From Struggles to Superpowers: Learning to Embrace All Parts of Ourselves

“From Struggles to Superpowers: Learning to Embrace All Parts of Ourselves,” is a dynamic motivational talk aimed at recognizing the adaptive, resilient, and self-protective nature inherent in all behaviors. Our world has developed binary categories of “good” and “bad” and “right” and “wrong” that are not sufficient for reflecting the complexity of human experience, and their simplicity limits our ability to understand and appreciate all aspects of ourselves. Emotions such as guilt, anger, and fear…thoughts that promote anxiety, insecurity, and struggle…body cues that cause us discomfort, avoidance, and suppression…what would happen if, instead of expending our energy battling these parts of ourselves, we viewed them as opportunities to develop greater self-awareness and self-compassion, on a spectrum from struggle to strength? In this workshop, I will guide attendees in the conscious effort to reframe the parts of ourselves we perceive as most difficult into assets that empower a sense of pride for the remarkable ways we engage with the world.