Mental health in the workplace has become a hot topic, with corporations rushing to implement wellness initiatives that signal their commitment to employee well-being. One such initiative, the Sunrise Challenge, urges employees to wake up at the crack of dawn in the name of mindfulness, productivity, and self-care. On the surface, it appears to be a thoughtful way to encourage healthier habits. But beneath the polished corporate messaging lies a stark contradiction: the same employees who proudly boast about their early morning commitment to mental health often lack grace for their colleagues who genuinely need flexibility and support during challenging times.

The irony is impossible to ignore—an organization that encourages employees to get up early for mental health, yet struggles to foster a workplace culture that truly prioritizes well-being. How often do we see coworkers whispering behind closed doors when someone steps away during work hours to hit the gym? How frequently do we see judgment cast upon employees who must take time off to care for a sick parent? The concept of supporting mental health should extend far beyond performative gestures; it should be rooted in genuine empathy, understanding, and practical support.

It’s easy to participate in a corporate challenge that looks good on paper. It’s far harder—but far more meaningful—to build a workplace culture that actively supports mental health, even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable. Companies must do more than simply promote wellness as an aesthetic. Employees must stop using mental health as a trend while simultaneously undermining their coworkers when real-life challenges arise.

True wellness requires real change. Not just waking up early—but waking up to the reality of what workplace mental health really means.

— xoxo Sandy

Margie’s passing has touched me in ways I never expected. The weight of her absence lingers, making even the simplest moments at work feel heavier. Once, I poured myself into my role at a multinational company, believing in the significance of my work and the impact I had on those around me. But her loss has forced a difficult realization—work is fleeting. Beyond a paycheck, the people you share your days with aren’t truly your people. When the tides turn, self-preservation comes first, and the pressures of perfection overshadow any kindness or grace.

As long as others benefit from your efforts, they are content. Yet the moment you falter, your mistake becomes public record—forwarded to managers, amplified for scrutiny. Never mind the times you quietly covered for their own missteps. And so, day after day, we pour so much of ourselves into relationships that exist within office walls, unaware of how little they truly mean when faced with something as profound as loss.

“Work is just business, it’s not personal,” they say. But those words often serve as an excuse for indifference, a justification for behavior that lacks compassion. And yet, these are the people we navigate, the ones who shape the majority of our waking hours.

Margie gave 17 years to this company. Now, she is gone. The dedication, late nights, and sacrifices she made—the ways she lifted others—vanish in an instant. I reached out to people she once worked closely with, hoping they would recognize the weight of her passing, but their replies were fleeting: “So sad.” That was all. These were the same people she missed family dinners for, the ones she prioritized over moments she could never get back. And while her loved ones grieve, life at work moves on without pause.

I suppose this is the world we live in. Perhaps I was naive to think it was different. Deep down, I think I always knew—but experiencing it like this makes it impossible to ignore.

Her absence is profound. I miss her

— Sandy

If I had to pick one word to encapsulate 2024, it would be growth. This year has transformed me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. When the year began, I was wearing rose-colored glasses, always aware of the negatives but choosing to focus on the positives in every scenario, often at my own expense. It was mentally and physically exhausting. Why was no one caring about me? It’s because I didn’t set boundaries and gave them permission to treat me that way. And let’s be real, most people can be manipulative and self-serving—or maybe that’s just been my experience.

A video I came across on social media really put things into perspective. It was about how it’s not the fall that hurts, but how far you fall and where you land. Surrounding yourself with people who will soften your landing is crucial.

Having children has been mentally challenging for me, and it still is. I haven’t yet figured out how to carve out time for my own identity, and I’m struggling with this. I know what I like and dislike, but I’ve also learned to accept that the pre-baby me no longer exists—and that’s okay. I need to meet the new me, and that may take some time. During this struggle, I haven’t been surrounded by many people who ‘softened my landing.’ I had my second child during COVID, and with my lung issues requiring bi-monthly injections to breathe, my household was very strict on social distancing. Instead of understanding my concerns, people chose to be offended. We didn’t allow people to meet my daughter when she was born. Her first birthday was tough for me—I wanted to celebrate, but I was also dealing with debilitating anxiety about catching COVID. We took a risk and let our immediate families join us in a mini celebration, but it took a lot of mental courage.

Since that experience, I’ve been changed. I regularly experience anxiety and can’t be in social environments for too long. Even the thought of social settings is mentally crippling, so I have to prepare myself.

The loss of two close relatives early in 2024 set me on a journey of self-discovery. I finally understood that I needed to put myself first. I started speaking up at work about the challenges I was facing with a coworker, which was extremely difficult and took a mental toll on me. But it was necessary because working with her was affecting me. Finding the balance between who I was and who I aspire to be is still a struggle, and complaining about her performance was a painful growth experience for me. I had hidden the gaps in her performance for over a year before I finally spoke up.

I also began advocating for myself at work, understanding my value to the organization. It was time for my hard work to be acknowledged. As a result, I could no longer mask the behaviors of my ‘supporters,’ and I was no longer willing to accept subpar treatment.

Something changed in me this year. As I approach the end of 2024, I’m no longer willing to put up with subpar treatment. If people aren’t there to soften my fall, do they really need to be around?

–xoxo Sandy

Rocks shattering. Tsunami-like waves. Glass formed by lightning. That’s the best way to describe the thoughts swirling in my mind. Turning thirty-nine was an incredibly tough year, yet the highs are what stand out the most. I’ve surrendered all control to a higher power, and for the first time, I feel confident in the direction my life is taking.

I’ve found an inner strength to understand that everyone is responsible for carrying their own burdens. We all have our own inner demons to wrestle with, and it’s not my job to make others feel comfortable in their own skin. Maybe it’s the removal of those rose-colored glasses, but I feel a deep sense of peace within myself. When I truly grasped the saying, “You come into this world alone, and you’ll leave alone,” it felt like I finally understood my own purpose.

This year, I experienced the loss of two people who decided they were too tired to keep fighting. I also learned about a mother who almost lost her life due to a doctor’s error during childbirth—she’s still fighting to survive. These events put everything into perspective. When it comes to life and death, it’s just me. No one can ‘make it better’ or ‘fix it.’ The mind is a battlefield that only we can choose to fight or learn to let go. We must choose to live every day and respect ourselves enough to be honest with ourselves. Are we mentally sound? Do we need help? Is prayer enough, or are we ignoring the support boats that God sends our way? Can we look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Am I showing up for myself today? What am I doing to propel myself forward? Most importantly, am I fighting for myself?”

Do I see myself as enough? The only relationship that truly matters is the one we have with ourselves. It’s easy to get distracted by the noise of everyday life and the need to perfect the outside world to offset the hurricane in our minds. But what if we focused on calming that storm and finding inner peace? I think that’s the key to life. Finding inner peace.


— xoxo Sandy

There is no deeper sadness than one that is self-inflicted.

Growing up, I was taught to pay attention to what people said and how they acted. Yet, the naïve part of me always defaulted to seeing the good in people. I created a false persona of who people were because I chose to see a skewed perception of reality. I chose the ‘easier’ path because seeing the world as it truly was much harder.

However, even with the strongest rose-colored lenses, it was as though the universe had been pushing me to see people for who they were. No matter how hard I tried to evade the truth, it stood firmly in my way, and I am forever changed.

I used to always put the needs of others ahead of my own because I genuinely cared so deeply for people. I am so disappointed in my decision to do that. I made it okay for people to overlook my contributions and accomplishments. On some level, I believed that my support was appreciated, but now I realize that all of my sacrifices were in vain. They were taken for granted; I was taken for granted. And my well has officially run dry. There is nothing more in me to give.

I will make many mistakes in my life, but not making myself the protagonist of my life will be the biggest one. There will be no one to blame but myself. As I sit here wrapped in a blanket that my aunt knit for my daughter while my uncle was on life support, I am reminded that I came into this world alone, and I will leave it the same way. So why do I neglect my needs and fill that space by prioritizing the needs of others?

I really need to sit alone with myself and understand what I want out of life.

— xoxo Sandy

Working in the corporate world can be really challenging. Especially when you work with someone who repeatedly chooses not to do their work, but rather focuses on sabotaging the work of others. It becomes even more challenging when her manager supports her irrespective of this behavior and chooses to turn a blind eye to the impact his inability to act has on the mental health of those working with her.

Recently, I reached my breaking point, whereby I announced that I could no longer work with her because it was impacting my mental health. This conversation became known to leadership, and what changed after that conversation? Nothing. Absolutely Nothing. That’s not true, now we have managers on all of our strategy calls. You know, so my colleague’s manager can prove that his employee is a standup up employee. As though her short-term success of 3 weeks, wipes out her inability to perform her duties for the last 3 years.

The toxic work environment has made life very challenging for me. Every morning, before logging onto my computer I have a minor panic attack. Today the stress became so overwhelming, that I genuinely felt as though I was going to have a heart attack. I don’t know how much more of this stress I can take. I recently had a few calls with my colleague and her manager whereby her manager would cut me off or where he was aggressive. At first I thought it was in my head, but when I spoke to another peer, he advised me to stop escalating on my colleague because he felt that I was ‘receiving retaliation’, his words not mine.  Could you imagine that? I receive retaliation for speaking up and saying that working with a toxic person is affecting my mental health.

It has been so difficult, and this whole experience has changed me as a person. Unfortunately, I am being taught a lesson that I didn’t know that I needed to learn. People just love money so much, that they don’t care which human they sacrifice to get it. Now I’m reminded of why money repulses me so much!

The sad part is that my kids can see me breaking. Today before my son went to school, he gave me a pep talk. He said ‘Make her do her own work mumma’. And I said I would try. I thought that was the end of it. But later in the day,  I heard my son tell his friend ‘my mom is really sad because she works with someone who doesn’t do their work’. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that its not because she doesn’t work, its because leadership just doesn’t care to do anything about it. They have put up this façade of support, but they don’t really care to fix the issue. They are more focused on ‘protecting their own’.

It becomes increasingly hard when my body is starting to shut down because of the stress. I have an autoimmune condition and the steroids that I normally take to control it aren’t working. So I am having to start a new medication tomorrow. Injections that will be administered at the hospital. Each injection costs $4000.00 and all I keep thinking is about the irony of this situation. Work is causing my body to shut down on me, but I have to keep my job so that insurance will cover my medication. And so now I will be stuck in this loop that I compare to the likeness of an abusive partner. Where I’ll have to stay because, what is the alternative?

This whole experience is becoming so unbearable. But I’ll keep trying to put one foot in front of the other, and trust that god has a plan for me that is better than anything I could have planned for myself.

—-xoxo Sandy

Breathe in, breathe out
Why can’t I feel the air filling my lungs.
I thought I was breathing
But instead, I’m gasping for air.
Why are my lungs being deprived of air
I’m going through the motions
Why is my body giving up on me?
Is it the weight of everything going on in my mind?
Is it causing me to forget how to perform this simple act for survival?

Breathe in, breathe out.
Why aren’t my lungs inflating?
I can’t see my chest rising.
I can feel myself panicking.
I’m giving my mind instructions,
Why isn’t my body obeying?

Breathe in, breathe out.
Body, please. I can feel myself getting faint.
I need oxygen.
Please don’t surrender to the pain in my mind.
Focus. Try harder.
Remember the simple act
You can do it.

Breathe in. breathe out.
A shallow breath, that’s a start.
Don’t let those who don’t love you, take you out of the game.
You’re strong, and you’re powerful.
How did you forget?

Breathe In, breath out.
Good, a deeper breath. That’s it. Keep Going.
One breath at a time.
Remember what matters,
You.
Ignore the noise.

Breathe in, breathe out.
Center yourself and have faith.\
Exist in your power.
Appreciate your greatness.

Just, Breathe in, breathe out.

—- xoxo Sandy

Daughter, sister, mother, wife, friend, breadwinner, homemaker – the list of titles we assume as women are infinite. What is often missed within the parameters of these titles is the impact we make on the world we live in and the impact it has on us. As women, we schedule our family’s lives, prepare meals, or ensure that groceries are purchased. We’re in a constant state of making sure that everyone around us is taken care of. Even when we feel broken inside. We muster the strength to ensure that the lives of those around us aren’t impacted. We find the courage to keep things normal for them.  That they won’t feel the impact of our internal struggle.

Woman Strong.

We hide our struggle behind a smile. We keep going, one step at a time. We often deal with our struggle by ourselves. Or, that’s how it used to be for many of us.

Today, women see the power in our unity and we’re learning that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. That we can learn from each others’ experiences and build on them.

International Women’s Day reminds us of how far we’ve come and shines a light on where we are going. Women are strong and we are the bond that keeps our worlds together. We need to give ourselves grace and appreciate our greatness.

—- xoxo Sandy