Jannette Salvador is the co-founder of Enhancing Simplicity, bringing attention to the importance of self-awareness within a self-care regimen.
For many women, a standard day includes being a successful businesswoman, wife, sister, mother, best friend, chef, cleaner, chauffeur – standard superhero stuff – all while being emotionally sound. There are personal and professional relationships to navigate while establishing healthy boundaries, displaying constant compassion, and of course, disguising any weakness or shame.
I lost my superhero status when I suffered two concussions within two years. First, my motorcycle met a streetcar track downtown Toronto. Then less than a year later, my head hit a bridge pass on Centre Island. I quickly realized I had to re-evaluate my lifestyle. Daily tasks became arduous, and I needed support more than I had ever before. I felt I was losing my sense of self. Traumatic brain injury is called the invisible disease. I found that not many women suffer head injuries of this nature, but I also found the support of my peers and friends failing as they didn’t understand why I was changing.
Working through my own anxiety and depression issues had always been difficult, but was greatly amplified by the injuries. It’s described as greater peaks and lower valleys; peaks being heightened hostility (anger) and valleys being deeper sadness (depression). It’s like adding 30% internal reaction to any arbitrary situation, then adding 30% to the melancholy of the reaction, even if these emotions are all inside, they quickly became overwhelming.
Enhancing Simplicity is a wellness community aimed at creating a platform for informing, educating, and sharing life stories and solutions. There is no rulebook on how to rebalance your emotions, sleep patterns, brain chemicals after trauma of any sort, not just physical, but emotional or spiritual traumas. Women have the heavier burden in most cultures and are expected to be the backbone of families, relationships, and societies. The scars we inevitably get while growing through hardships stay with us and can end up running our lives and affecting our health physically, mentally, and spiritually as well as our relationships with loved ones.
Most people don’t get the wake-up call that I did when I was forced to refocus myself on creating a healthy work-life-relationship balance. Giving women the safety of community and space to understand the importance of self-compassion is what we are aiming to achieve with Enhancing Simplicity.
Connect with Jannette:
Instagram: @enhancing.simplicity
Facebook page: Enhancing Simplicity
Email address: enhancing.simplicity@gmail.com
