(IM) POSSIBLE

I grew up watching people overcome obstacles and doing things that others said they couldn't do.

That's probably where I get my "Yes I Can, Get Out of My Way" attitude.

 
Every time I have chosen to shift the tide of my life, I have had people who were close to me at the time tell me I "couldn't do it," I "couldn't live without them," I "would be alone," etc. etc.  Does this sound familiar to any of you?  We have ALL had at least one person in our lives who tell us we are crazy and don't believe in our strength.









What those people are glossing us over with is THEIR FEAR.  It literally has nothing to do with us.  If you're quitting an unhealthy lifestyle, your 'friends' will dissipate immediately.  They are no longer comfortable around you.  Again, notice it's about THEM.

And then there are the people who stand beside you, NO MATTER WHAT.  Those are the people to cherish.

In 2013, I had a brief stint of cancer.  (Papillary Thyroid Cancer)








When I went public with it, I got a phone call from a girl who was a "friend" who told me that now I had cancer I would never ever be rid of it.  That for the rest of my life, I would be fighting cancer and

it would come back in at least three other places in my body.  I would never be able to have children

or be healthy or stop living in fear of dying of cancer.  It was a 30-minute barrage of HER experience and fear pouring down on newly diagnosed ME.

Suffice it to say, I almost had a heart attack hearing what the future held for me.  I imagined myself never being healthy again.  She MUST be right, right?  She's the one who's been going through all the health hell, so she MUST know!  Right?

A couple months later, I had an ovarian cancer scare.  My mind went STRAIGHT to that phone call and I thought to myself:  "OH MY GOD SHE WAS RIGHT."  The scare wound up being a wicked, wicked case of endometriosis that was settled in surgery.

Confused, grateful and completely upside down, I set about my life again and tried to figure out what defined me.  I was no longer that same girl I was prior to cancer.  Or was I?  Who knew!  I didn't know, that much was for sure.

I set sail, in my mind, to go in circles by myself and try to get it figured out.  Tons of people fell out of my life, and that was OK.  Nobody knew what to say to the confused and angry girl who had just had cancer and kept looking for more cancer to hit because she was scared and listening to someone else's B.S. fear.

I had several people tell me I couldn't have a healthy baby and I would be lucky to get pregnant at all.  After the age of 35, it's hard enough to get pregnant and after cancer AND 35, all bets were off that I would produce a healthy child.

After a whole ton of work on myself, yoga, therapy, meditation and getting clear about WHO I AM...  My husband and I had the "let's be open to having a baby" conversation.  We decided we would just see if it could naturally occur.

Two months later, I was pregnant.

Nine months later, I gave birth.

Almost eleven months later, I have a sweet (HEALTHY) baby who is currently asleep in her baby carrier, against my chest, as I write this blog post.

I stand in gratitude for my health and for that of my family and know all too well how quickly things change--but I am free of the fear that was embracing my breath for way too long.


Love conquers fear, every day of the week.

Nobody defines our success and failure but us.  Nobody can let fear stick to us but us.  The minute we swallow someone else's fear as our own truth, we are in serious trouble.

Nobody lives in our skin but us.

I have watched people bounce through WAY worse than I have been through and make it through with flying colors.  I have watched people I love as much as breathing lose their battles. 

In the end, it was and always has been on their terms.  Not anyone else's.

Don't forget the word IMPOSSIBLE breaks down:  I'M POSSIBLE.

Remember, as we enter a New Year, the voice we should listen to the most is our own.

Peace, Love, Success and Health to YOU and YOURS this Holiday Season.

Michelle Tomlinson