Meet Susie Virzi

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Susie Virzi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Susie below.

Susie , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Being raised the youngest in a family of 7 kids might have trained me early. My house was chaotic though I found it fun. I learned early on that stuff, like my boombox, is not as important as I thought it was. Living in hand me down clothes and things breaking or getting stolen by some of my siblings friends. In the midst of all that I went to a private Catholic school and church. My best friend and family were another example for me in a way to look at life and live it. So, I would say the takeaway from this was learning to be observant.

Being observant helps us to see a bigger picture. For me faith was a big part of that, but also paying attention to my 6 older siblings choices and how they turned out. This fostered strong critical thinking in me. Critical thinking and Perspective taking are two big things that will help you stay grounded, even if things around you are falling apart.

When I was 28 I experienced the most jarring and difficult thing in my life… my brother died in a horrible accident. I felt as if I broke apart and and the pieces fell back into me differently. This was my first challenge to a depth I never knew. I had emotions, especially grief and anger that I didn’t know how to deal with, as I had not learned how to yet. Fast forward to after that, when my Uncle died, then my brother & his wife lost their first baby, somewhere in there I was in three cars while they were totaled (none of which were my fault & I am okay), I lost my home one Christmas morning to a fire, and then my dad died. This was a 4 year period and I became someone I didn’t even like… but two things kept me from falling into the depths of the abyss.

Those things were going to church and swing dancing. The point of both were connections to community, doing something I enjoyed and having hope in something outside of me. About a year and a half later and I am doing better, I can see that having those couple things along with taking a whole food supplement which helped me sleep again and being out in nature that refreshed my soul. This combination really helped me heal and learn to grieve well.

Having things to keep you connected, serving other people, learning from my past, my faith, observing & critical thinking all played a part in the Resilience I confidently walk with today. We all have difficult things or seasons and my hope if that you can find a bit here to help you keep going forward.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Being a teacher, or I guess Professor has been a exciting, learning, and hard journey for the past 20+ years. Getting to be a small part in many student’s journeys is a privilege. My goals in teaching are all about the students that cross my path. I want each of them to not only learn a skill but also empower them to live intentionally.

I would like to set up workshops on Public Speaking or other communication related things though that has not been a big part of my journey. If you or your company would be interested then please reach out and we can talk. Email is best for now; suevirzi@gmail.com.

I also sell the whole food supplement the helped me & tower gardens : https://svirzi.juiceplus.com/us/en-us

Another big part of me is serving. I have been to 28 countries and mostly went to help and love people. My faith is the catalyst for most of the trips I have taken. The biggest was doing The Word Race in 2010. That was 11 months across 11 countries living out of back pack and serving and helping in any way we were asked to do so by out contacts. That helped grow my patience and learn how to love all different kinds of people. I love talking about my faith so if this part of my journey interests you please feel free to reach out.

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?

Gratitude, Love, and not holding grudges (or Forgiveness).

Looking for things we are thankful for can help keep our heads up. If you are like me at all this is easy once you try it. I love nature so a wealth of things to be thankful for just going outside. In my travels I seen many different and some very hard ways other people live. Paying attention and seeing how fortunate it is to have a roof, running water, plumbing, and things that make our lives easier, even as small as a pony tail holder. Try not to get stuck in negative loop from only looking or thinking about the stuff that brings you down.

Choosing to Love over complacency or other choices can be more freeing than you might think. One way is to listen to others and try to understand their point of view. I was told by a life coach, ” Instead of trying to be interesting, be interested instead.” Listening to that help me tremendously to shift from me to others. Another way is to notice people and complement them and even just smile. Volunteer to help with anything, like helping someone move or serving at soup kitchen to grow your love muscle. Most people want to be seen and heard and doing this in person is more impactful for the giver and the receiver.

We will get hurt, disappointed, frustrated, and maybe ghosted or betrayed. Life is not fair and we can’t control anyone but ourselves. Holding a grudge against someone can eat away your joy and peace.. it can physically make you sick as well. Do what you need to in order to let go and get to forgiveness (not forgetting). Things that can help are journaling, venting, getting outside, processing with a safe person or counselor. This might take some trial and error but once you find what helps you let go it will serve you most of your life. For me praying and getting outside with movement are my goto things I do if I need to process and let things go.

I hope some of this is helpful to you.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

This is a timely question for me. One of my sisters is in the process of becoming a Health & Life coach. She needed to take 2 people through the program and I volunteered. This was last year.

What I discovered about me if when I get overwhelmed I freeze. And we worked on that. The big issue was when I shut down I would often not care about my choices, so who cares if I eat that pint of ice cream kind of stuff. You might not freeze like me, some will fight and some will flight. Knowing yourself is the first thing. If you just stay on the surface then change and growth will not come.

Tools I gained through that journey was to interrupt the thoughts and patterns, to thank my coping mechanism for getting me this far, though now I don’t need it anymore. To interrupt you find anchors, mine were my emerald ring and a vision board I had made and put on the fridge. It can be anything that grounds you. I matched my ring to phrases I would say when I touch it. I was working on loving myself and seeing my worth, so I would say, “I love me & I am worth it.” An example is at that time I had a habit of stopping at 7/11 to get junk food. One time I pulled into a 7/11 & I touch my ring to be calm and stop before getting out of the car, which gave me a reset and just drive off instead of going in. Then I realized the interrupting was working. I now do love myself and see my worth accurately. Some other tools are: Repeating the phrases you needed to yourself in the mirror in the morning or throughout the day; Deep Breathing, using 5-5-7, Breathe in for 5, hold for 5, and breath out for 7: Slowing down to not rush in general, you can practice with eating, Breath and be calm, chew your food more, putting the fork down between bites… when driving leaving a bit early to not feel rushed and be nicer on the road 😉 or walk slower; And you can try to imagine the life you want and project yourself in your mind and heart there, once your are there answer what you would say to yourself now.

I tried all of these and interrupting and deep breathing have served me the best in learning new ways to handle being overwhelmed. All of them helped along the way so give it try and see how goes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://svirzi.juiceplus.com/us/en-us
• Other: Email: suevirzi@gmail.com is the best.

  I am on FaceBook & Instagram though you can find me by my name: Susie Virzi

  I do have a Linkedin account but at this time I don’t really check it.