My Story

I experienced tragedy and hardship in life. But, after some time healing and with the help of counseling, I was ready to find out who I was again and to find laughter and enjoy life. I searched for paths to joy, community, and adventure. That is how Survivors Traveling Lightly began to emerge.

My Past

I grew up in the Southern part of the United States. I thought my family lived a perfect life and were doing well, same as everybody else, until my parents decided they were going to get a divorce. After that divorce, many family struggles, and a suicide within our family, I started having feelings of abandonment and neglect. These led to a negative view of myself and my self-esteem began to decline. I started dealing with depression, even though neither I nor my family realized it at the time.

I went to have a normal high school life and college experience. After college, I got married and moved to a new state. Everything was new. It was a difficult adjustment for me and I began having depression symptoms again, but again did not recognize what was happening with me inside.

My husband and I had two wonderful kids. We moved to a different state and back again. We moved to different locations in the same state over our many years together. We had good times and rough times. Then, we experienced three deaths in a three year period, one of which was a another suicide within our family. This hit me hard and led me into deeper depression and isolation. Not long after that, my husband and I divorced. Of course, this only caused deeper depression on my part, along with me leaving me trying to figure out who I was, where I fit, and how I was going to go on with life.

My Healing

We had started a new church around the same time our marriage started to crumble. I connected with others in the church and they helped support me emotionally, to find friends, and to find counseling.

In counseling, I learned a lot about how I process information, my habitual behaviors, and also healthier ways to think about the people and things around me. I also learned at this time that I had been trying to place my identity and worth on what other people think of me; if they were happy with me or if they were sad.

I set up a mantra, based on Bible verses, of who I am in Christ Jesus. I have since read through those at least daily, sometimes more in the times I was down. I learned to retrain my mind to value who I am in Christ and value who I am as a person. I used to struggle with low self-worth because I had struggled in school and with family situations. I had felt for a long time that I was dumb, that I was a slow person and did not understand a lot of things.

I have now learned to re-evaluate the way I think; to catch myself when I start to spiral into depressive or negative thoughts. I have started to speak to myself with positive affirmations from Bible verses that tell me what my identity is in Christ Jesus.

I started reaching out and found friends to be with, instead of being home alone. Then COVID hit and our entire world started to quarantine. My new found friends and I started walking outside until it got too hot to want to walk outside here in the Tulsa heat.

COVID set me back in my goal of getting out of the house and being with others. But, I now believe that time alone helped me to learn more about who I was, who I want to be and what I want from my life.

My Adventures Started

I found groups that I wanted to be a part of on the Meet-Up App and through Facebook. I found friends that I enjoy being around, including a group of women that enjoy being in nature as much as I do and we spent all last summer doing this together. We went hiking, kayaking, and even on a big trip together.

I started finding things that really gave me joy that I plan to continue doing throughout my life.

Around the same time that I met this group of women, I met the owner of Scuba Savvy in Jenks. He was giving a talk about scuba diving. I began remembering how much I had wanted to learn to scuba dive. Thankfully, soon after, I found a friend that also wanted to get scuba certified. We got our certifications and went on a trip to the Florida Keys. We had a wonderful time going out to dive on two different days and enjoyed the time under the water. It was so refreshing and exhilarating and has sparked in me a love for diving.

I started spending time doing my artwork, painting, and drawing again. Doing art helped me to find who I was again and where I belong. It was another anchor of stability for me. I began selling some of my artwork. I also started working on Survivors Traveling Lightly at this time.

Through the process I have grown to know more of who I am and how I relate to other people. I am enjoying life more. I have found laughter and my smile again.

The Podcast

Survivors Traveling Lightly

From Trauma to Adventure

Going With Confidence

Have you been through trauma in your life? Have you been healing and ready to move on

now? Are you going to go from trauma to adventure and go with confidence? This is for you.

This show is called Survivor's Traveling Lightly.

I hope that you will join me in this journey, as I bring in other people, their stories, and what they've been through. I will have guests who will be coming and talking about ways in which you can find help, but this will not be the primary focus of this podcast.

The focus of the podcast will be on the things you can do to find peace, to help you grow as your own person, and to enjoy your life whether that is through art, travel, scuba diving, being outdoors, or whatever brings you joy.

We can discuss anything that you are interested in while on your journey. Reach out to me and let me know what you would like to discuss. We are currently doing monthly themes but are open to whatever may come. I look forward to having you join me in the adventures waiting.