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Shaped by Death
My path to Courageously Living began long before I utter the words Courageously Living.
My maternal Great Grandma’s death had a profound impact on 12 year old me. Death was talked about in my family, grief not so much.
Not having the skills to handle or cope with my deep grief I developed anorexia which would see me finishing college and being in my mid twenties before it was a thing of the past.
My mid-twenties also brought my 3rd co-workers death. Management asked me to take over her role, a role I wasn’t qualified for. I knew her co-workers would be okay with me, but I couldn’t ethically take the position.
Skip a head about a decade and within a couple of years I lost both my maternal Grandpa and Grandma within 2 years of each other. Grandparents who I was so close that the longest time of not having contact with them was three weeks when I took a trip overseas.
Looking back it doesn’t surprise me that death and grief is such a large of Courageously Living.
Providing you with gift options and resources to use yourself or give to a loved one is something I’m passionate about.
Overwhelming Stress Lead Me to Explore My Spirituality
My first corporate job out of college become immensely stressful and significantly impacted my well-being.
In desperation I started to a few classes here and there on expanding and connecting with my Spirituality through other means than organized religion.
My Spirituality has become a huge part of my life and has certainly helped my heal and grow over the years.
Recently, I’ve layered on Astrology as well and that enhanced my self-discovery and self-reliance in unexpected ways.
As you explore our site, you may find references to spirituality or astrology. As with everything on here take what resonates with you and leave the rest. For what doesn’t resonate with you may resonate with someone else.
A Coaching Certification Program That Ended in Flames
In addition to taking classes about Spirituality, I also completed a 3 year coaching program. The material was solid and I’ve seen it from multiple other sources through out the years.
However, it was my closest brush to being in a cult. It didn’t start out that way, but it developed overtime while I was student there. I unfortunately but courageously, was one of the people to call it out toward the end the program. By doing so it caused intense backlash against me, and it made me not want to coach. I never did get a successful coaching program off the ground.
Because of my experience, everything that is created for Courageously Living whether for an individual or a company I do my best to create safe environments for you, your loved ones, your customers, clients and employees.
Coming Out in a Hostile Corporate Environment
For several years I was a computer software consultant. Being a consultant you don’t have the same relationship with the people you work with than you would have being an employee.
So most of the time, if it would come up in a conversation I would say that I was a gay woman. ( And yes I still like that term). This was at a time where it was becoming more acceptable but the federal gay marriage right still hadn’t been passed.
At one large client though there was so much homophobia that came up in casual meeting settings that I really watched everything that I said and did.
I was fully planning to end my stint there without saying a word. However, I had an exceptional manager (let’s call her Sue) who figured out something was up with me and one other main manager (let’s call her Amanda) and Sue coaxed it out of me on what was going on. I was terrified that Amanda would berate me for being gay and that it would comprise all the work we did together.
Eventually Sue and a few others convinced me to talk to Amanda before I left so that LGBTIA+ employees who did work there, could end up being in a better environment. It was probably one the scariest things I have done in a work setting.
To Amanda’s credit, the meeting went really well and she genuinely apologized to me.
Fear of being rejected for a thought, belief, or identity can be paralyzing. Respect is paramount here.
The Whisperings of Courageously Living
Before any product was created or thought of I wanted to create the name Courageously Living kept coming up. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the name or if I was going to use at all. But it held on and never let me go.
Courageously Living made it’s way into my life between doing several years of caregiving.
And as anyone who has done family caregiving knows your life can turn upside down at anytime and sometimes several times in a week.
It seemed appropriate when I recently started doing more caregiving again, that I was indeed Courageously Living.
It Started as a Joke
Courageously Living first product started as joke several years before it ever became a product to purchase.
You can read a whole blog about it here.
Sufficient, to say I made a retirement paper chain for a co-worker because I had teased him about making him one. A few days after teasing him, he asked where is chain was and I went home that night and made him a retirement countdown chain.
For a limited time you can still order CountDown to Retirement Gift Set
How a Joke Became Comfort and Compassion
So how did something so silly as a paper chain led itself to the current Courageously Living gift and product line you see today?
Even though I never got a successfully coaching practice going, I’ve used the skills and acknowledge that I have gained to help and comfort others in my every day life.
On the surface retirement is something almost everyone looks forward to. But retirement often can bring up spoken and unspoken fears.
For my co-worker’s retirement chain, I had questions or action items to take that connected with some common fears without calling them out as such.
After I created the official card set version, I started thinking what else you want encouragement or comfort for.
Which brought me back to something I didn’t have when I was younger and wished I did. A way to acknowledge hard things like grief and stress of being a family caregiver. Which is why they become my next products.
So you and loved ones can benefit from something I was missing.
Healing, Joy and the Future
I’ve come a long way from not being able to handle death and grief. I’ve done so by doing a lot of emotional, physical and spiritual healing.
By acknowledging all my emotions including fear and grief it has allowed me to heal and find joy over and over again when life gets hard.
It’s one of the main reasons I’m so passionate about offering products, gifts, and resources to you when life situations become challenging.
I know from personal experience how beneficial it is to find comfort and support in safe places.