Who Are You When Everything Changes?

Hello, beautiful souls, and welcome to Motivational Moments with Maria. I’m so grateful you're here with me today. As we honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month and celebrate the incredible spirit of womanhood, I want you to settle in deeply with this question: Who are you when the roles, the titles, and even your health have been fundamentally challenged?
It’s a question that hits close to home for many of us, and certainly for me, as a two time breast cancer survivor. Life’s major events—those that shake us to our very core—have a way of stripping away all that feels familiar. Suddenly, the identities we’ve built become fragile or even feel out of reach. It’s challenging. And if you’ve been through something like this, you know the emotional landscape afterwards can feel profoundly lonely. But today, I want to tell you something beautiful: that place you find yourself in, stripped down, vulnerable, searching—is actually fertile ground for growth and transformation.
Before we dive into our guide for this week, I want to share something very personal with you—something many of us face but don’t often speak aloud.
When I first heard the words, “You have breast cancer,” I felt as though time stopped. A flood of emotions overwhelmed me—fear, confusion, and that crushing loneliness that settled heavy in my chest. Suddenly, the future I had imagined slipped away, replaced by uncertainty.
But what scared me most were the questions swirling in my mind about my children—What will happen to them if I’m not here? Who will love them the way I do? Who will guide them through their lives? Those thoughts hit me like waves—relentless and frightening.