Loss and Resiliency During Anxious Times

Dear Say It Brave Community,

Cancelled. Cancelled. Postponed indefinitely. I feel like that’s all we are hearing now, and although I understand why and I agree with the measures being taken, I also feel and share the immense pain and sense of loss that so many others are feeling.

Coronavirus has cancelled all of my speaking gigs and le-gitimately put my career on hold. It is an incredibly tough time for me, financially and emotionally.

To anyone feeling some type of loss right now, I hope you know right now in this moment that how you feel is more than okay. It is okay to feel sad, angry, confused, hope-less or full of fear at this point. The thing about not having control over a situation is that, as humans, we naturally get upset. So with that, you are not alone. My wish is that you all take a moment to take a step away and reflect. Use your teammates, friends and family to lean on.

I think about my mom’s cancer, which was and still is completely out of my control. I think about how much that ruined me this year, but also made me stronger than I knew I could be. I can look back in years to come and say, “Wow, I got through that.”

Just like I got through injuries that held me back, lost championships and athletic goals I never reached, all situations that I never thought I would recover from, but I did. I think sometimes these scenarios, as crappy as they are, give us room to grow and to reflect, something we may not have been able to do otherwise.

Times like these, it’s more important than ever to practice self-care. So yell, scream, cry, do what you need to. You deserve to feel the feelings you are having. But then take a moment to reflect. Try and find the good. Be able to take a moment to journal, go for a walk in nature, run, cry to a friend, breathe. Reflect on your accomplishments thus far. And even if you didn’t quite meet the goals you had for yourself, remind yourself that you did all that you could, with the time that you had. And that’s really all you can control.

Moments like these build resiliency. And resiliency builds and molds your life into exactly what you dreamed, and likely even more. One day you’ll look back and say, “Wow, I got through that”, and you will have a resiliency that pro-pels you into the future, stronger and more prepared than ever for future unfortunate events.

You will cherish the memories of what was, and maybe you will always long for what may have been, but you will have gotten through it. Until that realization comes, it’s okay to be angry. It’s more than okay to seek help and seek out a shoulder to lean on during this painful time. I suggest that you do, be-cause you are not alone. And if you feel alone, I can’t im-agine your sense of loss, but I am experiencing my own.We are in this together.

This too shall pass. I promise you, I promise you, I prom-ise you. Keep fighting, my beautiful warriors.

Xo,
Be Beautifully Simply You