About the Contributor
This story was written by Verna Haywood, shared as part of The Impactful Voice Project™ — One Voice. Infinite Impact.™
Verna Haywood is a UK-based Resilience and Empowerment Coach, Author, and Founder of The Unstoppable Life. Through lived experience and holistic practice, she supports people globally to move from survival into wholeness and embodied resilience.
🔸 Category: Life-Changing
🔸 Country: UK
🔸 Connect: https://verna-haywood.com/
KEY POINTS
- Resilience is not endurance; it is self-listening and self-honouring
- Survival can look like strength while masking deep exhaustion
- Healing is a daily, embodied practice, not a final destination
- Trauma does not mean brokenness or weakness
- Reclaiming self is an intentional and compassionate choice
For much of my life, I was known as “strong.”
I carried responsibility well. I endured quietly. I showed up, even when my inner world was fractured and exhausted. From the outside, I looked capable and resilient, but inside, I was surviving rather than living.
There came a moment, not loud, not dramatic, when I realised something profound:
I could keep enduring life, or I could begin to reclaim myself.
That realisation changed everything.
Resilience, I learned, is not about how much pain you can withstand. It’s about how deeply you are willing to listen to yourself. It’s about honouring the body, tending to the mind, and reconnecting with the soul, especially after life has asked too much of you.
I began to turn inward, gently.
To pay attention to what my body was holding.
To acknowledge emotions, I had once buried in order to cope.
To allow healing to be a daily practice, not a destination.
Over time, this way of living became more than personal healing, it became a way of guiding others. The practices that sustained me slowly shaped into a framework, and eventually into my book, Unstoppable Resilience. Not written from theory, but from lived wisdom.
What I know now is this:
You are not broken because you’ve been through hardship.
You are not weak because you feel deeply.
And you are not meant to simply survive your life.
Resilience is remembering who you are beneath the roles, the responsibilities, and the wounds. It is choosing, again and again, to live with intention, compassion, and courage.
If my story offers anything, I hope it offers this reminder:
Your strength is not in what you endure. It is in your willingness to return to yourself.
Verna Haywood is a UK-based Resilience and Empowerment Coach, author, and founder of The Unstoppable Life. Through lived experience and holistic practice, she supports people globally to move from survival into wholeness and embodied resilience.
“Your strength is not in what you endure. It is in your willingness to return to yourself.”
If this story resonated with you, please share it. You never know who might need it today.
#RedefiningResilience #LivedExperience #HealingAfterTrauma #EmbodiedHealing
#WomenHealing #InnerStrength #SelfReclamation #TheImpactfulVoiceProject
