The uplifting words of wisdom

[kubendran]

I nearly gave up and buckled under the pressure, it wasn’t easy traversing through these troubled times. If it weren’t for my driving need to succeed and the uplifting words of wisdom from my circle of true friends (it was a small circle indeed!), I would not have bounced back.

How does this combination of words sound?
Errors?

[Josef Essberger]

I nearly gave up and buckled under the pressure; it wasn’t easy traversing these troubled times.

You need to split your sentence with a semi-colon or full stop.

Also, we traverse something, not through something. The meaning of traverse is "travel across" or "travel through". So "through" is superfluous