Beautiful Crisis

The night my toddler son suffered a scald burn injury, I was eight months pregnant with a baby who needed surgery. During our month-long experience in a Burn Unit, I created a blog to keep friends and family updated on the wellbeing of my boys. I have transferred those 22 entries to a document and included 9 more stories from the aftermath, which tell a tale of surgery, fear and pain through a narrative laced with gratitude and hope.

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THE TOOLS

In the year-and-a-half following this traumatic experience, I saw my boys through four surgeries and experienced a complicated pregnancy loss. I navigated this time by consciously applying the concepts of positive psychology to cope. Access tools I used (the research-based content from my original website, BeautifulCrisis.com)

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Published Articles

On my road to recovery from this traumatic experience, I wished for nothing more than to erase the pain my family has experienced. But sometimes, we are forced to face something hard that we cannot fix, change, cover up or forget. At some point, I realized this experience would either break me or allow me to grow.

This is not the story I ever wanted to tell, but one I have accepted. I acknowledge both what is good and bad in what has transpired in my life, but I CHOOSE to focus on my blessings, the strengths I didn't know I had and the growth I realized through facing adversity.

Since my writing emerged in the world during this difficult experience, I have been following my calling to be a Storyteller.

Each word in the articles I wrote about this experience pulled me further away from the guilt and shame I felt as the mother of burn survivor. Now, these articles remind me of the growth I realized by choosing to own my story and tell it with a positive narrative.

Assad, A. (2017). A Parent's Perspective: Moving Forward from Guilt to Gratitude. The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors: Burn Support Magazine, Issue 1, 2017.

Assad, A. (2017). Journey From Adversity: #WHATIS Post-traumatic Growth? Positive Psychology News Daily.

Assad, A. (2017). The Stories We Tell: Resilience Gained Through Positive Narrative. Huffington Post.

Assad, A. (2017). Looking Back: Last Year's Resolution Changed My Life. Positive Psychology News Daily

Assad, A. (2016) Wisdom Keeper of Loss. Babble.com

Assad, A. (2016). An Essay of Gratitude for the Midwife of Words. Positive Psychology News Daily

Assad, A. (2016). I Didn't Believe in Rainbow Babies. Huffington Post

Assad, A (2015). Compassion as a Coping Mechanism. Positive Psychology News Daily.

Assad, A. (2015). Growing Through Adversity. Positive Psychology News Daily

Assad, A. (2015) How Shifting the Focus to Gratitude Helped My Family Heal . The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors: Burn Support Magazine, Issue 2 (p. 2-4).

Assad, A. (2014) My Big Break Part 2: Seeking Gratitude. MAPP Alumni Magazine.

Assad, A (2014) My Big Break Part 1: Choosing Optimism. MAPP Alumni Magazine.