What breast cancer, heartbreak, and healing taught me about surrender, strength, and starting again.
Dear reader,
This isn’t just a story about illness—it’s about what happens when life asks us to stop. About what we discover in the silence, the surrender, and the slow return to ourselves. If you’ve ever carried too much for too long, or quietly unraveled beneath the surface, I hope you find something here that reminds you: you’re not alone.
In 2016, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I still remember the silence in the room after the words were said. It was like time fractured—part of me frozen in place, the other part sprinting ahead to everything I might lose. My health, my work, my future.
At the time, I was running my own successful business—coaching, creating, supporting others through their own transformation. I loved it. It felt aligned with who I was and how I moved through the world. But when the diagnosis came, I couldn’t show up in the same way anymore. My energy had to turn inward, toward healing. Toward survival.
There were surgeries. Reconstruction. Five years of treatment. My calendar changed, my relationships shifted, and the identity I had built around doing began to crumble. I had no choice but to surrender—not to the illness itself, but to the truth that I needed to be still, to receive care, to rest.
At the same time, I was also getting out of a toxic relationship with an alcoholic. Navigating recovery as a single woman, while facing cancer treatment, was an immense challenge—one that demanded strength I didn’t know I had. That journey through emotional upheaval and healing deepened my understanding of resilience and self-compassion.
I made the difficult decision to close my business and focus on what my body—and spirit—desperately needed: care, stillness, space. Eventually, I returned to work in healthcare—this time not just as a professional, but as someone deeply changed by what it means to heal. That return led me to my current role supporting teams in building systems of care that are both effective and human-centered.
Then in 2019, I earned my certification as a Life and Wellness Coach with ICF Accreditation. That part of me—the mentor, the guide, the witness—had never truly disappeared. The passion I had once set down began to stir again—quiet at first, then louder. I started to dream about creating something unique and grounded, something that truly spoke to the experiences of women navigating burnout, responsibility, and self-erasure.
And recently, through conversations with women—about overwhelm, emotional labor, identity, and the constant pressure to hold it all together—I realized that what I’d been sitting on wasn’t just knowledge. It was a well of lived experience, insight, and heart—and it was time to share it.
Overwhelm to Opportunity was born.
Not as a slogan. Not as a coaching “niche.” But as a deeply personal invitation—a pathway back to self.
Because breast cancer didn’t just challenge me physically. It stripped everything down to the essentials. It revealed how many of us are operating from depletion. How often we override our needs. How easy it is to lose ourselves in responsibility, care work, and the myth of having it all together.
What I offer now is rooted in that clarity.
It’s for the woman who’s tired of fixing and striving and holding it all.
It’s for the woman who’s ready to soften, realign, and come home to herself.
I know what it feels like to fall apart quietly.
To be strong for everyone else.
To wonder what happens if you finally stop pushing.
And I know what it takes to rebuild—slowly, intentionally, from the inside out.
If you’re in a season of holding it all—or slowly finding your way back to yourself—know that you’re not alone. Overwhelm to Opportunity was born from this very edge: the space between breaking down and breaking open.
This is an invitation—for you to honor your story, to hold space for your healing, and to know that transformation often begins when we stop trying to hold it all together.
🌿 I’d love to hear from you.
If this resonates, feel free to hit reply or leave a comment. And if there’s someone in your life who might need this message, I’d be honored if you shared it with them.
Until next time,
Erika
Erika Patterson Coaching 