“There is no getting over this. You will find a way to use it,” says Dr. Joyce Mikal-Flynn of the traumatic injury that changed her life. “You will find a way to incorporate this into your life. You will make meaning of this pain and you will find a way to exist —sometimes in the loss.”

22 minutes. That’s the amount of time Joyce Mikal-Flynn lay on the pavement beside a swimming pool while friends worked desperately to resuscitate her. She’d just swam the final leg of friendly competition when she sank to the bottom of the pool.

Those 22 minutes became the catalyst for a profound life change. The motivation she used to come back stronger. Not just to survive but to thrive. Dr. Joyce Mikal-Flynn is the founder of Metahab, a strength based system to help individuals recover from traumatic events. She is the author of two books, Turning Tragedy into Triumph: Metahabilitation, A Contemporary Model of Rehabilitation and Anatomy of a Survivor: Building Resilience, Grit, and Growth After Trauma as well as numerous articles about post traumatic growth.

As you listen to this episode consider:

• What is one difficult experience you struggle to recover from?

• How can you focus on the ways in which this struggle has presented you with gifts you did not expect? (For example, feeling grateful for having survived?)

• How can you begin to incorporate these gifts into your life?

Listen to Dr. Joyce’s episode here.