pushing on despite being knocked down

When I had a serious crisis in my personal life just about 10 - 12 years ago and my common-law relationship ended, I went into survivor  mode. Somehow I feel like I'm in a similar place at the moment. A serious personal crisis and I'm finding a strange resonance with this other period in my life such a long time ago.

Dancing with my mother on my 40th birthday

But I'm a survivor - if anything that's what I am. Thanks to my mother and my big sisters who instilled in me this sense that you never let anything get you down and that irrespective what negative or challenging situation you find yourself in, you have the capacity to get through to the other side. Laying down and giving up is simply is not an option. I guess this is where I get my almost innate confidence and determination from - instilled in me from an early age - you will survive whatever gets thrown at you, you will survive. You will do what you need to do to survive. I went through another period in my life when I believed that you can't just operate in survivor mode, because surviving isn't living. If you want to get anything out of life you need to live, not survive. But needs must - I'm going into survival mode again because I know it will get me to the other side.