Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamika Beck.
Hi Tamika, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey has taken many twists, turns, and some life-changing dips, yet, the one thing that has remained unshaken is my passion for helping other women who are dealing with circumstances that I have faced. They say that your passion is born out of your pain, that’s the perfect description of my work. In the early years of my Blogging career, I was at home, recovering from a knee surgery, Endometriosis was ravaging my body, my mom had just been diagnosed with Cancer, and I was living 700+ miles away from home. I had to find a way to channel all of that anxiety and so I turned to Blogging. At that time, I was in the fight of my life, living with crippling Endometriosis and seeking treatment in a system that turned a deaf ear to my cries for proper treatment. I knew that my struggles in the medical world were not just me problem, it was an us problem, and so Periods Should (K)not Be Painful was born. I used my experiences, mistakes, and triumphs to raise awareness about Endometriosis and to teach other women how to be advocates for themselves. As I was getting PSKBP established, my sister died suddenly, my life imploded, and everything came to a painful halt. That was the darkest time of my life. I was lost and drowning in a grief I’d never known. I am still amazed that I survived.
With the support of my family, friends, and my wonderful life coach, Kerri R, Smith-Osei, who truly saved my life; I was eventually able to find my footing and rebuild my life. As I was figuring out how to move forward in life without my sister, I began to share my experiences with grief on my social media platforms. The amount of people who were struggling with grief and the life-altering impact of sudden death blew my mind. Because I was sharing my story, I was interviewed by Healing Black Women, Inc and I became the Grief Support and Relationship Associate for the organization. It has taken me five years to fully stand up and choose to find the beauty in life after loss. Along the way, I started my business Momentz by Mika, an online gift shop and t-shirt business, Mika Major Media, my company through which all of my work is housed, has thrived, my work as Influencer is growing. I am a certified Life(Grief Recovery) Coach and an accredited Meditation Practitioner. So, when I coined the phrase, “because I’ve been through it, I can teach you how to get through it,” I had no idea how profoundly accurate this statement would become in my life and work.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has not been easy nor always kind to me. Through therapy, I learned that grief has been my constant companion for a long time. The trauma of being the daughter of a Domestic Violence Survivor really set a tone for my life that I wasn’t aware of until my sister passed away. I am a protector, the well-being and safety of my family and loved ones is my highest priority, I have been this way since I was a very little girl. I am the youngest of my siblings by almost 20 years, so I lived a really insulated life and while I experienced some rough stuff, I always had the safety of my grandma, mom, sister, and aunt to turn to for guidance healing, and support. My sister was the last woman standing, everyone had passed on and she was all that I had left as far as that nurturing and sacred safe space. When she died, a piece of me went with her, I was lost, terrified, and had no idea who I was separate from my family. For the first time in my life, I was alone with a stranger, myself. When I say alone, I mean without the women who raised me, of course I still had family and friends but the women who I came from were gone(physically, that is). The time that my grandma had always told me that she was preparing me for had fully come to reality. I knew that in order to be successful both professionally and personally, I had to learn who I was as an individual. I had to find peace in living on my own terms, doing things because they were what I wanted to do not what I was told to do. As a grown woman, in her forties, for the first time, I stepped into my individuality.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
If I had to define my area of specialization, it would have to be in the field of Healing and Spirituality. I am known for being able to take the dark things of life and show others how to find even the tiniest ray of light. Whether I am answering emails, on a consult call for Endometriosis Awareness/Support, or sitting down to create a gift for a customer, in those moments, when women come to me looking for help, I humbly sit in the seat of authority, that’s something that I don’t take for granted. My experiences has equipped me with the ability to give them the tools and resources to choose a path. I am very proud of myself for how far I have come on my grief recovery journey and how it has changed my life and empowered the lives of others. If someone would’ve told me that a year and a half after mama died, that my sister would quietly slip away, and life as I knew it would vanish in an instant, I would’ve laughed in their face. Yet, here I am healing, helping others heal, and building a legacy that will live on after I am gone. We have been taught that death, grief, illness both physical and mental, are things to keep quiet about and to run from. That’s misinformation, it is a narrative that keeps us afraid. Life is going to happen, there will be things that we have no control over and that is scary. Loss is never going to be easy, but we can embrace the sacredness of our journeys and find beauty in life after loss, regardless of how it manifests.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I don’t believe in luck, I believe that we are all here to live out an assignment that is unique to each individual. We will meet people, build connections, and go through various phases of our relationships but in the grand scheme of things, I think that it is divinely orchestrated. This is not to exclude our humanness from the equation, some events will happen as a result of the choices that we make, but even those things are a part of a master plan. When it comes to my life and business, I put my faith in God, my ancestors, and my spiritual team. I am keenly aware that I am not wise nor savvy enough to navigate through life without divine intervention. My businesses have all come out of my challenges as a result of my hurts, illnesses, and grief; I was guided to step into what others consider dark and show people how to find their light.
Contact Info:
- Email: mikamajormedia@gmail.com
- Website: mikamajor.wordpress.com and healingblackwomen.com
- Instagram: momentz.by.mika
- Twitter: @Life_Love_After
