RESILIENT PEOPLE Janet Fanaki

Tara Pyfrom grew up in the beautiful Bahamas. She comes from a long line of family members who lived there for generations. Residents there are used to hurricanes.
In 2019 Tara's beloved island experienced the wrath of Hurricane Dorian, the biggest cyclone to hit the Bahamas. Tara, her wife and daughter watched as their home filled with water, making its way all the way up to the attic.
Once the storm passed and they were forced to evacuate, they needed to find a place to live and eventually found their way to Canada.
We spoke about living through the scariest moments of the hurricane, the moments of problem-solving, the benefits of therapy and seeking all different types of it, the purpose she found from this challenge and where she draws her resilience.

Welcome to Season 4 of the RESILIENT PEOPLE podcast. It's hard to believe that we're so many episodes in!
For this episode, host Janet Fanaki reflects on some of the learnings from past guests, the purpose that her guests have found from the challenges they faced and how a bigger purpose can be created through adversity.
Janet mentions in this episode, "a major challenge will most definitely change you, but it doesn’t need to define who you are for the rest of your life."

This episode is a response to a Twitter post that I recently made that garnered a bit of attention.
I was remarking on how I was including a friend, who recently lost her husband, in my plans. Inviting her to play tennis, hang out and go out for dinner.
So many people replied with their own stories of living with grief and the alienation they encountered while others wrote about the ways in which they had included a griever in their vacations, dinners and making plans together.
The grievers had remarked on the typical "outreach" comments that they would hear as a way for others to feel as though they were helping. These are touched-on as well as examples of how they also felt acknowledged, loved and seen which allowed them to make steps to move forward from their loss.
This episode is with Janet Fanaki, a widow for over three years and the host of the RESILIENT PEOPLE podcast.

Shaun O'Gorman is an author, motivational speaker, father, and a former police officer in Queensland, Australia

Growing up in a police family, Shaun knew from a very young age what he aspired to be when he got older. But he wasn't aware of how much this profession would change him.

Witnessing horrific events and drama of day to day life, he struggled for a long time with PTSD, attempted suicide and eventually left the police force.

It took a lot of personal development to get to his best self. Leaving aggression and alcoholism in the past.

Now Shaun found a purpose in speaking to audiences, police academies, military, first responders, athletes and schools about his struggles and his goal is to help people to cope with life’s hardships and build resilience.

Back in 2019 I spoke with a woman by the name of Dawn Custode. She loved to sail, travel, spend time helping the causes that she held dear and having fun with loved ones.

When we spoke she was dying of colon cancer, a disease that she had lived with for two and a half years.

She was spending her remaining days imparting her wisdom on life for the living. And she had some terrific advice such as getting regularly screened for colon cancer, keep adding things to the calendar to look forward to, live with no regrets and be mindful of time because tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Dawn believed that much of her resilience came from moving often as a child. She felt that it made her an extrovert and someone who was able to land on her feet and move forward.

Perhaps this helped her through her cancer diagnosis too. The ability to look at this challenge and find positive ways to move forward from it.

It's a great conversation and I'm so grateful that she shared some time with me.

Our talk came at a time when my own husband was living with terminal brain cancer called glioblastoma.

Dawn and I both agreed that having conversations like this are helpful and connect us with likeminded people.

I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

A popular topic from the past, I've brought back some new and very fun ways to actually enjoy Valentine's Day as a single person.

It's a day that can be tricky and sometimes depressing, but it absolutely does not need to be.

I'm sharing insights as a widow for the past 3 years, as well as after collecting feedback from many single people who have found ways to be happy and fulfilled on February 14th.

This episode offers tips for spending the day on your own or with others, as well as ways to avoid it altogether.
I touch on self care and the importance of community, but also that joy can be found in doing something nice for others.

​It's the idea of finding a purpose that will help to get you through this day and turning the narrative into something positive.