Life throws unspeakable challenges at us sometimes and in order to cope and survive we need to attain mental immunity, which is the very foundation of emotional resilience. Mental immunity is not about resisting negative thoughts, it is about acknowledging, observing them without believing they represent reality.
For many years I felt that I lacked a higher purpose, that there was another way for me to leave a legacy for others and maybe positively impact a few lives and that this way was for me to share my story in a book, as and when the time was right.
In July 2017 after a chance meeting in June, I began a two-day course in reaching my inner potential called DNA Light UP and it was whilst sharing the inner complexities and details of my life in a session that I made the decision to start writing. It felt right. The session instilled in me a confidence I had never known nor felt before and I trusted my path.
I didn’t know the how, or the practicalities but got going that night.
My book takes the reader through my early years as a survivor of sexual abuse, incest, and neglect. My abuse started around the age of three and continued until I was much older.
It occurred with three different people and the ramifications of the abuse haunted me until two years ago when aged 43 I decided to stop allowing my past to define me.
For all abuse is insidious, silent and toxic.
It can ruin lives, mental health, and families. It can destroy and debilitate, shame and frame survivors into silence.
In writing a book I wanted other’s to know that they too can decide to heal, make changes and move forward with their lives, after abuse, tragedy, adversity, and other challenges life throws at them.
That their lives can be beautiful again, vivid in color and filled with hope, positivity, and healing. That we can decide to not be the sum total of our past, but take lessons from it which can enable us to be a brighter, more beautiful version of our former self.
So, in the quest to write MY story down I sought to help those who faced challenges, are survivors, are lost, alone, angry or bewildered.
Because that sad little girl on that swing, who defied the odds, who cried, attempted suicide, ran away and endured much more than any child should have at the hands of people she should have trusted went through that for nothing.
I am not and have never been a victim. I and many other survivors, warriors and chose to thrive despite the odds.
I have written my book because it felt right, because I wanted to help and fuel the fires of change in others, to tell the world that It’s No Secret, not anymore, that I was abused, physically hurt, felt lost, alone, sad and empty but that I am OK with it now, because I chose to be.
I wrote my book to tell my story, because I was ready, open to the path and because it felt right.
Because I am stronger and more resilient than ever and because I could!
It’s No Secret, Thriving After Surviving is my story and I am proud to share with the rest of havingtimers that we can be so much more than we believe we can be whether that is in our personal life or business life! Mental immunity can be built, and it all starts with getting up and sharing your story. We are in this all together.