YOU ARE ENOUGH.

BY NICOLE HEROUX WILLIAMS I PHOTOS BY NSP STUDIO

It also provides solitude and the chance to experience the outdoors with just a short walk in any direction. I have been lucky enough to live in smaller towns for most of my life apart from working in Atlanta, GA for 7 years. I have been involved in the medical field since 2008 as both a Paramedic and a nurse when I began experiencing symptoms consistent with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This led to being let go from my job and left to piece everything together with the support of my family and close friends. After learning the importance of healing and making time for yourself I became a confidence coach and public speaker to help as many people as possible. It has been a long-standing belief of mine that to take care of others, you need to take care of yourself first. I always make a point to emphasize how important this is to my clients and include it in their goals for the month. I believe everything happens for a reason and being invited to work with Monica and Jan on this book was perfect timing!

I was falling into the routine of “Do as I say, not as I do.” While working as a medic it was work, eat junk food, sleep when I can, then basic chores before I went back to work another 24 hr shift. Working as a nurse during COVID wasn’t any better and I had no schedule or routine. I was not taking care of myself; I was purely in survival mode just making it from one day to the next. There were days where the only thing I had to eat was a pack of crackers.

After COVID cases began to decline, I returned to working on the ambulance which maintained a regular schedule of 24 or 48 hr shifts. Depending on how busy you were on your shift, sleep could be elusive. At this point I was still not taking time to decompress after work or make time to see friends or my family. The stress was continuing to build, all the while I was telling others to take care of themselves. My mental health was also on the decline due to lack of self-care. I began to show signs of PTSD including flashbacks, nightmares and memory issues. I was then on extended leave with FMLA which eventually ended with being let go from my position on the ambulance. With this event I came to the realization that I had put all my personal teaching by the wayside and in doing so my health had steadily declined to the point where I could no longer do my job. That being said, PTSD is not something that can be fixed with a spa day and a margarita, but I could have definitely helped make it more manageable by taking care of my body.

Getting to the point where I could accept what needed to be done was difficult. I had been in such a hectic and grueling routine for so long that anything else felt like I was letting people down. I only slowed down when my mental and physical health got so bad that I was forced to. This led me to focus on my mental and physical health and tested my persistence. I came to realize that self-care is a core part of being successful in anything you do. In my chapter of She’s A Boss I share my struggle with PTSD and the importance of self-care. I also go into depth on how to create a good foundation for yourself to build upon. I will preach it again, We cannot take care of others if we do not first take care of ourselves! This chapter holds so much meaning to me not only as a medical professional, but as a wife and a mother. It is so easy to get consumed by our routines and work, to get stuck in a rut and let our daily stressors overwhelm us just to go to bed and start it over the next day. This is a routine that must be broken if we want to become our best selves for us and everyone we care about. I have been so blessed to be a part of this book and to have the chance to tell my story.