Is it possible to foster resiliency in the direct aftermath of the pain and grief of infertility and miscarriage? Jeanette White has allowed her experiences to help her grow in areas she never imagined. She now reaches out to others to offer support. Listen to find out why she recommends the Memory Resolution Technique.

Fostering Resiliency in the Aftermath of Infertility and Miscarriage

Highlights from the interview:

• Resiliency is not just about the ability to recover quickly and move on from something, it is about what we do with the impact that a difficult circumstance has had on our life and the way it has changed us. We never fully spring back into the shape we were prior to trauma.
• Jeanette’s personal journey with resiliency which has been deeply linked to making it through traumatic grief and loss in the realm of infertility and miscarriage
• I have found to be two phases of resilience: The first stage is about how to foster resilience in the direct aftermath of loss and grief, the second stage is action as resilience.
• Letting people in/avoiding isolation (share what you’re going through with trusted person/people). Make the choice to reach out and accept others help.
• Allowing the wave of emotions to come and go as they need to (don’t shut down). It’s OK to let this well up and impact me.
• Journaling/free writing; reference study by Pennebaker on the impact on emotional resiliency
• The Memory Resolution Technique (a quick description of this essential-oil based self-guided technique and how it’s been helpful to me)
• Action in relation to the difficulty as a movement toward resiliency
• What this has looked like for Jeanette in three ways:
  • Awareness/sensitivity to others
  • Being available to meet with others going through the same struggles
  • Stretching beyond her comfort zone and beginning to speak about her story and the impact of grief
  
  

Listen to the episode for the full story.

Stacy’s Journal

Welcome to Stacy’s Journal! In this segment, I let you peek into my journal as I share my thoughts on a topic or resilience resource. Jeanette talked about letting people in as one of the steps to resilience. That is actually a huge step to being a more resilient person. Bigger than it sounds. Have you ever been in a situation where someone offered help and your very first answer is No Thank You. Even before you thought about it. Then later you struggle alone. That is so hard for many of us. Often, it’s for one of three reasons:

1. We want to be the person who “has it all together” and accepting help is seen (in our screwed up minds) as a sign of weakness. By accepting help we admit that we are vulnerable.
2. Part of being vulnerable is risking community. We have become such an individualistic...