My Intro

Welcome to ResilientStuff. My name is Cathy Hartt and I want to introduce myself. I am a nurse and a retired nurse-midwife who began studying positive psychology over 20 years ago. What follows is my story. I hope you find inspiration in my journey.

A Rough Start to A Resilient Life

My resilience started at conception. I have always had the heritable strength of optimism. But childhood wasn’t all grins and giggles. My early years involved growing-up in a toxic, addicted, sometimes violent family. My sibling suffered with serious mental illness from an early age. Both she and I were bullied at school daily. There was really no safe zone in my life outside of summers with mom’s larger family at grandma’s summer home.

Overcoming Early Challenges

By the time I hit my teens, mom left dad and we moved to a new community. Life got better. I went to college and earned a degree in graphic arts. I got married and had kids.

This is where it gets rough, again. Just because I was born with an optimism strength doesn’t mean I wasn’t also born with some mental health related genes. With those babies came postpartum depression and my support system wasn’t strong enough to offer me much resilience. I crashed.

My Calling Into Midwifery

I was one of those kids who loved nature. Always collecting butterflies and such. I especially loved watching the process of reproduction.

Fast forward to postpartum depression. I was felt blown off and belittled by the medical profession when my physical symptoms surfaced. And, I lost my mom. These events are what motivated me to take my interest in birth and babies to the next step. I became a childbirth educator, then an OB nurse. Six years later, I completed my MSN in nurse-midwifery.

I practiced as a nurse-midwife for about 15 years total. I loved the births and studying the science. The hours and politics where a tremendous challenge and by now I was a single mom. I had episodes of depression, as my mother had before me. Fortunately, my optimism and therapist were resilience-builders. But, I wanted to reset my default mood.

Finding Positive Psychology

I was introduced to the work of Dr. Martin Seligman through a work colleague. I was fascinated with the idea that I had influence over my own happiness. I maxed out my credit card and took Dr Seligman’s Authentic Happiness Coaching back in 2004. It was a life-trajectory changer.

As my body tired of midwifery hours, positive psychology quickly became my new passion in life. I switched nursing career tracks and became a college nursing faculty – but I kept on studying from the best and brightest in positive psychology.

The Intersection of Nurse-Midwifery and Positive Psychology

I loved my nursing students, but it wasn’t the same passion that I had in my heart for midwifery. My career felt flat. As I pondered the future, the Call the Midwife series started on PBS. Every episode stirred my soul. I was a midwife and midwifery is larger than just birthing babies. Jennifer Worth, the author of the Call the Midwife book series, touched my soul with the words, “Midwifery is the very stuff of life.”

Was there an intersection of nurse-midwifery and positive psychology? And, would it be possible to center my career around that? I returned to school at Frontier Nursing University for my Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2015. My intent was to find that magic intersection.

And, I found it! But, not alone. I worked with some of the best and brightest positive psychology leaders in the country. I discovered amazing links between health and resilience. I had found my new path! Here is a link to my doctoral project:

Self-Reported Optimism at a Warrior Resource Center: A Pilot Initiative

Realism and Career

After school, my passion turned into nursing academic daily tasks, again. Some of them seemed the reverse of the “learned optimism” that I wanted to be my career path. Suffice it to say that I had to pay the bills. So, for 6 years I returned to the role that I knew would pay student loans, groceries, etc.

I retired from traditional work a couple years ago. I started my dream business Art from the Hartt because living positive psychology means using our top strengths every day. I have been busy learning to be an artist entrepreneur.

On The Road To Resilience, Again!

I knew my soul would yearn to return to positive psychology and so here I am. My vision is to continue my journey at the intersection of nurse-midwifery and positive psychology. This website is the first step.

If you made it this far – Thank you! Please subscribe to my blog!