Heavy/Getty Hallmark's Cindy Busby
When Hallmark Channel star Cindy Busby offered to answer some of her Instagram followers’ random questions on January 25, 2024, she fielded lots of lighthearted inquiries about everything from her dog Suzie to past projects, and even a tongue-in-cheek marriage proposal (despite already being married).
But one question stood out from the pack, which the “Marry Me in Yosemite” star shared in her Instagram Stories the following day. A fan who said they were in their 20s asked Busby what her advice would be “for someone who is struggling” and dealing with “failures.”
Busby, 40, took a selfie video and delivered a lengthy, heartfelt message, sharing that the “greatest gift” she’s learned over the years is to embrace her missteps as learning opportunities.
Cindy Busby Tells Fan She Can Relate to Feeling the ‘Pressure of Getting Things Right’
GettyCindy Busby attends Hallmark Channel’s Countdown To Christmas Holiday Celebration at The Grove on November 15, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Sitting in the front seat of her car while filming her response, Busby looked squarely into the camera and started by saying, “I would just like to say that first of all, I’m really sorry to hear that you’re struggling.”
“And I don’t know anything about your situation, but I do understand failures,” she continued, making air quotes with her hands when she said the word “failures.”
“And I do understand the pressure of getting things right,” Busby said. “But I’m here to give you permission (to accept) that life isn’t always going to be a win. And we can only really have wins with failures along the way. You know, the faster — I feel — that we can embrace and love our failures our quote-unquote ‘wrong choices,’ the more we can appreciate how far we’ve come.”
Busby first rose to fame in Canada in the long-running CBC TV series “Heartland” when she was in her 20s, after several parts in feature films and TV movies, per IMDb.
Recalling those years, she told her young fan, “The 20s is all about learning and exploring and expanding. And I invite you to want to do that because that’s where growth happens. That’s where the juicy stuff happens. Feel your feelings. Allow yourself to mourn whatever it was. And then love yourself through it for the next thing.”
The “Chasing Waterfalls” actress then popped up in another Story, realizing she wanted to share why she had used air quotes around the word “failures” in her previous answer.
“I just want to explain my little air quotes,” Busby smiled. “Who’s to say that something is a failure? Who’s to say that we made the wrong choice…or the right choice? That’s really just on us and we really don’t see the bigger picture of things. So we can only see what we know.”
“And I know that you are doing the best you can with what you have right now, and that’s amazing,” she said warmly. “And what you do today is not necessarily what you would do tomorrow. So this is an opportunity to step into that growth and to embrace all of the things.”
“I think that life is always going to throw all of those things at us,” Busby added. “It’s more of how we learn to deal with situations. I think that’s the greatest gift that I’ve learned, anyway.”
Cindy Busby Says She No Longer Lets External Factors Dictate Her Happiness
Busby’s answer for her 20-something fan came out of years of learning from her own so-called failures, which she has shared periodically online and in interviews. I
In August, she told ShoutOut LA, “Something I’ve realized throughout my life is that nothing can actually ‘make me happy.’ If I rely on my external world to dictate my feelings then I’m bound to be disappointed, so I focus on myself instead and what I can control.”
“At times, when I do find myself in states of ‘unhappiness,’ it’s typically because I’ve lost balance and routine in my life, which takes me out of alignment with what fulfills and inspires me,” Busby continued. “By creating a practice of daily gratitude, I’m able to be the best version of myself and stay “happy” no matter what life may throw my way and therefore my happiness is no longer altered by the unpredictability of life but rather thrives despite it.”
Busby has also said that learning from her past led her to true love. In December 2021, for instance, she told the Rave It Up podcast that she doubts she would have known her husband was “the one” had she not made some wrong turns in her love life before meeting him.
Busby and Christopher Boyd, an Emmy Award winning producer, celebrated their third anniversary on December 12, 2023.
“I went through a lot of trial and error to get here,” she said on the podcast. “The moment I started focusing on loving me…the perfect person came into my life.”