The Year to Thrive, Not Just Survive

I just finished Shonda Rhimes’ “The Year of Yes”! It was such a good read about how taking the first steps past your fears can really make your life better—it makes dreams come true. She talks about having the audacity to be an active participant in your life if you want to change it. 10/10, highly recommend.

She was vulnerable about how she navigates motherhood and the help that she needs, but she also- very vividly, described her fears as if she was living in my own body. The desire to hide while simultaneously wanting to be seen was very real—for so many of us. She captured so much of who I am.

However, the book also made me reflect on… who do I want to be? Who have I been in the past? What identities have trauma, depression, and anxiety robbed me of, and which identities do I choose to reclaim? Which do I choose to release as I evolve into a newer, better Tyra?

Somewhere between surviving and healing, we begin to question ourselves. Am I really who I thought I was or who other people believe me to be? Do I make sense to other people? Will I ever truly heal from what has happened to me? What if I can’t be the version of me that I used to be?

Sometimes we lose ourselves so much in surviving that we forget we have the divine right to reclaim and restore the parts of us that we’ve loved and lost.

Some of us allow the struggle, the pain, the anxiety, and the suffering to become our identity, and we spend the rest of our lives fighting—even when the battle is over.

But what happens when the battle is over? When we’ve won the war? Sometimes we forget to claim the spoils of all that we are and all that we were—and use those as tools to rebuild all who we desire to become.