Real Life Resilience

“Now I am trusting myself. I trust my decisions. I stand by my decisions. I know what's best now and I speak up now.” Melissa Pierce didn't succumb when tragedy struck, she persevered through the pain and transformed into a stronger person because of it. She learned to accept herself as the person she had become. She moved on to write a book and share her experiences with others.

Everyone goes through their own trials and tribulations but it’s about overcoming them through not only mental strength but vocally. To grow from your past and help others on their own journey. It only takes one spark to start a fire.

How to raise children with a sense of resilience? This week, we are joined again by Luiza Coscia, an engineer, author, and mother of five children with special needs. Luiza shares tips that she uses to help teach resilience to children as little as two years old.

“I’m not shy to say that they are just really, really quirky kids,” says Luiza Y. Coscia. Luiza is the mother to five children with special needs, who she prefers to think of as out of the box children. After going to school to be an engineer, her life experience lead her to engineering out of the box solutions to help out of the box children like her own.

Childhood sexual abuse leaves a lifelong scar. It's difficult for male survivors of sexual abuse to discuss the matter in public because of social stigma. Many survivors keep denying the reality. Cecil Murphey, speaker, blogger and author helps survivors of male sexual abuse accept reality, share their pain with compassionate listeners, and believe in the fact that they are not alone in their suffering.

Five years after being diagnosed with stage one breast cancer, Antoinette was told she had stage four breast cancer that had metastasized to her spine. She documents her first year of living with cancer through journal entries and emails in her memoir Hug Everyone You Know: A Year of Community, Courage, and Cancer.

“You have to work at hoping for the positive,” says Carol Graham, host of the bi-weekly podcast Never Ever Give up Hope. She has survived the challenges of major illnesses, devastating personal losses and financial ruin more than once, yet has refused to become a victim. Her goal is to share hope with others and lessons on how to survive and thrive. 

Any bonafide writer calls themselves a writer because they write. There's really no other way of describing a writer than that. All you need to do to call  yourself a writer is pick up the pen and begin to write.

A mental health speaker just got real about his own mental health. Only 5% of people with chronic health conditions practice self-care says Mike Veny. "So statistically that's zero. Basically, it's a nonsense term that we throw around telling each other to do, but nobody's doing it."

Do you have enough adversity in your life to have an adversity bio? Sharon Roth-Lichtenfeld does! This founder of Good Grief Coaching has survived hardship and heartache amazingly well. Listen to the episode to discover how she finds peace and joy in the midst of very tough circumstances.

Your brain on ADHD is a Lamborghini, you just need to know how to drive it! Peter Shankman has discovered how ADHD can be a gift and shares that wisdom in his book: Faster Than Normal.

Is it possible to foster resiliency in the direct aftermath of the pain and grief of infertility and miscarriage? Jeanette White has allowed her experiences to help her grow in areas she never imagined. She now reaches out to others to offer support. Listen to find out why she recommends the Memory Resolution Technique.

We are storied people. Rachael Anne Clinton helps us understand why discovering the stories that have shaped our past benefits our present and future. Find out why she believes everyone has known some heartache, but why you can't enter the trauma olympics. Listen to her fascinating story...

According to Dr. Dan Allender, we all need to look at those stories we've written off as already resolved and say "What more am I to learn and how can I engage these stories with kindness?"

"How did you get into my living room?" That's what people ask country music singer/songwriter Radney Foster. His songs get to the heart of heartbreak, and life in general. But are his songs borne from experience? You bet!

Both writing and the Christian tradition of contemplative prayer depend on us facing our fears and anxieties, and the path to healing is about going through our pain rather than numbing it or distracting ourselves from it.

When does a boy become a man? Becoming a “man” isn't a new idea – there are centuries of precedence. But it’s been pretty much forgotten – especially in terms of some sort of ceremony, some sort of moment.

"I am the courageous heart that passionately beats to empower the hurt, broken, and lost. I believe that people are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole," says life coach Matt Gagnon. "And it's never too late to write your own comeback story."

Why worry twice? We can’t necessarily stop things, but we can stop freaking out about them. Dr. Kathy Gruver explains that the future always starts now. With every exhale we can make a more resilient choice.

Manny Wolfe believes that changing yourself will probably be the hardest thing you ever do...especially if you grew up in a cult in one of the most violent cities in America like he did. If you want to change, you have to take to it like a drowning man taking to a life preserver.