My Journey

I WAS A BORN FIGHTER.

From the beginning, I fought with the best of them for the right to be free, safe, and rebel against the powers that be. Because of that fight in me, I gravitated towards the misfits, the outcasts, and those who struggled deeply. Through those interactions, the life purpose I had known from a young age became clear.

I grew up outside Washington, D.C. in a very racially and economically diverse area where political power, extreme poverty, and exceptional wealth collided at the Mason-Dixon line. The struggles were real. Anger, sadness, and confusion combined with racial posturing culminated in the death and imprisonment of several of my dear friends in high school. It was devastating and complicated, and waged a war in my heart. All the while, I was trying to navigate the awkwardness of adolescence. A few months later I left for a strict but equally inspiring all-girls boarding school, where I soon found myself rebelling against the authority of the seemingly dictator-like rules. I spoke up for others and went out of my way to help them, and in return I found a depth of eternal friendship unlike anything I’d experienced before or since - one where we had each other’s backs, took a stand for one another, and fell on our swords when necessary.

A heart on fire and ingrained grit propelled me through my early years, providing me with the power to stand up for myself and others.

As I entered young adulthood, my untamed and sometimes brash methods were met with more and more resistance in my academic world, in my relationships, and deep inside myself.

My sophomore year of college, I lost my mother to cancer. The grief seemed to make time stand still. I had lost my most fundamental link in this world. Anchorless, I was suddenly free to question just about everything.

It woke me up. I put down my metaphorical boxing gloves and committed myself to studying personal growth and development. I dove deep into my own psyche, learning as much as I could about the world around me, particularly about people who lived incredible lives. Over the next seven years, I moved from state to state and coast to coast, following my passions in search of myself. My journey took me down the rivers of the western US, where I worked as the sole female whitewater guide in my company. I worked as a naturalist in ecotourism, earned a master’s degree, and became a hydrogeologist. In 2008, I landed back in Colorado, where the rivers first taught me to be courageous through grace and steadiness.

I spent the next several years whitewater kayaking, rock climbing, and practicing Ashtanga yoga. I trained for a year with Rocky Mountain Rescue Group before being voted in as a member in 2010. I served the all-volunteer team for seven years by going on technical mountain rescues and hauling gear for miles through the woods.

I was regularly faced with maintaining calmness and focus in critical situations, some of them life or death.

I learned to separate perceived fear from actual emergencies, and how to take calculated risks without them being catastrophic.

Meanwhile, my professional life was changing, taking me to Guatemala, Haiti, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia to work with marginalized populations on the climate crisis, disaster risk reduction, food security, water supply, and micro-and macro-economies. As a physical scientist, I worked to develop resilience frameworks that facilitated human connectedness and positive behavioral change. I studied the nature of humans across cultures, and the essence of their struggles and successes. I visited the great temples, trekked through the Annapurna, learned to speak Indonesian, meditated with great spiritual leaders, and ate questionable street food. I stared into the eyes of street children huffing glue, and visited homes for the disabled where access to food was dependent on the kindness of strangers. What struck me the most was how some people could thrive in the most desperate of situations, while others seemed destined to struggle despite having seemingly all the privileges in the world bestowed upon them.

These experiences forever changed me. I had transformed into a social scientist and I knew myself (and the world) better than ever before. Most importantly, my experiences taught me the power of resilience in the human spirit and my own agency for compassion, healing, and happiness. I learned that no matter how challenging the circumstance, as humans we have the capacity to survive, to overcome, and ultimately to thrive.

My experiences taught me the power of resilience in the human spirit.

My last work trip to Indonesia in 2015 turned into an unexpected life changing event that would propel my life in a direction I could not have known. I was driving home one night on my motor bike when two young men drove up alongside me and tried to mug me. While they were unsuccessful in stealing anything, they caused me and my bike to wreck - hard. I remember laying on the ground thinking “is this it? Am I going to die on this dark road so far from home?” I got really lucky - my helmet saved my life. The result was a hefty concussion, shattered collarbone, broken rib, fractured tailbone, torn shoulder, and some other tweaks and sprains. I had surgery in Denpasar, Bali and went through a deep process of letting go to trust a foreign hospital system and then new friends to bathe, feed, and medicate me.

I had to leave my hard-built independence at the door, let go of perceived control, and be truly open to receiving help.

It broke me open and left me with a vulnerability hangover so intense it propelled me to cultivate a more wholehearted life back home in Colorado. I turned inward, rooting in my own community as I went through two more surgeries and a ton of rehab. I immersed myself in studying and performing music, began an intensive multi-year Qi-Gong practice, and trained in personal growth and development facilitation. These deeply-grounding experiences brought my life into alignment at home. My community was still bouncing back from the 2013 Colorado floods and I responded by creating the Boulder Center for Resilience. I worked to build resilience with flood-affected communities and provided resilience training for individuals navigating the gig economy. I developed my Growth & Resilience Coaching practice alongside my resilience consultancy.

Strong Back, Open Heart

— ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX, PH.D., ZEN BUDDHIST

I landed more grounded and open-hearted than ever before, fully embracing coaching as an innate skill and passion that aligned beautifully with my life purpose - facilitating transformative change through a process of resilience building.

I adopted my sweet dog, Asher, and made a home in Lyons, Colorado.

Now, I work as a Growth & Resilience Coach and a Resilience Consultant - facilitating innovative professionals, leaders, and organizations to navigate adversity and thrive.