Winning Through Adversity (eBook)
215 Seiten
10-10-10 Publishing (Verlag)
9781772776713 (ISBN)
Oluwatoyin Okedina-Toyin, as she is called-is a spirit-filled child of God. Toyin was born and raised in Nigeria but currently lives in Volo, Illinois. She has been a nurse for 14 years, and in the healthcare field for 21 years. She got her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Northern Illinois University. She is passionate about making sure that people live up to their full potential. Her other passion is to alleviate the pain and suffering that people pass through in their day-to-day lives. This passion became even stronger when she lost her son 9 years ago. Her hobbies are cooking, gardening, singing, and listening to music.
Winning Through Adversity: How to Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and LossTransform Your Life Today!In Winning Through Adversity, you hold a key to unlocking a brighter, more resilient version of yourself. This book is not just a read; it's a life-changing journey that offers you practical strategies and heartfelt insights to help you navigate the challenges of loss, anxiety, and depression. What You'll Discover:Embrace Loss with Self-Compassion:Learn powerful techniques to accept and process grief while nurturing a kind relationship with yourself. Rise Above Depression:Discover actionable steps to lift yourself out of the depths of despair and embrace a life overflowing with joy and purpose. Conquer Anxiety with Confidence:Uncover effective strategies to manage anxiety, empowering you to face each day with courage and clarity. Cultivate Resilience: Develop the strength and fortitude needed to turn adversity into opportunity, propelling your life to new heights. Why This Book?This isn't just another self-help book; it's a roadmap for anyone who has experienced life's toughest moments and yearns to reclaim their joy and strength. Whether you're faced with personal challenges or seeking to support a loved one, this guide equips you with the tools to navigate even the darkest times.
Chapter 1 Permission to Groan, Moan, and Mourn
“I’m more interested in the meaning of funerals and the mourning that people do. It’s not a retail experience. It’s an existential one.”
– Thomas Lynch
“A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.”
– King Solomon, from Ecclesiastes 7:1-2
The Shock and the Shock Absorber
It was Saturday, September 26, 2015, when I woke up with the sun shining so bright through the window of my bedroom. Supposedly, this was supposed to be a great sign that the day would be full of sunshine. Suddenly, the same brightness penetrated through the invisible window of my heart. I was elated and excited to begin my brand-new day.
Even though I felt so tired, I pumped out the energy needed to jumpstart the day from my sunshine within. I quickly pulled myself out of bed with a break in my usual routine of waking up at dawn to pray. I had a pile of things to get done, and I had a gazillion events to attend. Not a gazillion per se but a lot of events to attend. I quickly jumped into the shower, got dressed, and strapped my boots on for the journey ahead.
I moved from one event to another throughout that day. Everywhere I went, people were asking me about my son. All my answers were, “He is fine. I talked to him two days ago.” My son was in his second year of university at the time.
If I had been super sensitive, I would have picked up one clue or another from all the people that were asking me about my son. The sensitivity would have prompted me to make a phone call to my son, but for some strange reason, every given sign was ignored. I had also had two separate dreams two years prior, in which I was told about this event that would occur, and I had prayed about it and left it there. I did not take it too seriously. My entire day was super packed. By the time I scaled through some of the events, it was already late in the night.
It was through the darkest of night I returned home, only to find out few minutes later that the news I would receive would be darker than the dark night that I had just driven through to get back home. My husband had just returned from prayer service at the church. The time was between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. First, it was a knock on the door, followed by flashes of light through the window. It was very terrifying; I told my husband not to open the door because we were not expecting anybody.
The knock continued, followed by flashes of light through the window. We peeped through the window and saw policemen with flashlights pointed upward toward our window. I thought it was people investigating the death of a police officer who had passed away recently at Fox Lake, a neighborhood close to ours. We decided to open the door.
We saw police officers in uniform standing at the door of our house; they were asking if we knew someone by such and such a name, and they mentioned the name of my daughter, followed by the name of my son. I told them those were my children. At that point, I was bewildered at what the news could possibly be. At first, I did not understand how both of my children could be together in the same place at the same time, since they were both at different schools in different states; I was puzzled. The message was not coming together clearly to me.
I concluded that possibly my daughter had left her school in Missouri to come and visit my son in Illinois, and that they both had an accident that had left one or both of them injured. Then, one of the policemen pressed further by asking me if I had ever noticed that my son was depressed. I told him that my son was never depressed and did not have any reason to be depressed, because he was very talented, very athletic, very artistic, and always engaging with friends as well as with family. All his artworks were all over the house. They told me that my son had jumped down from the eleventh floor of a building at his school. I wailed, I cried, I groaned, I moaned, and I mourned.
Just like the Psalmist stated in Psalm 55:2, “Pay attention to me and answer me. I moan and groan in my thoughts.” Even though I was extremely tired, sleep disappeared from my eyes as rivers of tears continued to flow down. The shocking news was like the current of an electric shock that delivers paralysis to the whole body.
The news of the death of a loved one always comes in the form of a shock, especially when the death is unexpected. Even when the death is expected, it still creates turbulence. I have experienced the loss of people who are so dear to my heart.
In 2006, I had a miscarriage. In 2011, I lost my mom despite my desire to keep her alive. In 2015, I lost my son of almost twenty years of age. In 2018, I lost one of my younger sisters at the age of forty. In 2022, I lost my dad suddenly after seeing improvement in his health while recovering from a stroke. That same year, just two weeks apart, I lost my uncle, who had raised me up from childhood.
In 2024, even as I write this book, I lost my very dear brother suddenly, even though he’d had no prior illness. Two weeks after the loss of my brother, I lost a dear friend. I have also lost some of my siblings at a very young age in their childhood years. These are just a few of the losses that I have been affected by.
I have experienced several shocks that shook me to the core of my being and almost blew me away from my faith. It is not only the death of a loved one that can create a shock. I have lost jobs as well. In May of 2023, after working tirelessly for my company for eleven years, I was in shock when I heard that my job would be coming to an end within a month. The news was broken in May that the company would be closing their doors and shutting down in June.
Any kind of loss can trigger a shock and create paralysis in the day-to-day functioning of a person. The loss of a job, loss of health, loss of property, and other devastating events can create shock. Before I talk about shock, I would like to talk about death itself. Death is a very sensitive and delicate topic that nobody wants to talk about because nobody wants to die. Believe it or not, we are not meant to be here forever. Someday, every one of us will die, either naturally at an old age or by any other means.
Death is inevitable. Even though we will all die someday, death is a very painful experience for loved ones who are left behind. What then is death? Medically, death is the absence of all vital processes in every tissue and cell of the body. It is the absence of all brain function, especially of the brain stem, which is the control center where the regulation of breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, sleep, and consciousness of a person occur. In other words, death is the absence of life.
Spiritually, death means separation. There are two kinds of death: physical death and spiritual death. The first death is physical, and it is separation between the body and the soul. In other words, in the first death, the soul detaches from the body, and the body returns to the soil from where it was originally taken. Then, the soul goes back to God, who had given it. The second death is spiritual, and it is separation of the soul from God into eternal damnation. Not everyone will partake in the second death. Eternal life with God awaits those who accepted Christ while here on Earth.
What is a shock? Shock is a medical emergency marked by sudden drop in blood pressure and a drastic drop in blood supply to vital organs of the body. Shock can be triggered by acute blood loss, heat stroke, poisoning, burns, infection, allergic reaction, and emotional stress. Shock is the result of the sudden surprise of an undesirable and upsetting event. A person experiencing shock will have cold and pale skin, irregular respiration, a rapid heart rate, and dilated pupils. There are different kinds of shock, such as septic shock from bacterial infection, anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction, cardiogenic shock from heart damage, hypovolemic shock from blood or fluid loss, and neurogenic shock from spinal cord injury. These shocks are severe medical emergencies that need urgent attention to prevent permanent organ damage and death.
For this book, I will delve into emotional shock and how to recover from it. On receiving the news about any kind of loss, especially the death of loved ones, the first thing that happens is that the whole body’s systems are thrown into disarray and confusion. Panic attacks come into play and all kinds of strong emotions begin to surface. Some of us even get angry at God, and we ask all kinds of questions. Any kind of loss can throw people into pandemonium and cause them to make irrational decisions like walking away from God.
When a shocking event happens, we need a shock absorber to neutralize the impact. The impact of a shock on the road, such as when a car hits potholes, bumps, and unexpectedly and suddenly brakes, is not felt so much by passengers in the car because of the job of a shock absorber. A good shock absorber prevents wobbly wheels and provides steering stability, with consistent traction of the tires to the road surface, which enables proper control of the car. When the shock absorber in your car is faulty or worn out, your steering wheel will not steer smoothly, your ability to stop your car will be hampered, and your car will become unstable on the road because of so many vibrations. When this happens, you will have difficulty propelling your car forward....
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 22.7.2025 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung |
| ISBN-13 | 9781772776713 / 9781772776713 |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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