Where do you find your strength in tough times?
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, please come forward and say something (dial 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit 988lifeline.org). You are loved and there are people like me that are with you and won’t give up on you even when you feel that alone.
When I look back at my life it sometimes feels like a movie. How can so many painful and joyful memories fit into such a small time span? When I look back at my life, I can see how through each traumatic event there God has been, with his right hand to guide me to the next level. I believe that when trauma strikes, we have a small window of opportunity to make our next move and then decide (this is key) how that will affect us.
I gave up social media in 2017 and I thought it would be for good so I took up journaling as a way to vent the pain and work on myself. At this point, however, I thought I was dealing with only one form of PTSD from a big moment in my life but over time I realized there were many issues that had wormed their way into my subconscious from early childhood and I never had a chance to process them.
I think the hardest part for me in “finding myself” was finding clarity in how all the entrepreneurial ambitions I had were going to fit together. Oftentimes it felt like I was going in different directions and even today, I can sense that my team feels the same way. But I think that this journey through life should be an adventurous bout of pivots until you find what feels right. Don’t settle. In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle says, “Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.”
I found my strength in God, and in recognizing in retrospect all the times He carried me from one place to another. It is my desire to allow this podcast to walk you through the traumas of my life, not so that you can feel sorry for me but so you can see the relatability of processing trauma and using the pain as fuel to get you where you were always meant to be.
This episode is that “big moment” I mentioned earlier and began to change the course of my entrepreneurial journey. It was when my mom attempted suicide back in 2012. I wrestled a lot with what to share and how to share it because they are painful memories to dig up but I chose that because this happened to me for a reason, that the negative energy should not be left to fester but should be used instead to show others the Light in the darkness.
Please allow me to encourage you to listen to this series from the beginning because the context of how each trauma built upon itself is similar in some ways to how we can feel those days where everything seems to be going wrong.
Let me know what you think in the comments or help us reach more people by leaving us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Many thanks to all those that helped drive this podcast to where it is today, Valery for your amazing support and love through all of these trying, lonely and emotional times, Hillary for sensitively packaging my pain and scripting with gold, Nicolás for supporting me at every step of the way, Todd for being an instrumental inspiration, Jakobe for reminding me everyday why I am working to help others, George Harrison and Mead for helping me to seek God in the toughest of times, my Dad, Tia Laura, Jerome, Mike, Zach, James, Franco, Gloria, Randy, Jorge, John, Kimberley, and Steven for mentoring me at such pivotal times in my life, and so many more that I haven’t mentioned… Please know that I appreciate and love all of you and what you have done for me.
Listen to Part 5 on Spotify, Apple, or Google
Part 6 coming March 13th!