Today is not just any Monday in July.
It is July 14: Malala Day. A day of celebrating inner strength and courage.
I find strength through my connections with my family, friends and my faith and I hope you too have figured out your own emotional support system that helps you sustain a spirit of hope and get to the other side of those tough and challenging times that life sends our way.
Malala Yousafzai
Besides those core resources, I also draw strength from other people that I have never met and don’t know personally at all. Other people that I read about in the news. Other people who have handled a trauma in an extraordinary manner and through their example I am inspired.
One of these people is Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani girl shot on a school bus in 2012 by members of the Taliban who had banned her and other girls of her village from attending school. (http://crylaughheal.com/malalas-light/) After the shooting, Malala was flown from Pakistan to the UK to recover. She is now back at school in the UK and advocates for every child’s right to be educated. Malala brought her powerful message of nonviolence to a global forum last year when she delivered a stirring speech to the United Nations calling for governments to fight violence and ensure education to every child around the globe.
Malala Day is a time for all of us to stand up and celebrate Malala’s fearless personality and her focus on the necessity of education. People are being encouraged to go to www.malala.org/partners and to share Tweets, photographs and Facebook messages using the hashtag #StrongerThan.
But Malala Day is also a day to stand up for yourself and recommit to discovering a new life for yourself, a life with changed goals and dreams.
In the midst of your pain, whether from the loss of a loved one or a major trauma, will come a resilience and strength and an eventual understanding that your old life is gone and it could be time for you to use your emotional resources to find a new life.
As much as you might like, it is not an overnight process. Each person’s way of discovering this new path is unique to them. It takes time and patience but eventually a different way of life will evolve. Slowly, as you begin to tell your story, your feelings of isolation will break and begin to disappear.
You are #StrongerThan fear.
You are #StrongerThan anger.
You are #StrongerThan grief.
Please watch this Malala Day YouTube video and may you come away from it feeling that you have received a boost of emotional strength so that you may go forward in your journey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrXVLN1kTtE
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