October 2, 2025 • 28 mins
“Reflect on a recent challenge or setback. Instead of focusing on the negative, find one aspect to be thankful for. Did it bring a hidden blessing? Teach you resilience? Help you discover an inner strength?”
In other words: we’re doing that annoying-but-actually-helpful thing where we look for the silver lining instead of just screaming into the void. (Don’t worry, screaming still has a place. But today, we reflect.)
Join us on the O'Neil Counseling app here: https://www.oneilcounseling.com/app-landing-page
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome back to Shrink Route, the podcast where we take life's
little disasters, slap a journalprompt on them, and try to mine
some emotional gold from the chaos.
It's that time again. Guided journal day and today's
guided journal entry. It's all about turning your mess
(00:22):
into slightly less of a mess. Today's prompt reflects on a
recent challenge. Or set back.
Instead of focusing on the negative, find one aspect to be
thankful for. Did it bring a hidden blessing?
Teacher resilience help you discover an inner strength.
(00:44):
In other words, we're doing thatannoying but actually helpful
thing where we look for the silver lining instead of just
screaming into the void. Don't worry, screaming still has
a place. But today we reflect.
Maybe your plans imploded, your expectations ghosted you, or
(01:08):
life just came in hot with the plot twist no one asked for.
Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
But what if, buried in the wreckage, there's a weird little
gift, like unexpected growth or discovering that you didn't in
(01:29):
fact die from embarrassment, even though it really felt like
you might. So grab your journal, your most
dramatic sigh, and let's go treasure hunting in the dumpster
fire. Turns out resilience is built in
(01:49):
the wreckage, and if nothing else, it makes for a great
story. Let's get into it.
All right, Let's talk about the cosmic joke that is growth
(02:10):
through hardship. You know those moments when life
decides to drop kick you into a wall of disappointment and
everyone's like everything happens for a reason?
Yeah, that's the kind of motivational poster that makes
you want to scream into a pillow.
But here's the thing, Sometimes,buried underneath the mass
(02:33):
meltdown or the full on emotional dumpster fire, there's
a weird little gift. Maybe it's not wrapped in a
pretty bow. Maybe it's duct tape to a lesson
you didn't ask for. But it's there, Whether it's
grit, perspective, or just the ability to laugh about it later
(02:56):
because crying in public is exhausting, every set back has a
shadow side that isn't totally awful.
Today's journal prompt is all about that.
We're flipping the script on pity parties and asking what the
hell did that chaos give me? Even if it's just a reminder
(03:18):
that you can survive on iced coffee, delusion and spite, you
still found something. Did it bring a hidden blessing?
Yeah, I know. Vom.
It sounds like something stitched on a pillow at a yoga
retreat run by someone named Moonbeam.
(03:39):
But. Annoyingly, sometimes life does
know what it's doing when it snacks something out of your
hands like a cosmic toddler yelling.
No, not that. Think about it.
That rejection you spiraled overcould have saved you from a boss
who communicates exclusively through passive aggressive Slack
(03:59):
emojis. That relationship you mourned
like a Victorian widow might have been slowly eroding your
sense of self and stealing your fries.
And let's not even start on thatdream plant you were chasing
that now, with some distance, looks suspiciously like a
(04:19):
flaming garbage barge dressed upin glitter and good intentions.
Sometimes losing something isn'ttragic, it's liberating.
It makes space emotional. Closet space.
Soul storage, the kind of room you need to actually fit the
things that are right for you instead of constantly shoving
(04:43):
your spirit into situations thatfeel like mental shapewear.
And yeah, maybe it didn't feel like a blessing at the time.
Maybe it felt like rejection, failure, a full blown come
apart. But that's because growth is a
messy little gremlin that never shows up in a neat package.
(05:05):
It shows up in breakdowns, detours, crying in the car and
then weirdly laughing 5 minutes later because what else can you
do? So sure, it might not be the
kind of blessing you write a Hallmark card about, but if it
gave you a clearer path, a better fit, or just the sweet,
(05:29):
sweet relief of no longer pretending you were happy in a
situation that sucked, that's worth writing down.
The truth is, life's redirections almost never come
with a soothing soundtrack or a clear This Will All Make Sense
Someday subtitle. Nope.
(05:50):
They usually show up unannounced, like a Wrecking
Ball made of chaos, rejection, and a shameful number of empty
snack wrappers. And while you're knee deep in
the emotional shrapnel, the lastthing you're thinking is, wow,
what a beautiful opportunity forpersonal growth.
No, you're thinking, what the actual hell?
(06:15):
Because in the moment, it's not poetic.
It's a shitstorm, its plans falling apart like a soggy
burrito. It's feeling like the universe
put your name on a prank list. But then eventually, once you're
out of the metaphorical swamp and can breathe again without
(06:39):
rage sighing every 10 minutes, hindsight shows up like that
smug friend who just knew your ex was trash.
See, it says, sipping your leftover emotional energy like a
cocktail. Told you you'd be a better off.
So now the question is, what door opened while you were too
(07:01):
busy ugly crying over the one that slammed shut again,
possibly on your foot because life loves drama?
What opportunity snuck in the back while you were rage
scrolling job listings, unfollowing toxic people, or
finally blocking that one contact?
You should have blocked 3 red flags ago.
Was it a better fit? A more honest version of you, a
(07:26):
new found appreciation for the kind of peace that only comes
when you're no longer constantlybracing for disappointment.
That's not just a silver lining,that's emotional alchemy turning
disaster into actually that kindof worked out.
(07:47):
You don't need to be grateful for the whole ordeal.
Seriously, you're still allowed to be salty, but if you can dig
through the mass and find even 1little win, some clarity, some
growth, some not that again wisdom, you're doing more than
(08:09):
just surviving. You're learning, evolving, and
collecting receipts for the nexttime someone dares to hit you
with everything happens for a reason, because now you've got
the reason and the receipts. Did you teach resilience?
(08:30):
Spoiler alert, probably, but notin the cute look at me growing
kind of way. More like I didn't die, I didn't
commit arson, and I only cried in a Target parking lot twice
this week. So I guess I'm stronger now.
Let's be honest, nobody chooses resilience.
(08:53):
We earn it the hard way by getting dragged through life's
obstacle course wearing emotional flip flops and 0
padding. It's not sexy.
It's not inspirational Pinterestquote material.
It's raw, inconvenient, and usually involves caffeine,
(09:13):
sarcasm, and a breakdown you later refer to as a character
building moment. Because when life turns into a
full blown dumpster inferno, youdon't get time to center
yourself and channel your inner goddess.
You get panic, survival mode, and possibly a mild rash from
(09:35):
stress. And yet you kept going.
You held it together, ish. You figured it out, one meltdown
at a time. You adapted, problem solved,
cried, cursed, tried again, failed again, ordered Thai food
(10:01):
at 2:00 AM and still showed up to your life like the resilient
badass you didn't even know you were.
And that's the thing. Resilience doesn't mean you were
unaffected. It means you were wrecked and
you rebuilt. It means you did the impossible
(10:25):
while feeling you were made, like you were made of duct tape,
caffeine, and increasingly unhinged voice notes to your
best friend. It means you got stronger, not
because you wanted to, but because you had to.
And now, Now you walk a little taller, you trust yourself a
(10:47):
little more and you've got this unshakable wild eyed confidence
that says throw what you want atme, I've been through worse and
I have the receipts. So yeah, life didn't offer you
the glow up. It handed you grit, guts, and
the kind of mental ABS that onlycome from emotionally dead
(11:09):
lifting your way through chaos. And you carried it all like the
unmedicated legend you are. Or if you're on medication, then
you're a medicated legend. Either way, you're a legend.
You figured out how to function with a broken heart, a bruised
ego, or a plan that imploded so spectacularly that it deserves
(11:32):
its own Netflix miniseries. And somehow, through the tears,
the rage naps, and the rage cleaning, you didn't fully
unravel. You adapted.
You duct taped your life together, Gave 1/2 hearted mini
finger, middle finger to the chaos.
Maybe a mini finger too. All the fingers you gave all the
(11:54):
fingers to the chaos. And you kept it moving.
Sure, maybe we're held together by coffee, panic and emotional
memes, but guess what? You're still here, and not just
here in the barely breathing on autopilot sense.
You're here with more wisdom, more boundaries, and an upgraded
(12:18):
internal bullshit detector. You can now clock a walking red
flag from 300 feet away and havethe self respect to not try and
turn it into a craft project. That's progress baby.
You didn't get that clarity froma self help book or a vision
board. You got it by being body slammed
(12:40):
by life and deciding fine, if I'm going down, I'm taking some
lessons with me. You learned how to navigate
grief, disappointment, rejectionand that one moment that still
makes your left eye twitch and somehow you turned it into fuel.
(13:02):
So now is the time to ask, what hard earned wisdom did I drag
out of that mess? What strength did I only
discover when everything else was stripped away?
Maybe you found your voice. Maybe you stopped shrinking to
fit. Maybe you learned to say no
(13:25):
without a follow up analogy or 10 slide explanation.
That's not just growth, that's main character energy forged in
the fire. You didn't choose the storm, but
you damn sure didn't let it sinkyou.
You leveled up. You're tougher, wiser, and way
(13:48):
less likely to entertain nonsense.
And that, my friend, is the kindof badassery that can't be
taught. It has to be earned.
Did it help you discover an inner strength?
Maybe. Or maybe it dragged that
strength out of you by the ankles while you were just
(14:10):
trying to make it through the emotional equivalent of a pop
quiz in fire juggling during an earthquake while blindfolded.
You weren't looking for a personal breakthrough, you were
just trying not to scream in public or spiral into a full
identity crisis in the Trader Joe's frozen Isle.
(14:30):
No one wakes up thinking, wow, Ireally hope today smashes my
sense of control so I can meet the version of me who thrives
under pressure. And yet, bam, life hits you with
a plot twist worthy of a soap opera and suddenly you're in
survival mode, discovering strengths you didn't even know
(14:51):
were in your toolbox. Like stubbornness.
Like resourcefulness, Like the ability to make questionable
choices and still bounce back with a little glitter and a lot
of emotional bruises. And let's not underestimate the
sheer sass stamina it takes to keep going when everything feels
(15:15):
like a cosmic dare. Emotional core strength
activated. Mental agility doing backflips?
Existential humor weaponized. You become the kind of person
who can cry and problem solve simultaneously, who can spiral
and still hit deadlines, who cansay this is a disaster while
(15:37):
also figuring out what kind of wine pairs best with it.
So yeah, you didn't sign up for the crash course in inner
Badassery, but you aced it anyway.
You got stronger by being throwninto the deep end with no
floaties and figuring out how toswim using sarcasm, spite, and
(15:58):
maybe a playlist that could soundtrack a personal comeback
montage. You didn't find your strength,
You fought for it. You built it under pressure, in
the dark, without a map. And now you're walking around
with proof that even when everything goes sideways, you
(16:18):
don't. Not for long, anyway.
Maybe. You found a level of chill in
chaos that shocked even you. Like who was that?
Calmly sipping coffee while everything around them caught
fire? Oh, right, it was you somehow
(16:39):
channeling inner peace like a Zen monk on a deadline.
Or maybe you discovered that youcould pivot so fast it defied
physics. Full on caffeinated ballerina
mode. Pure.
A wedding through crisis after crisis without even smudging
your eyeliner. Or.
Maybe plot twist, you realize something even Wilder.
(17:04):
You can feel utterly lost, overwhelmed, and emotionally
held together by vibes alone andstill keep moving.
That's not just resilience, that's survival with style.
That's being. Emotionally concussed and still
(17:25):
figuring out how to file your taxes, Respond to a vague can we
talk text and remember to feed your house plants because when
the shit hit the fan, you didn'tjust sit in the wreckage.
Weeping. Yes, but also adapting.
Some dormant part of you logged in, some previously unexplored
(17:49):
combo of grit, sass and reluctant maturity, and suddenly
you had new tools. You became resourceful,
strategic, just a little dead inside maybe, but with excellent
time management. So ask yourself, what part of me
(18:10):
came online during this dumpsterfire of a life phase?
What wild, unexpected, possibly feral version of myself emerged
when I had nothing left to lose but my last nerve?
Did you find? Your voice.
Set a boundary, say no without athree paragraph justification,
(18:33):
or just stop trying to please everyone who would have let you
burn for their comfort. Because here's the thing, you
didn't ask for the mess. You didn't.
Manifest the chaos. But when it showed up, you
didn't roll over. You rallied.
(18:54):
You kept going. You became the kind of person
who can rebuild and throw shade at the same time.
And that says everything about who you're becoming, not just
despite the storm, but because of it.
(19:14):
OK. So you stared that challenge in
the face. Maybe you screamed into a
pillow. Maybe you rage texted your group
chat. Maybe you laid dramatically on
the floor like a Victorian widowwhile muttering I simply cannot.
And yet somehow you're still here, still breathing, still
(19:37):
scrolling, still piercing together whatever shambles life
left behind like it's a sad little IKEA project with half
the screws missing. Which means sorry, not sorry,
it's time to dig a little deeper.
Yeah, yeah, I get it. Your brains already side eyeing
(19:57):
this whole reflection thing. Like can we not let's binge a
shell and repress instead? Tempting.
But no, because buried somewherealong the emotional fallout zone
is something worth noticing. Maybe not a profound life
lesson, but something a weird little silver lining, a plot
(20:23):
twist you didn't see coming. A shred of.
Growth you earned by crawling through the chaos in sweatpants
and moral fatigue. Let's.
Start there. The not cringe Silver Linings,
not the fake deep everything happens for a reason stuff, but
(20:46):
the gritty, sarcastic, actually helpful kind.
Maybe that door that slammed in your face rude saved you from
walking into a flaming dumpster with Wi-Fi.
Maybe that dream you were chasing was actually just a
cleverly disguised burnout machine.
(21:08):
Or maybe life straight up ejected you from your comfort
zone with the emotional subtletyof a cannonball.
And yeah, it's sucked, but maybeit shoved you somewhere better.
Or at least less soul sucking. And.
Let's talk about the resilience part, because no, it's not just
(21:30):
about waking up and slapping on some affirmations.
It's about dragging yourself through a full blown emotional
landslide, covered in metaphorical mud and still
managing to reply to a Co worker's e-mail without telling
them where to shove their passive aggressive :).
You didn't break, you bent you spirals, you maybe ate some
(21:54):
questionable things and neglected a few basic human
functions for a hot minute, but you kept going.
You stayed. Upright ish.
You levelled up emotionally, even if your vibe check came
back as barely holding it together, but still kind of
iconic. So now.
(22:16):
Go deeper. What did that?
Dumpster fire teach you. What?
Strength or clarity came out of that hot mess express you
absolutely did not sign up for because the fact that you're
still here listening to this reflecting at all.
(22:37):
That's not. Nothing that's proof you're
tougher than whatever came for you.
And if nothing else, you've now got material emotional receipts,
gross mileage, and the kind of hard one insight that makes you
an expert in bouncing back like a slightly cracked but
(23:01):
beautifully seasoned human boomerang.
And. Let's not forget those sneaky
little strengths showed up like surprise guests at the world's
worst party. The ones you didn't ask for,
didn't expect, and definitely didn't have a Pinterest board
prepared for. Maybe you found patience.
(23:24):
Real patience, not the fake kindwhere you smile while internally
plotting someone's demise. Or maybe you managed to MacGyver
your way through a meltdown using nothing but caffeine,
blind optimism, and that one weird life skill you never
thought would come in handy. Shout out to emotionally
strategic crying and spontaneously Google sleuthing.
(23:48):
That's inner strength, baby. Not the shiny centered kind, the
feral backup generator. I'll figure it out with duct
tape and bad ideas if I have to.Kind.
The kind of strength that doesn't show up until you've
been absolutely wrecked and haveno other option but to become
(24:08):
resourceful or explode. And somehow you didn't explode,
you evolved. So now, now comes the real
challenge. Go back to.
That moment that absolutely tried to end you emotionally,
(24:29):
mentally, maybe even hygienically and ask.
What did it? Actually teach me about me.
And I'm not. Talking about the cleaned up, I
learned boundaries :) version I'm talking about the gritty,
possibly not safe for work truth.
(24:52):
What did you? Find in the wreckage that made
you go Oh damn, I didn't know I had that in me.
Did you grow? A spine.
Finally, stop apologizing for everything, including your own
existence. Did you learn?
To say no like a boundary setting Rockstar instead of a
(25:14):
guilt riddled people pleaser. Or maybe.
You just found out that you can absolutely fall apart and still
get your shit done, mascara streaks and all.
Write that down. All of it.
The messy, ridiculous, glorious truth of how you survived when
(25:40):
it felt like everything was coming apart at the seams.
Let it be. Raw, Let it be ugly, let it have
swears and pettiness and exactly0 concern for whether it's
Instagram worthy. Because.
Journaling isn't about sounding like a grounded forest fairy.
(26:03):
It's about. Documenting your own evolution,
your unhinged, unexpected, unstoppable glow up from the
wreckage. So go ahead, spill it, Make it
weird, make it loud, make it yours.
(26:23):
Because this is your proof that you really did that, chaos and
all. So now it's your turn.
Write like no. One's reading because honestly,
no one should be unless they've earned the right to witness your
unfiltered brilliance. Unless you want to share with
(26:45):
everyone on the O'Neill Counseling app, we've got a
whole group just to share bits of your guided journal entries.
Swear if you need to, be brutally honest, be hilariously
petty, be proud of how you handled it, or at the very least
how you dragged yourself throughit with a questionable snack
(27:07):
routine and a playlist that got oddly intense.
You didn't. Survive that chaos just to
gaslight yourself into thinking it didn't change you.
So document the transformation, even if you didn't emerge as
some serene crystal charged butterfly.
(27:28):
Maybe you came out as a slightlyunhinged but wiser feral phoenix
who now sets boundaries and burns bridges with intention.
Whatever it is, you earned it. Own it.
And as always, thanks for pushing.
Play on shrink wrapped, catch you next time where we're
(27:54):
unpacking something else. Wildly uncomfortable anxiety but
with snacks. Probably a few swears and
absolutely zero toxic positivity.
Welcome back to Shrink Route, the podcast where we take life's
little disasters, slap a journalprompt on them, and try to mine
some emotional gold from the chaos.
It's that time again. Guided journal day and today's
guided journal entry. It's all about turning your mess
(00:22):
into slightly less of a mess. Today's prompt reflects on a
recent challenge. Or set back.
Instead of focusing on the negative, find one aspect to be
thankful for. Did it bring a hidden blessing?
Teacher resilience help you discover an inner strength.
(00:44):
In other words, we're doing thatannoying but actually helpful
thing where we look for the silver lining instead of just
screaming into the void. Don't worry, screaming still has
a place. But today we reflect.
Maybe your plans imploded, your expectations ghosted you, or
(01:08):
life just came in hot with the plot twist no one asked for.
Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
But what if, buried in the wreckage, there's a weird little
gift, like unexpected growth or discovering that you didn't in
(01:29):
fact die from embarrassment, even though it really felt like
you might. So grab your journal, your most
dramatic sigh, and let's go treasure hunting in the dumpster
fire. Turns out resilience is built in
(01:49):
the wreckage, and if nothing else, it makes for a great
story. Let's get into it.
All right, Let's talk about the cosmic joke that is growth
(02:10):
through hardship. You know those moments when life
decides to drop kick you into a wall of disappointment and
everyone's like everything happens for a reason?
Yeah, that's the kind of motivational poster that makes
you want to scream into a pillow.
But here's the thing, Sometimes,buried underneath the mass
(02:33):
meltdown or the full on emotional dumpster fire, there's
a weird little gift. Maybe it's not wrapped in a
pretty bow. Maybe it's duct tape to a lesson
you didn't ask for. But it's there, Whether it's
grit, perspective, or just the ability to laugh about it later
(02:56):
because crying in public is exhausting, every set back has a
shadow side that isn't totally awful.
Today's journal prompt is all about that.
We're flipping the script on pity parties and asking what the
hell did that chaos give me? Even if it's just a reminder
(03:18):
that you can survive on iced coffee, delusion and spite, you
still found something. Did it bring a hidden blessing?
Yeah, I know. Vom.
It sounds like something stitched on a pillow at a yoga
retreat run by someone named Moonbeam.
(03:39):
But. Annoyingly, sometimes life does
know what it's doing when it snacks something out of your
hands like a cosmic toddler yelling.
No, not that. Think about it.
That rejection you spiraled overcould have saved you from a boss
who communicates exclusively through passive aggressive Slack
(03:59):
emojis. That relationship you mourned
like a Victorian widow might have been slowly eroding your
sense of self and stealing your fries.
And let's not even start on thatdream plant you were chasing
that now, with some distance, looks suspiciously like a
(04:19):
flaming garbage barge dressed upin glitter and good intentions.
Sometimes losing something isn'ttragic, it's liberating.
It makes space emotional. Closet space.
Soul storage, the kind of room you need to actually fit the
things that are right for you instead of constantly shoving
(04:43):
your spirit into situations thatfeel like mental shapewear.
And yeah, maybe it didn't feel like a blessing at the time.
Maybe it felt like rejection, failure, a full blown come
apart. But that's because growth is a
messy little gremlin that never shows up in a neat package.
(05:05):
It shows up in breakdowns, detours, crying in the car and
then weirdly laughing 5 minutes later because what else can you
do? So sure, it might not be the
kind of blessing you write a Hallmark card about, but if it
gave you a clearer path, a better fit, or just the sweet,
(05:29):
sweet relief of no longer pretending you were happy in a
situation that sucked, that's worth writing down.
The truth is, life's redirections almost never come
with a soothing soundtrack or a clear This Will All Make Sense
Someday subtitle. Nope.
(05:50):
They usually show up unannounced, like a Wrecking
Ball made of chaos, rejection, and a shameful number of empty
snack wrappers. And while you're knee deep in
the emotional shrapnel, the lastthing you're thinking is, wow,
what a beautiful opportunity forpersonal growth.
No, you're thinking, what the actual hell?
(06:15):
Because in the moment, it's not poetic.
It's a shitstorm, its plans falling apart like a soggy
burrito. It's feeling like the universe
put your name on a prank list. But then eventually, once you're
out of the metaphorical swamp and can breathe again without
(06:39):
rage sighing every 10 minutes, hindsight shows up like that
smug friend who just knew your ex was trash.
See, it says, sipping your leftover emotional energy like a
cocktail. Told you you'd be a better off.
So now the question is, what door opened while you were too
(07:01):
busy ugly crying over the one that slammed shut again,
possibly on your foot because life loves drama?
What opportunity snuck in the back while you were rage
scrolling job listings, unfollowing toxic people, or
finally blocking that one contact?
You should have blocked 3 red flags ago.
Was it a better fit? A more honest version of you, a
(07:26):
new found appreciation for the kind of peace that only comes
when you're no longer constantlybracing for disappointment.
That's not just a silver lining,that's emotional alchemy turning
disaster into actually that kindof worked out.
(07:47):
You don't need to be grateful for the whole ordeal.
Seriously, you're still allowed to be salty, but if you can dig
through the mass and find even 1little win, some clarity, some
growth, some not that again wisdom, you're doing more than
(08:09):
just surviving. You're learning, evolving, and
collecting receipts for the nexttime someone dares to hit you
with everything happens for a reason, because now you've got
the reason and the receipts. Did you teach resilience?
(08:30):
Spoiler alert, probably, but notin the cute look at me growing
kind of way. More like I didn't die, I didn't
commit arson, and I only cried in a Target parking lot twice
this week. So I guess I'm stronger now.
Let's be honest, nobody chooses resilience.
(08:53):
We earn it the hard way by getting dragged through life's
obstacle course wearing emotional flip flops and 0
padding. It's not sexy.
It's not inspirational Pinterestquote material.
It's raw, inconvenient, and usually involves caffeine,
(09:13):
sarcasm, and a breakdown you later refer to as a character
building moment. Because when life turns into a
full blown dumpster inferno, youdon't get time to center
yourself and channel your inner goddess.
You get panic, survival mode, and possibly a mild rash from
(09:35):
stress. And yet you kept going.
You held it together, ish. You figured it out, one meltdown
at a time. You adapted, problem solved,
cried, cursed, tried again, failed again, ordered Thai food
(10:01):
at 2:00 AM and still showed up to your life like the resilient
badass you didn't even know you were.
And that's the thing. Resilience doesn't mean you were
unaffected. It means you were wrecked and
you rebuilt. It means you did the impossible
(10:25):
while feeling you were made, like you were made of duct tape,
caffeine, and increasingly unhinged voice notes to your
best friend. It means you got stronger, not
because you wanted to, but because you had to.
And now, Now you walk a little taller, you trust yourself a
(10:47):
little more and you've got this unshakable wild eyed confidence
that says throw what you want atme, I've been through worse and
I have the receipts. So yeah, life didn't offer you
the glow up. It handed you grit, guts, and
the kind of mental ABS that onlycome from emotionally dead
(11:09):
lifting your way through chaos. And you carried it all like the
unmedicated legend you are. Or if you're on medication, then
you're a medicated legend. Either way, you're a legend.
You figured out how to function with a broken heart, a bruised
ego, or a plan that imploded so spectacularly that it deserves
(11:32):
its own Netflix miniseries. And somehow, through the tears,
the rage naps, and the rage cleaning, you didn't fully
unravel. You adapted.
You duct taped your life together, Gave 1/2 hearted mini
finger, middle finger to the chaos.
Maybe a mini finger too. All the fingers you gave all the
(11:54):
fingers to the chaos. And you kept it moving.
Sure, maybe we're held together by coffee, panic and emotional
memes, but guess what? You're still here, and not just
here in the barely breathing on autopilot sense.
You're here with more wisdom, more boundaries, and an upgraded
(12:18):
internal bullshit detector. You can now clock a walking red
flag from 300 feet away and havethe self respect to not try and
turn it into a craft project. That's progress baby.
You didn't get that clarity froma self help book or a vision
board. You got it by being body slammed
(12:40):
by life and deciding fine, if I'm going down, I'm taking some
lessons with me. You learned how to navigate
grief, disappointment, rejectionand that one moment that still
makes your left eye twitch and somehow you turned it into fuel.
(13:02):
So now is the time to ask, what hard earned wisdom did I drag
out of that mess? What strength did I only
discover when everything else was stripped away?
Maybe you found your voice. Maybe you stopped shrinking to
fit. Maybe you learned to say no
(13:25):
without a follow up analogy or 10 slide explanation.
That's not just growth, that's main character energy forged in
the fire. You didn't choose the storm, but
you damn sure didn't let it sinkyou.
You leveled up. You're tougher, wiser, and way
(13:48):
less likely to entertain nonsense.
And that, my friend, is the kindof badassery that can't be
taught. It has to be earned.
Did it help you discover an inner strength?
Maybe. Or maybe it dragged that
strength out of you by the ankles while you were just
(14:10):
trying to make it through the emotional equivalent of a pop
quiz in fire juggling during an earthquake while blindfolded.
You weren't looking for a personal breakthrough, you were
just trying not to scream in public or spiral into a full
identity crisis in the Trader Joe's frozen Isle.
(14:30):
No one wakes up thinking, wow, Ireally hope today smashes my
sense of control so I can meet the version of me who thrives
under pressure. And yet, bam, life hits you with
a plot twist worthy of a soap opera and suddenly you're in
survival mode, discovering strengths you didn't even know
(14:51):
were in your toolbox. Like stubbornness.
Like resourcefulness, Like the ability to make questionable
choices and still bounce back with a little glitter and a lot
of emotional bruises. And let's not underestimate the
sheer sass stamina it takes to keep going when everything feels
(15:15):
like a cosmic dare. Emotional core strength
activated. Mental agility doing backflips?
Existential humor weaponized. You become the kind of person
who can cry and problem solve simultaneously, who can spiral
and still hit deadlines, who cansay this is a disaster while
(15:37):
also figuring out what kind of wine pairs best with it.
So yeah, you didn't sign up for the crash course in inner
Badassery, but you aced it anyway.
You got stronger by being throwninto the deep end with no
floaties and figuring out how toswim using sarcasm, spite, and
(15:58):
maybe a playlist that could soundtrack a personal comeback
montage. You didn't find your strength,
You fought for it. You built it under pressure, in
the dark, without a map. And now you're walking around
with proof that even when everything goes sideways, you
(16:18):
don't. Not for long, anyway.
Maybe. You found a level of chill in
chaos that shocked even you. Like who was that?
Calmly sipping coffee while everything around them caught
fire? Oh, right, it was you somehow
(16:39):
channeling inner peace like a Zen monk on a deadline.
Or maybe you discovered that youcould pivot so fast it defied
physics. Full on caffeinated ballerina
mode. Pure.
A wedding through crisis after crisis without even smudging
your eyeliner. Or.
Maybe plot twist, you realize something even Wilder.
(17:04):
You can feel utterly lost, overwhelmed, and emotionally
held together by vibes alone andstill keep moving.
That's not just resilience, that's survival with style.
That's being. Emotionally concussed and still
(17:25):
figuring out how to file your taxes, Respond to a vague can we
talk text and remember to feed your house plants because when
the shit hit the fan, you didn'tjust sit in the wreckage.
Weeping. Yes, but also adapting.
Some dormant part of you logged in, some previously unexplored
(17:49):
combo of grit, sass and reluctant maturity, and suddenly
you had new tools. You became resourceful,
strategic, just a little dead inside maybe, but with excellent
time management. So ask yourself, what part of me
(18:10):
came online during this dumpsterfire of a life phase?
What wild, unexpected, possibly feral version of myself emerged
when I had nothing left to lose but my last nerve?
Did you find? Your voice.
Set a boundary, say no without athree paragraph justification,
(18:33):
or just stop trying to please everyone who would have let you
burn for their comfort. Because here's the thing, you
didn't ask for the mess. You didn't.
Manifest the chaos. But when it showed up, you
didn't roll over. You rallied.
(18:54):
You kept going. You became the kind of person
who can rebuild and throw shade at the same time.
And that says everything about who you're becoming, not just
despite the storm, but because of it.
(19:14):
OK. So you stared that challenge in
the face. Maybe you screamed into a
pillow. Maybe you rage texted your group
chat. Maybe you laid dramatically on
the floor like a Victorian widowwhile muttering I simply cannot.
And yet somehow you're still here, still breathing, still
(19:37):
scrolling, still piercing together whatever shambles life
left behind like it's a sad little IKEA project with half
the screws missing. Which means sorry, not sorry,
it's time to dig a little deeper.
Yeah, yeah, I get it. Your brains already side eyeing
(19:57):
this whole reflection thing. Like can we not let's binge a
shell and repress instead? Tempting.
But no, because buried somewherealong the emotional fallout zone
is something worth noticing. Maybe not a profound life
lesson, but something a weird little silver lining, a plot
(20:23):
twist you didn't see coming. A shred of.
Growth you earned by crawling through the chaos in sweatpants
and moral fatigue. Let's.
Start there. The not cringe Silver Linings,
not the fake deep everything happens for a reason stuff, but
(20:46):
the gritty, sarcastic, actually helpful kind.
Maybe that door that slammed in your face rude saved you from
walking into a flaming dumpster with Wi-Fi.
Maybe that dream you were chasing was actually just a
cleverly disguised burnout machine.
(21:08):
Or maybe life straight up ejected you from your comfort
zone with the emotional subtletyof a cannonball.
And yeah, it's sucked, but maybeit shoved you somewhere better.
Or at least less soul sucking. And.
Let's talk about the resilience part, because no, it's not just
(21:30):
about waking up and slapping on some affirmations.
It's about dragging yourself through a full blown emotional
landslide, covered in metaphorical mud and still
managing to reply to a Co worker's e-mail without telling
them where to shove their passive aggressive :).
You didn't break, you bent you spirals, you maybe ate some
(21:54):
questionable things and neglected a few basic human
functions for a hot minute, but you kept going.
You stayed. Upright ish.
You levelled up emotionally, even if your vibe check came
back as barely holding it together, but still kind of
iconic. So now.
(22:16):
Go deeper. What did that?
Dumpster fire teach you. What?
Strength or clarity came out of that hot mess express you
absolutely did not sign up for because the fact that you're
still here listening to this reflecting at all.
(22:37):
That's not. Nothing that's proof you're
tougher than whatever came for you.
And if nothing else, you've now got material emotional receipts,
gross mileage, and the kind of hard one insight that makes you
an expert in bouncing back like a slightly cracked but
(23:01):
beautifully seasoned human boomerang.
And. Let's not forget those sneaky
little strengths showed up like surprise guests at the world's
worst party. The ones you didn't ask for,
didn't expect, and definitely didn't have a Pinterest board
prepared for. Maybe you found patience.
(23:24):
Real patience, not the fake kindwhere you smile while internally
plotting someone's demise. Or maybe you managed to MacGyver
your way through a meltdown using nothing but caffeine,
blind optimism, and that one weird life skill you never
thought would come in handy. Shout out to emotionally
strategic crying and spontaneously Google sleuthing.
(23:48):
That's inner strength, baby. Not the shiny centered kind, the
feral backup generator. I'll figure it out with duct
tape and bad ideas if I have to.Kind.
The kind of strength that doesn't show up until you've
been absolutely wrecked and haveno other option but to become
(24:08):
resourceful or explode. And somehow you didn't explode,
you evolved. So now, now comes the real
challenge. Go back to.
That moment that absolutely tried to end you emotionally,
(24:29):
mentally, maybe even hygienically and ask.
What did it? Actually teach me about me.
And I'm not. Talking about the cleaned up, I
learned boundaries :) version I'm talking about the gritty,
possibly not safe for work truth.
(24:52):
What did you? Find in the wreckage that made
you go Oh damn, I didn't know I had that in me.
Did you grow? A spine.
Finally, stop apologizing for everything, including your own
existence. Did you learn?
To say no like a boundary setting Rockstar instead of a
(25:14):
guilt riddled people pleaser. Or maybe.
You just found out that you can absolutely fall apart and still
get your shit done, mascara streaks and all.
Write that down. All of it.
The messy, ridiculous, glorious truth of how you survived when
(25:40):
it felt like everything was coming apart at the seams.
Let it be. Raw, Let it be ugly, let it have
swears and pettiness and exactly0 concern for whether it's
Instagram worthy. Because.
Journaling isn't about sounding like a grounded forest fairy.
(26:03):
It's about. Documenting your own evolution,
your unhinged, unexpected, unstoppable glow up from the
wreckage. So go ahead, spill it, Make it
weird, make it loud, make it yours.
(26:23):
Because this is your proof that you really did that, chaos and
all. So now it's your turn.
Write like no. One's reading because honestly,
no one should be unless they've earned the right to witness your
unfiltered brilliance. Unless you want to share with
(26:45):
everyone on the O'Neill Counseling app, we've got a
whole group just to share bits of your guided journal entries.
Swear if you need to, be brutally honest, be hilariously
petty, be proud of how you handled it, or at the very least
how you dragged yourself throughit with a questionable snack
(27:07):
routine and a playlist that got oddly intense.
You didn't. Survive that chaos just to
gaslight yourself into thinking it didn't change you.
So document the transformation, even if you didn't emerge as
some serene crystal charged butterfly.
(27:28):
Maybe you came out as a slightlyunhinged but wiser feral phoenix
who now sets boundaries and burns bridges with intention.
Whatever it is, you earned it. Own it.
And as always, thanks for pushing.
Play on shrink wrapped, catch you next time where we're
(27:54):
unpacking something else. Wildly uncomfortable anxiety but
with snacks. Probably a few swears and
absolutely zero toxic positivity.
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