Are you brave enough to walk out of darkness? It may be easier to just stay the way you are, but then you’d have to be willing to settle for being miserable. That is no place for a survivor to be stuck in. Wouldn’t it be better to find a way into a happier life?
Today the featured video is Sara Bareilles – Brave (Official Video)
“Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is.”
How big is your brave? It is huge but you may not recognize it. You survived what cause PTSD to hit you. Maybe it happened in combat, but fighting to #TakeBackYourLife shouldn’t be harder than that. You knew how to rely on the others you were with to protect you the way you were ready to protect them. You knew how to ask for help when fighting the enemy. So why not ask for it when the enemy came home with you? You were brave enough to serve, are you brave enough to heal?
What if you were a first responder? Same question for you. You valued the lives of others so much so that you were willing to die to save a total stranger. The others you served with were doing the same. Are you brave enough to ask them for help to heal and strong enough to offer it when you think someone needs it?
For the rest of us, I survived over ten events and can tell you that all of them were bad. That is one of the biggest reasons why I keep saying that PTSD is not a contest. All of us have the same title afterwards, SURVIVOR. We are no longer a victim of what happened but a survivor who walked away from it.
The worst one for me was my ex-husband trying to kill me. We dated for two years. Our marriage started and was over with the divorce was finalized in two years. He stalked me for two more years. What he did during those years, stayed with me. I survived him!
I fought back when he was trying to kill me. I fought back when he violated the restraining order. I fought him in court. What I am most proud of, was that I took my life back from him. Sure I have scars but ended up with a wonderful man who has been by my side for almost four decades.
We can all help heal all the others by getting rid of the stigma that has been allowed to survive after so many others did not. Be brave enough to speak out on how there is nothing to be ashamed of and change the conversation as a survivor who is brave enough to determine where they go from the darkness of the trauma to the lightness of healing!
I have battle scars and so do you. I no longer cover them as if I have something to be ashamed of.
“Why not? My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present. Yes, I have scars. I have decided to look on them as things of beauty. And I will celebrate them.”
― Steve Goodier
Isn’t it time that we controlled the conversation as survivors? Isn’t it time that we proved we have nothing to be ashamed of after surviving what we did?
Remember, it’s your life…get in and drive it!
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD
