Yolanda Hadid on Her Battle with Lyme Disease: ‘Being in Remission Is an Everyday Blessing’

Yolanda Hadid is feeling grateful for her health. 

"I'm better than I've been in a long time," the former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, who was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2012, tells PEOPLE. 

"But as I've learned, there is no cure for chronic Lyme disease," Hadid, 57, adds of the tick-borne infection, which her children Bella and Anwar have as well.  "Being in remission is an everyday blessing, and I pinch myself every morning." 

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As Hadid moves into her "next chapter," she's putting an emphasis on her emotional wellbeing, which has a big impact on her health.  

She says moving to Pennsylvania—where she lives on a farm—has been an important part of her "healing" process.

"I didn't really start healing until I got here away from all the stress and the show and everything that was stressful in my life," says Hadid. " It's a good place for me to live a healthy life, for sure." 

"Doing the gardening and being outside with my animals, that's what fills me up," she adds. 

Hadid also relies on a wearable electronic device to help manage her symptoms.

"I wear it every night," she says of FREmedica's WAVE 1, which emits specific frequencies that can communicate with cells to help increase wellness. "It's really helped me with my symptoms. I started to sleep better. I started to feel better, to have more energy to exercise."

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Reflecting on her experience with the "extremely debilitating" disease, often referred to as the "invisible illness" because people who suffer from it may not appear sick, Hadid recalled that the "huge list of symptoms" she dealt with every day left her feeling "depressed."

"If it wasn't for my kids, I probably wouldn't be here today. They were my driving force and the reason I kept fighting," she says.

Now that she's feeling better, Hadid says she's trying to prioritize enjoying life— something her children remind her to do as well.

"It's great to have the mom back, and now they're like, 'Slow down, lady,' " she joked, explaining that these days it can be tempting to try and make up for "so much lost time."

"I've got to stop myself in my tracks and make sure that I go slow and enjoy life and try to always be in the moment," she says.

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