Kim Richards is opening up about a life-changing health scare.
“They found something,” the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 55, tells PEOPLE at BravoCon in New York City on Friday. “Basically, I had to go in for a mammogram — women need to go for their mammograms.”
“I had a health scare with that and they had to do a biopsy,” Kim explains. “I get my last results back today and I know it’s going to be fine.”
“It’s just a tough scare,” Kim continues. “I think that changes people. That was a hard time for me,” she says, wiping away tears.
While the experience was horribly daunting, Kim explains “Going through something like that makes you stronger. I want to live here for a long time. I’m getting emotional, but I want to be here for me, I want to be here for my children, I want to be here for my grandkids. I want to see my kids get married.”
She explains that her family has been motivation for her to “stay the healthiest I can.”
“And when God’s ready? Okay. I’m going to do my best to stay the healthiest I can to be here.”
Kim’s health scare also helped “put everything in perspective” and pushed her to look to neuroscientist Dr. Joe Dispenza. She also now works with a spiritual activator.
“These men changed my life. I do their webinars and live-streams and I go to bed at night and can’t wait to wake up in the morning,” Kim tells PEOPLE.
Dispenza often hosts workshops that help people understand the power of their mind.
“I said a prayer one night that I want to wake up one morning and feel alive — and it happened! I started working spiritually and energetically and meditating,” Kim says. “I became a rakhi practitioner. I love life today. I’m so grateful to be here and grateful to be here in this life.”
“I went through all the traumas in my life and I worked on removing them. I can go to a therapist. I can work on a problem. When you work on things this way, you really have to go in deep and get them and remove them. It’s hard. And I did it by myself. I had to look at every piece of my life.”
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As a result, Kim says, “I literally saw who I was, who I became and who I am today. I realized, you know, I didn’t really ever know who I was.”
“Maybe because I was an actress, I was playing different characters. Maybe because I wanted to make my mom happy, or because I loved my kids too much and based all my life through them. But now I love me. I’ve never been happier.”
At this time, Kim is waiting to “get my last results back” following her health scare.
“I know it’s going to be fine,” she adds.
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Kim’s health scare is especially harrowing as her mother Kathleen Richards died of breast cancer in 2002.
Her sister and fellow bravo star Kyle Richards has also expressed the importance of women getting mammograms when she went in for her own annual appointment during season 9 of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Kyle, 50, grew emotional during the checkup but turned out to be completely fine.
“I lost my mom to breast cancer in 2002. The fact that she hadn’t had a mammogram in 5 years haunts me. I really wanted to show this to bring awareness to early detection as a reminder to get checked,” Kyle tweeted after the episode aired in May.
