Her life of pain began on 9/11, yes, that 9/11/2001. But it wasn’t from the collapse of towers, it was the collision of cars. Long after her accident, Mindi sat in a wheelchair on our Long Beach, NY boardwalk, looking out to sea.

The impact of the crash was enough to sink anyone’s spirit. Mindi’s had many leg and back surgeries and has a Spinal Cord Stimulant Implant. She’s now diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). But all this wasn’t about to submerge the unsinkable Mindi Dovberg.

Mindi was not deterred from enjoying a rich life. She said, “I’d look out onto the sands and just dream of walking on them and getting into that water.” Now, Mindi gets into that water daily, winter or summer, for 353 consecutive days.

Mindi’s dad died Apr 12th, 2021, and she started her personal water therapy that May. She started with a plunge in a lake behind her parent’s Virginia home.

To paraphrase a famous line, “That was the start of a beautiful relationship.”

Mindi spoke of her first ocean experience; it was in Long Beach. She said, “My very first cold ocean dip was in December 2021.  It was cold and a way to shock the grief out of me.” She said, “I sat on the sand and allowed the surf to rush over my legs.”

Born and raised in Virginia, Mindi lived about three hour drive to the sea; but things changed when she moved to Great Neck, NY. She became a pharmaceutical rep and her territory included Long Beach, NY. She saw all the Long Beach physicians as her job required— and she also saw the sea.

When I heard of this young lady going into the North Atlantic every morning all year round, I had to meet with her. The beach meet was March 21, 2024, her 353rd plunge.

We had some warm days this March, but the twenty-first wasn’t one of them; it was 30 degrees with a north wind of 20 mph. I don’t usually go to the beach at 7:30 a.m. when it’s cold and windy, so I felt reluctance as I prepared to leave. Then I told myself, “She’s going into the sea. The water temp is 44—so snap out of it, Marine!”

We met at Gregg LaPenna’s boardwalk shack, Lazar’s Glizzy, and huddled behind its counter, leeward of the wind.

As we chatted the sun rose but didn’t warm the wind.

Mindi wore a sweatshirt, swimsuit, and dryrobe; she said she couldn’t do it without the dryrobe. I wore a winter coat and hat and, under my jeans—pajama bottoms, but I didn’t tell Mindi.

Mindi told me about her drive from Great Neck to Long Beach for her pharmaceutical route. She said, “The minute you come over the bridge when you don’t live here, this feeling comes over you.” She said she knew she’d like that feeling every day.

One day, a refrigerator magnet got Mindi’s attention; it said: “I’ve got Long Beach sand in my shoes.” She knew what it meant but said, “I didn’t see it in myself. I saw people playing volleyball and frisbee. I didn’t think it was ever going to be me.” But she said, “I started healing myself, I graduated to a walker, with tennis balls which aided me on the sand. I did it to just get my feet in the sand. It was then that I visualized myself going further and further closer to the shore.

She recalls those days vividly. She said, “When I see Facebook memories of pictures of me like that, I cannot believe that future of me is now, and I’m walking across the sand.”

Mindi lives in a Long Beach building facing north so she doesn’t see the sea from her window. She said, “I have a view of suburbia, which is beautiful.”

I, too, have a north-facing unit. But seeing the glass half full, Mindi and I have the advantage of that feeling she felt from the bridge. Because we don’t see the sea from our window all day, when we do, it’s the newness, the exhilaration, the feeling that grabs us by the heart.

I told Mindi how I’d get a feeling of “going home” while driving south on Neptune Blvd. There used to be an opening in the wall at the dune line; I’d see the sea through that gap a couple of blocks away. That view pulled me toward it—I was heading home.

Mindi said she had the same feelings at National Blvd in her pharma-rep days. She said, “I would drive by National Blvd, and as I approached a green light, I’d time it to turn red so I could turn my head and look at the sea. People would honk at me,” she laughed. Mindi is a lively, exuberant, young lady.

Mindi is also a Reiki Master Teacher who heals people at the Healing Arts Studio in Long Beach. She also heals via Zoom. She starts with a meditation practice and breathwork to calm people, then starts her reiki.

She said, “It’s a divine consciousness, a universal consciousness,” but for it to work, people must be open to it. She said, “People have to believe.” She said she does virtual healing all around the world. Mindi shares her sea dips in messages over Zoom, even to her clients in Australia.

Mindi enters the sea from Pacific Beach to Ohio-Nevada beaches. She says, “When I’m building up the courage to enter the water in winter, my neighbors who are surfing, walking their dogs, or working out, wave and cheer me on.”

Others on social media wanted to join her, so Mindi started a group of people who come to Laurelton Beach every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. One woman consistently comes from Queens. Mindi is also a Rockaway Beach, NY Dippers Club member, which has been integral to her cold water experience.

When Mindi told me about the Fed Ex drivers coming up the boardwalk ramp her eyes widened. She said, “They’re on their lunch breaks or done for the day, and you can see it in their faces—that feeling.” She waved her hand toward the sea and said, “They pause to come up here and experience this.” I said you seem to notice a lot of little things. She said, “I do notice little things they show me how magical it is.”

Life is rich for Mindi. She knows that those special little moments are what life is all about—a series of beautiful little presents.

“Sometimes I’m limping, going down to the water, but when I get out, no matter how long I’m in there, my legs are numb, and I feel like I can conquer the world,” she said.

Mindi said,”I feel there’s nothing I can’t do during the day and I really do believe that’s part of how it’s translated into my personal life.

I’m a single woman and I will walk up to people and talk to them where I had this trepidation before. It is changing who I am as a person.

I had friends and family that had sand in their shoes.

They would complain about sand in the car, sand here, sand there, and I didn’t have that. So that magnet—man…”

Mindi said, “I’m weaning myself off the cane because having the waves push and pull me gave me the strength, confidence, and pain relief that I never dreamt I could ever achieve.”

Mindi offers a prayer before each plunge, thanking the ocean for providing the healing.

Mindi said the number of surgeries on her legs and back rose to double digits. But she persevered.

Mindi graduated from wheelchair—to walker—to crutches—to cane,

mastering each—as they came.

Mindi began walking with the cane parallel to the dunes, far from the ocean’s edge. She said her ultimate goal was to touch the Beach Patrol flagpole at National Blvd. She said, “There were many days I was far away from that goalpost, but I kept doing it until I could touch it every single day.”

Of course, each medical case is different, and some physically impaired people can’t do what Mindi does. For those, please enjoy our best land-based sea-viewing: the ospreys, oystercatchers, whales, sea breezes—and people.

But maybe one or two people in wheelchairs, with the right mindset and latent ability, might be able to rise to the challenge and rise from their wheelchairs—like Mindi.

I wonder about that spinal cord implant Mind spoke about. How much trouble did those surgeons have welding it to the steel spine I know they encountered?

April 4th will be Mindi’s full year of consecutive plunging.

Writing mindsets

Mindi’s process: “I start by leaving my comfort zone.”

She said, “We are constantly writing our mindset. I’m warm in bed. I don’t want to go out. I’m constantly not wanting to do it. But when my feet hit the boardwalk, and see the ocean, I’m like, ‘Yes, I’m doing it!’

I could feel Mindi’s heart in her words: “The sand feels different every single day, and the water is different every single day. It’s impacted me so much. I feel this has catapulted my growth by writing the mindset and because of the healing I feel when I get out of the water. The after-effect brings me to tears; I’m giddy. I just came from the ocean.”

Mindi and Kimberly Angela are co-owners of Majestic Healing in Long Beach.

Their upcoming event is The Art of Wellness.

Be well,

Leebythesea