The One About Turning Struggles into Strengths

2020 is an uphill battle. It’s a rollercoaster. It’s complex!! Somedays I feel like I’ve hit my stride again, and the next I feel so uncertain. But one thing I know to be true, is we need to accept what we are feeling. Learning. Growing. And knowing… that even though things are hard, we will come out of this so much stronger.

I have this quote saved in my phone from Glennon Doyle’s book ‘Love Warrior’ and wanted to share with you if you haven’t read it…

“We are admired on the mountaintops, but we are beloved in the valleys. All the magic is in the space between mountains, where we have to unbecome everything we thought we were and start from scratch. This is hard to do, because when pain comes in the form of uncertainty, our instinct is to scramble out of it, to grab blindly for the familiar. But when we rush out of the valley, we miss gathering all the wisdom, strength and kindness we need for the next climb. We have to learn how to sit by the river and be still enough to claim its gifts.”

I went through a really tough time a few summers back in 2018. And my learnings have been sharp in my memory as of late. I felt my absolute worst. I hit a point where I felt so out of touch with myself and broken. I sat through feeling this way for months, which eventually nudged me to make massive changes in my life. Once I realized I was the only one who could turn things around, I did just that. That challenging time in my life led me to feeling like a new woman. I walked away stronger, wiser, and more dialed into who I am and my purpose. I actually look back at that point in time and feel extremely grateful that I experienced what I did. I needed to grow.

I guess what I wanted to highlight here is that, learning what I know now gives me hope and comfort. I no longer view struggling as weakness or being lost and broken, but an opportunity for growth, to get to know myself better. To break away from an old, outdated version of myself. To become a stronger, wiser, and truer-to-me human. When we are “broken”, that’s when the light gets in.

So just know, you’ve got this.

“Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven”.

—Taylor Swift (had to)

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