking that kept me morally grounded. But a few years ago, I went through a severe emotional crisis. Depression and loneliness consumed me day after day. In that emotional bottom, I felt a sudden burst of light cut through my being. I understood that what was missing in my life was faith.

I recovered the faith I had lost as a child and approached God again—not through religion, but through spirituality. From that moment on, my sadness, my depression, and my loneliness faded away. Faith in God helped me heal and rise again. And since then, everything in my life has changed for the better—my body, my mind, my emotions, my work, my finances, and my relationship with my family, especially my children and my parents. Everything has improved significantly.

It has now been four years since that moment. There isn’t a single day I don’t take at least 30 minutes to meditate and give thanks for the many blessings in my life. Sometimes, all we need is a spark of faith to restart an engine we thought had already shut down.