Jolyn Armstrong discovered that when an idyllic life is turned upside down by catastrophe you can still achieve your best life.
Table of Contents
Organizing Your Best Life After Catastrophe Strikes
No one ever expects their life to be turned upside down by a family catastrophe. But when it happens, it can feel like your whole world is falling apart. If you’re struggling to cope with what has happened, here are some tips to help you regroup and start moving forward.
First, give yourself time to grieve. It’s normal to feel a range of intense emotions after suffering a loss, and you need to allow yourself to process those feelings. Don’t try to bottle them up or push them away. Instead, find healthy outlets for your grief, whether that’s talking to a therapist or writing in a journal.
Next, take some time to assess your situation and figure out what needs to change. This can be a difficult process, but it’s important to make sure you’re taking care of yourself both physically and emotionally. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it.
Finally, once you’ve taken care of yourself, you can start thinking about your future. What do you want your life to look like? What are your goals and dreams? Don’t let what happened to define who you are or hold you back from achieving your best life. Remember that you have the strength and resilience to overcome anything.
In This Episode
- Freedom and independence – a redefining of the American Dream
- Empty nester living
- Running a successful marketing business and mastermind group/workshop
- Getting that collect phone call that your son is in jail
- Shuffling around everything in your life to be present for those who need you
- Organizing your life around its new normal
Jolyn Armstrong
Jolyn, along with her husband, Jim, owns a successful marketing company that also provides business coaching to service-based business owners. They were preparing to host a 2-day intensive for a small group of their top coaching clients when out of the blue, one of Jolyn’s adult sons was arrested, and their lives would never be the same. Jolyn’s son went from being a respected military soldier to an accused felon overnight.
Catastrophe negatively impacted Jolyn’s business, her relationships, and nearly every other aspect of her life. It wasn’t until going through this experience herself that she discovered how destructive this kind of intense trauma can be. And how, through the support of a compassionate and skilled counselor, peace can be achieved, and the negative experience can be transformed into a growing experience.
That’s why she took her training and skills in business coaching and combined it with the methods she learned for overcoming catastrophe and launched Grapevine Mindware. GVM is a coaching and counseling program aimed at helping those facing a personal catastrophe to ‘find the eye of the storm’ and find peace in spite of outside circumstances. Jolyn’s compassionate, calming approach is paired with her practical methodology for healing bringing peace to the lives of her clients.
Jolyn works with people facing many kinds of catastrophes, including the upheaval and stress caused by COVID-19, loss of career or business, death of a spouse or loved one, major illness or injury, etc. She helps them find healing from a past injury and equips them to achieve a great life in the future.
Resources and Links
If you’ve experienced trauma through a loved one going to prison, or your church turning their backs on you, consider Jolyn Armstrong to coach you through that trauma at Grapevine Trauma Recovery, https://grapevinemindware.com/beyondtherut.
Related Past Episodes of Beyond the Rut
Ron Worley Intentional Living from Ditches to Riches – BtR 264; One of Ron’s many businesses is a successful bail bonds business, and he discusses the relationships built with the legal system and local law enforcement to serve his community through bail bonds.
Tim Winders is living the nomadic life that Jolyn and I talk about in the beginning of the episode. Jolyn at one point says, “If you can do a podcast from an RV, that would be great!” Well, I know a guy. You can listen to Tim share his story of bouncing back from financial ruin to living a nomadic life from an RV while building a successful coaching business. He is the host of Seek. Go. Create. Redefine Success then Seek, Go, and Create the Life You Desire – Btr 274
Episode Credits
Host, Editing, and Production: Jerry Dugan
