Episode 33 - Unbreakable Day: Surviving Trauma & Embracing Healing with Naseem Rochette
By Jessica Garrison
This week, we are joined by Naseem Rochette, who has endured more in the past decade than most people can even fathom for a lifetime. She shares her experience of her “Unbreakable Day,” which will make more sense in just a minute. Naseem is an energetic, joyful, vulnerable, and thoughtful happy misfit.
Naseem’s “Unbreakable Day” came in 2018 when she was struck by a car in a crosswalk, being run over three times before becoming pinned under the vehicle. Although she was miraculously left with no broken bones or internal bleeding, this experience was horrific and traumatizing, leaving Naseem with bruising, nerve damage, and chronic pain for the rest of her life. With this history, taking care of her emotional, physical, and spiritual health were the center of the conversation throughout the episode. In that scenario, Naseem thought she was going to die, and what flashed through her mind were not material items, but they were her loved ones. She felt regret, expressing that they wouldn’t know just how deep her love ran for them. Coming out of her accident, Naseem knew her priority would be her children and making sure she’s always present with them—these are moments we take for granted every single day, so let this be a reminder to hold your loved ones a little closer and a little tighter after listening to the episode.
After the accident, Naseem didn’t want to accept help from others. She was always the one doing the helping, and there was guilt stemming from her injuries. Since she didn’t have broken bones or internal bleeding, Naseem felt like she didn’t deserve the help or the fussing because it could’ve been worse. Even though she’s lucky for not sustaining worse injuries, what she went through was still traumatic and painful, and she had to recognize that she still had a long way to go in her recovery. It’s important for us to remember that even though bad things happen to others, and they may even be “worse” in comparison to what has happened to you, your feelings about the situation are valid. Naseem’s experience is her own experience, so however she is feeling about what happened, deserves to be heard. She had to learn to participate in her healing process and accept fully what had happened and how she felt about it.
Naseem said that if people don’t know where you started from, they can’t appreciate how far you’ve come. Progress may not always be linear, but it’s still important to celebrate whatever it may look like for you. Naseem refers to the day of her accident as the “Unbreakable Day,” because she survived something that she probably shouldn’t have, but she is choosing to unleash herself into the world authentically and unapologetically. With the strength of her love and her layers, she remains unbreakable.
Ways to Engage: Whenever guilt comes up as an emotion, explore the reasons why. Think about the situation you’re in and analyze that feeling of guilt. Is it stemming from an event in your past? Are you telling yourself a different narrative than what’s reality? Our emotions are not good or bad, but they rather are indicators to the bigger picture of ourselves.