The world that we live in seems to be more emotionally and physically chaotic than ever.

As a highly sensitive black woman trying to maneuver through the chaos, I know at this point in my life that I must also maneuver through bouts of anxiety and depression as I am prone to both. The wide ranging variety of worldly traumatic events from the past couple of years coupled with everyday stresses (which can be amplified by an anxious mind) have taken me down some dark and turbulent roads within myself.

Sometimes there comes a time in life, or maybe many times in life, when the foundation that we have known crumbles beneath us.

There may have been cracks developing for years before, or perhaps it falls apart in one swift moment.

Sometimes we find ourselves clinging so tightly to a foundation that we are sure is stable, we often miss the subtle cracks that begin to develop until we physically feel it dissolving beneath our feet. Yet, we still continue to grasp in disbelief that this could be happening to us and we wonder how we will survive.

“Somewhere along the path of this life, the connection to my body, my soul, my Source was severely damaged.”

I got up and said this statement recently on a retreat in Sedona in front of about 26 women, most of whom I did not know and it was one of the most clear and profound statements I have made in as long as I can remember.

…….And its profound nature rests solely in its raw, brutal and painful honesty.

If I had to pinpoint when exactly the metaphorical cord connecting me to my body was almost severed, I would say it was my 2012 nervous breakdown that I often reference and write about.

We live in a society of “yes.”

We are told to lean in.

We are told to push ourselves.

We are told we can sleep when we’re dead.

And I fully believe in these things, I really do (not so much the sleep when we’re dead scenario, as not ever sleeping will likely ensure you do actually end up dead).

Shonda Rhimes even has a book called “Year of Yes.” She writes about how she was able to push past her own limiting fears and beliefs in one year and expand her life and herself in ways she was never able to experience before, all by saying ‘Yes.’

Does this sound cliche? Probably. Did someone else probably already say this quote? Definitely. Does it matter? Not really because this is a lesson that we as humans will live our entire lives learning, no matter how many times this quote is regurgitated. Some of us know deep down there is something or numerous things that we resist, we avoid, we run from.

Until our foundation is completely healed, situations will always present themselves as a pathway to truth and rehabilitation. Let's take the time we need to grieve whatever it is we need to grieve and allow ourselves to feel it through, but let us not be victims to it.