Today’s video is a little check-in to say, hey…it’s 2025!
You know what they say: New Year, New Pressure.
The actual phrase is, as you know well, New Year, New You, but that phrasing is *so* laced with expectation and I feel the need to call out the extreme ability of a new year to hammer us with new feelings, both good and bad, big and little, intense and subversive.
I’d love for you to watch the video, but if you need to read instead, here’s a cleaned up version of the transcript:
Hello! Welcome to 2025! There will be a newsletter coming next week; it’s a topic that I'm struggling to write about, which means it’s probably what I really need to write about. I’m challenging myself to show more of the real, messy bits that ultimately make us resilient, even if in the moment we feel small and worthless.
So that's my challenge to myself. Not not like a resolution for the year, just my goal, always.
As I look ahead to the new things to come, I’m also looking back over the past year, and I’m so thankful that you're here. I'm thankful for everyone who reads Fierce Resilience, and I’m so glad that you're here on a collective trip to find our best selves, even through our worst moments.
What I create here is a community around understanding that life is hard sometimes, but we can get through it.
Why Fierce Resilience Exists
I want to show the ways that we get through the tough moments by carving out a little space at the intersection of pop culture, science and personal experience.
In the pop culture section, maybe you've seen my post about Pink and Madonna and their resilience dexterity and ability to power through, even when people don't believe in them.
And as for the science; I adore people like Gabor Mate for his research around what our brains are doing and what we need as humans, and Brene Brown for her work on shame and vulnerability.
There's a science behind how our bodies and souls relate to ourselves during really trying times. I want to show you that science because when sh*t hits the fan, it will help to know that you’re not alone, and that you don’t suck just because your circumstances suck.
And then, when we get through that icky moment, I want to be here to celebrate the wins.
My big wish in this coming new year—in this coming week even—is to hear more from you.
I'd love to hear how you get through hard times. (Yes, you.)
I'd love to hear the hard times that you're in right at this moment that you don't know how you're going to get through.
I want to showcase more of these stories so that we can collectively understand that we're all going through it.
And that's why the next newsletter that you get from me is going to be one showing my own hard times, and how I’m actively moving through the icky moments, even if I haven't gotten to that other side where I can be like, “oh, yeah, that was hard but here’s how I got through it, no prob.” This won’t be the clean and easy version.
We’re all in some process of moving through things.
It feels great once we get through the hump and can look back and say, like, I did it. But sometimes we don't even give ourselves the grace to stop just for that second and acknowledge it. How hard it all was.
So I hope wherever you are that you can take a moment to stop and acknowledge that you have gotten through hard times.
It may have been last week, last month, last year, somewhere in this decade, maybe it was big or small. But you did it.
And maybe you’re doing the hard stuff right this moment.
It all takes a toll on us, but I hope that you have been able to feel something stronger within yourself.
Because, like I said about Madonna, I’ll say about this group: we are resilient AF.
So, here's to getting through whatever comes our way, knowing that we can, and if we're in the middle of it and it’s really sucky, just know that we can and we will. And I'm here along the way, and I'm going to share as much as I possibly can so you have inspiration and facts, figures, and anything that you need—heck, that I need!—to continuously help us keep going.
That's what I'm here for.
So I hope you'll stick with me.
I want to hear so much more about what's going on with you.
I hope that as I start sharing more stories, you’ll start sharing your hard stuff with me. Because if we start hearing more about it, then we don't feel alone.
One of the amazing little facts and figures that I love to speak about all the time is that, according to the Mayo Clinic, resilience does not come through being on your own or independent or powering through.
A key factor of resilience is calling on other people and saying, I need help, which is often the hardest.
And of course, I could go into that whole Brene Brown area of expertise around shame and why we might not say we need help.
When we feel shame, we get small. That’s when reaching out for help is hardest.
So I wanna be here right at that moment to help more people open up a little. I want to be there for you as we do it. We can create this little community together, knowing that we can and we will.
So here we are; welcome to a new year.
It's full of possibility.
Now, let's go.
xx M
PS: If this video or letter made you feel excited or comforted or less alone, or anything…I’d love it if you replied back, even with a small phrase (“me too”, “i’m here”, “shit’s hard”…whatever!) I want to see you. The more we see each other, the more we shine together.
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