Episode 38 - Overcoming Anxiety, Finding Your Authentic Self & Building Resilience with Kira Hartley Klinger
By Jessica Garrison
You may know our next guest, Kira Hartley Klinger, who has been on several of our Together We FEEL “Come As Your Are” panels on YouTube, including Navigating Hope, Frustration, Joy & Connection and Capacity, Career Change, Support Systems & Self-Trust. Kira describes herself as resilient, determined, and strong, while Melissa adds the word courageous to the list.
Kira shares with us how anxiety has taken over many areas of her life, but this is a season that has been difficult for her personally. Some days she feels good and doesn’t have a care in the world, but there are also days where she feels she can do nothing but pray for help. I’m very appreciative of our guests who are so vulnerable with us, and Kira speaks with such empathy in her voice. I agree with Melissa that courageous is a great word to describe her because it isn’t easy to share the trouble with the triumph. However, it’s perfectly normal to have some good days and some bad days—you can’t know one without the other. Progress is not linear, but we tend to have an idea in our head of how things will go. It will never be perfect like you may see in your mind because no one is perfect, but one thing for sure is that it will get better.
Writing has always been important in Kira’s life, a self care act that allows her to be completely honest with herself. She recalls how she would get up before anyone else in her house to write, even completing 3 novels in her 20s. Though they were fiction and unpublished, her first published piece was nonfiction work in a magazine while in her 30s. This further led to her publishing Fabric Wars, detailing true stories from auctions where she buys vintage fabric for her Etsy shop. Kira says that this allows her to tell the story as herself, while being free and unapologetic. She doesn’t hold back when writing, and this activity allows her to be her most authentic self on the page.
Through her years of experience with auctions, Kira found herself surrounded by strong women who stood up for themselves and didn’t back down in the face of adversity. It was something that she needed in her life, and it’s helped her become the woman she is today. Who we surround ourselves with impacts us more than we may think. The people in our lives can either lift us up and hope to see us succeed, or they can hold you back from living out of your own expectations and values. It’s up to you to make the choice of who you want in your circle and how you want to show up for other people.
There’s so much amazing content here with Kira, and I encourage everyone to check out the panels she was featured in. These relevant resources will always be here to look at, so no matter where you are in your journey, we’re here.
Ways to Engage: Start asking: Name 5 activities that nourish you, and think about which ones bring out your most authentic self. Is there one that sticks out more than the others? Hone in on this activity, how you feel while doing it, and who you are in your purest form of contentment.
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