Hello, Dear Reader! It’s been a while since I have posted anything here. There has been good reason, but we’ll get to that shortly. I have missed writing for this blog, and I am ready to get back to it.
You know that old adage, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear”? Well, there should also be an adage that goes something like this, “Life has a way of schooling the teacher.”
That seems to be the motto of my life for more than the last few months. Let me explain.
Back in 2005, when I was writing my master’s thesis for my Master of Public Health, I had planned to write about the public health challenges of Endometriosis. I have dealt with endometriosis my entire adult life (I was definitively diagnosed with Stage IV at the age of 24). However, during my literature review, I came across something called “The Female Stress Syndrome.” This was significant because back then the medical community called Endometriosis “The Career Woman’s Disease,” because it seemed as though the stress of having a career made the disease worse. It’s almost laughable now, but that’s where we were at that time.
As I continued to go down that rabbit hole of research, I discovered that this thing called the Female Stress Syndrome (FSS) was a real public health problem because of its implications for a woman’s cardiovascular health. Heart disease is still the number 1 killer of women, and yet it doesn’t get the spotlight that it should in terms of addressing women’s health. So, I decided to make my mark in the world with a thesis on the Female Stress Syndrome.
Fast forward to 2020. I am sitting in my office at home, alone, just like everyone else in the world, and I am trying to decide what course I want to create in my new course creation business. What would be relevant that women would gravitate to? At that moment, my eyes drifted to the bottom shelf of my bookcase, and there sat the notebook that my original MPH thesis lives on to this day. I read the spine of the notebook: “Women and Stress: Investigating the Female Stress Syndrome”. BINGO!!!!!!
What a great idea for a course, right?? I mean, who HASN’T been completely stressed out since the world shut down?? So, I took that idea and ran with it, and that’s how my signature course, “Women & Stress: Reclaiming Your Life” came to be.
I had no idea the can of worms I would be opening up for myself.
Not long after that, life began to show me what true stress was. Let me just list a few “highlights” that would happen over the following 24 months:
- Moving from my apartment of 8 years – during a pandemic
- My dream apartment turning into a nightmare experience from the minute I picked up the keys
- Snowmageddon
- Car break-in at above mentioned apartment
- Moving – AGAIN (twice in 11 months)
- Having a breast cancer scare that would last 14 months
- My Dad having a heart attack and subsequent quintuple bypass surgery
- Loss of contracts that were paying my bills
I mean……COME ON MAN!!!! Just ONE of those life stressors would be enough to send most people over the edge! But all of those things I mentioned happened within a 24-month period of time. That’s A LOT. By ANYONE’S standards.
Insert caption over my life: “The teacher is getting schooled”……
The last 24 months have been, amongst other descriptive words or phrases, challenging to say the very least. Humbling would be another good word to describe it. And I am still in the midst of one of those issues that hasn’t quite yet been resolved. Frustrating as all get out? YOU BET.
But here’s the deal: I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when I wake up every morning, having survived another challenging day or week, that God isn’t done with me yet, and that I have been created for greatness and a purpose, and whatever reason He has for taking me through these deep waters is strengthening me so I can help others who are in same or similar situations. I believe with every fiber of my being that we never go through things solely for us. We go through problems and challenges so that we can reach back into the floodwaters and help others. So as crummy as all of this has been, I believe that my experiences of late can only help me as I coach YOU through YOUR storm.
My focus as a Certified Oola Life Coach is to help YOU mitigate the stressors in your life so that you can find the balance, growth, and purpose that I know you are seeking. How do I know? Because I’ve been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt multiple times. I know what it’s like to not sleep at night because you’re weighed down by the challenges going on in your life. I know what it’s like to lose hair, gain weight and not be able to lose it, to cry at the drop of a hat, to eat my emotions, to go to a job that I love but a boss that is narcissistic, toxic and abusive, to feel depressed, anxious, and panicky. I KNOW what it’s like to ask, “Is THIS all there is??”
No, lovely lady, this is NOT all there is. There is so much more to life. You CAN live life on purpose and not default. Even in the midst of my own challenges, I know this to be true. And I want to help you know and believe that it is true as well.
If you’re ready to make those changes and rediscover balance, growth, and purpose in your life, I would like to personally invite you to join my “Oola for Women” group that will be starting very soon. For more information and to register for this course, just click on the button below. You’ll be directed right to a page that will tell you everything you need to know.
You are not alone. Don’t try to do life alone. We weren’t created to do that. We were created for community. Let this new “Oola for Women” group be that community for you. We will work to create the life we were meant to have. Together. I hope you will join us.
