“Your trauma made you stronger.” No. My trauma left me traumatized. My trauma left me bludgeoned and bleeding. It left me totally destroyed from endless triggers and constant broken sleep. It left empty, and scared, and unable to trust … My partner. The world. Afraid to trust myself. It left me floundering and dealing with […]
Your Trauma Made You Stronger – Right? — Don’t Lose Hope
“I did not ask for the things I’ve been through, and I certainly didn’t ask my mind to paint and repaint the memories in the form of flashbacks.” The majority of people who are living with trauma wish they could simply forget the past. But the fact is we can’t just wipe the slate clean, […]
Why we Can’t Just Forget the Past — Don’t Lose Hope
“You have no idea how easy it is to fall back into the darkness.” – Unknown Triggers and feelings can be powerful and intense. They immediately transport us to a dark and painful place. With no effort on our part, we are back in the abyss. And it’s so utterly exhausting to keep battling the […]
Quote of the Day — Don’t Lose Hope
“The mind replays what the heart can’t delete.” There are secret traumas that are hard to share, and because we can’t share them, we don’t get support, and we end up carrying the burden alone. This intensifies the sense of isolation. Secret traumas like incest, sexual abuse, being married to a person with a sexual […]
When Secrets are Weighing you Down … — Don’t Lose Hope
“Offer yourself patience where memories still bleed.” I, also, wish you didn’t still bleed. I know it is hard. It takes time.
Quote of the Day — Don’t Lose Hope
“Make sure that, in the end, the story is about your strength, and not the pain.” Pain is an inevitable part of life. And often the heartache is outside our control. But there’s also a strength that we never knew we had. The strength to keep going. The strength to win the fight.
Quote of the Day — Don’t Lose Hope
“When there’s a fresh wound in your heart, keep it open until it heals. Air it out. Understand it. Dive into it. Be fierce enough to become it. If you ignore it, it won’t be able to breath. If you ignore it, it will merely deepen, spread, and resurface later, wanting to release. And when […]
Don’t Bury Your wounds — Don’t Lose Hope
“Still, I rise.” – Maya Angelou All of us deal with tough experiences in life. Times when we feel lost and completely overwhelmed. Times when we “just feel”, and we don’t know where to turn. Below are some suggestions to help cope with these. 1. Write about it: Have you ever typed out an angry […]
How to Cope with Tough Experiences — Don’t Lose Hope
“There are losses that rearrange the world. Deaths that change the way you see everything. Grief that tears everything down. Pain that transports you to an entirely different universe, even while everyone else thinks nothing has changed.” – Megan Devine Steven Hayes, the founder of ACT (Action and Commitment Therapy) has outlined 7 skills for […]
7 Skills for Coping with Loss — Don’t Lose Hope
In a previous post we talked about some of the statements and comments that can be destructive to the healing process. Below, we talk about some things that can help when you want to support a traumatized friend. 1. When the person starts to talk about the traumatic experience, be aware of the fact that […]
How to be There for a Traumatized Friend — Don’t Lose Hope
Coaching Skills International 