Beating Drums of Healthy Discomfort

“It scares the heck outta me, so yes, I’ll do it!”

That’s a life motto I started to live by several years ago, and an actual quote you’ll hear me use often. It’s my reminder that unrealized potential lives in my healthy discomfort.

They’re the words I uttered when I was asked to beat the Kansas City Chiefs drum at the 2022 Charity Game on August 20.

Since its inception in 1985, and through the vision of Lamar Hunt and the Hunt family, the Chiefs Charity Game has raised more than $15 million for local charities that support children in need.?The game is recognized as the top philanthropic game of its type in the NFL.

I was fortunate to be representing MOCSA, an organization I started working with shortly after moving to KC in 2017.

I’d moved here intentionally and serendipitously not knowing a single person after working physically and emotionally through a cancer diagnosis. I wanted to see who I might become with my fresh life perspective and the wisdom that was pouring knowingly and unknowingly from my experiences.

About a year in, I thought all the change in my life was feeling intense when I noticed myself crying and feeling sick going to work. Later I came to realize my C-PTSD was being triggered by the first male leader I worked for here; he had a particularly authoritative style.

I’m not the type of woman who sits idle when I see a part of my heart or how I’m able to show up in the world that needs healing, so I leaned into working with MOCSA and have been working with them in many ways since.

My goal is to bring awareness to our infinite power for healing, the need for trauma informed workplaces, how tirelessly MOCSA works, and how great Kansas City is.

The culmination of all of that became very real that day on the drum deck, a moment I shared after spending the day with the Hunt family in their suite, with the woman who took me to my first Chiefs game in 2017 and members of the MOCSA team, who champion me in ways I could never fully describe here. It was a very Beyoncé-esque moment.

It was also tangible proof that when we show up to life, life rewards us with butterflies and sweetness for once in a lifetime opportunities.

Where are you leaning into what scares you, knowing it makes you better? Who positively pushes you beyond your perceived comfort zone?