We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brittnee Brooks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Brittnee, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience-such a massive word that holds a hefty amount of power. Its such an honor that in this very place in my life, I’m able to answer the question, “where do you get your resilience from” to its fullest extent.
I’ve just recently greeted resilience with a warm smile this new year. I know i’m
not the only one who’s last year to three years have been absolutely upside down but I can truthfully say that this last year, this last go around, I didn’t ever think resilience would ever land anywhere in my vocabulary ever again.
This last year, I had absolute doubt creep in, workplace abuse arise, self identity crisis follow, financial instability tip toe about, connections with ones I loved that I thought loved me deflate, and self hatred take absolute control of my whole entire life and there were so many days and nights where I asked myself, and those close around me, how does a human truly get around all this?
Resilience is so funny because it’s so silent and it always happens when you least expect it and what I can say, is I didn’t expect it truly ever again. But here it is, here I am greeting it with open arms and when I think back to all the many ways it could have possibly gotten here, what comes straight to mind is truly forcing myself to not give up. Truly making it a mark to lecture myself and tell myself something enough, and I will start to believe it one day.
Now I have to be honest and say I never really believed it but what I did notice was I truly manifested it. I manifested healing by repeating to myself I was worth it even when I didn’t believe it, that I mean good even if I didn’t believe it, that I am loved even if I didn’t believe it. That repetition became manifestation baby and it’s real.
So what I can say brought me resilience was situations meeting me where I was at. The right people meeting me where I was at, the small things that brought me those ticklely little butterfly’s, those things meeting me where I was at. Everything that I needed would meet me where I was at if I just took the moment to give them a try. People, places, things, experiences.
Out of that, here I am today in the beginning of the new year truly saying I made it past the certain things that kept me up at night. I made it past some of the relationships that truly made my heart ache. The circumstances, the people, the situations that truly wrecked how I perceived myself, I made it past a good few of them.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have light years to go with this but resilience-it finally met me where I was at and the few tidbits I can give is-
resilience will come, even when you don’t believe it and or expect it. It has a funny way of showing up when you least expect it so don’t stress like I did thinking you’ll never see it again. Because when you aren’t even thinking about it and your worried about just getting through the day, it will show up at your door with a smile. Don’t take half a** treatment. Don’t take half a** communication. Don’t entertain half a** people. and DO NOT be half a** to yourself. I can’t wait to see your face when resilience shows up at your door again too. (:
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
The things in my life give me that “in the pit of your stomach passion” are my few businesses where I get to creatively be myself. I have worked and hustled for these creative outlets and I’ve always wanted them to bring to others what it brings to me, true ooey gooey heat inside your heart.
I have my business Halfrican Apparel that I started close to 2017 that has changed my life greatly and connected me with me absolute stellar people. It’s a brand I created for those to be proud of who they are and where they come from regardless. It has all types of gear from tees to socks and mugs. All things to represent all the hustlers in life-halfricanapparel.store
I also have my top secret (not so secret anymore (; ) other side hustle which is photography. It’s a cute secret Instagram where I take photos for people in life that need an affordable and comfortable option for their big life events. I do it for funsees and to see other people be able to look back at their big life events for memories to come; @beebssnapshots on Instagram.
I also do a little graphic design and social media coaching here and there but truly any creative outlet that lets me do my thing and let’s me just purely create are all things that I stay involved in. I hope that any of my projects that you come across truly show you everything that the project embodies and is meant for.
Cheers (:
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
3 Impactful Qualities, Skills, Areas of Knowledge from me to you!
1.) Passion; finding something you are passionate about that truly gives you that fuzzy feeling inside is the key. Pay attention to that feeling and that intuition. Within your means, if something truly hasn’t given you that ounce of fuzziness ever, no more of your effort should be put into that thing. Release it to make room for the other things that will!
2.) It’s okay to switch it up! You aren’t allowed only ONE mission or ONE project. Thrive on being expansive, thrive on growth, and thrive on pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Nothing is off limits!
3.) Come back to your template! This is one that I learned from my therapist Michelle and man did it stick like glue. The way she explained this was don’t start over, just always remember who you are to the core, your template, what you align with. Always come back to you whenever you feel out of wack, unsure, or stuck. Your template (:
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
Advice for if you are ever truly feeling overwhelmed: These are a few things that I am continuing to practice whenever I fall off or get a little over my head-
•Have a comfort space: have a space in your home or the gym or a special place, anywhere that makes you feel unjudged, not guilty, and where you can truly have no agenda. Make this place full of things the help you relax or feel safe like a fluffy blanket, a speaker, your fave playlist, your favorite workout fit, or your favorite art piece on the wall. Make it your comfort zone.
•Have a neutral party that isn’t close to you for you to talk to. Therapy is and will always be my best friend. I need someone outside of me to just listen, chat, help strategize, and truly support me when I just need space away from my everydays. I highly recommend looking into therapy and to never be discouraged by it. When you find someone that you click with, you’ll never understand how you did things without it!
•Give yourself grace- your human, your a lil blurp on this floating earth. Whenever things feel daunting, i remember that the concept of earth and me is just incredible. Me and my problems are truly small and being on earth and experiencing life in general is just so stellar.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://campsite.bio/brittneebrooks?fbclid=PAAaZpBdIs0DRvE1ffB5akerE9tkVM1XdZuSZLF7oZj_WDG-frPZb-eOll7UQ
- Instagram: @thebrittbrooks
- Facebook: Brittnee Brooks
Image Credits
insta- @lydputsphotoshere lydia sprecher
