Welcome to a Daily Dose of Encouragement
A blog for survivors of childhood trauma … the life-affirming healing journey continues … together.
I’m glad you’re here.
Hope
This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays. Ralph Waldo Emerson I notice as we turn the calendar to a new year that my sense of hope is fortified. I am able to imagine new ways of seeing and being. I feel a faint beckoning of adventures that await on this great big marvelous planet. I stand taller on the challenges of yesterdays rather than sink into their darkness.
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Potential & Promise
I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. Maya Angelou Everyday brings with it potential and promise.
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Go Gently
Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength. Saint Francis de Sales I started this blog to provide hope and compassion for those, like me, who emerged whole yet scarred from Adverse Childhood Experiences. Trauma leaves an indelible imprint on the souls of children. As we grow older the imprint gets stretched by the challenges of adulthood. Sometimes the imprint feels like a formidable wall of shame. Sometimes, the imprint feels like powerful wisdom secreted away but there to help us through challenging moments. The imprint is not who we are, yet it influences how we…
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Perspective
Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. Helen Keller I have resumed use of a simple exercise in my coaching. The exercise quickly demonstrates the power of perspective. I invite you to give the exercise a try. Raise your dominant hand, index finger pointing skyward, above your head. Look at your hand as you begin to trace a large circle in a clockwise movement. Imagine you are tracing that circle on the ceiling or in the clouds. As you continue to trace that large clockwise circle slowly lower your hand -…
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Healing Continues
No one heals herself, who wounds another. Inspired by Saint Ambrose “We are safely on the opposite shore of another Christmas.” This is the message I sent to my sister acknowledging the emotional challenges of the holiday. Christmas is a perfect storm for survivors of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Heightened expectations for family gatherings, listening to others’ fond remembrances of Christmases past, and the chasm between what’s desired and reality can rock the most stable of us. Take a breathe and another step. Do no harm to another and in this way your road to wholeness is paved.
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Grow Whole
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” e.e. cummings Last month I bruised a rib. I went for a sail on a gusty Friday evening to celebrate the end of the work week. A strong gust dumped me, flipping the boat with “her” sail filling with water in the choppy waves. The dagger board was horizontal to the surface . I quietly dreaded this happening. Last time I was in this situation it was playful. I was 16 years old. In July 2022, I’m noticeably four times that age with all that goes with that.…
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Trust Your Gut
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. Buddha Recent changes at work caused a deep sense of uneasiness. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I felt unsettled and distracted. A colleague told me to “trust my gut” and speak honestly about my frustrations. Easier said than done for survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse. I trusted my gut as a kid. I believed adults would protect me from harm, not inflict it. Although it is difficult to severe deep connections from that…
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Humor Heals
Laugh as much as possible, always laugh. It’s the sweetest thing one can do for oneself & one’s fellow human beings. Maya Angelou I haven’t laughed enough lately. I am taking things (too) seriously; work challenges and changes, friends going through tough things, children finding their way to independence. You know, life. Life, the source of so many intense feelings yet, I seem tipped way too much toward striving in all its effortful, lines in the forehead grimaces. I remind myself today how much I adore the miracle of mirth in the midst of a meeting. I grin when I…
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Integration
Now, every time I witness a strong person, I want to know: What darkness did you conquer in your story? Mountains don’t rise without earthquakes.Katherine Mackenett Conversations at work have shifted dramatically. It may be pandemic reckoning, but I think it is more fundamental. I coach and consult in a global organization where integration of the whole person into their professional identity is encouraged, at least more, than when I began 25 + years ago. There is recognition that fragmentation from Adverse Childhood Experiences, like Child Sexual Abuse, exacts a high toll on wellbeing, creativity, and expressing our humanity. The…
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Growing Through Pain
When it hurts, observe. Life is trying to teach you something.Anita Krizzan, poet I’m a survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse and a survivor of recovering from CSA’s festering wounds and their exquisite pain. Yes, recovery and healing hurts before it sets me free. The pattern in my healing journey plays out like this….I get to the brink of nearly unbearable emotional pain. Intense pain that almost convinces me that pounding my head against a brick wall would be soothing. I writhe in anguish within my skin while miraculously keeping it together outwardly – meeting obligations, fulfilling responsibilities. At some point,…
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Daily dose of encouragement 