A moment of FEELING BROKEN is lined by FEELING BLESSED

Have you ever felt broken?

A SLM conversation with KAREN MEYER

The guest of this SLM episode, Karen Myer, and I go back several years. We worked in the same law firm and we have an inside joke about Thursdays. During this one 6-month or so period in 2009, we were absolutely inundated with work. I would have a stress meltdown at her desk every Thursday. One week, I was so stressed and we had so many deadlines that I couldn’t even articulate anything other than “But Karen, It’s Thursday!”

Since then, and over 10 years later, “But, Karen, it’s Thursday” has become a code phrase for us, one with dual connotations:

• One: I feel like I am about to break
• The Other: I feel like laughing with relief and gratitude that our friendship survived and strengthened from those Thursdays.

Whenever it is said and however it is said, we are in it together – either supporting the other one or laughing with each other. We know that we were not alone when we felt like we were breaking. And, knowing that made all the difference. As hard as that time was, we could see the source of our stress - work. On those Thursdays, I felt like work was breaking me. At least, I could separate myself from that breaking feeling by separating myself from work.

What about those times when it is not something else that is breaking you; rather, when you feel like you are broken? The first comes with a sense of hope because that “brokenness” is outside of you and you can overcome it or with time it may change. However, when you feel you are broken you feel like whatever you do and wherever you go, the brokenness will go with you because it is you. This second broken feeling is called despair.

This is where Karen found herself in 2015: feeling like she was broken. When the despair was trying to take hold, she started having suicidal thoughts. Before this despair and its accompanying suicidal thoughts could get their full grip on her, she visited her family for the holidays. Their love steadied her enough for her to start reclaiming her worth.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• How the abandonment from her biological father and bullying at school made Karen believe that she was broken
• How feeling broken became a subconscious belief that directed her decisions and relationships
• How love and support from her family came right when she needed them most
• How she started a journey toward self-love during which she got to know her true (whole and completely unbroken) self; she reconnected with her faith; she found love and became a mom after 40;
• How Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project has helped her reclaim happiness
• How she and her husband are living with purpose and with integrity to their values, which includes spreading kindness and eliminating single use plastic from their lives
• How the word “___________” has the most overreaching guidance over her life (Listen in to discover her word. If you’re feeling a connection, email me your word at [email protected])
• How growth after her despair is one of her Silver Lining Moments

Listen to this episode and join Karen on her journey to self-love and discover how:

a moment of FEELING BROKEN is lined by FEELING BLESSED.

Thank you for listening to Silver Lining Moments.

By Karen sharing and by you listening, together we are:

expanding love and light,

one person at a time,

one story at a time,

one Silver Lining Moment at a time.