Guest: Sonia Couto
Sonia’s untold story revolves around her breast cancer diagnosis starting in 2017. She experienced physical and emotional trauma combined with heightened feelings. She had to work hard to overcome overwhelming thoughts and emotional pain when dealing with relationships during her cancer journey. This experience has been eye-opening, particularly in learning who she can rely on as her backbone and who she felt she still needed to support while under-going her own duress. Outwardly, Sonia was perceived to be a strong individual even during her time of challenge, she repeatedly heard the comment, “you got this”, from those around her. She echoed the sentiment herself and kept busy with projects, with the aim to distract her mind. However, internally, her reality was starkly different. Sonia harboured intense fear and anxiety, and kept these and other tough emotions to herself, she didn’t want to bother anyone with her internal experience. The internal struggle took a toll on Sonia. The constant stress she suffered with on the inside, manifested physically on the outside as brain fog, physical exhaustion and felt she needed to keep it together as much as possible. Sonia shared that only few people really showed up for her to support her the way she needed to be, sharing that she felt ignored by many and felt like she didn’t matter. There were some instances she described, where people couldn’t hear her talk about her cancer experience, and these same individuals were not there for her during her time of difficulty. This further affected Sonia as she chose to isolate more to protect herself emotionally, and truly felt that she and her journey of what she underwent medically was not a big deal, resulting in minimizing her true experience. Her key message to the listeners is that: it’s okay not to feel okay, learn this; stop pretending and stop spending time in this energy zapping space; go through your feels; be kind to yourself; do the best you can and remind yourself of this regularly; have gratitude for yourself; process the pain and don’t store it in different places in your body; slow down and process what you are experiencing.
Guest Bio: Sonia is a two-time tech founder, managing director, board member with a 17-year tenure in the tech industry, and a breast cancer survivor. Sonia has navigated the complexities of a male-dominated field with expertise and determination. Her passion is deeply rooted in technology, entrepreneurship, and health, and she is dedicated to mentoring founders to overcome early-stage challenges and cultivate a mindset for sustained growth.
Sonia is recognized for launching a tech product, as well as her skills in revitalizing promising concepts that initially failed and were abandoned. Sonia’s approach to problem-solving is characterized by simplicity and clarity. Sonia focuses on breaking down complex challenges to their essence and tackling them with direct and effective strategies. Sonia is a visionary leader in the tech industry and credits her breast cancer journey, a period marked with courage, resiliency, and strength, as a testament to the transformative power of vulnerability and perseverance.
Passionate about: Myself and another survivor started a community on social media and a podcast called Life unleashed which helps women navigate their lives after breast cancer and how to live our best lives one tiny step at a time.
Life Unleashed – community support to navigate life after cancer