It's not my battle. It's my quest.

I'm a mom of three boys and the CEO of our family business in Loudoun County, Virginia. I'm married to Alex Marza, a dedicated dad and coach, and sports have always been the center of our life. That is where I first saw how much inner strength shapes performance, on the field and far beyond it. My own quest made it clearer than any game ever could. Our youth need it most of all, and helping young people build that essential inner power is why I developed GRIT Training.

At 16 a doctor told me I had an autoimmune disease and that I would take medication for the rest of my life. I followed that plan for twenty years. At 38 I was sitting on the sidewalk at the bus stop, waiting for my kids to get off the school bus, because my legs couldn't hold me up. I had been captain of three sports in high school. Now I was looking at walkers and wheelchairs, and there were days I didn't think I would make it to the next one.

There was no magic switch. I wish there were. What got me up was a long string of small discoveries, each one building on the one before, and a lot of grace for the days I slipped. I still practice every day, and I still slip. But practice makes the way back shorter.

Nobody earns an autoimmune disease. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not selling a cure. I'm a mom who found out that the answers I was searching for were with me the whole time, and I'd like to help you find yours. Everything I do sits alongside your medical care, never instead of it.

Ten principles that got me off the sidewalk, drawn from my diary. Each one comes with a passage from the book, a piece of my own story, a few questions to sit with, and one small physical practice.

Take one a day for ten days, or one a week. You don't need to believe all ten today. Start with the one that makes you uncomfortable.

Six weeks. A small group on Zoom. The practices from the book, one letter at a time.

We start every circle by breathing together before anyone says a word. For those few minutes, nobody is competing with anybody.

The first circle opens in spring 2027, and the people on this list hear first.