Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Well, welcome. Welcome to the speak your power now Podcast, a show that empowers women through the transformational art of communication. I'm your host, Cheryl Clark, and I invite you to join us on a journey of self discovery, empowerment, and personal growth. You know, I always say I'm just a girl from the Bronx. I learned a couple of tools along the way, and I'm here to share them with you. So this weekly podcast is going to be a source of practical tips, inspiring stories, and transformational insight that's going to help you break through to any self doubt. So our mission is simple here. We're going to help you speak your Power Now because your voice matters. So subscribe now, and let's dive into the world of Speak Your Power Now, where your empowerment begins with your voice. Well, all right.
I'm back again. And welcome to another Speak Your Power Now podcast. And I'm super excited because we got another dynamic guest that we got coming up on the heels, and I'm excited to have her here. But before we get into that, you know who I am. I'm Cheryl Clark and the founder of Speak Your Power Now, where I created a platform so people could begin to find out the art of communication. And through that, I began to move into how I could begin to move through the art of communication with what I've learned along the way. So you know what I always say, I'm a girl from the Bronx that learns a couple of tools along the way, and I'm here to share them with you. So before we get into the nitty gritty of things, we're going to go to a comfortable position as we go into our Speak Your Power Now declaration, I want you to begin to take a nice, long, slow, deep breath into your nostrils and exhale it out.
Make sure you're sitting in a comfortable position.
Take a nice, long, sold deep breath into your nostrils once again and exhale that out. Repeat silently to yourself after me. Today I reclaim my power of purpose. Today I declare that I have unshakable faith and confidence in my uniqueness. Today I declare that I will not live in fear, but with power, love, and a sound mind. Today I declare that I always communicate with words to empower myself and others. Today, I declare to always honor myself by living in the present and living powerfully in each moment.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: All right, so I want to see we do that to clear it. We do that to ground. We do that declaration, because I believe that when you declare something in the space, you are now giving yourself that power, that entryway to say, you know what? I deserve it. I matter. I'm worthy. So this is where you get to begin to understand that life is a subtotal of what you make it. So before any further ado, I am going to introduce a guest a friend of mine, a long term friend of mine that we've known each other since high school, but we get all into that nitty gritty. But let me just tell you a little bit about us. We're going to celebrate the month of October with breast cancer awareness. So I said, let me go ahead and get a dynamic survivor story that you're going to want to hear now. Dawn Felton. She is a dynamic and accomplished woman with a diverse range of talents. Dawn is a remarkable woman who embodies resiliency. Yes, she does creativity and unwavering love. She's a devoted wife, mother of two, and she cherishes her family above all. She's guided them through life, through the ups and downs with the hearts and full of warmth and compassion. Dawn's journey has been marked by triumphs and overcoming adversity. Her battle with breast cancer not only revealed extraordinary strength, but it also inspired countless others to face similar challenges. She has emerged victorious and a living testament to the power of hope and determination. In addition, she's a dedicated mom and a breast cancer survivor.
She's a published author and she has captivated reading. With her insightful work, she has showcased her exceptional storytelling abilities and her unique perspectives on various other subjects. Dawn is a prolific author who has pinned the publishing of three inspiring books. So you go ahead and get those books. The romantic author. Yes, you can see the behind her. When she comes up, you're going to see her books. And she is a testament of how power, love and resiliency and the written word come together. She is continuing to inspire others, as she was going to do here today, her unwavering spirit. And it reminds us all when we're faced with adversity, the strength within us to thrive. She shares her story with the world, like she's going to do today. And I am going to say her accomplishment and her motto is she is more than meets the eyes. So let's welcome to speak your power now. Podcast. Dawn. Welcome dawn.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Welcome. You're welcome.
It was amazing.
We have known each other.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: I don't know, reminded me the other day there was a song that went back and back in the day and they were like, that's been more than I was.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: There and we were there and then 90. So we are high school alums. This is where we've been going back. So this is not only someone that's near and dear to my heart, but this is someone that I'm so privileged to have an opportunity to interview her on a girlfriend level and interview her on a professional level and interview her on a survival level. So I want to just thank you, dawn, so much for coming on.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: My pleasure.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Let's get right into the nitty gritty about what's happening and what's going on. So, breast cancer awareness is October and here we have our pink on our shades of pink just to represent I love the popping when you guys see her. She got a popping pink lipstick. I love that. So let's go into it.
This is a little bit about your journey, your background, about you and the stats about what's happening around breast cancer.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Okay, well, one thing I can definitely say is this. When they say one in eight women can be diagnosed with breast cancer, I was one of the eight, and it surprised me.
I remember one day this was early in 2017, I did a self breast exam and noticed something was a little different than normal.
And after doing that, I had a doctor's appointment, like the next day or right after. And I said, I think I feel a lump in my breast. But my mother had one too, and it was benign for her, so I didn't really get scared about it. I was just thinking, I have to get it checked out or at least tell the doctor about it. And right at that point in time, I had not received a good follow up as I should have. I was just told, get it checked out. I didn't know where to go.
So I didn't know to go to Grady Memorial Hospital, which is in my area of Atlanta, Georgia, to get screened for breast cancer or any diagnostic screening. So that was February of 2017.
I received a letter in, let's say March, to tell me to come in for screening in April. Had an event, pushed it to the side, said, no, I can't do it. Let's do it in May. I did it in May. Let's say may. Early May, mid May, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
It was very devastating to me. I may have gone for the biopsy. It was like, you see something biopsy. Then it came back. I had breast cancer, and it was devastating. It wasn't a very easy moment to go through. And I say the word devastating. That wasn't actual word that came to my mind at that moment, but it does come up later in my journey.
I was like, okay, fine. I got to get this removed. What I need to do, come to find out I had two lumps. I was only able to fill one lump. So it's very important to always go for your monogamy sorry, your mammograms to be checked out. Don't wait. Get them checked right away. So I only felt one, but there were two cancerous tumors in my right breast.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: And of course, I was able to get that taken care of as early as possible. I was diagnosed with stage one A, which is a very early stage, luckily for me.
As I said, I kept putting it off to not get checked out.
I was afraid of the mammogram. My mother had always told me, oh, they're going to do all this with your breast. So I was afraid I never wanted it the year before I was in the hospital.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Me either.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: You never wanted it either?
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Me either. I didn't want one either, but I knew I had to get one was my thing. I knew I had to get one. I turned 40. I knew I had to get one right.
What age were you when you got it or you just got it because you felt it?
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Well, you know what? I only got it because I felt it. And the letter came saying, come on and get checked out the year before I had turned 40. And the doctor said, oh, no, you're good. You shouldn't have to get it, but next year, definitely, you need to get it by next year, which I guess it was a good thing because I probably would have never felt anything that first year. So I highly suggest self breast exams. Self breast because if I didn't, I would not have felt, okay, I got to go in.
I would have never felt I had to go in. I probably would have kept postponing it. Postponing it from fear. So self breast exams, number one, then go get your breast checked out on a regular basis.
And then that wasn't just it, because what ended up happening, even though I was diagnosed with stage one A, after the surgery, I came back, and they have to check your lymph nodes to see if it's traveled. The cancer is traveled. In my case, the cancer did spread to my lymph node, so that made me two B, which is the next stage up after that, or during that time, I went to get radiation therapy to get scheduled. I'm thinking, okay, let me get next stage. I'm good.
They were like, no, you were too big. We're going to have to go for the big one. And that's chemo.
That's when I say I was devastated.
I was devastated because I said no. I figured surgery, you could figure, okay, do what you got to do. Sew me back up, and I'm good.
Chemo. You hear the worst stories about chemo.
And even though I've been through it and that's been got to count six years.
It's been six years.
That was a hard time.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: I'm sure.
Well, thank you. Listen, just taking us through that journey, and she's getting emotional now because I know that's triggering her back from going back to that time, talking about it. But when you're talking about it, I see the resiliency and the power that you have to get the message out. And those stats are eye opening because what it tells me is that your mom may have been benign, but you're not.
And then people in your family, did anybody else have it in your family?
[00:12:27] Speaker B: That's what ended up happening. It was all on my father's side.
So it can be genetic, but it also could be environmental and what you put in your body.
So that's what you have to always look out for, and I can go deeper into that. But what ended up happening? When I was diagnosed that day that they sat down and had me read the paper to say there was cancerous tumors, I had a genetics exam.
And you always hear about Angelina Jolie and the Braca mutation, but there's a whole series of mutations on that list that they haven't even tested out yet.
And there was, like, a paragraph. I was, like, somewhere in the middle of the genetically found or prone to have breast cancer at the time, I found out that I had someone in my family, or I had a few people in my family that had suffered from breast cancer, one who passed away and two who actually overcame.
But I didn't think it would be me.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: You know something? How many of us don't think it would be us? And I'm just thinking about how many of us that don't know the other part of our families and don't know that history and don't know a lot about it. So I'm always thinking about because I don't know the side of my family, my father's side of the family. And I'm like, okay, the genetics, I have a lot of his makeup, so I begin to look at that, because what my mother has, I don't have. And what you just said is it went from it's on your father's side.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: Yes, and what I read in my discoveries is that if genetics on your father's side can be found in other ways for women so if you have someone who has for men, it's going to be prostate cancer.
For women in their family, it's going to be breast cancer.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: This is good.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: So if you have someone, a male in your family that has prostate cancer as women, and this is coming from the Eat to Live book by Dr. Joel Furman. I believe that's how you pronounce his last name, that genetically, if men, the male in your family have prostate cancer, women will have the breast cancer gene. Wow.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you so much. That was enlightening in the first ten minutes. Okay. I hope you guys got a lot out of that. So I want to move into a little bit about how has your experience facing breast cancer transformed your perspective and your life and your inner strength?
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Okay, so as I mentioned, it was a hard time for me to go through chemotherapy, but I look back and I said, man, I did that. You did that. I did that. And then the next stage of cancer therapy, and of course, the number one thing for women or men, we lose our hair.
I actually was able to overcome that part of not having well, not having of course, I was bald.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: So you did lose all your hair.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: I did lose all my hair, and that was a tough time, because when I heard that I had to get chemo.
I have to say this, the first call was the crisis center.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Because I remember you, dawn, you always had hair. You had a lot.
[00:15:55] Speaker B: That's what I'm talking know, it was always the hair thing for you had.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: A dawn had a lot of hair. And this is the thing. And even people, men and women, so I don't want to not say that men do not get breast cancer. They do get breast cancer. Talking about dawn here and I know women with their hair and it's like so you called the crisis center to say what?
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Well, it was a testament to faith. I was concerned with my faith.
Wow.
Because I'm thinking the word that came up, I'm trying to think which one. I can't think of the day that this happened because a lot happened during that time. But I believe it was hearing survivor survival, your survival rate.
I was like, what? And hearing chemo, I'm thinking how sick am I? And now I have the outward look of being sick, not just being sick within, but now people are going to see me as being sick. And I didn't know what I was going to go through during that time. But I have to say that my support came from family, friends and there's other support teams out there. So I know we have other questions that you have to ask me, so I want to say that for them. But there's a lot of support out there.
You hear a lot more for breast cancer because that's one, that one in eight women get breast cancer. Unfortunately the other cancers, and which may end up happening if you don't take care of your breast cancer or try to find out early, is that it could spread and it spreads to other parts of your body and once it spreads to other parts of your body, that makes it very difficult to treat.
Wow.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: There'S so many places I can go. But I want to talk about when survivors need to find their voice during their journey, after their journey, how do they discover their voice and what does that even mean?
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Great question. I have to say, what I was able to do is, if you can see the books behind me and there's another book on to the side over here.
My first novel that I started writing. Let go of your heart.
I was able to find my voice in that before being diagnosed with breast cancer because I knew breast cancer was common. I had the main characters end up losing people in their family to breast cancer. So they joined forces and did a five k to find a cure for cancer. And that's how they became fast friends. And next thing you know, it's a romance novel. So if you read that one, that's the Let go of Your Heart novel, the Forever Fabulous, which is right behind me.
That was when I was going through chemo. No, I can't remember if it was chemo or radiation, one of the two. But when I was going through that, I wrote the character as someone who was a champion and she's rich and wealthy and she's like, oh, I'm going to hold this breast cancer screening. And next thing you know, she finds out she has breast cancer. So I hope I don't give away the story, but there's a lot more to the story. But that was when I was going through it, so I had to write that in.
When I write novels, I like to write a little bit about myself in there, but not a lot. Not too much. I kind of be a little so.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: You found your voice in your writing, correct?
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Right.
That was just my way to let people know. I couldn't tell everybody.
It wasn't something I could put out there for the world. I hid that. As you know, you never saw a post on Facebook, I have cancer. I've been diagnosed because I was scared, but I was able to put it in my now, you know, I could look back years later and say, wow, I never thought I would get through. But I did. And then it allowed me to say that, well, I don't want to give you too much of my story away, the novels behind me, but I was able to try them. So that helped a lot.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
When you found your you didn't post it. So many of us, the fear of the unknown, the fear of not knowing, am I going to live tomorrow? The fear and the battle in your head is going on and you had your family as a support, which is fantastic. So what kind of advice would you give other I would say breast cancer survivors or people that are still struggling, going through that to find their voice and the power even after the diagnoses, like, you got that diagnosis initially and then you're going through it, then maybe post and then you find out something else. How do you find your voice in that?
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Okay, so what I would have to say what helped me, especially after hearing that I would have chemo, because that's when I was highly devastated, cancer. You're like, okay, do the surgery. Thank you. I'm cancer free. But the chemo part was the devastating part. So that very night I'm going to like, okay, I have to face this reality. I had joined a breast cancer survivor group or breast cancer group on Facebook. So I would highly suggest that you find groups. There are groups out there on Facebook where you could talk to people who are going through the same thing.
Even if you go to the hospital, there are going to be people at the hospital where you're getting your treatment that are going to like your social worker there. They're going to have groups that help you to say, maybe you need to talk it out. I know Grady did a great job with that, but I was a little private. I didn't want to go for the chemo and come back because it's a process. You got to go one day for blood work, then you got to come the next day, then you got to come back. I'm like, no, we're not going to come back again for another situation. But I went on a breast cancer group and that same night I'm sleeping, I woke up in the middle of the night and the administrator for the breast cancer group posted every picture from diagnosis to chemo to triumph.
It was a whole album.
And that helped me.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Dawn, you know, you said something very know. As a psychotherapist, we are big on group therapy because it's good for the know, individual one offs. But when you get the strength from the group, when you have the same people moving into the same thing, you know that you're not alone. And I think for us sometimes as human beings, we need support. But like you said, sometimes you may be a little shy or a little introverted or you don't want to put your whole story out there, but the group is about 90% just showing up. You don't really have to say anything in the group, you could just listen. Am I right, dawn?
[00:23:17] Speaker B: That's absolutely right. I probably didn't start posting about my trial. Well, usually groups will want you to introduce yourself, of course, but when I started seeing other people's stories and started seeing other Survivor stories and other stories of women going through the same thing, I started saying, okay, maybe I could put a little something in here and say a little bit. And of course, once I triumph and when probably a year later, one year cancer free, I posted that picture and I posted other pictures. Years. Every year I try to post every year I have to say this after for the 6th year, you said, say.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: It again, I forgot.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: July 3 is my day that I survived six years later. But because I've come through it so far, but there's other parts I try to remember to make sure I eat right, exercise, do other things to help me hopefully prevent it from coming back.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: That's great. It sounds like you're on your way to being an advocate for breast cancer awareness.
Can you share how you're using your voice now to make it a difference from your own story, like what you're doing probably right now?
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Okay, well, thank you. What I would say is breast cancer awareness, as I mentioned earlier, it could be genetic, it could be environmental, but it could also be what you eat. You have to look at some of the food, the ingredients, and I would say it wasn't exactly right away, but a year later a friend of mine mentioned to me, what have you considered becoming plant based.
And it was like a light bulb went off in my head. Are you serious? Just try to eat. Right. That could possibly help me prevent illnesses. And I started reading books called Eat to Live and Forks over knives and just get a little bit more insight as to what I need to do to help prevent any illnesses to come, to sneak up. Because there's a lot of other illnesses out there, high blood pressure, diabetes. But breast cancer ends up being something that could be overcome before or prevented. And that's, unfortunately, a lot of people do not realize. A lot of the illnesses that we encounter can be prevented. Not just cured, but prevention is what I look for.
But at the same time, in regards to be an advocate, I like to promote healthy eating, healthy living. And it's not always easy because we're so used to and programmed to eat any and everything fast food. Right. But you have to be very conscientious of what you eat. I'm sorry.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: So you prepare your meals now?
[00:26:07] Speaker B: I do my best to do that. Like yesterday, first thing in the morning, I was cooking my dinner because I said, if I wait till the end of the day, I'm going to be so hungry I'm just going to eat whatever I want to eat.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: You're intentionally living?
[00:26:23] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Eat to live, like I said, eat to live, like the book says. And I did at one point, and I want to say this, I did start well, I could be better right now. But a vegan lifestyle right after my friend told me to be plant based. So I would juice, I would meal prep. That's the ideal.
That's the ideal. And I think meal prepping in itself doesn't necessarily have to be vegan, but just watch what you eat. Read the ingredients. Someone I follow on Instagram. Her name is I am Surviving Vegan. She'll say the front is for entertainment. The back is for education.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: You have to read what goes into your body way before you try to put it in your body.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Just think like that. The front is for entertainment.
Wow. The back is for education. So that's great for the labels on it. I love it.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: They'll tell you they're giving you the stuff that you don't want to eat. They'll tell you, but it's some hard, complicated word. And you're like, well, what does this mean?
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Go back and go look it up.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Got to look it up.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Got to look it up. Also, Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Mental Health Awareness Month share that month in October. So I want you to give a little bit about the coping skills emotionally and the psychologically, how you can begin, how you was able to cope with that, just to give some people some impact, because it does impact your mental health.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: It does.
And what I found was I had to look for the support where I felt the support was coming. And not everybody's going to support you in the way that you want them to support you.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: That's good.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: And you may get someone that says, this is what I can do for you. I may not be able to do this, but I'm going to do this.
So you have to take that support as you accept it for what it is.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: That is so good. That's so good because I talk about silent expectations all the time. You get really clear on what your expectation is and you get really clear what they can do. Either accept it or you don't.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Exactly.
But I would definitely reach out to the support groups. I would definitely reach out to if you have to reach out to a counselor because it's hard.
It is hard, it is a challenge. It is going to be the toughest thing that you go through in life. One of the toughest things. And you have to say that one of the toughest things because you know what, if you make it to a certain age, you'd be like, I can't believe I made it through this. I made it through that. And it's by the grace of God.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: It's by the grace of God we're live here. And I just want to say this, the opportunity that when you got to get those coping skills because if you do not get any coping skills to deal with any emotional trauma or anything that happens life changing event. This was a life changing event for her family, for her, her community, people around her. She found herself moving, not going to work every day, having to stop and going to appointments, having to do this. This interrupted your patterns in life and that's a psychological change that now you have to deal with. Something changed in my life that I need to now be aware of and handle it. And it sounds like you put those coping mechanisms in space, in place where you can begin to cancer. Not have you, but you have it.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Absolutely, yeah. It's a lot of change. And sometimes I say life before cancer, life after cancer. Now as I get through it, it doesn't make me who I am.
I make myself who I am.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: It doesn't rule me anymore.
I don't think of myself that way. Yes, I have survived cancer, but that's just one part of me. I'm so much more than that. So that's one thing I would definitely say. People have to realize the cancer doesn't make you you are in charge of what you make yourself out to be.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: So I'm going to end with this question. I want you to share a moment of your experience that truly exemplifies who you are and speaking your power now as a breast cancer survivor.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: Who I am now?
[00:31:02] Speaker A: Yes, that truly exemplifies who you are, speaking your power now as a breast cancer survivor.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Well, I. Would say that I am a champion.
A champion. A warrior. I'm going to say this, I'm a warrior. Because you know what I had to tell myself, bald as an eagle.
Well, you cannot go through a war without some battle scars.
And that was my battle scar.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: You cannot fight a battle or a war without coming out without some scars. And if you make it with some scars and you can look at the scars and say, oh, well, I have this scar here. I have a scar here and I lost my hair, but I'm still alive. I'm still standing.
And it didn't take that long for my hair to grow back, but it took some time. But right after the chemo, it started coming back. So I became renewed.
But I'm going to stop on that. That you cannot go through a war or a battle without some scars. Wow. I call myself a warrior.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: I mean, this was so amazing, dawn, because what you did was you show people that from the beginning, going on with your Mario way, having to have get something from somebody telling you to do, go to your doctor's appointment, stuff like that, and showing up for dawn.
You showed up for dawn and then you asked for support. I said yesterday, I said, the s now on my chest is not for super wonder. It's for support. It's for sisterhood, it's for whatever else that you got to get in there speaking. It's for whatever that s you make it into what you want to make it. So what were the three takeaways that you said you're going to tell people now what to do, what they can do to begin to move into being self aware, and what they can do surrounding breast cancer.
[00:33:03] Speaker B: Number one, self breath exams. You cannot wait till you get that letter saying, come on in, let's get examined. And then you never know. Because even when you go through the breast cancer, one thing they always do afterwards is always check to see what it looks like after.
Has it changed since the last diagnostic exam? So definitely, I would definitely say you have to do your own breast exam so you know what normal feels like and what abnormal feels like. Number two, I would say don't be afraid to ask for support.
Don't be afraid to not be fragile.
Don't think that you're going to overcome this all by yourself.
And then lastly, I would say you are what you eat. If you put junk in, junk out, if you're eating all those food that can promote cancer or promote disease, imagine what it's going to do for you. But if you eat the food that promotes health and wealth, then you can least say you did everything you could possibly do. I'm not saying you can't enjoy the cake once in a while, but don't make cake every single day and every single meal.
That's just me. I'm just speaking as a survivor of cancer who's been cancer free for six years.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: That's what I well, I told her she was going to be amazing and I'm going to have her get in contact with her to help me. Before I do that, I always do a fireball question in regards to my guests. So the one fireball question I want to ask you, what is one memorable piece of advice you received from someone that you still have in the back of your head?
[00:34:57] Speaker B: I'm trying to think, goodness. One advice. That's hard.
I was going to say something my mother used to say, but I can't say what she used to say.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: No, but you know what, it's always that one thing that your mama always say.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: Always say something. You'd be like, I know what she meant now. I get what she meant when she said, well, one thing I would say is this one day at a time.
And I think that's what I was afraid of.
When you're in the moment, be in the moment, you may be devastated, but you're going to come out. And I think that's a lot that happens with mental health.
We always think about how hopeless things will be in the future and if there's nothing brighter at the end of the tunnel, you may have to go through this right now. And another thing I would say is, you know what, maybe you need to go to sleep. Rest for a little bit. Once you rest and wake up, sometimes I wake up and I may go to sleep upset. I wake up and I'm refreshed. It's a new day.
So I would definitely say take one day at a time. Do not focus on the whole negative part of the side. There are times I may cry, but at the end, joy comes in the morning. So I would definitely say that.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: You know what, Donald, you said that. Stay in the moment. So many of us I struggled with anxiety. And anxiety takes you out of the now. It keeps you over out. It keeps you from being present. So there's a lot of things that you can do. Don't be afraid of the diagnosis. Don't be afraid of it because it doesn't have to have you. Nothing has to have you. You could begin to get into support. I love how you said you got into the group. We are a big advocate for groups.
Just don't go at it alone. That's the thing. The loneliness is the thing that kills the loneliness is the thing that keeps you in your inner critic, that thing that keeps running in your head, running in your head about whatever's happening, whatever's going on. So I want you to if you didn't take anything here today from dawn, but there's a lot, keep listening, share the podcast because people need to know and be informed. Dawn, tell the people how they can stay in contact with you. Get your books about her. She is a romantic author, prolific author, and I love how she did that and that was part of her journey. So go ahead and tell the people how to get our listeners how to get your book and what you got coming on the pike, because you'll be back to talk about something else. Yes, I will tell them a little bit about how they can get your book.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: Well, I am on Instagram, but underscore Dawn Felton. But I'm also on Amazon. My books are available on Amazon.
There's let Go of Your Heart, this Kind of Love I'm doing it the wrong way. This kind of love and forever fabulous. Which is over here. Forever Fabulous. If you search on Amazon, Dawn Felton, they're available to you on the Amazon platform.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Well, all right. Well, this is my good friend, Dawn Felton, and I'm so glad that you're with us. I'm so glad that you are resilient. I'm so glad that you said yes to life, and I'm so glad you said yes to dawn because we wouldn't be here today. So thank you so much for joining. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to another wonderful episode. Remember that your voice has power to inspire and change and create. So how about you? Now. Speak your power now. Peace. And until next time, well, thank you for tuning in to another empowering episode of Speak Your Power Now podcast. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insight on your journey of self expression. Remember, the power of communication is in your hands. And by honing on to this skill, you're going to unlock a world of possibilities. Your journey doesn't end here. Stay connected with us on social media, where we are going to continue the conversation and share your own stories of empowerment. So if you enjoyed this episode today, don't forget to hit us up, subscribe, leave your review and share it with your friends. Also, feel free to share your thoughts with any questions or ideas you may have for future episodes. Together, we're going to build a community of confident communicators. Now, as we wrap up, always remember that your voice has power to inspire, to uplift, and to encourage and change. Keep speaking your truth and empowering yourself and embrace the power within. Until next time, remember, your life is defined by one single moment. Let that moment be too healing.
