Label me anxious, depressed, and suffering from PTSD.

"Labels are something we internalize to define who we are and what we are capable of. All too often, labels limit us. Adversity is something we can overcome, whereas a mental disorder is something to be managed. The labels imply very different possibilities.”

Labels are important. No one ever "labeled" me as having a mental breakdown, anxiety, depression and PTSD. I was experiencing "adversity" in the form of divorce and a hostile takeover of my business. It was something I could overcome. So I did. What choice did I have? The cost of not overcoming it was living at home with my parents. Yup, nope.

Not having a label was empowering. It didn't hold me back from packing up my car and driving across the country two months after my mental breakdown...My mental breakdown was bad. I called the cops to tell them the FBI hacked my iphone. I tried to check myself into the hospital. I literally lost my mind. I’m grateful for my parents for supporting me.

Fast forward a year and a half later and I'm in a brand new career. I have my very own apartment, no roommates! And I had an old friend come to visit, who triggered some old memories. So I got a therapist who helped me 'label' it. Labels can be empowering too.

PTSD. Anxiety. Depression. My mom died. I took a new job. I moved. My dad came out as a gay man. I spent a year trying to manage my fight or flight system, until one day I froze again (PTSD), and I panicked and tried to fix everything (anxiety), and I couldn't think clearly, I just wanted to sleep (depression).

I didn't want to freeze or fight or flee. I just wanted to sleep, possibly forever. It sounded nice. It also sounded like depression.

That "label" for what I was experiencing empowered me to get 5mg of support in the form of Lexepro. And that empowered me to want to fight again. The power of positivity and solution-seeking was back!

I launched a business 4 weeks later. Literally filed my LLC and started providing value through coaching wherever I could. In 8 weeks I had enrolled in a coaching program, hired a coach, talked to my therapist, and took a hard look at the "adversity" I was facing, and started slowly kicking its ass. Peace out, losers! Oh, and I fell in love.

Then COVID happened. A world-wide pandemic descended on the East Coast March 9th. I got fired a month later. My unemployment check still hasn't arrived. But I was no longer operating from a place of "adversity."

I stopped taking the Lexepro in April. I no longer needed it. My therapist was cautious about my desire to stop taking it. She asked me a powerful question: What will be your "Lexepro" that helps you thrive throughout life's adversities?

Understanding the Neuroscience behind controlling the emotional brain, meditation, humor, and the power of positive emotions is life-changing. As humans, we liked to label things, and that's what Neruoscience does. Knowledge is power. But it's not action.

Hiring a life coach, labeling your values and purpose, writing your own definitions for your life and holding yourself accountable is how transformation happens.

My new "Lexepro" is an empowered brain that is a leader, a creative solution-seeker, a teacher and a student, who takes time to rest, rejoice, exercise and laugh. My heart is humble. She keeps the emotional brain at ease with the knowledge that "we" aren't in control, He is. And if God (the universe) is for us, who shall be against us?

Life coaching helped me uncover my own unique set of tools to help hold myself accountable for building a life honors and supports my values, my purpose, and makes space for me.

I don't "have" anxiety, depression or PTSD. But I've experienced it many times times in my life when my fight or flight system (the amagdlya) is chronically activated due to whatever adversity life picked for me to overcome that year. It's how I knew how to handle "adversity." Until it wasn't. Goodbye old operating system, hello new patterns that help me thrive!

Adversity will always be there. Anxiety and depression don't have to be. Transformation is permanent. We can literally see it in the brain. This is why coaching is so powerful!

This is why Outstanding Women Leaders (OWL) Professional Coaching exists. This is why I'm here. I'm here to help you be a better leader in life, both personally and professionally. My purpose is to put you back in the driver's seat of the car YOU choose, that represent YOUR values and YOUR purpose, and unlocks YOUR infinite possibilities!

My purpose is not to prevent you from seeking professional help from any of the above mentioned conditions. I heart therapy and modern medicine and life coaching too. #thesystemworkswhenitworksforyou