Last week, I shared thoughts on Growth. This week, something unexpected happened.

I sat down with Lisa Quait for a podcast to explore the evolution of #Unshakable. What started as a casual conversation became something deeper — more revealing than I had anticipated. We spoke about King Sally, my alter ego — the woman I created to embody resilience, strength, and command. But as we peeled back layers, something surprising emerged:

I wasn’t just performing strength anymore.

I was strength.

And I had healed.

Lisa asked questions that took me back — way back. To childhood. To silence. To fight. To fragments of a life once shattered and stitched together in private. We went from laughter to depth in a heartbeat, and for the first time in a long time, I saw the full arc of my journey — not just the visible triumphs but the quiet battles I had survived to get here.

Off camera, something happened. I broke.

I sobbed — not because I was hurting, but because I had healed.

The kind of healing that feels like exhaling after holding your breath for years.

It reminded me of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold. The cracks remain visible — but instead of hiding them, they are honoured. The break becomes part of the story. A mark of survival, not shame. That’s what healing felt like in that moment. I saw every crack in me filled with gold.

Healing is not a straight line.

It’s a dance. A stumble. A stretch. A sacred undoing.

Sometimes, healing looks like therapy or journaling.

Other times, it looks like belly laughter. Or choosing not to text back.

Sometimes, it looks like silence — the kind that is not lonely but peaceful.

It’s crying in a podcast green room when a friend gently holds space.

It’s laughing about something that once shattered you.

It’s saying ‘I’m okay’ — and meaning it.

It’s choosing joy without guilt.

It’s rewriting the story you once felt trapped in.

Healing is not about erasing the past — it’s about making peace with it.

It’s about turning pain into wisdom, scars into gold, and stories into legacies.

If Forgiveness was the seed and Growth the stem, then Healing is the flower.

Not flawless. But blooming — beautifully, courageously, consistently.

A little wild. A little bruised. Still growing.

And this time, growing isn’t for survival.

It’s for wholeness.

It’s for me.

So many of us wear masks of strength. We keep going. We show up. We push through. But healing asks for something different. It invites us to soften. To stop performing. To allow ourselves to become. It reminds us that there is no gold without the breaking — that every healed part of us deserves celebration.

 

I don’t know where you are in your healing, but here’s what I’ve learned:

  • There is no shame in the cracks.
  • Time helps, but intention heals.
  • You are not what happened to you.
  • You are who you became despite it.
  • And you don’t need to rush. Healing (much like grief and growth) honours no clock — only your truth.

So here I am, a woman with a crown that sits gently on a head that once bowed in sorrow.

A woman who thought she needed to be King Sally to survive.

Now knowing that the real strength was in becoming myself again — without apology.

Next week? We’ll take a step inward again.

I won’t spoil it all, but let’s just say the letter ‘I’ has always intrigued me.

And this time, we will tell a story — not just share a lesson.

A story about Intuition — that soft inner voice that knows the way, even when we don’t.

Until then, breathe deep. Celebrate your scars.

You are healing. You are gold.

And you are entirely, breathtakingly, #Unshakable.

‘See’ you next week.

 

Sally Chiwuzie
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IG Handle: @unshakable.is.a.state.of.mind